“Shut up! Stop it! Do you hear me? Stop it!” Tommy yelled. Tears welled in his eyes. His face burned red.
“As far as we know, they’re okay. They’ve been living in a nice apartment under the careful supervision of General Min-Woo. Our operative said they have not been harmed, they’re well fed, and well cared for.”
“No,” Tommy shook his head emphatically. “No. This can’t be real.” He lowered his voice and bit his lower lip. “They were killed in a plane crash.”
Baldwin treaded carefully with the subject. “That’s what you were told, Tommy. But the plane was never found. You know that. When search teams couldn’t find it, they assumed it was lost at sea. It wasn’t.”
Tommy started to jump over the counter to tackle Baldwin, but Sean sprang out of his chair and wrapped a strong arm around his friend’s chest.
“Easy, buddy,” Sean said, holding his friend back. “Take it easy.” Sean turned to one of the other guys. “Can you get him a bottle of water or something?”
One of the men nodded and disappeared through the door at the other end of the room.
Tommy choked. Sean felt him go limp as he held him, so he eased his friend back into his seat. Tommy collapsed, putting his head in his hands. He could control the tears no longer, and the dam holding them back burst, letting them flood down both cheeks and through his fingers.
Sean looked up at Baldwin. “For your sake, I hope you’re not making this up. Because if you are, I’ll kill you myself. Do you have any idea what he’s been through over the years?”
“I can only guess,” Baldwin said. “I’m not lying, though. Have a look for yourself.” He pressed the button again, and the screen behind him changed.
It was a black-and-white image of a window, taken from a considerable distance. There was no mistaking the faces in the glass. Tommy’s mother and father were sitting at a table. They were surrounded by papers. His father held a pen in one hand. His mother was looking at a stack of files.
Sean couldn’t believe his eyes, and a moment later a tear streaked down his cheek.
He put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder.
Tommy hadn’t looked up yet, but when he felt his friend’s strong grip, he picked up his head and stared with unbelieving eyes at the screen.
“This was taken last week,” Baldwin said.
Tommy swallowed. His head twisted back and forth. “No. It can’t be.”
“They’re alive, Tommy. Until now, we still haven’t figured out a way to get them out safely. For the moment, they’re okay. We know that much. The general won’t do anything to his golden geese as long as they keep getting him leads.”
“Those leads will eventually run out, though, won’t they?” Adriana asked.
Baldwin nodded. “Yes. And I don’t need to tell you the methods the North Koreans use on people who cease to be useful to them.”
“What are you saying?” Sean said.
“I’m saying we know where his parents are. If you want to see them alive again, you’ll do what we say. Do that, and you may have a chance to save them.”
Tommy wiped his face and peered through eyelids that were little more than slits. “What do you want?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“Walk away from this crusade. Leave Excalibur to the mists of legends and folklore. Forget everything you’ve seen and learned. Do this, and we will give you the exact location of your parents.”
“That’s a fine offer,” Sean said. “Except there’s one huge problem. Even if we do what you say and you tell us where we can find his folks, there’s still the little issue of how we get them out of North Korea. It’s not like we can just waltz in there, knock on a door, and drive them to the airport.”
“It’s the best we can do for you,” Baldwin said. “You have connections, Sean. You can figure something out.”
Tommy slowed his breathing. He sniffled a few times before speaking again. “Why did you send someone to North Korea?”
“We received an encrypted message from your parents, though we’re not sure how they found us or how they got it out of the country without any of the North Korean authorities catching it. They warned us as to what was going on. They also told us that if we found you to let you know that they’re alive and well.”
Tommy continued shaking his head. “Sent you a message? How did they know you would find it? How did they even know you exist?”
“Your parents are… resourceful, Tommy. They took a big risk attempting to contact us. We have operated in secret for thousands of years. You could imagine our surprise when someone got our attention with a direct message.”
Sean stared at the image on the screen. Even with the resolution not being optimal, there was no question it was Tommy’s parents.
“So you just want us to walk away, and you’ll tell us where his parents are?” Sean asked.
“That’s the deal,” Baldwin gave a nod.
“And if we don’t?”
“Then we will return you to the police, tell them you were responsible for a terrorist plot, and you’ll be put away in a German prison for a very, very long time.”
“Oof. Tough decision,” Sean joked. “You know what, my friends and I are going to need a minute to talk this over. Would you mind giving us a little privacy?”
“Certainly.”
Baldwin motioned for his men to follow him back to the conference room door. One man stepped through the door they’d come through on the way in, presumably to guard it from the outside.
Tommy was still staring at the screen, visibly shaken by the revelation. He kept shaking his head and biting his nails, rocking back and forth.
Sean gave him a moment and then beckoned the two women closer.
“There’s nothing to discuss. We have to take the deal he’s offering,” Sean said. “If we have a chance to get your parents back, at least it’s something. Who cares about the sword at this point?”
“We don’t even know if that’s really them,” Tommy said. He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. “What if it’s people in disguises? Huh? What if this is all some kind of sick ploy?”
Sean put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “It looks legit enough to try,” Sean said. “If they give us the location of your parents, maybe I can put something together with Emily to get them out.”
“Maybe?” Tommy asked. “Look, even if that is my parents, they’re in North Korea, Sean. There’s no way we can get them out. Not even you could put something like that together. Once they run out of leads to feed the North Koreans, they’re as good as dead anyway.”
The room dipped into silence once more. June reached out and touched Tommy’s hand gently with her fingers. He didn’t react, just continued staring forward at the big screen.
“There’s another way,” Tommy whispered after thinking on the issue for a minute. “Tell them we’ll take it. We want as much detail as they can give us on my parents’ location. And we’ll drop the Excalibur case.”
Sean’s lips pinched together, and he gave an acknowledging nod. He turned to the window and motioned for Baldwin and his crew to come back in.
Tommy waited to speak until all the men were back in the room save the one guarding the door outside. “Tell us everything you know about my parents,” he said in an icy tone. “We’ll drop the Excalibur investigation.”
“We can go a step further than telling you where they are,” Baldwin said. “We can tell you how to get them out.”
He put his hand out toward the man with the bandaged head. The wounded guy passed him a black folder, which Baldwin relayed to Tommy.
Tommy opened it to find pictures, building schematics, and topographical maps with certain areas circled.