Labyrinth (12 page)

“Maybe it was just an optical illusion.” Annja winked. “After all, I don’t think anyone in the Bureau would believe you if you mentioned it to them.”

Kessel looked shocked. “You think I’d be that dumb? I like my job. I mention something like your sword and they’ll send me packing with a side trip to the shrink’s couch.”

Annja smiled. “As long as we understand each other.”

“Absolutely.”

Annja nodded and they set off down the corridor. Annja was still concerned about the presence of the dogs somewhere up ahead. They had to have some place they called home. And if that was in the maze itself, then there was a very good chance they would attack Annja and Kessel when they broached their territory.

The fight wasn’t over yet.

Not by a long shot.

Chapter 12

Annja and Kessel moved farther down the corridor. Kessel volunteered to take point, which was fine with Annja. She’d been on high alert ever since they’d been split up, and the strain of being so careful was tiresome.

“After I got out of the pool, I found my way into another corridor. That one had a whole bunch of spears that rained down on me as I ran through it.”

“You’re lucky you weren’t impaled,” Annja said.

Kessel laughed. “I don’t know if luck has anything to do with it. I was just so scared, I ran faster than humanly possible.”

Annja smiled. She liked that he was self-effacing. It was hard to imagine someone as large as Kessel being afraid of much, but here he was freely admitting to it. It was refreshing to hear. Most of the time, Annja found herself surrounded by guys who liked to talk the talk, but could never walk the walk.

The corridor opened up and started to climb at a shallow angle. Kessel glanced at Annja. “What do you think?”

“We keep going. Somewhere up ahead, there’s got to be an indicator of where the book is.”

“It just feels like we’re being funneled along,” Kessel said. “As if we’re being set up for an ambush of some sort.”

Annja nodded. “That occurred to me, as well.”

“It’s like when I was on the Teams,” Kessel said. “We’d plan an ambush by funneling the enemy into a kill zone. Get them moving into a space that we would totally dominate with explosives and gunfire. That would be the end of them.”

“How long were you with the SEALs?”

“Ten years. Saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Saw a lot of shit. Lost some good friends, as well.” Kessel went quiet, and Annja knew he was probably remembering the friends he’d seen killed.

After a moment, he took a breath. “When I got out, I floated around for a while. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But once you’ve been in combat, there’s always that need to challenge yourself. I could have gone and worked for private security companies and pulled down a crapload of money.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Kessel shrugged. “I guess I thought I wasn’t done serving my country yet. I was done with the wars, but I still had something to give back. So I joined the Bureau.”

“Did you get a law degree first?”

Kessel chuckled. “Yeah, they used to really like having lawyers as their special agents. Still do. But they also know they need people with proven combat experience. My jacket was fairly impressive. I had what they were looking for. And the training was pretty easy, at least on the physical side.”

“And once you graduated from Quantico?”

“Right into operations. I worked a human trafficking rig out of New York’s Chinatown. Seriously bad stuff. Talk about busting my cherry on some real scumbags. The stuff they did…” His voice trailed off again.

Annja kept her eyes peeled even though Kessel was still on point. She didn’t think it was likely that he’d miss much. But Annja also knew that memories could derail an otherwise alert individual, so she kept herself tuned in.

“Once I was done destroying that ring, I wanted to do something a little different. Something about seeing ten-year-old girls pressed into prostitution rattled me. I needed something else.”

“So you got Greene.”

Kessel nodded. “Yeah. Ecoterrorism is one of the concerns at the Bureau these days. And Greene was one of the biggest ones they wanted watched.”

“How’d you get close to him?”

Kessel smiled back at her. “I hung my shingle out as a former operator. The best lies are based on truth, right? So the Bureau doctored my medical records and I sat around in a dingy office in Newark until one day he came to me.”

“And what about the whole tongue thing?”

Kessel shrugged. “I used a prosthetic insert to make it look like I had a fake tongue at first. Then once Greene got comfortable around me, I tossed it. Now if he sees my tongue, he simply assumes it’s the prosthetic. I’ve never actually spoken to him.”

“I’m amazed it was that easy.”

“You’re not the only one,” Kessel said. “But he fell for it and took me in. I had to prove myself, of course.”

“How?”

Kessel stopped and shook his head. “It’s probably best if you don’t know. Not that it was horrible stuff or anything, but if you knew it could compromise me in court if you were called to testify. So we’ll just gloss over that part, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

“My main concern has been what Greene is really up to. This book has been an obsession of his for almost a year now. He’s been driven to find it and uncover its secrets.”

“You think there’s something to it?”

