The Darkest Day

by Tom Wood

  Raven said, ‘Okay, Mr Chivalrous, you can peek now.’

  She had chosen similar garments – charcoal trousers and a black sports jacket over a blue turtle-neck sweater.

  ‘How do I look?’

  He didn’t answer. Instead, he checked the time. It was almost eleven p.m. He asked, ‘Are you ready?’

  She nodded. ‘Do it.’

  Victor thumbed the send button on Pachulski’s radio transmitter and said, ‘I want to speak with Halleck.’

  He released the send button and waited for a response. Maybe he wouldn’t receive one at all. Raven stood nearby, paying attention to their surroundings while he could not.

  After a few seconds a voice answered: ‘Code in.’

  The speaker was a young man with levity in his voice despite the formal request. Victor pictured a lean Caucasian; not a smoker or drinker, maybe fresh out of the military – an idealistic recruit to Halleck’s organisation.

  Victor said, ‘I don’t have a passcode. I’m not one of you.’

  There was a pause, before the young voice replied, ‘Who is this?’

  ‘Save us both some time and put Halleck on. He wants to speak with me.’

  ‘Who is this?’ the voice asked again, but with a deeper resonance. ‘Or I disconnect right now. Identify yourself.’

  Victor said, ‘It’s the killer.’

  There was no response. Victor pictured the young man hesitant at first, then deciding and rushing or gesturing or calling Halleck over, explaining away argument or disbelief; appealing with innate integrity and convincing with urgency.

  A crackle of static before Halleck said, ‘Is this who I think it is?’

  ‘Yes,’ Victor answered. ‘It’s your best friend in all the world. How have you been?’

  Victor heard Halleck breathing, then he said, ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I want to kill you,’ Victor answered.

  ‘Funny,’ Halleck said. ‘But I don’t have time for jokes.’

  ‘Does it sound like I’m joking to you? I couldn’t be more serious. I wouldn’t waste your time. I know you’re busy. I know you don’t have time for jokes. The blackout is only going to last until morning, right? You have a lot to do before then. That bomb isn’t going to plant itself now, is it?’

  ‘Raven told you everything then. Not that it matters. You’re nothing to me.’

  ‘I’m offended you can say that after all the trouble you’ve gone to to set me up as the bomber.’

  ‘It really wasn’t that much trouble. You did most of the work for me.’

  ‘I can’t deny that,’ Victor said. ‘Likewise, you can’t deny the guys you’ve lost so far.’

  Halleck exhaled. ‘Natural selection. You’re doing me a favour, weeding out those who aren’t up to standard. You’re strengthening the gene pool. So, thanks.’

  Victor said, ‘The fact remains, your numbers are reduced. Your manpower is down to seventy-five per cent. You didn’t account for that. That’s going to put pressure on your timetable. You’re going to cut it fine.’

  ‘What’s your point?’ Halleck asked.

  ‘Raven didn’t tell me as much as I would have liked, I have to admit. But there’s still time to get more answers out of her if I require them. She’s been a busy woman. She knows about the explosive. She knows Beaumont was your contact. She even knows what you like to eat for breakfast.’

  Raven glanced his way and shook her head.

  Victor raised an eyebrow at her.

  ‘What exactly are you telling me?’ Halleck asked.

  Victor said, ‘What I’m trying to say is that I have Raven here with me. I’m looking into her eyes at this very moment. What I’m also saying is that we have privacy and it means I have time to convince her to provide those answers.’

  ‘I don’t imagine she’ll take much convincing, seeing as you two are getting on so well. Quite the double act, aren’t you?’

  ‘I think you’re mistaken. I work alone.’

  Halleck said, ‘Yeah, right. I don’t believe anything you’re telling me.’

  ‘I’m not trying to make you believe anything. I don’t need a dead man to believe me, now do I?’

  Halleck grunted. ‘Spare the tough talk. You can’t scare me.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong again,’ Victor said. ‘I can scare you, because you’re already scared of me. Unless you’re saying to me that you brought twelve men with you to Dublin to keep you company? You’re not the lonely sort, are you?’

