“We succeeded?” Sofia said.
“Second wave blocked from North America.”
Ryan clasped Cal’s shoulder. “Anywhere else?” he asked.
“I’m still gathering data. It’s night in Europe, so could take a while.”
“Can you get hold of USS Nimitz for us. Let them know we’re here and friendly. That we have some deceased Marines too. Explain about the Black Skulls.”
“Could take a little while.”
“Thanks, Avondale,” Ryan said. He turned slowly, looking at all The Nameless. “Thanks everyone. We risked everything, and we succeeded. It’s a small victory, something we can savor for now.”
Booth disappeared from the room briefly, returning with a couple of bottles of scotch and a stack of glasses. He passed them out and poured everyone a drink. For once, no words were spoken, each lost in their own thoughts. Ryan accepted a top-up from Booth and sank into one of the office chairs. Weariness descended on him and his body begged for sleep. But from the way his mind still raced, he knew sleep would be tough. He glanced around the room. At the blood, brains and skull fragments smeared on the floor and walls. At the signs of his fight with Dudek. The tipped-over chair, his satchel still lying in place with the taser baton dropped next to it. The Nameless had fought tooth and nail for this mission. They deserved this respite.
Booth chuckled, breaking the silence. “‘Summer of Sixty-Nine’ is definitely about sex.” He was answered with a chorus of groans. “What? C’mon. You have to give me that one.”
“No way. It’s about nostalgia. How you look back at your youth and wish you were there again,” Allie said.
“I’m with Allie,” Cal said.
Sofia murmured her agreement.
“For once, I think Booth’s right,” Ryan said. “Sixty-nine is a metaphor for the innocent sexual encounters of youth.”
“Ugh. You guys.” Cal shook her head and downed the rest of her scotch. “What’s our next move?”
Ryan unfolded a map of the island. “Thoughts?”
“Sleep,” everyone answered.
They were right. As desperate as he was to carry on, to get back home to Portland, to find Zanzi, and to fight OPIS, they all needed rest.
“We take shifts. Two on watch – one monitoring the VTS, one monitoring the other comms.”
“I’ll take first on comms,” Sofia said.
“I’ll do VTS,” Cal said. “I’m too worked up to sleep right now.”
The Nameless dispersed. The NSA station had small sleeping quarters next to a bathroom. Booth and Allie headed straight for the nearest bunks and rolled into the covers.
Cal pulled Ryan into a hug and kissed him on the lips. “Get some rest. You look like shit.”
“Speak for yourself.”
She laughed. “Don’t beat yourself up.”
Cal had always had a way of knowing what Ryan was thinking, what he was feeling. She knew his thought processes as well as her own. She had proven that when she had tricked them all into going to Koyasan. Keiko had been the bait, and she’d drawn them all in like moths to a flame.
“I can’t help but feel we’ve failed,” Ryan said.
“Even if we have, we’re still breathing. With that, we can still stop them.”
“How? At every point we’ve been a step behind.”
“Get some sleep. We’ll debrief and plan, really plan, our next move.”
Ryan slipped into his jacket. “I need some fresh air first.”
He left the group and climbed up the ladder. He opened the hatch with the code Sofia had given him and found himself in a shed. Two snowmobiles sat under tarpaulins. That was something. At least they wouldn’t have to walk kilometers back to Dutch Harbor.
“Wait up. I’m coming too,” Cal called out.
Ryan and Cal climbed the hill next to the weather station. The storm had subsided. On they walked, over rocks and scrub, leaving a trail of footprints in the dusting of snow. They wound their way up the steep hill, following a narrow trail. The sea below surged and broke against the mussel-filled rocks. The landscape was barren, no trees or shrubs, something that always disturbed Ryan.
Ryan sucked in deep breaths as he made for the summit. A lone granite boulder stood guard. Next to it, someone had built a cairn. He wondered if it was a monument to someone lost at sea or just a record of how many times someone had made it to the summit. He leant against the weathered boulder and gazed east, thinking of his daughter and his lost son. Cal nestled herself against him, and he wrapped his legs around hers.
