Chapter 10
"To Tristan," Arthur, the de facto leader of Kingsman, said, raising his glass of whiskey. He was an African-American man with dark hair and a lined face.
Gawain raised her glass to the holograms of the other agents from around the globe. "To Tristan," she repeated with the others. She tipped the whiskey back, letting it burn down her throat, and then set the glass lightly down on the dining table.
"As per regulations, each of you should send me a proposal for the next Tristan. Have them in New York HQ by the fifth of March, please. I'll see you all later."
Gawain removed her glasses, slipping them into her pocket. "I've nobody to recommend."
Caradoc put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to. I'll go through the list and pick two, if you want."
"No, no, I'll find someone. Tristan was a hell of an agent, wasn't he?"
"We all die at some point, Val. Nobody's invincible."
"But it's so easy to feel that way. We've bulletproof suits. Umbrellas that can fire shotgun shells and 9mms. It all seems a little far-fetched sometimes that one of us would just die."
"We can avenge him."
"And we will. But we can't make the same mistake again. From now on, we're going everywhere together, okay?"
"We can't do that all the time."
"We have to try." Gawain fiddled with the whiskey glass. "We can't let our guard down any more."
"Val-"
"Please, just do it, okay? If not for you, then for me."
Caradoc stood up. "I don't know. But I'm going to see Jonas. You coming?"
Gawain nodded, standing up and following him out of the dining room. They ascended the stairs, past the lab, where Oberon and Fischer were locked in a heated discussion about something they couldn't hear.
Jonas was on the bed, staring at the ceiling when they entered his cell. He sat up when he saw them, a hopeful look on his face.
"Who's your girlfriend?"
"Karlien. Karlien Ahlers."
"We'll protect her, don't worry," Caradoc said.
Gawain opened a link to Oberon via her glasses. "Hey, look up a Karlien Ahler for me, will you? Jonas says he'll co-operate if we get her to safety."
"Will do. Come see me in a few minutes," Oberon said.
She hung up.
"Tell me about the Frenchman," Caradoc said.
"He's fast. Really fast. And quiet. Uses a Beretta M9 with a silver silencer."
"That doesn't help much," Gawain said.
"He doesn't talk much. He's Garth's bodyguard or something."
"Whoever he is, we'll deal with him. What about Klaas? Whose side is he on?"
"I don't know. They've been keeping us separate ever since I...ever since I shot you. Sorry about that."
"It's fine; you had no idea what you were getting into. Who wouldn't take the opportunity for revenge?" Caradoc asked.
Gawain looked down at the floor. "Garth is a politician. He might be able to lie and cheat better than any of us here, but let's face it, he can't be the one organising this. He wouldn't know how to deal with us."
"I had that feeling too," Jonas said. "I see him with an earpiece sometimes."
"If we can get that earpiece off him, we can track it," Caradoc mused. "Maybe…I don't think you'll like this one bit, Val."
"What?"
"We let Jonas go back to Garth."
"What? No way. Not fucking way. He's going to rat on us."
"Let's talk somewhere else." Caradoc threw the door open and marched out, closing it when Gawain was in the corridor with him.
"I'm not letting the bastard out of my sight." She crossed her arms. "Not for a single fucking moment. He shot me and he killed Tristan."
"For the last time, Val, get your shit together!"
Gawain looked away. "It doesn't change what he did," she whispered, and hugged herself even tighter. Inside, she wanted to cry. But she couldn't. Not in front of Caradoc, and definitely not when she was going to see Oberon next.
She grit her teeth.
"But he did those things for a reason. Both times thanks to Garth."
Gawain gave him a dismissive wave. "I'm going to see Oberon," she said, before opening the lab door.
Fischer was tinkering with one of the cufflinks on the table, and looked up when she came in. "Oh, good morning, miss."
"Oberon."
The techie turned in his seat, his lips pursed. "Can we...can we talk for a moment? Like, alone?"
"Doc, out," she said.
Fischer gave her a confused look, and then scurried out through the door.
"I searched the database for Jonas' girlfriend."
"And what did you find?"
"I'm sure you recognise her." Oberon turned the screen towards Gawain, displaying the image of a girl in her twenties, with dark skin and cherry red lips. Cherry red lips that went well with the red dress Gawain had chosen for her.
"Oh, fuck me running."
"I need you and Dirk to secure her immediately. Before Sagramore finds out, that is."
"You haven't told him?"
"He'd freak out. You know how horribly he does under pressure. Look, you just need to grab her and take her to one of the safehouses downtown, alright?"
"You think Garth knows who we all are?"
"It's highly unlikely, but…"
"But what?"
"It means someone does. Valentine didn't know everything. He couldn't have told Garth everything about us."
"Exactly. So who's his boss?"
"I'm going to need a lot more information before I can tell you that. But right now you need to go and get Karlien."
Gawain nodded. "Fine. I'll get her to the one next to the theatre. Where's she?"
"Right now, her apartment. She just entered."
