by Will Jordan
Clearing his throat and recovering his poise, Cain replied, ‘In a manner of speaking. You’re…’
‘Not what you were expecting?’
The man’s smile broadened. He was looking at Cain as he had twenty years ago, not far from this very spot, when he’d pulled a gun on him and stood there, waiting for the command to fire. Watching Cain sweat.
‘That’s rather the point though, isn’t it? To be the one thing, the one man, that no one expects,’ he went on. ‘My role demands that I perform many duties, Marcus. Some are pleasant and rewarding; others… less so. But I have to admit, meetings like this are my favourite. Each of your predecessors reacted a little differently at this point. I’ve seen shock, denial, amusement, even anger. Each reaction told me a little more about that person.’
‘My predecessors?’
‘You don’t think you’re the first person to stand in this spot, do you? Or that you’ll be the last?’ Leaving that thought to hang in the air, he gestured to the second chair at their table. ‘I imagine you have a lot of questions. Please, take a seat. Make yourself comfortable.’
As he eased himself into a chair, Cain watched as the man casually resumed his meal, slicing off a piece of steak and popping it in his mouth.
‘This is a big day for you, Marcus,’ he remarked. ‘Promotion to director of the CIA.’
‘I have you to thank for that, it seems.’
James nodded acknowledgement. ‘I may have had a hand in it. You came well recommended, of course. But that’s not why I picked you.’
‘Then why?’
He smiled. ‘Because I like you. I liked you from the first day we met.’
Cain was beginning to understand why this man had chosen to reveal himself under a different guise all those years ago. ‘It was a test, wasn’t it? Twenty years ago, pretending to be Freya’s “assistant”: you were testing me.’
Reaching for the bottle of red wine in the centre of the table, James poured Cain a glass. ‘I’ve always believed the measure of a man is how he treats those he doesn’t have to be kind to. And I wanted to get the measure of you, Marcus. I wanted to know what kind of man you really were.’
He spread his hands out to encompass their surroundings.
‘And now, here you are. At the top table, as it were.’
Reaching for his glass of wine, he rose slowly to his feet. All talk in the dining room ceased, all eyes turning towards James as their fellow diners waited, hushed and expectant. Each of them had sat where Cain was now, each had proven themselves through long years of dedicated service, careful manoeuvring and flawless strategizing. Each of them belonged to the Inner Circle, bound by their shared web of secrecy and deniability.
James held up his glass in a toast. ‘To your success, Marcus. Congratulations.’
With little choice but to respond, Cain took up his glass, raised it in acknowledgement and drank. And as he did, the room erupted in applause.
Just for a moment, he allowed himself to appreciate the gravity of this night.
He had made it. After twenty years of striving and sacrifice, he had reached the summit of the seemingly insurmountable mountain, found both the beginning and the end of the Circle.
* * *
Ignoring the rain sluicing down around her, Anya crept to the edge of the rooftop and looked out across the street at her target. It wasn’t much to look at from the outside. Though elegantly designed and tastefully appointed like many of the embassies and diplomatic institutes in this part of town, there was nothing obviously imposing or ostentatious about it.
That didn’t surprise her in the slightest. The people who made use of that place didn’t announce their power and influence to the world. It was what lay beyond that innocuous facade that mattered. It was why she was here tonight.
Reaching up, she hit her radio transmitter.
‘I’m in position,’ she said quietly. ‘Did you get what you need?’
‘Working on it,’ Alex replied, sounding tense and harassed as he strove to complete his task. ‘How did you know he’d be here?’
‘I’ve been here before,’ Anya replied. A long time ago, she too had stood where Cain was now. ‘Can you patch us through to his cell phone?’
Given the right circumstances, it was possible to hack virtually any cell phone and set it to passively transmit anything in range, effectively turning it into a makeshift listening device. The NSA and various other intelligence services had been using the technology for years now to spy on their own citizens.
Aside from considerable technical expertise, all that was required to make it possible was the phone’s SIM number. Anya had obtained that very thing just minutes ago, planting a scanning device near the entrance to Meridian and waiting until Cain approached the doorway. She just hoped he’d been in range long enough for Alex to get what he needed.
‘I’m working on it,’ Alex confirmed. ‘Stand by.’
‘Understood.’ Clicking off her radio, she whispered, ‘Hurry, Alex.’
* * *
Taking his seat once more, James set his glass down on the table and resumed his meal, slicing off another piece of meat. His razor-sharp steak knife slid through it like butter.
‘Now, let’s get down to business,’ he said briskly. ‘You have questions, starting with the same one that every other person who’s sat in your place has asked. We might as well get it out of the way.’
He was right, of course. Cain did indeed have questions. And as he’d correctly surmised, they all began with the most fundamental of all.
Leaning forward, he looked his host in the eye and spoke. ‘Why?’
James met his searching gaze and smiled.