  Halleck didn’t answer.

  ‘I want to kill you,’ Victor said again. ‘That’s not a bluff or a threat but a statement of fact. You set me up. You tried to kill me. You’re going to let me take the blame for your bomb. It’s in my best interests to watch you take your last breath, but I’m an accommodating kind of guy so I’ll settle with cutting a deal. I want out of this mess. I want the cops and feds off my back, permanently. I want to get out of the country and never come back. In return I won’t kill you, but I’ll kill Raven.’

  She couldn’t disguise the second of uncertainty that passed over her face. He pretended not to notice.

  Halleck didn’t answer.

  ‘Take your time,’ Victor said.

  ‘Why?’ Halleck asked.

  ‘Because I don’t need her. Because you need her dead. She wanted my help stopping you. For a while I considered it, but I don’t take attacks against me personally – I know it’s only ever about business – and I’m no humanitarian. I don’t care if a bomb goes off in downtown Manhattan. But what I do care about is getting through an airport without being bundled to the ground by security.’

  Halleck said, ‘You have Raven with you this minute?’

  ‘That’s what I said.’

  ‘Then I want her for myself. I want her alive.’

  ‘That’s not going to happen. I’m sure you can appreciate she’s too dangerous to transport alive.’

  ‘Okay,’ Halleck said. ‘So put her on the line. I want to speak to her.’

  Victor said, ‘That’s going to be difficult. She’s a little tied up right now.’

  ‘Then quit hanging around and untie her. I want to hear her voice. I need to know you have her. Otherwise there can’t be any deal. Unless you’re asking me to trust your word? Which would be hilarious.’

  ‘Okay,’ Victor said. ‘Give me a second.’

  ‘I’ll be waiting.’

  Victor released send so Halleck couldn’t hear and held out the radio to Raven. ‘Be convincing.’

  She looked at him like he was an idiot – like she enjoyed the fact he was. She took the radio, cleared her throat and pressed send.

  ‘YOU FUCKER,’ Raven yelled. ‘I’m going to fucking kill you both, you hear me? You’re both dead. You’re both —’

  She rubbed the receiver against her chest to imitate a struggle to control it while she screamed in a varied pitch of emotions, rocking her head back and forth and smiling the whole time. She released send and handed the radio back to Victor.

  ‘How did I do?’ she asked, nonchalant.

  Victor said, ‘You missed your calling,’ and she curtsied while he pressed send and spoke into the radio: ‘Now do you believe me?’

  Halleck said, ‘I guess I do.’

  ‘So, do we have a deal or not?’

  ‘I want to see her body. I want to see her dead with my own eyes. Otherwise, no deal. Once I know for sure she’s a corpse, I’ll put out the word to Homeland Security, the FBI and the NYPD. You’ll be taken off the terrorist watch list. You’ll no longer be a fugitive.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I wanted to hear. In forty-five minutes go to FDR Drive. Raven’s corpse will be in the trunk of a silver Impala, parked under the Williamsburg Bridge.’

  Halleck said, ‘No deal. The car could be rigged with a bomb or you could take me out with a rifle.’

  ‘Indeed. Or better yet I’d have the car wired with explosives, and be waiting behind a high-powered rifle. But where’s that going to get
me? If I kill you then I’m still in the same mess.’

  ‘You’d better believe that, asshole.’

  Victor said, ‘So it’s in my best interests not to kill you.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Halleck said. ‘You need me alive far more than I need you. So you’d better not be fucking around with me, because if you are then you’ll be in a world of hurt.’

  Victor said, ‘Strange threat, given my current predicament, but I believe you nonetheless. And you would do well to believe me when I say if you try anything you’ll be able to count the days you have left on this earth with one hand.’

  ‘Then it sounds like we both have enough incentive to play it straight with each other.’

  ‘Doesn’t it just?’

  He released send and no further communication came from Halleck.

  ‘Did he believe you?’ Raven asked, handing him a Rapala fillet knife.

