by Rob Jones
“Fine, we’re on our way back to you,” Lexi said.
Ryan stared down at the tray of jewellery. “Who knew the Yakuza loved their gold so much? There must be over a million bucks’ worth of stuff here.”
Scarlet kept one eye on the door as she spoke in hurried, hushed tones. “But what about the ring we’re looking for?”
“I’m looking for it!”
“Well hurry the hell up.”
“Give me a chance! There must be two hundred rings in here. What about this one?”
She turned to see Ryan on his knees in front of the safe, holding a diamond and ruby ring up to her.
“I’m flattered Ryan, but I see you more like a pet than a future husband.”
Ryan gave her a look. “I meant it must be worth at least a quarter of a million. Maybe a little something for ECHO’s treasury?”
“We’re not thieves, put it back and find the sodding ring.”
He tossed it back into the pile and continued his search, mumbling something about pets and bad attitudes. “A-ha!”
“You got it?”
“No, but I got Hiroko’s mother’s jewellery box.” He showed her the tiny jewel-encrusted box with the intricate carving of a tiger on it. “This has to be it, right?”
“I guess so. Put it in your pocket and find the sodding ring!”
“Got it.”
Lexi and Zeke appeared in the door to the walk-in closet. “Any luck yet?”
“Not yet, but Ryan took a few seconds out to propose.”
“Seriously?” Zeke said. “I’m so excited for you guys.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “They’re not getting engaged, Zeke. I mean, talk about different leagues.”
“Hey!” Ryan said. “I’m literally right here.”
“You have the ring yet?” Scarlet asked anxiously.
“As a matter of fact I do not, and…”
Then everything changed fast. A Yakuza throwing-knife flashed past Ryan’s head and slammed into the closet’s wooden wall less than two inches from his head.
“Holy crap!” he yelled.
Scarlet spun around and raised her gun. “Take cover!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ryan jumped away from the knife, lost his balance and fell on his back while the others spun around to see Makiko Jojima standing in the bedroom, flanked on either side by a bodyguard. Scarlet immediately saw the ring they were searching for, tightly wedged onto her left ring finger.
Jojima ordered the men forward to attack the thieves. “Hashimoto! Mori!”
The two men drew their weapons and fired on the team, blasting the closet door to shreds and forcing them to take cover either side of the marble mull posts. Bullets traced everywhere, smashing the stained glass panel out of the transom and spraying splinters and shards all over the interior of the closet.
“Holy crap!” Zeke yelled, covering his head from the flying glass. “This shit is real.”
“We’re sitting ducks!” Ryan called back.
Scarlet and Lexi returned fire, raking the bedroom with defensive fire and forcing the Yakuza to flee back into the central hallway.
“They’re retreating!” Ryan said.
“Great work!” said Zeke.
“Not great at all,” Scarlet said. “The buggering ring’s on Jojima’s left hand! We have to get after them!”
They got to their feet and exited the trashed closet, giving chase down the central corridor with their guns raised and their hearts beating at a million miles per hour.
“They’re not in the apartment!” Lexi called out.
Scarlet knew where they were going. “We need to get to the elevator. They’re trying to get Jojima to safety before they regroup and hit us back.”
They sprinted from the penthouse and back out into the peach marble lobby area where they saw the fleeing party of Yakuza standing outside one of the external elevators. Running up and down on the outside of the skyscraper, the famous elevators offered a breathtaking view of the city, but tonight no one cared about the vista.
The ECHO teammates fired on them and the bodyguards reacted in a heartbeat. Hashimoto pushed Jojima into the elevator while Mori blocked their bodies with his own and raised his gun into the aim, squeezing off half a dozen rounds to provide cover fire as Hashimoto reloaded and pushed the button for the basement parking lot.
Scarlet and Ryan were sitting ducks, exposed in the marble lobby area to the front of the elevator doors. The only cover was two substantial potted palms placed either side of the penthouse suite entrance. They each took one and dived to the floor behind the heavy sleek black porcelain pots as Hashimoto and Mori retreated in a backwards crouch walk, firing off defensive shots until safely inside the elevator.
