Death and Conspiracy

by Seeley James

  Tania reached our truck first. “Where’s Arrianne?”

  Our plan to drive away in the opposite direction disappeared.

  We stood still, straining our ears to hear her running or thrashing through olive branches. Nothing.

  She knew the area well enough to know about the thin road we were on, yet she’d done nothing to help us find a house or a phone earlier. I wondered what she was doing.

  Down at the wreckage, someone let out a primal scream in anger. We couldn’t hear their words, but the intent was clear. They were pissed that we’d taken their friends out and were ratcheting up the stakes. They wanted us before. Now they wanted us even more. A burst of automatic gunfire punctuated their feelings. From the muzzle flashes, they appeared to be firing into the olive trees randomly.

  “We have to find Arrianne,” I said.

  “Screw her,” Tania said.

  Miguel shrugged. He never took sides between Tania and me.

  “We need Arrianne to tell Ames and Hugo about Free Origins. We don’t know enough of the details and they’ll need independent confirmation.”

  Random gunfire flew through the leaves and branches closer than the last burst. They were setting up a grid to find us by firing a pattern.

  “We don’t have time for your lovers, Jacob.” Tania clenched a fist. “We tell them what we know, which is plenty. We’ll be the confirmation.”

  “She’s not my …”

  I stopped talking as another spray of bullets slapped leaves in the next row over. This crew had a lot more ammunition at their disposal than Earl left us. Tania was right. We were out of time.

  I jumped in the driver’s seat. Tania and Miguel braced themselves in the bed and readied their weapons.

  We drove down the row. Tania blasted a few rounds of buckshot as we went. The effect was meaningless, but the noise told our enemies not to come too close.

  One of them ignored the message. The figure of a man stepped into the beam of our headlights. Miguel fired over the cab in an attempt to brush him back. The stranger stood his ground and let loose a barrage that had us ducking. I aimed to run him over before I bent below the firewall, hoping to use the engine block as body armor. Nothing else on a car is bulletproof.

  He managed a three-round burst before I hit him. His body went flying into the air. If he landed with any life left, the gods were on his side. Knowing them, I doubted it.

  But the man’s retribution rose from the engine compartment in the form of steam and oil. All the dashboard lights came on. A loud mechanical thumping sound came from under the hood. I lost power. Then something extra-loud clanked, and the pickup skidded into a fence post.

  We took off on foot through a vineyard that led to an olive grove. We ran to the top of a ridge.

  Leading our way, Miguel came to a disappointed stop. “Damn.”

  We came alongside him and saw where he was looking.

  Below us sprawled the hacienda from which we’d recently escaped.

  CHAPTER 33

  We entered the compound cautiously. The bent gate lay on the ground; the tractor I’d bent it with had been backed into the courtyard. The hacienda door stood open. Some lights were on. The hunters had said Paladin and company skipped town, but there could be stragglers. We checked carefully. There weren’t. They’d left in a hurry. Tania and Miguel cleared the extended parts of the house. The only thing I cared about was the phone.

  It had a dial tone when I found it. I dialed Zack Ames. Voicemail.

  Mercury appeared next to me. Thanks a lot, brother.

  A harsh emphasis on the last word. He dropped onto the dark leather sofa next to me.

  Mercury said, The other gods called it. Game over. They say you lived. I lost a thousand aurei. A thousand! Can’t you die like most mortals? How come that tattooed guy can fire twenty-three rounds and only one of them singes your hair?

  I ran my fingers through my hair. Definitely a singed part on the left. Huh.

  I dialed the Sabel Security helpdesk. After identifying myself, I asked them to track Zack Ames or his boss, the CIA’s Paris Chief of Station. I’d take Lieutenant Colonel Hugo in a pinch. They promised to call me back at the hacienda as soon as they had one of them on the line.

  I sat down next to Mercury. Change your bet to me winning. Double down, help me out, and you can turn your loss into a win for both of us.

