by Shah, R D
“Don’t move or I’ll slit his throat,” Bauer yelled, but Munroe ignored the threat, and keeping his carbine raised he entered the elevator.
“Not another step, Ethan.” Bauer’s tone of voice was more measured this time, keeping his own head hidden behind Icarus’s as best he could.
The doors slid shut and the elevator began to slowly ascend upwards, the commotion of gunfire above becoming ever louder.
“Shoot him, Ethan,” Icarus ordered, without any hint of emotion. “Shoot him now.”
“Shut up, you idiot,” Bauer spat, with only one eye visible as he hid behind the killer.
The thought had crossed Munroe’s mind, but given everything he had learnt about Icarus he was inclined not to take the chance. The Daedalus assassin was unstable and he needed to be locked up, but at that moment Munroe couldn’t help but think a psychiatric ward was more suitable than a grave.
“There’s nowhere to go, Hans. If you walk out of this elevator you’ll likely be shot.”
“Oh, I doubt that Ethan. I’m worth far more alive to DS5 than dead. I’m still holding all the cards, so here’s what we’re going to do. When we reach the ground floor, David and I are going to walk out of here. Considering the gunfire up there I would surmise that my men are holding their ground. We will part ways, and then the real game begins. You have learnt more about Daedalus than anyone else has in a long time, and that will be your reward. In fact it might even sway your buddies at DS5 not to have you sanctioned, given the truth of the origin of your birth. I doubt they will take kindly to having someone like you within their ranks.”
Before Munroe could answer, the elevator floor raised back into the room and with a slight jolt Bauer was already moving towards the security door leading back into the main facility. His free hand appeared and he threw Munroe the key card. “Open the door, and you go first.”
Munroe paused for a moment, but then he reached down, picked up the card and, carbine still held high, moved over to the door and swiped the card. The door automatically swung open and the whole room was flooded with the sound of gunfire as Munroe looked over to see two familiar figures. Sloan and Colonel Remus were hunkered down on the opposite wall twenty metres away. They were flanked by a small squad of US Marines who had taken cover inside the open cubicles and were already pressing their advance upon the group of Daedalus guards, who were huddled up at the far end, next to the welcome desk and clearly making a last stand.
From behind, Bauer was already slipping past with Icarus still in his grip, moving backwards with incredible speed to a set of fire escape stairs leading upwards, at a guess to the roof.
Help his squad, or go after Bauer.
Munroe hesitated, but then saw Sloan glance back at him and briefly smile as bullets thudded around her, stopping her from moving out of cover. She looked over at the man being dragged by knifepoint up the stairs and then flicked her finger in that direction before focusing back on the firefight.
Munroe turned and chased after Bauer as some of the Daedalus guards further up now noticed him and began sending a barrage of bullets his way. The wall plaster above him exploded into plumes of chalky dust as he leapt towards the stairwell and then upwards as more rounds exploded off the metal railings. As he reached the top the door was only just closing and he kicked it open to see Bauer, with Icarus still in tow, heading across the roof towards the same stealth helicopter he had seen back in London and Brazil. The rotors were already spinning and two guards standing next to the aircraft began shooting at Munroe, who dove to one side and sought refuge behind a large air-conditioning unit.
Bullets rattled the metal frame and then there was a pause, and as Munroe peeked out from behind, it all went to hell. He watched as Icarus grabbed the dagger pressed against his neck and pulled it downwards in an attempt to wrestle the weapon from Bauer’s grip. As he did so the guard on the left turned and put a single shot in Icarus’s, chest sending him down onto his knees, but having retrieved the dagger.
Munroe seized his chance and took aim at the shooter, landing a shot to the face, dropping him to the roof instantly. But in doing so he opened himself up to the other guard who had him in his sights.
As Munroe stared at the barrel aimed directly at him, time suddenly slowed, and even as he swung his gun towards the man he knew he was caught cold, with no hope.
Then the glint of something silver streaked across his line of sight before embedding itself square in the guard’s chest. The dagger.
