CHAPTER EIGHT

Romeo Airport—Michigan—United States of America

After the helo returned to the barren, isolated airstrip, the rest of the night passed in sullen silence. Hardesty boarded the parked jet in the hangar for what he said would be his “debrief, ” but until Namir and the others returned from the operation in Detroit, there was little any of them could do but wait.

The thought of getting back on the jet made Saxon feel claustrophobic, and he walked the apron of the airport, turning over his doubts and his fears, unable to make peace with the disquiet that continued to grow inside him like a cancer.

The unrest he felt was reaching critical mass—he could sense it. All the small details, all the little things he had let pass over the last few months, now they accreted into a mass of contradictions and challenges he could no longer turn away from. He had tried to convince himself that Namir had been right, back in the field hospital—that what the Tyrants were doing was making a difference to the world, holding back a rising tide of chaos; but the longer he went on, the less he believed it. Namir had assured him that they would find the men responsible for the failure of Operation Rainbird, the terrorists who planted the false data that led Strike Six to their doom. But aside from vague promises, nothing had been resolved.

Have I been played for a fool all along? It frustrated Saxon that he could not be certain of the answer to that question.

There was an annex at the side of the hangar building, a line of rooms. He went inside, fatigue dogging him. He felt it rise up; he wanted to rest, to close his eyes and make all of it go away, if only for a short time. But instead of solace he found Gunther Hermann, seated at a plain table with ordered lines of weapon components spread out in front of him. He recognized parts of a Widowmaker, still blackened from being fired hours earlier. A pistol, yet to be dismantled, sat within the German’s reach.

“Where have you been? ” he asked.

“Taking the air, ” Saxon replied irritably. He studied Hermann for a few moments, trying to take the measure of him; but it was impossible to get a read from those eyes. They were dead, like a shark’s.

“You have something to say to me? ” said the younger man. The challenge was clear in his manner.

The question came before he could stop himself. “How many people died in that house tonight? ”

“All of them. ” Hermann didn’t show the slightest flicker of concern.

“And you don’t have a problem with that? ”

“Why should I? ” He put down the cleaning rod in his hand and studied Saxon. “You heard what Hardesty said. They were targets. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Collateral damage. ”

Saxon’s jaw set at the man’s matter-of-fact tone. “That’s how you see it, yeah? Black and white? Hardesty says kill and you do it, like a good little dog? ”

A tiny flicker of emotion crossed Hermann’s face. “I am a soldier. I follow orders. ”

Saxon shook his head. “I didn’t sign up for this. Not to butcher civvies. ”

“What did you expect? ” Hermann replied, confusion in his tone. “Did you come to the Tyrants expecting to keep your hands clean? That is not what we do. ” He tapped the table with an iron finger. “I had thought a man of your experience would have no illusions, Saxon. We do the worst of deeds in order to protect the world from itself. Because no one else can. ”

“And who gets to decide? ” he shot back. “Don’t you ever wonder about that? About who calls the shots? ” Saxon leaned closer. “You were GSG-9, right? German police, antiterror unit. When you followed orders then, you were following the law—”

Hermann snorted softly. “When I was with them, the law was a rope around our necks. It kept us from making any progress. ” He shook his head. “Do you know what Namir said when he recruited me in Berlin, what made me decide to go with him? He told me that the Tyrants did not concern themselves with laws. Only justice. The group erased all my connections to the police force and I was happy they did. ” He nodded. “What we are doing is right. The ends are justified. ”

Saxon tried to find an answer that didn’t stick in his throat, but before he could frame a reply the door opened and Barrett entered. He shrugged off his combat armor and gave them both a level look. “Miss me? ”

“It’s done, then? ” said Hermann, his conversation with Saxon dismissed. The other man was almost eager to hear what had taken place in Detroit. “Were there any complications? ”

“Nothing we couldn’t take in stride, ” said the big man. He glanced at Saxon. “That cop you were so worried about? Namir broke him in two. ” Barrett helped himself to a beer from a cooler and drained it in a single pull.

