The Phoenix Variant: The Fifth Column 3 (12 page)

Damien helped Jay through the corridor, passing several suites and a library. They reached a sign that indicated elevators around the next corner. He just hoped the soldiers hadn’t beaten them to it. He heard voices as they approached. He held Jay back. Jay obviously hadn’t heard because he was annoyed by the sudden halt. Damien listened closer and realized there was some kind of authority—possibly police—steering guests and staff down to the lobby.

‘It’s an evacuation,’ Damien said quietly.

‘For what?’ Jay grunted.

Damien shook his head: he didn’t know. But the officers would be covering the elevator and stairs.

‘We have to go through them,’ Jay said.

‘Or with them,’ Damien said. ‘But first—’

Damien pulled Jay back so they wouldn’t risk being heard. Then decided to go even farther back given what he had in mind.

‘We have to take the arrow out.’ Damien pulled the tablecloth from a nearby display table.

Jay knew what was coming and unbuttoned his rented tuxedo. ‘Probably can’t return these now anyway,’ he said.

Damien looked up to see blood staining one entire side of Jay’s shirt. He held the back of the arrow firmly and snapped it as precisely as he could. It came away mostly clean. He picked off the frayed edges.

‘When you’re ready,’ Damien said.

Jay held the arrow just under the iron arrowhead. ‘Fuck you, arrow,’ he muttered. ‘Why can’t Kevlar stop arrows?’

Damien didn’t bother answering—Jay knew the answer. Their covert vests were designed for small caliber rounds, not bladed weapons. That would require a completely different type of armor, one that wouldn’t fit under a tuxedo.

Jay grunted and pulled the arrow forward through his shoulder. Damien could see him gritting his teeth, doing his best to not scream. He tossed the shaft across the hall in disgust. Damien helped Jay take his tuxedo jacket off and then wrapped the tablecloth under his arm and over his shoulder, pulling and tying it as firmly as possible. He took his own belt off and threaded it over the tablecloth, then picked up Jay’s discarded arrow and used the arrow point to create a new notch in the belt. He fastened the belt tightly over the tablecloth, using the fresh notch. That would have to do for now.

Jay pulled on his jacket and buttoned it over the belt. Damien checked him over. No sign of blood or injury, except perhaps for the tiny hole in the front and back of his tuxedo, revealing a tiny dot of tablecloth underneath. The belt bulged slightly across Jay’s shoulder.

‘That will have to do,’ Damien said.

Jay didn’t hesitate; he walked around the corner and was already calling out to the officers to ask what was going on. When Damien rounded the corner after him he realized why Jay had stopped speaking. They weren’t officers. Or perhaps they were, but they were dressed in black fatigues and carrying M4 carbines.

They appeared to be military or police paramilitary, except they wore black ballistic masks for protection. The masks covered their entire face, including the scalp and the back of their heads. The mask had only two circles for eyes and one thin vertical strip for speaking. Damien found this especially creepy.

‘We swept this level, where were you two?’ one soldier said.

‘Beekeeping,’ Jay said quickly.

The second soldier gestured to the open elevator. ‘It’s not safe. We’ll take you down.’

Damien didn’t need to be told twice. He moved past Jay into the elevator. Jay stood on the other side, his back to a wall so no one would see the hole in his jacket. The soldiers took one last look around before joining them. They stood behind Damien and Jay and asked Damien to press the button for the first floor. Damien did as requested.

‘What’s going on?’ he said.

‘Bomb scare—’

‘Terrorist attack—’

Both soldiers spoke at once.

Damien and Jay shared a glance.

‘We heard the explosion,’ Damien said.

In the mirrored wall Damien caught sight of a few dots of blood on his own collar. At the same time, he saw the soldier behind him shift his carbine. Damien stepped back into the soldier. He brought his elbow down on the carbine to keep it low.

Jay moved for his soldier, batting the carbine away.

Damien slammed his foot into the soldier’s kneecap. The soldier buckled. Damien brought his elbow up from the carbine and into the soldier’s mask. It struck with a hollow
thunk
and the soldier’s head snapped back into the mirror—the helmet cracked the glass.

He reached for the carbine, under the soldier’s arm and over. A quick twist and the carbine was his. Both soldiers were unconscious but likely to wake in a minute, maybe less.

