“On your feet, all of you.”
They stand, holding their hands up slightly without prompting. They don’t look like soldiers or mercenaries. They’re technicians.
“Which one of you pilots that thing?” I ask them.
The two on either side glance at the one in the middle.
I nod. “Okay.”
I adjust my aim, so the Raptors line up with the faces of the men standing on either side of the recently outed pilot.
Then I pull the triggers.
Both men fall hard and fast to the floor, showering the pilot with clouds of blood as they go down.
He twitches and screams from the shock. I aim both barrels at him.
“Take the drone off whatever autopilot setting you just activated and divert it away from the city. Do it now.”
He’s shaking. The color drains from his face. His pale skin shines against the contrast of blood covering it.
“I… I can’t,” he says. “It l-locks the system once activated. T-there’s no stopping it.”
“He’s telling the truth,” says Holt behind me. “It’s the ultimate failsafe.”
I turn to see him smiling at me over Rayne’s shoulder.
“Always planning ahead,” he says.
His hand disappears inside his pocket. He pulls out a trigger and presses it, holding the button down.
“Hey, drop it!” yells Rayne. But he’s too late.
The five of us turn to face Holt, forming a semicircle in front of him, backing him into a corner. He waves the trigger at us frantically to keep us at bay.
“This is a dead man switch,” he says. “If I let go, we all die.”
I gesture to the team to hang back and give him space.
“You’re not going to do that,” I say to him.
“You think?” he replies, waving it at me again.
“You’ve been planning this for months. All the work you’ve put in… no way you don’t want to be around to see it play out.”
He shrugs. “I’d prefer not to die, of course, but I’m prepared to. Are you?”
He’s bluffing. I’m sure of it. Almost sure of it.
Pretty sure of it.
I think he’s bluffing.
Is he?
Shit.
I look around the control room, scanning the surfaces of desks for something… anything that might spark some inspiration.
Bingo!
“Keep your gun on him,” I say to Rayne.
I walk between Ruby and Jessie, toward a table near the far wall, where the team were hanging.
There’s a roll of duct tape.
I holster one of my Raptors and grab it, then walk back. I hand the gun to Ruby, who immediately aims it at Holt. I then grab the pilot and shove him over to where Holt’s standing.
“Put your hand over his,” I say to him.
“Get away from me!” yells Holt.
I point to him. “You—shut the fuck up. I think you’re full of shit. I believe that’s a dead man switch. I believe it’s linked to a boatload of explosives. I don’t believe you’re willing to die for your cause. And I’m going to prove it.”
Knowing Rayne and Ruby have him covered, I grab the pilot’s hand and place it around the trigger, clamping Holt’s hand in place. I then wrap them both in duct tape, binding them together.
“What are you doing?” screams Holt.
“Proving a point,” I reply. “If you were prepared to blow us all sky high, you wouldn’t have let me do that. Now be quiet.”
I rush over to the console and stand behind a chair, holding the back of it. “Jessie, you’re up. Get over here and stop this thing.”
She sits down in front of me and gets to work. Link moves beside her.
She presses something that changes the display on one of the monitors to a countdown. It says twenty minutes.
“Can you stop it?” I ask her.
She shakes her head as she desperately navigates the systems. “I don’t think so. I’m locked out, and there’s not enough time to hack something this sophisticated.”
“Can we call somebody?” asks Link. “Get an air strike to shoot it down?”
Jessie shakes her head. “That wouldn’t work. No radar can detect this thing. There’s not enough time for them to scramble jets and eyeball it.”
“Not enough time for them…” I say.
Jessie looks up at me. “What do you mean?”
“We have your pet drone in the car outside in one of our goodie bags. Can you eyeball it? Use your toy to kamikaze that thing?”
She sighs heavily. “I mean… maybe? I don’t know.”
“Good enough for me.” I move to Ruby’s side and address the team. “You three, take one of the cars outside. Get Jessie line of sight on that thing, so she can blow the fuck out of it.”
Jessie and Link run for the door. Rayne follows them but pauses beside me.
“You good?” he asks.
I nod. “We’re right behind you. Now go.”
He runs after the others, leaving Ruby and I alone. I take out my other Raptor and place it against Holt’s temple.
“You and I have some things to discuss,” I say.
He laughs nervously. “Like what?”
“Like the fact that you beat my girlfriend while she was strung up and defenseless. Like the fact that you used your drone to destroy half of Rome in an effort to kill me. Oh, speaking of which…” I turn and aim at the pilot. “Were you controlling that thing the whole time?”
After a moment of hesitation, he nods.
I pull the trigger. A crimson mist lingers and fades where his head used to be. He slumps to the floor, dragging Holt down with him, still taped together.
I crouch beside Holt, who has no choice but to huddle over his deceased pilot.
“I’m one of the good guys now,” I say. “I answer to the president, which means there are certain things I have to do by the book.”
Fear has set in on his face. He’s no longer calm and calculated. He’s staring up at me with eyes that now see what his colleague saw three years ago—the face of a man who doesn’t deserve to be underestimated as often as he is.
“So, you’re going to arrest me?” he asks.
“No.”
“You’re going to kill me?”
