Black Violet

by Alex Hyland

  He stared at us, a bewildered look on his face.

  ‘Who the fuck are you guys?’ he said. He eyed me carefully. ‘You’re not here to kill me, are you?’

  ‘No, but things change.’

  ‘Then…there’s a chance we’re on the same side, man,’ he said.

  ‘What side is that?’ asked Geary.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Walt. ‘But there’s people who want me dead, and I don’t think you guys are them.’

  He stared carefully at us.

  ‘Look, I’ll tell you what I know,’ he said. ‘It ain’t much, but…come on, easy with the guns.’

  I glanced uncomfortably at Ella and Geary.

  We kept the cuffs on them, but freed them from the chain. Ella and Geary stood holding the shotguns as Walt and Miko sat at the table. Walt poured a little tequila into a tin cup and held it to Miko’s lips.

  ‘There you go, baby,’ he said.

  ‘Tell me about the disk,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t know what’s on it,’ said Walt. ‘Fisher came to me, said he had some data he needed to secure. He was paranoid about it. There’s plenty of encryption software he could have used, but he wanted something written especially for him…something that he knew wouldn’t have any kind of secret backdoor.’

  Ella stared at him. ‘The data’s encrypted?’ she asked.

  Walt nodded. ‘You need to enter a passcode.’

  ‘What passcode?’ I asked.

  He looked at me like I was an idiot. ‘You think he told me?’

  ‘And Miranda?’ said Ella. ‘The name means nothing to you?’

  He shrugged. ‘It could be the passcode…some anagram maybe. I doubt it though, Fisher was smarter than that.’

  ‘It’s not the passcode,’ I said. ‘People know what the inscription reads. They’d have figured it out already. The necklace means something else.’

  I thought to myself a moment. ‘When did this happen, when did he give you the data?’

  ‘About fifteen years ago.’

  Ella eyed him curiously. ‘How long have you been out here?’

  ‘Eight years.’

  ‘Fisher’s dead, you know that?’ she said.

  Walt glanced uneasily at her, then nodded. ‘Swan sent a guy down here a few months back. Told me about the robbery...Fisher…said that I should be careful. Not that Swan gives a shit about me. He just wanted to know what I knew.’

  ‘Does he know what’s on the disk?’ I said.

  ‘Swan don’t know shit! The guy’s a fucking pussy,’ replied Walt.

  ‘Fisher never told him?’

  Walt shook his head. ‘The disk might have made them rich, but Swan don’t have a fucking clue why.’

  ‘What do you mean it made them rich?’ asked Ella.

  ‘Are you kidding?’ said Walt. ‘When I worked for them, they were running a shitty little security company out of Chicago, on the verge of going under. Then Fisher turns up with this data. Within three months, banks are throwing money at them, government contracts left, right and fucking center. A couple of years later, they’re pretty much a bank on their own. Now, that might not have anything to do with what’s on the disk, but I wouldn’t bet on it, honey.’

  He stroked Miko’s hair. ‘You alright, baby?’

  Miko nodded. She stared at me, then smiled bitterly at Ella.

  ‘I like your boyfriend,’ she said. ‘He cum on my face when this is done.’

  Ella stared at Walt. ‘I’ll put a bullet in her, do you understand?’

  Walt nodded. ‘Quiet, baby,’ he said.

  ‘This guy that Swan sent down,’ I said. ‘What else did he say?’

  Walt smiled. ‘Swan’s shitting himself. Now Fisher’s gone, he don’t know what the fuck’s going on. He mentioned some name…I don’t know, some woman…’

  ‘Lizzie Brager,’ said Geary.

  Walt stared at him. ‘Brager. Yeah. They think she was behind the robbery.’

  Geary shot me a look.

  ‘And there’s no other copies of the disk?’ asked Ella.

  Walt shook his head. He then went quiet like he was trying to remember something. He gazed down at the table.

  ‘What?’ I said.

  He stood up – Geary pointed the shotgun at him.

  ‘Sit down!’ said Geary.

  Walt ignored him and walked over to the door.

  ‘Baby?’ said Miko.

  Walt opened the door and stepped outside. As Ella kept her gun on Miko, Geary and I followed him out. He headed over to the generator humming away by the side of the cabin. He switched it off.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Geary asked him.

