The Last Inferno

by Michael Cross

  I quirk a grin at her. “You sound as if you still care.”

  She flushes and quickly stands up and crosses the room, careful to keep her back to me. Nisha folds her arms over her stomach and stares out the window. And it’s in that moment I can tell that despite the fact that she’s trying to hide it, Nisha does still have feelings for me. Whatever happened in Mosul wouldn’t have been just a moment of weakness. Not for her. And whatever feelings she developed for me over there continue to linger. But it’s not something I can afford to either encourage or think about right now.

  “I just think we still have a lot of important work to do,” she finally says, her back still to me. “The fight is nowhere close to being over, and we need your talents, Ezra.”

  I sit back against the headboard again and let out a long-suffering sigh. Hearing my real name still sounds strange to my ears.

  “So even though my memories are back for the most part, and I know who you are, and I’ve blown all of the anonymity protocols, you still want me working for the Tower?” I ask.

  “Of course I do,” she responds, finally turning around. “We always knew it was a possibility that your memories would return.”

  “But there goes your leverage and ability to control me,” I note.

  “I was never trying to control you, Ezra,” she says. “I was trying to protect you.”

  I can tell she’s sincere. She really was trying to do what she thought was right by me. And the truth is, my shoulder is killing me, and I could probably do with a little rest. As much as I want to get back into the field and hunt down the person who burned me and murdered my family, I won’t be able to do the job if I either get myself killed or incapacitate myself to the point of ineffectiveness.

  “I know you were,” I say softly. “And I appreciate it.”

  But if I stay, it means I will remain involved in the Tower’s affairs. And at the moment, that seems like the last thing on my list of priorities. As important as the work they’re doing is and as much as I believe in their mission—at least now that I can remember it all—right now, there are more pressing matters in my mind, and I’m not seeing much beyond that.

  “Anyway, that’s the deal. If you stay for a few days, you get your meds and whatever help I can offer,” she tells me.

  “And if I try to leave?”

  She crosses her arms over her chest and frowns at me. “Then I shoot you in the leg, and you’re stuck staying even longer.”

  “Your negotiating tactics leave something to be desired.”

  A soft smile touches her lips. “Get over it,” she says. “So what’s it going to be? The pills or the bullet?”

  “Kind of thinking the bullet?”

  “Very well,” she nods, drawing a pistol from somewhere and training it on me in a flash.

  “Jesus Christ, I was kidding! Pills, I’ll take the pills!”

  With an amused twinkle in her eye, she lifts it away and puts it down on the dresser. She takes the bottle of pills and tosses it at my face. I barely catch it with my good hand.

  “Good choice.”

  Something bubbles up in me. I don’t know what it is. It almost feels like— laughter?

  I collapse into hysterics on the bed. Nisha starts laughing too, and soon enough she’s bowled over, wiping tears from her eyes, as the sound of our laughter— real, genuine laughter, the first laughter I’ve had in a long, long time— bursts from us both.

  After a few minutes, we finally catch our breath. I sigh. “So what am I supposed to call you now anyway?” I ask. “Delta, High Priestess, or Nisha?”

  She smiles, still fighting a fit of giggles. “Nisha will be fine.”

  Chapter Three

  “Okay, no, that does not count,” I round on her. “What the hell is a lorry? That’s not a word. You can’t just make up words.”

  “It’s English! Those big… trucks, you call them.”

  “Yeah, well we’re not in England,” I respond. “In case you failed to notice.”

  She laughs and shakes her head. A couple of days has turned into a week. We’ve passed the time playing a lot of Scrabble, strangely enough. I have to say though, that sense of ease and comfort has deepened. I can see why we got on so well overseas. Nisha is intelligent, easy to talk to, and a lot funnier than she lets on. The time we’ve spent has also helped me a lot personally as she’s let me talk about the loss of Mandy and Ryan and has shared her own stories of loss.

  She and I have a lot in common, and there is definitely a certain chemistry between us. I can see why feelings might have developed— especially in the heightened emotional circumstances when we were running our ops in places like Mosul. Though as I’ve learned, we actually crossed paths in a number of different hot spots. It’s almost like we were being drawn together in a way.

  Although I’ve enjoyed my time with Nisha, all my wounds are feeling a lot better, which means it’s probably time for me to think about getting on the road. I have work to do. She sets her tile tray down and looks at me as if she can read my mind.

  “When are you going?” she asks.

  “Tomorrow.”

  A small frown pulls the corners of her mouth down. She nods. “Is it strange for me to say that I’ve enjoyed having you here?”

  “Not at all,” I reply. “I was just thinking that I enjoyed being here.”

  It sounds strange coming out of my mouth, and it also sends a sharp needle of guilt straight through my heart. I shouldn’t be enjoying the company of another woman when my wife is gone. Yeah, it’s been over a year, but since I’m only now recalling it, the wound is still fresh.

  And yet, I can’t deny that I have enjoyed Nisha’s company over the past week, just as I recall enjoying it overseas. Not that I took it any further than a platonic friendship. She’s been a comfort to me, which I appreciate. And I won’t take it any farther than that. I’m not in that place right now. I don’t know if I ever can be again. That doesn’t make me disloyal to Mandy’s memory, does it?

