“Adrian,” he says as I walk over. “Been a long time.”
I nod. “Indeed. Been keeping yourself busy since getting sacked by our commander-in-chief?”
Okay, so I still think the guy’s a dick, despite him reluctantly being on my side the last couple of times I’ve had dealings with him. I don’t like him or trust him.
He smiles humorlessly. “Like you wouldn’t believe…” he says.
“So what brings you to my recently demolished part of the world?”
“There someplace we can talk?” he asks, looking around at all the FBI agents walking around.
“What’s wrong with right here?”
“Too many people. What we need to talk about is of a… delicate nature.”
I sigh, tiring of things happening that I don’t understand and have no control over.
“Come on,” I say to him.
I walk outside and get in my truck. He follows and climbs in the passenger side. I drive off without saying a word, turning left at the end of the street and driving up the hill I’d jogged up with Styx earlier this morning.
Styx…
I’m sad that he's gone, despite doing my best not to think about it, so I can focus on figuring out what the hell’s going on around here. He was a big part of my new life, and things won’t ever be the same without him.
I turn into the police station parking lot and pull up, turning slightly in my seat to face Schultz.
“Talk.”
He’s silent for a moment, I’m guessing to try to figure out where to start. “Are you still—?” he begins.
“No, I’m retired,” I say, interrupting him before he can finish his sentence. “Talk.”
“Okay… okay, son. So, you had a few visitors in the last couple of days?”
“I’ve had one or two, yeah. No idea why though.”
“The first three guys that came here were the recruitment team,” he starts to explain. “They send them in to coerce you into joining their cause.”
“Who’s cause? Who sends them? Yalafi Hussein?”
“Nah, Hussein’s just a middle man, though as best we can tell he’s very connected to the people we’re interested in.”
I regard him silently, listening with a professional ear to what he’s telling me.
“Next would’ve been the retrieval team, sent in to take you by force. Not surprising they failed, truth be told. Hell, even they must’ve doubted their success, because they sent in the death squads to take you out at pretty much the same time! That’s when we knew we had to step in.”
“Could’ve stepped in a bit earlier, asshole, I might still have a bar and my dog.”
“You had a dog?” he asks with a smirk, somewhat sarcastically.
“Yeah, I did, and I loved that little guy, and he got shot. I can’t say I care for your tone, Ryan, and I’d advise you going forward to remember that while I’m retired, I’m no less capable of ripping your throat out. We clear?”
He smiles nervously. “Hell, I meant no offense, son. I’m here to help — our past be damned.”
I take a few deep breaths to pacify my anger. “And who’s we?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You keep saying ‘as best we can tell’, and ‘we knew we had to step in’… Who’s we?”
He clears his throat but remains sheepishly quiet.
“Ryan, how did you know what was happening here? Who do you work for?”
He hesitates, clearly thrown off whatever game plan he had when he came to meet me. “Adrian, what’s important is what’s happening, not who I represent. Let me just—”
He stops talking as we see another car appear behind us in the rearview. It’s a nice sedan, black with tinted windows. It pulls up behind us in the parking lot and sits there, its engine still idling.
“Friend of yours?” I ask him.
He sighs. “Yeah…”
“Let’s go and say ‘hi’ then. Maybe they’ll give me some straight fucking answers!”
I climb out of the truck and walk toward the car; Schultz is just behind me. As I near the vehicle, the driver’s door opens and a man gets out. He’s dressed like Schultz — nice jeans, boots, a fitted shirt tucked in with the sleeves rolled up, mirrored sunglasses and short blond hair, styled and spiked. He shuts the door and stands in front of me, smiling.
“Hey, Boss,” he says, in a ridiculously happy British accent.
I feel my eyes go wide. I’m genuinely shocked…
“Holy shit… Josh?”
9
“How you doin’, Adrian?” he asks, smiling. I’m guessing he loves the look of confusion and surprise on my face right now.
I can’t think of anything meaningful to say. After everything that’s happened, seeing Josh in front of me is just too much of a curveball to deal with at the moment.
“Where’s your hair?” I ask him, finally.
He laughs. “Figured it was time for a change. Needed to smarten up a bit, y’know… you like?”
“You look less like someone who listens to rock music and still lives with his parents, if that’s what you mean?”
We look at each other for a moment in silence, and then both burst out laughing before embracing like long-lost brothers. We pat each other’s backs.
“Man, it’s good to see you, Josh. What you up to nowadays?” I ask.
“What else?” he replies. “Watching your back!”
I frown. “Something really weird’s going on here, and I’m guessing you know what…”
He smiles that knowing smile of his, the way he always did when he knew things and didn’t want to tell you how he found them out.
“Josh…?”
“Okay,” he begins. “You’re about to get a lot of information, and you’re gonna have questions… can you please just wait ’til I’ve finished? I know you want to know everything all the time, but this thing is big and it’ll take time to explain.”
I shrug and nod. “Whatever,” I say, gesturing with my hand for him to start.
“Okay… when we went our separate ways, I went and got myself a job at GlobaTech, working with our old friend, Robert Clark. What I did was really complicated, and I won’t bore you with the details, but it was to do with their research and development business. Anyway, when Ryan here got the boot from the new president, Robert offered him a job as a consulting director…” He leans forward slightly. “You ask me, it’s one of those jobs they give a fancy title to that requires you to do absolutely nothing. Y’know, the kind of job that they award old people with too much time on their hands…”
He smiles, winks and stands up straight again, casting a quick glance to an unimpressed Schultz, who’s leaning against the hood of Josh’s car. I smile. The more things change, the more they stay the same…
“But seriously, Schultzy has done good for us since he came on board, so respect where it’s due. Anyway, we as a company were approached soon after by a couple of people with… questionable intentions, shall we say. Think Dark Rain, but more evil.”
“Lovely,” I say, remembering very clearly how that ended.
“Obviously, since the era of Bob Clark began, we don’t get into bed with such unsavory characters. But alarm bells were ringing nonetheless.”
He moves over to his car and leans against the door as he talks. I’m standing with my arms folded across my chest, waiting patiently for the part that explains why the last few days have gone to shit.
“We kept a close eye on the movements of these people, using the vast array of technology at our disposal. This was about a year ago, and there’s been very little to go on until the last couple of days when, you guessed it, you got involved!”