Thicker Than Blood

  “She seems to know you pretty well,” he says.

  I glance at him. “Stop sucking up just because she’s armed and angry.”

  He steps away, and my eyes meet hers once again. Neither of us speak. I see a flicker of movement, just below my eye line. I adjust my gaze to see her towel slowly unravelling from around her. She frowns and looks down at the exact moment it slips to the floor. She’s completely naked, save for a small holster strapped to her thigh. She looks at me with a bemused smile and raises an eyebrow.

  I roll my eyes and sigh. “Oh, for God’s sake…”

  Josh quickly turns his back to her. “Whoa! Okay, you’re… ah… you’re… wow, yeah. That’s… that’s pretty naked.”

  She stares at Josh. “What’s the matter, Cowboy? Been a while?”

  I fail to suppress a chuckle. “Oh, I can’t believe she went there.”

  Josh glances over his shoulder, as if he’s trying to look at her without looking at too much of her. “What? No! I just… I don’t know you. It’s not appropriate to see, well, everything.”

  She looks at me, feigning surprise. “Well, what a gentleman! Why aren’t you like that, Adrian?”

  Okay, I think the danger’s past.

  I crouch to retrieve her towel, and then rest it over her outstretched arm, covering the gun. “Because I’ve seen it all way too many times before. Now, put some clothes on and sit down, will you?”

  I walk over to the sofa, hoping to God I’m right about this, and she doesn’t shoot me in the back…

  I sit down and breathe a quiet sigh of relief. A moment later, Josh appears, and sits next to me, staring blankly ahead. Another minute or two passes, and Ruby walks into view wearing her towel, and sits across from us. She rests her gun beside her, and ceremoniously crosses her legs, bouncing her foot up and down over her knee.

  Josh looks at her. “So, you’re Ruby, I’m guessing?”

  She nods. “Guilty.”

  “I’ve heard a lot about you. And, now, I’ve seen a fair bit, too…”

  She laughs. “You do a great awkward Englishman thing. Very Hugh Grant.”

  He frowns. “Thanks. I think.”

  I clear my throat. “Ruby, what are you doing here? When we spoke on the phone, you… well, you insulted me.”

  She nods. “Yes, I did.”

  “A lot.”

  She nods again. “Yep, and it was no less than you deserve. Seriously, Adrian, how could you leave me like that?”

  I shrug and let out a long sigh. “I dunno, I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t want you getting dragged down with me if it all went wrong. I figured—”

  “Well, you figured wrong, you sonofabitch. Everything we went through to get there, and you didn’t think I deserved to see it through to the end alongside you? We went through Hell to get to Cunningham. We both fought, we both bled, and we both risked everything. How dare you take that away from me? What gave you the right?”

  I stare into her eyes, trying to hide the guilt in my own. I see a whole range of emotions burning beneath the emerald surface—anger, sadness, disappointment…

  “I didn’t realize, Ruby. I’m sorry. I was trying to protect you.”

  She scoffs. “Do I look like I need protecting? You know me better than that, asshole.”

  I hold my hands up. “Okay, fair enough. I messed up. Did you at least get your money?”

  She’s quiet for a moment and then nods once. “Yeah, I got it.” Another slight pause. “Thanks.”

  “You earned it.”

  “I know.” She sighs, leans back, and brings her legs up, tucking them under her and readjusting her towel. “So, how are you not dead? Your execution was very well publicized. How did you do it?” She smirks. “Friendly with the new pres’?”

  I hold her gaze, allowing her to see into my eyes as I say this, so she knows it’s the truth. “The Order of Sabbah recruited me. They’re real, and they faked my death in exchange for me working for them.”

  She sits forward, her eyes wide with shock. “No way! Seriously?”

  I nod. “Yeah.”

  “You’re shitting me?”

  “Sadly not.”

  She leans back, shaking her head. “Cool.”

  “No, Ruby. Not cool. That’s why we’re here. They’re planning something. We’re still trying to figure out what, but they’re a very large, and very dangerous adversary. They actually sent me to kill Josh.”