  “So what’s your first move?” she asks.

  “I want to meet with your contact,” I tell her. “I need to find out who burned me.”

  “I’ll make the call, but I’ll tell you upfront that he’s skittish and paranoid,” she replies. “I don’t know that he’ll be willing to meet.”

  I nod. “I really need you to convince him to meet me.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Of course,” she says softly. “And after that? After you’re done with that? What will you do then? Will you come back to work with us?”

  I blow out a long breath. “To be honest, I haven’t thought much about it,” I reply. “I’m focused on killing the person who murdered my family.”

  “I understand.”

  We sit in silence for a couple of minutes, and I see her cycling through a plethora of emotions. I can’t afford to get too deep into them with her though. Not right now. Maybe not ever. As attractive as I find Nisha and whatever our past might have been, I can’t afford to dwell on it right now. It’s going to do nothing but distract me from the task at hand.

  I let out a breath and try to clear my mind. As I do, a thought— a memory really— pops into my head. It was something Arthur Adams told me back in Minneapolis. It was something I’d filed away and forgotten about with everything else going on. Plus, it wasn’t something I could corroborate at the time, so it didn’t bear thinking about. But now it’s sitting in my head in bright neon letters. I turn to Nisha.

  “Let me ask you something,” I start. “I was told that my father was supposedly some big power player in the Hellfire Club. Is that true? Do you know who my father is?”

  “You don’t recall?”

  I shake my head. “That’s one of those memories that hasn’t come back yet.”

  She frowns slightly. “I don’t know who he is. Unfortunately, I am not privy to that information,” she says. “In the file I was given, it was indicated, based on rumors�
� unsubstantiated— that he is involved in the opposition’s leadership. But I have no confirmation.”

  “You really don’t know?” I ask, disbelief washing through me.

  “I think you have my place in the food chain overblown in your mind,” she tells me. “For every secret I know about the Tower, there are many more I don’t. I’m privy to a lot, don’t get me wrong, but there is much I’m not privy to, Ezra. We compartmentalize very well.”

  “Obviously. But I was also told that you’re the one who saved my life,” I point out. “I was told they were content to pull the plug and let me die, but it was you who convinced them to give me time to wake up from the coma.”

  “Just because I don’t have the final say doesn’t mean I’m not totally without influence,” she offers with a mischievous smile.

  “Well, I need to thank you for using your influence on my behalf.”

  “You’re welcome,” she replies.

  A long silence follows, and a strange, awkward tension fills the air between us. She idly starts to clean up the board, our game obviously over. I grab the lid and put it over the box. Finally, she looks over at me and gives me a small but warm smile.

  “I suppose I should see to some business,” she says, getting to her feet. “How do you feel about Thai tonight?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “Excellent.”

  She closes the door to the bedroom quietly behind her, leaving me alone with my guilt and my thoughts.

  Chapter Four

  “Where are you?”

  “Not in Arizona.”

  Temperance sighs and shakes her head. I adjust the volume on my laptop, turning it down a bit. She seems to be in a foul mood. After helping Nisha clean up after dinner, Temperance video chatted me.

  “Yes, that was a cute stunt you pulled with your subdermal tracker and the car,” she says. “Very cute.”

  “I hope you didn’t take the car away from Jafi. He earned it.”

  Temperance rolls her eyes. “I need you here, Echo.”

  “Last I checked, you weren’t my Case Officer.”

  “Last I checked, you were a Tower asset, and as such, available for duty when called upon by a higher up.”

  I quirk a grin at her. “Is that what you are? My higher up?”

  “Damn right I am.”

  I lean back against the headboard, balancing my computer on my lap. Nisha is sitting in the chair beneath the window again, out of sight of the camera, watching and listening to the exchange. Her expression is somewhere between amusement and concern. I take care to keep her out of the frame. Both Nisha and I had agreed that it would be best if neither Temperance nor any of the other Tower leadership knew that not only do I have my memories back but that I’ve spent the last week recovering at her place. We both agreed that would probably go over like a lead balloon.

  Nisha told me that, technically, Temperance is not her boss, but holds a lot of influence. But even so, Temperance shouldn’t be trying to poach me and press me into her service like she’s doing. Case Officers are responsible for their operators and doling out their assignments.

  “Why are you making an end-run around High Priestess like this?” I ask. “Why not get with her to set up a proper op, instead of trying to make me come flying in to rescue you like I’m a damn merc or something.”

  On the screen, Temperance’s face darkens. She obviously doesn’t like being spoken back to like this. But I don’t owe her my allegiance. And given how everything shook out in Tucson, I don’t owe her my trust. For her to keep me in the dark about the objectives of the op, and for her to conceal her true motivations from me, shattered my trust. It showed me that her aspirations come first—even before the life of her operator.

  It’s a shame really. When I first met her, I liked Temperance. She was somebody I thought I could trust. Somebody I wanted to have by my side on the field of battle. She knew that, and she played to it. But by her taking McGregor’s place at the top of the DEA food chain in Tucson— as hostile a takeover as there’s ever been— she’s now tied the Tower to a notoriously violent drug cartel. More than that, she’s tied herself to Vargas and is no doubt receiving the same kickbacks McGregor was.

