Kinimaka waited patiently. He’d waited for Hayden so long he couldn’t even remember when he fell for her. Another five minutes wouldn’t hurt.
Dahl took the call without feeling an iota of surprise. He trusted Jonathan Gates now. The man had a plan, and a bloody good one at that. Dahl’s only continuing concern was the distance this job put between his family and himself. Johanna would not pack up and move to the United States, nor would he ever ask her too. And it wasn’t fair on the kids. Their early youth was an impressionable, grounding experience. He wanted familiarity and stability for them.
But how grounded would they be with a father figure who only flitted in and out of their lives?
Dahl checked his watch. It would be mid-afternoon in Sweden. The kids would be at school but at least he could talk to Johanna. But first, he’d make a call to his newest comrade, Komodo. The Delta boy had taken it all the way in that final battle. A quality Dahl appreciated. He trusted the man to pass along Hayden’s information.
After that, Johanna would be eager to hear his voice. And he hers. Already, a wide grin was spreading across his entire face and making his dark eyes shine. He set up the video link on his laptop and crossed to the window. The dome of the White House glowed in the distance. Johanna would love to see it.
Komodo seemed agitated to Karin by the time he’d finished talking to Dahl. The soldier was standing completely naked at the window, seemingly oblivious, and no doubt making some passerby’s day. The street was only three floors below. The lights were on. Karin studied the width of his shoulders and the play of the muscles down his back.
“Is Torsten okay?”
“Yeah. He just called to tell us the hooker has been made part of the team.”
Karin let it run through her quick mind. “The idea is a good one, T-vor.” It was her private name for him.
“He wants me to pass it on to the team.”
Karin raised a wicked eyebrow. “Well, you probably needed the break anyway. Felt like you were about to peak early.”
Komodo looked a bit self-conscious. “It’s been a long week.”
“Just ring Drake. He’s reliable. I need to try Ben anyway. Haven’t spoken to him since he left.”
Karin wrapped her body in the soft bed sheets right up to her neck. “You can stay naked, soldier boy. That’s your punishment.” The connection whirred and clicked and then the ringtone began. Ben’s phone was one of those annoying ones that played a preset tune in the caller’s ear.
She heard Komodo talking to Drake.
Ben didn’t answer.
Without further ado she jumped up on the bed, letting the sheets fall away. Komodo fell at her feet so that she landed perfectly on top of him. His hands grabbed her hips.
“And since you’ve done nothin’ but sit on this for the last week, let’s give it some exercise.”
Drake listened to Komodo. The appointment of Lauren Fox would raise some issues, not to mention some eyebrows, but now was not the time to address them. Although Mai had been back for days, this was the first time they had been alone, totally alone, since they had hit the island.
Neither of them was the kind to make small talk. Neither were they the kind to emphasize how much they’d missed or thought about each other. Drake knew all he had to do was sit next to her. “I’m supposed to contact Alicia.”
Mai studied her hands in her lap, almost coming across as shy. Almost.
Drake yawned, stretched and put an arm across her shoulders. It was intended as a joke, but went straight over the Japanese woman’s head. She snuggled in.
“Glad to see you didn’t fall for Smyth, then.”
“He takes some getting used to but he’s a good man.”
“Romero too. He helped finish off the Spanish side of the trafficking ring. Almost single-handedly I hear.”
“Special Forces people,” Mai said. “No matter the nationality, they share a bond. They respond to each other.”
Drake kissed the top of her head. “A theory I’d like to test.”
But then his phone rang. It was Alicia herself, ringing him.
“Bollocks.”
But he should’ve guessed she would ring. Alicia Myles was always the exception to the rule.
“Drake? Didn’t catch you two shagging, did I?”
“Nice to hear your voice, Alicia. What’s up?” A hesitation made Drake narrow his eyes. Almost instantly, he sensed a bombshell. “Alicia?”
“I have something to tell you, Drake. And you’re not gonna like it.”
“Do you know something? About Coyote? Don’t tell me you’ve been keeping something else from me. Is it Cayman? The Shadow Elite? This new Russian thing.”
“What new Russian thing?”
“I told you. The seven swords and the saber dance. The Pit of Babylon. The Devil’s tower that led straight to the doorway of the gods and all that.”
“Sorry, mate. Must have been kipping.”
Drake closed his eyes. “Yeah or texting your new boyfriend.” Another hesitation. This time Drake let her think.
“I’m leaving, Drake. I’m quitting the team.”
His heart fell so far he was sure it hit the floor. “But…what?…Why?”
“I miss Lomas,” Alicia said easily. “I miss the others too. With them, it’s all about the ride. The journey. Not the destination. I kinda like that idea. Bloody hell, Drake, you know me by now.”
“I do.”
“No agenda. I just want to live whilst I’m alive and have fun.”
“That’s what I love about you.”
Alicia’s voice softened to almost nothing. “Me too, Drake. Me too.”
“So…” Drake blinked away more than shock. “Will we see you again?”
“If it comes to the apocalypse… call me.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Nikolai Razin was not a well man. At one time he’d been a bare knuckle boxer, and had broken every bone in his hands. Now, he could barely move his fingers, but the frequent doses of morphine helped. Now, he had men to fight for him. Now, he liked to watch them break other people’s fingers.
But the longing remained. His youth had been a hard, brutal, fleeting thing and now he wanted it back. That impossibility bred anger and hate in him, the kind that festers and sours. The highlight of his days was recognizing fear in another man’s eyes, the tremble in their shoulders. He had honed a stare, the unblinking, unnerving gaze of a madman that could agitate even the bravest of men.
And he had honed the team he surrounded himself with like a knife edge is honed on a whetstone. He had grinded them. Sharpened them. Molded them with violence and longing and more — with reward. With sadism. With a cruel love.
Zanko was his meanest, his most potent. Maxim, his stealthiest and most intelligent. Viktoriya, his most beautiful and resourceful.
The four of them sat around Razin’s big table with the wall-size picture window at his back, the Russian night falling and the deep-red sunset washing their faces with blood. Out there, madmen and killers might walk. In here sat the men and women who controlled them.
Razin spoke first as was protocol. “Tell me, Zanko, what have you found in Iraq?”
“Ancient Babylon.” Zanko spread his arms expansively, ever the showman. “The city of sin. Debauchery. Murder. Greed. All the good things in life. The place where every bad thing began and criminals were invented, no? Ha, ha! They say Saddam Hussein built a palace overlooking the ancient ruins of Babylon. But he didn’t have the cunning to search for what we have found. If he did…” Zanko shrugged his muscle-bound shoulders. “Perhaps he would still be in power.”