The Ghost Ships of Arizona

CHAPTER TWO

Drake entered the small room they called an office, amazed at how compact it seemed inside such an enormous building and at the same time stunned by the dazzling array of technology it offered. Hayden sat in a corner, at the head of a rectangular desk that seated eight. Before this day, Drake remembered people having to pull up extra chairs. Today, there were enough spaces around the table.

Barbs of regret stabbed at his chest. Dahl walked past, probably thinking the same thing but purposely moving forward.

He stood unmoving for a moment, then caught Karin’s eye, surprised to see her. “You don’t have to be here.”

She nodded, her short blonde hair lying flat today. “I shouldn’t be here, but this is where I want to be. I’m no good on my own.”

Drake nodded. He could relate to that. A quick overview revealed the additional faces of Lauren and Smyth. He was about to question Hayden over Kinimaka when the big Hawaiian crashed through the door.

Nobody turned, nobody dove to the floor. It was Mano. It was expected. “Mahalo,” he growled, trying to untangle his feet.

Hayden stared at him. “How did it go?”

Kinimaka let out a long, pent-up breath. “Kono is my sister,” he said as if that explained everything. “And has been stuck in DC for too long now. It doesn’t occur to her that if the Disavowed guys hadn’t saved her back in LA then she would be dead. It doesn’t occur to her that we’re out here every day, fighting to preserve her taken-for-granted freedoms. It doesn’t occur to her that DC shouldn’t be compared to Hawaii.” He shook his head.

Smyth grunted irritably. “A good brother-sister relationship then.”

“As good as can be expected.” Kinimaka carefully withdrew a chair and then fitted his bulk to it. Drake waited for something to go wrong but he and everyone else in the room was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t. Even Kinimaka glanced around in shock.

Smyth wasn’t done, his growl filling the space. “My sister, I wanted to choke her every day. Even looked forward to her turning sixteen, because she was a year older and said she would leave the house on her birthday. Booyah, I thought. An entire year to myself. Such joy.”

Lauren looked at him. “I never heard you mention a sister before.”

“She died when I was twelve.” His voice dropped. “Cancer took her down very quickly. Funny how you never know how lucky you are until—”

He stopped abruptly, remembering Karin’s presence in the room. “Ah, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Karin barely whispered. “I knew what I had.”

Hayden quickly took charge of the room. “All right, guys. We have a number of things to get through this morning. First, can I ask about the stalking? Has anyone encountered anything new?”

A clever way of putting it, Drake thought. Stalking wasn’t merely the imagined “art” of following a person, it was far more complex than that. Many planes of intimidation existed within that single expression — anything from moving objects around to physical confrontation. A man like Drake had never contended with a stalker, but he could well imagine the kind of hell it might put a person through.

Kinimaka spoke up. “Kono, despite her petulance, actually believes she is being stalked. I’m her big brother,” he pulled a face, “and I know the kind of stunts she can pull and any other time I’d laugh and pull her hair or something, but now—”

Hayden shook her head, trying to hide a flash of amusement. “I can assign a couple of patrols to her. But I want to do it quietly. As good as Tyler Webb thinks he is, and as intimidating as he can be, I actually believe these escalating stalkings are our best way of catching him.”

Dahl nodded. “He will lose control. I personally have seen no signs over at my place and neither has Johanna.”

“Our place,” she nodded at Mano, “has been a stalker’s heaven lately. I guess we’ve now solved that problem. We’re watching the watchers, surveilling the hidden cameras. Just hoping the asshole does it again.”

“You’re more self-assured than me,” Smyth said. “I’d be afraid my bare ass would pop up on the Internet or something.”

Hayden waved a hand matter-of-factly. “It’s not like that for Webb. I’m convinced it’s more about control and dominance. He is a power-hungry megalomaniac after all. He gets off on feeling he has the means and supremacy to invade any life at any time.”

“Well let’s hope he doesn’t get off on you,” Smyth grunted.

Hayden screwed her face up. “Shit, man, that’s a horrible thing to put out there. Keep those thoughts to yourself.”

Drake spoke up before Smyth dug in any further. “I have to say I’m so glad to see both Karin and Lauren here. Are you completely recovered?” he asked the New Yorker.

“Yeah, totally. No signs of that freakin’ Pandora virus and no side effects. I’m good.”

Karin smiled slightly, her eyes unreadable. Drake wondered what dark oaths they may be taking and what even darker paths they may be traveling.

“What more do you have on this Ramses character? And how do these criminal kingpins somehow convince everyone they don’t really exist?”

“They use a shitload of go-betweens,” Hayden said. “More station bosses than McDonald’s. And they have a more complex family tree than your royal family. Or any family. The man at the top is always a mystery if he does his job properly.”

“But we’re talking about terrorists here.”

“And they have individuals working inside their organization as clever as those who work at the CIA.”

“So there will be others?” Lauren asked. “Myths or unimpeachable individuals hiding what they really do?”

“Undoubtedly,” Dahl told her. “Haven’t you heard of the Russian mastermind Chopa Bolokov? Or his brother — Yanksa?”

Lauren didn’t even smile. “Oh, I love your English jokes.”

“I’m not—”

“I know and I don’t care. I thought we were talking serious shit here.”

Hayden continued, “So, Ramses is trying to orchestrate the biggest event of his entirely unpleasant career. The world is a very large place and these people certainly have ways of communication we don’t yet know about. They could stage something like this and, believe me, we want them to. We just have to be there when it happens.”

A soft knock at the door brought them all around. Before Hayden could utter a word it opened and a lithe figure entered the room, sending the place into a state of shock. Drake felt his jaw hit the floor and glanced across at Dahl, wondering what they should do. Yes they were inside one of the safest buildings in the world, but this man was an enemy and working for the Pythians.

Wasn’t he?

Dahl gawped back at him. It took a long moment before anyone found their voice.

Smyth snorted loudly. “What the hell are you doing here, you asshole?”

“I am sorry, my friends,” the figure said, moving swiftly. “But your Ramses will have to wait. I don’t have long and I have a far, far bigger problem to lay upon you. No pun intended, of course. You’re going to have to move and move fast if America is to survive.”

Hayden audibly gulped. “S-Survive?” she stammered. “What are you talking about?”

“The return of the dark ages,” came the answer. “We’re all about to die. Will you hear me out?”