Together, they silently watched the sun rising above the horizon like they had done countless times before.
“What is it?” Cal said.
“What?”
“You have that look like something’s bugging you.”
“I just… no it’s nothing.”
“Ryan, we were married a long time, I know it’s not nothing.”
“I’m trying, Cal. Trying to understand but I keep circling back. The way you responded at Yamada’s mansion, laughing when Offenheim’s men found us.”
“It was an act.”
“For whom?”
Cal stood and folded her arms. “Offenheim has spies everywhere.”
“But the game was up, everything was revealed.”
“Not everything.”
“What does that mean?” Ryan clenched his jaw. Normally Cal was forthcoming. He wasn’t used to this side of her.
“All Offenheim wanted was for me to spy on Yamada. Find out his plans. I saw a way out and took it, so I fed him false information and moved into position to bring you guys in. When Offenheim’s helicopters showed up, I had to keep the act going.”
“Making him think you’d been captured.”
“Exactly.”
“And the German speaking yakuza?”
“After the codes that Sofia and Booth had.”
“That important?”
“Yes. They would’ve been concerned that LK3 would figure out their plans with them.”
Ryan pushed up off the gray rock and turned away from his wife. His mind was still whirling, trying to grasp at something nagging him. It hit him like a ton of bricks. “The death squads in Koyasan. I saw you there and the men clearing the university mentioned orders from a woman. You?”
“I couldn’t break cover. I had to bide my time. Yamada was aware of the situation and sacrificed his men.”
“He knew your plan all along?”
Cal grabbed his elbow and turned him around. “I needed Yamada to bring you in. He approved because he needed The Nameless as you found out.”
Ryan saw a flash of a scowl, like Cal was uncertain of her answer then it was gone. She kissed his cheek. “I understand that you’re cautious,” she said. “That everyone is. I was in deep. Once we get home I’ll submit to a debriefing.”
In LK3 if an operative had been captured by the enemy then returned, a debriefing was standard procedure. From what Ryan had witnessed it was a grueling and sometimes torturous affair. Two weeks ago, having Cal here with him was but a dream. Could he let her go through that?
“I think that’s for the best,” Ryan said. “I’m sorry.”
Cal guided her husband back to the rock and sat down. They stared at the ocean for a few moments.
“Do you remember when I told you I was pregnant?” Cal said.
“Yes. We were having a cup of tea and watching the sunset over the Pacific.”
“And do you remember what you said to me at that moment? I know I’ll never forget it.” She clung to his hands. “That’s what kept me going during my darkest times with Offenheim.”
Ryan blinked away his tears. “I said, ‘And so, the sun is setting on our first act. Tomorrow it will dawn on our second. It’s junctures like these that I know I’m doing the right job.’”
“That’s why we must keep going. We’re doing the right job. Doing the right thing. For us. For everyone.”
Ryan held his wife tighter and returned h
is gaze once more to the sun rise.
He thought of all the people he had killed. All for the greater good, to keep the free people of the world free. He thought of all the atrocities he had witnessed. In the Congo. In Romania. In Mongolia. All over the world. Human trafficking and slave rings. The hollow looks of the victims still haunted him every night.
“Do you think Liam is looking down at us?” Cal whispered. “It’s weird, but I feel him here.” She pointed at her chest.
“I think so too,” Ryan said. “Like he’s guiding us. You know, some cultures believe that when you die, you become part of the world again. That your soul becomes part of the fabric of the universe itself. That they guide your choices. That’s why we sense loved ones we have lost.”
“I like that. I feel him every day. Maybe because he was made from us, with our DNA. I feel him, not just here, but out there. That’s why we must carry on. Not just for Liam and Zanzi, but for all humanity.”
“God, that sounds clichéd.”
