He was right. We had to go. But Jill needed a moment, and I was going to give her that moment.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. The words sounded hollow and pathetic. “I’m sorry this happened. I wish there was something I could have done. But listen to me. We need to go.”
Jill didn’t move.
“Jill, Lorenzo made me promise that I’d get you out of here, you and Reaper both. So we need to get going right now. Don’t make a liar out of me.”
“He told you that? He thought about me?”
“Of course he did, honey. He loved you.”
“Did he say that?”
“Yes he did,” I lied. “Now come on, please, let’s get out of here.”
Jill collected herself, and shakily nodded her head. A cold wind blew through the mountains, and she shivered.
Epilogue: Finest Hour
VALENTINE
Exodus Safe House
Olgii, Western Mongolia
March 26th
The town of Olgii was less than a hundred miles, in a straight line, from The Crossroads. Even still, it had taken us hours and hours to get there on narrow passes and around mountains.
There wasn’t much to the Exodus safe house. It was one of the bigger buildings in the remote Mongolian village; an old warehouse with snow drifted up against one side of it. Exodus personnel were, as Ling suggested, waiting for us. We pulled the vehicles around back. Medics rushed out with stretchers to carry the wounded. A few guards nervously kept their eyes open, afraid that Jihan’s forces would appear out of the blowing snow. I couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling that we weren’t nearly far enough away from The Crossroads.
The inside was dimly lit, but plenty warm. One side of the main floor was set up as a small medical facility. The other had cots and blankets. They told us they were preparing a hot meal, which sounded good. I was starving. I felt disgusting, too, covered in sweat and blood, and wanted to take a hot shower if one was available. Both of those things could wait, though. I was completely exhausted. I had been running on adrenaline for far too many hours now, and I just could not go on. I found a cot in a dark corner of the warehouse, stripped off my boots and socks, and flopped down on it. I was asleep within minutes.
I awoke some time later. The howling wind outside rattled the old building. No light came in from small, high windows. It was dark out now. I’d slept through the entire day. Someone had been thoughtful enough to leave a big bottle of water next to my cot. A small crowd of Exodus personnel had gathered at the other end of the warehouse, like they were having some kind of meeting. I grabbed it and took a sip as I left my bunk to figure out what was going on.
A rough semicircle had formed around Ling, who had a printout in her hands. The Exodus members looked to her expectantly, even though she wasn’t technically their leader. I didn’t know where Fajkus was, or what had happened to Katsumoto. No one paid me any mind as I moved through the group, bare feet on the cold concrete floor, to hear what Ling had to say.
“. . . have fully briefed the Council on everything that happened. In case anyone here hasn’t heard the full story of what happened . . . we failed.” The demeanor of the crowd darkened slightly, but Ling continued. “Sala Jihan lives. We few here are all that remain. Of those not with us, we don’t know how many are missing and how many have died. It’s . . . probably better to assume the worst.”
Just like with Lorenzo, I thought bitterly.
“We have, however, arranged transport out of here. It will take them about twenty-four hours to get here, but they’re sending an aircraft to Olgii to pick us up. This safe house will be abandoned, and no one else will be left behind here. We’ve left enough behind as it is.”
The small crowd solemnly nodded in agreement.
Ling paused for a moment, trying to decide what to say. “I want . . . I want you all to hold your heads high. You all fought well. Be proud of that. For every one of us that fell, it cost the enemy twenty of his own. But I will be blunt, for you all deserve nothing but the truth, ugly as it may be. This is the worst defeat Exodus has experienced in any of our lifetimes. But such is war. In war, sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. We have been bloodied, and we have been set back, but we are not broken!”
There were a couple voices of agreement in the crowd. Others nodded.
“Even in our darkest hour, do not give up hope. Do not give in to despair! Mourn the dead, but honor their sacrifice by finding the strength to carry on. For six hundred years, Exodus has stood alone against the darkness. For six hundred years, we have known victory and defeat, success and failure. Our order, our brotherhood, our fight continues, because our cause is just. We will recover from this setback. We will recover and carry on, learning from our mistakes and coming away better prepared than ever.”
