“So not Captain Kidd then…” Alex said, disappointed.
“No,” Scarlet said with disgust. “The romance of privateer treasure-hunting just got barged out of the way by an American software billionaire.”
“By day maybe,” Eden said, “but a certified nutcase by night.”
“Why do you say that?” the Frenchman asked.
“We’re not entirely sure,” Eden continued. “One of my sources indicated I might like to pay Wade closer attention so I sent Ben, Alfie and Sasha over to see if there was anything worth looking at. The rumors are that he’s close to uncovering something of enormous archaeological importance from the ancient Aztec civilization.”
“So he’s interested in archaeology?” Scarlet asked, her voice the epitome of naïve innocence. “Same can be said for a lot of nerds… what’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with it is that there are other rumors about Mr Wade… very unsavory rumors about how he likes to spend his spare time.”
Vincent fixed his eyes on the old man. “What rumors?”
“Before he fell from grace, Wade’s business empire was massive — for a time he was of the richest men in America and had subsidiary companies all over the Western hemisphere. These included several sweatshops in Mexico, not to mention rumors of a sprawling coffee plantation somewhere in Guerrero but we’re not sure where that is.”
“But not exactly Vlad the Impaler then,” Scarlet said, arching an eyebrow.
Eden was silent for a moment, clearly wrestling with how much to say. “People associated with Wade have been going missing. A lot of people. We don’t know what’s happening to them but clearly something unpleasant is going on. Not only that but we know he’s expanding some kind of warped sun-worshipping cult.”
“An Aztec thing?” Lexi asked.
Eden nodded grimly. “Put all this together and it’s enough to have my interest.” He stared at them all before finishing. “And if it’s got my interest it’s got your interest, understand? This isn’t a holiday camp, remember. Now get that feed on the plasma screen, Alex!”
“On it.”
Eden paced the room as Alex hurried to patch the live video from Ben’s phone through to the plasma screen. After a few tense seconds an image of dense jungle filled the enormous screen and they watched with horror as they saw Ben running away from the camera toward some kind of clearing. Someone shot him, and then he was surrounded by men.
“That one’s Wade,” Eden said, indicating a tall man in a battered Reiner hat.
A short conversation followed and then things went from bad to worse when Alfie Mills and Sasha Harding were dragged into the frame.
Eden hammered his fist on the desk. “Why the hell did they go into the jungle?”
“Beats me,” Alex said. “They’re not jungle-trained.”
“No they’re bloody well not! They were trying to impress me.” Eden’s voice grew quieter at the thought.
“They look terrified,” Lexi said.
“Damn it all!” Eden shouted. “I told him to get out of there! I told him his safety was the priority, not the mission. Things are bad enough with half the team in London.”
Alex felt the anxiety rise. The whole scene was given a warped twist due to the phone being tipped at forty-five degrees, and she started to feel sick as she realized what was about to happen.
“Is there anything we can do to help them?” she asked.
Eden gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Nothing. They’re in the middle of the Lacandon Jungle.”
“Where’s that exactly?” Reaper asked.
Alex turned around and faced him, her face sombre. “In the Chiapas state of Mexico.”
Eden sighed. “Even if we fuelled a jet and took off immediately it’s a three hour flight to the nearest city and several hours by Jeep, not to mention even more hours hiking through the rainforest. They’re totally alone.”
For a moment there was another brief conversation between Wade and Ben, and then Wade ordered a man to shoot Alfie and Sasha. Alex watched in disbelief as both were gunned down and fell just out of the shot, dead.
“Did that really just happen?” Lexi said.
Eden said nothing, but Alex saw the tension in his jaw.
“Fake, maybe?” Lexi asked.
Eden shook his head.
“No, I don’t think so,” Reaper said quietly.
Now, Ben was struggling to free himself but he had no chance against the grip of so many men. Then Wade held something up to the sky and a look of deranged mania appeared on his face. Moments later he appeared to hand Ben a gun before taking a step back and ordering his men to attack the former Para.
Scarlet narrowed her eyes. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I can’t believe we’re watching this live,” Alex said. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“Ben works for me,” Eden said, his voice low and full of emotion. “I’ve known him since we were in the Paras together, and I sent him in there. You can all do as you please, but he’s in ECHO and if you think I haven’t got the courage to watch what he has to go through then you don’t know me at all. I need to know what happens because I need to know who to punish and how hard.”
After that, no one else spoke.
The feed beamed live into the ECHO headquarters and Eden and the rest of the team watched in horrified, stunned silence as the men pounded on their friend, stabbing and kicking him. Then Wade walked over and lifted the strange dagger above his head. The men gathered and obscured what happened next. A minute later, a bloodied Morton Wade saw the phone and walked over to it. The last image they received was the Texan smashing his boot down on the lens.
“Alex, get me that phone’s location right now.”
“No problem. The phone’s GPS tracker allows me to pinpoint it in seconds.”
Alex spent a few seconds on her laptop before looking back to Eden. “Done — I have the exact coordinates.”
Eden walked to the window wall and stared out across the Caribbean, speechless.
Alex slumped down in her chair and thought about what she had just witnessed — the brutal murder of three of their own. She felt sick, and now she looked at the others for some kind of mutual comfort. She was one of the newest members of the ECHO team and had never seen anything like this before. She lowered her voice to a whisper and turned to Scarlet. “What happens now?”
“This…” Scarlet said, pointing her chin at Eden.
Across the room, Sir Richard Eden turned around and faced them. Silhouetted by the brightness of the tropical day outside the window behind him, his body took on an ominous, ethereal form.
“I haven’t briefed anyone on this yet, but not long ago I was contacted by a man named Barton. He’s in London and claims to be part of Wade’s sun-worshipping cult, only he says something has changed, and he can’t be a part of it any more. He has information for us and he’s meeting Lea, Joe and the others in London today.”
“Jesus,” Scarlet said. “I wonder how bad things have to be for a sun-worshipping cultist to get nervous…”
Eden nodded grimly. “That’s what worries me. Barton’s defection is bad enough, but what we just saw on Ben’s phone obviously means that Wade is now onto the fact that someone is on his tail. He may or may not know that it’s ECHO, but we’re not taking any risks. If he’s onto us then we’re up against it, I can promise you.”
“The best defense is a good offense,” Scarlet said coolly.
“Exactly,” Eden said firmly. “But this time I think we’re going to need some help. My contacts in Mexico are limited but there is someone we can turn to.” He looked at Alex. “I appreciate your relationship with your father is rocky, but I think it might be a good idea to involve him with this. Wade is heavily connected with some of Mexico’s hardest drug gangs and that’s an area the Americans know better than anyone.”