I pause. “No.”
“Then what happens now?”
I stand, holster my gun, and take Ruby’s hand. “Now we’re gonna go try to save innocent people from being killed. Because that’s what matters.”
“What about me? You can’t just leave me here!”
I shrug. “You have a free hand. Use it.”
Ruby steps in front of me, raises her Raptor, and puts a bullet in Holt’s left hand. He screams in pain, unable to comfort the wound. He can only stare at the space where three of his fingers used to be.
“Huh. Maybe not.” I look at Ruby. “You good, baby?”
She nods and smiles. “I am.”
“See you around, Holt.”
We turn and run from the room, along the corridor, and out into the open. We squint as our eyes adjust to the influx of daylight. I look around. The vehicle Rayne and I arrived in is gone. One of our weapons bags is resting on the ground where it was parked.
“Come on,” I say to Ruby.
I scoop up the bag and head toward one of the cars the Tristar guards used as cover. I climb in behind the wheel and toss the bag on the back seat. Ruby slides in next to me. I gun the engine, perform a quick J-turn, then speed away from the building, along the road that brought me here.
Ruby places a hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”
A thunderous explosion erupts behind us. I watch in the rearview as both buildings disappear in a mushroom cloud of flames.
I smile. “I am now. What about you?”
“I’ll be fine. What’s the plan? Where are we going?”
“We need to get to the Vatican. Start evacuating people from the streets.”
“Don’t you think Jessie an
d the others will be able to stop the drone?”
“I think Jessie wasn’t sure, and she’s the expert. We gotta do something.”
I slide around a bend and merge onto the freeway. I reckon we’re ten minutes out. This will be close.
30
08:34 CEST
We both scan the skies as I drive, looking for any sign of the drone. I’m navigating the still-chaotic roads from short-term memory. I feel calm and almost Zen-like after putting an end to Holt. After everything he put me and my team through, he was ultimately just like everyone else. He was just a guy. Nothing special. He died easily and with little fanfare, and that was all he deserved.
Now we just have to stop his legacy from becoming part of history in the way he couldn’t.
“You look like shit,” says Ruby.
I glance over to see her staring at me.
I frown. “Speak for yourself, Princess.”
“Hey, I was strung up like cattle in a slaughterhouse and beaten for sixteen hours. What’s your excuse?”
I gesture to the world around us. Pillars of smoke rise from small craters in the roads. Fire dances from the husks of abandoned cars and buildings too tall to avoid the drone’s indiscriminate assault.
“I’ve been busy tearing this city apart, trying to find you,” I say.
She smiles. “I know, and that’s really sweet. But that’s not what I meant, and I think you know that. Of course, you can bring the fight when you flick your Satan switch. You’re tired, but you’re still you. But something’s happened to you. I can see it in your eyes.”
I’m suddenly self-conscious.
“What about my eyes?”
She sighs. “Those ice-cold baby blues aren’t just focused on where we’re going or what we’re doing. I see the struggle to hide something. Some… pain. I know it ain’t just about me being taken, so what happened?”
She places a hand on my leg. I see her arm trembling, still suffering the effects of being held the way she was for so long.
I say nothing. I forget sometimes how well she knows me.
“It’s being in Rome again, isn’t it?” she says.
See?
I nod. “Not just being here. That drone, it was chasing Rayne and me all over the city. Blew up our car. We scrambled and ran. We ended up… we ended up outside the café where… the street corner we were standing on when…”
I suck in a deep breath through pursed lips, pushing back on the emotion trying to escape.
I hear Ruby quietly gasp. She puts a hand to her mouth. I glance over and see a tear on her face.
“Oh my God…” she whispers. “Adrian, I—I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head, picturing the carnage strewn across that intersection. “Don’t be. I handled it.”
“Was that when you caught up with Falikov?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
“Well… beats therapy, I guess.”
I speed along Piazza Pia, passing under some arches. I swerve around a car in front that was moving too slow, then slam the brakes on and slide around the sharp right turn onto Via della Conciliazione, between the two pillars guarding the entrance. The car spins to a stop, and we leap out. Ahead of us, across the intersection and along the plaza, stands St. Peter’s Basilica.
Last time I saw this place in person was through a scope.
We spin in slow, concentric circles, taking in the surroundings. It’s still early, but the day has begun. There are a lot of people around, and it’s only going to get busier.
Then I see it. I think Ruby did a second before me. It’s in the distance and gaining fast, screaming over the Tiber toward us.
Holt’s drone.
Locked onto its course by terminal autopilot.
There’s nothing to plan. Nothing to discuss. I think some people around us have seen it. Many haven’t. Why would they? It’s not something they would be looking for.
“Everybody move!” I yell.
“You need to run, now!” adds Ruby.
We start waving our hands back toward the Piazza Pia, trying to usher people as if we’re directing aircraft to land. They’re staring at us. A couple are even filming on us on their phones.
Christ.
“I know you all know English,” I shout. “Put your phones down and fucking run!”
I take out my Raptor and fire it into the air.
Shouting and screaming and panic ensues.
“That worked,” says Ruby.
I continue shouting. “Go, now! Correre! Correre!”