Ling had the crowd transfixed. Even as an outsider, I found her appeal to be moving. She was a much better leader than she gave herself credit for.
“The road ahead will be hard,” Ling said, lowering her gaze slightly. Her dark eyes shimmered, as if she was fighting back tears. “We have all lost . . . so very much. But even on such a terrible day, let us not forget where we came from. Let us not forget why we do this, what we fight for. If we give up, if we say it’s too hard, if we don’t continue on, who will? Who will stand for the weak against the strong? Who will fight for the oppressed and the enslaved?”
There was no answer from the crowd.
Passion filled Ling’s voice, giving it clarity and purpose. “Our work is just, and noble. Our work is necessary. We cannot turn our backs on it, even now. For if we give up, if we do not continue on . . . no one will. The cycles of suffering that we struggle to break will continue, and the world will grow that much darker.”
Ling paused, taking a deep breath. Her voice was lower when she spoke. “You all fought magnificently. You are the finest men and women I have ever had the honor to serve with.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “I am proud of you. I am proud to count myself as one of you. So please, hold your heads high.” She fell silent, and quickly made her way out of the room.
A man stepped in where Ling had been standing, taking over from her. “Yes, thank you, Ling. Let us all take a moment to say a prayer for the fallen.”
As the group bowed its head in prayer, I headed back to my cot to put my boots back on and find Ling. I wanted to make sure she was okay.
* * *
I found Ling outside, alone.
Mercifully, the howling wind had died down. The sky was overcast low, and the lights of the town gave the clouds an amber glow. Ling’s breath steamed in the cold air as she stood, arms folded across her chest, staring into the distance. As I approached, I could tell she was crying.
I surprised her when I gently placed my hand on her shoulder. She turned to face me, with tears in her eyes. Ling then surprised me by wrapping her arms around me. She pulled me close to her, buried her face in my shoulder, and quietly wept.
Reciprocating her embrace, I held her tightly, and rubbed my hand up and down on her back. She squeezed me even tighter as she cried, struggling to regain her composure. I didn’t ruin the moment by opening my stupid mouth.
After a little while, Ling looked up into my eyes, but didn’t let go of me.
“Hey, you,” I managed.
She sniffled. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I just . . . I just couldn’t bear it if I lost someone else I care about. I couldn’t bear it. I’m barely holding on, Michael.”
Looking down into her eyes, I agreed with her. “I know. It’s been—”
My eyes went wide as Ling leaned up and kissed me, deeply, passionately. Her soft skin was hot against mine in the cold air. She pulled me tightly against her.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t think I was ready for this. I didn’t know what ‘this’ even was. We were in shock, exhausted, both badly needed a shower, and had barely escaped with our lives. It was the worst time for something like this.
But God help m
e, it felt right. I held her tightly, reciprocating her embrace and her kiss. After a moment, we pulled apart. Ling’s eyes were locked onto mine, studying my face for approval. I smiled at her, and she kissed me again. I held her close to me, closed my eyes, and for a wonderful moment, forgot all the horrors I’d seen.
The next morning found the Exodus safe house bustling with activity. It was only a matter of hours before the plane that was taking us away was to arrive, and Exodus was busy preparing to leave. Everything they couldn’t take, they intended to destroy, leaving behind as little evidence as possible.
I barely saw Ling that morning. At first I was worried, wondering if she was avoiding me. Had we jumped the gun? Was she regretting kissing me? Did I take advantage of her? Did it get weird?
I saw her for the first time that morning when she came out of one of the back offices with Fajkus. At first she didn’t acknowledge me, and I was concerned. But when her compatriot had his back turned, she looked over at me, dropped her professional demeanor for just a moment, and smiled at me. Then she winked at me, and a stupid grin split my face. As soon as Fajkus turned to face her again, the mask was back on, and she was as solemn as ever. I couldn’t help but laugh at the rapid transition.
