Order of the Black Sun Box Set 11

by Preston William Child

  “Yes,” Mama May said. “She is very old, indeed. Yes.”

  “What else?”

  “It is...it's hard to see in the smoke...so very hard.”

  “I know,” Purdue said soothingly, trying to empathize, but was still focused on every word she was saying. If Mama May could give him the answers he needed, he wouldn't have to resort to more drastic measures like consulting with his imprisoned archenemy in the deep vault. “Please keep trying. I need to know more about them.”

  “They follow the decayed woman without question and her followers are many, and will be many more. Some even familiar. Yes, familiar faces. Some recognizable.”

  Purdue waited to hear more but Mama May seemed to be struggling to pull more from her premonitions. “It is so hazy...so hard to see anything...it's all cloudy.”

  “Please, keep trying. Are they coming for me? For us? For the Order of the Black Sun?”

  Mama May grimaced. “They were the secret keepers of the black flame, and kept the sun burning bright even in its weakest hours.”

  “What does that mean exactly?”

  “They will come for your friends. They want to see it extinguished. All of it.”

  “There has to be more.”

  “It is becoming impossible to see. There are too many possibilities to see clearly. I'm sorry, I can't...”

  “Please! Anything else! Anything at all! Anything that could even be tiny bit helpful!”

  Mama May's lips trembled and some small tremor passed through her frail body, like it was physically reacting to some struggle in her mind. She sucked in a deep gasp and started yelling.

  “A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you! A friend may betray you!”

  Mama May let out another gasp and nearly collapsed flat on to the coffee table between them. She weakly let out some final words, but those words hadn't changed much.

  “A friend may betray you...they may…”

  The prospect of being stabbed in the back by a friend worried Purdue, especially now. He used to have very few friends; hardly anyone could really put up with him for very long. It used to just be Sam Cleave, Nina Gould, and his late butler Charles. Even then, he sometimes wondered if any of them really liked him all that much. Now...since reforming the Order of the Black Sun and recruiting far better members, he had so many new friends. There were so many more potential knives now that could find their way into his back. He would have to be more cautious than ever.

  Mama May's grip suddenly tightened again. Her eyes barely opened and she spoke very softly.

  “Another friend. The one you spoke of before. The one who is also trying to fix things. He is at the mercy of the sea.”

  She wasn't wrong, Purdue thought. Sam could very well be dealing with Poseidon, the god of the sea himself.

  “Your friend...your friend is going to drown.”

  9

  THE HEIR

  Aya was surprised to see that they would have a new passenger on her boat when they returned. Daisy had some of her clothes brought to her by her attendants after the gala. As beautifully intricate as her gown was, it wasn't exactly functional. As they boarded the ship, Aya looked to Sam for some kind of answer; Sam could only shrug. It wasn't an ideal situation but there wasn't too much of a choice.

  “This is Erica Diosa,” Daisy said. “She has one of the pearls.”

  “I was going to say...I thought you were bringing back a pearl, not a person.”

  “They brought both,” Erica said, looking around the vessel. “This is the ship? It's quite a bit smaller than I expected it to be. Much smaller, actually.”

  “I am sorry,” Aya said with very little actual remorse and already looking irritated. “I hope you were not expecting a yacht or some expensive cruise line. This might be a simple boat, but it is my boat. It is not much but it floats. That is all you need.”

  “Right,” Erica said. She didn't look very convinced or very grateful. “So which cabin is mine?” They all looked at her like she had seven heads and she seemed to get the message when she saw those expressions. “I don't have my own cabin, do I?”

  “Nope,” Sam said. “You will be in the sleep quarters with the rest of us common folk.”

  Erica didn't looked pleased with their hospitality but it was her own fault for expecting so much. Of course she wasn't going to have her own private VIP room on the boat. She should have just been grateful that they let her come aboard at all, instead of just taking the pearl. Hopefully, the voyage would wash away some of her entitlement but Sam wasn't too hopeful about that one. It would take a whole lot of scrubbing to get rid of that much conceit.

