Marie clung tighter to Charlie, her face a conflicted battleground of panic and despair.
“Please, don't let him hurt me. I don't want to die.” She was so young and helpless. Her nails dug deep into his arm. Charlie knew from his own history how Sol could manipulate Reachers. It wasn't her fault she was tangled up in this mess. She didn't deserve any of this.
“Roxy, put the gun down.”
“Sorry, I can't do that, Charlie. She tricked us. She baited us here and set us up.”
“It's not her fault, Roxy. You don't know Sol like I do. She wouldn't have had any choice.”
“Sol? No, we're not talking about that lunatic. Tell him who you're working with. Oh, Sol may be the middle manager with a god complex, but he's not top dog, is he, Marie? Tell him.”
“I don't know what he's talking about,” Marie said, flustered. “I thought he was dead. Please, I'm scared. I just want to get out of here, Charlie. Please. Please save me.”
“Oh, don't even try it, sweetheart. You're not that good an actress. Besides it's not him you need to convince.”
John appeared from the side of the house, his eyes coolly taking in the stand-off.
“Whoever it is, just look at her. She's a child. Put the gun away, and let's talk about this rationally.”
Roxy shook his head. “I am being rational, Charlie. She's working for Scarlet. She's working with the Institute.”
Scarlet. Charlie tightened his grip on Marie. That name. That woman. He shook his head, feeling tendrils of thoughts that weren't his own.
“The girl led us here, making us believe it was all to do with Sol. But it wasn't. The Institute came. Scarlet was leading them. They took Rachel and his back-stabbing partner with them in one convoy,” he said, gesturing at Adams, “and the doctor off in another. They left the girl for you to find.”
Charlie's head was hurting. He pushed Marie away. Scarlet. Just the thought of her changed everything. Not here. Not her. If she orchestrated this…. If it was all a set-up…. If they had Rachel…. He could see it now. He could see everything so clearly, and the absurdity made him laugh. It was obvious now. Obvious and sickening, and he was a fool for not realising sooner.
He turned to the girl, only now she wasn't a girl. She was a tool, a weapon, a danger. She crouched in the dirt, her eyes wide and pleading. “Is Sol working for the Institute?” His voice was venomous, but he couldn't contain himself.
“I don't know what you're talking about—”
“You have five seconds to tell us everything you know,” John said. Charlie recognised his brother's tone. John had lost his restraint. If the girl pushed him, he would retaliate without conscience.
“John,” Charlie warned. They couldn't kill her. Despite everything, she was still just a child. She probably didn't even know what she had done.
“I can tell you what happened,” Roxy said. “She came sniffing around Blackwater and sought us out. She brought me, Rachel, and the stupid cop here thinking we could save the day. Dr Psycho was waiting in the house, and then suddenly the Institute are here, all guns blazing. And it looks like they were fucking expected too. As soon as I saw Scarlet get out of the car, we bailed.”
Roxy lowered his gun. In the dim light of the house, Charlie could see his friend was exhausted. His face was bloodied and covered in dirt. The past few nights had already taken their toll; how he was still standing was beyond Charlie. Roxy turned his head away as he seemed to struggle with the next part of the story. “We were running, but Rachel got hit. The shot brought her down, but she was alive. I tried to carry her, but she wasn't having any of it. She pushed me away and told me to run and find you guys. And when I tried to stay with her, she made me leave. So I did. The cop came after me, and he was supposed to kill me. But I guess he didn't have the balls for it. He fired a bullet into the dirt and headed back. I followed him, got there just in time to see Rachel being hauled into a van.”
Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose. None of this made any sense. Sol couldn't be working with the Institute. They killed Reachers. And yet, confronted with the possibility, he could believe it. But he couldn't understand why the Institute would let a Reacher like Marie escape. Unless the end prize was bigger. He looked at his brother, and slowly things started clicking into place.
“What's the plan, Marie?” Charlie said.