  Victor thought for a second. ‘I think so. I think you did a good job and convinced him you were at my mercy. He won’t go himself, of course. But he’ll send guys to check out the car. He can’t afford not to. Either he’ll send people in the hope of getting to me, or to confirm you’re actually dead.’

  ‘But how many?’

  Victor thought again. ‘Regardless of what I said to him on the radio, Halleck’s not short of manpower. He brought enough guys to New York to deliver the bomb and to watch me and to look for you. He’s lost some, sure. But he has plenty left. I’d say he’ll send between five and ten, which leaves us between six and eleven to deal with at the airfield while the others are waiting at FDR Drive for a silver Impala to arrive.’

  ‘That’s some range.’

  ‘I can only make an educated guess. I think he’ll send a small unit because it doesn’t take more than one pair of eyes to see a corpse, and if it’s a set-up he won’t want to risk too many getting blown up or sniped.’

  ‘So now you’re saying five?’

  ‘I’m saying that’s what I consider to be more likely. If Halleck really did believe us then he might send a whole crew there to deal with me. But I can’t be sure. He’s fooled me once already. Whether five or ten or whatever in between, we reduce our opposition.’

  She nodded. ‘Then we plan to encounter eleven men at the airfield. I prefer to assume the worst.’

  ‘As do I.’

  Raven smiled. ‘Pessimists of the world unite.’

  FIFTY-SEVEN

  The bay was as black as the sky above. Moonlight glimmered off small waves swelling and breaking. The gentle swish of the surf grew louder. Victor and Raven paddled the inflatable the last few metres until it came to ground on a narrow strip of beach, churning up wet sand. They placed the paddles inside the inflatable and jumped out, avoiding the small lapping waves, feet sinking into the sand. Grassy dunes lined the shore. Waves lapped against sand and rocks. The dune grass seemed more brown than yellow-green in the darkness, swaying and rustling in the wind. In the distance he could see the unlit Manhattan skyline against the backdrop of the night sky, the dark buildings seeming to rise from the horizon as jagged teeth, small and broken.

  A pale half-moon brightened the night sky above, highlighting torn strips of cloud that crept from east to west, pushed by a chill wind. Victor’s breath clouded before him. He exhaled through his nostrils to direct the vapour earthward, where there was less chance it would be noticed in the moonlight. He kept his chin down so his eyes were in the shadow of their brows in an effort to prevent the moonlight glinting from them.

  His attire, like Raven’s, had been chosen to provide other small advantages. Black gloves covered their hands and rolled-up balaclavas sat on their heads, ready to be rolled down to hide their faces when the time came. Victor was armed with Guerrero’s SIG. Raven had the Ruger he’d taken from the passenger in the crashed Audi. He had two spare magazines of ammunition in the left-hand pocket of his windbreaker, each one wrapped in a sports sock to reduce unnecessary noise. The socks could also be used as tourniquets, should they be required. He had no plans to get injured, but he had never planned on getting any of the many injuries he had sustained during his life as an assassin. Before that, he had never been wounded in the military. His teammates had considered him a lucky charm in that regard, but that luck had run out the day he sold his soul. He told himself that these days he didn’t believe in luck.

  For a brief moment he allowed himself to remember their faces – alive and smiling, instead of distorted by death as he had last seen them.

  They left the inflatable on the beach. It was a calculated risk. Victor would have liked to drag the inflatable into cover, but doing so would only leave a tell-tale trench across the sand that would be easy to follow for anyone who happened this way. Plus, Raven noted, if they had to retreat in a hurry, those precious seconds dragging the inflatable back to the water could prove fatal, making them slow and easy targets. They had no choice but to leave the inflatable exposed and obvious. If Halleck had sent between five and ten men to check Raven was dead in the trunk of an Impala, the remaining six to eleven would be far too few to patrol the whole of the airfield.

  Victor didn’t expect any men to be patrolling this far out, but he and Raven moved at a cautious speed regardless. Speed was useful here, but pointless if they walked into a hidden sentry. Minutes lost now might avoid a firefight.

  A nearby section of old fence rattled in the wind. Terns squawked as he passed a nest.

