Saxon glanced around; if he left his place of concealment, there was no way he could make it to other cover before Namir and Hardesty entered the hangar. He had no choice but to stay where he was and remain silent. He had little doubt now that if they found him, Hardesty would make him answer for it with a bullet. His mind still racing, Saxon went as low as he could, pressing into the wheel well of the tractor vehicle.
"You're certain that Temple was killed?" asked Namir as he passed.
"Burned to a crisp," Hardesty replied. "Incendiary grenade will do that for you. The cops will be sifting through the ashes of that place for weeks."
"The more important question remains to be answered, however." Namir reached the access ramp at the rear of the jet. "Was the Killing Floor compromised?"
"I don't think so-"
"But you don't know," Namir cut him off. He paused, then shook his head. "We can't let that possibility deflect us. Put these concerns to one side, let me deal with the fallout. In the meantime, concentrate on the preparations for the next operation. On that, we can have no margin for error. Clear?"
"Clear." Hardesty stood unmoving, his gaze turned inward as Namir boarded the aircraft.
From his hiding place, Saxon glared at the other man. More than anything at this moment, he wanted to know what Hardesty knew about
Operation Rainbird. He wanted to beat it out of him-the old, familiar anger ran through him, setting his teeth on edge. And that phrase, this
Killing Floor… When he had confronted Kontarsky in Moscow, the hacker Janus had mentioned the same thing…
Finally, Hardesty turned and walked away across the hangar. Saxon watched him go, suddenly unsure of his next move. The chill fear that had been lingering at the base of his thoughts for so long was now in sharp, icy focus. He felt the same sensation at the pit of his gut as he had the night Strike Six had set off across the Grey Range.
He was in enemy territory.
In a secure room aboard the jet, Namir shrugged off his combat jacket and settled into a chair. The console in front of him unfolded into panes of holographic imagery, a global map displaying lines of communication spiderwebbing the world. Bright nodes of light sparkled into life in place over cities spanning a dozen nations; the group was giving him a moment of their precious time, and he was contrite. He understood how important they were; to even consider directly interfacing with the Tyrants… that was something that happened only in the most pressing of circumstances.
"Let's cut to the meat of this" said the voice from New York. "What effect will there be with the loss of the Temple asset?"
"None, sir," Namir said immediately. "We have what we needed from him. We've had a contingency for his removal in place since day one. This only brought that forward."
"That was held off because there was a chance the asset might have had more value down the line." The woman in Hengsha made the point.
"We couldn't have foreseen this development with the Kelso woman."
"Random factors are always the most troublesome," offered another voice, this one transmitting from Singapore.
Namir glanced at a tertiary screen. As he watched, he realized it was footage from a security camera equipped with low-light capability. He saw a woman entering a wide hallway, approaching a man sprawled at the base of a staircase. She touched his neck, and then moved on.
"This was obtained by our associate in Montreal, from the estate's security server," said the man in New York. "The footage has already been repurposed for our needs."
Namir cleared his throat. "I have an operative tasked for deployment in the Washington, D.C., area in connection with the primary mission. I took the liberty of activating her early. She may be able to isolate the Kelso woman, if she did indeed escape the Temple hit…"
"Keep us informed, Namir," said the woman. "Whatever happens, Anna Kelso has gone from being a minor irritant to a potential threat. If she raises her head again, she'll be dealt with. But it is imperative you understand she is only of secondary importance. Stay on-mission."
Then as quickly as they had come to him, the ghostly avatars of the group vanished and Namir was plunged back into gloom, his masters gone like gods passing beyond the affairs of mortals.
Silver Springs-Maryland-United States of America
Kelso hauled the daypack around on its strap and put all the force she could into swinging it at her assailant. Part of her mind was reeling at what she saw; Anna knew that advanced augmentations like optical camouflage existed, but she had never dreamed she'd see it this close, on someone intent on killing her. The name flashed through her thoughts; the Tyrants. They had set her up, and now they would destroy her.
The fractal-edged combat blade whispered through the air and slashed through the material of bag without stopping, opening it along the whole length. The contents spilled out and scattered over the floor. Anna tried to fall back beyond the reach of the dark-skinned woman, but instead she put herself in the open. The woman pivoted on her long, machined legs of carbon steel and plastic, swinging one up to strike Anna across the side of the ribs. The blow connected with a solid smack of metal on flesh and Kelso choked out a lungful of air; the impact vibrated through her bones with such force that it threw her down, and she had to swallow the urge to vomit. Pain lit fires all down her side as she collided with a low stool and crashed to the living-room floor.
She was barely able to blink before she saw the blade coming down again, the shining point aimed at her throat. Anna's off hand shot out to deflect the weapon and she grabbed the assassin's wrist, struggling against her. The woman made a negative noise at the back of her throat and followed through, putting her weight into it. Anna winced as new pain blossomed; her attacker put a steel-capped knee into her stomach and pressed hard.
Anna coughed, tasting blood. She couldn't take her eyes off the tip of the blade as it came inexorably downward toward the bare skin of her neck. The woman had gravity and training on her side; it would only be a matter of moments before Anna could no longer resist, and then she would cut her throat. Her other hand flailed at the air, scraping across the rug, and her fingers brushed something smooth. Reflexively, she grabbed the object-a heavy coffee mug stenciled with an image of the Lincoln Memorial-and swung it with all the power she could muster. The ceramic broke as she clubbed the assassin with it, smashing it across her cheekbone. The woman gave an angry snarl and reeled backward. Anna kicked and rolled, getting out from under her attacker before the killer could react. She dragged herself away, almost on all fours, toward the scattered contents of the daypack, clutching at the torn clothes, searching.
She heard the woman coming back at her just as she found what she was looking for. Anna tore the activator tagstrip from the top of the EMP grenade and spun, hurling it blindly in the direction of the Tyrant assassin. She scrambled toward the door and made it to the middle of the room before the device went off.
With a low, humming snarl, the electromagnetic pulse lit the apartment with actinic blue lightning. Immediately, the lamps fizzed and went dark, the television screen dying with them. Anna glanced over her shoulder as the woman howled and stumbled, crashing to the wooden floor as her perfectly sculpted cybernetic legs became inert and unresponsive; and in the same moment Anna felt a spike of migrainelike pain lance through her head as the pulse struck the delicate electronics in her optical augmentations. Her vision lost all coherence, dissolving into a wall of featureless gray static.
The literal blind panic she had felt awakening in the hospital six months ago returned with punishing force, and Kelso staggered, her hands sweeping through the air; but then she walled off the pain and the fear, just like they had taught her in training. The effect of the localized EMP would last for sixty seconds, perhaps less-she had that long a head start to escape before the killer came after her. Anna was blind