The Death Relic (42 page)

Payne kept that in mind as he moved in. ‘Drop the weapon!’

She scoffed at his request. ‘You’ve got to be shitting me.’

‘Drop the weapon,’ Jones echoed.

‘Seriously? You
still
don’t trust me?’

Payne moved closer. ‘Can’t afford to. We saw you in action.’

She smiled at the compliment. ‘What can I say? This isn’t my first rodeo.’

Jones took aim. ‘It will be your
last
rodeo – unless you drop your weapon.’

‘Wow! You guys are so serious. I thought you’d be more fun.’ She tossed her weapon to the ground and calmly raised her hands. ‘I’d heard that you were fun.’

‘From who?’

‘I told you, Jon. I’m not at liberty to say.’

The comment pissed Payne off. He charged forward and frisked her. Then he pushed her roughly onto the pyramid steps. Still keyed up from the battle, he was sick of her games.

‘I’m about to get a lot less fun,’ he assured her.

‘Damn! What’s your problem?’

‘My problem?’ Payne yelled. ‘Several tourists are dead because of you. Several more are injured because of you. And now you’re going to force me to kick the shit out of you to get some answers. Unless, of course, you want me to skip the beating and go right to torture.’

She laughed it off. ‘You won’t torture me.’

‘Really? I saw what you did to Angel. Did it work?’

Jones chimed in. ‘Do the Stick Trick. That
always
works.’

She glanced at Jones. ‘The
what
?’

Payne smiled. It was a tactic from the Vietnam War that involved a bullet hole and a very sharp stick. ‘Can’t. She doesn’t have an open wound.’

Jones grinned. ‘No problem. I’ll give her one.’

Before Payne could respond, Jones fired a single round into the pyramid. The bullet hit the steps a few feet above Tiffany’s head. The shot was so close that she felt the sting of debris on the back of her neck. She jumped in alarm, stunned that he’d actually fired his gun.

‘What the fuck? I’m not the enemy!’ she screamed.

‘How do we know? You won’t tell us who you work for.’

‘You
know
who I work for. Hamilton told you who I work for.’

‘Tell us yourself. Or I’ll fire again.’

‘Fine! I work for the
CIA
, just like Hamilton said.’ She checked the back of her neck for blood. ‘Are you happy now? Or do you need me to spell it for you?’

Jones growled. ‘Wait! What are you suggesting? That black people can’t spell CIA? You racist, redheaded spook. I ought to kill you just for that.’

Payne nodded in agreement. ‘She deserves it.’

Jones fired again. This time even closer.

‘Stop doing that!’ she screamed.

Jones shook his head. ‘Not until you tell us.’

‘Tell you what?’

Payne answered. ‘Who is running your op?’

She took a deep breath and nodded. It wouldn’t hurt to tell them a little more, especially this late in the game. ‘I don’t know his name. I swear to God I don’t. But his codename is Explorer. He says he knows you from back in the day.’

‘From where?’ Payne demanded.

‘How the fuck should I know? Your records are sealed, and he wouldn’t tell me.’

Payne shook his head. ‘Not good enough.’

‘Sorry, Jon. It will have to do, because that’s all I know about him. If you want to know more, you can ask him yourself. He should be here any minute.’

‘You’ve been saying that since the camp ground.’

‘What can I say? The guy is late. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s waiting for the fireworks to die down. He’s not the type to get his hands dirty, so to speak.’

She punctuated her comment with a smile, as if she’d made a joke that they would eventually understand. It was a feeling they didn’t enjoy. Normally they were the ones making the jokes. Not the other way around.

‘What’s so funny?’ Jones insisted.

‘Nothing,’ she assured him. ‘But if I were you, I’d round up Ulster and Pelati. Once Explorer arrives, we’ll need to clear out of here in a hurry.’

Payne laughed. ‘Clear out? We’re not going anywhere with you.’

She shrugged. ‘Suit yourself. If you’d rather stick around and explain to the Federales what happened here, that’s fine with me. I’m sure they’ll let you go with a warning.’

Jones cleared his throat. He hated to side with Tiffany, but it was a valid point. They needed to clear out
ASAP
. ‘Jon, she’s right. We don’t want to be here when the cops arrive. I’m not saying we have to go with her, but—’

‘Quiet!’ Payne ordered. He turned his ear towards the sky.

