by Blake Banner
I laughed out loud. “You want to destroy a pyramid the size of a skyscraper? What do you plan to use, a tactical nuclear device?”
Njal was examining his thumbs. Jim watched me until I had finished laughing, then said, “If necessary, yes.”
I stopped laughing. I studied his face and went cold inside. “You have access to that kind of hardware?”
“If necessary, yes. But the pyramid is not built yet. The point is, Lacklan, we may have to stop it ever being built. We may need to destroy it, whatever it is, and you need to find out if we do or we don’t. Once that decision has been made, we’ll find the way to do it.”
I gave a single nod. “I shall consider myself told.”
He smiled but without much humor. “We are defined by our limitations, Lacklan. But we also get to choose our limitations.”
“Point taken. Don’t quote your self-help books at me, Jim. So we are going on a recon mission to the Northern Cape. What about the summit in Knysna?”
Njal answered.
“That’s in three weeks, the first weekend of September, from Friday through Monday. Ruud van Dreiver’s mansion is on the southwest side of the lagoon, on a headland overlooking the Dylan Thomas Holiday Resort, half a mile away across the water. Security will be high and they will have a lot of well armed personnel. Knysna is the Western Cape, about three hundred and fifty miles east of Cape Town.”
Jim took over. “We book you in to one of the log cabins in the holiday resort. From there, you make the five hits. It will require fast planning and execution on the hoof. You may find that a bomb is your simplest option. That is your department and Njal’s. However you decide to do it, you execute them, and then get out of there.”
“That simple.”
“Not at all. It will be anything but simple.”
“That was irony, Jim. You are giving us three weeks in which to develop and execute two plans that are practically impossible.”
He sighed. “Lacklan, how can I put this to you? Maybe you don’t like the fact that the sky is blue, but it is blue. Maybe you don’t like the fact that we are bound to the Earth by gravity, but we are. This pyramid has appeared on our radar and it could potentially signify an incalculable danger to us—all of us, and the Omega top brass have chosen this time to meet for the first time since you destroyed their American branch. I didn’t choose for it to be that way. I only noticed it was happening. Now it is up to you to investigate and take action.” He shrugged. “If you feel you are not up to it…”
“Untangle your panties, Jim, and get off your high horse. Maybe you should come along and show us how it’s done before you start asking stupid questions about whether I’m up to it.”
“Maybe I should, but my point is I don’t choose the targets. I just spot them.”
“OK, point taken. So we are going to need a lot of hardware for these jobs, and a lot of high explosive. How do we get that into South Africa? Or have you got suppliers there?”
He shook his head. “No, we’ll deliver you by ship to Elizabeth Bay, in Namibia.”
“How?”
“A tanker departing Cadiz in a few days’ time. You’ll take on supplies in Dakar, Senegal, including a couple of Land Rovers and other hardware that I am arranging. Then you’ll proceed on to Namibia. In Elizabeth Bay there is an old, abandoned factory which still has a functional jetty where supplies were delivered and goods were loaded onto ships. You’ll be put ashore there, with your Land Rovers and other cargo. From there you will drive to the South African border, about one hundred and fifty miles south. There are not many roads. Much of the time you’ll be driving along desert tracks, but you shouldn’t find it too difficult.” He glanced at us each in turn, then went on. “You’ll cross the River Orange at Oranjemund and pick up the R382 at Alexander Bay. What you do after that is for you and Njal to decide amongst yourselves.”
I nodded. “What about the extraction?”
He shrugged. “First, decide how you are going to execute the operations, then tell me what you need for your extraction and I’ll organize it.”
I looked at Njal. “You got anything to add?”
He shook his head. “No. Until we know what’s at the pyramid site, we don’t know what we gonna need.”
I thought a moment. “We may have to split up. We’re on the clock and the time is short. You got maps?”
He smiled. “Yeah, we got maps. We also got satellite images and we got a printer.”