“What about the people being held there? By Sarif? ” said Saxon.

Barrett smiled thinly. “Oh, we handled them. ” He paused, massaging a contusion on the side of his skull. “They weren’t that pleased to see us, though…” He made a face. “Some folks, huh? No goddamn gratitude. ”

Saxon glanced out into the hangar. “Where’s Federova? ”

The other man folded his arms. “Well, now. Would have been back here with me and the boss, but ’stead she’s still out in the field. ” He aimed a finger at Saxon. “Cleaning up your mess. ”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? ”

Barrett gave a shrug of his shoulders. “You tell me. Barely got our cargo secured from Sarif before Hardesty is on the horn to Namir, bitchin’ a blue streak. ”

“We achieved our objective, ” Hermann insisted. “Temple was terminated. ”

Barrett kept his eyes on Saxon. “Heard you let one get away. ”

“Bullshit, ” Saxon insisted. “Hardesty’s just covering his own arse. ”

“Whatever you say, man. ” Barrett shrugged again and walked away.

Silver Springs—Maryland—United States of America

Kelso knew even as she did it that she was making a mistake. How many times had she seen criminals caught in the very same situation she was in now, and for the same reason? She knew better. The smart play was to fade away, get out of the city, and keep on going.

That wasn’t what she had done. Anna kept her head down and walked in the places where the streetlights didn’t shine too brightly, staying to the shadows. Instead of fleeing, she followed a basic, animal instinct to return to where she felt safest. Home.

Maybe now she understood those criminals a little better than she had when she was on the other side of the badge. For most people, it was counterintuitive to just cut and run. She understood that impulse; the raw need to go to ground. She tried to convince herself she was being smart—after all, no one would expect her to go back to her apartment—but she knew that wasn’t it at all. She couldn’t just leave. Not yet.

From the road she had glimpsed the spherical shape of a police monitor drone squatting on the lawn, the clusters of eyes on the robot ceaselessly scanning the area. The device’s face-matching and body-mapping software would be programmed with her biometric profile, and she’d be made in a moment if she strayed too close. Instead, Anna detoured around the back and got in through a damaged window near the trash bins on the ground floor. For once, she was pleased that her landlord had reacted with his characteristic slowness in fixing the problem.

She took the stairs to the fourth floor. Another sensor, this one the size of her fist, was attached to her front door. A built-in holograph projected Police Line—Do Not Cross across the threshold.

Anna’s luck was holding; she recognized the security sensor as a model the Secret Service also used. She frowned as she thought of Matt Ryan. He had been the one who showed her how to spoof them. From her pocket, Anna pulled a piece of foil paper taken from a discarded cigarette packet and a vu-phone she had picked from the pocket of a man at the metro station. She gently plastered the foil over the sensor’s antenna and worked at the phone, cycling its on-off function. After a few moments, the sensor went dark; Ryan had explained to her that the devices could be put into a reset mode if they were swamped with microwave signals, like those from a cellular telephone—it was a hit-and-miss hack, though. She unlocked the door and had it shut behind her just as the sensor reactivated. Moving slowly so as not to disturb it, Anna advanced into her apartment.

The lights came on automatically, dim enough for her to see her way around but not so much they would be seen from the street; the television chirped as it activated, casting a blue glow across the open-plan apartment.

Anna’s gut tightened. The place had been turned over, likely by the agency, and while they hadn’t wrecked it, it was still in great disarray. It seemed as if they had opened every cabinet, every drawer and box, searching for… what? Some evidence to back up the accusation that she was colluding with terrorists?

The light from the screen illuminated the open door to her bedroom. Even from here, she could see they had got into the wardrobe and found the safe. Her files were gone, just as she had known they would be. Anna thought about the flash drive in her pocket, the one Temple had pressed into her hands. That was all she had now, every other piece of her painstaking secret investigation now lost. She hoped it would be enough, if only she could find someone to entrust it to.

