“Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”
Virgil nodded, struggling as he pulled himself to a standing position. “Yeah. We have to finish it.”
The two old friends raised their swords, the blades pointed at each other. With a cry, both Dante and Virgil plunged their weapons into each other’s chests. They both froze for a moment, blades sticking through their bodies, and then collapsed into the water.
CHAPTER 23
Tauna and Dalton both entered Outlaw Blues. It was empty and as soon as Mickey saw them, he instantly excused himself and walked out the front door. In the corner of the bar, seated at a table, were Marco and Jackal.
The two approached, Dalton still cringing somewhat. He’d survived the assault on the Agency facility, but he was still recovering from his injuries. Marco stood from the table and waved them over. Jackal barely even looked up from his laptop.
“So what now?” asked Dalton as he sat.
“The Cobra Club was torn apart,” said Marco. “Agency offices were stormed and every agent on duty was apprehended.”
“Not before they devastated Dante’s island,” said Tauna.
“So it’s over?” asked Dalton. “Infernum, the Agency, all of it?”
“There are remnants of the Agency out there, still trying to figure out what to do next,” said Marco. “Without any sort of active leadership and with many offices shuttered, some have moved into the mercenary game. Things aren’t any less chaotic out there, I’m afraid.”
“No, but at least people are making choices for themselves,” said Tauna.
“And Dante? Virgil?” asked Dalton.
“Two bodies matching their descriptions were found at the Cobra Club,” said Marco. “Some very powerful people were there, too. But their identities are being kept out of it.”
“Wouldn’t expect anything less,” said Dalton.
Tauna looked at the fourth man who sat with them. He still hadn’t even acknowledged their presence, just remained busy with his laptop. Finally, she leaned towards him.
“Jackal, you’ve been uncharacteristically quiet since we arrived. Is there something you have to say?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” said Jackal. “There’s a message for you.”
Tauna blinked. “From him?” Her tone was nervous. Almost frightened of what she might see.
Jackal nodded. He turned the computer towards her. It was a video, the PLAY button over the screen tempting her. Tauna stared at the screen for a few moments, the cursor hovering over that button. She nearly jumped when she felt Dalton’s hand on her shoulder.
“You want us to leave you alone while you watch?” he asked.
Tauna thought for a moment. Then she shook her head. “No, it’s okay.” She hit the button and the video began to play.
Dante’s face filled the screen. He was sitting in the home in Costa Rica, evidently before he and Virgil made the trip out to the Cobra Club to take down the Cabal and Venom. There was something Tauna had never seen in his eyes before, a kind of resignation.
“Tauna,” began Dante. “If you’re seeing this video, that means I am dead. Hopefully, my death was simply the coda on the Cabal’s existence. Virgil and I are joining together again in order to finish what we’d started, to make sure all of this is torn down.
“If the Cabal isn’t dead, then you know what you must do. I need you to continue our work and see to it that they are destroyed. With any luck, Virgil and I would have at the very least struck them a devastating blow.”
Dante paused on the video. He took a deep breath and then continued. “But even if the Cabal is dead, the war isn’t over. Men like Johnny Venom still exist in the world. They’ve existed for as long as mankind has been around. Despite what Virgil may think, I don’t believe the world is going to change just because we kill thirteen men. A void has now been created and that void cries to be filled. Nature abhors a vacuum, we both know this.
“What I am telling you is that the Cabal will rise again. In some form or another, there will be people who fill that vacancy. And if that is the case, they will need to be opposed.
“That is where you come in. Virgil may believe that by implicating me in this whole fiasco that he has crippled our organization. He hasn’t. I still have resources out there, many of which Jackal can now provide you with access to.
“When we first met, I saw a fire inside of you. And now I am asking you to utilize that fire. Not in service of me any longer, but in service of your own goals. Take that fire, turn it into a raging inferno. And bring it against the Cabal, or whoever would dare oppose you.
“Infernum needs to continue and for that, it needs a leader. Someone strong enough to face these threats head on. There is only one person I trust with my legacy, and that is you. So don’t fuck this up.”
The video ended. Silence fell over the group after that, all of them looking down at the table. Jackal turned the computer back towards him and checked some things. His eyes widened as he did.
“Holy shit…” He looked up at Tauna. “I’ve now got access to bank accounts all over the world. We’re talking billions of dollars of funding. Not to mention contact lists for operatives just about anywhere we need them.”
“This is insane…” muttered Dalton. He looked up at Tauna. “What are you going to do?”
“All of Infernum’s resources are now at your fingertips, Tauna,” said Marco. “I’m sure there are people out there already trying to take over from the Cabal. But this…it’s a pretty big responsibility.”
