by Will Jordan
Once more, Cain found himself reflecting on James’ haunting sentiments on the value of war, and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Didn’t it ever occur to you that he was more useful to us alive than dead?
‘Don’t you get it? The war was always going to happen. The Circle made sure of that.’
Turning away, Anya looked at the row of candles arrayed in front of her, most of them unlit. Then, in a sudden fit of anger, she swept her arm across them, scattering them across the floor.
‘It was a lie,’ she said, her voice nearly breaking as she leaned on the empty stand for support. ‘Another lie. All this time, I have been chasing a ghost.’
Cain hesitated, caught by the once-familiar urge to reach out to her. This woman who had once been such an integral part of his life, who he would have given anything for, and who had ultimately cost him so much.
‘I know. But it’s over now,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s over, Anya.’
‘No. Not yet,’ another voice announced.
Both Cain and Anya looked toward the arched doorway on the far side of the altar as a man emerged from the shadows, his weapon trained on Cain, his eyes alight with vengeance.
‘Ryan,’ Anya gasped. ‘What are you doing here? How did you find us?’
‘Because he had help.’
A second figure emerged from behind a pillar, taking up position alongside Drake. A woman that Cain had never expected to see again.
‘Remember me?’ McKnight spat as she took a step towards him. ‘You said I’d have a long time to think about my mistakes, and you were right, Marcus. Just like I’ve had a long time to imagine this moment.’
‘Wait!’ Anya implored them, stepping between Cain and his two would-be assassins. ‘You are making a mistake.’
‘Stand aside, Anya,’ Drake warned, his voice icy cold as he approached his nemesis. ‘This has to happen now.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ she countered. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’
She didn’t fully understand how Drake and McKnight had forged this unlikely alliance, but it didn’t matter now. They were here, and they had come for one thing only.
‘I know this man took everything from me,’ Drake hit back. ‘He’s not walking out of here alive. Stand aside.’
With no other option, Anya turned her weapon on Drake. ‘I can’t let you do it.’
‘Are you going to kill me, Anya?’ Drake challenged her. ‘For him?’
‘You don’t understand—’
‘This man destroyed our lives, took everything we had,’ McKnight countered. ‘Why in God’s name are you defending him?’
‘Because I was wrong, Samantha,’ Anya admitted. ‘About everything. He didn’t betray me to the Russians. He was working all this time to bring down the Circle.’
‘He had my father executed,’ McKnight said through clenched teeth, tears stinging her eyes. ‘I heard him die.’
‘No, you heard a gunshot over the phone,’ Cain interrupted.
The woman froze, struck numb by his words. ‘What did you say?’
‘Your father is alive, Samantha,’ he stated. ‘I’m not a monster, despite what you might think. Killing an innocent man wasn’t necessary. I needed you to believe he was dead.’
‘You’re lying!’ she cried, refusing to let herself believe it.
‘Am I?’ he asked. ‘Or is it easier to pull the trigger, and tell yourself I deserved it?’
‘You locked me up, told me I’d never see daylight again. Told me my life was over.’
‘You were a risk. I needed you out of the way until this was all over.’ He glanced at Anya. ‘If you’d stayed where you were, you would have been released.’
McKnight’s eyes were wide with shock, the weapon trembling in her hands as Cain took a step towards her.
‘You have every right to hate me. I used you, put you in an impossible position, forced you to work against the people you valued most. I know you didn’t want to do it. I know you’re a good person.’
Another step closer.
‘You could kill me, take revenge for everything I did.’ He sighed. ‘And spend the rest of your life running from it. But it doesn’t have to end that way. You can still have a life of your own, Samantha,’ he said gently. ‘A future. A family…’
‘No more, Cain,’ Drake snapped.
‘Let him speak, Ryan,’ McKnight countered, clearly swayed by his words.
‘For Christ’s sake, can’t you see what he’s doing? He’s telling you exactly what you want to hear.’ He shook his head. ‘No more. This ends here.’
