He didn’t remember stepping into the café or choosing a chair. Suddenly, he was just sitting at a table next to an unlit fireplace. He was the only customer. The waitress near him was a middle-aged platinum blonde, who welcomed him with a Scottish lilt and a universal smile. Her nametag read, Catriona.
“Something warm to drink, no caffeine, please,” he said.
Catriona replied, but he couldn’t focus on the words — probably giving him a choice of drinks? Then he realized there was a menu in front of him and a puddle of water on the floor around him, and he wondered how long he’d actually been sitting there.
He jumped forward in time again. Catriona nudged his shoulder. On the table sat a cup of liquid, steam rising from it. He grasped the handle. It was warm, and he lifted it until the rim of the cup touched his lips, and he tilted it back and drank. It was an herbal tea with a fruity taste he couldn’t place. The heat traveled down his throat to his chest, slowly spreading through his body.
Catriona stood to one side of him, steadying his hand, helping him drink. On the other side, the fireplace was lit. The heat felt good. His clothes smoldered as the fire burned off the wetness.
“Have I been here long?” Chris asked her.
“Be careful you don’t catch on fire.”
“Thank you.”
“I was afraid if you stopped drinking—” She glanced at a nearly empty glass teapot on the table. “Anyway, I’m happy you almost emptied it.”
He smiled courteously, but he worried about Hannah and Sonny. Their escape-and-evasion plan was to return to the plane, and he hoped to still find them there. Chris tried to act casual as he rested his hands on his hips, checking for the firmness of his Glock and its magazines under his shirt. He sighed.
I’m still armed. Good.
Still, he had the uneasy feeling something was missing. He remembered ditching some of his kit in the River Thames. Before that, he lost his radio in the shootout in St. James Square. Then he touched his ear…
My prosthetic is gone!
Wet and with torn clothes and the heel missing from his shoe, he looked like a homeless man.
She seemed to sense he was concerned about something and gave him a small smile. “You don’t have to pay for it.”
The fireplace made one side of his clothes so hot his skin burned, so he turned his chair and heated the other side of his body. When that side became too hot, he turned again. As he made small talk with Catriona, he continued turning himself like meat on a grill until his clothes dried out.
His body didn’t want to go back out in the rain, but his brain knew what needed to be done. “I need to get back to work.”
“It’s awfully wet out there.”
“I wish I could stay. But my coworkers are depending on me.”
She didn’t seem to believe him. Maybe she thought he didn’t have a real job. “Next time you come, you can bring them, too,” she said kindly.
He thanked Catriona again, paid her, added a generous tip, and was on his way.
20
He took a taxi to a hotel on the outskirts of London, and in order to conceal his final destination from the driver, he changed to another taxi that took him an hour north to Luton Airport. After the second driver dropped him off at an office building near the airport, Chris waited until the taxi was gone before walking a block to his actual destination, a private hangar where the Agency’s jet rented space under a nondescript name.
He climbed aboard the plane thinking he might be the first person to make it back to the rally point. The pilot was already onboard, and Chris was pleasantly surprised to see Hannah sitting there, drying her hair with a towel. She looked up at him, and her countenance brightened.
“Enjoy your tour of London?” she teased.
“I’m happy you’re okay, too.” He scanned the interior of the plane. “Where’s Sonny?”
She continued to dry her hair. “Number Three.”
“Number Three?”
She shrugged. “That’s what he said.”
Aft of the plane, the toilet flushed, and Sonny stepped out. “Ahh, I feel five pounds lighter.” Sonny stared wide-eyed at Chris. “Dude, where is your ear?”
Chris had thought Sonny knew he had a prosthetic, but he guessed not. “Lost it,” Chris said nonchalantly.
He passed Sonny and went to his baggage where he dug in and pulled out a spare ear. He affixed it to his head via the internal magnet that grabbed hold of the metal plate in his skull. When he looked up, Sonny was still staring.
Sonny turned to Hannah while pointing at Chris. “Did you see that?”
Hannah already knew about Chris’s prosthetic, and she gestured, So what?
Chris took a seat, joining them.
“What happened to your rifle?” Sonny asked.
Chris explained.
“Sounds like Animus and his goons have taken a liking to you,” Sonny said. “You’re going to need a new M4 and phone.”
“I’ll make the arrangements,” Hannah said. “And see if William can do some more cleaning up after us.”
“What about you all? How’d you escape Xander?” Chris asked.
“Xander got bogged down in a shootout with the police,” Hannah said.
Sonny grinned. “And we used the opportunity to slip away and find a taxi. Changed taxis at a nearby shopping center and came here. I imagine Xander isn’t too pleased about us breaking up his little party.”
“I’ll be happier when we kill or capture him,” Chris said. “And I don’t think he’s going to let us capture him.”
“You want to kill him, don’t you?” Sonny asked.
“Xander has killed a lot of people: in Greece when William was working for MI6, Michael in Athens, and all those innocent civilians here in London. And there’s bound to have been killing we don’t know about, too. People like Xander deserve two to the chest and one to the head,” Chris said. “If he’s willing to surrender, I’m willing to capture him. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get him off the streets,” Hannah said. “If you guys were Xander, what would your next move be?”
“I’m not sure,” Chris said. “It’ll be harder for him to obtain explosives locally now.”
“And if he obtains them from a foreign source, they’ll be more difficult to smuggle into London,” Sonny said. “Not impossible, but harder.”
Chris nodded. “Law enforcement and media will be all over the target area.”
“Making it more of a challenge for him to run surveillance and get into position to hit UKP,” Sonny said.
“If I were him, I’d get out of Dodge until Dodge cooled off.” Chris gestured toward his body. “Speaking of… I’m pretty drenched here, so…”
Hannah handed Chris a towel.
“Thanks.” He dried his face.
Hannah’s phone rang, and she answered. “Hello?” There was a pause as she seemed to listen. “They’re here with me. We’re all okay.”
Hannah put the speaker on, and Young’s voice came through. “You three had me worried. That shootout in London was insane.”
“It was,” she said. “What’s up?”
“We just received a report that 21D claimed responsibility for the attack in London and said the attacks would continue if UKP didn’t stop construction of TAP in Greece. The police apprehended two men armed with AK47s. Both were severely wounded and are still in critical condition. Neither fit the description of Xander or Animus.”