It gave Munroe time to squeeze off two rounds, which slammed the guard backwards down hard onto the rooftop. He turned to see Icarus, his arm still outstretched from the knife-throw, collapse in a heap. Behind him Bauer was mere metres from the helicopter and Munroe dropped to one knee, aimed and pulled the trigger.
The bullet shattered Bauer’s left kneecap, causing him to tumble into a faceplant against the hard tar-coated rooftop, and he let out a high-pitched scream. It was a solid shot, especially as, and only now did Munroe realise, one of the guard’s bullets had caught him in the shoulder, but he could hardly feel the wound, the adrenalin fuelling his focus.
Beyond Icarus’s motionless body Bauer was now crawling to the helicopter, his face turning pasty and white, sweat already beading his brow at the shock such a painful wound had caused. But it was a futile attempt, and Munroe began firing at the helicopter cockpit. He knew the bullets wouldn’t penetrate, but that wasn’t the point. The shots ricocheted off the canopy but it was enough to warn the pilot off, and the helicopter pulled up into the air and reared off to one side. As Bauer yelled after it, clutching his shattered knee, the aircraft silently slunk off into the night sky.
Munroe approached Bauer with his gun raised. Bauer was fumbling for the Luger stuffed in his waist, and rolled onto his back, aiming it at Munroe. A single round into the Nazi’s wrist sent the Luger scraping along the tar roof and out of reach.
Down below the sound of gunfire had stopped and Munroe figured he didn’t have long before an audience arrived. He stopped a few feet away from Bauer and held the muzzle directly at the man’s face. He said nothing as he mulled over his next move, and it was Bauer’s whining that pulled him from his trance-like state.
“Kill me, Ethan,” he spat through clenched teeth, the pain in his knee agonising. “I won’t be taken alive. Pull the trigger and do what you do. What we bred you to do.”
Munroe did nothing, and with his gun still raised he stood there in silence as Bauer attempted to goad him.
“I’ll tell them everything. What you are. They’ll never accept you. You’ll be an outcast. They’ll probably kill you themselves.”
Munroe thought about it for a moment, images of the smiling faces of his family passing through his mind, and then he lowered his gun. “I’m not what you think I am. I’ll take my chances.”
With that he strode over and slammed the butt of his carbine across Bauer’s head, dropping him unconscious, before quickly jogging back over to the body of Icarus. As he got closer he realised the killer was still alive… just. Munroe rolled him onto his back and immediately began pressing his hand against the wound, but he knew it was pointless and so did Icarus.
“Stay with me, David.” Blood poured from Icarus’s mouth, and even though no words were spoken Munroe knew exactly what his eyes were telling him, and he turned his attention to the quivering hand now being offered.
No one wanted to die alone.
Munroe gently clasped his hand around Icarus’s, and the two men stared at each other for a few moments. He could not be forgiven for the things he had done, the pain he had caused his victims. But for what it was worth, in that moment, Munroe felt only pity for the person Daedalus had created, for the innocent boy he had once been.
With one final widening of his eyes Icarus’s hand went limp, and slipped from Munroe’s grasp.
From behind him, he heard the sound of the roof door being hurled open. He turned to see Sloan and Colonel Remus exiting, and while scanning the area
for any hostiles they made their way over to him.
“Is he alive?” Remus asked, pointing his gun at Icarus.
“No, he’s gone,” Munroe replied as Sloan moved over to Bauer.
“How about him?”
“Took a nasty one to the kneecap but, yeah, he’s alive.”
“Good.” Remus pulled a white zip tie from his pocket and set about securing Bauer’s hands.
“You OK?” Sloan asked, and Munroe nodded.
“Where the hell are we?” he asked, the dark landscape beyond giving no clue to their location.
“Just outside Houston, Texas. You were out for hours but we followed you at a distance. You were never out of our sight, but you won’t believe who owns this complex.”
