The Ghost Ships of Arizona

CHAPTER THREE

Drake peered around the lithe figure.

“Alicia with you?”

“Ah, sadly not. She is chasing Hercules, I believe. That girl cannot live a day without a man in her life. But perhaps you will see her soon, no?”

Drake shrugged. He could see from the periphery of his vision that the others had Beauregard well covered, but past memories stung almost as much as the bruises that had been inflicted. The Frenchman was one slippery character.

But there was one overbearing question…

“You do realize this is the Pentagon?” Dahl asked it first. “How…”

Beauregard allowed a self-assured smile to play across his lips. “My boss called your boss,” he said. “You know how it goes.”

“I had a call,” Hayden said. “From Robert Price. He explained that an informant would be dropping by this morning but he never said it would be this guy.”

“Wait. Wait.” Drake squeezed his eyes shut. “Your boss called Robert Price? Don’t you work for the Pythians?”

Beauregard only smiled.

The SPEAR team tensed. If the Secretary of Defense had allowed this man into their midst then perhaps he was as corrupt as had once been intimated. Drake knew that Hayden was trying to quietly investigate the new Secretary but had barely had time to breathe during the last few months. Something would give… he just wondered how bad it would be when it did.

Beauregard then sat down and spread his hands wide. “I would love to spin this out longer,” he said. “The indecision on all your faces is worth my time. But sadly it is not worth the country’s time, and real lives. So I will tell you this — I work for a good guy and I am in deep cover. The time is fast approaching when the Pythians will self-destruct, a fact mostly down to their leader who is about as stable as a Greek bank. You will all need a man on the inside when that happens.”

Drake didn’t move a muscle. “Who do you work for?”

“That is his secret to tell, not mine. But now, I am here. Will you listen?”

“What kind of question is that?” Smyth barked. “I still have the scars from our last little chat.” The ex-soldier made a menacing move forward.

Beauregard only raised a brow. “Forget it. I got lucky.” The smirk in his eyes told them he didn’t believe that for a second.

Dahl also advanced. “Me and you,” he said. “Right now, on the Pentagon lawn. I’ll show you lucky.”

Drake rubbed his face. “Just calm down will you? The man says he has information on a credible threat. Let’s hear him out before we cave his fucking face in.”

Beauregard nodded slightly. “That’s kind of you. One of the Pythians — a mega-wealthy developer named Nicholas Bell — has been constructing a plan that could shake America to the core. It is two-pronged. On the one hand it involves the recently appropriated, Chinese created Z-boxes. On the other, and at the same time, he plans to find the ghost ships of Arizona.”

Drake eyed the Frenchman for almost a minute, trying to gauge his sincerity. In the end the point was wholly moot. Beauregard was here now, talking, trying to make them listen. And inside the Pentagon. Drake doubted there was an ulterior motive.

What kind of madman would invent such a story and then tell it to a Special Forces team inside the most secure building on earth?

The leader of the Pythians, Drake thought, keeping his guard high. That’s who. It’s gonna be a dark day when bloody Tyler Webb finally implodes.

Beauregard locked eyes with him. “I have information on both attacks, and it can’t wait anymore. Seriously. They are imminent, yes? Imminent.”

“Get the fuck on with it then,” Smyth said. “So we can boot your ass outta here.”

“Did you know Tyler Webb was in DC?” Beauregard asked quietly of Smyth. “Did you know that, pretty boy?”

Smyth rose fast, but it was Lauren who blocked him. Something passed between them and Smyth backed down, but the hatred emanating from his gaze was palpable.

“We suspected Webb was in the DC area,” Hayden said. “Due to the intimacy and escalation of the stalkings.”

“He is worse than you could ever imagine,” Beauregard said. “I was security once, when he chose to visit your house, Miss Jaye. I only saw brief moments but I would be sure to burn all your underwear. And you—” he nodded at Kinimaka. “As I’m sure you know it is relatively easy to install an undetectable bug these days, especially for a man of means. Do you want the world’s foremost madman knowing your location twenty-four-seven? Check everything.”

Mano nodded, chewing his lip now and probably thinking of Kono. Drake maneuvered Beauregard back to the point at hand.

“You mentioned a severe lack of time?”

“Yes. Nicholas Bell — the builder — has come up with something particularly nasty. It is his turn to destroy the world, it seems. His roll of the dice. First, his fascination with the ghost ships is a long-standing one. Only recently did he figure out how they could benefit the Pythians, and then he put his plan to Webb. It is their content you see, pun intended, though you will not understand as yet. Bell is…” Beauregard paused.

Lauren leaned forward. “Torn? Hesitant?”

“I was going to say a ditherer. Wooly-headed, I believe the English might say.”

“Lauren thinks he can be turned,” Hayden said.

Beauregard frowned. “I haven’t thought about him in such a way, but maybe. Though the timing would be critical, and soon. Your choice. But let me continue.”

“I wish you would,” Kinimaka said. “These ghost ships sound kinda mysterious. Not to mention scary.” He smiled. “We all gonna get haunted, Frenchman?”

Beauregard didn’t smile this time. “The stories run deep over in the western states. Entire ships that appear at night and vanish by day. Drowned by the sands. Creaking they pass by, their sails motionless. Such a sight would make even you shiver in your boots, I am sure. Even the Native Americans told stories of them. Legends. Sightings span hundreds of years and still persist today. Do you want to know more?”

The entire SPEAR team leaned forward.