The Darkest Day

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.’