The Devil You Know

by Sam Sisavath

  A low, pained groan drew Quinn’s attention, and she looked back down at Porter. His head had turned in her direction, and blood dripped from his face from his shattered nose. He was breathing, but it was heavily labored.

  “You’re still alive, aren’t you?” she asked.

  Porter stared silently, impassively, back at her.

  “Good,” Quinn said, “because you’re no use to me dead.”

  Epilogue

  “They were keeping Aaron in a separate container, but the brat somehow managed to get loose.” Xiao shook her head. “Don’t ask me how. I think he turned into a troll and slipped free, but he won’t cop to it.”

  Quinn smiled. It was nice to hear the fake disdain in Xiao’s voice. Only Aaron could bring that out in her, and the two of them together again somehow made everything seem saner. And she needed that right now in the worst way.

  “How’s he doing?” Quinn asked.

  “A few scrapes, but he’ll be up and annoying me again in no time.”

  “Zoe?”

  “She wasn’t on the boat and they didn’t leave any clues to her current whereabouts. They could be holding her anywhere.”

  “Porter knows where she is.”

  “Good point. Add another item to the list of things Porter has to answer for.” Xiao nodded at the thick glass observation window in front of them. “What about her?”

  Quinn looked in at the large room next to theirs as two nurses checked on people in a half dozen beds. Sarah lay unmoving on one of them, her body hooked up to machines that beeped at soothing intervals. The others were soldiers that had survived the assault on the Winter, but Quinn didn’t know any of them by name.

  “The doctors don’t know yet,” Quinn said. “Porter was right about one thing: as long as the brain remains intact, she can heal. Eventually.”

  “Eventually?”

  “She took a beating. The explosion on the road, then Porter on the ship. They don’t know how long it’s going to take for her to fully recover, but her body seems to be responding.”

  A woman Quinn hadn’t seen before entered the room from a side door. She glanced over at them before walking over to Sarah’s bed and talking to one of the nurses.

  “Who’s that?” Quinn asked.

  “You don’t recognize her?” Xiao said.

  “Should I?”

  “Her name’s Amelie. She’s the one who saved both of us.”

  The Wilshire service center…

  “I never saw her face,” Quinn said. “She had one of those blurring devices on at the time. What’s she doing here?”

  “She can’t go back to her old life after saving little ol’ me, so she’s officially on the payroll.”

  “You’re talking about our mysterious benefactor.”

  “Uh huh. Speaking of the devil, he wants to see us whenever we’re ready. I told him it might not be until tomorrow. We’ll do it whenever you’re ready.”

  “No time like the present.”

  “You sure?”

  “No, but I don’t think I’ll ever be sure about anything anymore, so it’ll have to do.”

  She gave Sarah’s unmoving body a final look before leaving the room with Xiao.

  They stepped outside and into a concrete hallway lit by bright LED lights along the ceiling. It was like entering a different world after the sterile environment of the sickbay viewing area. Ventilation ducts recycled a constant flow of fresh air around them and was the only other sound except for their dull footsteps.

  “How much do you think a place like this costs?” Quinn asked.

  “He told me he bought it from someone who wasn’t using it,” Xiao said. “Supposed to be off the books. No one knows it even exists anymore, apparently.”

  “That must have taken some doing.”

  “He had five years to get ready and the bucks to make it happen.” Xiao shook her head. “All this time, and there was always just one man behind Porter. Benefactor, not benefactors.”

  “He never told you?”

  “He never told me a lot of things, the shithead.”

  “That’s going to change.”

  “You got that right.”

  They took a corner and went down a new corridor, this one with two men in assault vests and P90s standing guard outside a metal door on the other end.

  “How many men does he have?” Quinn asked.

  “A few hundred running around in here and topside,” Xiao said. “He’s already got new blood on the way to replace the ones he lost in the assault. He’s been building himself a private army in Africa for the last five years. They didn’t even know who was funding them until they were called up.”

  “Must be nice to have money.”

  “It sure doesn’t hurt. Not that I would know.”

  “What about the containers on the ship? Anything there?”

  “He’s got people painstakingly going over every single one of them now. One thing they’re already certain of is that putting you guys on that boat was a happy coincidence. They were always going to use the Winter. Its cargo was important to them; it just happened to be going to the same destination as you four.”

  As they neared the end of the hallway, one of the guards took a keycard out of his pocket and held it up to a reader. The door buzzed, then clicked open.

  Quinn and Xiao stepped through.

