Rob Jones
The Tomb of Eternity
For T
CHAPTER ONE
The view of Manhattan was obscured by heavy cloud as the Boeing banked to starboard and began its final descent into the city. An exhausted Joe Hawke snatched a glimpse of the Chrysler Building before it was blocked by more of the same cloud. Next to him, Lea Donovan, the Irishwoman he trusted more than anyone else in the world slept fitfully, and across the aisle Ryan Bale stared into nothing without blinking or moving.
Hawke looked away and closed his eyes. It was less than a day since Nightingale had sent him the text saying she was being kidnapped. He had stared at those words dozens of times during the flight, each time hoping he had made some kind of a mistake, that maybe it was a joke after all.
As for the picture of the man she had sent before he snatched her — the hideous, blurred image of her tormentor looming over her with what looked like a kitchen knife in his hand — he felt an uncontrollable rage rise in him every time he looked at it.
Lea had done as promised and taken the situation straight to Sir Richard Eden, but as he was listening patiently to her words, Hawke was already booking the flight to New York. He appreciated the open offer of help, but he was reluctant to take it.
The last time he had led a crew of people into a mission, two of them hadn’t come back, and he wouldn’t forget how Olivia Hart and Sophie Durand had died — on his watch, under his command. He saw Sophie’s death in Ryan’s face every time he looked at him. He clenched his jaw and looked down to see he’d squeezed all the blood from his knuckles. This time he wanted to face the enemy alone and be responsible for only himself, but Lea would have none of it.
“Where you go, I go, Joe Hawke,” she had said.
Ryan agreed with a non-committal shrug of his shoulders.
So now the three of them flew into New York.
He looked ahead with hatred in his heart, and knew there was a lot of hard, dangerous work to do if he was going to rescue Nightingale. The big question on his mind was why had she been taken? Was it simply to strike at him somehow — some kind of personal vendetta — or did it have something to do with the cursed Map of Immortality?
He didn’t know for sure, but he had a bad feeling the damned map was behind everything, and if all of this weren’t bad enough, his mind was also being tortured by the thought of Dragonfly’s treachery, a woman he now cursed himself for trusting with such an important mission. It was another terrible lapse of judgement that made him question all over again his ability to be leading people into such danger.
When they boarded the aircraft in Hong Kong, Eden had contacted Lea and told her he was already on Dragonfly’s trail. He had sent Scarlet Sloane and Bradley Karlsson to Germany to start the hunt for the Chinese assassin and the map which she had taken from the burning tomb back in Xian. Hawke knew he had to save his old CIA friend first, but the thought of hunting down Lexi Zhang and settling his account with her was almost enough to quell the rage rising in his heart.
At least, he considered bitterly, all of this had pushed thoughts of his wife, Liz, to the back of his mind. Even now after he’d had time to think about what Hart had told him on their way to Xian, he could hardly bring himself to believe a word of it, and yet… He knew in his heart what she had told him was true. His wife had not been who he thought she was. He had to accept the terrible truth that throughout their relationship she had been someone else — someone with a secret past, who had lied to him every day they had been together. That tore him up almost as much as the savage murder which he had witnessed on their honeymoon.
The aircraft turned once again and lined up for its final approach. Lea stirred from her sleep and stretched her arms. She looked tired, Hawke thought. He watched her buckle her seatbelt and prepare for the landing, but then he saw Ryan and his mind drifted to the terrible loss the young lad had sustained when the Lotus’s underlings had murdered his girlfriend while she was trying to save his life. He knew what he was going through, but it was pointless to say it. Absent-mindedly he buckled up as Lea checked her phone.
“Anything?” he asked.
She nodded and swept her hair up behind her ears. “A message from Richard — just reiterating that we should focus on finding Nightingale because he’s going to put Scarlet on the search for Lexi. As for Nightingale, I asked him to run some traces on her calls to try and get an address.”
Hawke considered the plan for a moment and decided that if anyone could track Lexi Zhang down then that person was Cairo Sloane. “Let’s hope she can find her then,” he said, thinking once again about her betrayal of him and his friends back in Xian.
“What’s the matter?” Lea asked.
“Nothing…it’s just that I was the one who dragged Lexi into all of this — it’s my fault that we got shafted over the map. I knew I couldn’t trust her… I just can’t believe I introduced her to everyone and seriously put your lives into her hands.”
Lea sighed. “Don’t be so bloody melodramatic, Joe Hawke!”
“Eh?”
“You heard me well enough.”
“Well, sure, but…”
“But you were expecting some sympathy? Well forget it, boyo. We’re all big grown-ups around here you know, with the exception of Ryan, at least.”
“I heard that,” Ryan mumbled with his eyes closed.
“The point is that we made our own judgement about Lexi Zhang and whether or not to trust her. It’s not all down to you, so pull your head out of your arse and focus on finding Nightingale, got it?”
Hawke smiled. “Got it.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Now, is it too late to order some beer and peanuts?” As she spoke she craned her neck above the headrest of the chair in front and tried to find a flight assistant. Hawke shook his head and turned to the window.
Below them now he saw the squat buildings of an industrial zone adjacent to the airport, and thousands of cars snaking their way in and out of the sprawling city. The flaps were now fully deployed and the odd silence of final approach filled the cabin. He hadn’t been to America since Eddie Kosinski had released him from CIA custody, and as the plane touched down on US soil and the cascade reversers were deployed, he half wondered if they would let him back in again.
“I’ll find out soon enough,” he said to himself.
They taxied slowly to the gate and a gentle drizzle began to fall.
A short car ride through the city brought them to their destination — what looked from the outside like a pretty expensive condo building in the Tribeca district. Yellow cabs honked horns and fought for supremacy somewhere in the distance, and a few dozen people hurried along the sidewalks wrapped in scarves and gloves. The cold sky promised snow, but for now it was still just drizzle. In the distance a giant billboard flashed an image of the latest iPhone, but everyone was too cold to notice.
“Joe?”
It was Lea. Her voice was quiet, and she gently brushed his arm when she spoke.
“Yeah?”
“We’re here, babe.”
He looked at her distractedly, not even seeing her, and then stared up at the building while a solemn Ryan Bale paid the cab driver.
“This is it?” he said.
Lea shrugged. “Sure. This is the location Richard traced her last call to.”
Thank God for Richard, was all Hawke could think. He had never met anyone with more influence and reach than Sir Richard Eden, and, he suspected, more money. Right now, Hawke was so angry he just wanted to punch his way through the problem, but having Eden use his MI5 contacts to trace Nightingale’s call was a stroke of genius from Lea. He knew it almost certainly meant the difference between life and death for his old CIA friend, wherever the hell she was right now.