Redemption (55 page)

Franklin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. First the man threatened to destroy him, now he was offering him a promotion? ‘You’re serious, aren’t you?’

‘Perfectly,’ Cain assured him.

‘And why the hell would I accept an offer like that?’

‘This is a tough business we work in, son. You don’t rise through the ranks by baking cookies and hosting cocktail parties. You broker deals, you take risks, and you make compromises. How do you think I got this job?’ Cain gave him a knowing smile. ‘You might find this hard to believe, but I was like you once. Young, filled with fire and bullshit, convinced I was going to change the world. It took me a long time to realise the truth.’

Franklin’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m nothing like you.’

‘No? Then maybe you can do a better job than I did,’ Cain suggested. ‘Special Activities Division is all yours if you want it, Dan. All you have to do is reach out and take it. Maybe the Agency needs a man like you; a man with honour and principles.’

Franklin didn’t buy that for a second. Cain despised him. He would destroy his career in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.

And yet, he couldn’t. Not now. They both knew that. As much as Cain might hate the offer he was making, it was real all the same.

‘And what about you?’ he asked. ‘Does it need you?’

Cain smiled. ‘Men like me will always be needed. Believe that.’

Sensing his opponent wavering, he leaned back in his chair and locked eyes with Franklin. ‘This is an opportunity you won’t get again, Dan. Leadership of an entire division, the chance to make your mark. It’s all there, just waiting for you. All you have to do is say yes. But you have to do it now.’

Franklin hesitated, his earlier fire and indignation fading in the face of such calm, persuasive temptation. As much as he hated himself for even acknowledging it, there was no denying the merits of Cain’s offer, and his threat.

If he went public with this, he might well end Cain’s career, but at the cost of his own. Not only that, but he would be sure to take Drake and others down with him.

‘If I was to consider this even for a moment, I’d need your word that Drake and the others won’t be touched.’

Cain spread his arms in a conciliatory gesture. ‘As long as they don’t start digging in things that don’t concern them.’

‘And as far as the Agency is concerned, this conversation never happened.’

‘Now you’re speaking my language.’ Cain smiled, firmly in control of the situation again. ‘So … we have a deal?’

Franklin glanced out the window, at the dark clouds reflected in the distant waters of the Potomac.

Honourable suicide, or a dishonourable compromise.

Hell of a choice.

Chapter 76

Langley, Virginia, two weeks later

‘SO THAT’S ALL
you can tell us? She shot you in the stomach without warning and left you to die?’ Franklin asked.

Drake’s full written report was spread out on his desk.

It was his desk, but not his office.

Several days earlier the official announcement had been made that Franklin was being promoted to Divisional Leader, taking over Cain’s old job, and his expansive office. Packing boxes lay everywhere, most still waiting to be opened.

The place was starting to remind Drake of his own house.

‘That’s right.’ It was a lie, but a necessary one. He knew that now.

After some basic but life-saving medical attention by Frost, he had been flown to a military hospital in Baghdad for further treatment. The doctors had later confirmed that the round had passed straight through him, missing the major organs. He was lucky to be alive, or so they said.

His condition was much improved by two weeks of rest and recuperation, and he was expected to make a full recovery, though he would carry the scar for the rest of his life. A permanent reminder of the woman who had given it to him.

‘And she said nothing about where she was going or what she was planning to do?’

Drake hesitated, remembering her final words. Like the scar, he felt sure he would carry them with him for the rest of his life.

No trace of Anya had ever been found. She was still on several Most Wanted lists worldwide, but he knew they would never find her. She would be found only when she wanted to be.

‘Nothing,’ he said at last.

Franklin eyed him dubiously for a long moment, then closed the folder with an audible thump.

‘What are you going to do with that now?’

Franklin’s hand rested on the folder. ‘There are a lot of very serious accusations in here, Ryan.’

‘Cain brokered a deal to sell weapons of mass destruction to the Iraqi government and justify an illegal war. He sacrificed innocent lives to kill the only man who could prove it. He took advantage of a woman who’d already been through so much shit, it was a miracle she was still sane. He put the lives of myself and my team at risk, and he did it all to save his own arse. Is that serious enough for you?’

