The Sword of Fire

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Lund had pulled through, and now the ECHO Gulfstream was approaching Llanbedr Airport from the south. Lea followed their descent through the small portside window, watching as they punched through the layers of low, gray cloud and eventually emerged in the stormy world beneath them. Looking over the wing she saw the Irish Sea, twisting and turning in the heaving swells caused by the rainstorm. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky and plunged into the sea, followed by the deep animal roar of thunder.

Somewhere over all that water, somewhere through the storm, was the place she had once called her home, but turning back into the small, private jet she realized that had all changed now. Scarlet was talking quietly to her brother in a hushed phone call, Danny Devlin was cheating Ryan out of a few quid in a poker game, Kim was reading the front pages of newspapers now dominated by the news of the attack in Amsterdam; Vincent Reno was sending a text message to his twin sons.

And Joe Hawke was sleeping, arms crossed over his chest, eyes firmly shut against the world.

Wherever these people went was her home now.

Yes, ECHO was her family, and Hawke was something even more than that. She had thought many times about whether or not they would take the next step together and marry, but their lives were so hectic and filled with danger it seemed almost self-indulgent. What if something happened to one of them? She knew only too well what the death of his first wife had done to him. Maybe he had been scared away from marriage forever. She had thought about asking him to marry her, but that just wasn’t her. That was something Cairo Sloane would do, not the girl from Galway that she saw when she looked in the mirror.

But if he asked her she would say yes in a heartbeat.

“Ready for the off?”

Startled out of her thoughts, she looked up to see Hawke smiling at her. He had just woken up and looked tired but up for the challenge ahead.

“We’ve stopped?” she asked. She had been staring out of the window and not even noticed they had parked up and the door was open.

“Yes,” Scarlet said. “So get off your arse, you lazy cow. We have a magical giant-slaying sword to find.”

Lea flipped Scarlet the bird, got out of her seat and followed Hawke down the compact airstair and onto the soaking wet tarmac.

The airport was located inside Snowdonia National Park and was originally opened in World War Two as part of the No. 12 Group of RAF Fighter Command. It was small and thanks once again to Magnus Lund, getting out to the car park was fast and easy. Also thanks to the reclusive Dane was the chunky Toyota Highlander sitting at the end of the carpark in the pouring rain.

Hawke blipped the locks and after putting their bags and weapons in the back they all piled inside and got out of the wet. The former SBS man fired the engine up and cranked the heaters to full blast as he drove the enormous SUV out of the carpark and headed south along the coast.

They turned inland at Barmouth and followed the estuary west, passing through Bontddu and the ancient market town of Dolgellau. Ryan pointed out that long before the Romans, this was the land of the notoriously hardy Ordovices, one of the last Celtic tribes to hold out against the Roman invaders.

Scarlet yawned and closed her eyes. “Thanks for that, boy. I needed something to help me get to sleep.”

Steering through a labyrinth of narrow roads and lanes, some almost turned into tunnels by the canopies of overhanging oaks and ashes, Hawke made good progress in the rainstorm. He followed the road south for a moment before it twisted around to the west and brought them along the south side of the mountain range.

They were on a straight road now, lined with ancient dry stone walls and deep in a valley between two impressive mountains. Cadair Idris was on their right — its peak was obscured by the low-hanging rain clouds, and ahead of them they could just make out Llyn Mwyngil, a large lake also known as Tal-y-llyn. Carved by glaciers millions of years ago, there was a route leading up to the peak of the mountain from its shores, but the ECHO team didn’t have time for sight-seeing.

Hawke turned a hard right at Abergynolwyn and drove the SUV on the final leg, dropping down to third as he crossed the Cader River on a tiny bridge and pushed the SUV up the western slopes of the mountian.

“No sign of Zito,” Kim said from the back.

“Plenty of places around here for a rat like that to hide,” said Devlin.

Hawke pulled the Highlander up on the side of the track and killed the engine. “I think this is about as far as we can go in this thing. We’re on foot from now on.”

Lea emerged from the SUV, shivered and pulled up the collars on her jacket. The others followed and Hawke padded around to the back. He opened the rear door, checked his weapon and then slung his bag of tricks over his shoulder. Scarlet did the same, followed by the others as they each got tooled up ready for the search ahead: guns, flashlights, rope, and anything else they could fit in.

Ryan sniffed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “We still have time to get to the peak before nightfall and fulfil the legend.”

“What do you expect to see?” Kim asked,

“Fuck knows,” he said bluntly. “I want a fag.”

“Glad you’re on board, Ryan,” Kim said sarcastically.

“Here.” Scarlet tossed him one through the rain.

They followed the track which led up to the peak but its visibility was poor due to the conditions. Like everyone else, Lea scanned as far as the weather would let her for any signs of Giancarlo Zito and his men, but the mountainside was theirs.

“Not much longer to the peak,” Ryan said from the back. “His voice was hollowed out by the wind and rain.

“Thank all the fucks for that,” Scarlet said. “We have a private beach house in the Caribbean and we’re getting our faces blasted off by a howling gale in Snowdonia.”

“We have a wrecked headquarters in the Caribbean,” Lea corrected her.

“Still better than this.”

“Focus on the job,” Hawke called out form the front. “Like I said — we’re not on holiday.”

Lea looked back at the Highlander but it was now completely gone, lost inside the veil of mist and drizzle covering everything in the valley.

“Looks like we’re in the location that Kloos specified,” Ryan said.