‘As I said, just like the others,’ he mused thoughtfully. ‘The same human need to ascribe reason and motivation to everything that happens around us. It’s the reason our ancestors established religion and superstition to rationalise disease and natural disasters, until we outgrew them and replaced them with science and logic. All of it to answer that most fundamental question – why.’
Cain didn’t say a thing. He just waited for James to go on.
‘You want to know why the Circle exists. I can tell you, but some answers can be more difficult to accept than others. That’s why our candidates are so carefully chosen and tested, to make sure they’re ready and prepared for it. Are you ready, Marcus?’
Never had he been more so. ‘I am.’
‘Good,’ James nodded. He paused briefly before going on. ‘Fundamentally, the answer is as simple as the question – chaos.’
Cain frowned, perplexed by his answer. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Nor should you. Not without first understanding how I arrived at the answer.’
* * *
‘We’re in!’ Alex called out over the radio net. ‘Patching you in now.’
Perched on her rooftop observation point, Anya waited while he set up the link. The audio signal was muffled and of low quality, probably because the phone was in Cain’s jacket, but the conversation was audible all the same.
Anya was now listening in as if she were right there beside him.
She tensed as she felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket, but made no attempt to answer it. It was McKnight, but whatever she had to report, it would have to wait.
Right now, all her attention was focussed on events playing out in that building opposite. That was all that mattered now.
* * *
‘God fucking damn it!’ Drake snapped, hammering his fist against the steering wheel as his call failed to connect once again. ‘She’s ignoring the call.’
He and McKnight were speeding across town, dodging and swerving to avoid the congested traffic. Drake had brought her with him, partly to guide him to Anya, and partly because he didn’t trust her enough to leave her behind.
He had no idea who Samantha McKnight really was, why she’d done the things she’d done or what she wanted, and right now there was no time to sort it out. That would have
to come later, assuming any of them made it through the night.
‘She won’t answer,’ McKnight confirmed as he floored it through an intersection, running a red light. ‘Not when she’s this close.’
Drake didn’t respond to that. He gripped the wheel tight, his eyes on the road ahead as he fought with the busy traffic.
‘She knows what she’s doing, Ryan,’ McKnight ventured. ‘She doesn’t need you or anyone else—’
‘Shut up!’ Drake shouted, in no mood for advice. ‘The only reason you’re still breathing is because you might be useful. That can change very fast.’
With McKnight wise enough to hold her tongue, Drake fired up his comms unit. ‘Keira, come in.’
‘Ryan, where the fuck have you been?’ Frost demanded. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Long story. McKnight’s with me—’
‘Samantha McKnight?’ Frost put in, her shock and dismay obvious. ‘What the—’
‘What part of “long story” don’t you understand?’ Drake interrupted. ‘Listen, the motorcade was a fake. It was all fake. Cain knew we were coming. He’s not going to Capitol Hill tonight.’
‘So where is he?’ Frost asked, struggling to get to grips with the barrage of new information.
‘Thirteenth Street, North-West.’ She listened as he reeled off the exact address. ‘We’re on our way there now. I need everything you can get me on that building.’
‘I’m on it,’ she said, already setting to work. ‘But what are you expecting to find?’
Drake glanced over at his passenger. The woman who, until a few minutes ago, he’d been ready to kill.
‘The Circle.’
Chapter 55
James settled back in his chair, hand on his wine glass as he began his tale.
‘The Circle was formed in the dying days of the Cold War, by myself and a few other like-minded individuals who understood the storm that was coming. It was begun with the most noble of intentions – to create order from the coming chaos. A new world order, where prosperity and freedom would reign supreme.’ He cocked a greying eyebrow. ‘Peace in our time, you might say.’
Cain nodded. None of this was news to him so far. It was this very same ideal that had so captivated him all those years ago: to leave the world a better place than the one he’d found.
‘With the combined efforts of people like yourself and… many others, we were ultimately able to realise our goal. The Cold War was ended, the Soviet Union toppled and the world freed from the threat of nuclear war. It should have been a time for celebration. Unfortunately, our greatest success ultimately proved to be our biggest mistake. Or should I say, our most formative lesson.’
‘How so?’ Cain asked.
‘The end of half a century of global conflict ushered in a new way of thinking. A relaxation, a complacency. Without an enemy to strive against, our country began to lose its way. Little by little, our military withered under years of cutbacks, and our government and intelligence agencies followed suit. Our culture became soft and self-absorbed, consumed by materialism and small-minded thinking. Progress and development stagnated. Whereas before we built space rockets, now we created…’ Reaching into his pocket, he held up a sleek black smartphone. ‘These.’
His disgust was evident as he tossed the phone into the table.
‘America’s global power and influence declined throughout the 1990s. Old enemies were replaced by new ones that we had neither the will nor the interest to deal with. Our greatest victory was slowly defeating us.’
Cain’s mind was racing as the man’s words sank in. The end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the liberation of half a continent from totalitarianism and repression… All of it was a failure in this man’s eyes.
