The Orpheus Legacy

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Alex didn’t know how long she had been crying, but it felt like forever. When the guards had collected her from her cell she knew where she was going, and it wasn’t the chilled-out cocktail lounge atmosphere of Colonel Blanchard’s carpeted corner office.

The journey seemed to take forever as they wheeled her through the maze that was Tartarus, and when they finally arrived at their destination, she was surprised to see the base commander standing in the corridor with his arms crossed. “Alex Reeve, nice to see you again.”

“Drop dead.”

“Ouch, that’s not a nice way to talk to someone. Especially someone who has power of life and death over you. You ready to talk?”

“I’ll never testify against my father because he has done nothing wrong!”

“We talked about this in my office, remember?”

She kept silent.

“My office is a much nicer environment than Mr Mahoe’s office.”

More silence.

The commander looked at the guards. “Awaken the beast.”

One of the guards stepped up to the large steel door. He tapped in a keycode and waited. A deep clunk was followed by the door swinging open.

Mr Mahoe turned out to be a Hawaiian man, approximately the same size as your average family SUV. Covered in tattoos from head to toe, she had a hard job putting his face together in her mind. Green and black ink twirled and snaked up his neck and over his solid, meaty face. She saw inked waves, palms, sharks, feathers and scowling gods.

But no human face.

The guards moved into a second adjoining room and appeared with a manacled prisoner. The chained man took one look at Mr Mahoe and started to beg for his life. “No! Please!”

“Put him on the table.” Mr Mahoe’s voice was low, rounded and almost fruity. In no particular hurry, he picked up a pair of stun gloves and slipping his massive shovel-like hands into them. “And strap him down. They start to struggle when things get real.”

The two soldiers obeyed the giant and carried the man over to the table. They strapped his ankles and arms down on the gurney and stepped away from him.

Blanchard said, “DOD says he has to stay alive.”

“Relax.” Mr Mahoe gave them a wide, beaming smile full of teeth. “I know what I’m doing. I can make someone wish they were dead without actually delivering the result.”

Blanchard looked at Mr Mahoe with a mix of fear and respect. “Just make sure you do.”

Mr Mahoe gave a nod, his tattooed double-chin creasing up as he did so, and Blanchard turned to Alex. “This man gave state secrets away to the Russians. Fancy that.”

Alex Reeve looked at the base commander with disgust. “I know why you’re doing this.”

“You do, huh?”

“You show me this nightmare, then I start talking, or I’m next.”

He nodded, but no smile. “This is an ugly business, Miss Reeve. You start giving me information about your father’s involvement with the foreign terrorist group known as ECHO, or I’ll start giving you some real problems.”

“They are not a terror group.”

“The President of the United States says otherwise, and so does the entire machinery of the US military-industrial complex. You’re on the outside now, and it’s cold out there, right? If you give me what I want, then you can come back inside.”

“Go to hell.”

He turned to her, a dead, fiendish smirk playing on his lips. “Go to hell? Didn’t you know we’re already there? This is Tartarus, Alex. This is the end of the world. No one here gets out alive and no one hears your screams.” He leaned in closer and she smelt the coffee and stale tobacco on his breath. “There is no hope here, Alex. You give me what I want, or I will deliver you to the heart of hell itself.”

“You seem at home here.”

“Yes. Personally, it’s rather grown on me.”

“I’m glad you like the place so much. When my father is exonerated, you’re going to be spending the rest of your life here — but as a prisoner, not the base commander.”

He laughed. “Your father’s never getting out of here. He’s even more screwed than you are. Your life has completely changed. Yours and his. You both need to get used to it. The only way you can avoid total hell is by giving me what I want, and that means information my superiors can use to convict your father of treason.”

As if on cue, Mr Mahoe used the stun gloves and made the terrified, sweating man scream until his voice broke. Alex looked away in revulsion, wrapping her arms around her body and resting her chin on her shoulder. “This is an abomination.”

The commander nodded at the two guards. They stepped forward, one grabbing her and the other wrenching her head back around, forcing her to watch the torture.

