by Rob Jones
“What was he demoted to sergeant for?”
Hart sighed. “If you don't know that then I’m certainly not going to tell you. That’s Joe Hawke’s business and no one else’s. Let's move on, please.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ulan Bator
They landed at Chinggis Khaan International Airport and immediately hired a Nissan Qashqai. Moments later they were driving into the city on their way to the Genghis Khan Statue Complex.
The highway from the airport to Ulan Bator was dusty and bleak and the sky overhead was an enormous harsh blue canvas the likes of which Hawke hadn’t seen since the time he had trained in Australia.
The journey wasn’t long, but halfway into the city as they were passing through an ugly industrial zone full of smoking chimneys and pretty ancient-looking cooling towers they realized they were being followed.
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking?” Scarlet said.
“Pretty much,” replied Hawke, checking his mirror. “If you’re talking about the Rav 4 then it's been trying to pretend it’s not tailing us since the airport. Damn!” Hawke banged the dash. “But who the hell knew we were here?”
“No one,” said Scarlet. “Except Lexi Zhang of course.”
Hawke checked the back seat, where Lexi was dozing, her head lolled against the headrest. Lea was also asleep. He was glad she was safe now. “I don't think so. I wouldn’t trust Lexi as far as I could throw her with both hands tied behind my back, but not this level of deceit. Not her. She would stab you in the back if it meant her own survival, but I can't believe she would tip-off Sheng so he could follow us to the map.”
“You’re too trusting, Joe. Face it – she could easily have killed Felix Hoffmann and now we’re being followed out of an airport no one in the world knew we were even at. It’s not looking good for Madam Mao, is all I’m saying.”
Hawke checked Lexi once again in the mirror and shook his head gently. “No, it's not her, Cairo. If that’s one of Sheng’s men behind us then they found out some other way. It’s just an instinct.”
“Oh God – not the famous Hawke instinct that nearly got us killed in Afghanistan?”
“No, a better one than that. A new and improved one, so just relax about Lexi.”
Lea had begun to stir and leaned over the front seats. “Well whoever the fuck it is, shouldn’t we doing more about it that just waffling?”
Hawke smiled – she had been listening. “Yes, we should,” he said. “So hang on.”
And with that Hawke spun the Qashqai around in a one-eighty on the highway and in a hail of grit and stone chips he floored the throttle and began racing towards the vehicle pursuing them.
“What are you doing?” Lea screamed. “Please don't tell me your medication has run out yet again.”
“We’re going to find out who’s been following us from the airport and I think the best way to do that is to be up-front about it, don't you agree?”
Scarlet rolled her eyes. “At last, he grows a pair.”
Lexi woke up and mumbled something about what was going on.
The way Hawke saw things, the Rav 4 had only three options. Either carry on driving and lose the vehicle they had been told to follow, wait until they passed them and then turn around to follow them in the other direction, or spin around and flee back to their base in the knowledge they had been rumbled.
The pursuers went for option three.
While Hawke and the rest of his team in the Qashqai were still several hundred yards away from them, the Rav 4 spun around and accelerated away in the other direction.
“Awww,” Scarlet said. “They don’t want to play any more...” Hawke heard her loading her Beretta Storm as she spoke.
“The little bastards want to get back to HQ,” Lea said.
Hawke narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “And I want to know just who the hell they are and how they found out we were here.”
“Let’s give them something to think about,” Scarlet said. She leaned out her window and fired a couple of shots from the Storm. Each hit its target, smacking two neat little puncture holes in the rear panel.
In the distance they watched as the Rav 4 momentarily left the road and struck a metal barrier. A shower of sparks flashed into the air before they regained control and accelerated along the highway.
“Not bad,” Lea said.
“Thank you, darling.”
Hawke stamped his foot down on the throttle and watched the needle on the rev counter fly around the dial. He accelerated the Qashqai to one hundred kilometers per hour, more than twenty over the limit in this built-up industrial zone. Ahead, the Rav 4 was now exiting the highway.