Jim stood. “I am going to leave you guys to it. I’ll talk to the master of the Annie Rose and give you a departure date. Meanwhile, start laying the foundations of your plan.”
We worked all day, studying satellite imagery and maps, and digesting what little eyewitness information we had. In the end, we concluded that all we could do was hide the Land Rovers in the rocky hills that bordered the river and proceed on foot by night, until we had a visual on the construction site. If we couldn’t make out what it was from watching it, then we would have to snatch an architect—or at least somebody at the site wearing a suit—and get them to tell us what the damn thing was. The workers, foremen and architects would have to be living either onsite or nearby in the small town of Steinkopf or the village of Goodhouse, so snatching them would not be impossible. Once we had that information, we would decide what to do next.
We played with a few alternative plans, left them as potentials to be developed, and, stretching and crunching our joints, we went up on deck and found Jim as the sun was turning to molten copper a few inches above the horizon. There, Njal presented him with the shopping list we had prepared. He examined it, sucking on his cigarette and trailing smoke from his nose.
“OK,” he said, “you have four days. Put your affairs in order. You board the Annie Rose in Cadiz on Tuesday 20th. On the 23rd you will stop at Dakar to take on freight, including your two Land Rovers and the stuff on this list. A week after that, you will disembark at Elizabeth Bay.”
“A week? That is one hell of a waste of time, Jim. That’s nine or ten days sitting on our asses doing nothing.”
He nodded. “I know, Lacklan, but what’s the option? You want to fly military hardware into South Africa? Organizing such a thing would take months. And buying the kind of stuff you need in South Africa without Omega getting to hear about it…” He shook his head. “It’s not realistic. You’re on their radar. They are looking for you. Believe me. I have thought about it. It’s the only way—and even so it is high risk.”
“OK, I’ll take your word for it.”
“The skipper is a Norwegian…”
“Of course he is.”
“His name is Daag Olafsen. He’s a friend. He’ll ignore you, like you’re not there, unless you need help. But I can’t see that you should. You eat on your own, don’t get into conversation with the crew and they’ll ignore you too; and stay in your cabins. I want you to be as invisible as possible.”
He handed me a large manila envelope and another to Njal. I took mine and leaned against the gunwale to open it while he continued talking. “You have in there a passport and a driver’s license which will pass muster in Spain when you board the ship. Lacklan, you are Richard Sinclair. Njal, you are Thomas Jansen. After you have crossed the border from Namibia into South Africa, Njal, I recommend you destroy them. You, Lacklan, will need yours for Knysna. But aside from that, once there you do not exist, you’re just ghosts. If they find you, you’re better off going down fighting than getting caught.”
Njal sat at the table and Jim handed us each a slip of paper. “Memorize this number. It’s a burner. You can use it once, then it will be destroyed. I’ll have it with me at all times. You call me when you need to get out and I will arrange it, if I can.”
I memorized the number, set fire to it with my Zippo and dropped the smoldering ash over the side.
“OK, I’m going.” I turned to Njal. “I’ll see you in Cadiz. Jim, I’ll see you when I get back.” I paused. “Thanks.” I offered him my hand and we shook.
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“Sure. Take care of yourself. I’ll have José run you back.”
* * *
I stood on the quay and watched the small lights of the launch disappear into the gathering dusk, heading back toward the yacht. Then I walked back to the apartment block and booked myself onto a British Airways midnight flight to London. After that, I had a shower and went down to the Nauti Mermaid to have some grilled shrimps and a burger, with a couple of martinis, dry.
At nine, I climbed in my car and took Route 41 to Miami, through the dark wilderness of the Big Cypress National Park. All the way, the tall trees made black walls on either side of the road, which loomed overhead and pressed in from the sides, like living walls. I ignored them and called Kenny.
“Good evening, sir.”
“I’m going to be away for a couple of weeks, Kenny.”
“I rather thought you might, sir.”
“I need you to come down to Miami International Airport and collect the Zombie.”