  Mercury said, You’re the biggest screw-up I’ve ever seen on a battlefield, homeboy. Without my help, you’d have died at the ripe old age of eighteen. Nah, for you to win, I’d have to help you every step of the way. The other gods would never let me do that. And that means I’d have to rely on you to win every battle without divine intervention.

  I said, Pep talks. Remember? They’re supposed to invigorate me. Make me feel invincible.

  Mercury looked me over as if something had just occurred to him. Y’know what, dude? You’re right. You are invincible. As a matter of fact, you should run out front and greet those guys coming in the gate. He stood and spread his arms wide. Your winning smile will make them change their minds about killing you. You’ve got this, brutha. You’re golden.

  It took me a moment to figure out what he was doing. I got to my feet. You son of a … the game’s still on and you’re trying to get me killed. Thanks. With gods like you, who needs … Ugh.

  “Miguel, Tania, we got company!” I yelled as I ran through the house looking for my squad. They called back from opposite ends.

  From then on, we were silent. Each of us found a darkened room with a view of the courtyard. To get anywhere in the ancient house, visitors had to go through it. We had a decent crossfire set up. We were ready.

  The only problem with our plan: They didn’t come through the courtyard.

  A pan clattered to the red tile floor in the kitchen. They’d come through a servant’s entrance. Having been in several rich people’s houses, I should’ve known this place had one of those. The uber-wealthy don’t like to see the help staggering in from the car with the daily groceries. It makes them feel guilty about not helping.

  A silhouette crouched through the garden. If Mercury had been right, there were two sneaking in the back.

  Miguel and Tania were on the far side of the courtyard from the kitchen. I was closer but not by much. I backed away from my vantage point and crept through a drawing room to the edge of the dining room. Backlit by the kitchen, two silhouettes entered the dining room with Beretta AR70/90s leading their vision.

  Behind me, the phone rang. In fact, four phones and a loud outside bell rang at the same time.

  I was expecting the call, so it didn’t throw me as much as it did our interlopers. Most people are used to hearing a cell phone ring in their pocket. But farms, ranches, and orchards don’t have mobile coverage. They rely on land lines and really loud ringers you can hear anywhere on the property. The noise made our assassins jump.

  A muffled bang from the garden broke the silence between rings. I didn’t see the man go down, but I heard his head hit the paved walkway. Since I didn’t hear Tania swearing, the dead man had to be our intruder. Miguel would’ve taken the shot, and if anything bad happened to him as a result, she would’ve come in like Hippolyta of the Greek Amazons and cut her enemy’s head off. All was quiet in the garden. Meaning Miguel and Tania won their battle.

  The startled players in the kitchen backed up into known territory to assess the noise. A smart defensive move.

  I used the confusion to reposition myself next to the archway between the two rooms. The lights in the kitchen cast their shadows toward me, telegraphing their position.

  The phone rang again.

  In the dead silence between rings, I bumped a chair at the dining table. Shit happens. The wood-on-tile scuff alerted my enemies to my presence. In the back of my mind, it occurred to me that Mercury might’ve pushed me into that chair. The result was, I had lost the element of surprise.

  The phone rang again.

  My assassins used the standard
operating procedure. One flew into the room, aiming forward, then left, and right. The second man covered him from the archway. Before the first man finished his sweep, I calculated his wingman’s position based on his shadow and reached my pistol around the corner. I jammed it beneath his jaw and pushed his head upward. He had a decision to make, surrender, or jump to one side and take his chances.

  Aleksei chose the latter. It was the last decision he ever made. My 9-mil fired at the same time his finger squeezed his trigger, but before he could bring the barrel around. Instead of killing me, he killed his teammate.

  I flipped the lights on. “Clear.”

  Miguel answered the phone, being closest. “It’s for you. Helpdesk.”

  I answered, and the voice started right away. “This is Lieutenant Colonel Hugo speaking. Is this Jacob Stearne?”

  “I have bad news about the plans for the group out here at the Identity Defense Conference. They’re planning multiple—”

  “You went back to the conference, IDC? After London?”

