“Oh, yes. Along with the American government, the British, Mossad and China, it seems. Everyone wants a sniff inside Amenhotep’s tomb. I imagine there will be others too — unknowns. Our mercenaries will surely earn their money.”
“Joking aside,” Barracuda said. “We should ready the secondary option. With so many players involved in the game tonight it will be messy even for us.”
Piranha nodded. “Agreed. So… let the games begin.”
CHAPTER SIX
Whilst Crouch arranged for a discreet flight out of Romania, the SPEAR team continued to debate the rights and wrongs of all that had happened and what they were about to do.
“This Crouch can facilitate us all?” Kenzie asked, watching the newcomer work.
Drake nodded firmly. “You haven’t met him before, but I worked alongside him for years. Alicia too. He’s the best connected person I’ve ever known. Someone once said he had more connections than British Telecom. I would say he’s one of a handful of people in the world right now that could pull this off.”
“And why didn’t we call him first?”
Drake made a face. “It was on my mind, but we’d hardly settled on a plan yet.”
“What of Lauren?” Smyth fretted gruffly. “You all happy with her leaving?”
Dahl squared up to the soldier. “We’ve been through this and more than once. If you feel so badly, Smyth—” he nodded toward the door “—go after her.”
The other bits of conversation stuttered as people sensed conflict. Smyth’s face was a clash of emotion; the soldier being pulled every which way. In the end though, surely nothing needed saying. Lauren had made her decision without duress; it was technically correct that she was innocent; also correct that their best chance lay with her being inside the capitol. Smyth didn’t like it, but she had forced him to live with it.
“Crap.” He walked over to the coffee machine and began to pour.
Drake watched Crouch make several calls. He trusted the man implicitly, despite Alicia’s odd misgiving, or maybe because of them. It was an odd day when Alicia didn’t show signs of mistrust. He saw now that she was happy to be moving on and wondered if, at her core, she really wanted to settle down with a soldier like him. The rest of the team were almost enjoying the anonymous break, he was sure, at least for a little while.
Maybe not Dahl. The Swede had been facing the toughest decision for a while. Johanna, his wife, was wavering between divorce and reconciliation, keeping Dahl guessing. Kenzie had taken a shine to the man, offering much more. Drake wouldn’t get involved unless he was asked. It was the way with them.
As for the others — Hayden was trying again with Mano Kinimaka, aware that her words and actions of the past few months had been unnecessarily hurtful. The Hawaiian, always easy-going and loyal, took it in the best possible way whilst looking more than a little confused. Kenzie was being Kenzie — in the short time he’d known her, Drake had never fully trusted her, and whilst he saw her good heart and how useful she could be to the team he still couldn’t bring himself to fully trust her. The deck on Kenzie had yet to be fully played.
Yorgi. The Russian thief was quiet as always; a part of the team but remaining aloof. He may have killed his parents in cold blood but Drake blamed them for the young thief’s state of mind. He would never recover, but still a trip out to that ice-cold Russian field stood firmly in their future.
And then there was Mai Kitano. With her personal life settling of late along with her grief at being forced to kill a low-key Yakuza player and then confront his daughter, Mai was taking it easy. Drake thought she might be scared to show up on anyone’s radar for fear of something else terrible happening to her or her family. Grace was fine though, living in Tokyo. Drake saw Mai passing time, probably hoping the next big event might finally turn out to be something good.
The team had been through hell these past years, no less recently with the attentions of Tyler Webb and his cache of secrets. Their current situation prevented them for searching for Webb’s motherlode, and of the few he’d revealed all but one was out in the open.
One of you is dying.
The toughest one of all. Drake didn’t want to believe it, but so far all of Webb’s statements had proven correct. He shrugged the moment of pessimism away, looking over as Crouch finally finished up and walked to the center of the room.
“Now that’s a mix of good and bad news,” the man said. “If ever I’ve heard one.”
The conversation died and every pair of eyes switched to him.
“Problem?” Dahl asked.
“Not immediate, but…” Crouch shook his head, clearly rattled. “First the good news. The plane is ready and fuelled close to Avram Airport. We have a private airfield nearby and a Cessna waiting. If we make haste now we can be in the air within the hour.”
“Not sure if anyone has asked yet,” Kinimaka said, “but when is this event?”
“Tomorrow night,” Crouch said. “We have time to fly in and get settled. Buy you lot some nice threads.”
“And the invites?” Drake imagined it would be hard rustling up ten invites at short notice.
“Already done,” Crouch admitted. “Days ago.”
“You know someone in the Egyptian secret service?” Dahl guessed. “And trust them completely? Our lives depend on it. We aren’t paparazzi-plagued celebrities, but then I guess people are hunting us down.”
“I covered it,” Crouch told them. “My responsibility. So,” he stared at Alicia. “Behave.”
“You talking to me, bro?”
“Oh, yes I certainly am. My reputation is at stake.”
Alicia made a point of staring askance at Kenzie. “It’s not me you need to worry about. It’s the sword maiden here.”
Crouch held up a hand. “All right, we can discuss that later. I have to say I’m expecting this to work, hoping we can end this threat and then get our heads together to help you all return to the fold. I have contacts that whisper in the President’s ear. I was hopeful.”
Drake cleared his throat. “Is this the bad news, mate?”
“Until earlier today I was pretty confident I could help bail you idiots out,” Crouch said. “Now… I’m wondering how many funerals I may have to attend.”
Dahl sat up. “Excuse me?”
“Luther,” Crouch said. “You may never have heard of him but the Americans have one giant ace up their sleeve. This man… he’s retro dynamite. A throwback to the dark ages. A warrior in the old sense of the word.”
“I’ve heard of Luther,” Hayden said quietly. “You’re saying they sent him after us?”
“I am. It’s confirmed. Whatever this splinter group in the American government is planning, it must be huge. Game changing. Using Luther for anything less would be like throwing a wrecking ball at a wall made of foam.”
“This Luther,” Dahl said. “Can he be stopped?”
Hayden took a deep breath. “Unlikely. He’s a bloodhound and doesn’t stay on the grid. He’ll receive no fresh updates, no communications. That’s one of the reasons he’s so dangerous and our government rarely resorts to using him. Luther will chase down his target, execute his orders, and then return home without making contact in between.”
“Well,” Drake said, “he doesn’t know where we are now. We’ll pop up in Egypt and then be gone.” He shrugged. “I suggest we worry about him later.”
Crouch gave him a look as if to say: “have you gone mad?”, but then shrugged. “The die is cast,” he agreed. “Sooner or later you will meet Luther and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Alicia unfolded her legs, rising to her feet. “I do like the sound of this guy,” she said. “He’s my type. And if I’m being honest — his name rings a bell.”