Pandora

by Storm Chase

  “I told you not to tell me anything but I wasn’t expecting this!” Pandora said in awe.

  Xavier gave her a wicked grin. “I’m afraid you’re dead again, Pandora. In fact, we both are.”

  “The bodies under the seat,” Pandora mused. “Will they think they are ours? They won’t give up looking for us if they think we may be alive.”

  “Everything will be so burned up that they’ll have very little to work with. They won’t even look for us. We’re completely in the clear.”

  David cleared his throat. “We’ve covered all the angles. You’re perfectly safe.”

  “Who is ‘we’?” Pandora asked suspiciously.

  “Your people,” Xavier sighed. “Government.”

  Pandora stiffened and instinctively leaned towards him, whispering in his ear. “Oh no, Xavier, you didn’t!”

  He looked surprised. “I thought that’s what you wanted!” he whispered back.

  “But they’ll put you in prison!” Pandora panicked.

  “Don’t be silly,” Xavier laughed softly. “I made a deal. We have total immunity.”

  “I thought you said that wasn’t possible.”

  Xavier shrugged. “Turns out they need me.” He went back to the laptop and spoke out loud. “Huan’s talking.”

  Pandora could see he had switched off. Text flashed over the screen. She looked over at David. He was smiling broadly but that didn’t fool Pandora for a moment. She wondered what he was really like.

  His clothes were good quality but not ostentatious. His hands were manicured but his fingers were slightly stained, probably from cigarettes. His face had mostly laugh lines. He wore a signet ring signalling either a good family background or a wannabe snob. He wore leather shoes that looked handmade. His hair was cut very short, almost military fashion, and he wasn’t bothering to hide a small bald patch. That was odd for a man who was quite invested in his appearance.

  David saw the look and was quite unsettled by it. Mac had told him that Xavier was cold as ice but that Pandora was a sweet, gentle girl. Yet here she was, looking him over in a silent unblinking clinical way that was almost menacing. David had the feeling she knew he hadn’t been able to quit smoking and that he was secretly thinking about growing his hair so he could hide that emerging bald spot.

  Apart from that penetrating gaze, she looked totally relaxed, as if she weren’t soaked with seawater, sweat, and the ash from the burning chopper. Xavier had given him exactly the same unnerving look Pandora was subjecting him to and now he was tapping away at the laptop, totally divorced from what was going on around him. If David hadn’t seen them smile at each other, he would have thought they weren’t quite human.

  They looked very much alike. They were both quite tall, and had the same light brown eyes, short-cropped sun bleached hair and deep tans. From their lithe, well-muscled bodies he could tell they’d not spent hours sunning somewhere; these two were extremely fit. It made him even more conscious of the thin layer of fat around his hips. He really had to start working out.

  David found himself nervously clearing his throat before saying. “We’re all very excited to meet you both.” He took out some pictures. “This is our destination.”

  Pandora looked at the heritage type buildings surrounded by parkland. It looked like an advert for a country club, she thought.

  “Our base has all the facilities Xavier needs, plus living quarters, supermarket and sports centre. We’ve even got our own lake. It’s completely self contained but most of us go to town for groceries, dinner and so on.”

  David smiled at Pandora, willing her to warm to him. “There are two universities nearby, both with excellent psychology departments. Xavier thinks you might be interested in taking up a degree.”

  “Yes,” Pandora said coolly. “He’s always saying that.”

  “You should consider it,” David said. He hesitated. Seeing Xavier was in a world of his own, he leaned towards Pandora. “We’ve been looking for him for more than a decade without success. We’ve tried everything in the book but we could never find him. He’s led us down the garden path so often that he’s become a legend. He laid false trails to the Pentagon and the Kremlin. At one point he had us thinking he was in the International Space Station!”

  Pandora shrugged. “He’s the best.”

  David sighed. She was pure ice. And to think Sig had thought Pandora would be the soft touch. He’d tease her about that later. “We’ve got a great team. He’ll be working with Sig, Huan and a dozen others, all experts in their own field.”

