The Hunters

‘I figured you were Papi’s inside man from the start. I knew he had one, and I assumed it was you.’ Cobb shook his head with disappointment. ‘That’s fine. Part of your job description, I guess. But it has to end now. You can’t — I repeat, can’t — feed him our plans or let him deprive us of information. That could have tragic consequences.’

‘You — you know everything,’ Garcia protested.

McNutt stormed toward Garcia but was stopped by Cobb’s extended arm. One word from Cobb, and McNutt would finally get to kill somebody.

‘Couldn’t find dirt on Papi or the Black Robes?’ McNutt shouted as spray flew from his mouth like a junkyard dog. ‘Give me a fucking break!’

Garcia’s eyes went from one member of the team to the next, but he found no sanctuary. ‘No, really. There wasn’t anything of significance. I swear, I would have told you! My life is on the line, too!’

‘More than you realize,’ Cobb said menacingly. He lowered his arm a few inches. McNutt leaned forward as though he were on an invisible leash. ‘So how about this, then? We need you, and you need me. As far as I’m concerned, the past is the past. No hard feelings. But here’s the deal: get me that information. Now.’

Garcia opened his mouth again to plead, then he saw the look of disappointment on Jasmine’s face. He lowered his head in shame. ‘Okay.’

‘Good,’ Cobb said, speaking for the group. ‘You get our trust back when you get us that information. Do we have a deal?’

‘Of course,’ Garcia said, sniffing. ‘I’m-’

McNutt cut him off. ‘Don’t say you’re sorry! The only reason you’re apologizing is because you’re afraid I’m going to throw your ass off a moving train.’

‘No,’ he protested. ‘The guilt’s been killing me.’

‘Cry me a river! I knew you were a weasel from the start. Your kind always is!’

‘That’s enough,’ Cobb ordered.

‘My kind?’ Garcia blurted. Despite his guilt, he knew he needed to stand up for his family and its proud Mexican heritage. ‘Take that back!’

‘No way!’ McNutt shouted. Suddenly, he felt the harsh glare of his teammates focused on him. He glanced around the train car, trying to figure out why. ‘What’d I say?’

Jasmine spoke up. ‘There’s no place for racism on this team.’

‘Racism?’ McNutt shrieked, even more confused than normal. ‘I wasn’t talking about Puerto Ricans. I was talking about nerds. I can’t stand you fuckers — always reading books and shit. How can you trust someone like that? Turn on a TV like a normal person.’

‘First of all,’ Garcia argued, ‘I’m not Puerto Rican. Secondly-’

‘Enough!’ Cobb shouted, growing more impatient by the second. ‘We need to move on starting now. Garcia, get that information you promised me.’

Garcia nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

Cobb turned toward Jasmine. ‘What’s the latest from Dobrev?’

She answered, ‘He said we’ll never get anywhere if we stick to the main lines.’

‘These are main lines?’ McNutt exclaimed, happy for the change of subject. ‘Those dirt roads, old villages, and mountain passes would put a Dracula movie to shame.’

Jasmine smiled. ‘Actually, we’re pretty close to Transylvania.’

‘Did Dobrev have any suggestions?’ Cobb asked.

‘Of course,’ Jasmine said. ‘He wanted me to tell you there’s an unused track that will bring us into the plateau region. He said-’

‘If someone were going to split a shipment, this is where,’ Sarah interrupted.

Cobb nodded. This was one of those fortuitous moments on any mission when theory and reality reached the same conclusion.

‘Where is this track?’ Garcia inquired, preparing to program it into Goldfinder.

His eagerness to get back in the mission caused both McNutt and Sarah to turn away in disgust.

Jasmine smiled thinly at him. ‘You won’t find it,’ she said. ‘Andrei says it’s not on any map or chart.’

‘I’ll find it,’ he insisted.

‘Shouldn’t you concentrate on getting the information Jack asked for?’ she said.

‘I’m already running that search,’ he said. ‘Just tell me what you know.’

‘I don’t know anything,’ Jasmine said. ‘Apparently not even who to trust.’

‘All right, that’s enough, kids,’ Cobb stated.

‘He wants to see you, boss,’ Jasmine said to Cobb.

‘All right. McNutt, Sarah — play nice here. Let Garcia do his job.’

‘For once,’ McNutt said bitterly, walking away.

‘Garcia, I’ll expect some good news when I get back.’

‘You’ll have it,’ Garcia promised. ‘I swear.’

Cobb glanced at Sarah, who held up her hands in mock surrender and went back to her sofa and the maps. McNutt collapsed onto the chair where he’d eaten his sandwich.

Cobb nodded at them, then joined Jasmine. ‘Let’s go.’

The two walked through the command center toward the engine. As he took a step across the linkage, Cobb got his first real-world glimpse of the surroundings.

Views from train windows must be similar throughout the world, he thought. Rail-side cities whose population is rattled and shaken yet largely oblivious to the noise from passing trains, giving way to hillsides, grassland, and waterways.

He tried to see it through the prince’s eyes, but the world of the Romanovs was not the world of today. He knew that Felix, in order to safeguard the Romanian treasure, would have wanted to get as far from civilization as possible.

Cobb’s thoughts on the outside world were cut off by the reality of the locomotive. The brief exposure to the wind and nature between the cars was slammed out of his mind by the dragon-roar of the engine. He and Jasmine had to twist and duck to avoid the head-end power unit on the floor and the cooling fans on the ceiling.

‘Do you think Mr Papineau is really plotting against us?’ Jasmine shouted back as they navigated the machinery. Her tone, even muffled by the noise, was fretful.

Cobb shook his head. ‘No, but there’s definitely something he’s not telling us, and that makes me uneasy.’

They marched by air compressors and filters, then turned sideways to shuffle along the big main generator, while crouching slightly to avoid the dynamic brake grid and the dynamic brake fan that hung from the ceiling.

‘Why?’ Jasmine wanted to know.

‘Exactly,’ Cobb said. ‘Why would he? I can think of a few reasons, and none of them fill me with confidence.’

‘Anything we should be looking out for?’ she asked.

‘Everything.’

They stopped talking when they had to turn the other way to slide by the main generator and engine turbocharger to finally reach the cab. Thankfully, the fuel tanks, batteries, and compressed air tank were beneath their feet, attached to the underside.

Andrei Dobrev turned his head when the rear door of the cab opened, letting in the roar until Cobb closed it behind him. He smiled, happy to see the leader again. The man who had given him the opportunity to leave his detested semi-retirement. The man who had put this aged but still regal queen back into operation. Dobrev was proud and eager to show off what he called his ‘old dancing partner’.

That is exactly what they were, Cobb thought as they entered the cab. The machine did not, could not, fail to impress. He understood how a boy could fall in love with it and never love anything else equally, ever.

Jasmine took her place on the second of two seats in the small, half-octagonal space that she and Dobrev occupied. It was adjoined by the slightly larger half-rectangular part Cobb stood in. Looking dead ahead out the