“I trust him but I’ll concede the point that we don’t know him all that well. That’s why I’d like for you to go with him to Locust Mountain.”
Samantha nearly dropped her fork in surprise. “But those two will be at each other’s throats!”
Eun glared at her before saying, “I’m a professional. I’ll watch him like a hawk but if he doesn’t step out of line, that’s fine.”
“And Sporrenberg hasn’t seem to care much about Eun one way or another,” Morgan pointed out. “So if Eun says he’ll behave himself, I think it’s a good idea. He’ll keep a good eye on him.”
Samantha didn’t look all that convinced. “I don’t like the idea of splitting us up like this.”
Lazarus pushed the remains of his dinner aside. “My job in Salem and Eun’s mission to Locust Mountain should each take a day at the most. Then we’ll rendezvous with you and Morgan in Yorkshire.”
Morgan flashed a grin at Samantha. “We can handle a few giants, can’t we?”
“Hopefully we’ll have better luck than we did in Locust Mountain,” she answered. She realized that she’d lost the remainder of her appetite and stood up. “I’m going to go pack some supplies for the trip. I assume we’re leaving in the morning?”
Lazarus nodded and he waited until she was gone before he said, “Morgan, I don’t want the two of you engaging these creatures. Just observe them and wait for the rest of us.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Morgan deadpanned. He continued to savor his meal, knowing that once he arrived in England, the food wouldn’t be nearly as good. “I have to ask, though: What are you planning to do when we’ve found these things? One of them was enough to nearly kill us all and now we’re talking about finding a nest of them? Maybe we should call in Doc Daye or The Peregrine for this one.”
“That should be a last resort,” Eun said. “There’s never been a case yet where Assistance Unlimited couldn’t handle things.”
Morgan shrugged. “Let’s just use our heads and not let our pride get in the way of common sense.”
Eun relaxed and grinned. “I resemble that remark.”
“We all do from time to time,” Morgan conceded. He finished off the last bite of steak and then carefully wiped the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “See you gents in England,” he said, shaking hands with each of them before following Samantha down the hall.
Eun turned back to Lazarus, who was staring contemplatively at the remains of his meal. “You okay, Chief?”
Lazarus shook himself and nodded. “I’m fine, Eun. I apologize that our recent business has taken you away from your loved one. I sometimes think it’s unfair of me to put such pressures on all of you.”
Eun blinked in surprise. Lazarus rarely talked about private matters, which included anyone that Eun or the others might be dating. “All of us are fine with it,” he said with all sincerity. “Assistance Unlimited is our home and our family, just as much as anyplace else is. More so, really.” Eun leaned over the table. “Something troubling you, Chief?”
“I’m sure Samantha mentioned to you that my gloomy nature awhile back was related to the death of an old friend… and the time I’ve spent recently with Kelly has just reminded me of how difficult it is to maintain a relationship under the conditions in which we live. I just don’t want to cheat any of you of the chance for happiness.”
“We’re all here because we want to be,” Eun said. He rapped the table with his knuckles and stood up. “Thanks to you, I got revenge on the men who terrorized my parents. I will always owe you for that.”
Lazarus watched as Eun left the room and the corners of his lips turned up almost imperceptibly.
Chapter XI
Danger on Three Roads
Jakob Sporrenberg stepped off the private helicopter that Lazarus had paid for, offering the pilot a quick salute. He squinted as the helicopter lifted off once more, moving a bit farther away from the hellish remains of Locust Mountain. The pilot was to return in two hours time, which Sporrenberg thought would be plenty of time to set up a series of explosions around Die Glocke. His superiors back in Germany were unaware of his actions and he hoped that they would never find out: it would be considered a treasonous act and would be punishable by death.
Eun Jiwon stood nearby, a backpack containing several dozen sticks of dynamite slung over his right shoulder. Both men wore gasmasks to filter out some of steaming gases in the air.
“Let’s get going,” Sporrenberg said and he marveled at how he was even thinking in English these days.
“So when all this is done, are you going to hightail it back to Berlin?”
Sporrenberg glanced over at Eun and stifled a sigh. Most of Assistance Unlimited had grudgingly begun to treat him like a colleague but the Korean continued to be highly suspicious. “You think I should abandon my career and my family so I can make a political statement against my government? That I should stay in Sovereign City and ask for citizenship?”
“I’d think more of you if you did.”
Sporrenberg stopped in the middle of an abandoned city street and turned to face Eun. He was much taller than the younger man but Eun’s defiance seemed to put them on equal footing. “I am proud of my country and though I don’t agree 100 % with what my leaders do, I believe in them. I’m sure you don’t agree with everything the President does in this country but it doesn’t mean you want to renounce your citizenship.”
Eun was more than ready to respond to that but both men froze in place when the sound of an automobile engine caught their attention. They hurried off the road and took refuge behind an abandoned storage trailer. A large pickup truck rumbled past and came to a stop in front of City Hall. Three broad-shouldered men clambered out from the vehicle, adjusted their gasmasks and then entered the building, muttering to each other in French.
“Who the hell are they?” Eun wondered aloud. “Some of Murder’s gang, you think?”
Sporrenberg shook his head. “From what Lazarus told us, Murder used mostly Americans. What’s the likelihood that he’d have a trio of Frenchmen working for him?”
Eun stifled a gasp when he felt the touch of a cold steel blade against his throat. “They don’t work for Murder,” a familiar female voice intoned. “They work for me. And The Illuminati.”
Sporrenberg cursed and his hand immediately went for his gun but Eun gave a curt shake of his head, indicating that he didn’t think that was wise. Miya Shimada, cloaked in a form-fitting black bodysuit and a single red rose in her ebony hair, smiled at the German. Her mouth was hidden beneath a small gasmask but the corners of her lips and eyes reflected her dark humor. “Eun and I are old friends. Aren’t’ we, Eun?”
“He knows who you are,” Eun warned. “He saw you and your scummy friends in the Xian Caves.”
Miya’s eyes took in Sporrenberg’s face. “Ah, yes. I remember now. It was all such a mad rush but I rarely forget so handsome a man.” Miya increased the pressure of the blade, causing a crimson trickle to flow down Eun’s neck. “Where’s Lazarus?”
“He’s not here.”
“Not like him to send an errand boy to his dirty work.”
“I’m surprised you don’t know where he is,” Eun said, showing as much bravado as possible under the circumstances. “Or is The Illuminati not telling you everything?”
Miya’s next move was so fast that not even Eun could prepare himself. She removed the knife, grabbed him hard by the hair on the back of his head and slammed his face into the trailer. By the second blow, he was bleeding from the forehead and unconscious. She then stood up and spun about, driving the heel of her boot into Sporrenberg’s cheek. The force of the blow was enough to knock the German to the ground and before he could recover, she was straddling his chest, knife at his throat.