As they walked deep inside the safety of the goliath container ship, Devlin turned to Scarlet and said, “Thing I want to know is why Humpty would take a dump behind the wall anyway? Has he no fuckin’ manners?”
Lexi looked at him in confusion, “What the fuck?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Davis Faulkner was in the back of Air Force Two when the call came. They were flying thirty-seven thousand feet over the Midwest on the way back from a Vice Presidential trip to Seattle. Below, storm clouds were forming above the cornfields of Minnesota, but it was the storm on the end of this phone call that unnerved him.
“Sir.”
“Mr Vice President, how good of you to take my call.”
Faulkner leaned forward in his seat and fiddled with the end of his tie. “That’s no problem at all, sir.”
“Let’s get straight to business, Davis.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We both want you in the Oval Office, am I right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, good.”
Faulkner heard the creature wheezing. He sounded like he was getting weaker.
“The problem I have, Davis, is that our attempt to blow your President out of the sky in England failed and so as you know, I have been working on something much more certain to do the job.”
“Sounds promising, Oracle.”
“I will of course need the assistance you can provide in your capacity as Vice President of the United States.”
“What do you need, sir?”
“My people will need unfettered access to a certain American coastal city, land sea and air.”
“I probably can swing that, sir.” A smile spread on his lips. This really was going to happen. He really was going to become President.
“Probably?”
Faulkner’s smile dropped. “It’ll be done, sir. Whatever you want.”
“Better.”
“What’s the plan, sir?”
The Vice President listened carefully as the Oracle briefed him on the plan to kill the President. It was brutal. It was treason. It was going to put him in the Oval Office in less than two days.
When the Oracle hung up, Faulkner realized his hands were shaking. His Chief of Staff, Joshua Muston stepped over to him with two coffees in his hands. “Captain says more turbulence is on the way, sir.”
Faulkner accepted the coffee. “There certainly is, Josh. There certainly is.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That was Wolff.”
Muston paled and took a seat opposite his boss. “Oh, God.”
Faulkner’s eyebrows lifted half an inch. “Pretty much, yes.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted to tell me I’m going to be President in a few hours’ time.”
Muston seemed to have forgotten about his coffee. “What’s going to happen?”
For a long while Faulkner was silent as he took in the storm clouds so far below, swirling, bubbling. “Let’s just say this country’s going to have a very bad day tomorrow.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The savage heat of the Transvaal veld beat down on them as they watched the horror unfold in front of their eyes. They had driven a short distance from the complex to an area of caged animals and now Lea studied Kruger’s face for any sign that he might be bluffing. Out here in the bleak isolation of his home turf he looked bigger than usual, more powerful. More in control. Out here he was god and he knew it.
He turned away from where his men were struggling with Julius and looked over at her, staring into her eyes. Not a flicker of emotion was on his face, not the vaguest hint that he was playing games. Turned black in the shade of the bush hat’s broad, battered rim, his eyes were as cold as ever, almost defying her to challenge him, to try and save the traitor’s life.
“I can tell you’re impressed,” he said at last.
He’s right beside you, dammit! Why don’t you do something to stop this?
Because her hands were handcuffed behind her back and she was surrounded by men with automatic rifles. That’s why and she hated it. She felt powerless because she was powerless. The frustration burned inside her, hotter than the African sun, but it wasn’t enough to save this man’s life and she knew it.
But did she really want to save his life? He was Athanatoi after all. But then, he had also decided to turn away from the Oracle and had refused to help him in his quest to take over the world. That was enough, she thought. Bad people could become good and when she watched Julius struggling in the arms of his captors, she knew he had genuinely turned.
The captive called out over his shoulder. “Blankov, I don’t understand! I never did anything to you. I even translated the symbols!”
“Only because I had your son killed and no — you never did anything to me, that’s true.” He sounded almost sympathetic. “But you did something against our glorious leader.”
“But can’t you see, he’s insane?”
“Hush, Julius, hush. After so many centuries, your time has come.”
Julius struggled in Kruger’s arms. “Please, come with me! Together we can beat the Oracle, Ivan!”
Blankov wasn’t listening. Neither was Kruger. Lea knew he wouldn’t. She knew him well enough to know that nothing would drive a man like him to show pity. To Dirk Kruger pity was weakness and there was nothing worse than showing your enemy you had any weaknesses, any break in the armor. She guessed if anything, Blankov was even worse.
“Sadly, Julius, I cannot on this occasion accommodate your pleas.”
“This is madness!” Julius looked like he was about to throw up.
Lea watched helplessly as Venter and his men lashed the ropes around him and dragged him to the enclosure. Kruger was standing the other side of the enormous cage. He was tapping the mesh and calling out to the lion as it paced up and down in the heat. Now, it turned and padded over to him. Approaching the arms dealer, it growled and reared up on its hind legs, bringing its powerful front paws crashing down on the steel mesh. Its claws scraped down the metal and produced a tinny, grating noise.
“They’re very intelligent,” Kruger said, waving a fly from his face and scanning the empty savannah beyond the cage. “The most intelligent beast out here and that’s for damned sure.”
“It’s got fifty IQ points on you, Dirk,” Lea said.
Kruger smiled, then he brushed away another fly. When he turned, she saw his back was covered in the tiny bush flies. He ambled through the baking dry heat, dust kicked up by his boots. “I’m glad you can make jokes, Donovan. I wonder if you’ll find it so funny when you see what I have in store for you and Mr Bean here.”
Ryan bristled at the mockery. Since Maria’s death he’d worked hard to turn himself around and make himself stronger. To be tough enough to stop anything like that from ever happening again and not having to rely on people like Hawke, Scarlet and Lea to pull his arse out of the fire when things got nasty.
To hear the man he hated more than anyone laughing at him nearly pushed him over the edge. He fought it back down and held his tongue. The next time he spoke to Kruger it would be the last words the bastard would ever hear.
The South African leaned into the back of the flatbed and pulled out a bottle of ice-cold lager. He cracked it open and downed half the bottle in one. The heat had instantly created a sheen of condensation on the brown glass. “Gotta sink these babies fast before the sun warms them up, don’t you agree?” He handed her another bottle.