The Plagues of Pandora

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Smyth jabbed at the handset, putting the call on speaker.

Lauren’s voice was frail, faint. Drake felt spears of empathy and rage pierce his heart as she spoke.

“How are you talking in your condition? Which asshole made you call me? Tell me his name. I’ll—” Smyth’s ire waned when Hayden jabbed his ribs.

“Shut the fuck up. She’s trying to tell us something!”

Lauren coughed and wheezed. Eventually her voice came again, weaker this time. “Remember the calls I made? Before…” More coughing.

Drake thought back to the beginning of this mission. Lauren had been their way in to the Pythians and the only reason they were so close to stopping Pandora’s Box. She had paid for that bravery by getting a face-full of plague. But he couldn’t remember any calls…

“I do,” Smyth said in the most subdued voice Drake had ever heard the man produce. “I was sitting beside you at the time.”

Karin snapped her fingers. “Yes. You called the escort network on the assumption that both Stone and Bell, being what they are, would have used their services elsewhere.”

“We are a tight-knit group. We… we have… to be.”

“You watch each other’s backs,” Smyth said. “I get that.”

“They came back to me. And yes… Stone and Bell they—” Lauren’s voice broke as a series of wracking spasms shook her body. Drake heard either an intern or a nurse begging the woman to sit down, to hang up the phone, to rest, but Lauren croaked at her to be quiet.

Both respect and sadness swelled inside him at the same time. Lauren Fox didn’t have long to live but here she was, still fighting for the team and the world at large.

“You guys still there? I have… have a little cough.”

Hayden smiled with a mixture of severity and sorrow. “We’re right here, Lauren.”

“Both of them… Stone and Bell… separately and together have ordered ladies in the city of Niagara Falls. Canada side.”

Drake felt a jolt of electricity. “Recently?”

“Over a couple of months.”

“What a fucking network!” Smyth cried. “What a brilliant network! Are you sure?”

“They keep very detailed records of high rollers.”

“So what are we waiting for?” Drake was surprised to hear Mai’s voice, strong and sure. “Let’s go get the aerosols and wipe these goddamn Pythians off the map in one go.”

Now he understood, or thought he did. She was anxious for this mission to be over so she could pursue the Grace angle. The best quality he could glean from that was her upstanding faith that everything would end well.

“Let’s go save Lauren too,” he said. “And bring an antidote back to her.”

“Fuck that,” Smyth said. “We’re taking her with us. I’ll carry her all the way if I have to.”

Nobody questioned him. Nobody thought about gloating in Stone’s face. No time was lost. The two teams, SPEAR and Gold, were professionals to the end and prepared to move out.

“You might want to call the Razor’s Edge guys,” Drake said to Kinimaka. “They deserve to be in on the end of this. And the help sure won’t go amiss.”

The big Hawaiian nodded and tapped his phone. Hayden was already talking to Secretary Price in an effort to smooth their entry as Crouch informed Armand Argento at Interpol. Drake knew why. Despite Argento’s distance it was sometimes crucial what such deeply rooted agencies could accomplish.

Alicia looked around at all the activity and gave Drake a mixed smile. “God help Niagara Falls.”

“It’s what we’re trained for.”

“Yeah, I know. But with all our firepower and their army we’re gonna destroy the place.”

“We’ll find a way, Alicia. We always do. In any case won’t you be mega-happy we’re moving on? Maybe you’ll even get to see Beauregard again.”

Alicia’s expected witticism didn’t come. Instead she eyed Drake very closely. “Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?”

Drake effected an idiotic grin. “After all we’ve been through together why would I suddenly feel jealous?”

“Dunno. Maybe because I’m me and you’re human?”

“Bollocks. You got me.”

“It sure looks that way.” Alicia flounced off, a satisfied smile on her face.

Drake turned a little wearily toward Mai. The Japanese woman sent him a troubled grimace but made no move to come over. In the end it was Dahl who appeared at his left elbow.

“Quite a team, huh?”

Drake stared around at the bustle of activity. Hayden and Kinimaka on their cells, gaining ground with every word; Karin and Komodo, Yorgi and Smyth trying to ward off their anxieties about Lauren and the aerosols by familiarizing themselves with Niagara Falls; Crouch’s team joining in. A jet was ordered to be made ready in a few hours, weapons prearranged, authorities battled with. The problem was, no matter the severity of the threat or the reputation of the team involved, there was always at least one man in authority looking to make a name for himself.

Drake nodded slowly. “It sure is, my friend. I can’t think of a better one I’d rather be going into battle with.”

“Aerosols. Antidote. Pythians. Dudley.” Dahl ticked the boxes with his fingers. “In that order.”

“And then that pint?” Drake stared into the middle-distance.

“Sure. We’ll set the world to rights.”

“Someone needs to.”

“Correct. The way it’s going our children or our children’s children are heading for…” He tailed off, unable to finish the sentence. “Y’know, Drake. There’s one thing people never tell you about having kids. One thing you can never truly understand until you’re a parent. You never stop worrying. Not for a second.”

“They’ll be fine, mate.”

“Oh, I can sure tell you’re not a parent, Drake. I don’t simply mean worrying now. Or next week or over the next few years. I mean ever. With such evil in the world, I even worry that my daughters will experience some terrible anguish over their sons or daughters.”

Drake looked into the bigger picture, the unending unease. It only reminded him that Alyson had died with their unborn child still growing inside her.

“Some people would still like to have the chance,” he said softly.

Dahl flinched a little, as if realizing what he’d said. For a second both men stared at nothing, shoulders together, soldiers together, envisaging all that they fought for.

Then Drake turned away. “C’mon dickhead, let’s go grab some guns and maybe a bacon sarni.”

Dahl shoved Drake in the back. “Typical Yorkshireman. Always thinking about food. No doubt they sell fish and chips wrapped in newspaper in Niagara Falls.”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure how much of Niagara Falls is gonna be left after we’re done taking down the Pythians.”