  “What do you do?” Pandora asked.

  “My title is Special Projects Director but Sig calls me Master of the Nerd Herd,” David said ruefully. “It’s my job to keep them all happy. And as they are very focused, very individual people, it can be a real challenge.”

  “I can imagine,” Pandora said. Having a dozen Xaviers in one room seemed impossible.

  “Yeah,” David grinned. “They call themselves the Dream Team but it’s more like a Technicolor nightmare. I could really do with your help. Especially with Xavier. He’s going to find it hard to adjust.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s used to having everything done for him. In our team he’ll get support but he won’t be waited on hand and foot. He’s also used to being a kingpin. And now he’ll be part of a bigger team.”

  Pandora realised that Xavier wasn’t going to like this at all.

  “You understand him,” David said. “I’m serious when I said I want your help.”

  Xavier looked up from his laptop. “Huan is so freaked that he won’t talk,” he announced.

  “He’s not used to being with so many people,” Pandora explained. “Tell Sig to let him text from his room.”

  “All right.” Xavier typed furiously and looked up. “Sig says that’s exactly what he’s doing. She’ll stop banging on the door and trying to get him out.”

  “Just let him be,” Pandora said. “He needs time.”

  Encouraged by the show of empathy, David decided to try to make friends with Xavier. “We’re happy to have you join us,” he said. “I’m just telling Pandora how much I’m hoping she’ll join us too.”

  Xavier’s face hardened. “Pandora goes where she likes,” he said. “I told you. Her freedom is a deal breaker. She wants to go back to England. To get back to her life.”

  Pandora gazed at him. “What?” she asked in horror. “Xav, you didn’t!” To her dismay she saw he was rigid with tension.

  “I’ll leave you to talk,” David said tactfully.

  The second he moved out of hearing, Pandora leaned towards Xavier. “I’m not leaving you,” she said bluntly. “We’re a team.”

  “But Panda, you said you wanted to go home.”

  Pandora sighed. “That was a year ago. I can’t go back, Xav.”

  Xavier looked at her carefully. “You’re sad,” he said. “You’ve got that small frown you get when you’re unhappy.”

  “I’m not unhappy,” Pandora explained. She hesitated, then leaned towards him, speaking into his ear. “Look, they’re probably listening, I don’t want to discuss this now, but I’m sticking with you, Xav. I love you.”

  Xavier kissed her softly. “I don’t want to be selfish,” he whispered, “but I’m glad you’re staying. I don’t think I could live without you.”

  “You’re a daft bugger for ever thinking I’d go!”

  Xavier grinned, then glanced over at David and frowned slightly. He put his lips to her ears and spoke softly to evade any possible bugs. “Panda, I’m worried. I went with these people because that turf war destroyed all the big players. Now this group are stronger than anyone else out there. But I can’t negotiate. They don’t think the way I’m used to and I don’t think I can read them.”

  “I’ll talk to them,” Pandora said quietly. “What’s the arrangement so far?”

  “I work for them, and you get out to London with a new ID.”

  “That’s it?”

&n
bsp; “Yes. We had to talk via the chessboard. It was all very cryptic. I had to take Sig on trust.”

  Pandora stared at him. “That must have been difficult for you.”

  Xavier shrugged. “We were out of options. It was this or nothing. Staying where we were was getting to be too dangerous. With almost all the Committee gone our protection was ebbing. Griffiths and Ortega will soon be killing each other and the collateral damage is going to be huge. At least now we have a chance.”

  David came back, holding two cups of coffee. “Do you take sugar and cream?”

  “I’ll have a coke,” Pandora said firmly. “A can. Sealed.”

  David looked startled. “All right,” he said slowly. “But there’s no need to worry. Trust me.”

  “As I don’t know you from Adam,” Pandora said frostily. “I don’t see any reason to trust you.”

  “We did get you out.”

  “Because you want Xav.”