“How are you holding up, man?” It was Skunky. I was outside the safe house, getting some fresh air for just a moment. The air was cold and still. It wasn’t snowing, but was still overcast, and thankfully the wind had quit. It was so cold out it froze your boogers right in your nose, though.
I turned my attention to my friend. “All things considered?” I asked, but just left it at that.
Skunky nodded knowingly. “What about your friends?”
“I don’t know. They’re both still in shock. Jill is . . . was . . . Lorenzo’s girlfriend. Reaper’s been with him for years. I guess another member of their team died in Zubara. You know how it is, man.”
“Will they be okay? Do they have a place to go?”
“Are you kidding? Lorenzo practically owned an island in the Caribbean. He was loaded. They’ll be fine, but money doesn’t replace the man.”
Skunky looked around the snow-covered valley that Olgii sat in. “What about you? Where are you going after this?”
I hadn’t actually thought much about it. Now that it had been brought up, I didn’t have a good answer. I just shook my head. “I don’t know, man. I guess it depends on where Exodus drops me off. I don’t know where I could go. It’s not safe for me to go home. They’re looking for me. The government, I mean. For all I know they have every federal agency looking for me. Anyway the only place I could go in the States is Hawk’s, and all I’d do is put him in danger. He already stuck his neck out too far getting involved in this.”
“Have you . . . I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m pressuring you, or giving you the sales pitch, but have you thought about becoming a member of Exodus? You already know more about the organization than most of us do. You’ve been on our biggest op in living memory. There are plenty of us that would sponsor you in. You’d just have to, you know, take the oath and commit. We’d take care of you, though.” Skunky lowered his eyes just a bit. “And we could really use new people right about now.”
My friend had a look in his eyes that I hadn’t seen since the debacle in Mexico, our last operation as employees of Vanguard. There was uncertainty in his eyes, even fear. I could see it on the faces of all the Exodus operatives. It was plain in how they carried themselves now, and in how they spoke. There was precious little laughter or joking. Their ridiculously high morale had been shattered. Those missing or dead would likely never be found, and never be giving a proper burial. It was heartbreaking to watch such a proud organization, one that I owed my life to, smashed like that.
As much as I liked them, though, and as much as I didn’t want to disappoint Ling, I didn’t feel that joining Exodus was the way I should go. They asked for my help, and I gave it. “I don’t know. Let’s wait until we get out of this godforsaken place before we start talking about my future. I need a vacation. I can’t go back to Hawk’s, but there’s got to be somewhere I can go.”
Skunky looked thoughtful for a moment. “Speaking of Hawk, have you contacted him at all? You just dropped off the map last year. He probably thinks you’re dead.”
I suddenly felt very guilty. “I wanted to call him when I was on Lorenzo’s island,” I said, “to tell him I was okay. But it would’ve put him in danger. They might be watching him, monitoring his phone. Hell, they might’ve picked him up. They fucked with my mind when they had me, man, drilled into my head. I don’t know what all I told them. For all I know I betrayed Hawk and he’s dead already.” A pit formed in my stomach as I thought about it. Oh God, what did I do?
Skunky read the look on my face. “Listen, we have encrypted satellite phones. You can call him. The odds of them tracing the call are pretty slim, and even if they do, we’ll be out of here in a few hours, and I’m pretty sure we ain’t coming back.”
“It’s still risky. I’m sure your boss won’t approve.”
“I don’t plan on asking my boss, bro.” He retrieved from his pocket a Benchmade Infidel automatic knife. Each member of a Switchblade unit was issued one. “I was Switchblade 4 first. Knife check!”
Allowing myself to smile, I retrieved my own Benchmade and snapped the blade out. “Check!” We both chuckled.
“No time like the present,” Skunky said. “Let me go get the phone.” It turned out that Skunky’s satellite phone was much nicer than any I’d ever used. I had to have him show me how to use it. “Do you remember Hawk’s number?” he asked.
