“Definitely in the right place then,” Scarlet said with a low whistle.
“You could say that!” Lea said.
“Rich’s going to wet his pants when he hears about this,” Scarlet said. “And this time, can we please get some of this stuff back to Elysium before that little shit Kosinski turns up and takes it back to DC?”
Hawke turned and swept his torch over the group. “Where the hell has Vikki gone?”
She was nowhere to be seen. “She must have gone to see the Folkvang,” Ryan said.
“Damn it!” said Hawke. “I’ll have to go and get her.”
“Wait — check this out!” Lea said, shining her torch across another statue. This one was a woman, standing nobly in the dark silence. On the pedestal at the base of the statue was a large wooden box, untouched by decay.
“I wonder what’s inside it?” Scarlet said, leaning forward.
“Drop your weapons and stay where you are!” a voice said from behind them.
Hawke spun around to see Álvaro Sala standing in the archway to Thor’s Hall.
“Sala!”
The Andorran stared at them coldly. “Welcome to Ragnarök — the Doom of the Gods.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Lexi Zhang moved with no sound at all across the plush rug of Eden’s study. Very nicely appointed, she thought. The walls were smooth white plaster in keeping with the tropical feel of the place, but they were decorated with the trappings of various ECHO missions — a beautiful Mayan tapestry, an antique Indian sculpture of Shiva, and above the desk what looked suspiciously like Raphael’s missing Portrait of a Young Man, but she couldn’t be sure.
But either way, the treasures in this one room were all the evidence she needed to confirm that the ECHO team seemed to know their way around the world and got results. It also explained their long-running feud with Eddie Kosinski at the CIA. His little collection was well-known to the Chinese intelligence agency, who also, of course, had their own to keep them busy.
She drew closer. This was the moment that would change everything, but then as Lao Tzu once said, if you do not change direction, you may end up where you’re heading. Very gently, she placed the barrel of the gun on the sleeping man’s right temple.
“Bang…” she said quietly with a voice as soft as silk.
Eden opened his right eye and smiled warmly at her. Then he opened his other eye and gave his wristwatch a quick glance. “Faster than Maria, but slower than Hawke.”
“Damn it!” she said, lowering the paintball gun to her side. “I really wanted to beat Joe!”
Eden got to his feet and shook her enthusiastically by the hand. “Congratulations, Lexi. You’ve passed the final selection test. You’re now formally in the ECHO team!”
She was pleased, but still reluctant to show it. Tonight she had joined a new family, but she had also left an old one — a powerful one, and that meant she would have made powerful enemies in the process.
“So how do you feel?” he asked, clapping a congratulatory hand on her shoulder.
“I’m happy, I think.”
Eden laughed. “I’d never expect a straight answer from you, Lexi. Shall we go and join the others? I’m sure they’ll want to congratulate you.”
“Why not?” she said with a smile.
They gathered in the main living area and Ben brought everyone a cold beer. He was still covered in red paint from the attack on the roof. “Those damned paintballs hurt more than you think!”
“So how did you do it?” Maria asked. She too still had the remnants of the paint on her top, as did Alex, but both women were overjoyed at the new addition to the team.
“Simple.” Lexi tapped her temple. “I simply set up a scenario in my mind in which Beijing had ordered me to kill all of you. We are trained never to fail a mission and always to see it through to its end. I told myself my mission was your assassinations and planned it exactly as I would if it were any other professional hit. This way, I took no risks and gave it my all.” She lowered her voice and sipped some of the lager. “And this is why you are all covered in red paint tonight.”
“I’m glad you’re on our side!” Alex said.
After a pause, Lexi replied. “So am I.”
“And by the way,” Maria said, feigning a frown, “that second shot really hurt. I thought we agreed no hitting above the waist?”
“We did,” Lexi said coolly. “But where’s the fun in that?”
Eden yawned and sipped his beer. It had been a long day, but now at least one of his objectives had been achieved — Lexi Zhang had turned her backs on the Chinese Ministry of State Security and formally joined ECHO. He knew she would have made serious enemies in doing so, but they were a family and he took nothing more seriously than the responsibility of protecting that family. She would make a quality asset — of that he was sure — and he knew everyone in the existing team had voted unanimously for her inclusion into the covert organization. Her flawless attack of the island tonight would only compound the respect they all felt for her.
Now his mind drifted to Lea and the others. They had flown to Florida to help Victoria Hamilton-Talbot, but for some reason they were now somewhere in the Arctic Circle — at least that is where he had to presume they were because that was their location when they had last contacted Elysium. He knew they were more than capable of looking after themselves, and he tried to relax, but the burdens of his work weighed heavily on his mind.
In particular, he never stopped worrying about Lea. To him, she was almost like a daughter, and to make matters worse, he had recently received a call from the rest of the ECHO team who were currently in Mexico. Alfie had called to say they were still in Acapulco but their target Morton Wade had started for the jungle ahead of the anticipated schedule.
Wade was as depraved as they came, and Eden knew he couldn’t let him out of his sight. That meant sending someone in after him, but most of the team were in the Arctic and neither Alfie nor Sasha were trained for the work. To say they each had a valuable skillset was the understatement of the century, but neither was ex-military and sending them into the jungle after Wade would be a death sentence. The nearest man capable of doing the job was Ben Ridgeley and he knew he’d have to send him into the jungle soon, but now the young former Para was enjoying a cold beer with Alex, Maria and their newest member Lexi.
Let him have his beer, Eden considered. He can fly into the jungle tomorrow.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Lea watched Sala creep slowly toward them in the same way she might keep an eye on a lizard as it crawled across her patio. There was something about this man that set off all her alarm bells — something about him that was different to any of the others. As he drew closer, Smets and a handful of other men joined him from the shadows.
Instinctively she drew closer to Hawke, who stood up to his full height and squared up to the Andorran. “So pleased you could join us, Sala.”
“Ah, Mr Hawke and the rest of the A-Team — you’re here at last.”
“Yes, we got delayed because someone tried to blow up our helicopter,” Scarlet said, arching an eyebrow. “Fortunately, I’m a better shot than they were so now they’re all flakes of fish food.”
Sala gave no reaction other than to move over to the statue of the woman and run his hands over its smooth, cold thigh. “This is Iðunn,” he said, glancing at the statue of the goddess with appreciation, almost as if it had once been alive. “She was the Norse goddess of youth and apples and in both the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda she was described as the keeper of apples. You may know that these apples conferred eternal youthfulness on those who ate of their flesh.”