  David looked at her, his amiable look suddenly blank.

  Pandora observed him carefully. “Are you authorised to negotiate?”

  “Yes.”

  Pandora tapped the pictures he’d given her. “We’ll come with you and visit for a week or two, but after we’ll set up on our own.”

  “We all live and work on base!” David exclaimed.

  “Xav doesn’t play well with others,” Pandora replied coldly. “And I don’t want you wasting his time with meetings and protocol. We work for you but we make our own living arrangements. It’s not negotiable.”

  “But what about security?”

  “If you’ve done your job right, nobody is looking for us. And anyway, we’re going to hand over some names that will cut any future problems to practically nil,” Pandora said calmly. “You can start by arresting Neil Griffiths. We’ll tell you what he looks like now, what his new name is, and where you can find him.”

  David looked alert. “We’d heard he was alive.” Inside he was crowing. Getting Griffiths would be a coup.

  “We’ll also give you Diego Ortega,” Pandora said. With those two gone, the biggest threats against Xav would vanish.

  David smiled narrowly. “We would also like to get in touch with Francisco Delgado.”

  Pandora looked blank. “You mean Paco? I guess he’s on his way to Rio.”

  “Rio? I thought he was from San Salvador.”

  “Sure but that’s a place you come from, not one you go to,” Pandora shrugged. “He’s got a mistress in Rio somewhere.” She watched David accept the lie. “Anyway, if you don’t fuck up, most of our former cohorts will be out of the picture. When that happens, we’ll probably want Paco back.”

  David stared at her. “What?”

  “Xav has enemies everywhere so all that stuff about going to town for dinner doesn’t apply to us,” Pandora pointed out. “We look to you to destroy the remainder of the Committee. Do it fast and the others don’t matter. Xav picks up as if he just got out in time, and we go on as usual. We like Paco, we work well together, and he’s totally apolitical.”

  “This is not what we had in mind,” David said slowly.

  Pandora shrugged. “You want Xav; you have him. And you get me too. And if he’s in, you get Paco as well. That’s not a good deal: it’s a great deal.”

  David thought it was time to make a show of strength. “What makes you think you have negotiating power?”

  Pandora smiled sweetly at him. “David, don’t be an arsehole.” When he flushed, she nodded towards Xavier. “Xav and me have trust issues. We ensure it’s best for everyone if we are healthy, happy and free. You’ve heard of a dead man’s switch?”

  David frowned. “Sure.”

  “If we’re not around to press certain buttons according to a particular schedule, bad things will start to happen. Like air craft carriers go dead in the water, nuclear subs come floating belly up, satellites start transmitting all the information they’ve picked up to the wrong people, that sort of thing.”

  David suddenly remembered the stories he’d heard of Xavier taking down the electricity grid for an entire city, just to prove a point, and blanched.

  Pandora saw he got the message. “Xav and I have a personal deal too: separate us, and we assume the other is dead. That would make the survivor very unhappy.”

  David looked at the two set faces before him and came to a quick decision. “I don’t see the need for all this negative talk,” he said heartily. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

  Pandora nodded. David’s sudden sweatiness hadn’t escaped her notice. He was convinced. “We’ll give you the details of the last two Committee people, and then we should be clear.”

  “I can send it to Sig,” Xavier said. “She can deal with it easily.” He tapped away and then sat back in his seat. “It’s done. Are we all sorted, Panda?”

  “Yup. You’ll have a few days to talk to Sig and Huan and then we’ll find our own place. I’ll get Mac to set it up. He’ll be able to provide temporary security too, and Paco can make permanent arrangements later.”

  David knew he’d lost the argument and decided to give in gracefully. Getting the team intact was a coup and Sig had predicted this as one of the possible outcomes. David decided to focus on business. “It’s a pity you lost that programme you were working on, Xavier. From what Sig and Huan said, Rover sounded magnificent.”

  Xavier shrugged.

  “How long before you can recreate it?”

  “A few weeks. I have some ideas to improve it.”

