Like Daekwon, he too had to dress up in a disguise of sorts whenever he went out in public, but his involved a long wig, and dressing in girl’s clothing; his androgynous features and willowy figure were easy enough to pass off as a girl’s, especially with a bit of makeup, a wig, fake eyelashes and lipstick. However, under the dresses he too was armed, always, with a nine-millimetre pistol.
‘I g-, got err’thing you needed,’ Daekwon said to Lightning Bird, setting down two canvas shopping bags on the floor. ‘And I didn’t see n-, nobody followin’ or watchin’ me.’
‘Good, good,’ Lightning Bird said, taking the shopping bags over to the nearby counter. ‘Thank you, Daekwon. You have done well.’
‘We gon’ be movin’ again soon?’
‘We will be, yes.’
‘Thank God,’ Jun murmured. The walls of this tiny studio apartment had been feeling as if they were closing in on him.
Lightning Bird walked over to his desk and picked up the satellite phone to call William, for William had a number of connections all over the Eastern Seaboard of the United States – some of them rather unsavoury – and the Rebels were hoping that some of them could provide them with the assistance they so badly needed at this moment. He punched in William’s details and then waited for his friend across the ocean to pick up.
‘Lightning Bird, brother, what’s going on? Is Parvati safe?’
William was almost stumbling over his words in his haste to get them out of his mouth; the direness of his urgency was apparent.
‘She is,’ Lightning Bird replied, ever calm. ‘But we have a problem. Sigurd—’ Lightning Bird halted in mid-sentence; if he told William that Sigurd himself was here in New York, he would likely insist on coming himself to deal with the situation, and that was something that the Rebels could not afford to do, not with all the plans they had so carefully laid out. William could not be trusted to be rational when dealing with Sigurd, so deeply did his hatred of him run. Lightning Bird promptly inserted a white lie into the conversation. ‘Sigurd’s men came after us, but we managed to escape them. But now, my friend, we are in great danger; Sigurd has been informed of the situation – wherever he is – and has closed his net tighter, and ordered in more reinforcements. Without assistance, and I mean tough, heavily armed assistance, we won’t make it out of here alive. Well, Daekwon, Jun and I won’t, and they will take Parvati for Sigurd. If she falls into his hands and he is able to pry the secrets from her mind, somehow…’
‘I understand how disastrous that could be. All right my friend, listen, I’ve got an idea on who can help you to both protect her and get her out of there safely. I’ve got a connection in the city, a Ukrainian mobster. He and his lads are as tough as they come, and he owes me a favour or two. Er, don’t ask … but trust me, he knows who I am and how much I can pay, and he hates the Huntsmen with a passion, because even though he doesn’t know anything about the existence of our kind, Huntsmen Inc has done a lot to hurt his personal, um, business interests.’
Lightning Bird frowned as he spoke, aware that William could not see his face but unable to avoid making the gesture nonetheless.
‘As loathsome as it is to cooperate with such individuals, I suppose that due to the direness of our current need, there is no other way out of this.’
‘I know, mate, I know,’ William said. ‘Hang tight and I’ll give my friend a call right now. His name is Maksim Vovk. Oh and listen, send me your location via encrypted message on our secure network. I’ll let him know that you need to be picked up, stat.’
‘Thank you, William.’
‘All for one and one for all, as the old musketeers used to say, eh? Don’t worry brother, I’ve got you on this. Right, enough nattering, I’ll get my friends on the case right now. Speak soon.’
‘Goodbye, Tiger.’
Half an hour later somebody knocked on the door, and the sound quickly roused Lightning Bird, Jun and Daekwon from the half-nap they had fallen into. Each scrambled for his weapon, and pointed it at the door, resting their fingers on the triggers.
‘Who’s there?’ Lightning Bird demanded, making sure his voice was as rough and aggressive as he could make it.
‘Lightning Bird?’ a gruff, deep voice, heavy with an Eastern European accent, asked. ‘I am a friend of William’s. He sent me here to help you. My name is Mr Vovk, Maksim Vovk.’
Lightning Bird nodded to Daekwon, who walked over and pressed himself up against the wall before cautiously opening the door, his pistol ready to be pressed into the side of the head of whoever stepped through the threshold. Lightning Bird, meanwhile, lowered his hand, keeping the gun close to his body, and he drew his long overcoat over it to conceal it, the pistol pointed forward in case he needed to fire quickly; he did not have the luxury of being able to trust anyone. Jun crouched behind the ratty sofa, his firearm at the ready.
The door creaked open on its rusty hinges and a dark figure, visible only as a silhouette against the harsh fluorescent lighting of the hallway, walked into the dimly lit studio apartment. Maksim stepped into a pool of light, revealing his features. He was a short man in his fifties with a round, bald head and a broad face creased with deep lines. His thin-lipped mouth was downturned, and this, combined with his small, very deep-set eyes, gave him a resting look of annoyance or ill humour. From his torso a prominent beer belly protruded, forcing its bulk through his open leather jacket.
A second after Maksim stepped into the apartment, Daekwon pressed the muzzle of his pistol against