Cain turned slowly to regard him.
‘Ryan Drake,’ he said, facing his adversary down. Looking at him not as an enemy to be overcome, but as a survivor like himself. A man worthy of respect. ‘Out of all the people I’ve dealt with, I don’t think I’ve ever met one as persistent as you.’
‘You have to answer for what you’ve done.’
‘We all do,’ Cain fired back. ‘Tell me, how many men have you killed to be here tonight, Ryan? How many deaths do you have to answer for?’
Drake hesitated, momentarily daunted by his question. Because he sensed the truth in it. He had killed men – and women – in his long battle against Marcus Cain. Many had deserved it, others hadn’t. But they had died anyway.
Because of him.
‘I did what I had to do to survive,’ he said quietly. ‘I didn’t want it.’
‘And Lauren?’ Cain challenged him. ‘Did you want that?’
A muscle tightened in his jaw as he thought of the sibling he would never know, lying dead on a sidewalk in Berlin. ‘Lauren… your daughter… was an accident. We didn’t kill her.’
‘But you were responsible. She would never have been there if not for you.’
‘Don’t, Cain!’ he retorted, gripping the weapon tight. He refused to play this game. Not now. ‘We never asked for any of this. You backed us into a corner, took everything we had, left us with no choice. This all began with you, and it’ll end with you. Tonight.’
Cain straightened up a little then, raising his chin as he faced Drake down without fear. ‘Then do it,’ he said simply. ‘If you’re as righteous as you believe, then pull the trigger. Tell yourself you did the right thing, punished the evil man, made the world a better place.’
‘First you tell me something. Tell me why you killed Freya.’
He had held himself in check until this moment, but now they’d come down to it. Now he was going to get the answers he’d come for, and then he was going to kill the man.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Enough!’ Drake shouted, struggling to hold his emotions in check. ‘Enough lies. For once in your life, tell the truth. Tell me why you had her killed.’
‘Ryan…’ Anya began.
‘Stay out of this!’ he snapped, turning his attention back to his most hated enemy. ‘It’s just us now, Marcus. We’re all that’s left. Don’t you want to be honest, just once, before I kill you?’
Cain shook his head slowly. ‘You still don’t understand, do you? You’ve got the wrong man.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘What have I got left to lie for?’ Cain asked frankly.
‘You want to stay alive.’
Cain spread his hands. ‘My work’s done. What happens now doesn’t matter.’
Drake had stepped right up to him, the barrel of his weapon pressed against Cain’s forehead. One pull of the trigger, and it was over.
‘Then this won’t matter to you.’
‘Stop, Ryan,’ Anya interrupted. ‘He’s telling the truth.’
Drake looked at her. ‘How do you know?’
He watched as she swallowed, her throat tightening, then closed her eyes as if seeking some inner reserve of strength and willpower. Then, opening them, she raised her chin and gave Drake his answer.
‘Because I’m the one who killed her.’
Chapter 59
United Kingdom – May 1st, 2009
Yanking her arm free, Freya whirled around to face her adversary, eyes gleaming with defiance. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of putting a bullet through the back of her head.
‘You look me in the eye, you coward,’ she said, staring right at them. ‘Look me in the eye when you pull the trigger.’
If she’d expected her words to strike a chord, to engender some kind of reaction, she was to be disappointed. A second came and went. A second broken only by the sigh of the evening breeze, and distant hoot of an owl, and the hammering of Freya’s heart.
She saw the barrel of a weapon raised, saw the long snout of a silencer gleaming in the thin sliver of moonlight.
Freya let out a breath. ‘Of all the people to do this—’
A 9mm slug passing through her chest silenced that sentence before she had a chance to complete it. She let out a strangled gasp, as if in surprise, then fell backward and collapsed to the ground, her body skidding down the rocky slope until it came to rest in a pool of stagnant water.
Her killer lingered a moment longer, waiting to be sure the gunshot had done its work. Waiting to confirm her target really was dead.