A part of her wanted to fall into her bed and give herself over to sleep. She was exhausted, and the shock and fatigue from the day’s events were threatening to overwhelm her. Anna’s gaze was drawn to the dark rectangle of the open bathroom door. For a long moment, she fought to ignore the thoughts of what was inside the mirrored cabinet over the sink. She tasted earth in the back of her throat and swallowed hard.

It took a lot of effort to go straight to the bedroom. From the closet, she took a sturdy daypack and circled the bed, gathering up items of clothing from where they had been piled, filling the bag with everything she would need to leave and not look back. Returning to the living room, she finally allowed herself a look into the bathroom. In the reflection of the mirrored cabinet she saw the frosted glass window over the bath, the light from the street shining through it.

Anna turned away and went to the desk until she found what she was looking for. The brass disc was right there where she had left it, and with hesitation, she picked it up, turning it over in her fingers. Suddenly she realized that the sobriety coin had been what really brought her back here. Everything else, the clothes and the bag, all that she could have found elsewhere. The coin she could not have surrendered; it was the last link to the person she used to be, to the person Matt Ryan had always believed in. She swallowed a sob and allowed herself a moment to give in to the emotion inside her, just a brief instant before she forced it away.

Then Anna realized she was looking at something she didn’t recognize. She didn’t get a lot of paper correspondence, maybe the odd circular or item of junk mail, but there on the desk was a pile of items, doubtless placed there by one of the investigators Temple had sent to search the apartment. The largest was a plastic box, postmarked from the city that day, but with no return address details. She shook it gingerly, and then, with care, used her thumbnail to peel back the wrapping. Inside was a courier case with simple print lock. Anna tapped it with her index finger and it opened with a click; the noise seemed like a gunshot in the quiet of the apartment, and it made her flinch.

Inside there was a commercial data card, coded with a one-way rail ticket from Washington, D. C., across the border to Quebec. She found a Canadian passport with it, a high-grade fake using her face and a name she’d never heard before. The rest of the box was taken up with a flat, slab-sided device that resembled a rifle magazine; a Pulsar electromagnetic pulse grenade. She drew out the weapon and weighed it in her hand. It was a military-grade item, and possession of it alone was a felony… but that was hardly a concern for her now. Who had left her this gift, she wondered? Was it some contingency plan by D-Bar and his Juggernaut comrades, or a clever trap left behind by the Tyrants? She put the grenade back down and sighed.

For a moment, she thought the fatigue was playing tricks on her, but when it happened a second time, Kelso was certain she had heard someone say her name. She gave a start when she realized it was Eliza Cassan, the Picus network’s ever-present anchorwoman, voicing a breaking report on the Nightly World News. Anna fumbled for the television’s remote and turned up the volume. She saw her own face there on the thinscreen, a still from the agency’s press file. A line of text ticked past at the bottom of the image, the words talking about a multiple murder in Grand Falls, a manhunt getting under way…

“…at this hour. The Picus News Network had learned from sources within the Department of Justice that Agent Kelso was on suspension pending an investigation relating to an incident several months ago, when Senator Jane Skyler of Southern California was injured during an assassination attempt by members of the ruthless Red Arrow triad. ” The picture was replaced with quick clips of Skyler, then FBI agents raiding the home of the senator’s maid. Cassan’s face reappeared, growing concerned. “Some viewers may find the following footage disturbing. We have just obtained security recordings of the events at the Temple house that appear to incriminate Agent Anna Kelso in the brutal attack that took place earlier this evening”

Anna felt the blood drain from her face as grainy white-and-green images unfolded before her. She saw herself stalking through the halls of Temple’s home, a heavy weapon cradled in her arms. She gasped as the figure on the screen entered a room full of people and gunned them down with quick, callous motions. The image froze and zoomed in; the face looking back was very much her own.

