The Lost City

CHAPTER FIVE

Luis Montoya walked them along the corridor until they reached the young police officer guarding Barrera’s office. A short conversation later and they were walking down the steps to the museum’s security office where a large, bald man with a thick moustache introduced himself as Lieutenant Rodrigo Santos.

He checked their ID, and not content with that he made some calls. When he padded back into the small office he gave a cursory nod and told them to sit.

“The Major says you check out, so you can stay.”

“That’s very kind of him,” Hawke said.

Santos stared at him with weary eyes and sighed. “You prefer my men to take you to jail for obstructing the investigation?”

Lea scowled at Hawke. “We’re very grateful to be here, Lieutenant, and we’d like to help in any way we can.”

Santos paused a few seconds before responding and then nodded his head, crumpling up his double chin. “Good,” he said, and pointed at Luis. “And he stays outside. He’s a potential suspect.”

Inside the small office, Santos flicked on a monitor and sighed. “We have only this footage from the CCTV.” He spun around and replayed the black and white film on the security monitor. “I’ve watched it fifty times. Perhaps you can be of more help.”

Hawke and Lea stared at the grainy image as it flickered to life. “What do they use for a camera?” Hawke asked, squinting at the screen. “A potato?”

Santos gave him a look. “Not a potato, no. A camera.”

“Right.”

“You can see there were three of them, and they wore these stupid Halloween masks for nearly the entire raid.”

Lea stepped forward, searching the fuzzy image for anything that might help her. “Nearly?”

“Yes… what our murderers didn’t know was there is also a camera just across the street on a restaurant. While the museum’s internal CCTV shows us nothing, when they clambered into the van one of them took his mask off just a second too early.”

“Can we see it?” Lea asked.

Santos sighed and turned his round face to her. “What do you think I’m doing now?”

“Sorry.”

The Lieutenant changed the discs and played the back-up CCTV footage from the restaurant. The image was black and white but of a much higher quality this time and it was easy to make out various details as they watched the footage. A handful of pedestrians were walking along the pavement and then the men burst into shot. They were all holding guns and wearing the masks Santos had described a few moments ago. They ran toward a Hyundai and Hawke noticed someone was slumped in the back seat.

They pushed the passers-by roughly out of the way and opened the doors of their van. They clambered into it and that was when one of the men ripped off his mask.

Hawke was stunned when he looked at the CCTV footage and saw the unmistakable face of Dirk Kruger appear from behind the skull mask. At first he thought he was imagining it but then Lea spoke.

“Holy Buggering Moses — is that Dirk Kruger?”

Hawke clenched his jaw and felt his blood pressure rising. “It damn well is.”

His eyes burned two holes in the screen as he watched Kruger jump into the Hyundai and skid off down the street. “Rewind it.”

Santos complied. “Who is this Kruger?”

“He’s a professional shit,” Lea said.

Hawke was speechless. He thought Kruger had died on the Oracle’s Seastead in the same devastating explosion that had killed Ryan. That day had been chaos — his memory of it just a blur of sea spray, gunfire and the noxious smoke of battle as they fought to stop the Oracle fleeing, but at least he thought he had come to terms with it all. This raised it all in his heart and mind. “Tell me I’m not seeing a ghost,” he mumbled.

Lea gripped his arm. “You’re not seeing a ghost.”

Hawke’s eyes widened. “Don’t you realize what this means? If Kruger is alive then maybe Ryan is too.”

Lea shook her head. “That’s a helluva leap, Joe. It was crazy out there that day and you heard what Reaper said about the explosion. Maybe Kruger just got lucky — besides, if Ryan had survived he would have contacted us by now to stop us worrying.”

But Hawke’s optimism was undeterred. “Yes — unless Kruger got to him after the explosion. Maybe he’s holding him hostage with a view to using his life as leverage against us.”

Lea furrowed her brow. “You really cared about him, didn’t you?”

Hawke clenched his jaw and was silent for a moment. “He was under my command — a civilian that I let go into a dangerous military environment with a hostile enemy. I have a responsibility to make sure he’s all right. It’s every commander’s duty. Now there’s a chance, at least and…”

“He’s dead, Joe. You have to accept that. Maria’s gone too, and for all we know Rich isn’t going to make it. Remember what you told me? We owe them and we repay that debt by not stopping, by keeping on and taking out bastards like Kruger. With Rich in a coma it’s up to us to lead ECHO now — it’s up to you.”

“Me? You’re the 2IC.”