‘You shouldn’t have come looking for me,’ Anya said, looking down on the dead woman with a hint of regret.
Her work done, she turned away and started her walk back to the waiting van.
* * *
Drake let out a strangled breath. Cold, invisible fingers were clamping around his throat, slowly squeezing the life out of him. What Anya had just said made no sense. Every atom of his being instinctively rebelled against it.
‘No. No, that’s not possible.’
Anya said nothing, but the look of utter desolation on her face told its own story.
‘Anya, tell me this isn’t true,’ he implored her. ‘Tell me you’re wrong.’
The woman for whom he’d risked and sacrificed so much was looking back at him, her expression a mixture of grief and desperate longing for understanding.
‘I’m so sorry, Ryan,’ she whispered. ‘But I won’t lie. I killed Freya.’
Drake closed his eyes, feeling like a knife had just been driven into his chest. All this time he’d been tracking his mother’s killer, looking for the one responsible, and she’d been right in front of him all along.
He could feel his heart rate rising, could feel the blood pounding in his ears as the awful, incomprehensible truth sank in.
‘Why?’ he asked, barely able to get the word out. ‘Why did you do it?’
‘I did not know who she was.’
Drake glanced at the weapon in his hands. It was starting. The red darkness gathering in his mind. The monster he’d thought long banished, rising up once again.
‘Why did you kill her?’ he repeated.
He watched the muscles in her throat tighten as she took a tentative step towards him. ‘Freya… your mother wasn’t who you think she was,’ Anya said, keeping her voice carefully measured and controlled now. ‘I can explain everything, I just need time.’
Drake could feel his body tensing up involuntarily, his heart pounding, preparing itself for what was coming. Anya saw it too. Sensing his intentions, she backed off a pace.
Drake took another step towards her, only to feel a forceful hand on his arm, pulling him back. He turned to see McKnight holding him back.
‘Don’t do this, Ryan,’ she urged. ‘Please.’
Drake lowered his head, allowing himself just a moment to contemplate her plea, to imagine how this might play out if he let it go. Maybe there was an explanation. Maybe Anya did have a reason for what she’d done.
An instant later, the thought vanished and everything became clear. Yanking his arm free, he lashed out at McKnight, catching her with an elbow strike to the face that sent her crashing backwards off the edge of the raised altar and onto the stone floor below.
Switching his attention to Anya, he saw the woman raise her weapon, ready to gun him down just as she’d put down his mother before him. Moving with fluid, terrifying speed, he caught her wrist and yanked it upward. The suppressed weapon thumped as she squeezed the trigger, a stray round sailing harmlessly over his shoulder.
In response he brought his own automatic to bear, ignoring the second shot that thumped past him, the exhaust gasses from the suppressor stinging his eyes. Anya was fast; fast enough to duck before he could pull the trigger.
But Drake wasn’t aiming for her head. Instead he swept the gun around, the butt striking the suppressor on Anya’s own weapon like a hammer blow. Metal clashed against metal and the gun was torn from her grip, clattering to the ground a few yards away.
Unarmed now, Anya lashed out with her naked fists, trying to take him down hand to hand. She had faced Drake before and prevailed against him, her superior training and experience giving her the edge she needed. She knew his capabilities and his limitations, and how to exploit both.
But this was a different man from the one she’d fought before. A man seasoned by unforgiving experience, hardened by brutal adversity, driven by rage and fury.
A man who blocked and deflected her increasingly desperate attacks, driving her backward, wearing her down. And for the first time, a doubt crept into her mind. Catching her outstretched arm, Drake yanked it upward and drove a knee into her stomach with every ounce of force he could summon, knocking the breath out of her. Coughing and gasping, Anya went down on one knee, struggling to rise.
Never before had she faced an opponent like this.
Face tight with pain, Anya looked up as Drake loomed over her, a dark and menacing figure that seemed to have grown in stature before her eyes. She saw the glint of a weapon in the overhead lights as he turned it on her, saw his expression twisted with anger and fury, his eyes burning with vengeance.