“No…” she muttered. “That’s not me… They faked it…” She trailed off as the weight of her own words bore down. It made terrible, perfect sense. All the way back to the apartment, she had wondered why the Tyrant soldier who saw her hadn’t opened fire and gunned her down. She couldn’t understand why he had let her flee, but now she understood. It had to be part of this! They let her go so she could be framed for the killings, and she had played the part for them perfectly. Anna reeled with the sense of it; no one would believe her claims of conspiracy now. To the rest of the world, she would be seen as a violent criminal. A murderer and a traitor.

The screen showed the file photo of her face once more, this time captioned with the words Anna Kelso—Wanted Fugitive.

Panic boiled at the edge of her thoughts as she snatched up the daypack, the ticket, and the passport. She grabbed the EMP grenade and thrust it into the bag. Anna took two steps toward the front door and froze. A sense, an impression that years of training and expertise had instilled in her, pushed through the web of fear clouding her thoughts. A cool breath of air brushed her bare neck, and she turned slowly to look through into the dimly lit bathroom. Reflected in the mirror, she saw that the frosted window in there was open. It was closed, she told herself, trying to be sure of her own thoughts. I know it. I’m sure of it. When I came in here, it was closed—

Static prickled the hairs on her arms and Anna had the sudden, immediate knowledge that she was no longer alone. She spun, pulling the bag off her shoulder to swing it like a weapon, in time to see a lithe figure emerge from thin air, sketched in by ripples of silvery light, like oil on water. A woman, made of glass, becoming real.

Anna saw her face, the dark doll’s eyes and the predator’s smile on her lips; then she was coming at her, a wicked blade flashing though the air.

Romeo Airport—Michigan—United States of America

Saxon crossed underneath the fuselage of the jet, looking back and forth across the open space of the hangar. He should have known that Hardesty wouldn’t let the incident at the house pass without trying to turn it to his advantage; if the sniper had decided to use Saxon’s apparent insolence against him, there was no knowing how Namir might react to the situation.

As he reached the pools of shadow at the far edge of the hangar, he heard someone say his name, very clearly; the voice was unmistakably Hardesty’s. A moment later, Namir’s low tones reached him; the two men were outside on the apron. Saxon caught the familiar scent of Hardesty’s acrid cigarettes.

By reflex, Saxon shrank into the gloom, placing himself behind the bulk of a low-slung aircraft tractor—the dense construction of the service vehicle would hide his heat signature if either of the men chose to sweep the area with his optics. Dropping into a crouch, Saxon forced himself to slow his breathing and become as silent as possible. After a moment, their voices came to him on the faint breeze. He strained to hear what was being said.

Hardesty was speaking again. “I’m not trying to second-guess you, Namir. I know you got your reasons. ” He turned away to exhale and Saxon lost the next few words. “… Don’t trust the limey, period. He’s a liability. ”

“So you keep saying, ” Namir replied, his voice level. “But your personal aversion is not my concern. ”

“This isn’t personal! ” Hardesty insisted hotly. There was a moment’s pause. “Okay, screw it. Yeah, it is personal. The son-of-a-bitch walks around like his shit don’t stink, with all that noble-soldier, honor-of-the-regiment crap. I’ve seen his kind before. I don’t like Saxon because he thinks he’s better than the rest of us. ”

“He’s good at what he does. More than a match for you. ”

Hardesty was silent for long seconds, and Saxon wondered if he had been spotted; but then the American went on. “That’s not the problem. It’s not that he’s a threat. He’s weak inside. I know what happened in the fight room. When push comes to shove, he’s going to fold. Believe me. ”

Saxon’s lips thinned, but he kept his silence.

“We’ll see, ” offered Namir.

But the next words Hardesty uttered froze Saxon’s blood in his veins. “You should have let me deal with him after Rainbird. ” Just hearing him say the name of the grisly failure made Saxon’s gut twist with anger and sick dread. Namir’s reply was lost as the wind dropped for a moment, but Hardesty’s answer was clear. “We don’t need them both. Gunther’s the better choice. I say we put Saxon down. He’s never gonna be a cold-eyed stone killer. He just doesn’t have it in him. ”

When Namir replied, Saxon heard the steel in his tone. “As I said, that choice has never been yours to make. I recruit operatives with potential, men and women whom I consider worthwhile. If the group is endangered, then the decision will be made. No one is bulletproof, Scott. Not Ben, not you, not even me. Never forget that. ” Footsteps scraped on the asphalt; they were coming back.

