She looked up, following the trunk of the closest large tree, toward the night sky. The thick branches toward the top were marred with light-colored scratches. “They’re still here.”
“Not here,” Rook said, lifting the night vision goggles from his eyes and looking at Queen in the moonlight. She was dressed, head to toe, in black with her blond hair tucked up inside a black skullcap. She carried an UMP submachine gun. The woman was as deadly as she was beautiful, something Rook had to remind himself about every time his eyes trailed over the curves of her face, or body. “We’re looking in the wrong place. The hybrids lived here, with Weston, when he was the Father. And none of them actually lived inside Meru, not at the core at least. But now Weston is dead, and—”
“And you, being made the new Father, became a deadbeat dad and left them.” Queen flashed a grin.
“They never did ask for child support,” Rook said. “But the old mothers didn’t live here.”
She closed her eyes and nodded, remembering the stories told by Rook, Knight, and Bishop, who had seen more of the Neanderthal’s underground world than she or King. “The Necropolis.”
“That’s the place.”
“Which way?”
“South, past the river.”
Queen stepped past him. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Rook watched Queen move past him and head south. They hadn’t been on a mission since leaving the jungles of Vietnam a year earlier, and though they had trained continuously since then, something felt different. Queen had always been detail-oriented and focused. Driven. But now her guard was down. Not quite laid back, but indifferent to life and death.
Over the past year, she had not once mentioned the scar on her forehead, at least not to anyone on the team, and he seriously doubted she’d been to see a professional. The brand, a skull inside a star, had been burned into her forehead by Major-General Trung, commander of the Death Volunteers. It was a torture few people could endure without lasting side effects. And while Queen wasn’t most people, the brutal act had changed her. Being trained to hide her feelings from the enemy, she would have no trouble hiding them from the team. But Rook could see it.
He realized he might be seeing something because he was looking too hard. His concern for her had grown over the past year, but he kept his thoughts to himself, afraid talking would reveal his true feelings. Was his worry for her well-being corrupting his assessment of her abilities? That seemed more likely than Queen going soft. Rook frowned. He was going soft. And being back in this jungle with her, where they had shared a brief kiss … He shook his head, trying to stay focused on the mission before his own distractions put them both in danger.
EIGHT
30,000 Feet Above Uluru, Australia
AFTER SWINGING OVER Vietnam to drop off Rook and Queen, the Crescent turned south and, flying at Mach 2 (1,522 mph), covered the three-thousand-two-hundred-mile distance in two hours. Bishop and Knight spent the last hour prebreathing for their impending HALO jump. They felt the stealth transport shift as its speed slowed, signaling their final approach to Ayers Rock, known as Uluru to the aboriginal Australians.
Uluru, a one-thousand-one-hundred-forty-two-foot-tall sandstone formation with a six-mile circumference stood out on the flat desert of central Australia like a crater in reverse. It had amazing views, three hundred sixty degrees of crags and fissures perfect for climbing, historical value as an ancient watering hole for desert travelers, and an ancient spiritual site of great importance since one of the sacred “Dreamtime” tracks—the paths taken by the Creator Beings as they walked the young earth—cut directly through the giant stone.
Knight and Bishop stood and walked to the hatch. Both had slept for the majority of the six-hour flight from Fort Bragg to Vietnam and had spent most of the time since then in silence—Bishop in meditation, Knight in study.
The pilot’s voice filled the cabin. “Two minutes. Prep for jump.”
“Copy that,” Knight said, closing his binder and standing up.
With their prebreathing complete and the LZ approaching, Knight and Bishop got down to the business of prejump preparation, which for the Chess Team meant a quick refortification of their close bond.
Bishop, standing nearly a foot taller than Knight, looked down at him. “How’s Grandma Dae-jung doing?”
“Could use some of that hoodoo juice from Manifold. Well, not the stuff you got. Grandma regen would not be a pretty picture.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Let’s just say I don’t think King’s mom’s funeral will be the last one I go to this year.”
“We go to.”
Knight smiled. “Thanks.”
“You ready to bag and tag some aboriginals?”
Knight’s smile widened as he laughed. “Bag and tag some aboriginals? You’ve been spending too much time around Rook.”
Bishop took the crystal hanging around his neck, gave it a kiss, and tucked it beneath his black jumpsuit. “Just finding my sense of humor again.”
The light above them switched from red to green. A moment later, the back hatch opened. Both men closed their helmets over their heads, which allowed them to use their night vision as they descended at terminal velocity. Knight gave Bishop a thumbs-up. Bishop nodded. And the pair leapt, one after the other, into the whipping, frigid winds above Uluru. The Crescent, invisible in the night sky, banked away and disappeared.
Knight focused on the ground below. Their targets had been watched via satellite throughout the day. A group of twenty people, five of whom were on the list the team had received, had spent the night around a bonfire, reenacting the rituals, dancing, and storytelling of their ancestors. The fire, being the only source of light for three hundred miles, was easy to spot and the Delta duo aimed their bodies, now living missiles, toward the fiery target. The group of aboriginals was tucked inside a deep valley, which meant they would have to land on the nearby desert and hike in. The trek would only add a few minutes to their travel time, but with helicopters already inbound and due to arrive in twenty minutes, there was no time to delay.