“Maybe. But as clichéd as it is, it’s true,” Cal said.
“I miss Liam so much. I can’t help but think, did we do enough? Train him enough? We taught him survival skills and weapons. Martial arts. And still he died. Too young, with so much before him.” He brushed a tear and looked away.
“He did everything we taught him, and more. He sacrificed himself and saved lives,” Cal said. “He may not have sworn the oath we did, but he lived up to our values. Arthur Price would be proud.”
“Your dad? He said as much at the funeral and at yours. We need to contact your parents.”
“We will,” Cal said. “You should’ve seen them when I joined the Army, swelling with patriotism. Our daughter they said, protecting this great country. For the many.”
“For the many,” Ryan repeated.
He breathed deep, filling his lungs with the chilled air. It stung as it entered, but he didn’t mind. It reminded him that he was still alive. Unlike in Tokyo when he had thought he had nearly lost it all. He’d sunk to the lowest he had ever been. Thought his life had lost all meaning. Lost all purpose.
The sun finally broke above the horizon, kissing his skin.
Maybe now, for the first time since the birth of his children, he knew what his purpose was. To stop not just one madman, but a whole organization of madmen. Maybe that was his destiny.
He sighed and enjoyed the moment of reflection and peace.
Epilogue
Victor Offenheim stood at the expansive window that stretched from floor to ceiling, staring out over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Their snowy peaks reminded him of the Austrian Alps. He longed for those mountains. He longed to be back in his ancestral lands. To walk the fields and meadows. To feel the crisp air on his skin. He had fought hard for this new world and now his enemies were thwarting his vision.
He pivoted and threw his glass against the wall, screaming at the empty room. No one had foreseen what The Nameless had achieved. In all the scenarios they had run through, all the think tanks they had employed, no one had figured they would crash a satellite into an OPIS satellite. It had only been one, but it had been enough to stop the second wave in North America.
Not for long. They would reset and do it again.
His gaze settled on the bank of monitors arranged around the boardroom table. The four founding families and five of the six secondary families were present on the video conference. Yamada had shown his cards and cut himself off from OPIS. Offenheim. Prendergast. Ibrox. Santander.
Offenheim clasped his hands behind his back and raised an expectant eyebrow.
“Well?”
“We are still correlating numbers. Estimates put the figure at seventy percent success after wave two.”
Offenheim stared at the speaker. Robert Prendergast was a Welsh mining and shipping billionaire from an ancient family; his wealth and power went back centuries. He was tall, his eyes steel blue. Offenheim nodded. Prendergast always delivered.
“Ibrox. What about your sector – Africa, Australia, Oceania?”
“Too difficult to say at this stage. We have billions of hectares of land to cover, thousands of tiny islands. It’ll take months.”
“A rough estimate?” Offenheim said through clenched teeth. Ibrox had jet-black hair, combed back, and an amused look permanently locked in place. Another whose family was from old money.
“We estimate seventy percent in the major cities. As we speak, our teams are coordinating to mop up the dregs.”
“Good. Keep me informed.”
“Victor. I understand you’re upset, but it was your sector that had the issue. We’ve always worked together to achieve this goal. Now, when you need us most, you have the audacity to be angry?”
Offenheim slammed his palm onto the table, rattling the monitors. “We all had people involved to stop these pesky insects. That, Santander, is why I’m upset.”
Santander. Red hair with faint Asiatic features, a genetic oddity from the steppes of Kazakhstan. Her territory was by far the largest, from Moscow to Beijing, including India. Almost half the world’s population, and some of its remotest areas. She grinned. “Estimated success of sixty-five percent. If we wait two weeks for the reset of wave two, this will give my staff the time we need to reach everyone liked we originally planned.”
“You will all have your time. Has anyone else encountered problems?”
“Some,” chorused the replies.
“As expected,” Offenheim said. “Carry on as planned.”
Offenheim pressed a button on his remote, ending the video conference call. The Nameless. Pesky insects that needed to be made an example of.
