“Good evening, Adrian. We’ve been waiting for you.”
I close my eyes and feel my shoulders involuntarily sag forward with defeat.
Fuck.
31
“Please, come in,” says Cunningham, gesturing to the middle of the room.
Words fail me. I silently ask my Inner Satan for help, but he’s backed down, as confused as I am.
I don’t understand… I did everything right. We all did. It might have looked a little straightforward, considering what we were actually doing, but the planning was meticulous, and everything was put in place by Josh and his team at GlobaTech. There’s no way they messed up their side of things, and we did everything correctly our side. I just don’t get it. I mean, how is…
Cunningham’s still smiling at me. Still has that smug look on his face. “Adrian, you look somewhat perturbed…”
I shrug. “I don’t know about that, but I’m really fucking confused… How are you not… y’know… unconscious.”
“That’s easy. The air conditioning system isn’t linked to this office. Too much of a security risk.”
“Huh… makes sense.”
Cunningham moves back around his desk but remains standing. “You see, Adrian, despite proving to be a world class pain in the ass, you’re still predictable and insignificant. I’ve done the impossible. I’ve set in motion things that will change the course of history. Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to handle a lowlife, two-bit assassin like you?”
My jaw muscles tense involuntarily. I glance around the room. The guy on my immediate left is pissing me off because he keeps pressing his gun against my head, forcing me to lean away slightly. The agents lining the opposite wall are like statues — they haven’t moved an inch, they’re simply keeping their guns trained on me.
The men on the sofas have stood. I’m pretty sure one of them is the chief of staff. Something Heskith, I think his name is. No idea about the other two.
Cunningham’s staring at me, challenging me, acting like he’s already won. And I have to admit, if you were on the outside looking in, you could certainly understand his thinking. I mean, I’m pretty screwed, right?
Well, yeah… I am. Sorry. I’ve got no secret plan. I didn’t see this coming. I’m somewhat frozen, and my mind hasn’t reengaged yet. I just feel… sorry. Like I’ve failed and let everyone down in the process. Like it’s all been for nothing.
I go to speak, but words fail me.
I know, I know… It’s not like me at all.
Cunningham continues to smile at me. “Cat got your tongue, Adrian? You were never going to stop this. Just because you figured it out, doesn’t mean you could ever really do anything about it. You didn’t stop 4/17 from happening, did you? You got right to the end… right to the final hurdle… and you just didn’t have it in you. And now, here you are, that last hurdle yet again. And look what’s happened… You’ve stumbled for a second time. You know, if the situation were different, I’d offer you a job in a shot. A man like you — resourceful, talented, intelligent — would’ve made one hell of an ally in all this.”
I close my eyes. Not the ‘wish you were on my side’ speech — please!
My teeth are aching from clenching my jaw so hard. Angry? No — anger doesn’t come close to what I’m feeling at the moment. There’s a rage coursing through my body that no human has any business understanding. It’s a primordial fury I honestly don’t know how to express. My fists tighten, every muscle in my body tenses, and I breathe slowly, doing everything I can to remain in control. It’s not the time.
Not yet.
I open my eyes slowly and fix Cunningham with a stare reserved only for the most horrific of bastards. “Stop.”
He frowns. “Excuse me?”
“I said, stop. Stop talking. Stop acting like what’s happening was inevitable. We all know it wasn’t. You think you’ve won. You think this is over because you have a gun to my head. But you’re wrong. I came here pretty much certain I wasn’t leaving, so killing me in your fancy little office means, precisely, fuck all. I’m prepared to die for this. But you… you’re not. I think you’re a coward. You’re very smart, but you’re a pussy. You want to do all this, you want to change the world so you can rule it, like some modern-day Caesar, but, ultimately, you don’t want to die for the cause, do you? And that’s the difference between us. The fact I’m prepared to do what’s necessary, whereas you’re only prepared to do what’s safe. That’s why you won’t win.”
He sits down and leans back in his chair. “Nice speech. Really. Great speech, Adrian. But… before you get too high and mighty, I want you to see something.”
He opens up a laptop that’s resting on his desk and spins it around to face the room. He nods to the agent beside me, who gestures me forward with another prod of his gun. I move into the middle of the room and stand just to the left of the sofas.
Cunningham points at the screen. “Take a look at this. Recognize it?”
I frown as I stare at the laptop. It’s showing a grayscale image of a town, presumably viewed from a satellite. It might even be a real-time feed, I’m not sure. He reaches over and presses a button. The picture zooms down to a street-level view. It shows a quiet, dusty road. An empty sidewalk. A restaurant facing a companion club and…
The Ferryman.
My eyes react, going wide with a mixture of anger and fear. “What is this?”
“This, I believe, is your bar, is it not? Your little slice of happiness. The only evidence you ever existed, bought and built using a stolen fortune.”
“Why are you showing me this?”
“I’m glad you asked. You see, this laptop is showing a live feed from the Cerberus satellite. We might as well dispense with the courtesies — I think that ship has sailed. You know I still have control of Cerberus, and what you’re seeing is me targeting your bar with a missile that belongs to North Korea.”
“You piece of shit! You’re insane!”
I step forward, but the gun at my head prevents me from moving farther.
“Insane? Not at all. This exercise serves multiple purposes — the most important of which is to bring the invasion home, so to speak. The thing that will allow me to unleash an unprecedented military response that no one will dare question — that people will thank me for — won’t be GlobaTech’s systematic destruction across the world, it’ll be North Korea reaching American soil. I’ve publicly held off joining the fight, telling the people that GlobaTech is handling it, that they can protect us overseas and that I want to protect us on our homeland. But when that security disappears, the people will cry out for me to send forth the full might of our military and wipe out North Korea with a swift, decisive strike.”
Focus, Adrian. You’re no good to the residents of Devil’s Spring if you lose it now.
“That’s a good plan. But what makes you so sure GlobaTech will fail? My best friend and your former secretary of defense are running that place — they know what they’re doing, and North Korea only outnumbers them six to one.”
He scoffs. “Only?”
“Please… I could take out ten on my own, easily. And every single one of those GlobaTech peacekeepers are very well trained, so six each should be a walk in the park.”
“I know everything there is to know about GlobaTech Industries, Adrian. They will fail. Trust me.”
“Okay, what about North Korea? Do they have any idea you’ve asked them to publicly poke a bear purely so they can get bitten?”
Cunningham smiles but says nothing.
“No, of course you haven’t… It’s El-Zurak all over again, isn’t it? They think this is a partnership, but you’re using them to show the world that you’re the only logical choice moving forward. You want to be handed this planet on a silver platter, to mold it as you see fit. You’re a fucking psychopath! And coming from me, that’s saying something.”