Saxon glanced around; if he left his place of concealment, there was no way he could make it to other cover before Namir and Hardesty entered the hangar. He had no choice but to stay where he was and remain silent. He had little doubt now that if they found him, Hardesty would make him answer for it with a bullet.

His mind still racing, Saxon went as low as he could, pressing into the wheel well of the tractor vehicle.

“You’re certain that Temple was killed? ” asked Namir as he passed.

“Burned to a crisp, ” Hardesty replied. “Incendiary grenade will do that for you. The cops will be sifting through the ashes of that place for weeks. ”

“The more important question remains to be answered, however. ” Namir reached the access ramp at the rear of the jet. “Was the Killing Floor compromised? ”

“I don’t think so—”

“But you don’t know, ” Namir cut him off. He paused, then shook his head. “We can’t let that possibility deflect us. Put these concerns to one side, let me deal with the fallout. In the meantime, concentrate on the preparations for the next operation. On that, we can have no margin for error. Clear? ”

“Clear. ” Hardesty stood unmoving, his gaze turned inward as Namir boarded the aircraft.

From his hiding place, Saxon glared at the other man. More than anything at this moment, he wanted to know what Hardesty knew about Operation Rainbird. He wanted to beat it out of him—the old, familiar anger ran through him, setting his teeth on edge. And that phrase, this Killing Floor… When he had confronted Kontarsky in Moscow, the hacker Janus had mentioned the same thing…

Finally, Hardesty turned and walked away across the hangar. Saxon watched him go, suddenly unsure of his next move. The chill fear that had been lingering at the base of his thoughts for so long was now in sharp, icy focus. He felt the same sensation at the pit of his gut as he had the night Strike Six had set off across the Grey Range.

He was in enemy territory.

In a secure room aboard the jet, Namir shrugged off his combat jacket and settled into a chair. The console in front of him unfolded into panes of holographic imagery, a global map displaying lines of communication spiderwebbing the world. Bright nodes of light sparkled into life in place over cities spanning a dozen nations; the group was giving him a moment of their precious time, and he was contrite. He understood how important they were; to even consider directly interfacing with the Tyrants… that was something that happened only in the most pressing of circumstances.

“Let’s cut to the meat of this” said the voice from New York. “What effect will there be with the loss of the Temple asset? ”

“None, sir, ” Namir said immediately. “We have what we needed from him. We’ve had a contingency for his removal in place since day one. This only brought that forward. ”

“That was held off because there was a chance the asset might have had more value down the line. ” The woman in Hengsha made the point. “We couldn’t have foreseen this development with the Kelso woman. ”

“Random factors are always the most troublesome, ” offered another voice, this one transmitting from Singapore.

Namir glanced at a tertiary screen. As he watched, he realized it was footage from a security camera equipped with low-light capability. He saw a woman entering a wide hallway, approaching a man sprawled at the base of a staircase. She touched his neck, and then moved on.

“This was obtained by our associate in Montreal, from the estate’s security server, ” said the man in New York. “The footage has already been repurposed for our needs. ”

Namir cleared his throat. “I have an operative tasked for deployment in the Washington, D. C., area in connection with the primary mission. I took the liberty of activating her early. She may be able to isolate the Kelso woman, if she did indeed escape the Temple hit…”

“Keep us informed, Namir, ” said the woman. “Whatever happens, Anna Kelso has gone from being a minor irritant to a potential threat. If she raises her head again, she’ll be dealt with. But it is imperative you understand she is only of secondary importance. Stay on-mission. ”

Then as quickly as they had come to him, the ghostly avatars of the group vanished and Namir was plunged back into gloom, his masters gone like gods passing beyond the affairs of mortals.