I think that means run. I hope it does. If I’ve just started yelling cheese or something, that isn’t going to help.
We set off running toward the entrance to the Vatican, continuing our campaign, shouting and gesturing for people to run away. I have no idea what kind of payload that thing is carrying. If it’s going to nosedive into St. Peter’s Square, it could flatten everything within a square mile for all I know. But we have to do something.
We have to try.
We reach the gates of the Vatican. I turn around and fire more bullets into the air, adding more incentive to the people who are still hesitating nearby.
Side by side, Ruby and I stare up at the drone, watching it get closer. It’s getting lower too. I don’t know if we’ve done enough. I don’t know if—
“Look!” shouts Ruby, pointing to the sky.
A small black object has appeared to the right, moving fast.
“Is that Jessie’s drone?” I ask.
“It has to be.”
A moment later, the object collides with the drone, detonating on impact. A brilliant white flash fills the sky for a spilt-second, followed almost immediately by the thunderclap of the explosion. A visible shockwave bursts outward, almost knocking everyone—including us—off their feet.
We stagger backward, staring in disbelief.
They did it.
Ruby and I turn to each other.
“They did it!” she shouts. “Holy shit, they did it!”
Her brief period of celebration fades when she sees the look on my face.
“What is it?” she asks. “What’s wrong?”
I set off running. She follows, calling after me.
“Adrian, what is it?”
I point to the sky as I look back at her. “The debris. It’s falling, and we’ve just told people to run toward where it’s all gonna land!”
“Oh, shit!”
I’m sprinting as fast as my body will allow. The air burns in my lungs. My chest is ravaged by a thousand knives from each breath.
“Get inside!” I shout, gesturing to the rows of stores along each side of the plaza. “Take cover!”
The first chunks of debris begin to hit. Large plumes of smoke and dust spew up from the points of impact. Craters appear in the streets. Bricks fall from the sky as buildings are pummeled. Cars driving across Piazza Pia up ahead swerve to avoid the falling remnants of the drone. Some manage to. Some aren’t so fortunate.
People are screaming and diving for cover. Some are helping others. Some are just running. Some lie injured on the ground. Some lie dead.
Over to my right, I see a mother and a little girl standing still in fear. A large shadow expands around them. I don’t look up. I don’t hesitate. I divert toward them, opening my arms. I dive and grab them both, turning to pull them on top of me as I land hard on my back.
As the air is driven from my lungs, the deafening crash of impact fills the world around us. A large sheet of twisted and torn metal lands flat on the street, only a couple of feet away from us, exactly where the mother and child were standing.
I relinquish my grip on them both, letting them roll away to the sides. Without pausing for breath, they grab each other’s hand and run away, screaming.
I take a valuable second to lie here and breathe.
Man, that hurt.
As I get to my feet, Ruby appears next to me.
“Come on,” she says. “We’ve done all we can. We have to get cl
ear.”
We stumble and stagger away, staying close to the buildings along the right side as we join the thinning crowd of people making a run for it. We head right along Piazza Pia. Behind us, the violent rain of debris slows and stops. The silence that follows is eerily total.
We stop on the sidewalk to catch our breath. People are still running past us, but a few have lingered, perhaps realizing the worst is over.
Tires screech behind us. We both turn to see the borrowed Tristar vehicle sliding to a stop, having come the wrong way along the one-way street. Doors open in unison, and our team step out and run toward us, looking strained.
“Is everyone okay?” asks Rayne as they approach us.
I shrug. “There are a few casualties and some property damage, but we’re mostly fine.”
Jessie steps past me, a shaking hand covering her mouth. “Oh my God… what have I done?”
Ruby moves to her side and puts an arm around her shoulder. “You, madam, just saved thousands of lives. What you did was incredible.”
Jessie turns to her. “But at what cost? Look at this place. The fallout. I… I didn’t think. I didn’t even—”
“Hey, Jessie, look at me,” I say. She turns. “You did your job. You did something few people could’ve done. Neither you nor I were sure it was even possible. But you did it, and like Ruby said, you saved thousands of lives. If that drone had done what Holt intended for it to do, you would be standing in a mile-wide crater right now, looking for my body. And tomorrow… the world would’ve gone to war as it tried to process the death of religion. Ruby and I sent hundreds of people running into the path of the falling debris without realizing it. All those people who are hurt or worse… we couldn’t have accounted for that. We had a job to do, and we did it. All of us.”
She nods, sniffing back understandable emotion.
Link and Rayne move to my side.
“You should’ve seen her,” says Rayne. “Link held her legs while she leaned out the window, piloting that little drone of hers by line of sight while I was doing almost ninety.”
I smile and look at Jessie. “And that’s extra impressive, given I’ve seen this guy’s driving.”
She rolls her eyes and smiles. The smile turns into laughter. Ruby joins her. So does Link. Eventually, so does Rayne.
I smile and watch as my team celebrate. The relief on their faces is clear to see. They’ve impressed me every step of the way. At no point did I ever doubt my decision to pick these three. Even Link, who’s a miserable bastard and probably hates me. He’s the backbone of the group. The devil’s advocate. The voice of reason. A necessity for a team that’s run by me.
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