She turned to him, her weak composure drastically altered. She let out a superior smile, straightening her body, transforming. “Redemption. Janus Curtis is our redemption. He is faithful and he is true. He will wage war on London, and they will repent. When they see what he can do, and when they witness his vengeance, we will start to reclaim our kingdom.”
“And the Institute will swoop in and start exercising more control,” Adams said with a shake of his head. “Just like they did after Piccadilly. The country is starting to fight back. This will bring them back in line, make them more afraid than ever.”
“You're fucking crazier than the doctor,” Roxy said to the girl.
She snapped her head up, her eyes narrowing. “And you are a sinner, James Roxton. I know your secrets. I saw so much of your journey here. And I know everything you feared I would know.”
Roxy's jaw clenched as he turned to Charlie. He looked terrified. “She got in my head. Last night she ambushed me, and… well, thankfully, I don't remember what she did. But I can't have her know the things I know. My mother, my past…. There's stuff no one can know.”
“What did you get from him?” Charlie asked.
Marie started to laugh. “Do you really want to know his big secret? You'll never look at him the same. I could tell you things—”
John pulled the trigger.
The bullet pierced Marie's temple. She fell forward, her hands spread out in front of her. Charlie jumped back. Blood spilled into the dirt as the first droplets of rain broke from the sky. Once again his brother had caught him by surprise, taking the shot when Charlie didn't expect it. It was the only way, he understood that. But Charlie wasn't convinced the girl had to die. She was still so young, and he knew what a life with Sol could do to a person. He crouched beside her, but she was gone.
“You didn't have to kill her.”
“Roxy knows stuff about us too,” John reminded him. “Do you want the Institute to have that knowledge?”
When Charlie looked up, he could see Adams was in shock too. They'd just executed an unarmed teenager in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't a good enough reason, even as dire as their situation was. Charlie sat back in the rain. Would Rachel have accepted this? He was sure she wouldn't.
“You shot her?” Adams gasped.
John put his gun away. “You're welcome.” He walked back towards their car.
“She didn't have to die! We could have arrested her.” Adams' heavy figure marched after John, but it was a fight he was never going to win.
John stopped, allowing the fat man to get close enough to him to reconsider his attack. “That girl saw you, and she saw him,” he said, pointing at Roxy. “You think if I let her live she'd have kept quiet? You're a traitor to your fucking government; he's a crook who they think they killed. And she was a martyr. She would have done anything she could to warn the others, and she would have tried to kill us and herself the first chance she got.”
“You could have tried to save her.”
“I've got more important people that need saving.” John walked away.
“Sol would have sold her out,” Charlie added, unable to suppress the rising sadness he felt looking at Marie's body. “She'd have gone to the Institute, or tried to kill others. Even if we could talk her round, we couldn't keep her safe. We couldn't even keep Rachel safe.”
“She was just a girl,” Adams said, backing away from John.
“What does that matter to anything out here?” Charlie sighed and rose from the dirt. “You're a long way from home, Agent. Nobody is innocent. Not even you. And like my brother says, we have other people to think about. People who have
done less harm than this girl.”
Adams stopped Charlie before he could get into his car. “This is bigger than one Reacher,” he said. “If there is a Reacher attack on London, this whole country is going to implode. Things are going to get really bad for everyone.”
“Look around you, Agent. How much worse can it get?”
* * *
Charlie could feel the time slipping by. John and Roxy were in the house, covering Darcy and Marie in petrol. Burying them would take too long, but they couldn't bring themselves to leave their bodies rotting out here. Charlie closed his eyes as he heard the fire take. He reached out for Rachel with his mind and found nothing. Losing her would hurt so much he couldn't even allow himself to think about it. She held them together, kept them sane, made them better, and he couldn't go back to what he'd been. Now they had her. He'd been so concerned about protecting her from Sol, he didn't even think about what else was lurking in the shadows.
Flames started to lick at the windows of the downstairs room. Job done, John and Roxy came out of the house.