Franklin avoided his gaze. ‘The matter’s being dealt with, Ryan.’

‘If we let him get away with this, we might as well have done it ourselves …’

‘I said it’s being dealt with!’ his friend snapped. ‘For both our sakes, I suggest you let it go.’

‘Let it go. Just forget that it happened. Is that how things are done around here?’ Drake glanced around the big office, packing boxes lying everywhere. ‘By the way, congratulations on your promotion. It’s good to know someone did well out of this.’

Franklin’s eyes burned with anger. ‘Ryan, I’m about the only thing standing between you and a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay,’ he warned. ‘You should keep that in mind.’

‘I haven’t forgotten.’

Calming himself, Franklin gestured around his new office with a sweep of his arm. ‘Special Activities Division is my ship. Whatever mistakes Cain might have made, they’re in the past. Things will be different now.’

Drake almost felt sorry for him. Maybe he actually believed what he was saying. Maybe he thought he was going to change things, clean up the entire Agency, put the world to rights.

But the problem with making a deal with the Devil was that sooner or later, he always came to collect.

‘Speaking of which, we haven’t talked about
your
future, Ryan.’

Drake tensed, saying nothing.

His friend leaned back in his chair. ‘For a while, the Agency couldn’t decide whether to give you a medal or put you in front of a firing squad. You went rogue, freed a dangerous suspect and put your fellow team members in danger.’ Franklin surveyed him for several seconds. ‘But … it seems you’re more useful alive than dead, for now at least. Pending rehabilitation you’ll return to active duty, reporting to me. Questions?’

He only had one. ‘They’re sweeping this under the carpet, aren’t they?’

Franklin met his gaze evenly. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He tucked Drake’s report into one of his drawers, which he then closed and locked. ‘Now, if there’s nothing else, we both have a lot of work to do.’

It would do no good to argue. Rising from his chair
with
some difficulty, he turned to leave. Only when his hand was on the door handle did he pause for a moment.

‘Dan?’

‘What?’

Drake’s green eyes glimmered in the afternoon sun. ‘The day before we crossed the border into Iraq, an old man told me something about Anya – something I think you should keep in mind.

‘If you stand with her, you could never ask for a better ally. If you stand against her, you’ll fall. And if you betray her, then God help you because nobody else can.’

Whatever history lay between those two, Drake knew with absolute certainty that Anya wasn’t finished with Cain. Her vengeance, when it came at last, would be swift, merciless and brutal.

And for anyone who stood by Cain’s side …

Franklin sat in silence, a chill running through him at Drake’s grim warning. He glanced away for a moment, and Drake saw the muscles in his throat tightening as he swallowed.

‘I’ll see you around, Dan,’ he said, closing the door behind him, and leaving the young divisional director alone to ponder what lay ahead.

In his new office on the top floor of the vast intelligence complex, Marcus Cain sat behind his expansive desk, staring at the magnificent view beyond his window and seeing nothing.

He should have felt elation that his long-awaited promotion had finally come to pass, should have felt relief that he had saved his career from the brink of disaster, should have felt optimism about the great things he could achieve, and yet he felt nothing.

Anya was alive. Despite everything, she had survived. She was out there somewhere at this very moment.

And she was coming for him.

He had been wrong about her. She couldn’t be controlled, couldn’t be manipulated or coerced. She would never compromise, would never bend her will or make concessions, would never sacrifice her morals or her honour.

All of those things which he had once seen as failings and weaknesses, he now saw for what they truly were.

He had once believed her too weak to make the hard decisions their job required, too naive to accept the harsh reality of the world in which they lived, but now he knew the truth.

She understood, she perceived the world as it was, but she chose never to give in. Even if it meant great sacrifice and hardship, even if it cost her life, she was the only one of them who had remained whole, who had preserved that vital part of herself which he had lost.

She was the best of them. She always had been.

