“Thanks, Todd,” Brooke said and turned to his daughter. “We’ll be home before you know it.”
But Alex knew that Washington DC was no longer her home, and that she had to break the news to her father that she wanted to rejoin ECHO. She knew that meant a Category Five Shitstorm heading her way, but there was nothing she could do about it.
As soon as they got back, she would tell him she wanted to leave DC and go back to the life she had started to carve out for herself with her friends.
Brooke scratched his jaw and yawned. “What’s the flight time, Todd?”
“A little of over eight hours, Mr President, and if we’re lucky…”
Todd stopped talking to take an urgent call. Alex and her father both saw the young man’s face visibly pale. When he cut the call he spoke in a rapid but measured way. “That was my contact in the CIA. She just heard from MI5 that there’s new chatter pointing to a terror target somewhere in London, sir. The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle are all named as potential targets and on lock-down. We’re on full alert and the British authorities have increased our protection as well.”
“All right,” the senior Secret Service man said bluntly. “We’re out of here.” Without discussing anything with the President, he leaned forward and spoke to the driver. “Get us to Cowpuncher as fast as possible.” Cowpuncher was their codename for Air Force Once.
“Dammit all,” Brooke said. “Any idea who’s behind it?”
“No, sir, Mr President.”
“All right, let’s go.”
The motorcade pulled away from the ancient building and made its way back to the airport, flanked either side by a host of British police officers on motorbikes.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
With Mack still hanging onto the side, Reaper cruised the Lexus up the winding drive and slowly the mansion came into view. It was a large honey-colored stone building covered in ivy and flanked by various outbuldings and what looked like stables.
“All right, earpieces in everyone,” Hawke said. “If we get split up we need to stay in contact.” He pulled his out of his pocket and set it up under his shirt and the others followed suit.
“Are you sure you sorted the security guard?” Kim asked Scarlet.
“I know how to incapacitate a man, darling.”
Ryan turned and looked at Kim. “True story. Just ask Jack Camacho — his dick’s still in a sling as we…. ow!”
Scarlet tweaked Ryan’s ear and pulled his head down so she could whisper in her ear, but she did it loud enough for all to hear. “I already told you, Jackie Boy’s on a covert CIA mission. Now be a good boy and stop being so silly before I put your dick in a sling, and in the nastiest possible way.”
The car erupted into howls of laughter, but then Reaper brought everyone around with a sobering observation. “We have company.”
Hawke looked up and saw several off-road bikes were now racing across the airfield in their direction.
Kim sighed. “I thought you said you handled the guard?”
“And I thought I told you that I did?”
“It’s just a protocol failure,” Hawke said. “I’m guessing the gatehouse guard has to radio through all approaching vehicles to on-site security, so now they want to know just who the hell we are. Let’s keep this under control.”
“I think that ship has sailed,” Lea said. “They’ve got guns.”
“Looks like Kruger’s not taking any chances,” said Devlin.
Ryan nodded sagely. “Either that or this Horak dude doesn’t pay his TV licence and thinks we’re BBC inspectors.”
Lea rolled her eyes, but it was good to hear Ryan relaxing and making his usual idiotic comments. Camacho’s absence had given him plenty of room to make gags at Scarlet’s expense, and now this let her see that there was still some light in there.
“You need pump-action shotguns for those licence guys?” Kim said with a smirk.
“Here they come,” Reaper said.
Hawke frowned and reached into his bag for his handgun. “And the guy in the lead has just chambered a cartridge on that pump-action.”
The first rider fired at the Lexus and Reaper swerved to dodge the impact but part of the shot sprayed up the front-left side of the windshield and instantly shattered half of it.
He spun the SUV off the drive and ploughed across the lavish lawns to the south of the house while the bike turned back in a wide circle, chewing up chunks of mud and spitting it out in a high arc in its wake.
“One o’ you tadgers give me a gun?” Mack yelled.
Hawke pushed his window down, handed a gun to the Scotsman and returned fire, but the rider took evasive action and dodged the incoming fire.
“Would you like me to do that?” Scarlet said.
Before Hawke could reply, Cairo Sloane climbed halfway out of her window and loosed a savage volley of sidearm fire from her weapon.
“No, thank you,” Hawke muttered. “I’ve got it covered.”
Swerving to avoid Scarlet’s rounds, the rider slid another cartridge in the pump-action with a one-handed slide while still deftly steering the bike back to them.
Hawke was impressed by it, so too bad he’d probably have to kill him to stop him. He raised his gun and fired again, and again he missed and so did Scarlet. As he cursed another two bikes zoomed into view, ridden by more armed men. They raced ahead of the SUV and flanked the leading rider.
“Bloody fantastic,” Hawke said. “Now there’s three of them.”
Reaper was in hot pursuit, and they were racing toward what looked like a giant hedgerow. “Look out for the hedge, Reap!” Lea yelled.
“It’s not a hedge,” Ryan said.
“Damn fuckin’ right, it ain’t!” yelled Mack, and peeled off another few rounds.
“Well it sure ain’t no goddam wall, Ryan!” Kim said.
“It’s a maze,” he said casually. “In fact it’s the biggest maze in Europe.”
“Goodness me, isn’t that something?” The sarcasm in Scarlet’s voice was heavy.
“Yes, it is. The central part of the maze is hundreds of years old,” Ryan said. “It was built in the late seventeenth century. Over the years various owners added to it but it was Horak who bloated it up to the current monster when he bought the place in the mid-eighties.”
“You really are a mine of totally useless information,” Scarlet said, turning to look over her shoulders at the riders. “Where do you get all this crap?”
“It’s called reading,” he said, stretching the last word out as long as he could. “Ever heard of it?”
“Sorry, did you say something Ryan?” she said. “It’s just that all I could hear was the whine of a wasp. Or was that your voice?”
“Man,” Kim said. “To think you guys saved the United States…”
“It’s worrying, no?” Reaper said with a broad, toothy grin.
“Oh yeah,” Kim said. “Especially if you’re a sane person who’s trapped in some freaking English manor with them.”
“Don’t be like that, darling,” Scarlet said. “Not everyone was born with a pole up their arse.”
Kim turned on Scarlet. “I’m sorry?”
“Let’s face it,” the former SAS captain continued, “you are rather serious.”
“How is that a problem?” Kim said, astonished.
“No problem,” Scarlet said. “Just that the only serious thing about all the Special Forces I’ve ever known has been their sense of humor.”
“Forgive me if I don’t get your humor,” Kim said.
“You’re forgiven,” said Scarlet.
“There is one funny British joke,” Kim said.
“And what’s that?”
“Your navy. What was it now — one aircraft carrier without any aircraft. Oh my.”
Scarlet smirked, determined not to be baited. “You’re quite right, we’re not in the same league as you Yanks. I especially admire your writers. What was it Mark Twain said — God invented war so Americans could learn geography?”