“Greene thinks there is and that’s what counts right now,” Kessel said. “It doesn’t matter much what I think because I’m not the one I’ve got to take down. Greene’s desperate to hurt the people who have harmed his vision of a utopian planet. That makes him a dangerous dude. And I’ve been after my superiors to treat him more as a viable threat. To date, it’s been a challenge to do that.”

“But they saw him as a threat initially.”

Kessel shrugged. “We see a lot of threats. Sometimes, someone gets assigned to see what the deal is. I’ve kept a running tally of what Greene’s been up to over the past few years—the stuff he’s done, the people he’s hurt. I haven’t seen it all personally, though, which is why he hasn’t been picked up yet.”

“You need to document it firsthand?”

“Yep.”

“And now you’ve seen him kill Jackson.”

Kessel took a breath. “That’s enough for me.”

“Meaning what?”

“Not all justice runs through the courts.” Kessel looked at her. “I’m sure that’s something you’re familiar with.”

Annja sighed. “Yeah, I’ve had some experience with that sentiment.”

“It’s not that I disagree with the justice system, it’s just that sometimes there comes a point where you need to ask yourself if the universe—God, whatever—has put you in a certain position for a reason. Maybe so that you might be the instrument of decision.”

Annja glanced around. The air felt still. Kessel was eyeing her, trying to figure out if he’d gone too far with what he’d said.

Annja nodded solemnly. “There have been times when I was forced to do exactly that—be the instrument of decision. But I was coerced into it.”

Kessel shrugged. “Things happen all the time. Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do about it.”

Annja pulled out the sword. The look of wonder on Kessel’s mug was priceless.

“That’s incredible.”

Annja glanced around. “Something doesn’t feel quite right.”

Kessel frowned. “Yeah. The dogs?”

“Don’t know. They looked like they had some internal business to sort out instead of dealing with us, though. I can’t see them running back here to try to attack.”

“Damn, I wish I had a piece,” Kessel said. “But I lost mine when I fell into that damned pool. No way I could take forever searching for it in the dark while those fish nibbled on me.”

“I don’t blame you. I had to deal with a shark.”

Kessel pointed. “I’m guessing the sword came in handy with that particular problem.”

“Definitely did,” Annja said. “But I don’t like killing things that aren’t at fault for being true to their nature. The shark wasn’t malicious—it was just doing what millions of years of evolution have programmed it to do.”

Kessel shook his head. “Has it occurred to you that Fairclough might have a few screws loose? I mean, this maze is weird. And then he goes and stocks it with sharks, biting fish, crazed dogs and a whole lot of other shit. That registers on my kook scale, for sure.”

“I probably wouldn’t have phrased it quite that way,” Annja said. “But I have to agree. Some of this stuff just seems completely strange. He could have bought himself a giant vault and secured the book behind two feet of hardened steel. Instead, he goes and does this.”

“The cost of this alone must have been somewhat staggering,” Kessel said. “I didn’t think book dealers made this kind of scratch.”

“I’m guessing Fairclough has a pile of money. Whether from trust funds or an inheritance. But he’s got it just the same.”

“He could have used that money to do some real, lasting good in the world,” Kessel said. “I guess I’m a little embarrassed that he wasted it the way he did. All of that money spent on this.”

“It’s not how I would have done it,” Annja said. “But we also don’t know what his motivation was. I know he’s got this book, but what does it contain that he feels is worth undertaking such a grand venture as this to protect it? That’s what has me wondering.”

“Good point,” Kessel said. “I guess there’s only one way to find out, huh?”

Annja nodded. “We keep going.”

“With no clue of where we’re headed or what to expect when we get to wherever it is we’re going.”

“Exactly.”

Kessel winced. “If I was still on the Teams, this is where we’d probably say someone higher up screwed the pooch on the intel.”

“But you’d still carry out the mission, wouldn’t you?”

“Most likely.”

“Then let’s get going.” Annja shrugged. “Besides, it’s not like we can go back. The tunnel caved in after I came some way down it.”

“Same thing happened to me,” Kessel said. “Nearly got killed in a rock slide, of all things.”

“Fairclough took into account the human proclivity to want to flee when things start getting rough. Take that option away and you can keep moving people forward toward whatever the point of this is.”

“Funneled into a kill zone,” Kessel said. “And damned if I don’t feel the same way I used to on missions.”

“You’re not alone. There’s definitely been a change in the energy of this place. It almost feels like…” Annja’s voice trailed off. “Well, I’m not quite sure.”

“It feels,” Kessel said, his voice lower now than it had been, “as if we’re being stalked.”

“Yeah, but by what?”

Kessel pointed at Annja. “I don’t know, but you’ve got that sword, which is a good thing.”

“Do you think it’s something alive?”

“Yeah,” Kessel said. “And that’s exactly what’s got me concerned.”