Silver Springs—Maryland—United States of America

Kelso hauled the daypack around on its strap and put all the force she could into swinging it at her assailant. Part of her mind was reeling at what she saw; Anna knew that advanced augmentations like optical camouflage existed, but she had never dreamed she’d see it this close, on someone intent on killing her. The name flashed through her thoughts; the Tyrants. They had set her up, and now they would destroy her.

The fractal-edged combat blade whispered through the air and slashed through the material of bag without stopping, opening it along the whole length. The contents spilled out and scattered over the floor. Anna tried to fall back beyond the reach of the dark-skinned woman, but instead she put herself in the open. The woman pivoted on her long, machined legs of carbon steel and plastic, swinging one up to strike Anna across the side of the ribs. The blow connected with a solid smack of metal on flesh and Kelso choked out a lungful of air; the impact vibrated through her bones with such force that it threw her down, and she had to swallow the urge to vomit. Pain lit fires all down her side as she collided with a low stool and crashed to the living-room floor.

She was barely able to blink before she saw the blade coming down again, the shining point aimed at her throat. Anna’s off hand shot out to deflect the weapon and she grabbed the assassin’s wrist, struggling against her. The woman made a negative noise at the back of her throat and followed through, putting her weight into it. Anna winced as new pain blossomed; her attacker put a steel-capped knee into her stomach and pressed hard.

Anna coughed, tasting blood. She couldn’t take her eyes off the tip of the blade as it came inexorably downward toward the bare skin of her neck. The woman had gravity and training on her side; it would only be a matter of moments before Anna could no longer resist, and then she would cut her throat.

Her other hand flailed at the air, scraping across the rug, and her fingers brushed something smooth. Reflexively, she grabbed the object—a heavy coffee mug stenciled with an image of the Lincoln Memorial—and swung it with all the power she could muster. The ceramic broke as she clubbed the assassin with it, smashing it across her cheekbone. The woman gave an angry snarl and reeled backward. Anna kicked and rolled, getting out from under her attacker before the killer could react. She dragged herself away, almost on all fours, toward the scattered contents of the daypack, clutching at the torn clothes, searching.

She heard the woman coming back at her just as she found what she was looking for. Anna tore the activator tagstrip from the top of the EMP grenade and spun, hurling it blindly in the direction of the Tyrant assassin. She scrambled toward the door and made it to the middle of the room before the device went off.

With a low, humming snarl, the electromagnetic pulse lit the apartment with actinic blue lightning. Immediately, the lamps fizzed and went dark, the television screen dying with them. Anna glanced over her shoulder as the woman howled and stumbled, crashing to the wooden floor as her perfectly sculpted cybernetic legs became inert and unresponsive; and in the same moment Anna felt a spike of migrainelike pain lance through her head as the pulse struck the delicate electronics in her optical augmentations. Her vision lost all coherence, dissolving into a wall of featureless gray static.

The literal blind panic she had felt awakening in the hospital six months ago returned with punishing force, and Kelso staggered, her hands sweeping through the air; but then she walled off the pain and the fear, just like they had taught her in training. The effect of the localized EMP would last for sixty seconds, perhaps less—she had that long a head start to escape before the killer came after her. Anna was blind… but she had lived in this building long enough to know her way around it with her eyes shut.

Staying low, moving as swiftly as she dared, she found the door and shouldered it open, feeling along the walls toward the stairwell. As she got outside, feeling faint traces of rain on her skin, her optics began to stutter through the restart cycle, her vision returning by agonizingly slow degrees. She broke into a loping run, and behind her she heard the strident whoop of a siren as the dormant police drone caught her silhouette. She ignored it, picking up speed, and by the time she reached the street, she could see again.

Romeo Airport—Michigan—United States of America

The sun was coming up, the line of orange light at the horizon growing brighter with every passing minute. Saxon walked the edge of the runway, threading the points between the shallow domes of the embedded lights that flanked the long expanse of cracked asphalt.