“Of course…” He hesitated a moment. “This won’t be the last, will it, sir?”
“I don’t know, Kenny. We thought after Mexico…”
“In Spanish they say that bad weeds never die.”
“Yeah, I’m no philosopher, Kenny, but maybe that’s why we’re here. Maybe we’re already in hell, and we need to work our way out.”
“Perhaps you’re right, sir. Stay safe, and I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“Yeah, you too, Kenny. Say hi to Rosalia for me.”
I hung up and sped on through the pressing walls of the dark.
THREE
I landed at Heathrow at one forty PM the next day, collected my rental car and drove north and west through warm, green fields under blue skies dotted with distant clouds, like Spanish galleons in full sail on an invisible ocean in the air.
It took me a little over an hour to get to Oxford. I parked at a meter outside Marni’s apartment and rang on the bell. She buzzed me in and I climbed the narrow stairs to her door, remembering the last time I had been there, climbing those same stairs with a hot twist in my gut, to confront her with the fact that she had betrayed me, lied to me and passed secrets to my enemies. That had been then. Now things had changed.
I hoped.
I came to the landing and saw the door open at the top of the next flight. Her silhouette was in the doorway, backlit, looking down at me. I couldn’t see her face or her expression. I heard her voice, disembodied.
“Hi.”
It didn’t tell me much, but I smiled and climbed the rest of the way. When I got to the top, I saw she was smiling too.
“How are you doing?”
She shrugged, leaning against the jamb. “Negotiating the challenges.” She gave herself a little push off the doorframe. “Come on in. You want a beer?”
“Thanks.”
She led me into her living room. She had tall, narrow windows open onto a small, cast iron balcony overlooking High Street. Wedges of warm sunshine were lying across the rugs on the bare boards, and drooping over her armchair like Dali clocks. On the floor by the sofa, she had a steel bucket full of ice, with half a dozen bottles of beer stuck in it. An open one stood on a lamp table beside her armchair.
She pointed at the bucket. “Help yourself.”
I pulled out a bottle and cracked it with the opener she had hanging beside the bottles. She dropped into the chair and watched me. “You want some lunch?”
“I ate on the plane.”
I sat and took a swig.
“Last time you were here, you were pretty mad at me.”
I gave a small nod. “You could have got me killed. Not just me, but me and another guy who was with me.”
“I apologized. I broke off all contact with Gibbons.”
“I’m not here to bring that up again, Marni.”
“Oh. Then why are you here?”
“I’m going to China.”
She frowned. “What’s in China?”
“One of the last two remaining chapters of Omega: Omega Five.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “You’re going to kill them.”
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded and said, “Yes.”
There was anger in her eyes when she opened them. “They are still human beings, Lacklan. I learned that from your father. I’m surprised you didn’t. He was number three in the world, yet he came to realize that what he was doing was wrong. I killed him, and his murder will live on my conscience for the rest of my life. He was misguided, wrong about many things, but he was basically a good man, yet I robbed him of his life, and you of the chance of making peace with him. How do you live with all the men you’re killing, all the children you’ve robbed of their fathers?”
I waited till she’d finished. “I came to talk to you, Marni, not to be lectured at by you.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I just… I wish you would stop. I have lost the man I loved—the man I love—to a relentless, unforgiving need to kill. Stop, already, Lacklan. Please.”
“They are coming after me. They sent a man to kill me. How do you suggest I deal with that threat? Call the cops? Or perhaps attempt a meaningful dialogue?”
“If you hadn’t gone after them in the first place…”
“Seriously? We are going to have this conversation? Seriously? This is your new, enlightened philosophy of life? Back down in the face of despots and tyrants? Don’t upset them and maybe, if you’re lucky, they won’t hurt you? And as for the men, women and children who they are murdering, torturing, enslaving and forcing to work on subsistence wages in mines, well, we’ll form committees to talk about them, shall we?”
