by Rob Jones
It had been no more than hours since the Chinese criminal kingpin Sheng Fang had fallen to his death in the hidden tomb of the Emperor Qin. Hawke could still see his terrified face as he plunged through the flames and crashed into the dirt beside a river of burning oil. Now, that was all tied up, except for Mr Luk… but they weren’t out of the woods yet – a new monster had risen and was threatening to seize the elixir for himself. He had to be stopped.
Lea got a text, and she swivelled in the chair to face the front. Either side of the aircrew cabin were two large television screens, and the Irishwoman activated them with a flick of the remote. A second later the lean, sharp face of Sir Richard Eden appeared on the screens. Dempsey and the other American soldiers turned to look.
“Lea, how are you?”
“All good, Richard.”
“Hawke?”
Hawke paused before replying, and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Well…”
“Excellent, I want you all to listen carefully. I’ve had intelligence that the Russian hit man known as Kodiak, the man we now know killed Sorokin and attempted to kill Dragonfly, is on the trail of our people in Berlin. Presumably he has orders to kill them and retrieve the map.”
“We know…”
“You’re aware of this information?” Eden asked.
“Yes, you could say that,” Hawke replied. “We just got a briefing by Jack Brooke about the guy behind all this – his name is Maxim Vetrov.”
“Jack Brooke – you mean the Defense Secretary?”
Hawke nodded. “The very same. Agent Nightingale is his daughter.”
Eden was stunned. Hawke saw for the first time that Sir Richard Eden’s intelligence network obviously didn’t extend quite as far as he would have liked.
“Well, I’ll be buggered,” Eden said. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Neither did we, Rich,” Lea said. “But Jack Brooke knows all about us – and that includes you, too.”
“I see…” Eden was silent for a few seconds but quickly regained his composure and returned to the matter at hand. “All right, then we know for sure Nightingale’s kidnapping and the attempted murder of Dragonfly are connected – the link being Maxim Vetrov. He’s obviously our man so get after him.”
“We’re already on our way,” Hawke said.
Eden ended the call and Hawke gathered everyone for a briefing on the assault on Vetrov’s dacha. Now wasn’t the time for half-measures, and for the first time in a long time, he couldn’t wait until the shooting started. It was payback time, and he had a big score to settle with Maxim Vetrov.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Alex Reeve knew there was no point in struggling as the giant Russian plucked her out of her chair, took the sack from her head and heaved her over his shoulder. In broken English he had explained what would happen to her if she made a fuss, and her sense of self-preservation told her it was better to live to fight another day.
A few moments later Kosma kicked open a door and walked her into an enormous atrium. It was dim considering the size of the glass roof – but then she saw it was covered in fresh snowfall and that explained the lack of light. There was something else about the place that was wrong – an odd smell of salt which reminded her of the ocean. Somewhere to her left she heard a strange growling sound.
Kosma lowered her to the ground and placed her awkwardly on another chair. Now, she was sitting behind a high metal fence, beyond which was a large area of dark water with some kind of artificial island in the center of it. Above the enclosure was a substantial black metal rigging with a series of chain hoists attached to it.
“Good day, Miss Reeve.”
She looked over the water to see the man who had spoken with her earlier. He was walking casually toward her. She could tell by the sound of his voice that this was the man who had been laughing. “Allow me to introduce myself more formally. I am Maxim Vetrov, and this is my assistant, Kosma Zhuravlev, an old associate of mine.”
“You bastard! How dare you do this to me?”
“How do I dare, you ask? I dare to do so many things that the common man would shy away from. But before we talk, I must introduce you to my darlings.”
After a brief moment of confusion, Alex looked with horror as Vetrov gestured toward the water, and saw for the first time what he meant by darlings – crocodiles – and lots of them. She could hardly bring herself to believe what her darkest fears were already beginning to see.
She watched one of the crocodiles crawl through the vegetation on the artificial island and slide effortlessly into the murky water. Another behind it, lost somewhere behind the plants made a deep, gurgling sound. She noticed floating on the surface what looked like a blood-stained shirt, now torn to rags, and her mind started to put together what she was now seeing with what she had heard a few moments ago.
“Now, Miss Reeve – or is it Miss Brooke? We have business to discuss, and I do hope you can be accommodating or…” he glanced at the enclosure.
Alex followed his eyes and saw the exoskeleton of another monstrous crocodile as it joined the other one and slipped beneath the slimy water a few yards from her. She flinched as a wave of disgust and terror crawled over her body. Now, at last, she knew her fate.
“What do you want, Vetrov?”
“You know what I want,” he replied. As he spoke, he snapped his fingers and Kosma began to fix her chair to the load chain of a hoist. She followed the chain up from her chair to where it was attached to the rigging, which she now saw spanned the entire length of the enclosure, high above the water. Her first thoughts were that it was some kind of structure built with the maintenance of the enclosure in mind, but then she realized its purpose was for an altogether bleaker reason.