‘Stop!’ a powerful voice yelled.
Drake’s head snapped around to see Marcus Cain standing a few yards away. He was holding Anya’s weapon.
‘Anya isn’t your enemy, Ryan,’ Cain said. ‘Put the gun down.’
In another life, Drake might have laughed at the absurd irony of their situation. Him, ready to kill the woman who had been his ally for the past four years. Cain, ready to kill him to defend his nemesis.
‘Why don’t you both put them down,’ McKnight said, leaping back up onto the altar. She was bleeding from a cut above the eye where Drake had struck her, but the injury hadn’t slowed her down. Her eyes were still bright and focussed, now filled with cold anger.
‘I told you to stay out of this,’ Drake said, jaw clenched, weapon still trained on Anya.
‘Killing each other isn’t going to bring her back.’
‘You were ready to kill Cain tonight.’
‘I was wrong,’ she acknowledged reluctantly. ‘Just like you.’
‘She killed my mother.’
Anya rose slowly to her feet, hands curled into fists as she faced her former ally. Drake was right there before her, his weapon trained on her head.
‘Put it down, Drake!’ Cain warned.
‘Stay back. This is between us,’ Anya said calmly. She made no attempt to stop Drake now. She just stood there, meeting his gaze evenly and without fear. ‘I once told you never to point a gun at me unless you were ready to pull the trigger. Are you ready to do it now?’
‘Why, Anya?’ he asked, anger and betrayal vying with a desperate need for understanding. ‘Why you?’
‘She gave me no choice. I wish it hadn’t come to that, but it did.’ She paused just for a moment, settling some silent debate in her mind. ‘And if I had to do it again, I would.’
Drake let out a breath, struck not just by the cold pragmatism of her statement, but by the utter conviction in her voice. She was holding nothing back, making no attempt to argue her case or justify herself.
Challenging him to pull the trigger.
But looking her in the eye now, could he do it? Could he kill Anya? Did she deserve it for what she’d taken from him?
Before he could contemplate
this further, the stand-off was interrupted by a voice that blared suddenly throughout the vast empty church, booming and powerful, somehow coming from multiple sources all at once.
‘Well done, Ryan,’ the voice announced, evidently pleased. ‘Not quite how I imagined tonight playing out, but it’s good enough.’
All four of them glanced around, seeking the source of the voice but finding nothing. It took them a moment to realise it was being projected through the building’s wireless speaker system. Designed to carry a preacher’s sermons throughout the vast church, it had been hijacked by a decidedly less pious orator tonight.
‘Where’s it coming from?’ McKnight whispered.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Don’t waste your time,’ the voice advised. ‘I can see you, and hear you.’
Glancing upward, Drake spotted a security camera covering the altar. One of several positioned around the church to safeguard it against theft and vandalism. Whoever was speaking to them must have hacked into this security system.
‘Do you really think I’d be foolish enough to come there in person?’
Drake knew that voice. Even over the booming speaker system, he recognised it from their previous meetings. And he was not the only one.
‘Starke,’ Cain gasped.
‘Hello, Marcus,’ Richard Starke’s voice rolled out. ‘Still leaving those loose ends untied, huh? I warned you about that.’
‘You made this happen?’ the CIA director asked, gesturing to the others. ‘You brought them here tonight?’
‘No, you made it happen. I’m just here to clean up your mess,’ he explained. ‘Speaking of which, it’s time to finish this, Ryan.’
‘Finish it?’
‘The man who destroyed your life, and the woman who took your mother’s. They’re right in front of you. All you have to do is pull the trigger, and this is all over.’
‘It’s already over. Cain destroyed the Circle, just like you wanted.’
‘What makes you think I wanted the Circle destroyed?’
‘You son of a bitch,’ Drake snarled, finally seeing the full extent of Starke’s lies and manipulation. ‘We trusted you!’
‘So did your mother. A Drake family weakness, it seems.’