‘Damn, dude. You don’t have to yell at me.’

Payne ignored him. ‘Can you hear that?’

‘Hear what?’ Jones demanded.

He frantically searched the clouds. ‘Listen!’

Payne stepped away from the pyramid to identify the source of the sound. But the scope of the building was messing with the acoustics. ‘Is that a chopper?’

Jones listened. He heard a distant rumble. ‘Sounds like it.’

She leaned back on the steps, cocky. ‘Told you he was coming.’

Payne scanned the horizon. ‘You never mentioned a chopper.’

She laughed. ‘Did you think we were going to take a bus? Come on, Jon. Get serious. We’re going to fly out before the Federales arrive.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘Speaking of which, that should be any minute now. If I were you, I’d get my friends.’

Jones looked to Payne for instructions. ‘Jon?’

Payne continued to listen. The sound was getting closer. It was definitely a helicopter. ‘Get Petr, but stay hidden. There’s no telling who’s coming for us.’

Jones sprinted towards the east side of the plaza, where Ulster was hiding behind the Temple of the Warriors. Maria was much closer. She was waiting near a small ruin called the Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars. It was between the Great Ball Court and the west side of El Castillo. She would remain there until Payne or Jones signalled for her to come over. After the violence of the past few minutes, she was inclined to follow their orders.

Payne stared at Tiffany, trying to read her face. ‘If you’re lying to me, I’ll gun you down before your buddy in the chopper has a chance to take me out. You know that, right?’

‘Trust me,’ she said to him, ‘he’s
not
my buddy. In fact, I have a strange feeling that he told Angel where I was hiding.’

The comment piqued Payne’s interest. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘Why? Because Angel found me in the middle of nowhere in less than a day. He couldn’t have tracked me without help.’

‘We found you.’

She laughed. ‘No, you didn’t. You found
Hamilton
, and only because I sent you an invitation. You wouldn’t have found him if I didn’t want you to.’

‘Maybe Angel followed the same trail.’

‘What trail is that? There’s no connection between Hamilton and me. Absolutely none. Angel would have had no reason to check Hamilton’s credit card. Not like you.’

‘Then how’d he find you?’

‘Someone sent him my picture.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Angel told me before his, um, accident. I checked his phone and confirmed it. He had several photos of me at the campsite, taken with a telephoto lens.’

‘And you think your buddy sent them?’

‘I told you, he’s
not
my buddy. And yes, I think he sent them.’

‘Why would he do that?’

‘Why? Because he doesn’t like loose ends, and Angel was a dangerous loose end. Hell, I didn’t even know the bastard was alive until I saw him here. I thought I’d killed him yesterday. My guess is Explorer put Angel on my scent, so we could take him out together.’

Payne furrowed his brow. ‘Together?’

She nodded. ‘Why do you think he brought you to Mexico? He viewed you as the ultimate safety net. If anything slipped through the cracks, he knew you and Jones would handle it. And you did. You cut down Angel’s army in less than twenty minutes.’

‘No one brought us to Mexico. We came here on our own.’

She laughed. ‘You still don’t get it, do you? Explorer has been playing you from the very beginning. He knows you, Jon. He knows how you think. You, Jones, Ulster, Pelati. He needed your help, so he brought you here, one after another.’

Payne glanced at the sky. The chopper was approaching.

‘Bullshit! No one knows us like that.’

‘Really? Then how did I know when you’d show up? How’d I know how to lure you here? I didn’t plan that shit on my own. Explorer told me what to do and when to do it.’

Payne tried to connect the dots, but things weren’t clicking.

‘Think about it,’ she said. ‘He enticed Maria with a job offer. Six hours later, Hamilton was gone, her passport was missing and she had no one to turn to except …’

‘Me.’

‘Actually, no. When he monitored her calls, he thought she would call
Jones
, not you. He screwed that one up. But you two are connected at the hip, so he knew both of you would come running.’

Payne grimaced. That’s exactly what they had done.

She continued. ‘Without her passport, Maria couldn’t leave the country. Then again, even if she could, she wouldn’t abandon Hamilton because of her daddy issues. Explorer knew that if Maria was given a father figure, she would cling to him like a baby on a tit.’