  “Oh my God!” She looks over at him. “So, how come you’re still alive?”

  He doesn’t answer, but smiles faintly. I roll my eyes. “Because I was never actually going to kill him. I… we want to stop them, but they’re too big for us to do it alone.”

  “So, you’re asking for my help?”

  I nod.

  “Am I the only person you’ve asked?”

  “Well, you’re the only person I called, yeah. We placed an ad on the dark web, too, apparently.”

  “Huh, makes sense. Lots of merc-for-hire forums on there.”

  I frown. “Wait, you’ve heard of all that stuff?”

  She shrugs and looks at me blankly. “Yeah, of course. Why, haven’t you?”

  I shake my head. “Not until a couple of hours ago.”

  “You’re such a caveman sometimes.”

  Josh tries to suppress a chuckle beside me, but fails. I shoot him a glance, but it doesn’t stop him smiling.

  “Has anyone responded yet?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “Not yet. So far, it’s just you who’s crazy enough to track us down. How did you find us, by the way?”

  She waves her hand dismissively. “I just got my guy to run a trace on your cell number.”

  I look sheepishly at Josh, who’s shaking his head at me with a disapproving look on his face.

  I know, I know… I never learn.

  I shrug. “Whoops.”

  She gets to her feet, and pads over to us, pausing in front of us both. She turns to Josh, bends down suddenly, and kisses him on the lips. His eyes snap wide with surprise, and he holds his hands up, presumably to make sure they don’t wander anywhere that might get him shot.

  I raise an eyebrow. I’m not sure if I should turn away, or…

  She stands straight and winks at him. “I love Hugh Grant. Just saying.” She steps to the side, moving directly in front of me. “And you…” She raises her leg, and places her foot on my chest, pushing me back hard against the sofa. “…if you ever abandon me again, or patronize me by thinking I need saving like some damsel in distress, I swear to all that is holy in this world, I will shoot your balls off. Are we clear?”

  I look up, keeping eye contact with her. God help me, if I looked ahead—I’d see everything from this angle. Again.

  I nod. “Crystal.”

  She puts her leg down. “Good. Now, I’m gonna go finish getting ready, and then you boys can tell me all about the shit you’ve gotten yourselves into this time.”

  She whips her towel off and starts drying her hair with it. She waits a moment, standing casually, seemingly oblivious to the fact she’s naked, before disappearing back into the bathroom.

  Once we hear the door close, Josh turns to me, and nods. “I like her.”

  25

  23:19 PDT

  It didn’t take much to convince Ruby to help us. She was initially fascinated by The Order, which is understandable, but the moment I told her what happened to Lily, and Kaitlyn’s neighbor, she hugged me, and said she was with us, no questions asked.

  That’s why I like her. The apparent obsession with nudity I can take or leave, but her unwavering sense of right or wrong is what makes her invaluable to me, especially now. I know I can trust her. We’ve been in the trenches together before, so to speak, and when it came down to it, she had my back. People like her are far too rare nowadays.

  Between us, we’ve brought her up to speed on everything we’ve found out about The Order, and everything that’s happened since I spoke to Josh on a mountain
top nearly seventy-two hours ago. She’s sipping a drink she made herself from the minibar. She raises her eyebrows and sighs. “Well, you two sure know how to have a good time, don’t you? Seriously, could you be any more screwed right now?”

  I smile. “I’m sure we’d find a way, if we put our minds to it.”

  “So, your plan is to… what? Go to Rome and kill this karma guy?”

  Josh frowns. “You mean camerlengo?”

  “Whatever,” she replies, shrugging.

  “Yes, that’s the idea,” I say. “If he’s running The Order, we just cut the head off the snake. Simple.”

  She places her drink down gently on the table and looks at each of us in turn. “Adrian, nothing you do is ever simple. How many assassins does The Order have tracking you right now?”

  “Ah… almost four thousand.”

  “Right. And how, exactly, do you intend leaving the country without at least one of them noticing?”

