Sentinel by Joshua Winning Page B

ridiculous,” Lucy said, slouching against the sideboard. “All I can think about is that we’re meant to be going to the theatre on Saturday, and Richard will be so disappointed. We don’t get to go out much, with Patrick. We needed that night. I’m a horrible person.”
    Sam didn’t say anything. He understood all too well the dark net of thoughts that fell with tragedy.
    “Who do you think the doctor was? I mean, really?” Lucy asked.
    “This was no random attack, that much I think we can be certain of,” Sam said. “This has all the markings of a Harvester.”
    If possible, Lucy turned paler than she already was. “I was worried you’d say that,” she said quietly. Her jaw tightened, became stone. “A Harvester, in my own house–”
    She banged at the sideboard and the teaspoons tinkled on their saucers.
    “Damn them all.” This she said through clenched teeth.
    “Indeed,” Sam concurred. “They’re a poison on this Earth. There’s no doubt in my mind that the doctor you speak of –”
    “Dr Snelling.”
    “Dr Snelling,” Sam continued, “knew you were of Sentinel lineage the moment you stepped foot in his practice. Harvesters are increasingly accurate in their ability to root out those of Sentinel ancestry – perhaps the rumours of their telepathic abilities are not altogether unfounded.”
    Harvesters . Sam shuddered. He barely believed it himself. Yet that was the only reasonable explanation for Richard’s sorry state. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d encountered one of their number, but this smacked of their work. The toxic stench of it filled the house. They were bounty hunters. If a Sentinel was one side of the coin, a Harvester was the other. A Harvester’s sole purpose was to track down and eradicate Sentinels. They were human, mortal, but corrupted by their devotion to the Dark Prophets, the heinous gods that they sacrificed Sentinels to.
    It had been years since a Harvester attack, though. Many in the Sentinel community considered them if not extinct, then resolutely put in their place. If they were surfacing...
    “But… Patrick always told me that Harvesters discard each of their identities as often as a snake sheds its skin,” Lucy said. “We knew him as Dr Snelling for years. Decades.”
    The kettle clicked and Lucy made the tea, setting a teacup in front of Sam before seating herself opposite him.
    “He had quite a catch in you two,” Sam murmured, stirring his tea. “He was trailing you, siphoning information. Perhaps even studying you.”
    “Are we really that exposed?” Lucy demanded shrilly. “Can we truly be so powerless?”
    “The power of the Dark Prophets is growing,” Sam said. “I can feel it in my bones, no matter how old they are.”
    He gulped the tea – the subject left his mouth dry.
    “Snelling made his move for a reason. It has been too long since a Harvester surfaced for attack – there must be grounds for it.”
    “They’re getting stronger, aren’t they?” Lucy said in a hushed tone. She hadn’t touched her own tea. It sat in front of her, steam curling question marks between them.
    “Yes. And more assured,” Sam said. “The days when the Adepts and their Harvesters feared the authority of the Sentinels are waning, almost extinct if their recent activity is anything to go by.”
    A grave silence descended on them and they sat with their own gloomy thoughts.
    “Do you think what happened to Richard has something to do with the train wreck?” Lucy asked.
    “Oh yes,” Sam nodded, the two incidents slotting together in his mind like the pieces of a jigsaw. “The train wreck was no accident either, whatever the press believe. Max and Anita were doomed the second they boarded that train; it was they who were targeted on that occasion, along with the other Sentinels on board. I’m still not sure how the agents of the Dark Prophets knew there were Sentinels on the train, though. Perhaps their powers are greater than we give