  A stretch of woodland lay between the beach and the airfield. The trees were sparse and not tall, but there was enough foliage to cast much of the undergrowth in shadow. They moved through it, from tree to tree, handguns up and ready. They stopped at intervals to peer around and listen. Victor heard or saw no sign of any of Halleck’s men on patrol. Still they continued at the slow pace. The closer they came to the temporary headquarters, the more chance of running into one of the team.

  Victor and Raven reached the edge of the woodland. Ahead, the runway was a pale sandy colour, uneven with cracks and potholes. The yellowing grass reached Victor’s shins. Shrubs and bushes had sprung up along the runway.

  In the distance he saw the old hangars silhouetted against the sky. Beyond them lay the old terminal building. Lights were on at some windows.

  ‘That’s where they will be,’ Raven whispered.

  Victor said, ‘Then that’s where we’re going.’

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  He went to continue, but Raven raised a fist to tell him to halt because —

  A soft mechanical click sounded nearby.

  Victor pictured a hammer cocking and a muzzle pointing his way, but only for a split second because he then heard the scrape of steel teeth against flint and the whoosh of an igniting flame.

  Raven lowered herself deeper into the undergrowth as Victor did the same. He pivoted on the spot. The origin of quiet sound was hard to pinpoint amongst the background noise of rustling foliage and overhead jets.

  She pointed and he saw the floating dot of glowing orange first, and then the shape of a man came into view. He stood in the shadows, almost invisible until his arm moved as he brought the cigarette away from his mouth. Rising smoke drifted through a swathe of silver moonlight.

  Victor remained still and silent, watching and evaluating. Considering.

  He could kill the man without trouble. A double tap of rounds from Guerrero’s SIG would be more than enough at this range, but the weapon was unsuppressed. Halleck’s people in the terminal building would hear, even with the noise of low-flying airliners to help disguise it. Raven saw him thinking and gestured to her Ruger, which was as close to silent as any firearm could get. He shook his head. She had no spare ammunition, and if there was one sentry outside there could be others. They might hear even the Ruger’s quiet bark. Victor had no way of knowing how many they numbered or their proximity to this position.

  He watched her tuck the Ruger away and draw her filleting knife.

  She stepped to the side, moving in a slow circle until she was fou
r metres behind the sentry, who continued to smoke his cigarette.

  Victor watched her approach, one careful step after the next, more dragging her feet along the ground than walking so as to reduce the chances of snapping twigs beneath her soles.

  At two metres, Raven paused. She could see the sentry better now. The man was a fraction shorter than her. It would be simple to slap a palm over the mouth and pull the head back to slice the throat from ear to ear.

  At one metre away, she stopped again, because the sentry said:

  ‘This is Four, all quiet. Next check-in at o-one-forty-nine. Over.’

  Victor checked his watch. It had just turned 1.39. If the sentry didn’t report in ten minutes, the alarm would be raised. Ten minutes was not going to be enough time. But no password had been used.

  Four light steps and Raven was behind the sentry. At the blade’s touch, blood burst free and soaked the sentry’s clothes. Her palm caught and muffled the man’s gurgling scream. In less than ten seconds the sentry was unconscious.

  Raven lowered him to the ground. By the time she had finished checking his pockets and taking his radio, the man was dead. Victor approached.

  Raven said, ‘Here,’ and tossed him the man’s weapon.

  Victor caught it. It was a UMP sub-machine gun.

  ‘Ammo,’ Raven said, and threw him spare magazines.

  They moved on. Victor didn’t relish the idea of crossing the open ground that lay between the woodland and the old airport buildings, but they had no choice. They would be easy prey for any kind of half-decent marksman behind a rifle. There was nothing to take cover behind for almost five hundred metres.

  He allowed himself to move at a faster pace. Outside of the darkness of the woodlands the moon provided plenty of illumination. They would be easier to spot crossing the space, but on the plus side they would see any other sentries from a long way off.

  He tried not to think about a keen-eyed marksman lying on the roof of one of the hangars, armed with a high-velocity rifle equipped with an infrared scope.