His hands were buried in the pockets of his tactical over-jacket, his head hunched forward. Saxon tried to lose himself in the simple motion of step after step, but it didn’t work. The questions and the conflicts churning around inside him refused to be silenced. He had the very real sense that he was standing on the edge of an abyss, at a point of no return. Looking up, Saxon saw the distant chain-link fence. If he broke into a sprint, he could be there in less than a minute. He could be over it and down to the highway in another five. If luck was on his side, Saxon would be miles from the airstrip before any of the Tyrants knew he had absconded.

He could turn his back on them and go. Leave all the questions and distrust behind, ditch this identity and start anew. He could do it; he still had contacts from the old days, people who might help him disappear.

But what would that get him? A lifetime of doubts and looking over his shoulder? Namir had never said the words, but Saxon knew that the Tyrants and their masters in “the group” were not the kind of people you could just walk away from. The federal agent, Temple, had been a minor player for them and he had been wiped out just on the suspicion of being a problem. The Tyrants would not turn their backs and allow one of their number to walk away; Namir would see him killed first. Hardesty would do it and enjoy it.

But how could he stay? How could he look Namir in the eye and not wonder? What did he really know about Operation Rainbird?

Saxon turned back to face the hangar at the far end of the airfield. Wan light spilled from the open doors. He wanted to draw the Diamondback from its holster, bury the muzzle in Namir’s neck, and demand he spill everything. He let himself ride on that moment of high emotion, seeing the faces of Sam, Kano, and the others. Remembering the promises he had made to those men, and to himself.

And then he remembered the vu-phone. Saxon opened the rip-tab on the gear pocket where he had stuffed the disposable. Gingerly, he replaced the battery pack and touched the activation button. The phone blinked on and buzzed in his gloved hand. A single message was waiting. He drew it up; it was an embedded video file, what appeared to be a clip from a local affiliate of the global Picus News Network. The footage unfolded, a voice-over explaining that police in Virginia had been called to the site of a fire in Great Falls. On the handheld’s screen he saw the woman he had confronted in the grounds rendered in grainy, colorless video. She entered a room full of people and started shooting. White flares of light spat from a shotgun—a Widowmaker Tactical—in her grip, and panicking figures fell like puppets with their strings cut. The footage paused and a close-up gave a better view of the woman. Anna Kelso, read the caption, Wanted Fugitive.

The lie of what he was seeing made Saxon’s hand tighten around the vu-phone. For a moment he tensed, ready to dash the device to pieces against the ground; but then it rang with a soft, persistent hum.

Saxon raised it to his ear. “Yeah? ”

“Hello again. Will you speak to me now? ”

It was unmistakably the same synthetic, digitally masked voice he had heard in the Hotel Novoe Rostov; the ghost-hacker Janus.

He glanced around. There was no one in sight in any direction. “What do you want from me? The video… Why did you show me that? ”

“I want you to understand. This is what they do. These are the people that you work for, Benjamin. I want to be certain you have no illusions as to what they are capable of. ”

“How do you know—”

“Who you are? I know all about Ben Saxon. And Anna Kelso. And Jaron Namir, Ronald Temple, Yelena Federova, Scott Hardesty—”

“Then what do you want with me? ” he demanded.

“I want to help you” said the flat, toneless voice. “I want to open your eyes. Because when you know the truth, you will be able to help me. ”

“You’re a terrorist. You and your Juggernaut mates. ”

He could almost hear a shake of the head. “That word is meaningless. Terrorism is the use of violence to achieve radical political or social change. Is that not what the Tyrants are doing, Benjamin? Do you know what master you serve? ”

“Leave me alone! ” he snarled. “I’m through with you! ”

“No! ” shouted Janus, with the first glimmer of what seemed like an emotional response. “Do not hang up. That would be a mistake. Listen to me. You are cutting into the reality behind the lie of the Tyrants and their shadow masters. You know it. You know there are secrets beneath the surface. I want the same thing you do. To be free of their lies. You want the truth about Operation Rainbird. I want to find and expose the Killing Floor. Together, we can succeed. ”