“Damn it, Ryan! They’re getting away.”
Lexi and Zeke had reached the fight and were taking cover behind the doorposts on either side of the penthouse suite.
“What’s happening?” the Chinese assassin said.
“They’re in the sodding elevator already,” Scarlet said, ducking as one of Hashimoto’s last rounds struck the thick rim of the pot and blasted a chunk of porcelain into a dozen razor sharp slivers.
Up ahead, the elevator doors were closing fast.
“We need some cover fire!” she shouted.
“Leave that to me,” Lexi said.
Zeke gave a firm nod of approval as he slid a round into the chamber of his gun. “Hell, I don’t need to be asked twice.”
“We go in three, got it boy?”
Ryan gave her a double take. “You can’t be serious?”
She sighed. “When am I not serious?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Point taken, but I still think we don’t have a chance of making that lift.”
“We’re not going to get in that lift.”
“Eh?”
“Three, two, one!”
Without further warning, Scarlet scrambled out from behind the cover of the potted palm and sprinted to the elevator shaft. Watching through the smoke glass doors, she saw the Yakuza’s elevator slowly slip out of sight as it made its way down to the basement. Turning to the right she hit the button on the other elevator and the doors slid open.
“Get in!”
Ryan darted into the second elevator as Scarlet hit the basement button, and the doors slid shut as they too started descending to the ground.
“We’ll never catch them!” Ryan said. “They’re ten seconds ahead of us.”
Scarlet wasn’t listening, but had craned her neck up to the ceiling of the elevator. “Give me a leg up.”
“Eh?”
“A leg up, boy!”
Ryan’s face was a picture of mock horror. “This is hardly the place, Cairo… besides I never knew you felt that way about me.”
“That’s a leg over, you silly sod, not a leg up.”
Ryan grinned. He had already linked his hands to form a cradle for her to use for her leg up. “I know what you meant, Cairo, and I’m not going to argue with anyone who can consider doing what you’re about to do.”
Using his hands, she reached the elevator ceiling panel and swung open the maintenance hatch. Grasping either side of the hatch’s rim, she pulled herself out of the elevator car and climbed up onto the roof.
The warmth and stillness of the car was instantly replaced with the rushing air and lashing rain of the outside world. As the elevator screeched at high speed down the outside of the building’s western aspect, Scarlet clung to a support post to stop the wind from blowing her off the roof. At around thirty floors up, she didn’t much like the idea of tumbling down to earth and hitting the plaza below at terminal velocity.
Think of the mess, you silly cow.
She moved to the northern end of the car’s roof and peered down at the other elevator as it raced ahead of her on its journey to the basement level. The few seconds’ head start had created a distance of about twenty feet. Not too bad but not easy either. She could make the jump but one error in judgem
ent and she could break an ankle or miss it altogether and fall right off the edge.
“You don’t have to do this!”
Rain in her eyes, she swept her hair back and peered down through the hatch into the cosy, warm little world Ryan was inhabiting. What he didn’t know was that she did have to do it. She’d had to do things like this since she was a little kid. She had always taken the risky road, reached for the highest apple on the tree. A shrink would tell her it had something to do with her parents’ murder, but true or not, it didn’t change the fact that taking risks like this was a deep part of her personality, what made her the woman she truly was.
“I’m doing it, Ryan,” she called back, and flipped the hatch shut with the toe of her boot.
The ground rushed up toward her. The plaza below was sliding into rainy focus, as were the headlights of the cars driving in and out of the parking lot in front of Izumi Garden Tower still impossibly far below. One of those cars was a chunky black SUV heading toward the parking bay out the front of the elevators. “That’s their ride,” she said.