As they closed in, Knight’s keen eyes saw an aberration far above the target area. “What the…” He’d seen something moving. He squinted, searching for movement, but found nothing.
“What is it?” Bishop asked, his voice coming in clear through Knight’s earphone.
“I don’t know. I—” Movement streaked across Knight’s vision again and he saw it for what it was. “Never mind. Condensation on my visor.”
“Knight, Bishop, you read?” Deep Blue’s voice filled their ears.
“Loud and clear,” Bishop replied.
“Listen, there’s some seismic activity in the area some of the analysts are concerned about. Shouldn’t be a big deal, but the sandstone valley is crisscrossed by tiny fissures created by thousands of years of rain runoff.”
“Got it,” Knight said. “Watch for falling rocks.”
“Exactly.”
“Thanks for the heads-up, Blue, but it’s time to pull!”
Bishop and Knight’s parachutes deployed like gunshots, ripping open one thousand feet from the desert floor. Seconds later, they were rolling on the ground, gathering their chutes, and running toward the faint glow of the nearby valley, where large shadows danced in the firelight.
Sometimes, after completing a HALO jump, rookies stumbled on shaky legs or fell to their knees, wobbly from adrenaline. But Bishop and Knight had long ago overcome the post-jump shakes, so when both men suddenly found themselves off balance, they knew something was wrong.
They paused.
“That was a little more than a tremor,” Bishop said.
Knight placed his bare hand on the ground. The sand was shaking, as though to the steady rhythm of a bass-laden hip-hop song. Either that or something—
Knight’s head shot up as a distant squeal rolled over the desert. “Was that a car?”
Bishop shook his head, cautiously moving toward the valley ahead. “
I don’t think so. It sounded more like a—”
The scream came again, this time shrill and very human. Both men slid their weapons from their backs and ran as fast as they could to the cacophony of terrified cries pouring from the valley, praying someone would still be breathing when they arrived.
NINE
Richmond, Virgina
KING’S JAW HURT from fifteen minutes of grinding teeth. The drive back to his childhood home had been slowed by traffic and had taken ten minutes longer than usual. All the while, he worried about having to have his father, who he’d just been reunited with, committed to some kind of mental institution. And with ten years of anger and frustration yet to be expressed, let alone forgiven, King was not happy about his father getting the clean slate a mental illness would provide.
He reminded himself that when his father left, he’d been sane. That, at least, provided him with some anger to hold on to. He glanced over at his father, who watched their hometown pass in a blur as they rounded Swanson Drive, the last in a series of suburban streets that led to the house. The man’s face was older, more wrinkled, but at peace.
A day after burying Mom and he doesn’t have a care in the world, King thought.
“Ignorance is bliss, right?” King said under his breath.
To his surprise, his father had heard. “That’s why crazy people are so happy.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
Peter grinned at him. “Except I’m not crazy.”
“Mom’s dead, Dad.”
“Buried her yesterday.”
King nodded, glancing quickly at his father. The man was certifiable. “Open casket.”
“Did you look at her wedding ring?”
The rock in his mother’s engagement ring had been red. A ruby. Given to Peter by his soon-to-be fiancée’s father, a German jeweler. King thought about his mother’s body, about her hands folded over her chest. He couldn’t recall seeing the ring.
“Didn’t, did you?”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” King said, becoming annoyed with the insanity of this conversation and the disrespect it showed his mother.
“You know, you were a smart kid. I thought you could tell the difference between your mom’s body and a wax figure. Cost a pretty penny.”
“Just … shut up until we get home.”
A gentle ring sounded from his father’s pocket. King shot him a curious glance. “Thought you were hard up for money.”
Peter smiled. “Did I say that?” He answered the phone. “Hey.” He looked at King while he listened. “We’re almost there. No, not yet. He’s okay. Shaken. Yup. Okay. Love you, too, Babushka.”
King’s eyes were wide and his foot had fallen off the gas pedal. Babushka. He hadn’t heard the word in ten years and its use—a pet name for his mother—came slamming back into his mind. He grew serious, with murderous intent in his eyes. “That’s not funny.”
His father held out the phone. “You can ring her back if you want, but I think seeing her in person would—”
King yanked the wheel, turning onto Oak Lane, and hit the gas. Twin streaks of black rubber lanced out from the back tires as the car shot down the street. A second set of streaks squealed onto the pavement as, fifteen seconds later, King hit the brakes. He slammed the car into park in the middle of the street, flung himself from the car, and ran for the front door.
King twisted the doorknob and put his shoulder into the door like he was raiding a terrorist training camp. He scoured the living room and found it empty. Circling through the dining room, he entered the kitchen, where his mother spent most of her time either cooking or sitting in the breakfast nook, looking out at the backyard trees and her bird feeders.