"Put it on Dirk's GPS."
The Frenchman never even looked away for a second, his eyes drilling into the back of Klaas' skull. "Are we ready?"
"Yes."
"Then do it."
Sighing, Klass gave the order.
They pulled into the parking lot just behind the apartment. "Looks cozy enough," Gawain said.
"Jonas is dating Sagramore's daughter?"
Gawain shrugged. She opened the door and jogged towards the fire escape stairs. She made her way up the partly rusted steps with the flaking dark green paint and to the third floor. There, she rapped her knuckles on the glass three times.
"Uh, Val..." Caradoc started.
The blinds were brushed aside by a Hispanic man holding an machine pistol.
She moved sideways, drew her own pistol and fired it through the window, into the man before falling flat against the fire escape.
Bullets tore through the window from inside.
"Val, catch!"
She turned and reached out just in time to catch her umbrella. With the flick of a latch, it blossomed open, and she stood up.
The gunfire from the men inside failed to penetrate the umbrella's canopy, and Gawain turned the handle setting to "shotgun". She pulled the latch again, blowing the men back against the other wall of the room.
Panicking, they filed out the door of the apartment.
Gawain looked down at Caradoc, who was parrying a soldier's combat knife with the sword Oberon had installed in his umbrella. She switched her own setting to "Lethal", and blew a hole in the soldier's chest.
Caradoc reassembled his umbrella. "I had him."
"No, you didn't." She jumped down to the second floor, then first, the onto the ground. "You're terrible at swordfighting."
"I know these men."
"Garth's?"
"No. Harker's. They're the ones who almost shot me dead when I went to ask about Jonas."
"They any good."
"Nah. Most of them are ex-military but we can probably kill an entire battalion."
"Karlien's not in her room."
"So either Oberon got it wrong, which I highly doubt, or they've already got her. How many inside?"
"There were four, I killed two. There's gotta be some out front."
"Let's pay them a visit." Caradoc pulled the trunk of his car open, revealing more mags for their TT-30 pistols nestled inside, next to a pair of HK416s and their spare clips. He handed one of the assault rifles to Gawain, with two extra magazines.
"Oh, my favourite." She pulled back the charging handle.
"Just let me lead, okay?"
"I'm feeling good today. Let me try." Without giving Caradoc any more time to speak, she stepped out from behind the corner they were parked in.
A soldier was in a similar position to her, poking his head around the corner.
Gawain flicked the fire mode to semi-automatic, and put a bullet in his head. Keeping one shoulder against the wall, she moved along it, Caradoc at her back.
At the corner, a soldier holding a combat knife jumped out, slashing. She ducked, feeling the knife whistle over her head, and rammed her shoulder into his abdomen, driving him backwards.
Caradoc ended him with two rounds through the chest.
Gawain leaned out of the corner, keeping her rifle aimed. She saw the barrel of a rifle poking slightly out from behind a pickup truck. "I only see one," she said, ducking back into cover with Caradoc. "Behind the truck."
"My turn to shine."
"Wait-"
Caradoc burst into action, sprinting out of cover and across the field of view of the hidden soldier. He made a sound Gawain could only describe as a giraffe with emphysema.
She leaned out again, and as expected, the soldier was taking aim at Caradoc. She fired a single bullet that missed his head, but blew throughout shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon.
Caradoc finally stopped making the painful noise, and hid behind a tree. Two more soldiers inched out from behind the truck, only to be blown apart by automatic fire from Gawain herself.
"Clear!" Caradoc shouted. "I don't see anyone else."
"Check that side, just in case," she ordered. She walked over to the truck, her gun aimed just in case.
The man she had shot in the shoulder was propped against the side of the truck, clutching his wound. "I surrender," he croaked weakly.
"Where's the girl?"
He shook his head. "Not here anymore."
She jammed the gun to the side of his head. "Where is she!?"
"I don't know."
She kept the gun there for a few moments, sighed and then swing it, slamming the rifle stock into his face. She turned around, just to see the front door opening, a soldier exiting the building.
Caradoc sprayed the man just as he came out, tearing him into a bloody mess. He jogged over to her. "You alright?"
She pushed him away. "I'm fine."
"Clearly, you're not. You're bleeding."
She followed his line of sight down to the edge of her lapel, where a dark red patch was spreading across her white shirt. "Must be the rolling, it's nothing." As the adrenaline cleared out of her system, she felt the headache-causing throbbing from under her ribs again. She sat down next to the unconscious men, and called Oberon over her spectacles.
"I saw everything. Already looking for her," Oberon said. "Don't worry, they can't have gone far in that amount of time."
"You got us the wrong intel."
"Sorry. Someone hacked the cameras and looped the after you left. Or at least, that's what I think happened."
She looked at Caradoc, who smiled. "I can understand that. Now get ba-"
"You're cracking up, Oberon."
He didn't reply.
"Oberon?"
She heard only gunfire. Automatic gunfire.