Jasper swore and pounded the armrest. Then he said, “Okay, okay, let’s take it easy. You said Raynard has a plan?”
“He told me his plan, but it sounded crazy. I don’t know—this might be too much for me, Jasper. I probably want to pull out.”
Jasper tried counting to ten in his head to stay calm, but he failed. “Listen to me, you idiot!” he roared. “You don’t get this far and then pull out. This isn’t something you jump off, Sara. You’ve chosen this path, and I’ve chosen to help you. You’ll see this through to the end, you got that?”
Sara’s voice trembled. “Yes, of course.”
Jasper calmed down a bit. “Good. Have a glass of whiskey or something, but for God’s sake, get your nerves under control. What did Raynard say about the loot?”
“Everything’s in the bag. They haven’t touched anything. I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t think he would lie to me.”
“Good. Follow the plan and go to Oslo, and we’ll meet there. You get the crypto ledger, and I get the other one.”
Sara took a deep breath. “Okay.”
Jasper ended the call. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. Sara’s stupidity was astounding. Pull out? What did she think this was, a game? He shook his head. But she couldn’t know what he planned or what the thing that was stolen really was. It was something much more powerful than crypto. You could always get more money, but you couldn’t get too much information.
He picked up the phone again as they approached the airport, and his heart rate rose. So much to do and so little time.
***
Hugo flinched at a sharp burning sensation on his cheek, and in the next moment, he went down on his knees. The troops threw themselves on the deck; there were more shots, men shouting and roaring. Everything swirled around Hugo. He reached for his cheek and felt blood. When he lifted his head, he saw Freya running obliquely in front of him.
She was heading straight for the aisle where two dark barrels protruded and shot at Hugo and his men. As if in slow motion, Freya ran straight toward the attackers, weapon lifted and aimed. She squeezed the trigger, and the heavy thumping sound of Freya’s gun echoed across the deck. The two barrels in the corridor pulled back.
When the shooting stopped, Hugo got to his feet and ran toward Freya. He roared at his men to follow him.
“Now!”
Freya was now only a few meters from where the rifle barrels had stuck out from their hiding place, but she was completely unafraid. She rushed at it like a raging fire, her long legs pumping like jackhammers. Hugo came up from the other side, and in the same second, he saw a shadow slinking along the wall. He acted on pure instinct.
There was someone there, hiding in the dark corner, waiting for Freya to enter the corridor. Hugo tensed every muscle in his body and made a tiger leap. He flew through the air like a human torpedo and hit Freya high on the shoulder. She screamed, and they fell into a pile on the deck. He tried to dampen the fall as much as he could, but the air in his lungs was still knocked out when he landed. Freya rolled away, her eyes flashing.
“What the hell are you doing, Hugo?”
Hugo shook his head, and a fraction of a second later, a rifle barrel extended from the shadows. It searched for Hugo and Freya, who were defenseless on deck. Hugo tensed, but from somewhere on deck came a sound like a colossal zipper being pulled open. A dozen shots struck around the area where the weapon jutted out. Someone shouted, and the rifle barrel vanished again. Hugo rolled, got to his feet, and looked back. Two of the crew opened fire. Hugo gave a thumbs-up and pulled Freya to her feet.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
She shook her head, but her eyes still flashed. “No.”
“Good,” Hugo said. “We need to clear the aisle. Follow me.”
Hugo quickly pulled her to the edge, aimed his weapon, and pressed the trigger. A tremendous thunder echoed through the cramped space. After what seemed like an eternity, he released the trigger. He stuck his head out and expected to see one, maybe two bodies. But there was nothing. The cramped aisle was empty except for smoke so thick it made his nose burn. Freya stuck her head out, too.
“Nothing?”
“No, they’ve withdrawn.”
Freya waved to the crew and asked them, “What’s behind these containers?”
One of the men shrugged. “Not so much,” he said. “There’s no way down to the inner decks. There’s only the outer load, I think.”