  But she’s also put me in the crosshairs of that fucking lunatic. The fact that I was ambushed on my way out of Seattle by Vargas and his men and could very well have been killed showed me just how much mortal danger she put me in. In chess, you’re supposed to look several moves ahead. Anticipate what your opponent is going to do. Temperance failed to do that, and now I’ve got a goddamn drug cartel looking to kill me.

  I had the means and opportunity to just end it right there, too. I could have wiped the slate clean. But Temperance insisted I was not to harm Vargas. And now it’s my ass.

  All because she needed to make a move to look good and prove her worth to her bosses. It’s part of the reason I don’t trust her, and part of the reason I’m never going to do anything she asks of me.

  “Can you please get your ass to Arizona?” she asks. “I really need your help.”

  “With what?”

  She purses her lips and looks down for a moment, and I know what it is that’s troubling her. Or rather, who it is that’s troubling her. And I can also see that she realizes just how much she miscalculated the man. I could have told her that when you lay down in the dirt with dogs, you’re going to get fleas. But she never asked. She kept me in the dark the whole time. I want to laugh in her face, but I hold myself back.

  “Javier Vargas,” she finally says, her voice hard with tension.

  “Gee, Temperance, what could you possibly need my help with?”

  She looks up at me, and even though she’s on a computer screen, hundreds of miles away, I can see her anger and frustration. She can take it out on me all she wants. I really don’t care. But the person she should be most upset with is herself. She sacrificed long term stability for short term gain.

  Yes, the Tower needs the revenue stream the Vargas cartel provides. I get that. I may not like it, but it is what it is. Now that my memories have returned and I recall some of the things I’ve done, I realize I’ve gotten into bed with some shady people to achieve my objectives. But I was always smart about it and played the long game as opposed to sacrificing the bigger picture for a short-term fix. Which is what Temperance did. Well, that and securing a nice little revenue stream for herself as well.

  “Your mad dog slipped its chain, huh?” I press. “Gee, who could’ve seen that coming?”

  “He’s become obsessed with you,” she says, struggling to keep her voice even.

  “I’m flattered.”

  “You shouldn’t be,” she snaps. “He wants to kill you.”

  “Well whose fault is that?” I fire back. “We could have ended this before it began. I had him at gunpoint.”

  “He was not your objective,” she says, her voice cold and hard.

  “And because he wasn’t, now he’s creating problems for you,” I say. “And you expect me to come clean up your mess.”

  She lets out a deep breath, doing her best to keep herself under control. But the woman’s face is an unnatural shade of red, and her nostrils are flaring. She looks like a bull getting ready to charge.

  “Be very careful, Echo,” she cautions me. “I am not the person to be on the wrong side of.”

  I grin. “Do you really think you can intimidate me?”

  On the screen, her jaw clenches, and her eyes narrow to slits. I think if I keep pushing her, I can get her head to literally explode. I cut a glance at Nisha, who looks more alarmed than before, but also slightly more amused.

  “You are one of the most irritating and insubordinate men I’ve ever worked with,” Temperance hisses. “You forget your place in all this.”

  “No, you forget my place,” I fire back. “I can walk away from all of this whenever I want. I’m not bound to you or the Tower by blood. I don’t need you, Temperance. You need me.”

  She glares at
me. “Walking away wouldn’t be advisable.”

  “Going to send a hit squad if I do?” I spit. “And here I thought we were supposed to be better than the Hellfire Club. Apparently, I was wrong.”

  She scrubs her face with her hands and takes a moment to collect herself. This conversation has definitely gone off the tracks. I only meant to needle her a bit, but I let it get out of hand to the point that we’re hurling threats at one another. Still, it was interesting to me to see how far she’d take it. Her telling me the only way out of the Tower is in a body bag is very mafia-like. I wonder if that’s official Tower policy or just Temperance’s own personal one.

  “Listen, this deal with Vargas has gone sideways,” she says. “He’s out of control. I need your help Echo. Please.”

  “Oh, I get a please,” I comment. “This must be serious.”

  “You’re really pushing me, Echo.”

  I shrug. “It’s what I do.”

  I fall silent and consider what she’s said. I sit and stare at her on the screen for a moment, turning it all over in my head. Riding off to her rescue is only going to force me to put off my own personal mission longer. And if I get myself killed trying to accomplish it, then the deaths of my family go unavenged. But if I deny her, I can see Temperance being the sort of vindictive person who would send operatives to kill me. And having to dodge them might take even more time, or even get me killed.

  There really are no good options in this shitty situation. I cut another glance at Nisha, but her face is blank. There’s no sound advice coming from her.

  “Fine,” I sigh. “I’ll be in Tucson in a couple of days.”

  “Sooner would be better.”

  “Don’t push me, Temperance,” I snap. “You’re lucky I’m coming at all.”

  I push the button to disconnect from the video chat, letting out a breath of frustration. My reflection glares back at me from the darkened screen.