“Uh-huh…”
She struggles and sits up a bit in her bed, giggling to herself. “Adrian, do I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice?” she says, mocking me.
“Me? Jealous?” I scoff, trying to hide my embarrassment. “Of course I’m not!”
She looks at me with a raised eyebrow, but says nothing.
“I’m just highly skeptical of the new, overly friendly Ted Jackson replacement who works for the people funding the terrorist organization who’s been trying to kill us both all day.”
Clara rolls her eyes and pulls a silly face. “Well, when you put it like that…”
I shake my head in comical disbelief. “Anyway, you were saying?”
“Yeah, so I woke up surrounded by these guys and Bob… Robert, said he was going to make sure I received the best medical care available. I’ve been resting up here ever since.”
“You spoken to this guy since you came round?”
“Not really. He came in to see how I was about an hour ago, but that’s been it.” She shifts in her bed again, trying to get comfortable. “How did you get here anyway?” she asks.
“After we got to the Uranium mine, Dark Rain showed up in force. Ketranovich and Natalia were there… I met her brother too. He needed to calm her down after she went all psycho.”
“Yeah, that’d be Gene. They’re twins.”
“I thought they might be. Ketranovich said her brother’s the only one she’ll listen to when she goes a bit crazy… That’s a family in need of some serious therapy.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“I bet. So, The Colonel and I had words, which didn’t go very well.”
“Let me guess, he offered you a job and you openly antagonized him?”
“I’m hurt you would even think such a thing,” I say, innocently.
She raises an eyebrow and stares at me again.
“Okay, yes, I might have poked a little fun at him,” I concede, prompting her to smile.
“Anyway, just as I was about to get gunned down by fifteen armed soldiers, three blacked-out helicopters show up out of nowhere and give me a lift out of trouble. Dark Rain didn’t try and stop them either — they just stood there as stunned as I was.”
She shakes her head, laughing. “You’re one lucky bastard, do you know that?”
I smile. “I’d hardly call myself lucky, given how my visit to this city has gone so far.”
She laughs again and the conversation dies down. We sit in silence for a few moments. I’m genuinely glad she’s alright. Despite what Josh had said earlier about me doing the right thing, I know I’d have struggled to forgive myself if anything had happened to her because of me.
The door opens, interrupting the silence, and Robert Clark walks in.
“You guys all caught up?” he asks, pulling up a chair next to me and sitting down.
“Yeah, we’re good,” I reply, smiling at Clara.
“Excellent. Now, down to business.” He looks me right in the eye, his jaw set and his brow furrowed. “I need your help, Adrian,” he says, solemnly.
I exchange a quick glance with Clara.
“You want my help?” I ask him, unable to hide my surprise.
“That’s right,” he replies.
“I don’t know if you’ve been keeping score, Bob, but Dark Rain has spent all week trying to kill me… Why would I help the guys giving them money?”
Clark smiles. The irony of the whole thing isn’t lost on him.
“I understand how you feel and I’m sorry about what’s happened in the past. Let me explain a few things.”
He stands and paces around the room for a moment, seemingly to gather this thoughts. His hands are in his pockets and he’s looking at the floor. After a few moments, he speaks again.
“Between you, I think you both have a good understanding of the situation… Would you say that’s a fair assessment?”
Clara and I both nod, but neither of us says anything. Clark looks at me.
“Adrian, after you killed Jackson and took the deeds to the mine, why didn’t you take them straight to Pellaggio?”
I shrug. “I couldn’t allow the mafia to have access to that land, knowing what it was. It would be just as dangerous as if I’d allowed Dark Rain to keep it.”
Clark nods, like he’s interviewing me and assessing my answers. He then turns to Clara.
“And you, why did you turn your back on Dark Rain after the years you’d spent fighting for them?”
She looks at me, then at Clark. “Same reason Adrian kept the deeds,” she says. “I had no idea their endgame involved selling Uranium, and I wanted no part of it. It’s just difficult walking away from someone like Ketranovich.”
“You’re right,” agrees Clark. “It’s not easy. I have the same problem that you do.”
“You do?” I ask.
“Yes. An investigation took place in the aftermath of Jackson’s… demise,” he says, briefly glancing at me as he mentions the name. “I work for GlobaTech Industries, and I’m proud to do so. The investigation revealed that Jackson was part of a small group of people working toward their own agenda from within the organization. It was this group who were using their own department’s budgets to fund Dark Rain. It was their plan to extract the Uranium and shift liability over to Dark Rain under the pretense that they’re working with them. Once the material had been processed to make it weapons-grade, their intention was to either turn their backs on Ketranovich and sell the material for additional funding, or frame him should things go wrong. Either way, they believed they had things covered. Our board of directors has ordered an immediate halt to all activities currently ongoing involving these departments pending further enquiries. All assets relating to the Dark Rain project have been frozen.”
“So you expect us to believe that you’ve pulled your funding from Dark Rain and screwed them the way Jackson screwed Pellaggio?” I ask. “And that’s supposed to immediately absolve you of any accountability and make you the good guys?”
“Adrian, I think we both know that, in this world, things are too gray to simply have good guys and bad guys. But yes, whatever ties my company had with Dark Rain are now severed. We’re actively looking to clean up the mess Jackson made, which is why I’m asking for your help. Also, for the record, I think Jackson was a greedy little prick for trying to go behind everybody’s backs and do a deal with the mob, and he got what he deserved.” He smiles. “But that’s purely my opinion.”
I’m starting to like Bob.
“So what happens now?” asks Clara.
“We need to stop Dark Rain,” he says to her. “They’re heavily armed, well prepared and have roughly three thousand men tucked away at their compound, ready to fight for them, according to the last status report from Jackson.”
“I’m assuming nobody’s informed Ketranovich of these recent developments yet?” I ask.
Clark smiles and shakes his head. “Don’t worry. We’re working on a strategy to neutralize Dark Rain as we speak. They’ll get the message soon enough. For now, you’re part in this is officially over.”
“Just like that? After everything we’ve been through?”
“Just like that. Adrian, you can’t take on an army by yourself. You need to get your affairs in order and get out of town. You’re almost done here.”
“Almost…?”
“There’s just one tiny thing I need you to do for me first.”
“Which is?”
“I need you to give me the deeds to the land. I will personally sign them over, on behalf of GlobaTech Industries, to the U.S. government, who will make sure the land gets mined clean and the Uranium disposed of safely.”
“That’s a big ask, under the circumstances,” I say. “I appreciate you saving my life, but that doesn’t mean I trust you.”