Vetrov saw the look of fear in her eyes and beamed. “Ah! You see, this is just my way of having fun. The crocodile is not treated with the respect it deserves by most people, but I know the truth – I know they are divine. This is my way of righting these wrongs. In making these offerings to the crocodile I restore a sense of balance to the universe.”
Alex’s breathing speeded up and she began to see stars. She could hardly believe what was happening to her. This man – this Maxim Vetrov, was clearly completely insane, and yet here she was trapped in his madness, and totally at his mercy. She had known danger in the CIA, but nothing like this.
She grew almost unable to control her fear. As far as she knew, the one man she had asked for help – Joe Hawke – was now in New York with nothing to go on but her trashed apartment. How he could he rescue her when not even she knew where she was? Maybe she should have contacted her father, but then the thought simply hadn’t occurred to her. As far as she was concerned, she had no father. He probably didn’t even care about her.
“You look scared, my dear… please – there is no need. I simply want information, and then you will be released, like a bird from a cage. I am not a monster, after all. Raise her!”
Kosma’s massive arms heaved on the hand chain and the sound of the steel links sliding taut filled the otherwise silent room. She felt a jerk as the chain tugged against the weight of her chair, and watched the giant Russian heave harder to compensate. A second later she felt herself lift slowly off the ground and begin to sway slightly as Vetrov’s henchman grunted with the effort of lifting her over the enclosure fence.
“My good man here will be lowering you into that water in a few moments. He will do this as a matter of course and he will not stop until I tell him to. I will not tell him to stop until you tell me the true identity of the mysterious Mercurio.”
“I…I…”
Her head began to spin as she swayed back and forth above the water. Was all this really happening? A few hours ago she had been safe in her Manhattan loft apartment, researching what she had first thought was harmless esoterica. Then she had begun to realize that maybe there was something to it… then came her contact with Mercurio and now this. Her cozy world of disco albums and ice cream and romantic movies ha
d been replaced by this terror – a Russian giant heaving her over a crocodile pit – the stench of chain lubricant and the sight of Maxim Vetrov smiling as her worst nightmare became real.
She thought once again about Joe Hawke, and how far away he was. She thought about all the times she had talked him through hells like this while she had been so safe back in her mission control, surrounded by the things that comforted her and made her feel secure while all the time he had been on the ground risking his life. The swaying of the elevated chair started to make her feel sick.
“As you can see, Kosma is now lowering you into the water. I estimate you have less than sixty seconds until you become acquainted with the crocodiles, and sadly for you, you have not been prepared for entry into the afterlife. This is your end-time.”
She began to hyperventilate. “Why are you doing this to me?!”
“Mercurio’s real identity, please. Thirty seconds.”
She knew this was the end unless she gave him what he wanted. She had heard stories about CIA colleagues going to their graves before giving top secret information to enemy agents, but she knew she couldn’t do it. She just didn’t have it in her, and a wave of shame crossed her mind.
She thought about her mother back in New York who probably didn’t even know she had been kidnapped. She would never know the truth about her daughter’s disappearance… she thought about her father once again, the man she had loved more than anyone when she was growing up, but whom she hadn’t spoken to for more years than she could remember. The last thing she had told him to do was go to hell… She couldn’t leave the world like this.
“Mazzarro!” she screamed, her bulging eyes staring down past her feet at the circling crocodiles a few yards below her. “Mercurio’s real name is Dario Mazzarro. He’s an amateur Egyptologist from Venice, in Italy. Please! Please don’t do this to me!” She broke down in tears at the thought of selling out Dario Mazzarro like this, but she knew she had no choice.
Vetrov smiled and spoke in rapid Russian to Kosma. A second later the giant ceased lowering her and tied off the chain, leaving her suspended a few yards above the enclosure.
She gasped in terror at the betrayal. “What are you doing?! I gave you what you wanted! You said you’d release me!”
She swung helplessly back and forth above the circling crocodiles.
“My dear, it is now necessary for me to check the quality of the information you have given me. I don’t know about the CIA, but in the KGB we are taught never to trust information until it has been verified. You will remain where you are until I have checked out this Dario Mazzarro of Venice.” As he spoke he made a phone call and began to speak into his phone.
Below her, Alex saw a slight ripple in the water and then two black nostril holes emerging from the dark surface. Less than a second later a gigantic crocodile was propelling itself from the water with startling velocity toward her. She thought it was going to reach her as its vile jaws snapped shut with a terrifyingly heavy crunch that made her jump. She screamed and began to spin around in tiny circles in the suspended chair.
“Don’t worry so much, Miss Reeve. They are just playing with you. Seeing who can jump the highest. Take the time to study their beautiful form.” He continued speaking on the phone for a few more moments and then disconnected the call.
“It seems you were being truthful, young Alex. There is indeed a Dario Mazzaro in Venice, and according to my people he is heavily engaged in researching ancient Egypt. Even better news – that was my man Kamchatka. After the egregious error of killing only Sorokin at the airport, he has redeemed himself and located the Chinese assassin who is, unless I am very much mistaken, in possession of the Map of Immortality.”
“She’ll never let you get your filthy hands on that map, Vetrov.”
