‘And what about me?’ Chase asked.
‘You? What was your name — Chase?’ The Englishman nodded. ‘Your job here is over, Mr Chase. You should go home. There is nothing in this country for you now.’
Chase looked past him at the remains of the pyre. ‘There’s one thing that I need to do.’
‘What is that?’
‘Bury her. I’m not going to leave her body in the jungle to rot. She deserves more than that.’
Kagan nodded. ‘Very well. But once you have done that, you should leave. The jungle can be dangerous, especially at night, no?’
‘Yeah, I’d noticed.’
Kagan issued more orders, the Vietnamese herding the mercenaries into a group and marching them away at gunpoint. Kagan and his subordinate did the same with Lock and Hoyt, both still complaining angrily. The Russian reached the edge of the clearing, then paused, looking back at Chase. ‘Sometimes… sometimes we have to do bad things for good reasons,’ he said. ‘But knowing that you have done the right thing does not make you feel any better.’
‘No,’ Chase replied. ‘It doesn’t.’
‘She has found peace,’ Kagan went on, with a tip of his head towards the fire. ‘I hope that some day, so do you.’
The Englishman did not reply. Kagan turned and followed the others into the jungle.
Chase remained still for a minute, waiting until the sounds of movement had faded. Then he picked up a large piece of broken branch and began to gouge a hole out of the damp earth.
The sun had almost set by the time Chase finished his task. Hands dark with mud and ash, he looked down at his work, face solemn. The shallow grave was marked by a crude cross, two pieces of branch bound together by a length of vine. The logical part of his mind knew that the marker would not last long — jungle decay and the ceaseless gnawing of insects would see to that — but he felt better for having built it. At the very least, the dead woman deserved some form of remembrance.
He lifted his head at a distant, but familiar, shout. ‘Edward! Edward, can you hear me?’
‘Hugo!’ Chase called back. ‘I’m here!’
Castille appeared a few minutes later. ‘Edward!’ he said, with a huge beaming grin at the sight of his friend. ‘I saw the smoke. Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ Chase replied, managing a smile. The two men embraced. ‘What about you? You managed to get away from ’em, then.’
Castille pursed his lips. ‘It was a close thing! Hoyt would have killed me if the police had not arrived.’
‘So much for there never being a copper around when you need one.’
‘I know. I was quite surprised!’ Castille released the Englishman. ‘Where is Natalia? Is she safe?’
There was a lengthy pause before Chase finally answered. ‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘She… didn’t make it.’
He stepped aside to reveal the grave. Castille did not seem — or want — to believe his own eyes. ‘Mon dieu! What happened?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘But — but I thought that surely you were clear…’ He took in the churned ground, seeing the footprints. ‘They were here? They caught you?’
‘Hoyt and Lock — and then the Russians. They had a bit of a stand-off.’
Castille surveyed the whole clearing. ‘There is no blood, no spent casings. They did not fight?’
‘No.’
‘Then where are they? Why did they leave?’
‘They didn’t get what they were after.’
‘But what happened to Natalia? Did they kill her? Hoyt and Lock — or the Russians?’
Chase shook his head. ‘Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it. What I do want to do is get out of this fucking jungle. How far away’s your jeep?’
‘About a kilometre, not far from the rendezvous point.’
‘Great. Let’s go.’
He started to walk away, but Castille remained still, staring at the grave. ‘Edward,’ he said. ‘What really happened here? I am your friend, you can tell me — you know that.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Chase gave him a small, sad smile. ‘I made Natalia a promise. And… I kept it.’ He sighed. ‘That’s all I want to say for now. Maybe sometime later, when things are different, I’ll tell you everything. Right now, though? I need a shower.’
Castille decided not to press the issue any further. ‘Yes, you do,’ he said instead, with overstated lightness. He started walking towards the edge of the clearing, Chase alongside him. ‘But then, you are English. You always need a shower.’
‘Oh, fuck off, Hugo.’ The Yorkshireman gave him another small smile, then hesitated as they reached the trees, glancing back at the grave. ‘Goodbye, Natalia,’ he whispered. Castille gave him a look of deep sympathy, but remained silent out of respect for his friend’s wishes. Then Chase turned away, and the pair set off into the jungle.
‘You do realise that we will not get paid for the mission,’ said Castille.
‘Yeah, I know. Think we could get any money for the jeep?’
‘Hmm. I am sure Bluey knows someone who would buy it, no questions asked. So what are you going to do when you get home?’
‘Who says I’m going home? There’s fuck-all there for me now, just a big pile of solicitor’s letters from Sophia. You know what? Fuck her. She wants her divorce, she can have it. There’s more important things in life.’
‘Then what are you going to do?’ Castille asked.
‘What I’m best at. Troubleshooting, like Mac said. The fist in the glove. I reckon I could do that.’
‘Well, you can always rely on me to help, Edward. We will fight to the end.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Chase clapped his friend on the back. ‘Fight to the end.’
23
‘Well, that was… fun,’ said Nina with a grimace as she put down her phone.
‘Seretse not happy, was he?’ said Eddie, lying on the hotel suite’s bed.
‘He was not. I think being shouted at by a member of the UN Security Council kinda ruined his day.’
He sat up. ‘So what’s going to happen? About us, I mean?’
Nina ran a hand through her hair, tired. ‘As much as he’d probably love to fire both our asses, there’s not much he can do. It seems Kagan’s bosses pull a lot of weight at the Kremlin — they still want Unit 201 to find and destroy the other source of eitr before Hoyt or anyone else can find it, but they need us and Tova to do that. So I’m guessing Seretse’s conversation with the Russian representative went something like: “Two people from the IHA just shot up our nuclear bomber base and caused billions of roubles in damage! But don’t fire them, because we’re still working with them. And we won’t tell you why, only that it’s important. I just needed to vent by yelling at you.”’
‘Yeah, I can see that’d be like someone pissing in his orange juice. I suppose now we’ve got to find the bloody thing.’
Nina glanced towards the door connecting the room to the adjacent suite. ‘All we can do for now is wait and see if Tova manages to come up with a location for Ragnarök.’ She sat beside her husband. ‘Which gives us a chance to talk about something else.’
He waggled his eyebrows. ‘You want to try for a kid right here?’
‘As fun as that would be, no.’ Her face became more serious. ‘What happened in Vietnam, Eddie? What really happened? Hoyt, and Kagan, and that guy Slavin from the bunker — you met them all there. And you knew about the eitr, and about the pit the Russians found.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘And you lied to me about it.’
‘I know, I know. I’m sorry.’ He sat up. ‘But I couldn’t tell you about any of it because… because I made a promise.’