Nobody’s Hero (Ben Koenig #2)

Chapter 124

Koenig woke quicker this time. Surer of his surroundings. The torniquet was back on his right leg. Fresh blood covered his shins and ankles. The deck was wet with it. Like he was sitting in a puddle. Tas had allowed the blood to flow, then tightened the belt again. Good wound management. The pain was horrific, but better than when he’d passed out. Even the memory was nauseating.

Tas was back at the stern. In complete control. Koenig wanted to change that. Try to, anyway.

‘How long do you have left, Jakob?’ he asked.

Tas checked his watch. ‘Soon,’ he said.

‘Not we , you. You’re dying, right?’

He offered a wan smile. ‘Is it that obvious?’

‘You’re paler than a snail’s foot, you’re coughing like a barking dog, and I can see the fentanyl patch on your arm. And unless this boat has a trapdoor, you’re about to go down with your ship.’

‘You see a lot, Mr Koenig.’

‘Looking is all I have right now,’ Koenig said, pointing at his leg. ‘You’re terminally ill. It’s why Margaret chose you for this job. Like M only choosing orphans for the Double-0 programme. Less to lose.’

‘It’s why I volunteered for this job,’ he said. ‘I have stage-four stomach cancer. I also have a young family. Now my wife won’t have to make difficult decisions about schools and healthcare after I’ve died.’

‘You know Margaret faked her cancer, right?’ Koenig said. ‘She was pretending to have cancer the same way you’ve no doubt been pretending you don’t have cancer. She used you, Jakob.’

Tas frowned. ‘You’re lying,’ he said.

‘Am I? You look like you need a five-pint blood transfusion. She looked like she needed a spa day. Your cough sounds like a death rattle. She didn’t even have one. But mainly I know she didn’t have cancer because she told me. It was part of her cover. Made it acceptable for her to have extended time off.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ he said. ‘Miss Wexmore is a principled woman.’

‘ Was a principled woman. She’s dead.’

Tas pushed himself off the stern. Picked up his punch-dagger.

‘Relax, Jakob,’ Koenig said. ‘I didn’t kill her.’

‘How?’

‘She stuck something very sharp into something very soft.’

‘She killed herself? Why?’

‘The same reason she killed Stillwell Hobbs,’ Koenig said. ‘To protect the plan.’

‘When?’

Koenig gestured towards the sky. ‘Up there, not two hours ago. Right after we’d figured out she was the organ grinder and you were the monkey. She didn’t want to give up anything.’ He took a silent moment. ‘Which is ironic considering we now know everything.’

‘Everything?’

‘Almost. We know she did this to avenge her daughter’s death. We know she planned to open Pandora’s box. We know she planned to trigger a mass migration event by attacking a body of water. “ Bad water.” Wasn’t that what Konstantin said to you before you met with Stillwell Hobbs?’

Tas stared into space. ‘The server was his daughter?’

Koenig nodded.

Tas shook his head in admiration. He whistled. ‘I didn’t like Hobbs, but he came highly recommended. I’m told his daughter is even worse. I hope you didn’t annoy her. She isn’t the kind of person you want holding a grudge.’

‘No, I think she really likes me,’ Koenig said.

Tas smiled. ‘I think that is a small lie?’

Koenig pinched his fingers together. ‘A teeny-tiny one. However, Bess Carlyle told Margaret a whopper.’

‘A whop . . . I’m not familiar—’

‘A lie, Jakob. A big one. Margaret told you certain people had to die to maximise the impact of the mass migration.’

Tas nodded. ‘Miss Wexmore said it would be like the controlled demolition of a skyscraper. A substantial explosion followed by a series of coordinated precision explosions. Bring the skyscraper down exactly where you want it.’

‘This boat is the substantial explosion?’

Tas nodded.

‘And the people Hobbs and Nash killed were the precision explosions?’

Tas nodded again.

