We followed Maxwell down the corridor to the solitary confinement cells, which had lost none of their creepiness from when Olivia and I had walked past earlier. Some of the gore splattered cells still had bodies inside where the ghouls had attacked and spared no one.
"These men were helpless," Agent Reid said.
"They were serial murderers and rapists," Maxwell said. "I would feel more pity for their victims. These men paid for their crimes with their lives in as brutal a fashion as they had done unto others."
No one made any further comment about what we saw as we made our way by the cells and up to a door which had the word "Maintenance" in big red letters. Maxwell entered the code into the keypad next to it, and the door lock clicked open.
"The tunnel is through here," he said. "But it won't do you any good, the end is blocked."
"Still worth a look," I said, and opened the door fully to reveal a set of stairs that led down, where a row of low-level lights lit the wall as far as I could see. "Are these lights on all the time?"
Maxwell nodded. "It’s easier to leave them on, than to turn them off and on every time we go down here."
"What do you come down here for?" Olivia asked as we all descended the steep stairs into the tunnel.
"A lot of the cables and pipes that run through the prison start down here, and occasionally we have a few glitches with the electricity or hot water. And we use the empty rooms to store supplies."
We made our way along the dingy tunnel, with Maxwell and Olivia taking the lead and Agent Reid following behind Sky and me. Occasionally, we passed locked doors where the handles had become rusted through lack of use, or open ones showing stacks of boxes. But there certainly didn't appear to be anything down here except for the five of us. After a half hour of walking at a steady pace, we arrived at the remains of a concrete wall. Something had punched its way through the concrete to get to the old exit beyond, leaving pieces of broken wall all around.
"I think we've found how the lich got everyone out of here," I said.
I stepped over the pile of rubble and pushed open the rusted, iron gate with a squeak. The lock had been torn off by someone, ripping part of the gate in the process.
The rest of the group followed me out into the clearing near an area of woodland.
"So, these bastards could be anywhere?" Olivia said as she exited the tunnel.
"And they had maybe three hours to start the transformation before they left here," Sky said. "Tonight is when the shit is going to start hitting the fan."
Maxwell laughed. It started as a slight chuckle, but soon made its way into a full-throated roar of laughter. "You have no idea what's happening," he said after everyone had turned to stare at him. Blood trickled from his mouth and nose, dropping onto his shirt.
Agent Reid's Glock was out of its holster in an instant and aimed at the assistant warden who regarded him with mild indifference. "This bag of meat is already dead," Maxwell said. "He was the first to die when I turned up to claim what was mine."
"You're the lich," Sky said.
"And a brownie point goes to the American, although technically I'm still just a useless human."
"Puppeteer," Sky whispered.
Maxwell clapped his hands and laughed. "That's right, aren't you a smart one? Bet you haven't seen this before."
"You controlled Maxwell all this time."
"From the moment I arrived to kill that snitch, Neil, until just now, Maxwell has been my puppet to control as I wished."
"Where are the rest of the prisoners?" I asked.
"I warned you to stay out of this," he said to me. "I told you to let it happen and nothing would befall you. But you ignored me. You killed my ghoul, and now I find you here trying to help them catch me once more. You can't kill me, sorcerer. You can't even hurt me. For your disobedience and for killing my ghoul, you will feel my full wrath."
His mention of the ghoul I'd killed reminded me that I'd had his blood on my hand. "The men in the farm basement, you turned them to ghouls."
"I look forward to feasting on your heart and having my ghouls tear you limb from limb."
"Well, you're down one ghoul already, so it'll probably take longer than it would have if I hadn't killed it."
Maxwell spat bright red blood onto the grass. "You will regret those words, sorcerer."
"You know, it's funny," I said," but everyone who says I'm going to feel their wrath tends to die a horribly violent death. Guess I can add one more to the list."
Maxwell's head turned slowly to face the director. "Olivia Green." His voice was full of venom and barely contained rage. "How I've longed to see you again."
"If you'd have waited long enough the other night, I'd have put a bullet in your face to remember me by," Olivia said.
"You stupid little bitch. You ruined my life, do you know that? Destroyed everything I'd worked so hard to achieve, turned the woman I loved against me. And now, I'm going to do the exact same to you. I'm going to burn your life to the ground and make you watch as the embers are finally extinguished one at a time, until all that's left is destruction. And then you'll die. Slowly. I'm very much looking forward to it."
"I'm going to make sure you stay dead this time," Olivia shouted, as she shook with rage.