They’re not going to the basement lot, she thought. Jojima must have called for a car to pick them up in front of the building. Getting panicky. Worried about a shootout in the basement. Either way she still had a chance. She watched the SUV’s headlights sweep up the side of the green glass wall of the elevator shaft. Behind it a stretch limo honked its horn to get the SUV to move forward. A man leaned out of the SUV and waved a gun at the limo driver who instantly backed down and wound his window up.
“That’s definitely their ride.”
She took a step closer to the edge of the elevator car, still clinging to the steel support post for balance as it raced toward the ground. Halfway down now, but still over twenty storeys to go. She blew out a breath, aimed for the Yakuza elevator and leaped into the darkness of the night.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
When they got to the harbor, Bryce Cobb was easy enough to find. Way past midnight now and heading into the early hours and there was only one small area of activity down on Pier 38. A man was illuminated by a couple of lights, unloading some boxes from the back of a Hilux and walking down to a boat moored at the end of the pier. High above the craggy ridge of Mount Tantalus in the east, the first signs of dawn were appearing as a peach-colored ribbon in the Hawaiian sky.
They walked casually down the pier, knowing the man had nowhere to run, and approached him with a cheery wave and smile.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“We’re your worst nightmare.” Hawke piled a fist into his face and knocked him down hard on the wooden pier. “Help me pick him up, Vincent.”
“It’s Reaper,” he said with a knowing smile. “We’re on a mission.”
“This is an in joke, am I right?” Nikolai said.
“You could say that,” Lea said as Hawke and Reaper picked up the unconscious man and walked him down the pier. They dragged him over the gangway and into the wheelhouse of the boat. Nikolai scanned the marina for any signs of trouble while Lea opened the hatch leading to below decks.
Hawke, who was holding the man by his arms, went first. Reaper had the man by his knees and he followed him down the stairs. When they were down below decks, Lea and Nikolai killed the lights up top and joined them as Hawke and Reaper tied him to a pillar with some nylon winch rope.
Hawke saw a cup of cold coffee sitting on the side of the cabin. He picked it up and hurled the contents into Cobb’s face. In response, the man gasped and coughed and blinked his eyes wildly as he tried to work out where he was and what the hell had just happened.
“Wakey wakey, asshole,” Lea said.
Another gasp and more confused blinking as he slowly got his bearings. “What the hell’s going on? Are you those freaks?”
“Who do you mean?”
“The dudes in the black suits!”
“Do we look like them?”
“I guess not.” His voice was hesitant and confused. “So if you’re not them, then who are you and what do you want?”
“We want McKenna,” Lea said. “Or more accurately, we want something McKenna has.”
“If this is about the coke, I swear to God he’s blackmailing me. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t ship it for him.”
“Spare us, dickhead,” Hawke said. “We’ve already read all your emails. He’s not blackmailing you. You’re the best of friends.”
“True story,” Lea said. “In fact I’d say the two of you are practically sleeping together.”
“Cosy, eh?” Hawke said.
Cobb got nasty and lashed out with his leg, almost hitting Lea with his boot.
Hawke leaned in and gripped his throat. “Try that again and I’ll beat you black and blue, got it?”
Cobb snarled, but backed down. “All right man… who the fuck are you?”
“My name’s Hawke and I’m with the British Government,” he lied.
“Shit.”
“Right. And you’re a coke smuggler looking at life in prison in any one of a dozen countries, unless you cooperate with us.”
“Okay, okay… you got me real good, man.”
Lea crossed her arms. “You bet your arse we did, you friggin’ gobdaw. Now just tell us what we want to know and we’ll be on our way.”
A defeated and broken man, he gave a sullen nod and slumped down against the pillar.
“Where’s McKenna?” Hawke asked.
“I swear I don’t know. He was supposed to be here a half hour ago.”
“You’re lying.”
“I swear…”
Hawke punched him in the head and split his nose open.
Cobb screamed with rage and spat a wad of blood on the wheelhouse floor. “Fuck!”
“There’s much more where that came from, wanker,” Hawke said. “See, I’m in a bit of a rush, and my commando training emphasized power over finesse.” Another punch and a dislocated jaw.