‘Hamilton was in on this?’

‘Not knowingly,’ she admitted. ‘When I picked him up in Cancún, he honestly thought his life was in danger. And just so you know, he was asking about Maria the entire time. He truly was concerned for her safety.’

‘Great. I’ll be sure to tell her.’

‘Please do. That girl has enough problems already.’

The helicopter was ready to land. He only had time for a few more questions, so he changed the topic. ‘What about Petr?’

‘What about him? We knew you’d call Ulster about the artefacts in the trunk. He’s your go-to guy when it comes to history. We also figured he’d hop on a plane to give you a hand. And guess what? We were right.’

‘But why? Why do you want us here?’

She shrugged. ‘Unfortunately, that question is above my pay grade. I have no idea what he has in store for you. But I’ll admit, I’m kind of curious. I’m assuming it’s something big.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Why? Because Explorer used every trick in the book to assemble four of the top people in their fields, and he did it without you even knowing. Why go to all of that trouble unless it’s to conceal something huge?’

Payne stared at her, suspicious. For someone who had been unwilling to talk up until now, she was suddenly a fountain of knowledge. ‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘Because Explorer sold me out. I
know
he sold me out. He led Angel here and didn’t have the decency to warn me. A guy like that can’t be trusted.’

‘And I can?’

She nodded. ‘Pardon me for saying this, but there are a lot of soldiers in the world who are ex-Special Forces. Maybe they aren’t as good as you, but they’re pretty damn close. And I should know because I’ve worked with some of them.’

‘What’s your point?’

‘Explorer brought you here for a reason. My guess is
trust
.’

‘Trust?’

‘Even though he deceived you – even though he fed you a bunch of lies to get you here – he still feels he can trust you. That tells me a lot. That tells me I can trust you, too.’

‘He trusts me to do what?’

She shrugged. ‘You’ll have to ask him that yourself.’

Payne’s head was spinning from everything Tiffany had told him. At first, he had doubted that anyone could know him well enough to predict his every move, but when she broke things down for him, step-by-step, it sounded within the realm of possibility. Maria had turned to him and Jones for protection. Then the three of them had turned to Ulster for help with the artefacts. In less than a weekend, Explorer had assembled a top-notch team simply by pulling their strings.

Payne didn’t know whether to be pissed off or impressed.

Just to be safe, Payne decided to meet Explorer alone. If he turned out to be someone from Payne’s past, then he wanted to deal with him on the chopper before Jones, Maria and Ulster learned his identity. The
CIA
was known for its elaborate missions, sometimes leaving sleeper agents in the field for decades before they were called into action, but this was something different. At least sleeper agents were
agents
. They were trained to do the assignment the Agency had given to them, even if it occurred years after their placement. But this? In addition to
not
being agents, Maria and Ulster weren’t even American.

Why had Explorer lured them here? What was his end game?

Payne was eager to find out.

He waited for the dark-green utility helicopter to land on the eastern side of the pyramid before rushing to greet it. He used one hand to shield his eyes from the dirt and sand that was kicked up by the chopper. He used the other hand to hold the assault rifle. If he sensed trouble of any kind, he was more than willing to open fire – if for no other reason than to give his friends more time to slip away.

The rear cabin door slid open, revealing an older man in khaki pants and a short-sleeved shirt. Aviator sunglasses covered his eyes. The man, concerned with Payne’s mood, raised his hands and waved. Not only to greet Payne, but to let him know that he was unarmed. It was a gesture Payne did not return. There would be no kindness until he knew what was going on.

Instead of leaving the helicopter, the man backed inside and took a seat on one of the three benches. The rest of the cabin was empty. Other than the pilot, who remained in the cockpit, no one else was on board. Payne made sure before he climbed inside. Only then did he focus on the man. Although his face looked familiar, Payne couldn’t quite place it until the man took off his sunglasses and flashed a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile. Then everything clicked.

It was Dr Charles Boyd, Maria’s one-time mentor.

A man who had lived a double life for decades.

A spy who had been outed by Payne and Jones.

Payne groaned in recognition. ‘Son of a bitch.’

Boyd’s smiled wider. ‘Hello to you, too.’