Chapter 8

"Where's Harker?" Caradoc asked.

"Right now?" Sarcos smiled. "He's at my company headquarters in London. Why, you wanna talk to him?"

"Yes," Gawain said. "As soon as possible please."

"He's a bit busy."

"He should be in prison," Caradoc said. "Did you bribe the judge?"

Sarcos shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is that he dropped all charges and now Mr. Harker works for me."

"What's the address?" Gawain asked.

"It's the big-ass angular building in the middle of the city with SMAW down the side. Doesn't any simpler than."

Caradoc's hand went to his spectacles. "Oberon, Harker's been moved."

There was no reply.

"Oberon?"

"Oh yeah," Sarcos said. "I...I jammed your comms the moment you stepped in here. No, I'm unarmed."

Caradoc kept his hand on the pistol inside his jacket.

"But they are."

The sound of footsteps echoed down the twin hallways leading out of the reception area, and several armed men in unmarked black gear spilled into the room. Each of them carried an M416, and each of their helmets had a camera mounted on the side.

Caradoc drew his pistol and pointed it into the crowd. "You really don't want to do this."

"Oh, but I do," Sarcos said. "Your suits don't protect against rifle-caliber rounds, and your umbrellas are in the car."

"You Cabal?"

He made a face. "I don't like the Cabal. All pussies trying to solve a problem that has no solutions."

"Then who are you?"

"I'm Jim Sarcos. Oh yes, don't bother with the smoke shoes. My guys have infrared. Please, we can settle this peacefully."

"I don't see peace right now," Gawain said.

"Not yet."

Caradoc felt a small prick on his neck, and his hand that went up to it brushed against the cigar-like shape of a dart.

"Nighty-night!"

The world went black.

Caradoc woke up in a comfortable leather chair, and found that his jacket was lighter, and his shoes were missing. The chair he was nestled in was situated in front of a polished black desk, with an empty red chair behind it. A large, ornate globe was in one corner of the table.

Gawain was just coming to in the chair beside his. Her shoes were missing as well. "Where are we?"

Caradoc looked around, sweeping his eyes across the large window that went around the entire floor of the building. Wheelock Place was visible just off to the right, exactly as he had seen it in pictures. "I think we're at SMAW."

"That's just great."

"I agree," Sarcos said as the elevator doors behind them opened and he strode out, straightening his cream suit. "Welcome to my office."

Caradoc put one sock-covered foot on the chair he was on, and launched himself into the air. He slammed into Sarcos' chest with his right knee, knocking him to the ground. "What's the elevator code?"

"Come on, Mr. Beumers, we can t-"

His fist smashed into Sarcos' jaw, snapping his head to the side. "Elevator passcode, now!"

"Four-five-five-seven. But you won't get far."

Caradoc stood up, pulling back his leg and sending it crashing into the side of Sarcos' head. His eyes closed and he went still. He took steps over to the elevator, and reached out to input the code into the keypad on the wall.

The elevator doors opened themselves and before Caradoc knew it, the electrodes of a taser was jammed into his throat. The muscles in his body went stiff, and he fell over.

A shout from Gawain told him the same had been done to her by the men coming out of the elevator.

Sarcos stood over him, rubbing his jaw. "If you don't play nice then neither will I. I just wanted to ask you some questions." He nodded to the security men who had shocked them. "Tie them up."

Caradoc was shoved savagely over, and a pair of plasticuffs placed around his wrists, locking them together ever so tightly.

"Now, Mr. Beumers, tell me about Kingsman."

Caradoc used the strength returning to his mouth to spit at Sarcos, but the globule of saliva simply sailed past his face.

"Is it really worth dying for?"

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth.

Sarcos sighed and moved away from him. "I thought that would be the case. So I had my people do some digging." He went behind his desk and pulled open a drawer, removing the distinct profile of a Desert Eagle from within it.

"What are you gonna do, shoot me with that?"

"Not you." Ge pulled the slide back, and lifted the barrel level to Gawain's head. "Let's try again: tell me about Kingsman."

Caradoc's breath caught in his throat.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Don't you fucking touch her."

"So Michael was right. You know, he was always counting on the two of you getting back together."

"That snake worked for you?"

"Not me, exactly. We...we work for the same person, you could say. But we've very, very different objectives."

"Is that why you didn't save him?" Caradoc's eyes flicked between the gun to Gawain's temple, to Sarcos' face.

"He didn't need saving. What, you think a guy like Michael wouldn't survive something that trivial?"

"I didn't know him."

"That's right. You didn't know him at all." He looked at Gawain. "Now, enough of that. Tell me about Kingsman or I'll blow Miss Izaks' brains all over the floor. And then I'll make you eat them."

"Don't do it," Gawain said. "If I die, then he gets nothing. If you tell him, she's going to shoot me anyway."

"I'll do it," Caradoc said. "On one condition."

"Like this one?" He pointed at the Desert Eagle.

"I want to talk to Harker."

Sarcos pulled the gun away from Gawain's temple. "That, I can do." He pressed a button on his desk. "Bryon, send Mr. Harker up here, please."

"Yes sir," the voice on the other end said.

