‘No. But there’s people who want to hurt me, and I stayed here knowing they might target me. So it’s on me. You use this money to fix it all up. I’m sorry, Yvonne.’
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘Everyone’s telling me that, but I’m starting to think it is.’
They left her and took Billy’s sedan out onto the main road. Kate averted her eyes from the grisly remains of Brandt’s imposter, lying in pieces next to the smouldering police car wreckage. A surreal sight when contrasted with the peaceful country town around it. King stared at the scene as they passed, knowing every police officer for miles in any direction would be on their position in no time. They had to get out of Jameson, at least for the time being.
‘To Rafael Constructions?’ Kate said. Her voice shook, probably from the shock of seeing such a grisly death up close and personal.
King nodded. ‘There’d better be something significant there.’
They passed the chemist, and the post office, and the convenience store, and the cafe, and a swathe of other buildings. Already shopkeepers and customers alike were out on the street, their eyes searching for the source of the almighty racket they’d heard before. King kept his gaze fixed on the road ahead and in no time they were out of town, heading north.
Kate turned to him, as if to say something. She stopped. Decided against it.
‘What are you thinking?’ he said, aware there was something on her mind.
‘It’s about time you told me what you used to do. Specifically.’
‘Why now all of a sudden?’
‘Because that was insanity. I heard the window smash, and I paused for what couldn’t have been more than a second… I think just to register the noise. And in that time you jumped out of bed, picked it up and threw it back. Before I even realised what was happening. No-one is that fast. I’ve never seen anyone react the way you do. You’re an anomaly.’
King sighed. ‘I made it to the Delta Force at a very young age. I couldn’t have been far over twenty. That’s where I met Cole. He was one of the only people I got along with. He and another man named Dirk. Everyone else hated me. I was at least five years younger than any of them. They accelerated me through the ranks quicker than most.’
‘Was that all?’
King shook his head. ‘I only spent a couple of years there. In training drills I was noticed by a few higher-ups. They watched me. Ran some tests. Turns out I have close to the fastest reaction speed on earth.’
‘Jesus.’
‘And these men were right at the top of the food chain. Four-star generals, that sort of thing. They were already in the planning stages of an unofficial operation. They called it Black Force. I was their first recruit. And there’s zero evidence that anything I did ever happened. They sent me into the worst hellholes on earth. Often alone. I was their freak science project. I saved a lot of good people, killed a lot of bad people. I was Black Force’s main operative for eight years. I don’t know how many others there were. No-one told me anything. I was a ghost, a secret independent contractor. They paid me enormous sums of money to do the things that never would have ordinarily been sanctioned.’
‘When did you retire?’
‘Two months ago. Everything was beginning to catch up to me, and I couldn’t take much more of it.’
‘All the killing?’
‘Not so much that. Partially, but not all. It was how close I kept coming to death, over and over and over again. I knew it wasn’t sustainable. Sooner or later, I’d be too slow. I’d get caught from behind. I’d find myself in open ground, with no cover. Something like that. It ate away at me until I finally mustered up the nerve to call it quits.’
‘How did the higher-ups react?’
‘They knew I meant it. They had enough goodwill to let me go.’
‘Maybe not.’
King turned to her. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Maybe that’s what this is. They want you out of the picture. They don’t want someone so dangerous roaming around. Maybe they think there’ll be peace of mind if you’re eliminated.’
He shook his head. ‘I already considered that. But this is something else. If they wanted me dead, they could have done it as soon as I gave my notice. No-one would have ever known. They didn’t need to follow me here. Construction workers and police officers and civilians didn’t have to die. This is something I’ve stumbled upon. I’m connected in some way. I don’t know how. But it’s bigger than just me.’
He stared at the trees passing by, rustling in the mountain wind. The cold sliced in and beat at their faces, chilling them to the bone.
‘It’s up here,’ Kate said, motioning to the forest on the right-hand side of the road. ‘The head office. We’re close.’
As they drove further out of town, a section of the forest cleared up ahead. They began to pass large industrial sites; factories, warehouses, farmland. Dirt trails branched off in many directions, inter-connecting the facilities. She beckoned to a path slicing between two enormous metal warehouses and King swung the sedan over its rocky surface.
They pulled up to a long low building made from polished timber planks. An old home that had been converted into an office. A wooden deck ran round its entire perimeter, much similar to Kate’s house. Behind the building he could see a sprawling industrial complex home to a concrete plant and an array of mixing trucks, lined up in orderly fashion. Beside Rafael Constructions’ land, an abandoned factory sprawled into the sky. A lot of potential vantage points. Many places to hide a marksman.
King got out of the sedan, wondering if he would make it to the head office without catching a bullet in the brain.
As his feet touched the gravel surface, the door to the office opened and a small rotund man dressed smartly in a pair of slacks and an oversized dress shirt hobbled out onto the patio. His name badge read Bernie.
‘What brings you two all the way out here?’ he said, an overly false smile plastered across his face.
CHAPTER 25
Bernie led them through the main reception area. A pretty receptionist sat behind the desk, but apart from that the building was entirely devoid of people. The rest of the room consisted of a few waiting chairs, with various magazines strewn across a coffee table. Nothing out of the ordinary. Bernie strode into a small interview room and beckoned them through. This room was smaller, furnished with a conference table and a handful of rickety chairs.
King shivered involuntarily. The whole place made him feel uneasy. Everything was too clean, too unimposing. He looked at Bernie’s greasy comb over and awkward gait and soulless black eyes and couldn’t help but find the man suspicious. Nevertheless, he and Kate sat down without a fuss. On the front porch, he’d simply explained to Bernie that he wanted to ask a few questions about the company. Bernie had ushered them into this room. Now, he sat down on the opposite side of the conference table and clasped his hands together.
‘What can I do for you?’ he asked with the same over-the-top smile.
‘My name’s Jason.’
‘American?’
King nodded. ‘On vacation.’
‘Ah! Of course.’
‘I’m just passing through and I thought I’d drop in here to visit an old friend.’
‘Is that so? Let’s see if I can go find him for you.’
‘His name’s David Lee.’
A split second of hesitation. Unnoticeable to the average civilian, but in that moment King knew that Bernie was a lying piece of shit. The man cocked his head to pass off his surprise and said, ‘Well, Jason, I’m sorry to inform you that David actually stopped working for us a few weeks ago.’
‘Oh.’
‘Yes, very unfortunate.’
‘May I ask why?’