  Walt turned and gazed above the mountains. Geary and I looked up. Two stars in the sky were moving. Heading toward us.

  ‘We need to get out of here,’ said Geary.

  I could hear them now. Their blades cutting through the air. Two helicopters.

  ‘We’re moving!’ Geary yelled to Ella.

  As Ella appeared at the cabin door, Walt stared up at a mountain ridge just north of the cabin.

  ‘We need to get up into the mountains,’ he said. ‘Miko!’

  She ran out of the cabin and into Walt’s arms.

  ‘Let us out of these cuffs,’ said Walt. ‘Come on, you can’t leave us like this!’

  Geary eyed him a moment, then tossed him the keys.

  We started sprinting through the trees. As I followed Geary’s lead, I gazed up at the helicopters – they were dropping in altitude fast. Black, military looking – personnel carriers. Their doors slid open as they descended toward the pines, the treetops twisting in the down-wash. Ropes dropped from the helicopter doors. Soldiers then began sliding down toward the cabin, maybe a dozen of them. Black uniforms. Heavy guns. The moment they were clear, the helicopters thudded back up into the sky.

  I looked behind me as we kept running. No flashlights anywhere. These guys would have night vision – we wouldn’t be able to spot them. Walt stopped and pointed at a sheer rock face a few hundred feet up the mountain.

  ‘There’s a small cave just above the rock face, they’ll never find us,’ he said.

  Geary stared up at the mountain, then checked his shotgun. Only two cartridges in the magazine. There was a faint zipping sound – the leaves beside us shook. Geary dragged us down into the undergrowth.

  ‘Sniper,’ he whispered.

  We went quiet. Geary listened carefully for a moment, then slowly raised his head and stared back through the trees. As Ella aimed her shotgun, Miko looked around for Walt. Miko pulled away at the undergrowth, then went still.

  Walt was lying on the forest floor, struggling for breath.

  Miko dropped to her knees. She lifted his head, her hands shaking as blood spilled from his mouth.

  ‘Baby?’ he said.

  She looked terrified as she gazed at the single black bullet wound in his chest. He stared up at her, the life already draining from his heavy eyes.

  He took a weak, rasping breath. ‘You’ve got to run now, baby,’ he said.

  Miko shook her head in panic. Walt raised a hand and tried to touch her mouth. It dropped to the earth as his body went limp.

  I heard noises in the trees behind us. ‘Miko!’ I whispered. ‘Miko!’

  She buried her head in Walt’s chest. Ella tried to pull her away – and the rage erupted in Miko.

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ she screamed. She pulled the shotgun away from Ella and turned it on her. ‘It’s your fault!’

  Miko fired. We dived for cover – she pumped the shotgun slide and took aim again. As Geary swung round to take aim, a shower of bullets tore through the trees – they cut into Miko, her chest rupturing as she fell to the ground.

  The bullets kept coming. Geary scrambled across the ground and pulled me and Ella deeper into the undergrowth.

  The gunfire then stopped. We waited a moment, listening for any movement in the trees. Geary nodded at us, leaped to his feet and sprinted for the rock face. As El
la and I ran after him, I peered into the darkness, looking for the cave entrance. I ducked as a silenced bullet splintered the branches beside us – we skidded back down into the undergrowth.

  Geary hushed us as he scanned the forest. He listened for a moment, then glanced at Ella, and gestured for us to stay put. I kept my eyes on him as he crept back through the trees. A second later he disappeared into the darkness. I stared at Ella, my heart beating like a hummingbird. I heard the faint sound of movement behind us – brushes and snaps, whispers and footsteps. A stream of bullets then tore over our heads. As Ella and I ducked down, footsteps rushed toward us. Geary grabbed my jacket – he pulled me and Ella back to our feet and hauled us toward the cliff. He had a machine gun with him now as well as the shotgun – he threw it to Ella. She immediately dived behind a pine and started firing – shapes moving all around us now. Geary pushed me back down, swung around and with two deafening booms emptied the shotgun into a soldier behind us. He turned – another soldier was hurtling toward him. Geary’s shotgun clicked empty. The soldier took aim – I leaped out of the undergrowth and crashed into the guy. As we tumbled across the forest floor, I freed myself from his grip and smashed him in the jaw. I looked around for his machine gun – it was gone. He went for his pistol, took aim, then fell backward with Geary’s arm around his neck. The two of them struggled and twisted across the ground. Geary hammered the guy’s arm against the earth until the pistol fell away. The soldier whipped out a blade.

