The Lost City

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Hawke tapped the fuel gauge and sighed. The problem with these small helicopters is they had small fuel tanks, and this one wasn't full to start with. He looked out into the world’s biggest jungle and surveyed an empty horizon with concern.

“What is it?” Scarlet asked, noticing him tap the gauge once again.

“Nothing we can do anything about, put it that way.”

“Oh, how very reassuring,” she said. “Don’t ever train to be a commercial airline pilot, for fuck’s sake.”

“Don’t worry — I won’t,” he said.

And then the radio crackled. “What’s up?”

It was Reaper’s voice, calling over the comms from the other chopper. They had coordinated their positions over the radio and were now flying side by side.

“Just a little low on fuel,” Hawke said. “Nothing serious.”

“How low, Joe?”

Lea’s voice now, and she didn’t sound impressed with the nonchalant way he had reported the fuel situation.

“We’re fine, but we might need a ride home with you guys if that’s okay.”

“Always happy to give Scarlet a ride,” Reaper replied.

“In your dreams, Vincent,” came the crackly reply.

Hawke smiled as the banter unfolded over the comms between the two helicopters. They were thundering their way from Machu Picchu to the location where they all hoped they would find Paititi, the Lost City of the Incas, and keeping their spirits up was essential to any successful mission.

“You’re sure you can remember the location, mate?”

No response from the other chopper.

“Ryan?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Good,” Hawke said. “We need to send the coordinates to Lund in case there’s trouble.”

“You’re sure, aren’t you, Ry?” Lea said. “Cause this ain’t the sort of place we want to get lost.”

“I said I could remember it,” he snapped.

Hawke left it there. He knew Saqqal and Kruger had a head start on them, but there was no doubt in his heart at all that his friends in the ECHO team wouldn’t be able to turn it around to their own advantage. They had never failed on a mission yet and they weren’t about to start now…. except maybe the Seastead.

The thought rose in his mind like a ghost drifting through a misty graveyard. Had they failed at the Seastead? Yes, maybe they had, he thought. They had allowed the Oracle to flee into the storm and take the Mictlan idol with him, and if that wasn’t bad enough they had let Kruger slip away with Ryan as a hostage as well. He was safe now but it could have ended with his death, just like it did for Maria.

He wished he could shake the thought out of his head forever, but that would mean forgetting about her altogether.

Scarlet leaned forward in her seat and switched off the radio so their conversation was private. “You’re thinking about Maria?”

He turned to face her, startled. “Yes… how did you know?”

“You looked so angry all of a sudden. I know you, Joe.”

Hawke didn’t know how to answer. Like with Sophie and Olivia, he held himself personally responsible for Maria’s death. Eden might be the head of the ECHO team, but Hawke was the man in charge in the field and he felt the pressure of it more with every mission.

Now he had to move Maria into the growing list of men and women who had died under his command, and it was starting to get to him. He found himself increasingly uncertain if he wanted to lead the team, just at exactly the same time as Eden had been knocked out of the game and landed in hospital with a life-threatening injury. If there was a way for him to fight through all of this and find any peace, then he didn’t know how to do it.

All he knew how to do was push thoughts like this aside and focus on the task at hand. There was no strategic success without tactical success. The ghost of a smile played on his cut lips as he recalled his training back in the marines. But it worked, and now his head was full of Ziad Saqqal, Dirk Kruger and the peculiar Rajavi. They didn’t have much to go on, but they never needed much, and this was one mission that everyone was going to survive.

He felt Scarlet glaring at him and turned to see her smiling. She looked good when she smiled, but it happened so rarely that he barely recognized her.

“What?”

“You’re all right for a stupid bastard, did you know that?”

“Thanks, I think…”

“Welcome.”

“How’s Jack?”

“Camo? He can survive being ridden hard and put away wet, if that’s what you mean.”

“Not exactly what I was getting at.”

“If you’re referring to the boring stuff, then yes… I think we could have a future. He’s nowhere near as annoying as you.”

“I’m so pleased for you,” he said. “Still thinking about quitting?”

“If I had half a chance to think about it, I might,” she said, lighting a cigarette. She blew the smoke out. Hawke coughed and opened the window an inch.

“You don’t mind?” she said, already on her third drag.

“No, just thinking about the drag on the chopper.”

“Problem is,” she said, totally ignoring the point, “I never seem to get that chance. We finish a mission, go back to the island, have a shower and then there’s another sodding crisis.”

“I’m starting to understand that little feature of ECHO life. It’s like being trapped in a revolving door.”

“Exactly, darling. Poor Jack doesn’t understand.” She turned to face Hawke again. “He asked me to quit ECHO, did you know that?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Says we’re too old to be fighting bad guys and that we should put our heads together and find somewhere nice to retire.”

“And what did you say?”

She flicked the half-smoked cigarette out the window. “I said he’s a cheeky shit and I’m not that old.”

“About the retirement thing.”

“Ah — well… I didn’t know what to say.”

With the bright Peruvian sunshine beaming into the cockpit, she folded her arms, yawned and closed her eyes. “Wake me when we get there.”

“You got it.”

“That’s presuming Ryan knows where the sodding place is, of course.”

Yes, Hawke thought… that’s presuming Ryan knows where the sodding place is.