The Devil's Triangle (A Brit in the FBI 4)

Her people didn’t hesitate. One by one, she watched them kneel down in a long straight line. Thomas smiled at her even as he knelt beside them, and bowed his head as all the others had. And she watched them simply fall forward on their faces.

She felt for a pulse in each throat. They were all dead. She closed her eyes, said a prayer, but knew in her soul that the Ark would somehow enfold them and cherish them for their sacrifice.

Helen secured the site. She took the broken cherubim’s wing, and a map she’d drawn inside a soil core, and dropped them into the pit for Cassandra and Ajax to find sometime in the future, as she now knew they would, as it was meant for them to. And they would act on what was deep inside them, what drove them to be what and who they were, and she knew what would happen. No way to escape that. A great lie, all a great lie, she knew, although she now couldn’t remember what her hand had written on the map. Perhaps the words would foster goodness and truth in her children, even as she despaired. Please, she prayed, please. She looked back at her dead team, wiped the tears from her face, and drove off, alone, toward her destiny.

The sandstorm whipped the desert into a frenzy, but the flying sands never touched the truck.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

Cuba

Present Day

When Rafael made his second landing at the Preston airfield and taxied toward the FBI Gulfstream, Nicholas and Mike saw that Clancy, Trident, Adam, and Louisa were standing by the stairs, clapping and cheering.

The Albatross rolled to a smooth stop and a beaming Rafael dashed out, waved, then waited for Mike and Nicholas. Everyone was on an obvious high, yelling questions, telling them what they already knew, but from the other’s perspectives. And now it was their turn, and on and on it went, Nicholas and Mike smiling and laughing.

Adam said, “Mr. Zachery will never believe this.”

“Sure he will,” Nicholas said, “I kept him up to date on everything that was going on, well, most of it—”

“Some of it—when he had to,” Mike said, “but we have yet to make the last call, assure him the world will survive another day.”

Finally, everyone was running down. Adam was shaking his head. “I still can’t believe it. Even from here we knew when the volcano blew, only now is the ash beginning to dissipate and the winds are carrying it out into the Atlantic.”

Nicholas said, “Where are Captain Snelling and Aldo?”

Adam said, “Captain Snelling and Aldo paid one of the workers to drive them to Havana. As for Kitsune and Grant, a Blue Mountain Gulfstream landed about a half hour ago. You told me to keep Grant’s people informed and I did. They took Grant and Kitsune, lifted back off within a few minutes. We don’t know where they went. At least we got to say goodbye.”

“I can’t believe they just left,” Mike said.

Nicholas shook his head at her. “You really didn’t expect to see them here waiting for us, now did you, Mike?”

No, she hadn’t, but that wasn’t the point. She got in his face. “You knew she and Grant would be gone when we got back, didn’t you? If Blue Mountain hadn’t come, they’d still be gone. And you already said goodbye to her.”

“Yes, I did. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’d want to say goodbye to her, too. Did you?”

It was hard to be pissed at him when he smiled at her like that, when she still felt so mellow and yet remarkably energized. But the fact was, she owed Kitsune, she owed her more than she could ever repay, and she’d wanted to tell her that, tell her she owed her big-time, forever.

She cocked her head to one side. “The thing is, Nicholas, I really would have liked to have said goodbye to Grant. He’s incredible, isn’t he? All rough and tough and don’t-mess-with-me.” She gave a little shake. “Imagine, having him sharing some of his adventures with me—”

She got him, she s

aw it, even though the let me kill him look was gone in an instant. He said, all bonhomie, “You know, Mike, I wish I could have talked to him more, too.”

She gave him a little bow and turned to Adam, eyebrow raised. “I don’t suppose you’ll ever tell us where Kitsune and Grant live?”

Adam said, “You’d have to make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

No, Mike knew Adam would never talk.

Louisa said, “I expected you two to look like crap, ripped clothes, all banged up, some burns here and there, split lips, and that’s all true—” She paused, frowning at them. “But you both look so happy and so relaxed . . .”

Then her eyes popped, and she started to laugh. She walked over to Adam and said something to him. He shot Mike and Nicholas a look, nodded. “Oh yeah, I bet that isn’t going in their report to Zachery.”

Nicholas clapped his hands. “All right, that’s quite enough. All of you, get on the plane. I’ll be right with you after I’ve conducted some business with our pilot.”

Nicholas set into motion all the promises they’d made to Rafael Guzman.