Munroe couldn’t believe they had taken him so far, hundreds of miles from New Orleans. “Blackstar.” Sloan raised her eyebrows at this response, and then smiled before tapping him on the shoulder. “I’m looking forward to your debrief, Ethan.” She said and then reached over and slid her finger across the bump on his forearm. “The tracker worked, then.”
Munroe nodded and got to his feet. “She did her job. I felt it click just before you breached, just like you said it would.”
While sticking him with the tracker on the flight over Sloan had droned on about how the small pellet beneath their skin could not only track but emit a single pulse as a warning. She had repeated it multiple times not because she believed Munroe to be slow, but because she had found the technology so impressive. In truth, it was just a small metal ball that vibrated when activated, but it had worked, just as she said it would if either of them ran into any problems. And problems were just what Munroe had found.
Kneeling next to Bauer, Colonel Remus made sure the zip tie was secure and then he stood back up and joined them. “Good work, son. I’m hoping this place is a Daedalus goldmine. We should get a lot of…”
“Remus,” Munroe said, cutting him off abruptly. “There’s something important you need to know. About me. And if DS5 are OK with it, then we have to make a trip to London. ASAP.”
Remus looked concerned, but he skipped over whatever Munroe wanted to tell him and went straight for the trip. “What’s in London?”
Munroe glanced back at Bauer, who was still sleeping like a baby, and then took a deep breath. “The mole in DS5. And you’re not going to like it.”
Chapter 31
It was turning out to be a cold evening as Munroe pulled the collar of his black overcoat up around his neck. There was a chill in the air, and as he looked across the City of London from the rooftop of the old War Office building on the edge of the Thames, he knew it was about to get a lot colder. For over a century the building had been the centre of army operations for the British Empire until its offices had been relocated to the Ministry of Defence in 1968, the building just across the road. On the opposite side of that was Number 10 Downing Street, and only one building past that sat the Treasury offices, whose lights never went out. Death and taxes, the only two things one could be certain of in life. What was left of Parliament may have been the public face of government, but these few blocks of land were where the real power lay, the mandarins of Whitehall running their hive of workers and maintaining the circus that was modern-day politics.
Behind him he heard the creaking of a fire door, and after one last look over the landscape he turned around to see John McCitrick making his way over to him, followed by Home Secretary Jacob Ryan close on his heels.
“Ethan.” McCitrick greeted him and came to a stop along with Ryan, who wasn’t looking happy.
“Can someone please tell me why we’re meeting on the roof of the old War Office?” Ryan asked, and McCitrick shook his head.
“As I told you, sir. I didn’t call the meeting. Captain Munroe did.”
Munroe offered only a nod and then stood there silently as Ryan raised his shoulders. “Well, I don’t want to rush you, Captain. I believe we owe you and DS5 our thanks, but I need to prepare my speech for tomorrow. Hunting Nazis is just a small part of my remit.”
“I heard, sir. Congratulations.” Munroe replied, referring to the Home Secretary’s step up in the political chain. After the footage of Ryan saving the young girl’s life during the attack on Parliament had gone viral, and with most of the cabinet dead, the Secretary had been propelled by public opinion as the one to lead his party. He was already being hailed in the press as the only choice to fill the post of the Prime Minister, and although a general election would follow in the coming months, the Home Secretary would be confirmed within twenty-four hours after his party’s committee had voted for him. The top job could not go unfilled, especially during a national crisis.
“Thank you, Ethan,” Ryan replied, now turning his attention to McCitrick. “I may not be the UK’s section head of DS5 for much longer, but I promise, you will always have my support whenever it is needed.”
“That will be much appreciated, Minister,” McCitrick replied, offering a respectful nod.
“Actually, DS5 is the reason I called this meeting, sir. I think we’ve found our mole.”
Munroe addressed them both, and his sentence hung in the air like a bad smell. Ryan’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Mole! What mole?” Ryan turned to McCitrick, whose blank expression gave nothing away. “John. You never mentioned anything about a mole in DS5. Are we talking Daedalus?”