“I don’t know what this… Killing Floor is. ”

“Jaron Namir controls access to a private server on board your transport aircraft. In the files it holds are details of what you and I seek. The truth, Benjamin. The facts about the deaths of your men, and the location data I require. But the server is isolated, protected. It is impossible to access it by anything but direct physical means. ”

Saxon frowned. The wind carried the sound of gears to him, and he looked back to see the doors of the aircraft hangar shudder and slowly grind open. “You’re asking me to risk my life for you, ” he said. “For a faceless phantom. ”

“Untrue” said Janus. “All I am doing is providing you with the means. It is your choice, Benjamin. I cannot force you into this. ” There was a pause, and he heard the whisper of encryption software flattening out the texture of the voice on the other end of the line. “Listen carefully. When Jaron Namir was nineteen years old, his sister Melina was killed in a road accident in Haifa. Psychological profiling conducted several years later, after his recruitment into Mossad, indicated a deep-seated guilt over the death of his sister; he later named his daughter after her. The likelihood of his personal pass code relating directly to Melina Namir is over eighty-seven percent, plus or minus five percent. I have transmitted the four most likely code strings to your vu-phone. Use them to access the server. ”

In spite of himself, Saxon laughed. “Just like that? ”

“Yes. Just like that. ” There was no trace of sarcasm in the reply. “Once you have access, use the wireless link to download the data you find to the vu-phone’s memory. But be careful. If you are discovered — they will kill you. ”

Saxon considered the offer. “And what if I don’t? What if I smash this phone to bits right now? ”

The reply was instant. “You will never hear from me again. But one day, very soon, you will be so driven by your personal sense of anger and despair that you will attack Jaron Namir. And you will be killed. ” There was a pause. “I have also read your psychological profile, Benjamin. ”

“I’ll think about it, ” he said, and switched off the phone before Janus could reply.

When he reached the hangar, the jet’s engines were already turning, a low mutter of noise resonating through the open space. The hatches were cycling closed along the cargo bay where the helo was stored, and the robot forklifts had all retreated to the corners of the building, clearing the route to the taxiway. Hardesty was there, and he gave Saxon a withering look as he climbed the boarding ramp.

“Where the hell have you been? You turned off your damned comm! ”

“I was taking some air, ” he shot back. “I got sick of the sight of you. ”

“Oh, yeah? ” Hardesty came closer, crowding him. “You weren’t thinking about going AWOL, were you? Because it would be my absolute pleasure to show you the error of that way of thinking. ” His body language was aggressive, daring Saxon to take a swing at him.

“Hey! ” Barrett called down to the pair of them from the top of the ramp. “If you two ladies are done kissin’, get your asses on board! We’re on a clock here! ”

Saxon pushed past and sprinted up the ramp, Hardesty a heartbeat behind him. The ramp was already lifting shut as the jet began to move, the engine noise building.

Namir came back from the forward compartment. Around the dermal ports of his augmentations, the commander’s face was red with annoyance.

“We are not waiting for Federova? ” said Hermann, from a seat by the windows.

Namir shook his head. “She has her own directives. ”

“The Kelso woman? ”

That seemed to touch a nerve, and Namir looked back at the German, his eyes narrowing. “As much as it disappoints me to say it, that target slipped the net a second time. ”

“Shoulda sent me” Barrett opined. “I’d have dealt with her. ”

Namir ignored the comment. “It doesn’t matter. Yelena is returning to her primary. She’ll shadow our main target and we’ll regroup on-site. ”

“On-site where? ” said Saxon, working hard to keep his voice level. “What target? I thought we were done. ”

“With this, here? For now, yes. ” Namir gave a terse nod. “But the mission in Detroit was only one element of a larger operation. We’re moving to the next phase. That’s all you need to know, for the moment. ” He paused, scanning their faces. “I’d advise all of you to get some rest. It’s another twelve hours to our destination. ”

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