  “Good. We’ll give you everything you need.”

  “Uhhuh.”

  David tried to be friendly. “Just as well we got you out before you finished.”

  Xavier gave him a cold look. “Oh, I finished.”

  “But you told Sig it would take another week at least.”

  “I lied.”

  “You didn’t give it to them, did you, Xavier?” David asked horrified.

  “I sent it day before yesterday.”

  David groaned but Pandora began laughing. “What did you do, Xavier?”

  “I put in a back door and a tracking code,” he smiled at her. “With the Committee gone, we won’t know who will get Rover - until they use it.”

  “Brilliant.”

  “I’ll see what they’re doing and I can make changes whenever I want.”

  “Just like in the Congo,” Pandora said happily. “They’ll see what you want them to see.”

  “Precisely.”

  “We’ll need to see this,” David said hastily. “We want in on this. And it’s not negotiable.”

  Xavier shrugged. “Only I know how it works.” He looked at David. “It’s not a static code so you can see me track and adapt it but if you try to copy me, it won’t work.”

  “Clever. I’m not very technical, I’m afraid. You’ll have to brief me.”

  “Sure. Just don’t get ideas about trying to force us to do anything. Pandora has a kind heart. I don’t.”

  David looked worriedly at Xavier. “We don’t work that way. You’ve said you’ll work for us, that’s all we want. And don’t forget, you came to us. We’re friends, not enemies.”

  Xavier shrugged but said nothing.

  “Don’t worry,” David said slowly, “We expected you to be para-, suspicious.”

  “He’s not paranoid,” Pandora snapped. “He is used to working with cheats, liars and thugs. Xavier is a survivor!”

  Xavier laughed but David was nodding. “Yes, he is. But Pandora, I meant it when I said we’re friends. Or at least allies. I don’t like the idea of you living off base because it’s going to kill my budget and drown me in paperwork but as it’s a deal breaker, I’ll make sure it happens. We want Xavier to be happy with us. We’ve spent too many years chasing after him to screw this up. He’s too valuable.”

  “Then you should have treated him better. You put him in jail when he was just a child.”

  “Nothing to do with me. I was still at school myself.” David raised his hands
. “But I take your point. Seriously, you don’t have to fear us. We play fair.”

  Pandora doubted it but she was happy to pretend she did. “Good.”

  David shrugged and smiled. “Right, so don’t trust me until you know me. Fair enough.”

  He wasn’t a stupid man, Pandora decided. She examined David carefully. She knew he’d accepted that she and Xavier had dead man’s switches in place, and she could see that he didn’t like it but he wasn’t too worried. That, and the way he’d admitted he’d expected them to want to work independently, argued he was a straight talker.

  Pandora knew she’d pushed throughout the negotiation and she was certain she’d be asking for more later. This was the time to offer some concessions. She’d settle David’s fears about the budget and offer him a plum that would also help Xavier to maintain his precious independence.

  “We’ll buy our own place,” she offered. “All you have to do is provide some initial security. And we’ll take on some outsider jobs.” She saw him begin to protest and held up her hand. “We’ve got prime positioning. Everyone knows that you go to Dragon for the difficult jobs. So in a week or two we get the word out through Paco that we’re open for business. We work for you but we fund ourselves with a few independent projects here and there. We’ll report back to you on what we take on and what we turn down. Either way, just knowing what’s being planned out there will be an excellent information source for you.”

  Xavier was smiling. “Brilliant, Panda,” he murmured. “That would be best. I don’t like the idea of us being stuck in one place.”

  David considered it and sighed. “Sig already suggested that too,” he confessed. “Frankly, we had two scenarios: one where you come and work with us full time, on base, and another where you work just as you just suggested. Although I really would prefer you to come to us, your deal is an option we can work with. On condition we approve every project.”

  Pandora nodded. “Sure.” The Committee had reserved that right too, so she knew that wouldn’t pose any problems.

  “Do we have a deal?” Xavier asked Pandora.