  “Well, we’re working on that. It’s top of our to-do list tomorrow. But I need—”

  “You need to get your ass to Rome. Right now.”

  I look at Josh, who shrugs. “She might be onto something, man. Maybe it would be easier to do it in the middle of the night?”

  I shake my head. “Nah. If I was chasing me, I’d expect me to try sneaking out when it’s dark. It’s too obvious.”

  Ruby leans forward. “Yeah, but… and I can’t believe I’m about to say this… You have to consider the fact that all those people might not actually be as good as you are.”

  I can’t fight the grin creeping onto my face. I turn to Josh and nudge his arm with my cast. “See? I told you I’m the best.”

  He hangs his head for a moment before looking at Ruby. “Now look what you’ve done…”

  She holds her hands up. “Well, I’m sorry, but it’s a fair point.”

  I nudge him again. “Yeah, Josh, it’s a fair point.”

  He sighs. “Shut up.”

  “The thing I’m getting at, boys, is just because it’s The Order of Sabbah, the big, scary secret society of myth and legend, don’t make the mistake of giving them more credit than they deserve. All jokes aside, very few people would argue you’re the best in the business, Adrian. And very few would disagree that I’m right up there with you.”

  I nod. “True.”

  “So, stop thinking how you would, and start thinking how they would.”

  Josh gets to his feet, and paces slowly back and forth, before turning to face us both. “Ruby’s right. Think about it. Everything that went down at Sterling’s offices wasn’t precision—it was desperation. Martinez will obviously know what’s happening by now. He’s down one Committee member, however many hired guns, and the single biggest threat to his organization has, so far, managed to thwart any attempt to silence him. He’s panicking.”

  I don’t say anything. My mind’s already ticking over, formulating moves and contingencies.

  “You said it yourself yesterday,” he continues. “Horizon’s running out of ideas, especially now Pierce isn’t around to do his legwork. He’s not got the resources to stop you himself, that’s why The Order has sent everybody they’ve got, instead of just leaving it to him. I thought you were underestimating them, but maybe you weren’t. Maybe Ruby’s right, and this fight isn’t as one-sided as we think.”

  I stay silent.

  He might have a point. Maybe I was right to dismiss Horizon’s threats yesterday. Sure, The Order has the numbers, but quantity doesn’t mean quality. We survived Seattle, which is more than most people would’ve done. Maybe it’s time to stop being so cautious. Maybe we should stop assuming we should be on defense and start trying some offense.

  What do we know?

  The Order has lost people. I’ve seen no sign of them tracking me in the last twelve hours. They’re acting desperate. But, is that all it is? An act? Despite their efforts to stop me, they’ll still be focusing on their own agenda. Killing Josh will likely be tied in with killing me now, but there’s still their endgame to consider. We don’t know what it is and consequently don’t know how to go about stopping it. All we know for sure is that it’s imperative we get to Rome, and take out the camerlengo as quickly as possible, before they have a chance to execute their game plan.

  That being said, do we even have enough time to get to Italy? And if we do, how am I even going to get anywhere near the Vatican to take out Martinez?

  …

  …

  …

  That’s it!

  The inside of my head has been filled with noise and chaos, clouding my judgment. I was asking myself all those questions without giving myself chance to work out the answers. But as I focused, I heard Ruby’s voice repeating something she said earlier. Something important. But I didn’t realize how important until right now.

  Stop thinking like me, and start thinking like them.

  I get to my feet. “Josh, get on the phone to whoever works your magic at GlobaTech, and arrange a flight from Vancouver airport to Rome, as soon as humanly possible.”

  He immediately reaches for his cell, but hesitates before dialing. “Ah, Adrian, Schultz said to leave GlobaTech out of it?”

  I nod. “I know, but Schultz isn’t here. And even if he was, do you know what I’d say to him?”

  He thinks for a moment and then sighs. “You’d say he could kiss your ass.”

  I nod again. “I’d say he could kiss my ass.”

  Ruby gets to her feet and stands with us. “As exciting as this has suddenly become, do you actually have a plan here? What are you thinking?”