The kitchen was empty. Feeling a growing anger at his father for perpetrating such a sick joke, but clinging to desperate hope, he opened the fridge. A full pitcher of lemonade, swirling with pulp, rested on the top shelf. King stared at the amber liquid and just as he started wondering if his father had come here earlier and made it himself, a gentle feminine voice broke his heart.
“Sorry to cause you so much pain, Jack—”
King turned and faced his mother, his legs weak, his mouth hanging open.
“But it had to be convincing.”
* * *
A TALL GLASS of lemonade sat untouched in front of King. He sat at the small breakfast nook table with his returned father and still living mother, listening to an unbelievable tale. But what struck him more than their story was their affection. It was as though his father had never left. Their hands remained entwined the entire time. Their eyes glowed with love for each other. King had entered the Twilight Zone, and like William Shatner, wanted to throw open a door and shoot something. Instead, he picked up his perspiring glass and took a long swallow of lemonade. He placed the glass on the table and looked at his parents. They weren’t decrepitly old, but their age showed, which made their story so much harder to believe.
“Spies.”
His mother pursed her lips after taking a sip of lemonade and nodded.
“Russian.”
“He’s catching on, Lynn,” Peter said.
King looked at his father. “And you’ve been locked up for ten years, in the minimum security prison in Butner.”
“Told you I’d been in Butner. Now you can see why I never came to visit you.”
King rubbed his face. This was all too much. “And you went to prison—”
“I told you already, before the Cold War ended, your mother and I had fallen in love with this country. We kept our new identities and broke all ties with the Soviets in 1988.”
“Did they ever come after you?” King asked.
“Just once,” Peter said.
“And?”
Lynn took another drink, her eyebrows reaching up to her dark hair. When it was clear Peter wasn’t going to answer, she gave a gentle cough, smiled, and said, “I shot him. You were just a baby then.” She smiled at King’s shocked expression. “Don’t worry, he lived.”
“After that,” Peter added, “the Cold War ended in 1991 and we were forgotten about.”
“This is why you were opposed to Julie joining the military?”
His father nodded. “I wanted you both to live different lives, and to never fear for yours. But it seems the military is part of our genetic makeup.” He sighed. “If your sister had listened—”
Lynn put her hand on Peter’s arm. “Not now.”
His nod was nearly imperceptible. “When Julie died I thought it might not have been an accident. I started poking around. But was rusty. Asked too many questions. Was spotted poking around the base. Federal agents looked into my past and learned the truth.”
“I gave them every name and contact I had and was totally honest about what secrets we had sent home in exchange for your mother’s freedom and your continued belief that I had simply left. I got out of jail two weeks ago.”
“Why wait this long to tell me?”
His father began to reply, but King interrupted.
“And why fake Mom’s death?”
“There are elements in the current Russian government that are attempting to return to old Cold War policies. Shortly after my release we were contacted by an old KGB handler who assumed the dead end in our file back home meant we were sleeper agents.”
Lynn looked out the window, her eyes watching the shuffle of spring leaves in the wind. “We’ve been reactivated.”
“So you faked your death to what, escape?”
She nodded.
King chuckled.
“You think this is funny?” his father asked.
“You should have come to me from the beginning.” He looked at both his parents, amused, surprised, and thrilled to have them both back. “I have friends that could help.”
“You’re a soldier, son. This is the spy business,” Peter said. “Who do you know that could help us, chess pieces?”
King squinted at his father. “How did you know my call si
gn?”
Lynn smiled. “You let your guard down at home … and I’m a good spy.”
King’s stunned silence was interrupted by his cell phone. He ignored its ring as another question entered his mind. “What’s my real last name?”
“Our last name was Machtcenko. Yours has been and will always be Sigler.”
The phone chimed again.
“My maiden name,” his mother added. “Your grandfather really was German.”
“And a jeweler?”
She nodded.
As the phone rang a third time, King looked at the caller ID display and frowned.
“Who is it?”
“Unknown.” Which on King’s phone was virtually impossible. Thanks to Deep Blue, absolutely everyone who called this phone appeared in caller I.D., regardless of their personal preference. That this call showed as “unknown” meant the caller had impressive resources of their own. King stood and answered the phone. “Who is this?”
The unfamiliar voice on the other end was deep and strong. “Where are you, King?”
“You’ve got ten seconds to tell me who you are and then I—”
“Get back to Bragg, King. I’ll do what I can, but I’m not sure it will be enough.”
The line went dead.
As the pieces of the puzzle came together, King moved toward the front door.
“What’s wrong?” his mother asked.
“She’s in trouble.”
“Who is?”
“Fiona.”
His parents were on their feet, trailing him out the front door to the car, which his father had moved into the driveway. “Who is Fiona?”
Upon reaching the driver’s side door, King turned to his parents. “My daughter—foster daughter.”
He entered the car and started the engine. But before he could put it into reverse, the doors to the backseat opened and his parents climbed in. “What are you doing?”
His mother leaned over the backseat. “We’re coming to help.”
“This is going to be dangerous.”
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