“I was sold out,” he told Adams. “I was twelve, and I always thought it was because the man who looked after us, Sol, was threatened by me. That he wanted me out of the way because I was stronger than he was and would eventually challenge him for power.” Charlie pursed his lips and looked at his brother as he came closer. “But it's more than that. His attacks, his fucking assaults on London, they weren't terrorist acts.”
“They were authorised by the Institute,” Adams said. “Piccadilly; they authorised the attack there. There was a cover-up, things that didn't make sense at the time. They pushed the Reacher angle, and in less than a month the government had given the Institute new powers to apprehend suspected Reachers.”
Charlie rubbed his face as the others joined them. “Sol played us. He knew we'd be cautious of letting Rachel get close, in fact he made sure we'd be worried. Then he divided us so he could get to her.”
“But why?” Roxy asked. “I don't understand what he gets out of this.”
“I don't know. Maybe protection. He's survived all these years, maybe that's how he does it. Rachel's a category-five Reacher,” Charlie said. “Rare and very sought after. Sol is nothing compared to her.”
“So they wanted her for her power?” Roxy asked.
“She's just a bonus,” John said, moving to the car. “What they really want is me.”
Roxy shook his head. “If they were trying to bait you, they'd leave you breadcrumbs. She went in a different direction to Curtis. They're not together.”
“But you're supposed to be dead… again. As far as they're concerned, we'll go after Curtis, and I'm sure there will be some sort of set-up when we get there.” Charlie's mind was already racing. He clicked his fingers. “Which means we don't go after Curtis.”
“You know what he's capable of,” Adams warned. “People will die if he's not stopped.”
Let them. Charlie wouldn't be emotionally blackmailed. “Rachel's our priority.”
“You're willing to let hundreds of people die for one person?”
“You're forgetting, we're not the good guys.” Charlie glanced at his brother. “The Institute have taken everything from us. It's time we take it back.”
Adams threw his arms up in the air. “Well, I can't just let Curtis go like that. I'm going to stop him.”
“You're going to get yourself killed, no offense, mate,” Roxy said, and followed John back to their car.
“He's right, you know,” Charlie said.
“Then help me.”
“They took my daughter. Now they've taken Rachel. Would you give up on people you love for a country that hates you?”
“I guess not.” Adams sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a set of keys and gave them to Charlie. “I rent a storage container on the industrial estate in S'aven. It has everything I have ever found on the Institute. Things they tried to hide.”
Charlie closed his hand around the keys. “Why are you giving me this?”
“Because nothing about this country is going to get better while the Institute have power. You can bring them down. Once you get your friend and your daughter, you can take the whole organisation down. It's the only way you'll ever be safe.”
Charlie put the keys in his pocket. He shook Adams' hand. “What are you going to do now?”
“What I set out to do. I'm going to bring Curtis in. I'll head to London, warn them, for all the good it will do. Try to stop him. Whatever it takes, I guess.”
“Then I wish you all the luck in the world. You're going to need it.”
“Likewise, Mr Smith. I hope you find them.”
Charlie moved to his own vehicle and sat in the passenger seat. He watched the agent hit the road.
“They'll have her under armed guard. And we'll have less than eight hours this time,” he told them. “It's going to be a fight.”
“Then let's stop standing around here chatting, and fucking get on with it.”
35
A car was waiting at the end of an unmarked junction. One by one, the Institute convoy pulled up at the side of the road. Mark parked behind them, keeping the engine running as the agents in the lead vehicle secured the area. Rachel was in the transporter ahead of him. He could still see her when he closed his eyes: barely conscious, badly hurt, and begging for death. He couldn't get her out of his mind. He'd been so consumed with what she had done to him, he hadn't even thought about it from her point of view. This was what awaited all Reachers, good or bad. Could he really blame her for trying to stay alive?