“He’s going back into the city,” Lea said.
Hawke smacked the steering wheel. “Trying to lose us in the back streets. I guess that means he’s a local. Brace yourselves!”
Hawke spun the Qashqai hard to the right and just caught the off-ramp in time, racing down at a tremendous speed which was far too fast for the road. He slammed down on the brakes and after a few moments of skidding and burning rubber the vehicle was back under his control again.
He looked ahead through the dusty windshield and saw that the Rav 4 was now speeding across a bridge and disappearing into the southern quarter of the city. Soviet-era tower blocks loomed either side of them as they crossed the bridge in pursuit, but the Rav 4 was getting away, turning to the right now and entering a slipstream of cars driving into the city center. A second later the lights changed to red.
Hawke cursed but made the decision to jump the lights. It was now or never and if they lost this guy he would be gone for good.
As he approached the lights, he speeded up just as everyone else was slowing down. A cacophony of angry car horns filled the air as he skidded and weaved through the traffic, tearing off a bus’s wing mirror just one second before he ripped across the junction and narrowly avoided getting hit side-on by a Toyota Land Cruiser.
“Where the hell did he go?” Lea asked.
“You haven’t lost him, have you, Joe?” said Scarlet, disappointed. “I only got two shots off.”
“No – the little bastard’s just over there.”
He pointed to a narrow exit from the road running parallel to the Telecom Mongolia headquarters. Momentarily blocked by traffic the Rav 4 slowed and blasted the horn for the other cars to clear out the way.
Hawke took advantage and after driving the wrong way down a few hundred yards of Peace Avenue and causing the most terrific congestion and two small pile-ups, he managed to navigate the Qashqai right behind the Rav 4.
“Now he’s all ours,” Lexi said. She too pulled a gun from her holster and got ready for action. Behind them they heard police sirens, and they sounded like they were getting closer.
“That’s just great,” Hawke said, seeing the flashing blue lights in the rearview.
“Maybe if you hadn’t driven the wrong way down one of the main streets in the city they wouldn’t have been able to find us so easily,” Scarlet said. “You couldn’t have drawn any more attention to us if you’d sent them an embossed invitation delivered by a trumpeting herald.”
“Nice one,” Lea said, laughing.
“Yeah, funny,” Lexi added.
Hawke glared at her. “Hey, I did my best...”
“Yes... you’re only a man, after all,” Scarlet said.
“So I guess that was your best,” Lexi said.
“I'm outnumbered three to one,” Hawke said. “I never thought I’d say this but where the hell is Ryan Bale when you need him?”
“Then you’d be outnumbered four to one,” Scarlet said, smirking.
“Ouch,” Hawke said.
“Hey! I was married to him,” said Lea. “So leave him alone, Ice Maiden, all right?”
“Or what?” Scarlet said.
“Or I’ll box your bloody head off, that’s what.”
“Ladies, please!” Hawke said.
“No, I want to watch them fight!” Le
xi said.
“If it hadn’t escaped your attention,” Hawke said, “we’re in the middle of a pursuit right now, so can we just leave the handbags-at-dawn stuff for later?”
“The what stuff?!” Lea said.
“What a sexist pig!” Lexi said, tutting.
“You think you know someone...” Scarlet said gently, shaking her head.
Hawke felt like giving up, but a second later the Rav 4 was through a gap and driving down a narrow side street on the west side of the telecoms business. A couple of swift right turns later and he was heading back in the opposite direction, trying desperately to shake them from his tail.
Now, they were emerging into an expansive outside space surrounded by impressively grand buildings.
“Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Genghis Khan Square,” Lea said, reading off her mobile. “Previously known as Sükhbaatar Square, this is the centerpiece of the entire city and generally regarded as the key landmark.”
“Excellent,” Hawke said. “Then they won’t mind if we take a closer look because our man’s getting away.”