“The outer load?”
The man glanced at his colleague, who said nothing to the tall, dark-haired woman with fire in her eyes.
“Yeah, there are two helicopters that deliver special loads for the captain.”
“Helicopters?” Hugo grumbled.
The crew nodded more eagerly now. “Right! Maybe we can take one of them to Denmark and call on—”
The man was interrupted when Hugo’s worst fears came true. An engine revved, and Hugo immediately recognized that it was a copter getting ready to take off. There wasn’t a second to lose. Hugo raised his weapon.
“Move!”
He rushed through the aisle with Freya just behind him. The crew stared at each other in surprise, but some of them shrugged, shouted, and ran behind Hugo and Freya. Hugo darted on toward the bow, the engine sound getting louder all the time. He came out at the place where he’d seen the man with the scarred face before, but now, there was no one there. Freya came up behind him and pointed.
“There!”
Hugo ran on and came around the corner of the last container. Shots echoed out, and he threw himself to the side. The shooting continued until a helicopter took off and ascended into the sky. Bullets ceased flying, and Hugo pulled himself up on his elbows, watching the chopper disappear. Freya rushed over to him, pulled him up, and nodded toward another helicopter on deck.
“There’s another. What do you say, you want to go for a ride?”
Hugo bared his teeth and nodded, and they ran toward the other helicopter. A second later, it was annihilated in an apocalyptic explosion.
14
Better late than never. Raynard sank deeper into the seat as the chopper accelerated upward from the cargo ship. He glanced down at the twinkling lights that stretched along the vessel. In the middle of the ship sat the two wrecked yachts. Raynard shook his head. Their pursuers were mad; they had to be to do such a thing. He had never heard of anything like it. A hand landed on his shoulder, and Raynard shuddered.
“Are you okay?”
Jules peered at him, and Raynard shook his head to gather his thoughts. “Yes, I’m fine. I should be the one asking how it’s going. What about your foot?”
Jules grimaced. “Not good,” he said. “I think it’s broken. I can’t stand on it at all.”
Raynard nodded solemnly. This mission shouldn’t be like this. Now his right-hand man was injured. The copter bounced, and Raynard held on until it calmed down again. He looked at the two men sitting opposite him in the cramped cabin. They were both large, dressed in black tactical gear from head to toe, and with automatic weapons hanging over their chests. Pros. Raynard nodded at them.
“Thanks for coming. That was a close call.”
The man on the left said, “No problem. We’re glad we were able to help.”
Raynard licked his lips. In this world of mercenaries who worked for money, there were no major loyalties.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
He met Raynard’s gaze and replied, “Dragan.” He nodded to the soldier on the right. “And he’s Slavo.”
“Dragan, Slavo. Thank you for coming when you did. A little later, and we would’ve been fish food.”
Slavo leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “The people attacking us, who were they?” he asked. “They killed some of my friends, and when this is done, I’m going to make certain they pay.”
Raynard frowned. “That sounds like a good idea. But to be honest, I’m not entirely sure who they are. What I do
know is that they’re led by a dark-haired man. There’s also a woman with him, but I’m pretty sure that it’s the man who’s their leader.”
Slavo stared at Raynard. “Who is this dark-haired man?”
“There aren’t many people who can do something like this,” Raynard said with a shrug, “but considering that we’re in Scandinavia and that it’s all been completely improvised, I’m thinking it’s the man who works at Novus. I believe Novus is located in Malmö. There was an assignment last year that made the press. Haven’t you read about it?”
Dragan punched Slavo on the shoulder. “Hey, yeah, I read about that. There was an attack on an office, right? People died, and one of the office workers had a relative or something that went out on a massive revenge crusade when his brother died.”
Raynard nodded slowly.
“Almost. But the brother didn’t die. The man’s brother is Hugo Xavier, and he’s an ex-soldier from the Swedish special forces. When his brother was shot, Hugo took up the hunt for the culprits. He chased them to London, where he killed the guy behind the attack. It was in the news for days.”
