Bodie progressed, sensing Cassidy hot on his heels. The redhead would be shouting soon, you could guarantee it. Back in the room she hadn’t actually joined in the fray and she’d be as frustrated as a shark in Sea World, stuck behind the glass window as the meat buffet strolls by. A lowering sun burned down in them, still hot, especially when you were inches from death. Sweat poured from Bodie’s brow and made his grip precarious. Once, Cassidy brushed the soles of his feet, grumbling.
Then, the roof and he had to slow once more, worried that the Hood might be waiting. But a glance over the top showed the Hood already sprinting across the level rectangle, laptop once again clutched in his left hand. Bodie heaved himself over the edge, rolled and rose. Cassidy was quicker, gaining the lead. The redhead tore after the Hood, and Bodie saw Heidi smash through a door to their right.
“Where?” she cried.
“There!” He pointed.
The Hood was airborne now, leaping across the gap between roofs. Cassidy followed him, closing the gap, Bodie and Heidi trying to keep up. Another roof and then another gap, this one wider than the last. Bodie made it with room to spare, checked on Heidi and saw her clear the gap even better than he. Again, he was impressed, then not sure if his feeling was complimentary to her or quite the opposite. Complex.
And why the hell does it matter?
The next roof was blazing white and cluttered with all manner of rubbish. The Hood slowed, forced to pick his way through more than one sharp hazard. Cassidy gained it first, then got her foot caught in a wooden crate and had to stop to shake it off.
Bodie passed on the inside, chuckling.
“Fuck off, asshole.” He heard the muttered words.
Ahead, the Hood leapt across another roof, landed and rolled twice, signifying its gap.
Behind, Cross was keeping up with them. Bodie heard the shout: “Why is she dancing?” and then Cassidy’s profane reaction.
The gap was huge. Bodie ran hard, took off and reveled in the empty air for just a moment before coming down and scraping his knees and elbows. He rolled, rose, didn’t give chase until he saw Heidi land at his side. The Hood was still on this roof — a large rectangle — and perhaps now seeing the futility of the chase, investigating a smoking chimney that jutted through the ground at his feet. Bodie saw what was to come, but had no chance of stopping it. The Hood was still a good ten feet away.
The laptop went down into the chimney, falling two floors to the fire below, probably belonging to one of Istanbul’s many restaurants. Bodie attacked the man as he spun; smashed a fist against the temple and another to the jaw. The Hood reeled, stepped back. Bodie fought harder. The Hood blocked and danced aside, making space. The face was bloodied and strained, but still lacking any sign of real emotion.
“Who do you work for?” Bodie panted as he fought. “Where are they? Why the map?”
The Hood dropped to one knee, delivering a punch to Bodie’s lower groin that dropped him right on the spot. The pain resonated throughout his body, making him retch, even making him lose the power of speech.
Heidi stepped up, closely backed by Cross. The latter was panting hard, the former the first to strike. The Hood blocked and counter-attacked, making Heidi cry out in pain and fall back. Cross leapt in without thought.
The Hood brushed him off, sending him lurching toward the edge of the roof. Cross managed to catch himself and looked back at the Hood, surprised.
“What the hell are you, boy?”
Cassidy reached the fight, letting Bodie have his chuckle of earlier right back. “So you do have a pair?”
Bodie could only groan and watch through narrowed eyes. Cassidy engaged the Hood from the front, taking all his attention; then Cross came in from behind — a mistake to let the older man remain there, and Heidi was back in from the Hood’s right. Jemma came up as Bodie struggled to his feet, hands clasped between his legs, still heaving. Gunn was four steps behind her.
“Nowhere to go.” Jemma took out her weapon, aiming it at the Hood. Bodie was confident she wouldn’t use it — too much risk all around — but the vicious Hood didn’t know that. Cassidy landed a blow at that moment; Cross kicked him in the spine from behind and lost his own footing, ending up prone. Then Heidi struck too and the ground team finally joined them, Glocks at the ready.
The Hood cast around for a way out; started to run at Cross but received a flying kick from Cassidy that sent him tumbling right at the edge of the roof. Heidi caught him, pushed him back with a withering glance at the redhead.
“Now we talk,” she said. “Or I let the old actress have you.”
Cassidy flexed her knuckles. “Thirty, dear. It ain’t old. It’s pretty damn perfect.”
“Aren’t we all.” Bodie stepped in to help pull Cross to his feet. “Lose your footing, pal?”
“I won’t be trying that again.”
“Me neither.” Bodie grimaced at a sharp pain below the waist.
“Well, look at it this way. Better the nutsack than the teeth, eh?”
Bodie wasn’t sure he agreed, and poor old Cross was struggling and trying not to show it. He left the forty-three-year-old to recover and advanced on the Hood.
“What are your orders, ya fucking weirdo?”
“Maybe leave this to me.” Heidi held out a hand to stop him. “You remember the big picture? What they can do?”
Bodie backed off. Heidi then turned and delivered four crushing blows to the Hood. The man staggered as everyone winced. The face ran with blood; one arm was broken. Bodie stared at Cassidy in disbelief and Gunn cleared his throat.
“Hey? Is that… I mean, bloody hell. Is that really necessary?”
Heidi caught her breath, holding the Hood upright so that he could not sag to the floor. She delivered another intense blow, this time to his solar plexus, then held him in place. “Are you stupid?” she asked. “Do you not remember Athens? The bus station? You saw that and then you ask me if this is ‘necessary?’”
Bodie saw the young archaeologist loitering at the rear of the group and motioned for Gunn to join him. “Look after that guy for us, Sam. He could be invaluable.”
Gunn looked only too pleased to go.
Heidi shook the Hood hard. “I want to know everything,” she said. “About the map. Your masters. Your life. Upbringing. Training. If you won’t tell us it will only go downhill from here.”
“He won’t talk,” Cross said. “He’s an elite assassin. You’ll never get him to say a word.”
Cassidy bit her lip. “I have to agree with ole Zimmer Boy here. I’m just a failed actress, MMA Queen and underground street fighter though. This guy’s harder than hardcore.” Then her expression changed. “Unless they offered me coconut ice cream. Hey, Hood, you like coconut ice cream?”
The Hood only gasped, now hanging weakly. Bodie knew it was a ruse. “Don’t trust—” he began and then their enemy exploded into action.
He kicked out, driving Heidi away. He danced back, forcing some room. He cast wild glances to left and right.
“Nowhere to go,” Bodie said. “You can’t outrun us—”
But the Hood did run, and proved him wrong. He ran to the edge of the roof and dived off, headlong, and plummeted two stories to the street below.
Heidi shook her head. “Shit. No Hood. No laptop. Shit, shit, shit.”
Bodie expressed it somewhat differently. “Bollocks.”
The entire team then turned to the young archaeologist. Heidi managed a strained smile.
“Hey,” she said. “Hey, what’s your name?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
They made their way quickly, and with local expertise, back to the helipad and the waiting chopper. As they waited on the tarmac to board, Cassidy leaned in to Bodie’s right ear.