  He was just glad that they had two of the pearls. He wouldn't have to deal with Erica's diva behavior for much longer if they could find the third pearl soon. If anything, her forcing them to bring her along might just be the best motivator for them to reunite the pearls as soon as they could. This situation might have been annoying but it could have been worse. They had another pearl so what was he complaining for?

  Sam suddenly felt a sharp sting on the side of his neck like he had just been stung by a bee or something. He instinctively reached for the pain but his vision grew hazy. When he touched his neck with his fingertips, he felt something very out of place, sticking out. He pulled it from his neck and realized that there was a tranquilizer dart between his fingers.

  That definitely didn't belong there...

  He grew lightheaded, felt the world getting dark all around him, and fell into the darkness of his unconsciousness.

  The darkness cleared and he saw that he was in a warehouse, tied to a chair. Daisy, Erica, and Aya were restrained right beside him in their own seats. Sam tried to think back before the darkness and all he saw was a tranquilizer dart. Someone had knocked them out and brought them here, tied them down as prisoners. Sam's first guess was that it was the mysterious group that Purdue was so afraid of. Perhaps they were finally making their presence more publicly known and making their first moves against Purdue and the Order of the Black Sun. If only Purdue could be here for that, he could finally stop obsessing over them if he got to see them in person.

  He could make out silhouettes across the dimly lit warehouse, discussing how they weren't sure how long they would be able to stay here. They apparently hadn't rented out the warehouse to use for as long as they needed. This must have been a more impromptu situation where they just needed a place to safely get rid of their victims.

  A tall, muscular, dark-skinned man in a fine suit was approaching. He scratched his bald head as he walked toward them, looking each of them over with some curiosity; it wasn't exactly genuine interest but was more akin to how a surgeon looks over a body before they cut it open. It was like this man was trying to figure out the precise soft spot for each of them.

  “This is not good,” Aya said. “It is very bad. Dajuan.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Nobody good,” Aya said. “They must be tracking me. They could have followed me all the way here from Jamaica.”

  “From Jamaica?”

  “Mmhm.”

  She didn't have time to elaborate before the man was right in her face, looking incredibly dangerous. He stared directly into her eyes like he wanted her to see something deep within his own.

  “Did you really think that you could just run away, Aya? Make a new life for yourself in a new place with your new friends? Look at you. Look how lost you are without us.”

  The man turned his attention to Sam.

  “Are you the one called David Purdue?” the man asked with a heavy Jamaican accent. When Sam didn't respond, the man grabbed hold of the back of Aya's head and squeezed, dragging her right in front of Sam. “Is he? Hmm? Is this the man you betrayed us for? The one who tried to ruin us! Is this David Purdue!?”

  “N-n-no,” Aya muttered through her pain. “He-
he is not.”

  “No? Are you sure about that?”

  “I am!”

  “Then he is not going to be able to help us. Get rid of him and dump his body in the water.”

  “Wait!” Sam exclaimed, holding his hands up in surrender. “I'm not Purdue, no, but I do know him very well. Can I just ask, what the hell is going on here? Who are you people and what do you want with Purdue?”

  The larger man laughed and then let go of Aya's skull. “Go on. Tell him, Aya. Tell him who we are. Then things should be clear.”

  Aya slowly climbed back up to her feet. “This is Dajuan. He was the right hand of the Wharf Man back in my home.”

  It had been a little while since Sam had heard the epithet of the Wharf Man be used. He was the kingpin of crime in Jamaica; he practically controlled the entire place through all of his seedy connections and illegal backing. Naturally, Purdue had become enemies with the Wharf Man. That feud ended when Purdue used the power of the pearl to drag the crime lord down to the very bottom of the ocean.

  From what Sam remembered of the Wharf Man, he had been an excessively obese man, but displayed real power behind his morbid size. Where the Wharf Man was wide, this newcomer was tall. His muscles were easy to spot even under his suit jacket.