Tauna stood from the table and turned her back on her group. She reached into her pocket and took out the balisong. It wasn’t the same as the one she’d used all those years ago on the night she first met Dante. But it still served as a useful symbol. Unfurling the blade, she examined it, the bar’s dim light reflecting off its metal surface. She folded it back up and placed it in her pocket, then glanced at the ring on her finger. The red gemstone with the Chinese character for fire engraved into its surface.
She’d devoted her entire adult life to Dante’s cause. Now she had an opportunity to change all that. To just walk away, let someone else take control of this. Or to take that money and do something different with it.
But they would never stop. She knew that. They would keep on coming. And Dante was right, someone had to oppose them. Tauna returned to the table and looked down at the three men.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Marco took a breath. “To be honest, I was kind of hoping to retire and put all this behind me. But then I think that I’d just get bored as hell. We still have a job to do, and I at least want to hang around to see the Agency remnants taken down.”
“I’m onboard,” said Jackal. “I’ve got nothing better to do. And you’re going to need someone to take care of all this. So long as you keep paying me, I’m on your side, Tigress.”
Tauna nodded her thanks to both of them. She looked at Dalton, who was staring off to the side. She knew he’d hoped to put all this behind him. That he never wanted anything to do with Infernum anymore.
“You want to leave, don’t you?” she asked.
Dalton snapped his head in her direction. “Is that what you think?”
“Am I wrong?”
He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t want to leave. But…”
“You can’t be a part of this.”
“Can you blame me?” Dalton reached inside his jacket and took out a cigarette. “I’m a thief, Tauna. Not an assassin. I’m not sure how good I’d be to you in this capacity.”
“We could always use a man of your skill,” said Tauna.
Dalton scoffed and lit his cigarette. He took a drag and exhaled the smoke. “What the hell. Count me in, too.”
A smile slowly spread over Tauna’s lips. “Let’s get started.”
EPILOGUE
A woman with dark hair walked out onto the Tahitian beach. She strolled along the cost, dressed in a swimsuit with a shawl wrapped around he
r waist, billowing in the warm breeze. Her large, dark sunglasses concealed her eyes and she walked barefoot, the water gently lapping at her feet.
A beachfront bar was nearby and she approached it, climbing onto the wooden planks. She sat down at the bar beside another young woman, whose blond hair was cropped about chin-length. The blond turned her head and removed her sunglasses, looking at her new companion. The dark-haired woman did the same and the two stared at each other for a few minutes.
“Can I help you?” asked the bartender to the new arrival.
“Margarita, please,” said the dark-haired woman.
The bartender nodded and walked away to prepare the drink.
The blond looked ahead and picked up her Long Island iced tea, taking a sip from the straw. “How’d you find me, Julie?”
“I’ve got my ways…” said Julie, “…Angela.”
The bartender set the drink down in front of her. Julie smiled and nodded her thanks and began nursing the margarita.
“Did you hear what happened in DC?”
“I don’t hear a lot these days.”
“He’s gone,” said Julie. “Dante. The Agency, too.”
Angela Lockhart felt a smile tug at the edges of her lips. But she maintained her composure. “And you’re sure of that? Not the first time we’ve thought Dante was dead.”
“Seems pretty conclusive this time.”
“Your doing?”
“I played a part, I guess. Nearly got myself killed in the process.”
“I see.” Angela took another sip of her drink. “So you tracked me down just for that?”
“I thought you’d like to know that it’s all over now. For good this time,” said Julie. “We never have to worry about Dante or Chandler or anyone else breathing down our necks. Can just relax and enjoy the rest of our lives.”
Angela sighed. “You know, after I killed Quartermain, I thought it’d finally bring me peace. I destroyed the man who took my husband away. I got my revenge after years. But I felt like it wasn’t enough.”
Julie stared at her drink and gave a nod. “I know what you mean. Thought the same thing when I went after Carl Flint for killing Christian. But after Flint was dead, that itch lingered. I didn’t feel like I’d really accomplished anything. At first, I thought it was because Dante was still out there.”
“And now that he’s gone?” asked Angela. “What do you feel?”
Julie shook her head. “The same. Dante and the Agency may be gone, but it still feels like I haven’t really accomplished a whole hell of a lot. How fucked up is that?”
“Maybe things haven’t really changed,” said Angela. “Or maybe no amount of vengeance could ever make up for what we’d lost.”
Julie scoffed. “Or maybe it’s because we’re now left without a purpose. Soldiers without a war, women without a country. The Agency gave us purpose. And after that was taken away, Infernum gave us another purpose. Now they’re both gone. So what are we supposed to do?”
Angela sighed ordered another drink. “Maybe it’s time we go find a purpose of our own instead of waiting for someone else to come along and give it to us.”
“Sounds like a nice thought.”
Once Angela’s fresh drink arrived, she held up her glass. Julie did the same but before they clinked them together, Angela held hers back.
“A toast,” she said.
“To what?” asked Julie.