Ahead, the Rav 4 was turning right and driving east behind the imposing Government Palace, so Hawke made the split-second decision to drive across the square to cut him off.
He spun the wheel to the right and launched the Qashqai over the curb and into Genghis Khan Square. The engine growled as the tires slammed back down on the pavement with a chunky squeal. Tourists screamed and desperately charged out of the way as he accelerated the massive Nissan across the public landmark.
“You do realize, darling, that is a pedestrian zone?”
“Yes, thanks, Cairo, I did work that out all for myself.”
“Oh good. It’s just that a moment ago I thought we had a nice little chat about how only total idiots draw attention to themselves and it does occur to me that driving a large SUV at great speed through an area designed for ambling tourists would certainly fall into that category.”
Hawke sighed. “As I said... I thank you for your concern.” Below them, the wide tires rumbled as they raced across the square.
Lea was still looking at her iPhone. “Joe, things are going to get really difficult up ahead. From what I can tell the Rav’s about to head into a pretty built-up part of the city. I think we need to get on him right now.”
“Or why not just wait for the police to catch us both?” Scarlet said. “Because they’re right behind us.”
Hawke had been preoccupied with keeping tourists from bouncing off the Qashqai’s hood, but now he checked the rearview and found to his dismay that Cairo Sloane was right yet again.
“That’s all we need.”
“I did tell you, dear... would you like me to ask them to go away?”
“I guess we have no choice,” Hawke said.
Scarlet and Lexi both leaned out their windows and began to unload their magazines into the Kia Rio following them at great speed, lights flashing and sirens blaring.
“They’re insane,” Lea said.
“They’re in competition,” Hawke said quietly. “And that can only be good for us right now.”
A second later he watched the Kia skid off to the left, out of control – its front tires blown out.
“Good shooting,” Hawke said.
“Thanks,” Scarlet and Lexi both said at the same time.
“Hey!” Lexi said. “That was my kill, not yours.”
“I don't think so, darling. It was the left front which was blown out first – look at the direction it pulled off in. All mine.”
“I shot at the left as well.”
“Hush now,” Lea said. “Mum and Dad are very proud of you both.”
“He’s stuck in traffic!” Hawke said, racing towards the Rav.
“And he’s getting out of the sodding car!” Lea said.
Scarlet smirked and reloaded the Storm. “Two can play at that game.”
A second later and they were sprinting from the deserted Qashqai and giving chase through the backstreets of Ulan Bator. It was cold now, winter in the north and getting late in the day. The sun was pale against the concrete government buildings and residential tower blocks as they pursued the fleeing man.
Hawke watched the man as he desperately ran for his life. Then, Scarlet fired a couple of shots over his head, the sounds of her bullets were two thin cracks in the bustling city air. Pedestrians turned to see what was happening, a man in a taxi pulled up and began to film them on his phone.
“This guy’s really beginning to piss me off,” Hawke said.
“Why isn't he shooting back?” said Lea.
Lexi smiled. “Maybe he has no weapon!”
“Or maybe he’s under orders not to harm us,” said Scarlet.
Hawke said: “Either way, we need a chat with him.”
A few minutes later the man stumbled over a curb and flew to the floor like a rag doll. He cartwheeled uncontrollably before tumbling into a heap in the gutter. Before he could move an inch Hawke was on him, and grabbed him tightly by the throat.
“Please!” said the man. “Don't kill me! I meant you no harm... I just...”
“What is it?” Hawke said. He squeezed his throat a little, just to add a small incentive to cooperate.
“Please... I can’t breathe!”
“That’s sort of the point,” Scarlet said, and kicked the man hard in the balls.
Instinctively he tried to double-up in pain, but Hawke’s hand around his throat made this almost impossible.
“Is there a man alive you won’t do that too?” Hawke asked.
Scarlet shrugged and Hawke returned his attention to the pleading man.