  ‘Kill him!’ Geary yelled.

  I felt around on the forest floor for the pistol.

  ‘Kill him!’ repeated Geary, dodging the soldier’s blade.

  My hand brushed against a large rock. I heaved it above my head. The soldier kicked his legs trying to stop me – and I froze.

  ‘Do it!’ Geary yelled.

  I’d never killed before. I gazed at the soldier’s skull – at the knife in his hand.

  The rock thudded as I brought it down on his arm – the knife fell away. Geary freed one of his hands and felt around for the blade. He grabbed it and forced it toward the soldier’s neck. The soldier struggled to keep the blade away, but the strength in Geary was too much. Geary stuck the knife deep into the soldier’s neck, then pushed the body off him.

  Geary jumped to his feet and grabbed me. ‘I told you! You follow every fucking word I say!’

  I nodded – and tried to still my shaking hands. Ella hurtled toward us, tossed her empty machine gun, then gestured in the direction of the cliff ledge. She ducked low and pointed through the trees. In the rock face just above the ledge was a small triangular fissure – the cave entrance. About four feet high, it was draped in roots and branches. As Geary searched the undergrowth for the soldier’s gun, we heard more movement down the slope.

  ‘Go!’ he said to us.

  Ella and I darted through the trees, then ducked into the cramped darkness of the cave. We scrambled deep inside – no light, no room to stand. I crouched low, steadying myself against the jagged rock – the cave roof just above my head. As a burst of machine gun fire snapped through in the forest, I picked up a shard of loose rock from the ground, and stared back at the entrance.

  The gunfire echoed to a stop. Silence. I listened for any sign of movement outside, then glanced at Ella – she kept her eyes fixed on the entrance. The sound of rocks skittering down the hill just beyond the cave – I gripped the rock firmly in my hand. Geary then tumbled into the cave and scrambled across the rock toward us. He shook his head at Ella – no gun – but he was carrying something else. He unwound a ragged wire and draped it toward the cave entrance. I could see it now – the wire was linked to a headset mic and a battery pack. He’d ripped the tactical radio from the soldier. He gestured for Ella and me to stay silent, then switched on the headset.

  I could just about make out the sound of voices on the tiny headphone – military speak. Geary listened intently, then glanced at the cave entrance. He switched off the headset, quickly wound up the wire and gestured for us to edge further into the cave. We crawled deeper inside, feeling our way blindly across the damp rock. It was pitch black this far in – we could have hit a ravine and not seen it. We reached a few outcrops in the wall, ducked behind them and stared back at the entrance in the distance.

  We kept absolutely still. I could feel Ella’s body right beside me. She held her breath as we heard a rustling sound outside. I pressed myself flat against the rock as a soldier crept past the mouth of the cave. My blood pounded as I listened to him continue on down the cliff edge. His footsteps stopped for a moment. I closed my eyes and prayed that he’d continue on. I heard him move again, the skitter of stones – his footsteps growing clearer as they headed back toward the cave. He reappeared at the entrance and stopped. He crouched down and peered inside. Flashlight then shone down the cave, flickering across the rocks in front of me. I heard the soldier crawl inside. In the glistening light I could see Geary pressed up against the cave wall opposite me. I kept my eyes on Geary as the soldier crept deeper in. The hollow scrape of body armor against the rock – he couldn’t have been more than ten feet from us now. I raised the rock in my hand. Geary gestured for me not to move – not to make a sound. I stopped breathing. A clatter of loose stones then came from somewhere in the cave. Fuck. A red laser cut through the air between Geary and me as the soldier aimed his gun deep into the cave. The clatter of more stones, then the sound of running. A strobe of gunshot flashes lit the cave walls. I froze as blood sprayed across my face – gun smoke filling the air around me. The soldier ceased fire, then turned his flashlight to the cave floor. A dead animal lay on the rock in front of him – a mountain fox. As the soldier scanned the depths once again with his laser sight, I stared at Geary – Ella motionless beside me. Silence. Geary’s face then went dark as the flashlight clicked off. The laser disappeared. I held my breath as the soldier slowly edged back out of the cave.