  “The Wharf Man's second...I thought that honor belonged to those psychotic twins, Alton and Oniel. I only knew Oniel. He didn't say much but man was he a sick bastard. Both of them are dead now too by the way, just like your boss. Also, mostly Purdue's doing. But maybe that's what put you in charge. So on behalf of Purdue, you're welcome, I guess.”

  “The twins did not have the self-control to lead anything. You really think that they would be entrusted to run things in the Wharf Man's absence? No. No. No. That was me and me alone that the Wharf Man trusted. I stayed behind while he tried to kill Purdue.”

  “He almost pulled it off,” Sam said. “I saw it all happen. The Wharf Man tried to kill Purdue with some submarine but it didn't make a difference once Purdue had that pearl. He used the ocean itself against your boss and sent him right down to the ocean floor. Don't know if the water or the pressure killed him first. Must have been a horrible way to go, but from what I heard, the Wharf Man was a pretty horrible guy. He probably deserved it.”

  Dajuan looked livid from hearing the firsthand account. “So David Purdue is not here...but one of his friends, one who was there when the Wharf Man was killed...you will do just as well when it comes to our retribution.”

  “Sounds reasonable.” Sam shrugged. “So what are you now that the Wharf Man is gone? Do you proudly take up that stupid name as the new Wharf Man or are you something else entirely now? Let me guess. The Pier Prince? The Dock Duke? The Harbor Man? What's your preference?”

  Dajuan's knuckles cracked against Sam's face as he suddenly struck him hard with the back of his hand. Sam stumbled backward from the blow, almost collapsing.

  Sam's head was still ringing. “Look, I get it. You're here looking for some retribution. You want to settle old scores, mend old wounds. You want to avenge the Wharf Man, but I didn't kill him. Your vendetta isn't with me. I'm just a witness.”

  “But if I hurt you, it will hurt Purdue. That is how it works between friends, no? The Wharf Man was my friend. The Wharf Man took me in, made me who I am today. Your friend killed my friend. That was a bad, bad mistake. And now we have to make it right. Your death would be a start.”

  “There's no need for this,” Aya said.

  “Of course there is,” Dajuan said. “You know that there is no other way. Blood for blood. It is the only fair payment. And do not think that I have forgotten about you either, Aya. You and your crew turned on the Wharf Man. You bit the hand of the man that fed you, betrayed him after everything he did for you.”

  “Everything he did for me? Like what? Keep me on a string, to use whenever he needed. That was all. I was just one of the many people the Wharf Man had under his fat thumb. Just like I am sure you now have all kinds of people stuck under your thumbs. He used us, Dajuan. All of us. Even you. We were nothing to him.”

  “You are wrong.”

  “So what now?” Sam asked.

  “You call David Purdue.”

  “What? Really? If you think Purdue is going to come running to our rescue or pay some kind of ransom, you're mistaken on both counts, my friend. That's not really in his nature. As much as I like the man, he's a petty guy who has always had everything. He doesn't mind losing a thing or two. He'll just replace it.”

  “I do not think so,” Dajuan said. “To me, the man who has everything will be even more angry when he loses something, no? So we are going to remind him that he will start losing things if he does not come to speak with me.”

  “Let's say in the off-chance he does come, you're going to kill him?”

  “Eventually, yes,” Dajuan said. “But it will be slow.”

  “If it will make you happy, we'll make the call but I know Purdue very well. I don't think he's going to give you the answer you want. Being difficult is part of who he is.”

  Mama May's claims about Sam had Purdue feeling pretty distressed and helpless. He didn't want Sam to drown. He should never have sent Sam practically alone on a quest like that. Purdue had just been so focused at the time on uncovering the truth about the old lady and her minions that he lost sight of the other potential dangers that the Order of the Black Sun might be facing. Of course Sam could be in trouble; they were possibly dealing with a Greek god. That screaming man of water that ripped apart the compound should have been the priority, not enemies that Purdue still couldn't find. Now Sam might drown for Purdue's mistake.