  “Uh.” It took me a minute to figure out the disconnect. “Didn’t Zack Ames update you? The job wasn’t done. He wanted me to keep working it.”

  “And this you did?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you no shame?” he asked with a nasty twinge in his voice.

  I looked around for Mercury. I wondered if my forgotten deity could be pulling the Frenchman’s strings. It sounded like a god trying to demoralize me.

  “Listen to me, Hugo.” I reverted to my master sergeant voice. Delivered right, even generals will follow my orders. “I’ve uncovered their real plan. It’s not pretty.”

  I laid it out for him briefly. From the time we landed until the London fiasco, Miguel and Tania had kept Zack Ames updated on the locations as we discovered them. I filled Hugo in on when ROSGEO would go down. What we didn’t know was their command center’s location. When I finished, Hugo went silent for a moment.

  “This is a plan most horrible,” he said. “You must come to my office, tout de suite. Ehm. Quickly. Bring your physical evidence”

  We clicked off.

  Miguel and Tania spent the call rifling through the dead Russians’ effects. They collected two pistols, three Italian automatic rifles, and three phones. The phones were locked. The facial recognition software was unimpressed with the faces of their late owners. We used the emergency call function to call a special number at Sabel Technologies. Our experts would automatically download the contents of the phones, make a million software images of them, then try every possible password combination until they were unlocked. It would take a few hours and a bazillion computing horsepower, but eventually, they’d get some answers.

  Tania held up car keys taken from a dead man’s pocket. We drove to Seville and climbed aboard Sabel Three.

  CHAPTER 34

  The headquarters of Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale, GIGN, is on a military-industrial park not far from the Palace of Versailles. We were ushered from guardhouse to division building to Hugo’s waiting area. Several soldiers in fatigues came and went from the office while the three of us picked through a stack of French magazines.

  Like my dentist’s office, the magazines were six months old. The date was all I could read since I didn’t read French. Miguel did and read with great interest from one called Charlie Hebdo. From time to time, he burst out laughing.

  Hugo’s aide-de-camp asked me for background information. I retold the story I’d told Hugo over the phone. The aide asked for proof of anything. Which pissed me off because I didn’t have any. It’s not like terrorists draw up project management Gantt charts and Pert diagrams for their evil plans. I told him to check with the Spanish authorities who must’ve found several dead and injured people lying around Úbeda. He agreed to have them check Arrianne’s house and the Ooze for any remaining evidence. The man took extensive notes and asked the right questions. Then he left. I felt good about Hugo’s operation.

  Mercury sat next to me with a scowl and crossed arms. Thanks a lot, homie. The game is officially over now. I’m out two thousand aurei. You happy? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get your hands on one aureus much less two thousand? Nobody’s made any for fifteen hundred years.

  I said, I thought you bet a thousand.

  Mercury said, When Aleksei showed up with three Berettas, I doubled down. What were you thinking? You said, and I quote, “Sure. Anything to help you out.” But did you do anything to help me? No. I can NOT believe I trusted a mortal. I should have my head examined.

  I said, That makes two of us.

  A different young lieutenant standing in front of me frowned. “Excusez-moi, but Lieutenant Colonel Hugo said most clearly, just you. Not two. Not three. Only one, the Jacob Stearne.”

  I looked at Miguel and Tania. She muttered, “Sick of being patient with white people.”

  They sighed and went back to their magazines.

  Hugo greeted me from behind his desk with an extended handshake. When the door closed, he turned to his window. He had a second-story view of rather drab training grounds. Tank tracks led through a wooded area dotted with sheds and walls and obstacles of all sorts.

  “You have connected with Monsieur Ames?” he asked.

  “I keep getting his voicemail. Do you know where he is?”

  “Vacation.” He craned over his shoulder. “So I am told by his superior. Your boyfriend visits many times to extol your heroism at Moulin Rouge. He argues against Pavard’s findings at Saint-Sulpice. With you, he is quite, how do you say, enamored.”

  He curled a lip while handing me Benoît’s card.