“No skipping the nasty bits, Alex,” the commander said. “Mr Mahoe doesn’t like to be ignored when he’s performing his art.”

“You’re a psycho, Blanchard.”

“I’m a loyal patriot and you are a traitor who consorts with foreign terror organizations.”

Mr Mahoe turned now and studied the tray of torture instruments. Raising his right hand to his mouth, he gently tapped his lips with his thumb as he carefully mulled the decision over in his mind. Eventually, he opted for a pair of nylon jaw pliers.

Blanchard winced. “As much as I respect him, he’s no dentist.” Turning casually to Alex, he gave a look of mock-sympathy for the tortured man. “He has no finesse. Just brute force and a terrible bedside manner.”

“Stop this, Blanchard!”

His voice grew cold and serious. “You know how to stop it.”

Mr Mahoe leaned in over the man, obscuring him from view as he brought his arms up and plunged the pliers into his mouth.

Alex tried to look away, but the soldiers gripped her head. When she closed her eyes, one of them pulled them roughly open and screamed at her to look.

“Blanchard!” she yelled. “Stop this!”

The man’s bloodcurdling screams were muffled and choked by the presence of Mr Mahoe’s chubby hands deep inside his mouth. A wet, crunching sound was followed by a hoarse scream of pain and fear as Mr Mahoe turned and waved the pliers, and the bloody tooth they gripped, at Blanchard.

“This is insane.”

“You can stop the insanity anytime you like.”

“I’ll never betray my father.”

He nodded and watched as Mr Mahoe sloppily wiped the blood from the man’s chin and dumped the rag down beside the torture tools. “In that case, when was the last time you had a dental check-up? I think you’re overdue.”

Jessica Clark looked down at her sick son and began praying. The holy words fell from her trembling lips like leaves in the fall, carried on the wind and with no control over where they would land. She might be a fearless, lethal assassin, but she was also a mother. Seeing her son like this was her kryptonite.

“I can’t breathe, mom.”

His voice was weaker now, and she knew he was starting to give up.

“Just hang in there, Matty. We almost have what we need to get you your operation and buy a new life. It’s just days now, baby. Hang on for me.”

No words, but that smile.

She choked back the tears and squeezed his hand.

But it was just days, she told herself.

She had already delivered a good chunk of the contract by eliminating three of the ECHO team, and the remaining members had zero chance of survival. She was just too deadly. The next one on her list would already be dead if Mrs Kowalczyk hadn’t called her with an urgent message about her son’s failing health.

She had raced home on a private jet and spent the last few days at his bedside, increasing the dose of his prescription medicine and praying. It had worked and he was hanging in there, but despite her belief in god, she was starting to believe his quality of life was a cruel testament to a godless universe.

She turned to her neighbour and gave her a desperate smile. “He’s all right for now, Mrs Kowalczyk. I’ll be back in a few days. I have a job to finish. If you could just…”

“I will.”

“I owe you so much. I should be coming into some money soon. I mean real money. I’m going to give you some and I don’t want you to refuse.”

“Don’t talk crazy. Your son needs help and I’m a friend who’s right next door.”

The young woman smiled, but she could feel herself changing. Jessica Clarke was fading away again, and she was starting to think like Agent Cougar. Chief among those thoughts was finding the ECHO team.

But they had disappeared again.

Must have a contact on the inside.

Someone’s helping them.

No one on her side.

Maybe Ezra Haven at Titanfort?

She passed a loving hand over her son’s forehead, beading with sweat. “I love you, Matty.”

“I love you too, mom.”

“But I have to go now. Last time, I promise, baby.”

“I know.”

“Mrs Kowalczyk will look after you day and night.”

“I know.”

She got to her feet and zipped up her leather jacket. Picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Last seen in Santorini where an Osprey just got winged, no survivors, and there was chatter pointing to a major exchange of fire between terrorists and local special ops in Istanbul.

She took one last look at her son, smiled, and stepped outside her apartment.

Agent Cougar had a job to do, and this time she would finish it.