His retribution would be swift and deadly, but first, he needed to consult the manual. He spent a few moments calming himself, relaxing his muscles. He wasn’t used to failure. Offenheim checked that none of his servants were present outside the boardroom before activating the switch, a panel hidden in the armrest of his chair. A keypad panel popped open on the bookshelf and he quickly entered the code.
A door hissed open and he stepped into the secret room beyond.
Peace immediately descended over him. Two of the walls were covered in banks of servers, blue lights blinking. These servers were separate from any others in The Eyrie. They contained valuable data on OPIS. Victor ignored the servers. Instead, he focused on the other end of the room, his shoes clicking on the polished floorboards. A simple desk made from English oak sat against one wall. Placed on top was a thick, blue-dyed leather-bound book, with the Offenheim family crest stenciled in gold leaf on the front cover. Next to the desk was a shrine. Candles burned next to a photo of his parents, and a larger one of his mother. Offenheim picked up his mother’s photograph and kissed it, looking longingly at her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Behind her, the mountains of his home beckoned. He remembered his last conversation with her before cancer took her. She had begged him to wheel her to the roof so she could breathe the mountain air one last time. See the snow-capped peaks.
“Do not despair, my son.”
“How can I not, Mother. First Father, now you? We were meant to stop this.”
“Death comes to us all, even those who seek to stop it.”
“I’m afraid that this won’t be enough, that we will never see our vision.”
“You’re close, son. Keep going. Be strong.”
“Yes, Mother.”
They had watched the mountains for an hour, enjoying the serenity without speaking.
“It’s time, son. I’m ready.”
“Must you?”
“The pain is too much, even for me. Stay focused, Victor. Soon you will see the Austrian Alps again.”
He had taken her back to her room and held her hand as the doctor administered the drugs to end her life. Years later, the grief of her loss still haunted him. She was the family’s strength, its guiding beacon. Now he was alone. Offenheim sighed, kissed his mother’s photograph once more, and opened the leather-bound book. Before she had
died, Edith Offenheim had left instructions. Instructions on what to do if and when he met obstacles. She had been a brilliant strategist. What worried Offenheim was Milo. He knew Milo had helped Zanzi escape The Eyrie, and again he had been present when they had escaped the Black Skulls a second time. Could he use Milo to discover more of the faction? Three faction members were dead. Victor understood there were more scattered around. Parker – his head of security – had a lot of work to do.
Offenheim continued to read his mother’s thoughts. He smiled to himself. Milo may have gone rogue, but Offenheim still had a way to bring him back to the fold.
He placed the book carefully back on the table and kissed his mother’s photograph once more. As he left his sanctuary, he pulled his phone from his pocket. Enough of the games. It was time to clear the field of threats. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Maybe he would get to play after all.
END OF BOOK TWO
THE STORY CONTINUES
IN
MASKS OF ASH
Author’s note
This series started as a seed of an idea while I traveled through Japan in October 2017. I had spent the morning hiking a pilgrim trail up Mount Koya near Osaka. When I reached the top, I was in awe of the breathtaking scenery. Mountains, lakes, trees, and wildlife. It was simply serene. As I often do, I daydreamed, and I thought… what would happen if some apocalyptic event occurred and I survived, only to be trapped? How would I get home? Could I?
The more I thought about it, I knew I had to turn it into a story.
Also, as a teenager I was fascinated by stories of World War Two and the espionage that went on. The level of planning that went into D-Day. How mistakes, bluffs, and double bluffs turned the tide of the war.
I wondered, could a secret group of powerful men and women bring about the apocalypse?
After taking all those ideas, the story grew into what you’ve just read.
I hope you enjoyed it and want to read more. I would be grateful if you would leave an honest review. I’m sure you’ve heard it before but reviews really are an author’s bread and butter. They help in so many ways.
Shadows of Ash (The Nameless Book 2) Page 29