  The phone rang. Miraculously, the screen displayed Sam's name. It was like the phone could sense Purdue's unease and was trying to calm him down and reassure him that everything with Sam was okay. There was no way that Sam drowned and was calling from the bottom of the sea.

  Purdue snatched up the phone and answered. “Aye?” His greeting was casual, trying not to act too panicked. Mama May's vague warning was making him act ridiculously paranoid, that was all. “Sam? That you?”

  “Hey, Purdue,” Sam said. It was nice to hear Sam's voice but something sounded off about his tone. “I'm very, very glad you picked up.”

  “Good to hear from you too,” Purdue said honestly. “What's going on?”

  “Well the good news is that we now have two of the three pearls. The bad news is...as we speak, Daisy, Aya, and I are strapped to chairs and there's a very angry man with a knife.”

  Purdue thought he misheard for a second, before his brain clicked into defense mode. This wasn't a social call, after all, and it wasn't the reassuring update that Purdue was hoping for. There were murmurs on the other end of the line and Purdue tried his hardest to make out what was being said since lives could be on the line.

  “This charming Jamaican gentleman threatening our lives wants to speak with you, Purdue. If you have a minute, that is.”

  Sam's emphasis on “Jamaican” was definitely deliberate. That was a detail that he would have left out unless he knew it would mean something to Purdue. He was trying to forewarn Purdue about something. The only Jamaicans that Purdue knew would have reason to take his colleagues hostage were dead. The Wharf Man drowned in the ocean. Purdue had stabbed Alton personally. Oniel was gone too and that mute wouldn't exactly have been able to talk on the phone anyway. So what Jamaican was Sam even talking about? There was no one left that was gunning for Purdue.

  “He wants to talk to me? Absolutely, aye. I'll gladly make time to have a proper chat. Put him on, please.”

  The voice that came through the speakers wasn't one that Purdue recognized but the hostility was somewhat familiar. The man wasted no time in revealing why he seemed familiar.

  “You are David Purdue, hmm?” the man on the other end of the phone line asked with a heavy Jamaican accent. “Well, David Purdue, let me tell you how this is going to go. We are going to kill your friends just like you killed the Wharf Man.
Then we are coming for you.”

  So that's what this was all about. The angry man was a friend of the Wharf Man so naturally he would be a bit displeased with Purdue. He was trying to get some retribution.

  “That's scary, aye, but a bit rude to not even introduce yourself before you start making threats. How the hell am I supposed to know to fear you, if I don't even know what to call you? 'That angry man on the phone' isn't all that terrifying, eh? See what I mean?”

  The Jamaican man let out something of a growl through the speaker before obliging. “My name is Dajuan. You killed a man that I thought like a father. That is going to be dealt with. But since you are not here, your friends will have to do.”

  “Or you could release them. You should deal with me personally. Surely that's why you called? Not just to tell me that you're going to hurt people that I work with. That's a weak play, lad. Very weak. You're going to have to do much better than that. That's not half as intimidating as anything your old, fat boss used to do.”

  Purdue had negotiated with enough deranged lunatics to know that words didn't really matter. No matter what deals were worked out or promises were made, the man on the other end would end up doing whatever they really wanted to do. That's just how people were, especially people that wanted to do harm. If they wanted to inflict a great deal of pain, they would find a way to do it.

  “I called because I wanted your thoughts on what I should do with them. Give me your honest opinion, hmm? Should I cut your friends into little, tiny pieces? I could take their skin, send you their hides if you want. Or maybe I will drown them, just like you did to the Wharf Man. That would start making us even.”

  Mama May's words of warning echoed through Purdue's brain.

  “Your friend is going to drown.”

  Was this it? Was this what she had seen? Sam Cleave being dropped to the bottom of the ocean by the Wharf Man's apprentice...Purdue couldn't let that happen—not when he caused all of this by going to the Wharf Man in the first place. Sam, Daisy, Aya...none of them should have to suffer for a choice Purdue made alone in a desperate situation and under circumstances that weren't exactly ideal.