I thought about it for a second. “I think so. Hang on.” I dialed the long sequence of numbers necessary to connect with a US phone number, pressed send, and waited. It rang several times, then stopped, beeping at me.
I showed Skunky the screen. “What’s it doing?”
He squinted and looked at it. “They’re requesting a video chat.”
“This thing can do video chat? I bet that’s expensive.”
“Yeah. There’ll be lag, too. Just ‘press accept’ and hold it a couple feet from your face.”
I told Skunky to keep quiet while I was talking, and rotated the phone so that the only thing visible behind me was the wall of the warehouse. I suddenly had a bad feeling, and wanted to give as few visual clues to my location as possible. I took a deep breath, and pressed accept.
After a short pause, Hawk’s face appeared on the screen. He looked like hell.
Oh no. “Hawk? Are you—?”
“Val?” he asked, sounding hoarse and raspy. “Goddamn it boy, you’re dumb as a stump! Why the hell did you—” Hawk grunted in pain as someone punched him in the head. My heart dropped into my stomach. The phone on the other end was pulled back so I could see him, bound and handcuffed. A man in a suit pushed him onto the floor and kicked him in the stomach.
Somebody has Hawk! I mouthed to Skunky. His eyes went wide.
A new face appeared on the screen. I’ll never forget it for as long as I live. He was an old man, with gray hair and hard lines in his face. His eyes were pale and piercing.
“Mr. Valentine,” the man said. “We’ve been waiting for you to call.”
“Who . . . ?”
He interrupted me. “Now you listen to me, boy. You have no idea the world of shit you’re in. My name is Underhill. You know who I work for. I was retired up until about two weeks ago. They called me out of retirement and gave me every resource at their disposal for the sole purpose of finding you.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”
“If you want Mr. Hawkins to live, you’ll do exactly as I say. You will tell me where you are, and you will wait for me there, for however long it takes me to arrive. Then you’ll come in with me, and we’ll sort this whole thing out. If you refuse, I will kill this man, and I’ll still find you. That part is inevitable, nonnegotiable. One way or another, I’m bringing you in. You only get to decide how much you, and Mr.
Hawkins here, suffer before it’s done.”
Before I could answer, Hawk shouted to me. “Val! Don’t listen to him, boy! I’m already dead! You run! You—” I couldn’t make anything out for the next few seconds. The phone was tossed around so fast, with the lag, I couldn’t tell what was going on. There was commotion, yelling, a fight. Somebody shouted at Hawk again.
“Fuck you!” was the old gunslinger’s reply. Then a pair of gunshots, then silence.
I felt the color drain out of my face. I looked up at Skunky. His eyes were wide, and he covered his mouth with his hands, but he said nothing. My knees went weak. I wanted to throw up. I struggled to maintain my composure as my heart raced and my head spun.
After a moment, Underhill’s face returned to the screen. He looked as ice cold as ever. “Mr. Hawkins is dead,” he said flatly. “His choice, not mine. Now you have a choice, son. No one else has to die. Tell me where you are, and this all ends. If you don’t tell me where you are, I will kill however many people it takes to get to you. Either way, I’ll find you. So what’s it going to be?”
My heart rate slowed. My senses were heightened. Everything slowed down just a bit as The Calm washed over me. My blood ran as cold as the arctic wind blowing against my face.
“I’ll tell you how it’s going to be, old man,” I said slowly. “You people have taken everything from me. I have nothing left to lose. You won’t have to find me, because I’m going to find you. I’m going to find you, Mr. Underhill, and I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill all of you. That is a promise.”
There was a pause from the lag of the satellite connection, before an unpleasant, predatory smile split Underhill’s face. “We’ll see about that.”
I pressed the end button, hanging up before anything else could be said. Skunky stared at me wide-eyed as I slowly lowered the phone. My hands started to shake. My teeth ground together. An icy rage bubbled up from deep inside me.
Swords of Exodus Page 49
