Thunder God

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Hawke was watching the sun set over Kowloon Bay when Lea stepped out onto the balcony with two glasses of chilled vodka. Tonight should have been about celebrating but instead he felt like a total failure. He had led a mission where Olivia Hart, Sophie Durand and Lexi Zhang were killed.

“How’s Ryan?” Hawke asked.

Lea handed him a vodka and turned to look over her shoulder. She was looking back into the room where various people were mingling and fighting for conversation time with Jason Lao, Sir Richard Eden or Frank McShain, who seemed especially pleased with himself thanks to the retrieval of the Tesla device and its delivery back into the safe hands of the US military. But as she looked, she did it as if she were looking for Ryan, but it was a token gesture. They both knew Ryan wasn’t at the party. He hadn’t come out of his hotel room since their return to Hong Kong.

“I don’t know… This has hit him pretty hard, Joe.”

Hawke bit his lip. “I know. Who can blame him? He isn’t used to losing people around him — not in this way, at least. And it’s my fault.”

“Joe… you can’t blame yourself for Sophie’s death.”

Hawke downed his vodka and stared at her. “Why not? Maybe as far as Lexi is concerned, but not the others. I was their commander. I was leading the mission. It was my choice to send Sophie out into the field, and it was my choice to bring Olivia into this nightmare.”

“Sure, I know, but you didn’t pull the trigger, Joe. Sheng’s goons killed Olivia, and the damned Lotus Girl killed Sophie.”

Hawke was silent for a long time. Below, the streets of Hong Kong buzzed and rattled their way into another neon night. Above, the first new stars of the evening were appearing in the darkening city sky. Even to Joe Hawke the romance of the moment was obvious — if it weren’t for the loss and anger he felt over the deaths of his friends.

“I shouldn’t be here,” he said quietly.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m just not up to it anymore. I’m making too many mistakes.”

“Now you’re just being an eejit.”

Hawke shook his head and raised the glass to his lips before remembering it was empty all over again. “I don’t think so. Too many details are getting past me, Lea. I lost three good people in the last few hours…”

Sir Richard Eden broke off his conversation with Jason Lao and joined them on the balcony.

“It’s bad news, I’m afraid.”

Hawke sighed. “The vodka’s run out?”

Eden made no reply to the half-joke, but continued. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s about Lexi Zhang.”

Hawke lifted his head and stared at Eden. “What is it?”

“She’s not dead.”

Hawke was incredulous. “She survived?”

Eden nodded.

“But how? I saw her die just a couple of days ago — consumed by fire and then she fell into the pit with the map.”

“We don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that a woman strongly matching her appearance boarded a private jet in Xian. She was identified by one of my contacts a few hours ago. The plane she boarded was a private charter going to Berlin.”

Hawke and Lea shared a glance. Hawke had a very bad feeling about what was coming next. “And?”

“And she wasn’t alone. She was with the same Russian who delivered the Tesla device into Tokyo Bay. It’s pretty clear she’s done some kind of deal and sold him the map.”

Hawke’s mind spun with the mixture of the bad news and the vodka. Not only had he led good friends to their deaths, but now he’d let himself get betrayed by Lexi Zhang in the process. She had humiliated him, and if that were not bad enough, she had handed the most precious power in the world to an unknown Russian who was happy to drown everyone in Tokyo for a few million dollars.

Eden returned inside where Hawke watched him explaining the news to members of the various concerned governments.

“She betrayed me!” he said, still not really believing what he had heard.

Lea scowled at the thought. “Don’t you worry about Lexi Arsing Dragonfly — her arse is mine. Believe me.”

“But… how?”

“We’ll track her down and ask her!” Lea said, her voice suddenly full of optimism. “What a great excuse to tramp all over the world shooting at things, and then we get to have our revenge on the Dung Beetle or whatever she calls herself.”

“It’s not as simple as that, Lea. Everything’s spinning out of control.”

“What are you talking about? What do you always say about not losing your spirit of adventure — so where’s yours, ya loser?”

Hawke poured more vodka and sank another shot. “Before she died, Hart told me that my wife was the target of the shooting in Hanoi, and not me. It’s blown my world apart, Lea.”

Lea was silent for a moment. “I don’t know what to say… I’m so sorry, Joe.”

“And I know you and bloody Cairo are keeping something from me as well — no — don’t interrupt or bother to deny it. I don’t think I can find it in me to go forward with any of this.” He glanced inside where Scarlet Sloane was umpiring an arm-wrestling contest between Reaper and Karlsson.

“Listen, Joe. Keep it together, all right? We can find Lexi Zhang and recover the map — you know we can! As for what the Commodore told you — I’ll help you in any way I can to find out who’s behind your wife’s murder, you know I will.”

Hawke started to reply when his phone buzzed. He looked down at the words on the screen and could hardly believe he was reading them.

“What is it?” Lea asked.

“It’s Nightingale…” Hawke’s face went pale.

“What’s the matter, Joe?”

“She says she’s being kidnapped. They’ve got her.”

“Oh my God! Who’s got her, Joe?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe it’s just a joke?”

“Never. Not Nightingale…” His words trailed away and he handed her the phone. On the screen was a blurred picture of a man approaching Nightingale. He was holding a knife. “She says she was hiding in her wardrobe and writing to me from there. She must have had just enough time to send this text and picture before they took her.”

Lea handed him back the phone. “I’ll do whatever you want me to, Joe. You know that.”

“I don’t know what to do… I’m losing it.” He stared at the tiny screen with uncomprehending eyes. First Dragonfly, now this blurred figure, the knife… it made no sense.

“You have to go to her.”

“I don’t even know her name, Lea! I don’t know where she lives! If I wanted to track someone like her down I’d ask… well, her.”

“We can do this, Joe. I’ll talk to Richard. You helped him, so he’ll help you, and believe me, that really means something. He has serious contacts all over the world.”

Hawke looked out over the bay, but his focus was somewhere in the middle distance, in that place he stared at with sad eyes when his thoughts were far away. Any hopes of glory he had arrogantly harbored at the start of all of this were smashed to pieces now.

Yes, he had killed Sheng and ended the threat he was posing to the world, and Scarlet had taken out the Lotus as well, but Olivia Hart and Sophie Durand were both dead — killed on his watch, and Lexi Zhang, the Dragonfly from his deep past had just betrayed him in royal fashion and totally humiliated him in front of Lea and Sir Richard Eden. Now, one of his oldest friends was in real trouble and he didn’t have any idea how to help her. All he had to go on was a few lines of text and a blurred picture of a madman with a knife, sent to him from the other side of the planet.

Out there, across the bay, the Hong Kong night drew in around Joe Hawke. It matched the darkness now drawing across his mind as so many thoughts and emotions struggled for supremacy of his soul. He didn’t know what to do next, but whatever it was, he knew he had to do it now.