‘The question of course was what to do. Our efforts to end war and conflict had failed to reap the rewards we expected. If anything, we were regressing. Eventually it became clear that our failure to find a solution was based on a false understanding of the problem.
‘Peace and order weren’t the answers I’d hoped for – in fact, they were fundamental elements of the problem. Prolonged peace leads to stagnation and corruption, which in turn leads to societal decay and, ultimately, total collapse. It’s been the same story with almost every empire and kingdom in human history, yet no one ever fully grasped the implications. Instead we strive for the same flawed ideals again and again, each time expecting a different result, but instead meeting the same inevitable outcome – failure.’
He glanced at his wine glass, swirling it slowly and watching the scarlet liquid sway back and forth.
‘That’s when I realised the true solution required a… different philosophy.’
* * *
Roaring out of the winding valley that had shielded the two Black Hawks from the outside world, the choppers skimmed low across the arid landscape of dusty scrubland and small irrigated fields, each passing second bringing them closer to their final destination.
‘Five minutes to target!’ the team leader called out, scanning the SEAL operatives lining the cramped compartment. Even in the dull red glow of emergency lights he could make out their tense, eager expressions.
‘Final weapon and equipment checks!’
Craning his neck to see out the cockpit window up front, he could just make out the distant glow of lights from a small town directly ahead. Somewhere in amongst that suburban sprawl lay their target building, and the man they’d travelled halfway around the world to kill.
And in just a few minutes, they would be going in.
* * *
In the midst of that plush, extravagant dining hall in central DC, Marcus Cain listened as his companion brought his narrative to a close.
‘If peace and prosperity were the problem, then it was logical to conclude that the opposite conditions were required for society to thrive. Which brings me back to the answer I first gave you – chaos,’ James explained patiently. ‘Human beings thrive on war and conflict. It’s what’s driven the most significant advances in our history. Aircraft, computers, space travel, nuclear power, advanced medicine… all of it created to satisfy a fundamental need. The need to prevail against an enemy. That’s when the true solution came to me. We’d pursued war and conflict as a means to an end. But we were wrong. War wasn’t a means, it was the end. A world of endless war and conflict, driving greater and greater advances, maintaining the strength and resolve of the population, and the governments they elected. Maintaining the balance of true power. Not order from chaos, but order within chaos.’
He smiled, taking another sip of wine.
‘But even chaos requires a degree of control. Escalating conflicts left unchecked might eventually spill over into global catastrophe. Disease, famine and revolution allowed to spread too far and wide could undermine the entire system. What the world needs is balance, and that’s where we come in. That’s the true purpose of the Circle, Marcus – to balance the chaos of the world. To give humanity what it needs but would never admit to.’
Cain sat back in his chair, stunned into silence by everything he’d heard. He was no stranger to hard truths and unpleasant facts, but to hear the fate of humanity laid out in such cold, practical, analytical terms was something altogether different.
The true purpose of the Circle at last laid bare. Not to save humanity from war and create a better world, but to preserve it through endless conflict and destruction. And for twenty years, he had been a part of it.
As he sat there, his hands resting on the table, his eyes briefly flicked to his watch, making a mental note of the time. Almost there.
* * *
In the conference room at Langley, Franklin watched as the two Black Hawks swept in over the target compound, one taking up position over the main yard while the other hovered over the further end of the open space used as a garden. The images were being beamed live from a Reaper drone orbiting the target.
‘Viper One in position. Deploying now.’
‘C
opy that, Viper One. You are go.’
But just as ropes were hurled out and the assault teams prepared to deploy, the first Black Hawk began to sway and pitch alarmingly, struggling to maintain position. As it swung out of control, the tail rotor clipped one of the high walls.
‘Shit,’ Franklin said under his breath as the chopper pitched over and ploughed into the ground, crashing against the compound’s outer wall. ‘Eagle, what’s the status on Viper One?’
‘We’re okay,’ a clearly shaken team leader reported. ‘Viper One is good to go.’
Within seconds, bright green shapes began emerging from the crashed chopper, moving fast and orderly despite the chaos of their rough landing, and joining forces with the team deploying from the second Black Hawk.
Light spilled out from nearby buildings as residents were startled awake, but the SEAL team paid them no heed as they swept in against the target. A secondary unit peeled off to breach a smaller structure on the south side of the yard, while teams from the other chopper quickly and efficiently scaled the inner defensive walls, but the main force advanced on the central three-storey residence.
‘Team One and Two in position.’
‘Copy that. Breach! Breach!’
Franklin could do nothing but wait now as the team disappeared inside, moving beyond sight of the drone. Whatever happened in the next couple of minutes, he could do nothing to influence it.
* * *
‘It’s interesting to observe your reaction, Marcus,’ James observed, noting Cain’s gaze as it moved to his wristwatch. He didn’t appear remotely surprised or curious. Rather, he looked like he’d just caught out a magician in the middle of his trick. ‘Waiting for something?’
‘I…’
‘The mission tonight will be a failure, of course,’ James went on.