Santos stared up at them with a bemused face.

“I’m Second In Command in name only, Joe, and we both know it. Ever since you came on board it’s always been you leading the team when we’re in the field.”

He sighed as he listened to her words. The truth was he felt used-up, especially after the loss of so many team members during the Seastead battle. Their decimated team was no longer a place of camaraderie and banter, but a hollowed-out crew of grieving friends. They had come so far together, only to lose so much at what they had thought was the final hurdle, but was in reality just the beginning of a terrible new nightmare.

Destroying the Oracle and his mad cult of immortals would have been a tall order before their team was annihilated, but now with only a handful of them left they stood no chance. They would be lucky if they could stop a madman like Kruger from pillaging the Lost Treasure of the Incas, never mind the sort of force the mysterious Oracle could muster to guard his desperate secret.

“I don’t know any more…”

“What happened to never give in and never give up?” she asked, rubbing his arm.

“It gave in and gave up.”

“Stop talking shite, ya skanger. What is it you always say — where’s your spirit of adventure?”

“I’ve never said that.”

She rolled her eyes. “Get out of it! It was one of the first things you ever said to me back on that night when we chasing that little toerag over the rooftops of Geneva. Remember?”

“Of course I remember, you silly goose.”

“Silly what now?”

“I said, let’s get our arses into gear and get after that bastard Kruger.”

“That’s more like the Josiah Hawke I know and love.”

“Don’t push it, Donovan.”

She smiled and was pleased to see he was perking up again. “So what now?”

“Well, not only do we know what they’ve got, but now we also know who’s behind it — Dirk Kruger. In my book that gives us plenty more to go on than we usually have, so let’s get cooking.”

She kissed him on the cheek. Hawke was back again.

Santos cleared his throat and gave them both the evil eye. “If it’s fine with you two, I have an investigation to lead. Who did you say was wearing the skull mask?”

“His name’s Dirk Kruger,” Hawke said.

“And what can you tell me about him?”

“He’d rather you caught him than I did.”

They walked away from the museum and met up with Scarlet, Lexi and Reaper who were all sitting in the terrace of a café drinking coffees. Hawke was surprised to see Luis Montoya had joined them and was laughing like a distressed donkey at something Reaper had said.

“So what did Lieutenant Columbo have to say?” Scarlet asked.

“It’s not what he said,” Lea said. “It’s what he showed us. It shocked the shit out of both of us.”

“Dirty old bastard,” Scarlet said. “I’m sure there’s a way to complain about that sort of thing.”

Hawke stared at her. “Really?”

“Sorry. I just cannot stop myself.”

“Said the vicar to the actress,” Lea said.

“Not you too,” Scarlet said.

“It was Kruger,” Hawke said flatly.

Three shocked faces stared back at him.

“That is shocking,” Scarlet said. “Probably even more so than if old Santos really had exposed himself and showed you his old chap.”

“Does this mean Ryan is alive?” Lexi asked.

“Yes.” Hawke said.

“No, not necessarily,” Lea said. “Let’s not get excited. There are a dozen reasons why Kruger could have survived the explosion and Ryan didn’t.”

“No… I know that was him in the back of the Hyundai.”

“Kruger…” Reaper said through gritted teeth. “But I watched him die!”

“Obviously not, Vincent,” Lexi said.

“But what the hell is the little bastard up to with that mask?” Scarlet asked.

“That’s what we need to find out,” Hawke said. “But whatever it is, it’s not going to be good. I think we know enough about him now to know Rich wasn’t kidding when he said he was the luckiest bastard he’d ever met.”

“And the most unpredictable,” Lexi added.

“Who the hell is Kruger?” asked Luis.

Scarlet finished her coffee, lit a cigarette and lowered her sunglasses. “Never you mind.”

“He’s an old enemy of ours,” Hawke said, glancing at Scarlet. “And I think we might need your help in tracking him down.”

“My help?” Luis said, smiling proudly.

“And the assistance of one Alex Reeve, currently resident in Washington DC.”

“Alex?”

He nodded. “Now we know that sack of shit is in Colombia, we can start tracking him but we can’t do that without Alex’s help.”

“Is she up to it?” Lexi asked.

“Of course she’s up to it,” Scarlet said. “She only got a nine mil in the shoulder. She must be bored off her arse.”

“Yes, quite,” Hawke said, looking at all of his friends and seeing the first flicker of hope since the Seastead. “Let’s get Ryan back.”