She nodded and leant in to kiss him on the cheek.
Chapter 17
New European Government building, Hamburg, Germany – 2043
‘Stop smoking now, or I’ll throw you from the building.’ Andrei Kirilenko looked up at the thin Belgian political aide, with his gelled-back hair, grey suit with red bow tie and glistening forehead. He’d been running. ‘Did you hear me?’
Andrei looked past him, down the corridor with its white clinical walls on the one side, and the eight-foot-high glass wall on the other that allowed a view of the flooded city of Hamburg. A blue haze hung over the city from coal-fueled fires that were continually burning in households to combat the cold. Spiralling plumes from a fuel source that was once again being mined across New Europe filled the skyline. Mines that were long shut because of climate change warnings. Boats filled the once car-driven streets as Floodlanders scratched out a life for themselves. All emissions warnings were forgotten.
‘I assume you are waiting for more men,’ Andrei said.
‘No. Why?’
‘Are you personally going to throw me off the fourth floor or are you going to try to manhandle me all the way down to the lobby? Along with your lack of grammar, you’ll find that course of action will hurt you more than me.’
The man puffed his chest out and took a step backwards. ‘Are you threatening me?’ he said, looking around the minimalist corridor of the NEG building.
‘I am the warlord in Moscow, young man. I have a hundred suits like you who work for me. Each one thinks they know better than their leader. Now, run along and tell the chancellor that I’m here for my appointment.’
‘You don’t have an appointment. Your assistant called, and the meeting was declined. You have wasted your time here, warlord. Chancellor Rolin is not in the office today as it happens.’
‘Don’t bullshit me. I have many contacts in this building and know for a fact he’s in a meeting with the Warlord of London.’
He turned and looked at two women who were approaching in the corridor, also dressed in suits. Andrei looked them up and down. Russian women were better looking but so grey and unhappy compared to these girls. ‘Now, tell Marc I have an envelope that he might want to discuss.’
‘Let me have it, and I’ll ascertain whether it is worth me interrupting his day.’
‘Tell him that the contents of the envelope will result in his immediate arrest and incarceration. And if he goes down, I can always attest to the fact that you were involved in helping him commit these heinous crimes.’ The aide stuttered for a second then spun on his heels to walk away. ‘And please bring me an ashtray. I don’t want to drop ash on these expensive carpets,’ Andrei said and took a long drag on his cigarette. He only had three boxes of filterless, hand-rolled cigarettes left, and then he was finished. He had to make them last for the journey ahead.
Leaning back, he placed his head against the cold wall. He missed the Russian buildings. They were warm inside to counteract the freezing weather. These new NEG buildings were all glass, metal and leather. Fusion reactors regulated the heat in the workplace, but it was still a cold building.
He looked down the length of the corridor. There were leather couches placed at every ten metres.
‘Andrei?’ a voice said.
He turned back to see a blond man who’d walked out of a nearby meeting room. ‘Wolfgang. How are you, my old friend?’
‘As good as can be expected,’ the German said.
‘I’m sorry to hear about your wife and child.’
‘Thanks, my friend. The epidemic has placed a scar on everyone’s heart. We owe you and the team no end of gratitude.’
‘Not everyone here is so giving of thanks. I’m here to see Rolin about the Gibbs matter.’
‘He won’t back down. You know that? He despises what Gibbs has done. You both disobeyed and embarrassed him.’
‘I know, but I have another offer to make him.’
‘He’s under a lot of pressure nowadays, so I wouldn’t expect much help. Rumours are rife that he has to call elections soon.’
‘It’s about time. He’s been the head of this government since its creation ten years ago,’ Andrei said.
‘But he’s resisting as I’m sure you knew he would.’
‘Wolfgang,’ the approaching chancellor shouted.
‘Yes, chancellor?’
‘I’m sure that you have important government work to fulfil rather than talking to a warlord,’ Marc Rolin said as he stopped next to Andrei. He was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and pink tie. His receding grey hair was combed over his head, and he ran his hand across it to flatten it.