‘We’re not shooting them,’ Damien said before Jay could suggest it.

Jay didn’t respond, just held the
stop
button in the elevator.

They pulled plasticuffs from their pockets—about the only thing they could stash in a tuxedo other than lockpicks—and bound the soldiers in the corner. Then they started stripping them of their uniforms, though they had to take turns because someone needed to permanently keep a finger on the elevator’s
stop
button or else it might be called to another level.

Damien had his shoes off first, his tuxedo pants undone, jacket, bow-tie and shirt. Something sharp pierced the skin on his neck.

‘Ow,’ Damien said.

Jay, holding the stop button, looked over. ‘What?’

Damien started to feel his chest tighten. His legs gave way.

‘What happened?’ Jay shouted.

Jay rushed over, his pants half-down. Damien saw flecks of saliva fly onto his face as his partner spoke, but he couldn’t feel it. He tried to grasp at his neck.

Jay was looking at Damien’s chest. A bee crawled across it. ‘Oh great,’ he said.

Sophia stepped onto the green marble, mask fastened over her face. She aimed her M4 carefully at the soldier standing over the captured operative in the red jacket. The operative was bound and blindfolded. She was cuffed above her head, wrists pinned to a nickel silver railing.

The soldier was standing on the elevated end of the banquet room. He carried a sword on his back, which caught her interest. She noticed the operative’s ruck. It was near the soldier, atop a grand piano.

Sophia aimed at the soldier through the holographic sight.

‘Raise your arms,’ she said.

She knew who it was before he turned around. And he knew who she was before she ordered him to turn around. His mask moved into her sight’s red reticle.

‘I want to say it’s good to see you again,’ DC said. He unstrapped the top of his mask and let it drop to his chest, revealing his face. ‘But you always seem to have the worst timing.’

Sophia was dressed identically to DC, but she wore her mask to blend in. With her, Nasira and Aviary, similarly masked, pinned their carbines on DC.

‘Who are you working for?’ Sophia said. ‘Who are these masked soldiers? Are they Blue Berets?’

DC’s attention flickered across the banquet room. ‘That’s complicated.’

She could almost feel his anxiety. No, she could actually feel it. Perhaps it was her own.

‘I have all day,’ she said.

‘You don’t,’ he said. ‘And neither do I.’

Gunfire cracked in the lobby. Sophia moved from the closed doors. Whoever was shooting back there, it didn’t sound promising. She kept her carbine on him. He lowered his hands and moved for the ruck on top of the piano. He slung it over his shoulders, over his sheathed sword.

‘Stop!’ Sophia said. ‘I have no problem shooting you.’

‘Not the first time.’ DC raised an eyebrow. ‘But you won’t shoot me.’ He reached for his own carbine, but didn’t raise it.

‘What makes you so sure?’ Sophia said.

‘Too noisy.’

‘Noisy all round, right now,’ Nasira said.

‘And, they’re fingerprint coded,’ he said. ‘You can’t fire them even if you want to.’

Sophia cursed herself. She hadn’t checked for fingerprint scanners. They would be hidden inside the pistol grip. Moving quickly, she snapped her carbine down, pointing it to the floor. She whipped her supporting hand up and at the same time she took her firing hand away and drew her Glock. It was a fluid, fast transition.

‘OK, so I guess you can work around that,’ DC said.

Behind her, she heard Nasira do the same.

‘Um, guys,’ Aviary said. ‘I don’t have a pistol, so I can’t do that cool weapon swap thing you did.’

DC moved past the railings, down onto the main floor, confident Sophia and Nasira would not shoot. Sophia watched his attention shift—listening to something, perhaps a concealed earpiece—and something tightened around his eyes. She could almost feel his cortisol level spike.

‘Right now there’s only one way out of this hotel,’ DC said, speaking with renewed urgency. ‘You can either come with me or find your own way out. I don’t care which.’

‘Or there’s the option where we shoot you,’ Nasira said from under her mask.

‘That’s quite the gamble,’ DC said, ‘given I may be a little better informed about current affairs than you.’

Sophia felt Nasira’s gaze on her, waiting for her decision.

Sophia didn’t say anything. She gestured with her carbine for him to start moving. DC strapped his mask back over his face and headed toward a smaller exit in the corner.