“Your invaluable naming of Dr Mazzarro, plus the map, my dear, means only one thing – I will be able to find the source of eternal life, wherever it is in this world, and the elixir of immortality will be mine!”
“You’re just as crazy as all the others.”
He shot her a devilish glance. “I think not, Alex. Where countless men before me have failed, I am succeeding. You see, I have a greater knowledge than any of the others. Where they fumbled in the darkness with only the faintest glimmer of vain hope to light their way, I know the darkest truth of all, and it is that very darkness which will lead me to the elixir.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I know they are real.”
She stared at the Russian billionaire in despair and confusion. “Who are real?”
Vetrov laughed, pushed his hands into his pockets and walked casually to the window. “You’ll be gone soon enough, so I suppose I can tell you, if you will only indulge my vanity. I’m talking about the Athanatoi, Miss Reeve.”
“The who?”
Vetrov laughed again, but this time a much deeper, belly laugh. “I see I have the advantage! But then that is a pleasure enjoyed by many senior ranking former KGB men.”
Alex fought hard to control the tears. “What the hell are you talking about, Vetrov?”
“No, I have said enough…”
He spoke in Russian to Kosma who punched some numbers on a keypad. A second later she heard the whine of hydraulics and felt a jerk as the chair began to lower toward the water. At first she thought she was imagining it – it was so slow it was almost imperceptible.
“It’s on automatic now,” Vetrov said, smiling. “A facility I installed to increase my pleasure because this way it takes my enemies so long to reach the hungry jaws of my darlings. I asked Kosma to set it to the slowest setting, so you have plenty of time to suffer – in your case, two or three hours. Now you will forgive me but I must also turn into a nightingale and fly to Venice, but for you, the struggle is almost over. Do svidaniya.”
“You bastard! You bastard…” she began to sob as the chains lowered her torturously slowly toward the crazed crocodiles a few yards below.
CHAPTER NINE
Lea awoke to see a blanket of clouds stretching out above the Baltic Sea and on the horizon a faint gray-green line that was the northern coast of Estonia. She wondered how so much misery and terror could exist in a world so beautiful. She thought about why anyone would even want to live forever – what made life so precious was its transience, she thought, and then when she realized that sounded like something Ryan might say she smiled. Maybe she listened to him more than she thought.
Snapping out of her daydream, she rubbed her eyes and checked the screens on the aircrew partition at the front of the private jet. They were now at thirty-six thousand feet and had been in the air for a little over seven hours. They would be in Moscow in less than sixty minutes.
She turned to see Hawke was still asleep on the couch and watched him for a moment – the way his broad chest heaved up when he breathed, the shape of the muscles on his arms, and yet… when he was asleep like this there was a strange kind of vulnerability about him that made her love him even more. She worried that one day his luck might run out, that one of these days he was going to get himself killed.
“You want a drink?”
She looked up to see Ryan standing to her left holding a large tumbler of whisky in each hand.
“Um…” Lea checked her watch. “Sure, why not?”
“In that case there’s a bottle in the cabinet at the back. These are both for me.”
Lea thought about telling him not to be such a dick, but then she remembered why he was behaving like one and cut him some slack. Less than forty-eight hours ago Ryan Bale had watched one of the Lotus’s men brutally kill his girlfriend. The fact she was trying to save his life at the same time made everything he was feeling ten times worse.
“I think maybe I’ll leave it for now anyway,” she said.
Ryan coughed and took a long drink from the tumbler, seeing off at least three fingers of the Scotch. “Suit yourself.”
“What are the Americans doing?” she asked, p
eering over her seat.
“The Yanks are asleep,” Ryan said flatly.
“Ryan…”
“Listen, don’t even go there, all right?”
“Go where?”
“You know where. That little speech you were about to give me. You know – the one where you tell me it’s not my fault and I’ll get over it in time and bla bla bla.”
“Well, it’s not your fault, and you will.”
Ryan didn’t reply, but instead drank the rest of tumbler number one.
Lea watched him with concern. “Seriously, you can’t get loaded right now, Ryan. I need you – Hawke needs you. Hell, someone’s life is riding on this.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Lea decided to leave it and instead got ready for the landing. The aircraft had begun to descend and Dempsey and his men were awake and checking they were ready for the mission in Moscow. Hawke woke up and smiled at her, and then started his own preparations. He had his war face on.
She watched silently as the jet touched down at Domodedovo and taxied gently to the gate, and moments later they were going through customs. They quickly found themselves emerging into the freezing cold Moscow air and a crowd of people outside the airport. Hawke blew into his hands and smiled at the string of curses emanating from Lea’s lips.
“Cold, Lea?”
“You could say that! It’s cold enough to freeze the nuts off a brass monkey.”
“Never deployed to the Arctic then?”
“Nope.”
As she replied to him, a woman collided with Hawke and moved inside the airport without apologizing.
“Welcome to Russia…” Dempsey said.
Hawke ignored Dempsey’s comment and turned to Ryan. “What about you – cold?”