Koenig shook his head. ‘Wrong. Carlyle put those people into the plan for one reason, and one reason only: to act as a ticking clock. The same way rock bands play the same preshow music over the PA so the stage crew know how close they are to curtain up. Carlyle sacrificed nineteen people so she’d know how close we were to the trigger event. So maybe you’re not as in control as you thought.’

‘I’m where I need to be, when I need to be, and the people trying to stop me are where they need to be.’

‘Your trail? The one so obvious even the stupidest federal agents could follow it? That bullshit with the phones in New Silloth. The bodies you left in the paint warehouse. Giving the guy at the marina the keys to your Lincoln Navigator. Making everyone think the Hoover Dam is the target.’

Tas patted his jacket. ‘If they hadn’t found me, I would have made an anonymous call.’

‘We saw through it, Jakob. We saw through everything. Whatever you think is about to happen isn’t .’

‘Is that so?’

‘It’s over. They plan to leave you out here until you turn into air-dried meat.’

Tas laughed. A big belly buster. Probably hurt like a bitch given what else was going on down there. But he laughed anyway. ‘Miss Wexmore said you were funny. But I thought she meant quick or witty.’ He stopped laughing, got all serious. ‘I didn’t think she meant like a clown. Because if it is all over like you claim, Mr Koenig, why the hell did you jump out of the Gulfstream? Why did Miss Carlyle? Why are you bleeding all over my deck?’

Koenig didn’t have an answer. He wished he did. They fell into an uneasy silence. Watched an osprey silhouette above them, waiting for an unwary green sunfish to get too close to the surface. It obviously hadn’t gotten the memo about flights being grounded.

Koenig wondered what Smerconish was doing. Was he watching them? Were there drones in the air right now? F-35s? Had Draper managed to get hold of him? Would it make any difference if she had? He thought not. Smerconish would listen to her as a courtesy, but ultimately dismiss her misgivings. Or maybe he’d even think she was lying. An ill-advised attempt to save her prize asset. He imagined Smerconish found it difficult to trust anyone. When you dealt in lies, that was all you saw. And there’d been far too many recently. Too many secrets. Too many people telling lies and too many people keeping secrets. Draper and Smerconish. Margaret and Carlyle. Secrets and lies. As ridiculous as it sounded, Tas was the only person Koenig could trust right now. He was the only one without a hidden agenda. Which made Koenig think: Why not just ask him?

‘OK,’ Koenig said. ‘I get it. You’ve had some setbacks, admittedly mainly caused by me, but you claim you’re exactly where you want to be. In a boat on Lake Mead with the authorities believing you plan to destroy the Hoover Dam. I don’t think it’s possible, but the idiots in charge won’t take the risk. They’ll blow you out of the water before you get anywhere near it. I think you know this.’

‘You have a point?’

‘More of an observation. Why the grandstanding? Why not do whatever it is you plan to do and get it over with? Why risk the SEALs and the F-35s? When you catch James Bond, you don’t gloat. You don’t stick him in an overcomplicated death trap, then walk off like it’s a done deal. You shoot him in the head, and you keep shooting until there are no more bullets in your gun.’

Tas reached into his jacket, pulled out a cigar case. He turned it upside down and tapped the end. A red-brown stogie slid out. It was eight inches long and thicker than his thumb. Looked like a double corona. He pinched the end, then sliced it off with his punch-dagger. Stuck it in his mouth, then lit a Zippo under it. He sucked until the end glowed brighter than the heart of a furnace, then offered Koenig one.

Koenig shook his head.

Tas took a deep draw. Held it, then blew out a thick blue-grey plume of smoke. He sighed in pleasure, coughed, then went silent. Seemed to be enjoying the cigar and the peace of the moment. ‘I’m no James Bond villain, Mr Koenig,’ he said. ‘But it’s funny you used a movie reference.’

‘It was? Why?’

‘Because I was about to use one myself,’ he said. ‘Tell me, have you ever seen Die Hard ?’