They could hear shouts now—curses, imprecations.
“What’s happened?”
“There’s no time.” The hammering was louder. “Without me you’re trapped. Will you take me with you?”
A gunshot splintered through the door. The angry shouts grew louder, more frenzied. The pounding increased in intensity until the door shuddered.
“Yes,” Jack said. “All right.”
Thate nodded and, putting his shoulder to the desk, shoved it all the way to the door. In the area of the floor that was under where it had been was a trapdoor. Bending, he pulled an iron ring and the trapdoor swung up.
“Quickly,” he said. “Quickly, or we’ll die here!”
There was an iron ladder leading down into absolute blackness. Alli went first, then Jack. Thate came last, pausing to lock the trapdoor from underneath. There was no light at all.
“Keep going.” Thate’s voice floated through the void.
They were enmeshed in damp, in sharp mineral smells, and in the stench of dying things.
“Thate,” Jack said when he reached the ground, “what happened back there?”
He could hear Thate breathing. At last, the kid said, “Have you heard of a man by the name of Arian Xhafa?”
Jack felt a chill go through him.
Thate took a breath. Jack could feel it on his cheek.
“Dardan, the man you killed? He was Arian Xhafa’s brother.”
PART TWO
BLOOD TIES
R
OBERTO
B
OLANO
TWELVE
“YOU’RE A dead man, Jack, you know that.” Dennis Paull shook his head. “All of you. You and Alli and this kid.”
Jack tried to find a comfortable position, keeping the pain in his side to a minimum. He’d gone to a surgeon. The slash was superficial. His hand needed a number of stitches, and he was on antibiotics.
“Why state the obvious?”
“Because now it’s a race against time,” Paull said. “We’ve got to terminate Arian Xhafa before one of his people puts a couple of sniper’s rounds into the three of you.”
Thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic, Jack and Paull sat side by side in the front section of the 757’s luxuriously reconfigured interior. In the cargo hold below them, packed and ready, was the arsenal of DARPA weaponry Paull had handpicked for Chimera’s first assignment.
Alli and Thate sat in the lounge area near the rear, eating pizza and drinking Cokes. The sight was incongruous and, for Jack, slightly eerie. They were just like two kids at a ’50s malt shop. Looking at them, the terrible events of the last twenty-four hours might never have happened.
Paull glanced at Thate. “This fucking kid. I don’t like that you dragged him along.”
“I promised him. I had no choice.”
“Sure you had a choice.” Paull’s voice was like granite. “You could’ve ditched him the first chance you got.”
“And leave him to be picked off by Dardan’s men?”
“He carried that Stem pendant.”
“He didn’t lift a hand to protect Dardan.” Jack shook his head. “No, he’s straight, so far as that goes.”
“Still.”
“One day that cynicism will kill you,” Jack said.
Paull grunted. “In our business, there is no sharper blade than trust.”
Jack gave him an ironic smile. “I’ll try to remember that in the days ahead.”
“Still.” There was an insistence in Paull’s voice. “Why do you keep putting Alli in such danger?”
“I don’t do anything,” Jack said. “She does it herself.”
“How big is her death wish?”
“She was a holy terror in the Ukraine.”
Paull shifted, returning to the topic on his mind. “If I’d been kidnapped and held captive for a week, my death wish might be the size of New Jersey.”
So that was it. “She’s fine now, Dennis.”
“So you’ve got enough evidence to clear her on Billy Warren. What about her uncle’s security team?”
“Trust me.”
“Remember what I said about trust, Jack. But of all the people I know, you’re the one I do trust, so I got the fugitive warrant on her frozen—until we get back. I burned significant political capital with the president.”
“I appreciate it, Dennis.”
“Bullshit. You had me over a barrel. Tell me, would you really have refused to come?”
“I said it,” Jack nodded, “and I meant it.”
“You must love that girl more than life.” Paull shook his head. “You really are a fucking piece of work.”
“I appreciate the compliment.”
Paull still had a sour look on his face. “Did it ever occur to you that this kid might have killed Warren and strung him up?”
“It crossed my mind,” Jack said.
“Then why are you letting her sit with him?”
“She can take care of herself. Besides—” He sensed Alli coming toward them.
“Am I interrupting?” she said, plopping down in one of the empty seats facing them.
“We were just talking about you,” Jack said. “What’s the verdict?”
Alli shot Paull a wicked look before she addressed Jack’s question. “The jury’s still out.”
“Meaning?”
“He hasn’t lied to my face, but there’s something he’s holding back. He’s clearly frightened. Dardan’s death has unhinged him in some way I can’t fathom.”
“Do you think he killed Billy?”
“Too soon to tell.”
Jack, responding to the expression on her face, said, “What’s the matter?”
“He doesn’t trust us—not really, anyway.”
“Smart boy. He has no reason to keep trusting us.”
Alli risked a quick glance over her shoulder. “I’m doing my best to change that.”
“Go slow,” Jack said. “The kid’s skittish.”
Alli nodded and stood up. Jack reached out and took hold of her hand.
“I’m okay.” She touched his bandaged hand, and Jack nodded.
She smiled, and went back to rejoin Thate.
Paull appeared stunned. “What are you two, a team?”
Jack smiled. “Let’s say we have an understanding.”