"I'm so glad you remember me," Peter said. "I came back because of you. My hatred of you brought me back here, the need to feel your skin burst open as I carve into it. The need to feel your hot blood down my throat was all that kept me going."
"And those women, the friends of Vicki and Amber, why kill them?" I asked, hoping to get his attention off a clearly upset Olivia.
Unfortunately, it didn't work and Maxwell continued to stare at Olivia. "I have something to show you, a gift." He removed a small camera from his pocket and tossed it onto the soft grass by Olivia's feet. "I took some photos for you."
Olivia picked the camera up and used the viewing screen on the back to scroll through the photos it contained. After viewing a few of the photos I noticed a tear trickle down her face.
"Olivia," I whispered and she passed me the camera.
I flicked through the photos and quickly realised that they were a timeline of Vicki's transformation from living enchanter to ghoul.
"Turning Vicki was the most fun I'd ever had," Maxwell said. "And now she'll serve me for all eternity. Her pain and suffering is nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you, Olivia."
"I've heard enough," Agent Reid said and shot Maxwell in the centre of his chest, throwing him off his feet and onto the soft grass.
Nobody admonished Agent Reid for the act. Hell if I'd been holding a gun, I'd have done the same, but even so, no one moved or spoke.
"You stupid fucking idiots," Maxwell said, getting back to his feet. His shirt was drenched in red and clinging to his chest, two large holes where his heart used to be. "You can't even kill my puppet. What chance do you have of killing me?"
"The head," Sky said.
Olivia was still shocked, and more than a little scared, and didn't argue as I removed her Glock from its holster.
"Going to tear all of your flesh from your bones," Maxwell said. His voice was raspy and no longer resembled anything remotely human.
I walked over to him and raised the gun. "Go fuck yourself," I said, and pulled the trigger, destroying Maxwell's brain and a large portion of Maxwell's skull. The corpse fell to the ground, where I put another two in what remained of his head. Just in case.
"What the hell was that?" I asked, as Olivia slumped to the ground, her gaze never leaving Maxwell's body.
"A puppet," Sky said, not sounding all that together herself. "Some liches can take control of the bodies of those they've killed." She raised Maxwell's sleeve to show a marking painted on his forearm in blood.
"This is all new to me," I said, and noticed Agent Reid checking on Olivia.
"New to me, too, Nate. I've heard of it happening twice. Ever." Sky removed a phone from her pocket. "I need to make a call-this has just gotten a lot worse."
I left Sky to her conversation and walked over to Olivia, who appeared to be slightly more with it. "You want to talk about it?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"How does the lich know you?" Sky asked as she joined us.
"Peter Jarvis would dress as a cop, pull women over and pretend that they'd done something, or that there was a problem with their car. Once he got them into his own car, he took them to a secluded house he owned where he would rape and kill them. He took a week with each one. He murdered sixteen women in a twenty-four month period, until he got caught by Vicki."
I remembered reading the file in Vicki's basement.
"His own girlfriend caught him?" Sky asked.
"After she left him, Vicki had heard rumours that he was involved in some bad stuff. She thought it was drugs or something, so followed him to his little nest and caught him as he was about to murder a young woman."
"So, why does he hate you?"
"Because she called and asked if I'd go with her. She was terrified of him. He fought back when we found him and pretty much got his ass kicked by me while Vicki freed the latest girl he'd taken."
"He changed his M. O," I said. "These new girls aren't raped, aren't held for a week. What happened?"
"He did," Sky said as she rejoined us. "Liches can't get it up. So, if he can't have his fun, then why keep them alive?"
"So who raped Vicki's girlfriend, Amber?" I asked.
"Neil confessed on the way to the prison," Reid said.
I was suddenly no longer bothered that he'd died. Horribly. "So, do you have a plan?" I asked Olivia
"Peter's apartment isn't too far from Winchester city centre. We could go look around, see if anything jumps out at us.
"It's been a few years, what if someone else lives there now?" I asked.
"About six weeks ago, Vicki got me to check the place out," Olivia said. "She wanted to make sure no one lived there. I think the anniversary had her spooked."
With good reason, I thought. "Did you find anything?" I asked.
"No one had lived there since Peter was arrested, but it was still paid for on a regular basis."
"Who's paying for it?"
"No idea, someone opened a bank account and deposits a few grand on the first of January every year. It's used to automatically pay the bills and that's it. I tried tracing the account owner, but that was a dead end. It's under an assumed name with no apparent ties to anyone Peter might have known. Whoever arranged it covered their tracks well."
"Well, let's go find out what the apartment's been used for."