Butcher Boy’s eyes started. Of course! “You know this bloke?” asked Aussie.
Butcher Boy nodded. “You’re that John Savage?”
“I surrendered my post—”
“I know all about that,” said Butcher Boy. “You were an elite soldier, one of the best, specialized in double-edged weaponry and classified as a Class-A sniper.” Savage remained stoically silent. “And then you screwed up in the Philippines with half your unit getting killed along with the marks that you were sent in to save, all because of a bad judgment call on your part. Am I right?”
“You’re not wrong.”
“So you were asked to resign. Word was that you weren’t right in the head. Is that right?” When Savage didn’t answer, he pressed him. “Why would an agent from the Vatican come here with nothing on his person but a sidearm and suppressor? You stand away from everyone watching and waiting.” Butcher Boy moved closer. “But what is it that you’re waiting for, Savage? Why carry a gun?” And then: “What was your real mission?”
Savage unknowingly shot a glance to Alyssa, a micro-expression that gave him away.
“Her!” said Butcher Boy, pointing a finger and chortling. “She was your mission?”
Alyssa appeared stunned. Me?
And then it was all too clear. Butcher Boy removed the weapon from his waistband and held it up, turning it so the burnished steel of the suppressor reflected in the lamp light. “You’re here as an assassin, aren’t you? They sent you to kill her, didn’t they?”
“Yes.”
Alyssa’s world crumbled at that moment — this man, this representative of the Vatican, an assassin? Her knees suddenly became gelatinous, but she held. Obsidian Hall was intrigued as he came closer. “Why?” he asked. “Why does the Church want you to remove Ms. Moore from the equation?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “The source was vague.”
“The source? You mean the pontiff.” Savage remained quiet. Hall moved closer, his face bearing the marks and twists of a prosecuting attorney going in for the kill. “What is it that the pope does not want us to know?” he asked. “What’s in here? What does he want to keep away from the world?”
Savage’s continued silence was becoming quite annoying to Hall. “These are not rhetorical questions, Mr. Savage.”
“I can’t give you answers to questions I don’t know.”
Hall looked into the darkness. “Then we move on and find out for ourselves,” he said.
“No.” Alyssa’s voice was strong, which surprised even her. “We’re done. We’re going back. Mr. Savage needs to be turned over to the authorities.”
Hall managed a few steps until he stood before Alyssa, his hands clasped behind the small of his back. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“You’re not in charge here,” he said, smiling fiendishly. “You haven’t been for a while now.”
“What are you talking about? This is my expedition.”
“Was your expedition,” he told her. “The truth, Ms. Moore, is that I need your skills of interpretation to get me to the lower chamber.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Does it look like I’m kidding?”
“I won’t do it,” she said sternly.
“I think you will.”
“Then you think wrong.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Is that your final answer?”
“As final as it can get.”
“Very well, then.” He turned to Aussie. “Mr. Aussie.”
“Sir.”
“I’m paying you a lot of money to follow my commands, correct?”
“You are.”
“Then listen to me very clearly. I’m about to give you a command. You will not hesitate; you will act immediately upon my say. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
He turned to Alyssa. This time his face held the same coldness as his blue eyes. “Ms. Moore,” he said with diplomatic evenness, “if you want me to implore you for your much needed services, then I will do so. Is that what you want?” She remained unresponsive. “Let it not be said that Obsidian Hall did not give you a chance. So, Ms. Moore, I implore you. Will you please lead my team to the lower chamber?”
This time she crossed her arms defensively across her chest. Savage admired her grit.
“Very well, then,” Hall said, sounding defeated. “I did afford you an opportunity.”
“You can’t do this without my support. You need me,” she said with confidence.
“That, Ms. Moore, is the truth.” His wily smile was back. “Mr. Aussie!”
“Sir.”
“Step forward, please.”
The large Australian, wearing his 30-pound flak jacket and holding his weapon, stood next to Hall. “Sir.”
“You will not hesitate on my command. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Alyssa’s face dropped. He’s really going to do this. And then: “Shoot Mr. Wainscot,” he said calmly.
True to his word, Aussie raised his weapon and fired off a quick burst, the bullets stitching across Noah’s abdomen from left to right, the old man’s face registering too late as he was punched back against the wall and slid down its length, leaving a trail of blood the color of black tar in his wake. He sat there, a hand raised, his mind confused, his eyes and mouth opening wide with the surprise of his own mortality.
Alyssa screamed and ran to him. Eser and Harika were right beside her but it was Alyssa who grabbed Noah’s head and cradled it against her bosom. “And then there were nine,” Hall said with mock sadness.
Savage leaned forward as if he wanted to provide aid but Butcher Boy held him firm. “Don’t even think about being a hero, soldier boy,” he said, holding his MP-7 steady. “Don’t even.”
Alyssa was sobbing as she drew Noah’s head away, and then placed her forehead against his so that their eyes were inches apart. “I’m so sorry,” she told him.
He raised a bloodied hand to her cheek, caressed it, leaving a blood smear. “It’s all right, my dear.” His voice was weak, fading.
“I’m… so… sorry, Noah.”
He offered her a smile. “Please accept my apology.”
“Your apology? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“For all those times I called you Ms. Alyssa when you didn’t like it.”
She couldn’t believe his attempt at humor at such a time. She let out a sound that was a mixture of a sob and a laugh. “You can call me whatever you want,” she told him.
His eyes went distant as if looking past her and through her, his hand suddenly reaching for something only he could see. And then he exhaled. It was the longest exhalation of breath she had ever heard as his life slipped away. Slowly, she allowed his head to fall forward until his forehead rested upon her chest.
“And he was important to the team,” said Hall, “Since he could interpret as well as you. So don’t you ever underestimate me again.” She looked at him. Her face crimson with fury and her teeth were bared in savage rage. “You really should get a hold of that temper of yours,” Hall said.
She leapt at him with her fingers extended to rake across his face, but Aussie stepped in front of her and hammered her with the stock of his weapon, knocking her out cold. Hall sighed. “Well, she does have chutzpah. I’ll give her that.”
“And what about him?” asked Aussie, referring to Noah with an inclination of his head
Hall shrugged. “Leave him. Perhaps whatever those things are will feed on him and leave us alone.” As Aussie walked away, however, he didn’t believe so.
When she awoke, she did so with Savage sitting next to her. Eser and Harika sat across the way, huddled to the point where they seemed to be a single mass. When she turned and saw Savage looking back at her with eyes she had once found adoring, she rolled her own eyes, the movement promoting the pain of her headache. “It just gets better,” she said. “Putting me right next to the jerk who wanted to kill me. Bravo!”