Marc Rolin’s short, slim frame was struggling to catch his breath. Andrei smiled. ‘Thanks for the chat, Wolfgang. Let’s catch up this evening before I travel.’
Wolfgang frowned and then nodded. He extended his hand, which Andrei shook from his seated position.
‘What could you and Wolfgang possibly have to talk about?’
‘Hello, Marc,’ Andrei said.
‘I demand that you call me Chancellor in these halls. We’ve never been friends so don’t address me in that manner,’ Marc said. ‘What are you doing back in Hamburg? We had an agreement.’
‘You know the reason I’ve come. I’m sure your little spies in the Kremlin will have told you. Let’s not play dumb, Marc.’
‘I don’t deal in trivial gossip. I got a call from Michael Byrdich, and he’s angry that you’ve been inquiring into the whereabouts of Gibbs and have asked for the names of the men who are running operations to catch that traitor.’
‘How is the constipated Chancellor of America? Still losing men in the hunt for an innocent man?’
‘Like me, the Hamburg parliament believe him to be a traitor who will be charged when caught.’
‘I’ve also always believed Byrdich to be a traitor,’ Andrei said, taking another long draw. He blew the smoke towards the little man opposite him.
‘Always the idiotic games with you. You know it’s a non-smoking building, so you’ll be fined.’
‘Sure, Marc. Get your young aide to send the fine to Moscow,’ Andrei said, shifting in his seat. ‘Sit down, we have business to discuss.’
‘I’ll stay standing, thank you. And we don’t have anything to discuss. I did everything you asked. You were exonerated for helping Gibbs to kill Lord Butler, and for then obstructing justice during the follow-up investigation.’
‘You did all that to save your ever-expanding bureaucratic arse.’
The chancellor swallowed hard and walked away for a few metres before returning, clenching his fists.
‘I did all you asked, and you agreed to disappear from here to be the Warlord of Russia, with money, whores and all the whiskey you could drink. You promised, yet here you sit. Do you want me to change my mind and have the same charges as Gibbs brought on to you?’
Andrei grinned at him. ‘Do you want me to tell the world about your perverted hidden life?’
‘What do you want from me?’ Marc shifted in his stance and narrowed his eyes. His stare intensified as a redness coloured his cheeks.
‘I want to know about Gibbs. I don’t support your vendetta against him, but I thought that maybe I could help.’
‘Ha. You will stay out of it.’
‘How many men have you sent to capture him who now lie buried in shallow graves somewhere? He is the best soldier and leader I’ve ever seen.’
‘His resumé is irrelevant, and we will send as many men as it takes to kill him or drag him back here to face a court and be sent to hang.’
‘Incredible. Do that, and you’ll have more blood on your hands than Gibbs and I ever had. Let me help you get him.’
‘I’ll never let you back in the field. We will get him if it takes all the NAG troops Byrdich has got.’
‘It’s been nearly ten years, Marc. Ministers around here are starting to think that it’s time to let this vendetta go,’ Andrei said, leaning forwar
d and resting his hands on his knees.
‘Never.’
‘As I sit here, it’s just dawned on me why you are doing it. You think that by getting Gibbs into custody, you can redeem yourself for all the pain you’ve inflicted. That you could wipe the ledger of your past life clean. Tell me where you think Gibbs is, and I’ll let you have the original proof I have of all your crimes.’
Marc swallowed hard and then shook his head. ‘You turn it over, and I’ll let you have information on Gibbs.’
‘You don’t have the leverage, Marc, because you don’t know where he is exactly.’
‘I have the best bounty hunter money can buy on his trail as we speak.’
‘Then let me go and help bring Gibbs in, he’ll listen to me. Then you can have the evidence.’
‘I will never trust you,’ Marc said and pulled the front of his suit jacket down. ‘We’re finished here, Kirilenko. Get on your plane and head back to Moscow, but I’ll give you this for free. Watch your back because you’ll never know when I’ll be coming for you.’