Sophia fell in behind him, keeping distance and a hand on each weapon so she could look the part and still put down rounds on the move. As they left she cast a look over at the operative bound to the railing. If she had fifteen more minutes she could’ve run a quick deprogram, enough to get the woman out for a more thorough procedure later.

DC guided Sophia and her companions away from the lobby firefight and to the rearmost bank of elevators. Keeping an eye on DC’s muzzle direction, she aimed her Glock at the elevator doors as they parted. Nasira did the same. DC aimed his carbine outward, covering them.

The elevator was occupied, but not in any way Sophia was prepared for.

‘This isn’t what it looks like,’ Jay said.

He was straddled over Damien, pants falling to his knees. Damien was lying on the floor in just his underwear, pants gathered at his ankles. His eyes were closed. Behind Damien and Jay, two soldiers were bound and propped in the corners. They looked dazed.

Jay stared at Sophia, Nasira and Aviary—all wearing masks.

‘Jay?’ Sophia said through her mask.

Jay looked thoroughly confused. His cheeks flushed. ‘Soph?’

‘What are you doing here?’ they both said at once.

Aviary noticed Damien lying in his underwear. ‘Oh, hello.’

Jay looked like he was checking Damien’s pulse. ‘By the way, you wouldn’t happen to have any adrenalin, would you? Damien’s about to go into anaphylactic shock.’

Sophia pushed her way into the elevator, dropping to a crouch. She placed her carbine beside Damien, selector lever set to safe out of habit, and slipped the ruck off her shoulders. She located her EpiPen and handed it to Jay. ‘What happened?’

Footsteps—a whole lot of them—rampaged the marble floor. The lobby firefight soldiers were moving through the bank of elevators.

‘Everyone inside, now,’ DC said.

He shoved Aviary and Nasira in, stepped in after them and hit a button to change floors. The mask slipped from his face.

‘What’s
he
doing here?’ Jay said, prepping the EpiPen.

‘Long story,’ Sophia said. ‘Actually, short story. What are you doing in New York?’

Jay planted the needle on Damien’s thigh, injecting into the muscle.

‘Oh, just doing some close personal protection, which was really a trap because our boss sold us to this deranged Jamaican woman who wants to resell us on the black market or parts of us or I don’t even want to know. Oh and her personal army was dressed as Roman soldiers. Maybe just for today though.’

‘OK,’ Sophia said. That’s a lot to take in.’

Aviary crouched down beside Sophia, removed her mask and watched Damien begin to stir.

‘They look like Batman,’ Jay said. ‘Except they have swords and spears.’

‘Good to know you’re in demand,’ Nasira said.

Jay shot her an annoyed stare. ‘Seriously, I just want to get off this island. Islands don’t work well for me.’

The elevator came to rest. Sophia looked up to see they were on level six. DC was hammering the close door button, but the doors parted anyway. Waiting patiently for them were six people dressed as Roman soldiers. Three of them were pointing swords directly at Aviary.

‘Nope,’ Aviary said.

DC squeezed his trigger. The sound inside the elevator was deafening. Rounds tore through the face of one soldier. The others dived clear. DC found a second target. He clipped the soldier’s shoulder as a spear narrowly missed his chest.

Sophia aimed her Glock and punched two rounds into a soldier’s knee—the only part she could see from where she crouched.

Nasira was standing closer to the open doors, exposed to the Roman soldiers. She drew the sword from DC’s back and caught the spear on its second approach. The spear splintered almost in half, saving DC from being skewered.

‘Get inside!’ he yelled at her.

Nasira pulled back.

He punched the close door button and glared at Nasira. ‘Thanks.’

The doors closed. A small dagger—a puglio—slipped through and bounced off the top of Sophia’s helmet. It narrowly missed one of the bound Blue Berets and fractured the glass on the elevator’s rear wall. The glass held.

The elevator doors were finally closed.

Sophia turned to Jay. ‘
Those
Roman soldiers.’

Jay nodded.

‘Corinthian if we’re being precise,’ Damien said.

‘They do kinda look like Batman though,’ Aviary said.

Sophia removed her mask. She didn’t like how it limited her field of vision to one-hundred degrees. Jay was staring at her. She remembered the ornately jeweled skull painted on her face.

