Free Slayers (Jake Hawkins Book 1) by Matt Rogers Page A

next street.
    In the distance, a small red hatchback was coasting down the road away from them. There was no sign of the perpetrator ’ s vehicle.
    The two junior officers caught up to him, breathless. Two hundred metres behind them, their smoking sedan rested against the brick wall. The bonnet was crumpled and there was nothing left of the front tires.
    “ What do we do? ” Officer Shukla said.
    “ Get every available squad car out searching for a black SUV. For now, we need to control the media. Reporters are going to be here within half an hour. Keep them away from the hole. We have to come up with a press release before this thing blows up in the newspapers. ”
    While the junior officer briefed the police station, Shukla turned to Bryce.
    “ Do you think the manhunt will work? ”
    Relucantly, Bryce shook his head. “ They were professionals. I ’ ve never seen anything as smooth as that before. ”
    He sighed and turned once again to look down the street.
    “ I doubt we ’ ll ever find them. ”
     

 
    *
     
    Jake stared in awe as the Astra pulled into an enormous estate. In the middle of the grounds lay the same mansion he had woken in last night. He was sure of it. No other building in Melbourne could be so large. From the outside, the place looked even more impressive.
    The building was modern, complete with a snaking gravel driveway that led from the entrance gates to the front of the house. From there, the path branched off in two separate directions. One led to the garage attached to the side of the mansion, and the other led to the circular courtyard in front of the porch. Crank dropped them off in the courtyard, then drove the Astra into the garage, out of sight.
    Jake took a moment to breathe in the fresh morning air. He needed it. The sun had now risen, providing a sky full of vibrant colours. Birds chirped morning calls in the trees surrounding the property. It was then that he realised how tired he was. The adrenalin of the past twelve hours was finally wearing off. He was on the verge of collapsing. He hadn ’ t slept all night and was struggling to keep his eyes open.
    He followed the two men up onto the patio. It was made of smooth concrete and ran the full length of the house, past the floor-to-ceiling glass windows on each side of the double doors. Wolfe slipped a key into one of the doors and swung it open.
    Jake stepped into a colossal entrance hallway. Its white marble floor shone beneath the grid of halogen lights. A set of double doors on each side led off into different rooms. Both were closed. The hallway ran on before opening out into what looked to be the dining room. On either side of the entrance to the kitchen were dual staircases, made of marble just like the floor. They ascended up to a balcony overlooking the hallway. Behind the balcony was an upstairs corridor, trailing off into the distance. The house was quiet. The morning sun shone through the windows, casting a warm glow over everything.
    The black man pushed open one set of double doors. “ I ’ m off to bed. ”
    “ It ’ s six in the morning? ” Jake queried.
    “ We stayed up all night waiting for your call, ” the man said. “ I ’ m a little tired. ”
    Jake thought for a second. “ You knew I would call –”
    The man nodded. “ We assumed you would. No-one gets a glimpse of a slayer and then opts out. You wouldn ’ t have been able to live with yourself if you never found out any more about them. It would have plagued you for the rest of your life. Knowing that they ’ re out there, but not knowing anything else. ”
    “ That ’ s exactly why I called. How did you know? ”
    “ It ’ s human instinct. You can ’ t ignore curiosity. ”
    With that, the man pushed open the doors and walked through. Jake caught a glimpse of a bedroom the size of his old house before the doors slammed shut in his face.
    Wolfe, who had until now remained silent, led him through into a dining room equally luxurious as