“What’d you do?” says Hogan Dale as a high-pitched buzzing sound comes from the speakers that the Enforcers wear on their chests. “Tell me what you did!”
Then there is a sound like pop-pop-pop and the Enforcers are twitching from side to side and letting the weapons fall from their hands.
“Dance!” Conor says to the Enforcers. Electricity arcs between them and they collapse to the ground. A sickly smell that only Sarra recognises rises from the unmoving bodies. It is the scent of burning flesh.
“No!” says Hogan Dale and pumps the trigger of his pistol. Fortunately he’s aiming at Jeremy and all of the bullets swing wide. One of them strikes a control panel and sends up a geyser of sparks.
“Watch where you’re waving that thing,” says Sarra and snaps both of her wrists in the direction of the police chief. White fire strikes the steps but the Chief manages to roll away in time. He lowers the pistol at Sarra and repeats: “What… did… you… do?”
“I knew that the Enforcer armour has an in-built defense mechanism capable of administering an electric shock,” Conor explains. “I just overloaded the circuit. Now you’ve got no Enforcers, but plenty of delicious fried zombies.”
“No Enforcers?” says Dale. His face is twitching and all of them are starting to realise that the police chief is actually rather mad. “You killed them… all?”
“They were already dead,” says Claire as she steps out of the shadows. “How could you do this, Chief? The Sanctum trusted you.”
Hogan Dale does something unexpected then—he lowers the pistol. “Westcrest,” he murmurs. “It’s always Westcrest… my entire career I have lived in their shadow. Don’t you think that it’s time they left law enforcement to the professionals?”
“The only thing you’re professional at is being a failure,” says Sarra.
Those words awaken something in the Chief that causes his eyes to snap wide open and his mouth to turn from a scowl into a frenzied grin. “A failure?” he says to Sarra. “You’re calling me a failure, girl?”
Then he actually laughs—a crazy laugh that echoes back at them from the walls of the Inner Sanctum. He raises the pistol and says: “I will show you just how wrong you are!”
Keeping the gun trained on them, Hogan Dale crosses to one of the tubes that previously housed the Enforcers. His hand is shaking but all of them (except, maybe, Jeremy) are aware of just how dangerous a stray bullet can be.
“No!” Conor calls as he realises what the Chief is trying to do. “They’re not calibrated for human use, you’ll…”
Dale reaches into the coffin with one hand and pulls out a handful of wires that he begins clipping to his skin. He tapes one to his forehead and shoves another up his right nostril.
“You can’t do that,” says Conor. “You’ll send the whole system critical!”
“You can’t stop me,” says Dale and fires the pistol. The bullet hits Claire and she stumbles backwards, clutching at her shoulder. Jeremy drops to his knees and places both of his hands against the wound. Blood spills out between his fingers.
Dale cranks a lever at the side of the tube and his body goes rigid. The gun falls from his hand and clatters loudly to the floor.
“Should I take him out?” Sarra asks, but Conor shakes his head.
“He’s part of the system now,” Conor explains as he heads towards the control panel. “I need to shut it down.”
Hogan Dale’s entire body is engulfed in blue light and he is screaming and screaming. His hair is standing on end and his hands are balled into fists at his side.
“The engine’s going critical,” says Conor. His hands are flying across the control panel like the hands of a master pianist.
“We need to get Claire out of here,” says Jeremy from the floor.
The room is suddenly plunged into darkness as the light from the engine is extinguished. Emergency lights come on around the room and they see the police chief laying face down on the floor. For a moment they think he is dead, but then the body twitches and he pushes himself up onto his knees.
He tears at his shirt, pulling it open to reveal his bare chest and stammers: “I… am… Tel-Ur!”
And then he roars.
A showdown is on the cards this Thursday as we finally reach the series finale of Westcrest — Season 2!