“Yes sir.”
Faulkner smacked his hands together and dragged heavily on the cigar.
“Good. Then let’s get to business.”
CHAPTER FIFTY
A day later, the ECHO team had flown south over the Persian Gulf and checked themselves into a penthouse suite in one of Dubai’s most luxurious hotels.
Hawke leaned on the balcony rail outside and watched a tug from the United Emirates Navy tow the yacht they had fought on back into port. There was no more smoke billowing from it now, but the fire damage was harsh and he guessed it was a clear write off. But what did that matter now?
After the battle of their lives, the Oracle was dead. Burned to death in a savage plasma blaze. When he closed his eyes, he visualized his blackened bones crushed inside the iron sphere or under one of the shrines he so longed to find. The man who had become kingmaker to so many governments around the world was now no more than a pile of ashes, as were his leading acolytes and cult members. ECHO had ended the threat they posed and shut down the endless series of terror attacks and relic plundering that had characterized Otmar Wolff’s depraved reign.
But Hawke was tired. During this war, he had aged like anyone else. His bones ached and his muscles burned. He stubble was growing more silver by the week. It took longer than it ever did to get out of bed in the morning. The recovery time for his injuries was also stretching out. What used to take one night to heal now took a week. He looked at the younger Ryan Bale or Nikolai with envy.
“That was epic,” Zeke said, cracking a beer.
Scarlet was two bottles ahead of him. “You can say that again.”
“So what’s next?” Lea said. “If you ask me… wait — my phone’s ringing.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Oh God what now?”
Reaper watched Lea’s face as she read the caller ID.
“It’s Alex,” Lea said, her eyed flooding with panic. Lea wiped a tear away, exhausted and broken and with no end in sight. “Alex, go ahead — you’re on Facetime.”
Hawke turned to Ryan. “Trace it, now!”
“On it.”
“Alex, are you okay?”
“I’ve been better,” she said.
“Why can’t we see you?”
“I’ve got a hood over my head. We all have. Me, Brandon McGee and my Dad.”
“Jesus.”
Hawke heard Alex’s voice contort with fear. “He’s invoked the Twenty-Fifth, Joe! They actually arrested my father for treason!”
“How are you speaking with us?” Ryan asked.
“Agent McGee managed to smuggle me a phone. He’s loyal to Dad.”
“This can’t be happening,” Scarlet said.
Lexi shook her head. “This is really, really bad, Joe.”
“So what’s happening right now?”
She started to break down.
“Hold it together, Alex,” Lea said. “You can do this!”
“Where are you now, Alex?” Hawke asked.
“On a plane. They’re taking us to a place called Tartarus. It’s some kind of prison island used for extraordinary renditions and terror suspects. I don’t know anything anymore. Like I said, I’m on a plane with no windows. There’s no light. It’s so dark. Dad’s on here too. Agent McGee says Tartarus is some kind of black site and that we seriously do not want to go there. He doesn’t know the location or he’d tell me. I trust him.” She took a long breath and tried to calm herself. “I trust him! Who else can I trust?”
“You’re not alone, Alex,” Camacho said. “Hold tight.”
“They’re coming after all of you,” Alex said. “You’re on the list too, Agent Banks.”
“Oh my God,” Kamala said.
Hawke said, “Alex, I want you to contact us when you land. Unless they’re flying around in circles to throw you off the scent we might be able to use the time in the air to work out the location of this Tartarus.”
“Sure thing, Joe. Wait, someone’s coming! I have to go.”
“Alex, wait!”
The image jumped all over the place and then smacked into the floor with the camera facing up. They all saw the roof of an aircraft — vents, lights, overhead bins. Then they all saw something else — a boot heel come out of nowhere and smash into the camera’s lens. The signal cut immediately and the screen went black.
Hawke felt a sickening feeling in his stomach, crawling up his throat.
Alex was gone and the call was cut. They stared at the dead, black screen with horror on their faces. “Looks like she lost the phone,” Lea said.
“Damn it!” said Hawke.
Kamala was stricken with fear and confusion. “She said I was on the list.”
“I’m so sorry,” Lea said. “It’s because you tried to save Kim. You’re one of us now, whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t know what to think. I have to get back to America. My family!”
“You’re looking at your family,” Reaper said gruffly. “Bienvenue, ma nouvelle amie.” A cloud of smoke drifted up to the wires where the smoke detector used to be. “Bienvenue.”
Kamala shook her head and collapsed down onto the bed. “This can’t be happening.”
“It’s happening all right,” Lexi said. “Now you run with the shadows just like the rest of us.”
“I’m not a fugitive!” she protested. “I’ve dedicated my life to law enforcement. I’m in the Secret Service.”
“Not any more, you’re not,” Ryan said.
“Shit,” Zeke said. “Guess that means you’re stuck with me too.”
Scarlet pursed her lips, drew her eyes away from his biceps. “We can probably fit you in.”
“Well, I don’t know about us but you…” Ryan said, preparing one of his best lines, but then he stopped talking and took a sip of his beer instead. “Sorry, now’s not the time for cheap gags.”
“Said the senator to the escort girl,” Scarlet said, deadpan.
A ripple of subdued laughter went around the hotel room.
“Cheerfulness in the face of adversity,” Hawke said. “That’s what we say in the Royal Marines.”
“Come on, you heard Alex, Joe!” Lea said. “Faulkner really has put us on the Most Wanted! We’re outlaws for God’s sake.”
“Us versus the world,” Ryan said. “Who wants a beer?”
Nikolai rejected the offer of a drink. “I drink only water.”
Scarlet’s jaw fell open. “But this is ECHO.”
“Hell, gimme his!” Zeke said, snatching the bottle from Ryan’s hand. “I could sink about thirty-five of these babies right about now.”
“Thirty-five?” Scarlet asked, lifting an eyebrow. “That’s fighting talk, Tex.”
He grinned and blushed. “Maybe just six, sweetheart.”
Hawke measured the temperature of his team and saw things were getting too hot. They’d had a lot to process. Danny, Magnus and Kim were all gone — murdered by the sniper, most likely Alfredo “The Spider” Lazaro. Alex Reeve and her father President Brooke were gone too, but thankfully still alive. Whisked away by Faulkner with Brandon McGee to an unknown Black site.
But they’d had their victories too. The Oracle was dead. None of them really understood what they had seen back in the Altar Room deep inside the Citadel, but they all knew it was the end of Otmar Wolff. They also believed Nikolai when he told them that without their leader the cult would start to crumble and crawl back into the holes they came from.
Who the mysterious, unaccounted force was at the Citadel — none of them knew, not even Nikolai. They had vanished as quickly as they had arrived and seemed more focused on guarding the Citadel than attacking ECHO.
And new friends had joined them, proving their loyalty and showing their mettle in the heat of war — Ezekiel Jones, the former tank commander, Athanatoi acolyte Nikolai and Kamala Banks who had risked her life to stay with Kim when an active shooter was in the vicinity.