Jay raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you do something with your hair?’

Nasira snorted a laugh. Jay flushed again.

Damien suddenly gasped and sat upright. The first thing he saw was Sophia and he almost jumped out of his skin. Then he just looked utterly confused. Which was understandable, given he was half naked and crammed into an elevator with masked soldiers, DC, a girl who once stabbed him in the leg and Sophia with her skull-painted face.

Damien squinted and rubbed his eyes. ‘This isn’t the birthday party I planned.’

Sophia popped two aspirin from their blisters and passed them to him. He dry-swallowed gratefully. Then Jay used a fingernail to carefully remove the barbed bee stinger from Damien’s neck. Damien almost reeled from it when he realized what it was, then got to his feet and gathered his clothes.

‘I never thought operatives would be allergic to bees,’ Aviary said from behind her mask.

‘Yeah, well I didn’t think I was either,’ Damien said. ‘Never been stung before.’

Aviary smiled. ‘They need a pseudogene for that,’ she said. ‘The Buzz Vector?’

Sophia looked down at the two bound soldiers sitting in their corners. They were exchanging confused glances, but they refused to speak.

Sophia turned to DC. ‘Where are we going?’

‘I’ll tell you when we get there,’ DC said. ‘Or I can tell you now in front of these Blue Berets and then you have to kill them.’ He gestured to the soldiers.

‘I’ll wait,’ Sophia said. ‘So they are Blue Berets? These ones? Not your ones in the SUVs?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ DC said.

‘Hang on, I thought DC was a bad guy now?’ Damien said.

DC glared at him.

‘Do you want a hand?’ Aviary said to Damien.

‘Oh great,’ Damien said. ‘You brought the girl who tied me to a chair and stabbed me.’

‘It was the least we could do,’ Nasira said, monotone.

The elevator doors opened. Sophia looked over her shoulder to check Damien and Jay were dressed. They were trying to pull the pants off the wide-eyed Blue Berets.

‘Leave them, let’s go,’ Sophia said.

The Blue Berets looked relieved.

Damien and Jay didn’t seem to have their own weapons so they carried the carbines stolen from the Berets. Sophia would have to explain to them later that they wouldn’t work.

DC led them through the underground garage of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Jay tried to ask what was going on but DC shushed him. They weren’t out of danger yet, not until they were out of the hotel completely.

DC loaded them into a freight elevator that Sophia suspected wasn’t in working order. She was surprised when it sparked to life and rattled them to the depths below.

They disembarked onto a dimly lit subway platform smeared with grime and strewn newspaper. The platform hadn’t been used in quite some time. DC jumped down onto the tracks and started down the large tunnel. It seemed to stretch into infinity before them.

‘Hey!’ Sophia yelled.

She stopped yelling when she heard her voice carry through the tunnel in waves.

DC stopped and turned. He removed his mask completely, strapping it to his belt.

‘I can just call them in, tell them we’re waiting for them if you prefer,’ DC said.

Sophia jumped down onto the tracks beside him, her Glock hovering somewhere over his black kneepads.

‘Don’t tempt me,’ she said.

‘You don’t have the ammunition to spare and we need to get away from the hotel as quickly as possible,’ DC said. ‘I’m not the only person who knows this location.’ He turned to the tunnel ahead of them. ‘The next tunnel, we talk.’

‘Hand over the ruck and maybe I’ll let you.’

She could feel his frustration—and apprehension—as he shrugged his ruck off and slung it to the tracks.

‘Stay off the third rail,’ he called out to the others.

Most of the third rails in these tunnels looked inactive, but the ones that were active had enough electric charge to kill. She made sure to avoid them just in case. Picking up the ruck, she slung it over her own slim ruck and, Glock in hand, followed DC from a safe distance. The boys took up rear security in silence.

‘Those weapons won’t work,’ she called out to them in a low voice. ‘Fingerprinted.’

She heard Jay swear. They still carried them, if only as a deterrent. Seeing their tuxedos she couldn’t help but think of James Bond.

‘Where are your weapons?’ Sophia asked as she walked behind DC.

‘In the lobby,’ Damien replied.

‘We’re not going back there,’ Sophia said. ‘Sorry.’

‘Yeah, we figured,’ Jay said.