“Who are you?”
“My name’s Altan. I’m just a local private investigator, that’s all.”
“A likely story.”
“It’s true! Look me up on the internet – my card’s in my top pocket – please just take it.”
Lea leaned in and took a small business card from his pocket.
“Anyone here speak Russian?” she said.
“It’s not Russian,” Lexi said. “It’s Mongolian. It’s just written in Russian Cyrillic. Don’t they teach you people anything?” She took the card and glanced at it for a second. “It says he’s a private investigator, but that’s an easy cover to give yourself with a two dollar business card.”
“Why were you following us?” Lea said coolly, ignoring Lexi’s jibe.
“I was just told to keep an eye on you, that’s all. No harm. I was never going to hurt you, I swear it!”
“I’d like to see you try,” Scarlet purred.
“And who told you to watch us?” Hawke said.
“An American, that’s all I know.”
“I think you know more than that,” Scarlet said, pulling her foot back and readying for a second kick. A warped smile spread across her face.
“No! Please, no! All right, I’ll tell you. I was hired by an American man named Bradley Karlsson. That’s is all I know, I promise you! I don’t know anything else about him.”
“Come come, Altan,” Scarlet said. “I’m sure you can be more helpful than that. Remember what’s at stake.” She pulled her boot back and squinted one eye as she aimed in between his legs.
“Okay – but this really is all I know. Bradley Karlsson flew into Ulan Bator yesterday and hired me to follow you. That’s all I know. He said he was with the US Government. Please,” Altan strained through Hawke’s iron grip, his eyes crawling from his groin up to Scarlet’s boot, “please, that is the truth.”
“We’ll see about that,” said Hawke, and knocked him out. They dragged his body off the road and propped him up against a building. Now Hawke was starting to lose patience. Every time he thought he was making progress something happened to confuse him even more. Now, there was a rogue American agent by the name of Karlsson on the scene, but how the hell he knew about what they were doing and where they should be, he had no idea.
“So what now?” Scarlet asked.
�
��A tough call,” Hawke said, “but I say we get to the Khan museum as fast as possible. Whoever this Karlsson is he obviously knows a lot more about us than we do about him, and for all we know he could be one step ahead of us as well. All we can do is stick to the plan and hope for the best.”
“The classic SBS strategy,” Scarlet said, smirking.
Then Lea’s phone rang.
“Hold on, guys!” she said. “It’s Ryan.”
She answered her phone and spoke with him for a few moments.
“What’s up?” Hawke said when she hung up.
“He says that the thirteenth chapter reference on the back of the portrait is referring to something called the Secret History of the Mongols. Apparently it was an ancient manuscript written when Genghis Khan died and it’s been lost for centuries.”
“This day just gets better,” Scarlet said.
Hawke agreed with Scarlet and tipped his head back to look at the sky. He took a deep breath in and a few seconds out. As if things weren’t bad enough, they now wanted him to track down a manuscript that had been missing for hundreds of years.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hawke looked out over the enormous plains as they made the journey to the Genghis Khan Complex, easily imagining the vast armies of Genghis and later Kublai Khan crossing this country on horseback as they expanded their mighty empire. It was here, on these plains that Genghis Khan built the greatest empire ever known by man.
They pulled up in the car park outside the complex and got out the car.
“This is actually the middle of nowhere,” Scarlet said. “I mean I’ve heard the expression before but now I actually know where it is physically located on the globe.”
“No, I don't think so,” Lea said. “I went to Edinburgh once.”
“No, darling,” purred Scarlet smugly. “You’re confusing middle of nowhere with arse-end of nowhere.”
Hawke stared at the massive statue of the Great Khan. It was at the end of an enormous series of giant stone steps which swept up a grassy hill ahead of them. A few tourists ambled here and there, many taking pictures of themselves with the statue in the background. A light breeze, cold and sharp, blew off the plains and cut into them as they made their way inside.