Raiders

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Ella said. She was holding a small bouquet of white lilies. Behind her the skyline of New York City rose like an old friend as she approached the coffin. Just a week after landing in New York and meeting with Ezra at Titanfort, and already it seemed like a dream.

“None of us can,” Mason said. “Virgil saved my life more times than I can remember.”

“I knew him for years,” Caleb said. “We played poker together whenever we had the chance. Attended tournaments together.”

Milo was silent. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and he turned his head down to the ground. His face was obscured by his floppy fringe, just the way he liked it. No one would see his grief today.

Mason watched now as Virgil Lehman’s family and friends filed out of the church and walked sullenly across the cemetery to say their final goodbyes. As the coffin was lowered into the earth, Zara spoke through gritted teeth. “He didn’t deserve this.”

No, he didn’t, Mason thought. “We risk our lives every day doing what we do. Virgil was the same. He cared more about other people than himself.”

Ella began to cry, and Mason squeezed her shoulders. “Are you all right, El?”

“I’m fine… at least I will be.”

“At least you’ve got Ben,” he said.

She nodded. “He’s on a mission in Russia at the moment. I miss him.”

A heavy man in a black suit walked over, beside him was a frail woman behind a black veil. She was clutching a handkerchief in her trembling hands.

“Jed,” Virgil’s father shook the Londoner’s hand firmly. “Thanks for coming.”

Mason gave a polite nod.

“I miss my son so much, Jed,” Virgil’s mother said, the mascara-stained tears tumbling down her cheeks. “And he’s only been gone a few days.”

Mason said nothing; there were no words.

John Lehman fixed a firm, dry eye on Mason. He was an ex-CIA man who had been around the block more than most. He knew the score and now he wanted it settled. “You know who did this to my boy, right?”

“We do,” Mason said at last.

Lehman worked hard to keep the rage in check. “You know what I’m going to say then.”

“You don’t need to say it, sir.”

Virgil’s father turned silently and waved at an old friend as he filed away into the crowd. When he turned to look at Mason his eyes were starting to fill with tears. “I didn’t think so.”

There was no talk of wasted life here. Everyone paying their respects today knew how much Virgil had packed into his young life. He’d written two doctorates, stopped terror attacks all over the US homeland, climbed mountains, explored shipwrecks, and skydived over tropical islands. Now, he had died bravely, thwarting the plans of a shadow network of villains who wanted only to destroy and harm anything in their way.

More than any of that, he’d married his high school sweetheart and had a beautiful daughter. It was the thought of that little girl growing up without a father than had pushed most here to inconsolable tears. Mason watched now as Virgil’s widow drifted out of the church, dressed in black and holding her baby in her arms. He clenched his teeth to maintain some degree of control until she had faded back into the crowd.

The Raiders joined the other mourners as they slowly filed away from the church.

“That was as tough as it gets,” Zara said.

Caleb had said nothing since they left the church. Now he was breaking open a fresh pack of robusto cigars and searching for a lighter. With the cigar clamped in his mouth he fired it up, blew a cloud of smoke into the air and said, “I’ll never forget you, Virgil.”

“None of us will,” Ella said quietly.

Mason’s reply was cut short by the sight of a long, black limousine pulling up outside the cemetery. Getting out of the car, Ezra Haven closed the door softly so not to draw any attention to himself, and then he casually leaned against the hood with his arms folded across his chest.

“He keeps his word,” Zara said. “I’ll give him that.”

Caleb allowed a gentle laugh. “I told you he would.”

Mason had never doubted it. He trusted Caleb with his life, and if his old friend told him Ezra was on the level, then he trusted him too. The only problem was that trusting someone was different for working for them. Ezra’s proposal would draw them into a very different world, a dangerous world. Mason glanced back at the mourners saying their final farewell to his old friend and fellow Raider for confirmation of just how dangerous.

Milo looked at Ezra and then followed the path of an Eastern Bluebird as it flew up into the sky above the Cadillac. “So are we joining his outfit or not?”

Caleb, Zara and Ella all joined Milo and turned their eyes toward Jed Mason. This is one of those moments, he thought, when your whole life pivots on a single decision, only this time he was making that decision for four other people as well as himself. Joining Ezra Haven at Titanfort meant a massive upheaval in all their lives. It meant more danger, it meant losing some of their independence. It also meant giving the Raiders the chance to do much more than they could under his sole guidance.

And it meant the chance to avenge Virgil’s murder.

Mason looked up at the sky and took a deep breath.

The answer was obvious.