“Who’s lecturing whom now, Lacklan?” She sighed. “Besides, you know that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
Another sigh. “I don’t know. But if there’s anything in karma, you sure have a lot of blood on your hands. I just wish you’d start bringing some peace into the world, instead of violence.”
“Yeah, I’d like that too, Marni. And if you ever come up with a way of doing that, that doesn’t involve wishful thinking about sadists, murderers, drug traffickers and slave traders turning out to be nice guys at heart, I’d love to hear it. Can we start again, please?”
She stared at me for a moment. “Boy, you don’t pull your punches, do you?”
I shook my head. “No. The last time I was here, I had lied to you about where I was going and what I was going to do. I was testing you because I believed you would tell Gibbons what I was going to do, and I was right. This time I am here for the opposite reason. I know you don’t like what I am doing, but in spite of that I trust you. I want you to know where I am going, and what I am going to do. I am asking you not to tell anybody, least of all Gibbons. For the first time in years, perhaps in my life, I am trusting someone who is not a brother in the Regiment. That is hard for me. But I want to trust you, Marni. You were always the one person in the world I believed in. I want to believe in you again. I want to believe that you are true, and you have my back. If I am wrong, tell me and I’ll leave.”
She was quiet for a long time, gazing out the open windows at the cars and cyclists passing below in a lazy, desultory procession. After a while, she passed the heel of her hand across her eyes.
“You’re not wrong, Lacklan. I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong about you for a long time. But I can’t keep apologizing forever. At some point, you either have to accept my apology or tell me to go to hell.”
“That’s what I’m doing.” I smiled. “Not telling you to go to hell, I am offering you my trust, Marni. I want you to know where I am going and what I am doing. I…” I hesitated. “I would like you to be more a part of my life.”
She frowned. It was a small, confused frown. “You want me to be more a part of the killing?”
I gave a small laugh that wasn’t very humorous. “Not exactly, no. There is more to my life than just killing people.” I hesitated a moment. “There was a time when we were both devoted
to bringing down Omega, remember? Now Omega is all but finished.” I shrugged. “When they are gone, if I survive, I still want to have a life that has some meaning…”
“What are you saying?”
I stood, went to the window and leaned on the frame, looking down at the people milling in the street below, among those ancient stone temples to the human mind. What was I saying? I wasn’t sure myself. I chewed my lip a while and turned to face her again.
“I guess what I am saying is, I’d like us to rebuild the trust we once had. More than that, we can’t go back, but we can go forward and we can build a trust that is deeper and stronger than what we had before. And maybe, with time…” I shrugged. “I’d like you to be a part of my life, in some way...”
She gave a small sigh and stared at my belly for a moment. She said, “That’s nice, Lacklan.” Then she looked down at her hands. “But you say this to me as you are about to embark on a journey to murder five people, in cold blood. I don’t know how I am supposed to deal with that. You turn up and you say to me,” she gestured at me with her open hand, “‘Hi, Marni, I’m just off to kill a bunch of folk, but when I get back, I’d like you to be more involved in my life!’ Neat.”
I leaned on the jamb of the tall window, feeling the sun warm on my back, and smiled at her. “You’re funny.” I gave a small shrug. “Would it be different if this was 1945 and I was a pilot in the British Royal Air Force, and I was going on a bombing mission over Germany tonight? I’d be going to kill a bunch of people, many of them arguably less guilty than my targets in China, but when I got back, you would not see me as a killer; you’d see me as a hero fighting to protect his country.”
“Come on, Lacklan, that’s sophistry! It’s totally different.”
“No, Marni. Only the way you see it is different. Omega is real, as real as the Third Reich was. Hell! For all I know, they may be connected. Their aims are not so different. Omega murders and exploits and enslaves people every day, and if they ever achieve their ends, countless millions will die.” I laughed, a harsh bark of a laugh. “It wouldn’t be the first time a small elite wiped out millions of people to serve its own, peculiar vision of how the world ought to be, would it?”