Her life served only to highlight his own failings, her endurance brought home his own weaknesses and shortcomings. He had sacrificed too much, had compromised too many times.

At last he understood.

He
was the weak one. He was the one who had chosen the easier path, who had compromised and conceded when he could have stood firm. He was the one who had lost himself.

And he was the one she would hold to account.

Sooner or later, she would come for him. She couldn’t be stopped, couldn’t be reasoned with or persuaded or manipulated as Franklin had. She didn’t conform to
anyone
’s plans, didn’t fit into any scheme, didn’t adhere to any vision except her own.

She was a soldier, and he was her enemy.

The battle lines had been drawn, they had chosen their sides, and this would end only when one of them was dead.

Cain leaned back in his big leather chair, staring at his office and seeing nothing. All around him lay luxury, power, influence. All the things he had fought for.

And none of it mattered.

Chapter 77

‘LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE
not getting rid of me just yet,’ Drake remarked with a wry smile as he, Dietrich, Frost and Keegan walked slowly along the Reflecting Pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. ‘Dan’s decided to keep me around, for now at least.’

In stark contrast to the last time Drake had been this way, it was a beautiful warm day, light from the evening sun glistening on the pool’s undulating surface and casting long shadows across the nearby parkland.

‘Shit, man. And I was hoping for a quiet life,’ Keegan groaned.

‘I don’t believe that for a second.’ Drake grinned at him.

‘So they’re not laying any charges on us at all?’ Frost asked.

‘Dan made a deal. He saved our arses, and his own.’

It didn’t take her long to make the connection. ‘Cain’s going to get away with this, isn’t he? After everything he did, the bastard gets to just walk away.’

‘Don’t bet on it. Anya has unfinished business with him.’

‘I hope she leaves us out of it,’ Dietrich remarked. ‘I wouldn’t want to go up against her again.’

Drake glanced at his former nemesis.

Dietrich’s reputation had been much revived by his
conduct
over the past few weeks, other Shepherd team leaders regarding him with new-found respect for the risks he’d taken. His past transgressions hadn’t been forgotten, and likely never would be, but Drake was of the opinion that everyone deserved a second chance. Perhaps Dietrich would get his.

‘With any luck, we won’t have to.’

They still weren’t exactly friends, and he doubted they would see much of each other after today, but the man was all right in his book.

‘Who is she, Ryan?’ the older man asked in an uncharacteristic display of curiosity. ‘I spent a week hunting her, and I don’t know a thing about her.’

Drake sighed and stared out across the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument.

‘I don’t know who she is,’ he admitted. ‘Because she didn’t want me to know. The only thing she wanted me to know is that she lived her life without compromise. She never gave in, she never surrendered. I understand that now. And you know what? I would have followed her.’

‘She shot you and left you to die, Ryan,’ Frost reminded him.

‘She gave me a second chance,’ he replied, still staring out across the pool. ‘The only chance she could.’

The young woman said nothing.

His gaze rested on another woman standing at the far end of the pool, near the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Tall, slender, dressed now in jeans and a light jacket, her long brown hair tied back in a bun. It was Jessica.

He turned to the small group. His team, his comrades, his friends. ‘Look, I never got a chance to say this properly until now, but … I know what you did to get me,’ he said, looking at each of them in turn. ‘I know the
risks
you took – each of you. I promise you I’ll never forget it.’

Frost said nothing, but appeared strangely moved by his words. The normally fiery and strong-willed young woman glanced away for a moment, and he saw the muscles in her throat tightening.

Keegan grinned. ‘You gettin’ soppy in your old age, Ryan?’

Drake couldn’t help but smile. ‘I’m working on it.’

He glanced over at Jessica again. She was waiting for him, and he was eager to speak with her.

‘I’ll see you all soon,’ he promised.

He was just walking away when Dietrich spoke up. ‘Hey, Ryan.’

Drake stopped and turned around. To his surprise, Dietrich held out his hand. ‘I was wrong about you,’ he said, no trace of hesitation or deception in his eyes now. ‘You’re a better man than I thought.’