  It wasn’t quite the white room she had woken up in under the Wilshire not all that long ago, but it was a good facsimile. The monotone color assaulted her eyes as soon as she entered, but Quinn quickly got used to it, along with the sight of Porter fastened to a metal chair by bulky shackles around his legs, ankles, wrists, and arms.

  Turnabout is fair play, asshole.

  The wounds along his temple had healed, and so had the nose that Sarah had crushed on the USS Winter. His legs, behind the plain gray pants they had given him to wear, were already mending, but it would be a while before he could walk again. A strip of black fabric covered his eyes, but there was nothing wrong with his ears or sense of smell, because he smiled as soon as they entered the room.

  “My two favorite ladies,” Porter said. “Who says dreams don’t come true?”

  “How are the legs?” Xiao asked.

  “They’ll heal, like everything else. You still mad at me?”

  “Now why would I be mad at you? You and Hofheinz only tried to brain-rape me.”

  “It was the lesser of two evils, Xiao. It was that, or let him have his way with you. Like I keep trying to tell you, I was trying to save you.”

  “Right. I was born at night, but not last night.” To Quinn: “Is that how that saying goes?”

  “Something like that,” Quinn nodded.

  Xiao turned back to Porter. “You’re not still waiting for that rescue, are you? Because we dug the subdermal tracker out of you while you were on the helicopter. No one’s coming to save you, Porter.”

  Porter didn’t say anything.

  “What’s the matter?” Xiao asked. “Cat got your tongue?”

  “He’s been pretty chatty all day, according to the guards,” a voice said behind them.

  Quinn glanced back as a man stepped through the same door. She was so used to seeing him through a TV screen that it took her a moment to recognize the man in person.

  He looked very much at home in a suit and tie, and was taller and broader in the shoulders. He walked with confidence, a man who was used to commanding every room he entered. There were streaks of white along the sides of his temple, and for fifty-five he looked to be in remarkably good shape.

  Robert Taylor smiled and stuck out his hand. “You must be Quinn. It’s good to finally meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Quinn said, shaking his hand. “Thanks for the rescue last night.”

  “I was just happy to finally do something.” He looked past her and at Porter. “You almost had me in Chicago, Porter.”

  Porter smirked. “You cheated.”

  “After you went off the grid, I had a sn
eaking suspicion the first thing you would do was rat me out. I had to take precautions just in case. The fact that they sent you to kill me, though, was a surprise.”

  “The world’s full of surprises,” Porter said. “Look at the people in this room, for example. Xiao, Quinn, me, and you. A former freelancer, a former FBI agent, a formerly wanted terrorist, and a billionaire long-shot presidential candidate. Aren’t we the sight?”

  Xiao snorted. “They gave you a fresh new tongue when you were soaked in all that spew, too, Porter?”

  “Among other things.”

  “I bet.” Xiao turned to Taylor. “So what’s the plan? I assume there is one, and we’re not all just hiding out down here just to catch up with our best pal Porter?”

  “Oh, there’s a plan, all right,” Taylor said. “There’s always been a plan, but there just wasn’t the right time to put it into play.” He walked past them and toward Porter. “Amelie was right: When they took him back into their fold, they did us a huge favor. He now knows more about the Rhim than he ever did.”

  Porter sat perfectly still and said nothing.

  “And he’s going to tell us everything he knows,” Taylor continued. “And when he’s done, we’re going to do the one thing they won’t expect from us.” He turned around to face Quinn and Xiao, his face a mask of steely determination. “No more hiding. No more running. No more plotting in the shadows. It’s time we take the war to the Rhim. It’s time we strike back.”

  A Quick Word from the Author

  Two books in and things are getting interesting!

  Until Book 3 hits in 2018, do me a favor and please consider taking a moment to leave a review for The Devil You Know at a bookseller of your choice. Even a very short review (good, bad, or somewhere in-between) would be tremendously appreciated.

  Meanwhile, here are some fun links (for those of you into such things):

  Official Author Blog: roadtobabylon.com

  SPAM-Free Newsletter Sign-Up for Release Updates: eepurl.com/P6fgT

  Official Author Facebook Page: facebook.com/writerofstuff

  Other Book Series by Sam Sisavath

  The Purge of Babylon Post-Apocalyptic Series

  The end of the world was just the beginning. Load up on silver bullets, stay out of the dark, and whatever you do, STAY ALIVE.

  The Allie Krycek Vigilante Series

  Victim. Vigilante. Avenger. If she’s looking for you, you’re already in trouble.