After a few excruciating minutes, the elevator doors swept open once more, and Desmond Harker, now wearing a dark blue business suit, stepped out. "Yes sir-" He froze when he saw Caradoc and Gawain.

"Des, Mr. Beumers wants to talk to you."

"I-" He blinked. "I wasn't aware that you had them in your custody, sir."

"Harker," Caradoc said. "You read international news lately?"

"Er...no?"

"Marcel's dead. Most likely because of his connection to the Cabal. They might be coming after you next."

"Mr. Harker will be protected," Sarcos said. "No assassin can get through the security here."

"Who's Marcel?" Harker asked.

"He's an associate of Garth Hendricksen, who's the guy that bought out all your mercenaries."

"And?"

"They're going to kill you, Desmond," Gawain said. "Don't trust Sarcos. If they can go up against us, they can go up against SMAW."

"Boring!" Sarcos exclaimed. "Are you done? I wanna know about Kingsman."

"Wait," Caradoc said. "What do you do here?"

"Logistics. Sometimes our products need to be moved quickly around the country or around the world, and I manage all of that."

"Oh, yes," Sarcos said. "We're an arms company. Not one of the biggest yet, but we're growing every day. You might have seen some of our products on the market."

"Can I leave?" Harker said. "Gotta deal with Australian tariffs."

"You may," Sarcos said. "Now, Mr. Beumers, it's your turn. What's Kingsman and why do they oppose the Cabal?"

"We don't oppose the Cabal; they oppose us."

"You didn't answer the first part of the question."

Ding.

Harker was thrown across room as the elevator doors opened and an umbrella entered the edge of Caradoc's vision. Sarcos whipped his pistol towards the door, and-

He was smashed against his desk as a rubber projectile hit him in the middle of the head, knocking him out cold.

Galahad fired two more times, stunning each of the security personnel in the room. Once they were all unconscious, he crouched behind Gawain.

Caradoc felt his own zipcuffs sliced open, and he massaged his wrists. "Thanks."

"The hell happened?" Lancelot asked, drawing her pistol and heading over to Sarcos. "How'd you get here?"

"He tranqued us," Gawain said. "We didn't stand a chance."

"His security sucks," Galahad said. "How the hell did he get the jump on you?"

"He was waiting for us," Caradoc said. "Let's go down."

"Not a choice, I'm afraid." Lancelot tapped the LCD screen above the call button. "Someone's coming up."

"Maybe not to this floor."

"This elevator only goes three floors: lobby, this floor and the penthouse. So they're probably coming here."

"We sort of shot up the lobby," Galahad added.

"So how are we gonna get down?" Gawain asked.

"That's why I brought this." Galahad picked up a long black metal tube lying in front of the closed elevator doors. "Carbon fibre wire. We'll rappel down the side."

"What if they cut the rope?"

"It's carbon fibre. They're gonna need a power saw" He raised an eyebrow at Lancelot. "Shall we?"

"Gimme." She had out a hand.

Galahad tossed the tube to her, and she opened the lid to reveal a thin, coiled-up wire with claws at both ends. She threw one end at Caradoc. "Try that wall."

Caradoc stared at the wire. "I really hope you're right." He pried each of the claws apart, before holding it against the wall.

The metal claws dug into the wall, holding it in place. "This still doesn't look safe."

Gawain ripped off each guard's jacket and tossed one to each of them. "We don't do safe, Dirk."

"Ready?" Galahad asked.

"Don't be silly, Eggsy," Lancelot said. "Of course they're ready." She grabbed the globe from Sarcos' table and wrapped the other end of the claw around it. With a flourish, she tossed it through the window.

"Allons-y!" Galahad exclaimed, gripping the wipre with both hands through the jacket he had and leaping off the side of the building.

Caradoc stared at the edge where he used to be. "Roxy, you next?"

"Why don't you go next?" Lancelot said.

"It doesn't look safe."

"Our job is anything but that. Off you go."

Caradoc took a deep breath, and wrapped the jacket around the wire, gripping it through the soft material. "Aw, fuck," he said, and ran off the side.

The wind assaulted his face from below as fell a short distance, and then the friction slowed him down. He planted both feet on the glass windows on the side of the building, halting his descent. Caradoc took a step backwards, and he fell an according distance.

"Not so bad, eh?" came Lancelot's voice through the glasses. "Just keep moving; Valerie's going next."

He continued walking backwards down the building as Valerie jumped, taking a standing position far higher than where he had done.

Lancelot came down last, pointing her TT-30 at the ledge. The head of a guard popped out, and her gun went off once.

The guard fell over, past her, Gawain, and then Caradoc, trailing blood from the neat bullethole in his head.

"Dirk!" Galahad called over the intercom. "Your shoes are different, right?"

"Yeah?" He looked down at Galahad. "Why?"

"Use them now! We got company!"

True to his words, guards were backing out of the building's lobby and onto the square outside, looking up.

Caradoc clicked his heels together.

A small sphere dropped out of the bottom of his left shot, and fell to the ground beneath them. A smoke cloud blossomed out of it, obscuring the guards.

"Slide now!" Galahad commanded, and pushed with both feet off the windows, sliding down towards the smoke.

Sighing, Caradoc did the same.