He could see now that she hadn't changed. She was still the woman he had fallen for as she dressed his wounds in St Mary's hospital. She still had that same fire in her eyes he couldn't stay away from. What she was didn't change who she was. It didn't change the fact that he loved her. Or that he had betrayed her.
“Wait here,” Scarlet said.
She slipped out of the car, moving to address the men under her command. The effect she had on Mark had twisted. He couldn't even recall what it was he'd been drawn to. The kindness in her face was painted on, the fire in her eyes too furious and frightening. He did as he was asked because he was afraid to do otherwise. Oh God, what have I done?
Her partner, Johnson, was in another vehicle. Had he been there all this time? He got out and they started arguing. Scarlet, clearly the loser, shook her head and turned away. When she strode back to the car, Mark shuddered. She leaned towards his window, and, as much as he wanted to keep the pane between them, he was forced to lower it.
“I need you to return to London,” she said. “It's time we resign Agent Adams. When you get there you will assume his position and his salary. I don't want him in charge any more. From now on, you'll work directly for me.”
Mark swallowed. The last thing he wanted was a closer affiliation with this creature. “What's going to happen to Rachel?”
“The Institute want her transported immediately, and they're not prepared to wait. I wanted her to draw in the brothers, but my superiors think she's too precious to lose. I've laid enough breadcrumbs to suggest she's gone with Curtis. That should be enough to encourage the brothers into the final trap. Then we'll have all three of them.”
Ahead of him, the transporter carrying Curtis branched off, heading along a separate road to the rest of their force.
“I don't understand.”
“The brothers will go after Curtis, thinking Rachel is with him, and, when they get there, they will be confronted with every able body the Institute has. There will be no getting away. Not this time. I've already got them waiting in S'aven. When the train rolls in, it will be all over. You'll have your revenge, your promotion, everything you deserve.”
But Mark didn't want revenge. Or money. He wanted Rachel out of that truck. He wanted to see her escape with the brothers, because they, at least, could keep her alive.
“You'll have to drive to London,” she said. “Don't go on the train.”
“I won't compromise the mission,” he told her. “If I'm on the train, I can help make sure they get captured.”
She smiled and brushed a rough hand across his face. He fought hard not to recoil. “I know you wouldn't compromise the mission. But everyone on the train is going to die. Curtis can't discriminate, and you can't defend yourself from him. And the world has to see what Reachers are capable of. So do me a favour and drive. When that train of corpses pulls in, all hell will break loose. It's likely the border will stay closed for a long time. Make sure you get across first. I need you in London.”
A cold shiver ran up Mark's spine. His life flashed before him. He could see his father and idol, an old beat cop—a man bitter and twisted by hardship and prejudice. He saw his ex-partner, Gary, and the lies and deceit were now too obvious. And he saw the Institute, the most powerful organisation in the UK, looming over the country like the ominous clouds overhead.
Scarlet kissed him, then broke away. He'd not kissed her back.
“Is everything okay, Agent?”
He thought about Rachel. He thought about Adams. About London. About what he could do to redeem himself. With furious force, he reached for her, pressing her lips against his own. The act repulsed him, but so did so many others he had committed in the past week. Scarlet pressed her hand against him, clearly amused by his sudden affection.
“When will I see you again?” he said.
“Soon. I will contact you when you're back in London. I have to go, we're meeting a security detail up the road. Well done, Mark.”
“Did you mean what you said? About me being in charge of PCU?”
She nodded and moved away from the car. Mark clenched the steering wheel, watching her walk away and supressing the urge to vomit. He had to play it cool, to let them drive away without arousing any suspicion. All the while he screamed inside. Save Rachel. Save Rachel.
36
As Adams drove away from the house, smoke billowing in the rear-view mirror, he felt cold. The road ahead was clear, and he knew that somehow he had to stop Curtis. It wasn't just the death he would cause, it was the devastation for England once the Institute strengthened their hold. Curtis couldn't be permitted to launch his attack. The world couldn't know about him.
Every Storm Breaks (Reachers Book 3) Page 20