They stopped hiking and lowered their bags to the ground. It was bleak. The wind was howling and the fog grew thicker with each minute.

“And we actually have to spend the night here?” Scarlet said.

“That’s what Kloos said,” said Lea. “He was very clear about how we had to follow the legend. Whoever spends the night on the top of Cadair Idris becomes either a poet or a madman.”

“Sounds like a load of bollocks to me,” said Scarlet.

“There’s a reason why the manuscript specified this particular cairn,” Hawke said. “It must have something to do with the legend, so we’re going to spend the night here and see what happens.”

Kim looked around at the gloom and frowned. “At least we won’t get bothered by anyone, that’s for damn sure.”

“Unless Zito turns up,” Reaper said, and started to set up the first tent. “But that’s only going to happen if he breaks Kloos.”

They followed his lead and put up the two four-man tents on the leeward side of the peak, tucked in out of the wind and rain. Hawke and Lea shared their tent with Reaper and Devlin, while Scarlet shared hers with Ryan and Kim, and when they were dry they gathered in Hawke’s tent and shared out some food. Devlin produced a bottle of whisky and they passed it around.

After eating, they settled down and got ready for a long night, but then in the new quiet, a slightly drunk Devlin started speaking. “So,” he said casually. “There were three men trying to join the SAS. One from the Grenadier Guards, one from the Paras and one from the Royal Marines…”

Lea groaned. “Come on, Danny.”

“Heard it anyway,” Scarlet said. “It’s shit.”

Hawke said nothing, and Devlin continued, unmoved. “They’re on their last test. The Guardsman goes in and the SAS sergeant gives him a revolver with six rounds and tells him his wife his upstairs. He has to go and kill her if he wants to get in the regiment.”

“We’ve all heard it before, mon ami,” Reaper said.

“A minute later the Guard comes downstairs and says that he just couldn’t do it. He loved his wife too much. So then they ask the Para to do the same thing, and sure enough a minute later he comes back down with the revolver and says he can’t do it either. He just loves his wife too much.”

Lea glanced at Hawke and then back to Devlin. “Leave it, Danny.” Her voice was tense and anxious.

Hawke said nothing, but just stared at the Irishman from across the room.

“And then the Commando takes the gun and goes upstairs. They all hear him fire the weapon — all six rounds. A few moments later the Commando comes back downstairs, all red in the face and worked up and he says ‘You fuckin’ assholes coulda told me they were blanks — I had to strangle the bitch!”

Without a word, Hawke lashed out and pinned Devlin to the ground by his throat. He had respect for the Irish Ranger Wing but they were no match for a former RM Commando and SBS man. If he wanted to he could have killed him on the spot. The Irishman would have been unable to offer any real resistance and Hawke wouldn’t have broken a sweat.

The tent was tense as everyone waited for Hawke to do whatever he was going to do next, but then he pushed the Irishman away with a powerful arm and stormed out of the tent into the storm.

“You total fuckin’ eejit, Danny! I told you Joe’s wife got killed, what the hell were you thinking?”

“It was just a joke, for fuck’s sake!”

“You’re just a joke,” Kim said with disgust. “And put that damned bottle down. You’re holding onto it like it’s a life jacket.”

Devlin looked at the Frenchman for support. “You were in the Foreign Legion, man. A joke’s a joke, right?”

“Some things are not funny, mon ami,” Reaper said gruffly. “Making jokes about a man killing his wife when his wife was murdered are one of those things. I am surprised you could be so… crass — is that the right word?”

Kim nodded. “It is, Vincent.”

Reaper looked at her and smiled. “It’s Reaper if we’re on a mission. I’m just saying.”

Scarlet fixed Devlin in the eye. “Are you a professional arsehole or just an enthusiastic amateur?”

“Now that’s just rude, Scarlet.”

Her face grew colder. “I took an instant dislike to you, you know.”

“Why?”

“Just to save time, I think.”

“Ouch,” Devlin said, swigging from the bottle. “You’re as sharp as an ice pick.”

“You’re going to apologzie to Joe,” Lea said flatly.

“I am not.”

“You are, Danny,” Lea said, moving to the entrance. “What you did was totally out of order.”

Before waiting for a response she pushed out into the night in search of Hawke, scanning the horizon for the Englishman. The first thing she noticed was that the storm had blown itself out. She had read that the weather moved fast in this part of the country, and it was no joke. The clouds were blowing away to the east and revealed a sparkling grove of stars in the black sky.

Standing on the next rise, a few hundred meters to the west on another large cairn was Joe Hawke. He was perched on top of an uneven block of granite with his hands in his pockets and staring up at the sky.

As Hawke looked up at the constellations he was dimly aware of someone making their way over the rocks toward him. He turned to see Lea Donovan approaching him. She stood beside him and pushed her arm through his arm.

“He’s a fool, Joe.”

“Forget about it.”

“Me and Danny go way back and I’d trust him all the way but he can push things too far.”

“He’s making a play for you.”

She looked shocked. “He is not.”

He knew she wanted to talk about it but his mind was elsewhere. The Danny Devlins of this world were nothing to worry about when you were up against the likes of the Oracle and his secret cult.

In his right pocket, he turned over the small box that contained the engagement ring he had bought back in Washington. It never seemed to be the right moment to ask her. Something always came up and kicked it along the track. “Come on,” he said at last. “We need to get some sleep if we’re going to wake up before dawn and find out what the big surprise is.”