Was she capable of doing such a thing? She knew in her heart she was. She had done far worse, and she wasn’t afraid of making an enemy out of Joe Hawke. She knew taking Hawke out of the game was simply a case of exploiting the feelings he had for her. Like all men he was weak and she would play him like a violin if she had to, all the way until his last breath.
That last thought made her pause for a moment and she considered who she would have to take out on Elysium in order to get to Eden. How many would be there? She had no idea. Lea? Scarlet — she might be a challenge… and then maybe even Hawke.
With a bit of luck, she considered, most of the ECHO team would be off on one of their wild goose chases in some far-flung corner of the world, leaving Eden alone and unprotected. Sure, he had some moves — he was a former Paras officer after all — but he was getting on in life and no match for a world-class assassin in the prime of her life. Perhaps Raoul would know who was on the island tonight.
She turned to glance over her shoulder and watched dreamily as the setting sun illuminated the skyscrapers of San Juan. A moment later it sank into the Atlantic and a purple twilight began to cross from the eastern sky ahead of them. She could see why Eden had chosen this part of the world for his hideout — isolated from the rest of the planet but still close enough to get to America or Europe in just a few hours by jet.
To say she felt on top of her game was an understatement. She would plow through dozens of armed guards if it meant achieving her objectives and neutralizing the English politician. She flattered herself that she was probably only one of a handful of people in the world capable of storming the island without aerial backup, and with a bit of luck, Eden himself would know it too in a very short time.
Now, as the taxi cruised the final few miles to the airport, she did what she had done so many times before — she started to build in her mind an outline of how she was going to execute her mission. She had completed similar jobs often enough to know how it would play out, but in one way this was totally unique. There would be no going back after this one.
She glanced at her watch. It would all be over sooner than she knew it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Hawke went to the door and peered around the arch into the stairwell. The sound of men shouting and hurried footsteps echoed up the steps of the castillo’s tower.
“Sounds like our friends from Florida, all right,” he said. “They’re speaking French.”
“But how could they possibly know we’re here?” Scarlet asked again.
“Like I said — maybe something in Dad’s research,” Lea said. “They must have gone up one side of my flash drive and down the other ten times by now.”
Gunnar looked like Lea had slapped his face. “I was convinced I was the only one who knew how to read the script…”
Hawke gave him a look of consolation. “It doesn’t look that way now, Gunnar… sorry.”
Gunnar’s crestfallen expression was wiped from his face by the sound of the men’s screams as they stormed their way further up the tower’s winding, stone steps. They sounded like a pack of wild animals.
“Guys,” Ryan said. “I hate to break up the debate here, but we have an undetermined quantity of heavily armed Belgian psychopaths running toward us and I’m thinking they’ll be here in less than twenty seconds.”
Victoria gawped at Ryan and blinked. “Oh gosh…”
“He makes a solid point,” Scarlet said.
“So let’s get the hell out of here then!” Ryan added with emotion.
“Sounds like a capital idea to me,” Victoria said, peering anxiously over Hawke’s shoulder and looking down the stairwell. “They’re already too close for comfort.”
Hawke turned to Javier. “Are the shutters on those windows nailed down?”
Javier shook his head. “No.”
“Excellent.”
“There’s no need — we’re five storeys up.”
“Ah…”
Hawke looked at the door. “What’s this wood?”
“The strongest Spanish cedar!”
“Strong enough to keep them busy for a while, in other words.” He slammed it shut. “Give me the key, Javier!”
Javier handed him the key and the Englishman locked the heavy door. “They’ll waste a lot of ammo trying to get through this and that will give us some time to work out a way out of here.”
“Perhaps we can use this to our advantage?” Javier said, taking the cloak back from Lea. “Below the two windows on the right is a drop all the way to the outer courtyard but there is a narrow battlement below the window on the left that leads to a parapet walk. From there we can make our way to the roof of the old chapel and descend to the inner courtyard.”
Hawke opened the shutter and looked at the route Javier had just described. It all seemed straight-forward enough and beyond the north wall of the castle was a large olive grove they could use for cover.
Outside the room they heard the men reach the top of the stairs and began pounding on the door. After a few seconds of rethinking the problem they heard the obvious next step as dozens of bullets smashed into the heavy cedar door.
“Right,” Scarlet said, cocking her gun. “Ladies first, and that means you, Ryan.”
“Hey!”
“You object?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?”
A second later Ryan was following Victoria through the window, then Scarlet climbed out. Lea was next and then Hawke turned to Gunnar and Javier.
“Right you two — out now!”
“Absolutely not!” the Spaniard said with wounded pride. “I go last! My family has defended the castle for seven centuries from people like this!”
Hawke yielded and turned to Gunnar. “Come on — out!” Gunnar made his way quickly to toward the window, axe handle in his grip, but Javier was undeterred and draped the cloak over his shoulders, vanishing from sight.
Outside the window Ryan jogged back from the parapet walk. “It’s an easy trip to the chapel roof and… wait a minute — where’s Javier?”
“Playing the Predator again,” Hawke said.
“What?”
Hawke sighed. “All right Gunnar, out you go!”
“What about Javier?”
“He’s going next”
“No!” protested the Spaniard. “I will surprise them when they enter the room and shoot them with the blunderbuss!”
Hawke rolled his eyes. “Javier, these men have automatic machine pistols. An invisible cloak and a three hundred year-old gun won’t save you if they spray the entire room with lead, which I predict they will do about five seconds after blasting their way through the door.”
“You think?” Javier said with regret creeping into his voice.
“Yes!”
“All right then on this one occasion,” Javier said, holding his finger up to Hawke to underline the point. “I will retreat, but only so I can kill them later with the blunderbuss!”
Hawke fought hard not to look at Javier like he was a total fool, and agreed he could kill them later with the blunderbuss, but only if there was a later, and that meant getting out of here as fast as possible.
But then the door finally burst open and a man stormed in with a Heckler & Koch MP7, raking full metal jackets all over the room. Hawke watched in horror as the rounds drilled mercilessly through Gunnar Jónsson’s chest and throat. He dropped the axe handle and fell on top of it a second later, stone-cold dead.