Andrei laughed as Marc walked away, watching him leave through white double doors before he started having a coughing fit, hacking up blood that splattered his hands. Wiping the blood on the seat, he got up and walked in the opposite direction.
• • •
The moonless night brought a frost to the tops of the cars parked along the narrow road. Andrei stepped out of the vehicle and pulled the scarf up over his mouth. The boot of the car slammed closed, and he turned to the soldier who was holding his luggage.
‘Thank you, sergeant,’ he said and took the heavy duffel bag. ‘Can you help me get through the main gates?’
‘I was told I only had to bring you this far, sir. Do you not have your pass?’
‘Wolfgang, I mean, Minister Famcke, grabbed my briefcase by accident this afternoon and cannot get it back to me at this stage. You can drive me over to his house, and we can wake him if you dare. You know the Minister of Defence, don’t you, always shouting and demoting people?’
‘I know who he is, sir.’
‘Here are my papers that allowed me in to see Chancellor Rolin this morning, please see that they are handed back tomorrow for me. Now, can you walk me through security, please? It is four in the morning so you won’t get into trouble. I’ll tell Wolfgang that he needs to give you a promotion and a raise for helping an old forgetful fool like me. I should have realised that he had my security pass and travel papers.’
The man looked over Andrei’s shoulder at the dimly lit main gates.
‘We can go and wake him if you want, then maybe he can also delay the flight for me. I have urgent business to get back to,’ Andrei said.
‘No, it’s okay, sir. I know the private on duty. He’ll let us through.’
‘Thanks so much, sergeant. Let me give you something for your troubles,’ Andrei said, reaching into his jacket.
The sergeant held up his hand. ‘If you can speak to Minister Famcke, that would be great. I have just become a father again.’
‘That’s wonderful news,’ Andrei said, giving the sergeant the duffel bag to put in the car.
They drove into the dim yellow glow from the solitary streetlight over the gate and were ushered through to a staging area after a quick chat and a salute. The large electric gate bumped across the road giving them access to the airfield. Driving along a narrow tarred road, the sergeant drove between two white hangars and over to an old long-range military Boeing.
He pulled up alongside the mechanised stairs. Andrei got out and walked towards the stairs, stopping below the plane’s long wing.
‘She’s a beautiful plane, sir.’
‘That she is, sergeant. It’s been ten years since I flew in something this big. With the fuel scarcity, it’s just not feasible.’
‘I’m told that oil wells have started to produce again. All military-controlled, of course.’
‘I am aware of that. It would be nice to have fusion planes someday.’
The sergeant carried the duffel bag up the stairs. ‘I’m sure the scientists will come up with that in good time. I would love to take my family on a plane to a nice warm place.’
Andrei shook his hand and walked into the large cigar tube space. Twenty leather plane seats were placed near the cockpit for passengers, while the rest of the interior was full of cargo cabinets. Luxuries, valuable antiques and other extravagances for politicians and wealthy people, no doubt. He sighed as he took his seat on the aisle and put his head back, closing his eyes for a few seconds. A few other people were dotted around, but he made no eye contact with anyone. He took a leather binder out of his bag and placed it inside his long black coat. America was a one-way trip.
Chapter 18
Five kilometres north of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA – 2043
Elijah Jones sat on the bonnet of one of the fusion vans. An unlit cigar wedged between his teeth always put him in a thinking mood. They were close to his quarry now. He sensed it and felt a lift with the anticipation. Now was the time to be patient. When your prey is about to set foot into the trap is when you have to be vigilant to what is happening around the animal. Anything can spook it. Stupid mistakes from stupid people could startle their target. Captain Alonso was standing on the edge of a small mound of soil, binoculars raised as he scoured the larger dust plains flanking the dry river below. Elijah stared across the dusty expanse, circling turkey vultures set against the blue sky catching his gaze.
‘There are four trucks and numerous vans leaving in a westerly direction.’