Slavo’s eyes shone with anticipation. “Okay, then, when we’re done with this, I’ll get this Hugo Xavier.”
Raynard raised his eyebrows and picked up his phone. “Be careful what you wish for,” he said.
Slavo leaned back and said nothing more. Raynard looked at Jules and the bundle next to him. They still had the item they took from the safe. He scrolled through the contact list made his call.
A woman answered, “This is Sara.”
Raynard shook his head when he heard her answer with her name.
“It’s me. We’re on our way to Oslo. We’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“Really? God, so you’re all right? How did it go?”
Raynard pressed his lips together and considered throwing the loot out the door. Working with amateurs was stressful in ordinary cases, but when one’s own life hung in the balance, the stress level felt like it could kill you. He knew if he did toss it out, though, his reputation would be ruined. And his reputation was everything.
“It was difficult, but we’ve come this far,” he said and quickly told Sara what happened. “Now we’re going to Oslo as planned and will meet at the hotel as we arranged. We should be at the hotel half an hour after we land.”
Sara’s voice brimmed with excitement.
“Fantastic! Well done. Yes, we will meet at the hotel, just like we said. The press conference starts in two hours, so there’s no room for delays.”
Raynard pulled in a long breath and said, “Obviously. You’ll get what’s agreed on time.”
“And everything’s there? You haven’t opened it?”
“No. We took the contents of the safe, and we haven’t opened anything.”
Raynard could almost hear Sara jumping up and down in delight as she cried, “Excellent. Excellent!”
Raynard leaned back in the soft seat. “If you’ll excuse me now,” he said in a starkly opposite impassive tone, “I need to rest a little. It has been a tough few hours.”
“Oh, yes, I can only imagine. And by the way, you’re on the news. I saw a live broadcast down from the port of Copenhagen last hour.”
Raynard froze. “What do you mean, ‘live’?”
Sara sped through the details of what she’d seen on television and how all the news stations were now broadcasting live from different parts of the Danish coast. In the silence that followed, an icy feeling filled Raynard’s stomach. He had never been involved in an assignment that was followed by news teams before. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, and he was suddenly nauseated.
Working hard to control his tone, he said, “It doesn’t matter. We’ll meet at the hotel in Oslo as agreed anyway.”
“Great!”
Before Sara could say anything else, Raynard clicked off the call. This whole situation was way out of hand. Not only had he lost almost his entire team, but now they were on the news. Raynard pounded his fist into the soft seat cushion and swore.
***
The dull grinding in his brain continued as Hugo got to his feet. The explosion had thrown him against a container, and he’d hit it hard. Freya came up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder.
“You okay?”
Hugo blinked hard a few times. “I’ve been better. How about you?”
Freya’s face was covered in black soot, but she smiled. “One of the containers took most of the blast. I’ll be a little hard of hearing for a couple days, but otherwise, I’m okay.”
Hugo stared out into the dark gray sky, where the flashing helicopter was shrinking in the north. It became nothing more than a small dot and then faded into the cloud cover. Hugo glanced over the deck—it looked like a battlefield. Distorted hunks of metal were everywhere. Little fires blazed in various places and emitted thick, billowing smoke.
The smoke burned Freya’s throat, and she coughed. “We should go back to the bridge and report to Madeleine,” she croaked.
Hugo spat. “I’ll get that bastard in the copter if that’s the last thing I do.”
Freya nodded. “I’m with you,” she said, “but we need help from here. At the moment, we’re kind of stuck here.”
Hugo scratched his cheek and turned around with weary eyes. “All right,” he said, “let’s go.” He and Freya took the rest of the crew and headed back to the bridge. Captain Ashraf stared at them as they entered.
“What the hell are you doing?” he thundered. “You were supposed to catch them, not blow up half my ship!”