  I look at her. “I’m thinking you were right. Fuck The Order. Let them come after us. They won’t stop me taking out the camerlengo, which is all that matters.”

  “So, you know how you’re going to get to him?”

  “I do. You see, there’s no way I’ll actually get to him. Not inside the Vatican.”

  She rolls her hand, urging me on. “But…”

  “But I don’t need to get to him. As luck would have it—or fate, who knows—I’ve had the means to kill the guy all along.” I point to Josh. “And it’s in his secure vault.”

  He stares at me blankly.

  I’ll give him a moment to work it out.

  …

  …

  …

  He slaps his palm against his forehead. “The Holy Trinity!”

  I nod.

  Ruby’s eyes grow wide. “Hold up. You don’t mean the Holy Trinity? The set of three rifles… rarer than Venus de Milo’s arms… technically superior to any other weapon in its class, and more expensive than the Hope diamond… That Holy Trinity?”

  I smile at her. “One and the same. I had number three, but Josh confiscated it. If we can get that into Rome, I don’t need to get anywhere near Martinez. I could shoot him from pretty much wherever I wanted.”

  “Oh my God! This just keeps getting more and more exciting! Can I see it? Can I touch it?”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Please tell me you’re still talking about the gun?”

  She punches my arm.

  Josh taps in a number on the screen of his phone. “I’ll arrange for it to be couriered to Rome. It’ll be waiting for us when we arrive.”

  I clap my hands together. “Excellent. Pack your bags, boys and girls. We’re going to Italy.”

  26

  June 9, 2017

  13:12 CEST

  I’m sitting at a table outside a café overlooking the River Tiber. The breeze is warm, and pleasant; the sun bright and hot, reflecting off the still surface of the water as it flows lazily under the bridge across the street.

  We landed about three hours ago. We had no issues making it to the airport in Vancouver. As always, Josh had arranged a private plane for us. Despite it belonging to GlobaTech, we all checked it over ourselves, to make sure there were no surprises. Having found myself in the unenviable position of either jumping, or being pushed out of an airplane twice in the last couple of months, I
’m in no rush to do it again. Consequently, I insisted on us all taking an extra few minutes to ensure there were no bombs attached to it.

  The flight was smooth and uneventful. We all caught some sleep, and between us, we tried to piece together some more of the puzzle, although we’re still clueless as to what The Order is working toward. We just need to focus on what we’re here to do and hope we’re able to put the camerlengo down before it’s too late.

  Straight ahead of me, on the other side of the bridge, is the Piazza dei Tribunali, home of Italy’s Supreme Court. I stare at it, allowing myself a quiet moment of reflection as I take in the stunning European architecture.

  …

  …

  …

  And then I snap back to my shitty reality, and look left, following the road as it heads west, disappearing behind the trees that line the street over there. But I don’t need to see it to know where it leads. A little over a mile-and-a-half that way lies Vatican City. The belly of the beast.

  I take a deep breath. This isn’t going to be easy.

  An irritating noise registers in my head, distracting me from my musings. I look over at Ruby, who’s sitting beside me, cradling her drink in her hands. It’s some weird iced coffee thing, and she’s sucking it loudly through a straw.

  “Are you enjoying that?”

  She turns to me and nods. “Yeah.”

  “It certainly sounds like it.”

  She tips the straw toward me, seemingly oblivious to my comment. “Want some?”

  I hold up a hand. “I’m good, thanks. I dunno how you can drink cold coffee…”

  She sighs. “Oh, don’t start.”

  “What?”

  “Complaining about shit. You were just the same when we went into that Dunkin’ Donuts. Everything was weird, everything was wrong… Stop being such a whiny little bitch all the time.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “What’s gotten into you? You seem touchier than usual.”

  She takes another long suck on the straw and then places the drink beside her. “I’m just… I was thinking about how it was before, when we were taking the fight to the bad guys. We were on the move, we were invisible, we were ruthless. I guess I just envisioned it being much the same this time, and it’s frustrating that we’re just sitting here, hoping no one tries to kill us.”