I push her away slightly, holding her by her shoulders at arm’s length, staring into her eyes. “Ruby, if we fail…”
She tilts her head, smiling wryly. “If? If? Adrian, if your auntie had balls, she’d be your uncle!”
I frown. “Huh?”
She shrugs. “I dunno — something my old man used to say. The point is, since when do we deal with ifs? We deal in blood and bullets, Adrian. That’s it. I don’t blame you for losing sight of that. Shit, I can’t imagine what’s going on in your head right now. But I’m telling you — blood and bullets. Understand? Nothing else.”
I walk away, zoning out of the moment and gaze blankly through the window. The lights across the skyline blur together as my mind wanders.
A knock on the door disturbs me. I spin around, catching Ruby’s eye. “You order room service?”
She shakes her head. “Nope. Could it be Oscar?”
I relax a little. I forgot about him. I called him earlier, and he said he would be here at around 10:00 p.m. I check the clock in the room and walk toward the door. As I reach for the handle, it opens from the outside.
Well, it’s not Oscar…
General Matthews walks into the room, brushing past me with indifference. I watch him, completely dumbfounded. He’s not in his full military garb — just a regular suit, carrying a briefcase. He looks thinner than I remember. I’ve not seen him since… since he killed half a billion people.
I need a minute…
What the fuck?
What the fuck?
I blink hard and shake my head.
… And we’re back.
I push the door shut and walk hurriedly over to him. I throw a punch, which catches him on the side of his face as he turns around to look at me, having been glancing curiously around the room. He goes down, dropping his case. I kick it away from him, reach down, grab him by his lapels, and haul him back to his feet. I punch him again — this time in the stomach — before pushing him onto the bed.
I lock eyes with him, my baby blues fixing a cold stare filled with hot fury. I don’t blink. “Ruby, get the gun, keep it on him.”
I look at her when she doesn’t move and see the confused expression on her face.
“This is General Matthews.”
Her eyes go wide. She moves for the gun and aims it at him.
I turn back to him. The rush of anger I feel is quick and frightening. “You piece of shit! How dare you come to me, you fuck! I should kill you right now…”
Matthews holds his hands up. “I… I expect you to.” His voice cracks with emotion. With fear. “But you need to hear me out first.”
Ruby steps forward, the gun unwavering in her hand. “Why the hell should we?”
“Because we’re running out of time and you can still stop this… this madness!”
Ruby and I take an involuntary step back, shocked.
I hold my hand out to Ruby, signaling for her to lower the gun. Shit just got interesting…
“Say what now?”
He shuffles himself up to a sitting position on the bed. “I’m a dead man. I know that. I just hope I’m not too late to make amends.” He points to his briefcase. “In there.”
I turn to Ruby. “Watch him.”
I move over to the case, which is now near the foot of the second bed, nearest the door. I pick it up, rest it on top of the covers, and click it open. It’s full of files and paperwork.
I look over at Matthews. “What’s this?”
“Everything,” he replies. “That evidence you’ve got… it’s okay. It’ll get people asking questions. But it won’t stop anyone. It won’t make a real difference. And that’s the sad truth. But everything in that case… it will change the course of history.”
I quickly start sifting through the papers. All my earlier concerns and doubts — none of that matters anymore. People say it can take just a second to change your life. They weren’t kidding.
I’ll admit, the majority of the documentation means little to me.
“Why are you here, Matthews? Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Because Cunningham wants me dead!” he screams. “I messed up and now he’s trying to get rid of me. At first I was angry at you. It’s your fault I’m in this position…”
“My fault? How am I to blame for anything that’s going on?”
“Because you won’t die!”
I scoff and hold my hands up. “Oh, I’m sorry…”
“Ever since Atlanta, I’ve been trying to kill you — to tie up the one loose end I had left. But you’re a resilient sonofabitch.”
I shrug. “Thanks.” I glance at Ruby. “That was a compliment, right?”
She shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
I look back at Matthews. “I know you’ve been using Cerberus to track me. And I’ve lost count of how many body bags I’ve filled. I’m going to stop Cunningham. You know that, right? I’m gonna kill that bastard and—”
“And that won’t do a goddamn thing…” He shakes his head regretfully. “That’s why I’m here. He’s set his sights on me, now. I know he has. And nothing can stop him. It’s all in the case. Everything. Every last goddamn detail of what he’s planning. This is bigger than you can imagine, Adrian.”
I can’t hide the concern from my face. He’s telling the truth, I’m sure of it. I don’t like it, but he is. I lock eyes with Ruby, who looks much the same as I probably do — wide-eyed, slack-jawed, and completely speechless.
All this time it’s been presumed the buck stops with Cunningham. I’ve been working on the basis that if I can find a way of killing him, things will go back to the way they were. But now Matthews is saying that’s not going to happen…
“Then enlighten me… What’s after Cunningham?”
He nods at the briefcase. “It’s all in the there…”
I sigh, losing patience. “Give me the abridged version — that’s a lot of shit to look through.”
Matthews hesitates slightly.
“Don’t clam up on me now, you sack of shit!”
“He’s… ah… it’s Cunningham. His vision for the world… it’s… I understand it. He just wants peace.”
“He’s got a funny fucking way of showing it…”
“He’s an intelligent man, Adrian. Probably more so than you give him credit for. The Armageddon Initiative was his own creation, because he knew in order for his plan to work… for it to be accepted by the American people, he needed an enemy. In every story, there has to be a villain. Cunningham believes he’s the hero. The first stage — hijacking Cerberus and using it on all those different countries — was planned meticulously… for years. And Hamaad El-Zurak served his purpose well as the public hate figure. Installing him as the leader of a fictitious terrorist organization was a stroke of genius. But the next stage of the plan is happening now. And yet again, Cunningham has someone else to play the part of the villain.”
“What’s the next stage? What could possibly come next that’s worse than what’s already happened, worse than 4/17…?”
“Cunningham knows everything GlobaTech is doing. He knows where every man is, where every truck carrying medical supplies is, every engineer, every consultant… He knows it all. He’s going to destroy GlobaTech’s forces. He never wanted them to be a part of this. Never wanted them involved. Then you started helping them, and they were able to find out enough about what’s happened to think they could buy our silence. But Cunningham already had it figured out. He knew he could use GlobaTech to do the heavy lifting in the first few weeks. It would look great to the people of the world that the United States was helping, and he wouldn’t have to risk one member of our armed forces to do it. Now GlobaTech’s forces are spread so thin, they’ll be easy to wipe out. It’ll leave the world vulnerable, and people will beg Cunningham to help them. Using the full strength of this country’s military, we can destroy the enemy — the enemy Cunningham himself put in place just so they could fail after they’ve served their purpose — and he will control the world as it’s rebuilt from the ground up.”