‘Something has spooked them,’ Elijah said.
‘Do you think?’ Captain Alonso said, walking down towards him followed by a well-built sergeant of Hispanic descent.
‘Our fight is not with them today,’ Elijah said. ‘The man we chase is not in that group anyway.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I had a message from an informant who tells me that it’s just the resident gang in the area who are retreating.’
‘You have someone in the gang?’
‘I never said they were in that gang. You seem to forget that there is a warlord in that Knoxville enclave. Someone who has sworn to uphold all NAG Law. If he breaks the law, he knows he gets imprisoned or thrown before a firing squad,’ Elijah said, taking the cigar from his mouth and placing it in a small pouch on the upper body webbing he always wore.
‘I have contacts out there too, you know.’
‘Did your contact tell you that the Hooded Man is in the enclave?’ Elijah said.
‘What? We need to get hold of the warlord and tell him to make an immediate arrest.’
Elijah laughed. ‘You don’t spring the trap until you are sure that the prey you’re hunting cannot escape.’
‘The Bounty Hunter is an overly cautious man, Ramirez,’ Captain Alonso said to the sergeant next to him. ‘Too cautious for this mission.’
‘Are we going to wait them out, captain?’ the muscular man asked.
‘We await the Bounty Hunter’s orders with anticipation.’
‘Ramirez, is it?’ Elijah said.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You never attack without knowing the man you are hunting inside out. What do you know about Kyle Gibbs, the soldier they call the Hooded Man?’
Captain Alonso took half a step forward, his finger pointing at the Bounty Hunter’s chest. ‘How do you know his name? Only I was given that classified information.’
‘I feel sorry for you because you still haven’t grasped that I was tasked with this mission by men far more powerful than the person you get your orders from. That’s why everyone here reports to me.’
They stared at each other for a second, shoulders squared, and fists clenched. Elijah loved waiting for other men to blink first.
‘Who is Kyle Gibbs?’ Ramirez asked.
‘He was a captain in the once feared, but now disbanded, Phoenix Guard. Before that he led a ruthless team of SAS soldiers.’
‘SAS
?’
Captain Alonso’s face contorted into a smirk as he looked at his second-in-command. ‘They were extreme special forces men who could fight in any part of the world, in all terrains. How can you not know that? Were you asleep in your military history studies?’
The sergeant nodded. ‘Sounds like a tough fucker.’
‘Your sergeant is right about something for once, Alonso. We are tracking a soldier who’s made a living out of getting in and out of tough spots but not only that, he’s fuelled by personal tragedy which will have wounded him deeply. And we know that he has a team of men around him who are loyal to the point of death.’
‘You admire this criminal?’
‘I do. I admire the man more than you or any of your men. His actions have earned him my respect. He’s a fiercer adversary compared to the usual gang lords or drug addicts we hunt,’ Elijah said and walked to his van. Reaching in through the front window, he produced a satphone.
‘Now, where have you hidden that prisoner your men captured?’
Captain Alonso frowned. ‘What are you talking about? What prisoner?’
‘I know everything that happens here, captain. Bring the man to me.’
Captain Alonso stared at him for a second and then walked off to one of the trucks. As he nodded to two guards, they opened the door and climbed inside. They reappeared dragging a Scavenger, dressed in rags. A dirty, oversized jacket covered him and his ripped trousers, an old leather shoe on one foot had a hole in the front, while his other barefoot was black with dirt. They threw him from the truck, and he groaned as he landed on the ground. Captain Alonso dragged him up and pulled him toward Elijah.
‘You are sure about the information you gave me earlier?’ Elijah said to the man.
‘What? You’ve already spoken to this man?’ Captain Alonso said.
‘Wake up, man. I’m in charge here and was told about him at dawn this morning, the minute you brought him in. In fact, he is one of my informants, so we can release him now.’
‘But he may have more information that he’s hiding from you. You have to keep him longer so I can question him again.’
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