Cobb tried to scream but it came out as a garbled moan.
“C’mon, friend,” Lea said. “Where’s McKenna? I can’t guarantee Joe here’s going to get any nicer.”
Hawke pulled back his arm and clenched his fist.
“Wait! Wait dammit!”
They turned to the voice behind them and saw McKenna climbing up the steps from a lower deck. “Jesus, just stop beating him. I’m here.”
“McKenna, how nice of you to show yourself.”
He jutted his chin over at the broken Bryce Cobb. “How did you know that wasn’t me?”
“Simple,” Lea said. “All the pictures of you back at your place. Unless you keep cheesy soft-focus photos of ship captains in your house, the conclusion wasn’t hard to reach.”
“You went to my house?”
“Sure.”
“Then you saw what those freaks did.” The drug baron approached them sheepishly. “What do you want with us?”
“What do you think?” Reaper said.
McKenna took a deep breath and slipped his hand in his pocket.
Hawke drew his Glock and aimed it two-handed in the center of the man’s face. It took less than half a second. “Careful what you bring out of the pocket, son.”
“You want the fucking ring, no?”
“When I see it, I’ll believe it. Now, easy does it.”
McKenna pulled his hand out slowly to reveal he was holding the third ring. “Happy now?”
Hawke lowered the gun and slipped it back in his holster. “I’m always happy, mate. Guess I’m just am optimist.” He took the ring from the man and held it up to the light. “How about you?”
“Not any fucking more.”
Hawke tossed the ring to Lea who caught it with one hand.
“The real thing?”
She gave it a quick study and took Razak’s and Alexander’s rings from his pocket. “Fake as a Hong Kong Seamaster.”
Hawke raised his gun. “Last chance, friend. Where is the ring?”
“All right, all right! Lower your gun. They took it. T
he freaks.”
“Why lie about it?”
“I just wanted you off my backs so I could work out a way to get my ring back. My old man got that ring back in Vietnam. Guy who sold it to him said it came from Egypt. Belonged to some dude called Akhenaten. It’s important to me.”
Lea tossed the ring back to Hawke. “We’re not getting the map with this thing.”
Cobb looked up, sharp eyes squinting. “What map?”
Hawke elbowed him in the face. “When I want you to talk I’ll rattle your cage.”
McKenna’s eyes widened. “Who the fuck are you guys?”
Cobb spat more blood and a tooth came out. “They say they’re from the British Government.”
Hawke shook his head. “What did I literally just say to you?”
“Sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” He turned to McKenna. “How many guys came to your plantation earlier today?”
McKenna paused before answering. He was searching for a way to speak without giving anything away, and they all knew it.
“How many?”
“Around twenty.”
Hawke and the others shared a glance. “Quite a force.”
“But it felt like a hell of a lot more, man. They move like frigging ninjas.”
“And they wanted the ring, am I right?” Reaper said.
McKenna nodded. “They were supposed to be buying it, man. I swear it. They turned up like a goddam army and tell us the deal’s off and if we valued our asses then we’d better just turn the goddam ring over. I told them to fuck off. I told them no one messes with me like that.”
Hawke crossed his arms and leaned back on the galley cabinet. “And how did that work out for you?”
“You know how – you saw my property. They went crazy and killed all the men in the room except me. They put a gun to my head, took the ring and then they set fire to the entire plantation. I only got away because I knew about a secret escape tunnel that my grandfather built into the property years ago in case the Japanese invaded during the war.”
“A charming story,” Lea said, “but it doesn’t help us get the ring back. Do you know where these guys are now?”
“The terms of the deal were they paid me half a million bucks for the one poxy ring and then got out of my life, but in my line of work you have to be suspicious to survive so I checked them out. I can tell you that they have a private jet fueled up at the airport. I guess they’re planning on getting out of here as fast as they can, especially now they have what they came looking for, goddam thieves.”