Hugo clenched his jaw and kept calm. “Listen,” he replied, “those guys aren’t lightweight. They’re cold-blooded professionals who won’t stop for anyone. The only thing you can be happy about is that they’re no longer on your ship. They stole one of your choppers and fled.”
The captain was instantly five times calmer at this news. “Oh, good,” he breathed. “They’re gone.”
“That’s right,” Freya said.
Ashraf nodded. “Okay, fine. Do you need any help?”
Hugo pulled up a chair and sat down. “If you have a doctor on board, it would be great if you could call him here.”
Captain Ashraf snapped his fingers. A few minutes later, an older man with a neatly groomed mustache stepped onto the bridge. He bowed briefly.
“Hello. My name is Jens,” he said in a soft, refined voice. “I am the physician on board this ship.”
Hugo smiled. “Good to meet you, Jens. I have a wound here that I need stitched, if you could.” He pulled up his sleeve and exposed a long gash on his left arm.
“My God,” the captain gasped. “I didn’t know you were injured.”
Jens approached Hugo, squatted, and took out his first aid kit. “This is going to hurt,” he said. “I’ll give you a local anesthesia before we start.”
Hugo shook his head. “No anesthesia.”
Jens opened his mouth to protest, but when he caught Hugo’s gaze, he remained silent. The doctor cleaned the wound and quickly sewed it up. Hugo studied the finished work.
“Nice job, Jens.”
Jens smiled and stood up. “You were a good patient,” he said.
Hugo looked at Freya. “Time to call home.”
***
Madeleine Singh drummed her fingers on the large, oval conference table. They were losing control. Over the last few hours, things had gone from bad to worse. It had been over an hour since she’d talked to someone on Hugo’s team and more than three hours since she’d heard from Hugo himself. But when she had spoken to Sussie most recently, she’d still gotten a decent estimate of what had happened. She shook her head.
This would be followed by endless investigations and questions. Madeleine could only hope that Hugo and his team were following the rules as much as possible. The door to the conference room opened, and Adem stepped inside carrying a paper take-out box. He placed it on the table.
It smelled amazing, and Madeleine was suddenly str
uck by how hungry she was. She looked at her watch and saw it was a little after two. Adem opened a drawer and pulled out a paper plate, then began to lay out food.
“May I tempt you with some Chinese?”
Madeleine leaned forward and smiled. “You’re an angel sent from heaven.”
Adem chuckled and slid a full plate to Madeleine. “Well,” he said, “my mother always told me not to make important decisions on an empty stomach.”
“She sounds like a smart woman.”
“Very.”
Madeleine scarfed the food down. It took only a few minutes to clean the plate.
“God, I was starving.”
Adem walked over to the wall-mounted TV. “I think the live broadcast will be starting again soon.”
Madeline wiped her mouth with a napkin and said, “Yeah, this is a disaster. It’s gone sideways quickly. Putting a lid on this will cost a lot of favors.”
The screen showed live footage from a port on the east coast, and the camera was pointing straight out toward a large ship heading north.
“Where’s our team?” Adem asked.
Madeleine nodded at the screen. “On that ship.”
“What?” said Adem incredulously, spinning around to face Madeleine.
“Yep,” Madeleine nodded. “I talked to Sussie. They’re on that ship.”
“What—how did they get there?” he sputtered.
“According to Sussie, they were following the burglars in a yacht, and somehow the bad guys managed to hit a wave just right and landed on the deck of that cargo ship. So Hugo ordered his team to do the same.”
Adem’s mouth hung open. “That doesn’t even sound possible.”
“Yeah. It’s extreme, even for Hugo. But that’s not the worst part. Sussie said that the captain of their yacht was killed in the crash.”
Adem moaned, went back to the conference table, and sat down. “Oh my God.”
“No kidding. But now, it’s important to stay focused. We haven’t come this far to give up.”
The Hugo Xavier Series: Book 1-3 Page 40