  We didn’t move for minutes. We waited until every sound outside had completely disappeared. Geary then carefully crawled back up toward the mouth of the cave and switched the headset back on. He listened.

  ‘They’ve split up,’ he whispered to us. ‘One team heading over the mountain. The other, north along the river.’

  His eyes flickered intensely as he continued to listen.

  ‘We’ll head east to the highway,’ he said. ‘The Jeep’s going to be too risky. Hang on…’

  He listened carefully, then pressed the headset hard against his ear.

  ‘Fuck,’ he said. He threw Ella a look. ‘They’ve gone radio silent. They must know we have the headset. They must have found the soldier’s body. Shit.’

  He put down the headset and thought a moment.

  ‘They’ll change position, but east is still our best bet,’ he said. ‘We need to get to the highway.’

  Ella nodded.

  Geary stared out at the terrain beyond the cave. As I wiped the blood from my face, I went still. I could hear my name being whispered – a faint echo in the cave. I glanced at Ella and Geary – they heard it too. I stared at the headset. It was coming from the headphone.

  ‘Michael?’ came a man’s voice. ‘Can you hear me?’

  I recognized the voice. Marcus.

  ‘How are you?’ he said. ‘Hmmm?’

  Geary covered the headset mic with his hand and turned the volume up.

  ‘You’ve done very well, Michael,’ said Marcus. ‘Then again, I wouldn’t have expected anything less. Are Ella and Geary with you? Can they hear me?’

  He paused a moment.

  ‘We have your friend,’ said Marcus. ‘We have Tully.’

  Ella looked frozen as she stared at Geary.

  ‘I understand that Tully saved your brother’s life, Michael,’ said Marcus. ‘That awful business in Mexico, it sounded terrible. I’m going to give you a chance to return the favor. A straight exchange…Tully for the necklace. There’s a small port on the north-eastern coast of Norway…Port Vardo. I’ll expect you there in twenty-four ho
urs. That’s eleven a.m., local time. At one minute past, I’m going to shoot him, so try not be late. Port Vardo. We’ll find you.’

  The radio went silent.

  Geary kept his eyes fixed on Ella as he switched off the headset.

  This was a game changer for them.

  I glanced back at the headset. ‘He can’t be sure that we heard him.’

  ‘He suspects it,’ said Geary. ‘They’ll kill him if we don’t show.’

  ‘We need to get hold of Cooper,’ said Ella. ‘Get a team in the air as soon as possible.’

  Geary eyed her hesitantly. ‘Twenty-four hours, shit.’

  ‘We got Rutherford out of Egypt in less than that,’ she said.

  ‘Those guys weren’t expecting us,’ he replied.

  Even I knew that our chances would be slim. I owed Tully, sure enough, but walking into an ambush wasn’t going to help him nor me. Then again, leaving him behind didn’t feel like an option either.

  ‘Forget the port,’ I said.

  ‘We’ve got no choice,’ said Ella.

  ‘Norway’s home territory for them,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘I care.’

  ‘Yeah, about you, and that’s it!’

  ‘He’s right,’ said Geary. ‘They’ll have every angle covered. We won’t get out of there alive and neither will Tully.’

  ‘We’re just going to leave him?’ she said.

  I thought carefully to myself.

  ‘No,’ I replied. ‘But we’re not going to Port Vardo either.’

  My mind raced as a move started to come together in my head. Lizzie and Marcus may have come into the city when they thought they were just dealing with me, but things were very different now.

  ‘Why the north coast?’ I said. ‘Why a port?’

  ‘Cos that fucking boat of theirs is up there somewhere,’ said Geary.

  I gazed intently at him.

  ‘They’ll be expecting you to put an army together, right?’ I said.

  Geary nodded. ‘Tully’s got a lot of friends.’

  ‘It’s unlikely Lizzie and Marcus will come in then. Why risk it? They’ll stay on the boat while their guys wait in port for us.’