“I’m afraid so, sir,” Munroe replied, as McCitrick remained silent, still void of any emotion. “I heard it from the horse’s mouth, as it were. A man named Hans Bauer, a high-level Daedalus operative I came across while I was in the States. He whispered it to me, only because he was sure I was about to be executed. You might call it a parting gift.”
That McCitrick wasn’t saying anything had Ryan staring at him suspiciously. “John, what’s going on?”
“What’s going on, sir, is that we’ve been betrayed,” Munroe said, still staring at McCitrick. “From within the heart of the organisation. I couldn’t figure out how they managed to always stay one step ahead of us. Such a quick rescue of Icarus was possible, given the local police were involved, but it was being drugged by Tobias Kessler during my visit that set off the first alarm bells. I doubt even a man like that has a sleeping drug on hand for any occasion, and his muscle, Gustav, was already waiting for me. How was that possible, unless they knew I was coming?”
“In our line of work coincidences do happen, Ethan,” McCitrick said, finally breaking his silence, but Munroe shook his head.
“Maybe, McCitrick. But not in our business. Then there was the missile attack on board the C-130. How did Daedalus know our flight plan? Only a select few knew about it, and what you may not know is that the weapons used to fire at us were found. Remus told me on the flight over. Stroke of luck really. A police car was passing when they were fired. They went to investigate, there was a shoot-out and the people responsible manged to escape… but in the chaos they left the portable FIM-92 Stinger missile launcher and it was taken into evidence. Evidence we managed to access courtesy of Colonel Sinclair. Whomever Daedalus got to fire them did a sloppy job, because they still had their serial numbers. Those particular launchers were made by the US but supplied to a private contractor, and you know who footed the bill? The Ministry of Defence. In fact, it was the same department McCitrick works from.”
McCitrick was still poker-faced, and he continued to listen in silence as Ryan now took a step back from the DS5 man, shaking his head in disbelief.
“And it was strange to run into Hans Bauer over in Brazil when the only people who knew about the trip were myself, Sloan and you, McCitrick. And, of course, the name that Bauer whispered in to my ear.” In a flash, Munroe, pulled the SIG Sauer P320 from his holster and pointed it directly at McCitrick. “It’s over, John. You were part of Project Icarus from the beginning.”
Munroe motioned to Ryan as he kept his aim dead centre upon McCitrick’s chest. “Minister Ryan, would you be so good as to relieve Mr McCitr
ick of his firearm, please?”
Ryan was looking completely shocked at the accusation, but he stepped forward and pulled the gun from its holster and then stood back as Munroe held his stance.
“You’re making a big mistake,” McCitrick said as next to him Ryan seethed.
“Jesus, John. After all these years. Right in our backyard. The people that have died… Parliament, for Christ’s sake. I don’t know what to say.” Ryan tapped the gun against his thigh mindfully. “I guess Project Icarus didn’t breed you as well as they thought.”
Munroe now lowered his gun and he turned his attention to Ryan, who was looking wholly disappointed. “I never mentioned what Project Icarus was, sir.”
“…What?”
“The breeding programme, sir. You haven’t been briefed yet.”
Without missing a beat Ryan pointed to McCitrick. “John told me on the way over.”
“That’s odd, sir, because I’ve not told him either.”
Ryan was now looking unnerved as Munroe pulled out a piece of card from his pocket with his free hand and looked at it. “The name Bauer whispered in my ear wasn’t McCitrick’s… It was yours.”
Ryan stood stunned, and with his whole face scrunched up he began to refute the accusation. “Oh, please. Just more subterfuge, Ethan. Daedalus would love nothing more than to turn us against each other.”
Munroe nodded solemnly and looked at the card in his hand before returning Ryan’s empathetic stare. “That’s very true, but photos are worth a thousand words.”
Munroe now turned the card so Ryan could see it. “That’s you as a boy, isn’t it, sir. We compared it to the ones we have on file, and it looks to be a match.”
Ryan’s shoulders sagged slightly and his lips parted in sheer astonishment as he stared at the photo.