  “We have to act quickly,” I said, ignoring his comment. “Pentecost is this coming Sunday. Why did you leave us hanging in your outer office so long?”

  He faced me with a scowl. “Your word is quite diminished in the community intelligence. Ehm, London, you know.”

  “We have to get the word out to all the cities involved.” I tossed up my hands. “Did you start that process?”

  “Verification is of utmost importance to this case. Yet it is most difficult to prove your story.”

  “Locations, dates, codenames. What did you miss, Hugo?”

  “Contradictions have reached me from persons outside your—” he waved his hand toward the waiting area “—special group.”

  Outside his door, a commotion sprang up featuring Tania’s outraged voice. I couldn’t make out any words. Then the office door opened. Arrianne strode in wearing a floral print dress of the kind seen at royal tennis matches. Her shoes and purse matched the dress.

  “Ah, the lovely Arrianne,” Hugo waved her to a chair. “I understand you two are knowing each other. She came to us and offered the accounts most informative of your actions.”

  “Is that right?” I gave her my soldier stare.

  She flinched and sat and adjusted her skirt and kept her gaze on Hugo.

  “Ms. Arrianne, have you witnessed the training of persons to engage in a program called ROSGEO?” Hugo asked.

  “Never,” she said with the hint of a southern drawl. “After I refused Jacob’s advances, he called you about my London trip. From then on, he blamed me for ruining his reputation. I do believe just yesterday he announced he would stop at nothing to regain his status in the world.”

  “You see the problem?” Hugo asked. “I have a decorated veteran with the dramatic story on one hand, and the respected confidential informant of the British NCA on the other. You have not the shred of evidence. Also, you have involved several military intelligence officers of Britain in a career-ending operation based on information most unreliable.”

  He turned to the window and clasped his hands behind his back.

  I was speechless. “Career-ending” is the most dreaded phrase in military bureaucracies around the world. Arrianne must’ve run straight from the truck in Spain to Hugo just to derail me. Her loyalty had flipped over once again. Which pissed me off. On top of that, she managed to sh
ower and dress for success. While I rushed in without even shaving. I probably smelled bad too.

  Arrianne kept her gaze fixed on Hugo.

  Hugo broke the silence. Quietly, he said, “We will investigate your claims, monsieur. But to be honest, you are sounding like your not-trustworthy friend, Zack Ames.”

  Mercury stood on the far side of her. Dawg, I told you to show her a good time. Give her a romp in the hay. Did you? No, you scorned her. You told her, ‘I could never love a racist.’ And now you see the adage proved. Hell hath no fury like this witch.

  I said, What did he mean about Zack?

  Mercury said, Find me two thousand aurei, and I’ll tell you. Home. Boy.

  I patted Arrianne’s shoulder hard where the bullet had grazed her. She winced in pain and gave me dagger looks.

  “Do you like her name, Hugo?” I asked.

  “Arrianne? Very European.”

  “Arrianne or … Aryan? C’mon Hugo, you’re smarter than that.”

  His face flew through a few moods in a second, hurt and embarrassed before settling on outraged. At me. For making him look dumb. Which was a mistake on my part. Sun Tzu advised leaving a golden bridge for your opponent’s retreat. Instead, I built it out of balsa and set it alight.

  “If you won’t do anything about it,” I snarled at Hugo, “we will. There are other counterterrorism forces in the sea. I’ll go to Pavard.”

  It was the only name I knew in France. He politely stifled his laugh.

  I turned and walked to his door.

  He said, “If you threaten any persons in the EU, it is you who will be the terrorist, Monsieur Stearne. Pavard believes firmly that you did this once already. We will not tolerate anymore the cow-boy.”

  I slammed the door.

  CHAPTER 35

  We set up a meeting with the CIA’s Paris Chief of Station—COS—and were headed there when he called to reroute us to the United Kingdom’s Embassy. The back door. Secrecy and all that. A representative of MI6 would be joining us. It was two buildings away from the US Embassy, so we couldn’t complain.