“To figuring out just what the hell we’re supposed to do now.”
Julie smiled. They clinked their glasses together and drank.
***
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FIND A NEW ADVENTURE!
Thank you for reading Shadow Brokers! This is the final book in the Infernum series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
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Turn the page for some of my final thoughts on this series.
AUTHOR NOTES
Infernum first came to life as a screenplay. The story told in the first book, Love & Bullets, was supposed to be a student film directed by my good friend, Kyle Shire. He’d come up with the basic outline for the story of Angela Lockhart, Dante, and Infernum and he’d asked me to not only play the role of Dante but to also write the screenplay for him.
Unfortunately, although we’d filmed some scenes, the movie itself was never actually completed. But the characters always stuck with me and so I wanted to tell this story.
With Kyle’s permission, I first embarked on that journey by transforming the screenplay into a comic book script. The first change to come was the title. Kyle’s film was titled Codename: Black Widow, but I didn’t want to stick with that for obvious confusion with the Marvel Comics character. So I changed the title to Love & Bullets, which I thought fit the story a lot better.
Other changes came as well. Christian Pierce was originally just a completely innocent bystander who got sucked into Angela’s world. I changed this and made him into an Agency operative himself and also gave him his partner, Julie Kim.
My initial idea for the comic was to do a series of limited series, each one focusing on a different Infernum operative. I’d initially worked with artist Keith Jim to try and develop a comic and we came out with one issue. Unfortunately, it never went beyond that.
A few years passed and finally, I decided to adapt the script into a book. The result was the first novella in the Infernum series. Once I’d published it, I laid out a rough outline for a ten-book series.
Unfortunately, as time went on, I realized that wasn’t really feasible. Despite having fun writing the series, it’s never really performed terribly well, The books have sold pretty dismally, in fact. But I know this series did have fans so rather than just ignore them and drop the series completely, I decided to come up with a conclusion.
These last two books in the series, The Fixers and Shadow Brokers, both take plot elements from a few books in the series I’d roughly planned. I knew I wanted to bring Angela back in another book to complete her story and I also knew I wanted a story about an Agency black ops team. Those two ideas were combined together.
This book, some readers may remember, was first announced as Dante. But as I wrote it (and with the input of people in my writers group), I changed the title to Shadow Brokers. This also combines two stories together—one the end of Dante, which was always the plan, and another with a bit of Tauna’s backstory.
It’s been fun writing these books, but sadly the party had to end some time. I’d like to thank Kyle Shire for first helping me develop these characters. As well as Maggie Carlin, my best friend who was supposed to play Angela and helped me a lot in the development of both Angela and Dante when I was writing the screenplay and later when we’d rehearse and film some scenes. Also Roxy Lacerna, who was supposed to play Tauna. I’ve always written both Angela and Tauna with the images of these two wonderful women in those roles and I hope I’ve done them justice.
Furthermore, I want to thank my writers group. When I decided to completely overhaul the covers, they were the ones who helped me come up with the versions you see. Every time I’ve thought of giving up, they were there to slap me around and tell me to keep at it. They’re wonderfully supportive and I don’t know where I’d be without them.
And finally, thanks to those of you who have bought and reviewed these books. I hope you enjoyed the series. Also remember that books are forever. If you’ve enjoyed the series, then please continue to support it. Review the books on Amazon and Goodreads, give them to other people who might
enjoy them, recommend them to your local libraries or book clubs.
Who knows? Maybe if there’s a spike in demand for them, Infernum could make a return some day…
Perry Constantine
Kagoshima, Japan
May, 2016
ALSO BY PERCIVAL CONSTANTINE
THE MYTH HUNTER
All the legends of the world have some element of truth to them. And to track down those legends, there are the myth hunters. Some, like Elisa Hill, are explorers, trying to learn more about the world. And some are soldiers of fortune, whose only goal is pro t and exploitation, no matter the risk.
INFERNUM
A shadowy, globe-spanning network of operatives run by the mysterious power broker known as Dante. They hold allegiance to no one, existing as rogues on the fringes of society. No matter the job, Infernum has an operative to execute it—provided you have the means to pay for it!
VANGUARD
The world has changed. A mysterious event altered the genetic structure of humanity, granting a small percentage of the population superhuman powers. A small team of these specials has been formed to deal with potential threats. Paragon—telekinetic powerhouse; Zenith—hyper-intelligent automaton; Shift—shape-changing teenager; Wraith—teleporting shadow warrior; Sharkskin—human/shark hybrid. Led by the armored Gunsmith, they are Vanguard!
LUTHER CROSS
Luther Cross has been through Hell—literally. Born of a mother he watched die, conceived as part of a demonic ritual, and raised by monks after being saved by a mysterious, murderous individual, Cross now makes a living through confidence schemes...and the death of demons.
Shadow Brokers (Infernum Book 5) Page 10