“Don’t worry,” Dahl growled. “It’ll take me just a minute to shove a gun down his throat and march him right out the back.”
“No. There’s innocent people in there. Kids.”
Dahl stepped down.
“Every second counts,” Smyth said, not only now for the good of the world, but also for a dying Lauren Fox.
Komodo said. “I’ll go in with Yorgi, Healey and Caitlyn. Mismatched colleagues grabbing a drink after work. We’ll find a way and fast.”
Quickly, the four were prepped and given civilian jackets. Alicia put a hand on both Healey and Caitlyn’s shoulders, leaning in to give advice.
“Now remember, we’re in a hurry. No slinking off to the restroom for a shag.”
Healey took a deep breath but then almost squeaked as Alicia gave them both a slap on the behind for good luck. “Now you’re both jealous of me.” She grinned and slipped back into hiding.
Drake watched the foursome enter the Founding Farmers. “Do you ever let up, Miss Myles?”
“Not in this life, Drakey. Just keeping my mojo train on the right track and moving forward. Life’s too short for repentance.”
“You have none then? No regrets?”
“Fuck, yeah. I have a ton. Just leave ‘em all behind.”
“Can’t do that forever.”
“Who says so? You? No way you hang on to yours, Drake, not without lugging a dump truck behind you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
They moved over to Hayden. A surveillance team had been watching their target for over an hour — after he finally reappeared on the radar — through a series of scopes they had assembled inside a neighboring office block. Drake took a peek through one of the glasses, carefully following Komodo’s progress as he meandered through several occupied tables. Yorgi, Healey and Caitlyn kept pace. Of course there were no free tables near the target, but the man, sat with his head bowed, didn’t know that. Komodo quickly took the seat next to him and leaned in, grabbing his arms and locking them to his sides. The maneuver looked like someone giving a greeting to an old friend. Drake imagined Komodo laughing out loud. The others took the remaining spare seats and also leaned in — perhaps secreting weapons that Komodo had already found, maybe imparting advice, but always covering their real intentions.
Within minutes, Komodo was leading the tall figure out of the restaurant. Healey left money on the table and Caitlyn and Yorgi were ready to field any questions. None arose.
Drake left his place of concealment to face the man whom the Pythians believed was probably the one most unlikely to betray them.
“General Stone,” he said. “You’re gonna tell us everything you know.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
“Starting with,” Hayden said, “where is your friend Dudley taking those samples?”
Under strictest security they had taken the General to a safe location. Now he sat handcuffed to a spartan desk inside a spartan room, a man alone in more ways than one. With the ongoing crisis Hayden had taken it upon herself to keep Stone isolated from standard protocol. She figured they had a few hours before questions were asked.
And anyway, time was hardly their ally today.
Stone glared impassively. “I am a United States general. This isn’t Afghanistan, young lady. I demand access to my representatives.”
“I have two representatives for him.” Alicia held up her fists. “Morgue,” she nodded to her left. “Hospital.” She indicated the right. “Let him choose.”
Smyth was dangerously close to breaking the door down. Drake dragged them both away and back behind the two-way mirror. “Give Hayden a chance, guys.”
Hayden took a moment to reveal to the general the severity of his situation, citing first Lauren and her revelations and then the Nicholas Bell sightings and several intelligence leaks including one where Washington DC came under attack by a drone, involving access codes which were stolen from Stone’s office. Even the general’s face melted a little at the charges being leveled against him.
“You think I’m a member of the Pythians? Are you insane?”
This time the bluster was gone, replaced by a lackluster rhetoric. Hayden slammed a clenched fist on the table, making its legs bounce. “None of that matters! Callan Dudley is in the wind with two mass-casualty aerosolized weapons. I’m not sure yet if we’re classing them as WMDs but do you really want that on your fucking résumé too?”
“You think I’m crazy,” Stone said quietly. “A monster of circumstance. But I see what happens in our government, I see the corruption and the games that are played, and I see the need for a higher authority. That’s what the Pythians will give you. Real leadership. Not power plays and six-figure bribes and intimidation. You will know where you stand with the Pythians.”
“Where has Callan Dudley taken the aerosols?”
“We are the Pythians,” Stone said. “We are everywhere and we will start a very real war. Through China and Taiwan we will find the lost kingdom. Then to the pirate galleons of America. And Saint Germain — the most important, shocking and amazing discoveries of our…”
“Shit, I wish we had chance to squeeze him for everything.” Drake saw how this was going. “But right now—” he looked at Smyth and paged Hayden.
“Time to send in the dogs?”
“Last chance, General.” Hayden said. “Speak freely whilst you still can.”
“You think we don’t know you? Ever since London the Pythians have been working you through their intelligence network. And it’s exhaustive, believe me. Text. Pictures. Video. Hayden Jaye, once liaison to the now very dead Secretary of Defense, Gates. Father — dead. Boyfriends — who knows how many, but at least one is dead. How many, Jaye? Pretty piece of ass like you — I bet those thighs have seen plenty of two-way traffic—”
Now it was Kinimaka who reached for the door, but he needn’t have bothered. Hayden was professional enough to keep her cool under such weak taunting, but chose this moment not to.
“I realize from surveillance of our own that if I try to bust your balls, General, you’re actually gonna enjoy it. So I’ll stay clear of that area. Instead—”
She delivered a fast strike to his face, breaking his nose at the bridge. When his hands came up in reaction she looped the chain of his handcuffs around his neck and pulled. Drake kept an eye on her face, impressed with the composure he saw there.
“She’s almost there,” he said to the big Hawaiian. “Give her a sec, matey.”
Hayden tightened the makeshift noose until the general could barely breathe. “All right, motherfucker,” she whispered into his ear. “This is now one very real world, where lonely, persecuted and misunderstood government agents use any and all means to save the men, women and children of their country and preserve their way of life. Even if some of those men, women and children protest that they don’t want or need this kind of help. Do you think they’d change their mind if a terrorist cell entered their kids’ school or the shopping mall? The airport or train station they commute from? How quickly past atrocities are forgotten.”
Hayden squeezed as she spoke, finally relenting and allowing Stone a little room to talk. The general struggled in her grip to no avail.
“Love… loving the sexual asphyxiation technique. Your hot breath. Your hands on my neck—”
Hayden wrenched the chains once again, catching some of Stone’s hanging folds of skin between them and earning a yelp. This time the general’s face was turning purple before she let go.
“I can keep it up all night,” she breathed close to his ear. “Can you?”
Smyth turned to Kinimaka with characteristic belligerence. “Shit, your girlfriend’s hot.”