Matt Archer: Redemption (16 page)

“God, Matt. Who?”

What undid me was how sorry he sounded—not angry, or disappointed. Sorry and worried. My voice shook as I said, “Dorland, sir. I had my back turned and I tried to get to him in time and I … ”

“Hey, that’s all you have to say. I’ll take care of the rest,” he said. “You sound like you could use some sleep.”

“Maybe,” I mumbled. I
did
need sleep, but I knew I’d end up with nightmares. “I’m sorry, Uncle Mike.”

He sighed. Using his name instead of calling him Colonel told him how shaky I was. “I am, too, for putting you in this position. The bad news is that we need you in Turkey now. And after that, Rome. The calls are coming in from all directions. As much as I want you to have a little time, there isn’t any.”

And I couldn’t explain it wasn’t only Dorland’s death that had me rattled. “I understand, but I need some extra hands. Have anybody to spare?”

“Let me make some calls, but I think we can free up a few people,” he said. “The general and I will write up your orders tonight. Until then, hang in there for me, okay?”

“Okay. Everyone else good so far?”

“So far. Ramirez hasn’t made contact yet, but it sounds like Julie is kicking ass and taking names in Scotland.” He sounded really proud. “Something was climbing out of the slime at Loch Ness, and she was there, waiting for it.”

I smiled. Aunt Julie was probably having the time of her life, finally able to fight,
and
she took out the Loch Ness monster? Badass wasn’t a good enough nickname. “That’s awesome.”

We talked about a few logistical things, then hung up. I decided to take his advice and collapsed on my bed, thinking I’d call Ella while we were traveling, when I was in a better place.

As soon as I got comfortable, though, the phone rang.

It was Mamie.

Chapter Eighteen

“Did I wake you up?” my sister asked right off. “I had this feeling I needed to call you, even though it’s nearly eleven there.”

“How’d you know I wasn’t out hunting?” I asked. “No, wait, don’t answer that.”

She laughed. “Did you find the sewer?’

I closed my eyes and rolled onto my side. “Yeah.”

I could almost see the light in her eyes drain away. “What happened?”

“We lost Dorland. Tall black guy, always with a big smile. You saw him in D.C. He was our ordnance specialist.” I shrugged down in bed until I was cocooned in the blankets. “Best grenade man we ever had.”

“I remember him. He seemed nice,” Mamie said. “I’m sorry.”

“It happens.” And would happen again. That’s what hurt. “We found what we were looking for, though, on both counts. Took out all the snakes and found a new piece of the puzzle.”

“Tell me.”

I sighed. How much would I tell her? How much
should
I tell her? “More prophecy stuff. A pair of old snake charmers had a message for me.”

I told her what the old man said, not sparing any detail on the prophecy itself, because I knew she needed the information. It might be the one piece that cracked the code and helped us find and defeat the Shadow Man.

Once I finished, she was quiet for a long while. “Sis, you there?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, just wondering.”

A longer silence. I didn’t know if I was supposed to say something, or if we were done, but then she spoke.

“Matt, this makes everything harder. If the spirits have to be broken—”

“I know.”

“I want you to listen to me.” Her voice was intense, like she was willing me to absorb every word and carve them on my heart. “Remember who you are. No matter what happens, or what you have to do, remember you’re an Archer. There’s power in that. Strength, too. Mom and Dad gave us gifts, but Dad especially. Use what he gave you.”

I thought I might understand what she meant. “Go cold, like he does when he’s working? Focus and let everything else slide?”

“No,” she said forcefully. “Use his gifts of observation, his strength.” She sniffled and was choked up when she went on. “Don’t forget who
you
are, though, or why you’re called to do this. Understand? It’s dark out there, and the road ends in only one place. Follow the road, and don’t lose the way.”

The tears were bad enough, but her words threw me over the edge. She was telling me to stay the course, like Uncle Mike had.

No matter where that road ended.

“Mamie, I—”

“Just remember. No matter how bitter it gets before the end, do what you have to do—no regrets—and remember we love you. That I love you. Always. Your blood is mine.”

I rolled onto my back, nearly breathless with heartache. My sister was letting me go. Not because she wanted to, but because she thought she had to. That hurt, but not for me. It hurt for every person we’d lose before the end.

Maybe even me.

That didn’t scare me—I’d do what I had to, but the thought of what it’d do to Mamie, to Mom, to Ella. I almost couldn’t stand it.

It took everything I had to say, “I love you, too, Sis. I’ll remember, I promise. But I need a favor from you.”

“Anything,” she murmured.

“Tell all of them I wanted to do the family proud. Dad especially, okay? And make sure Ella knows, when the time comes, that … ” Everything felt too big, like I had to make my whole life’s decisions right this second because it might be my only chance. “Tell her I would’ve married her.” I paused to force down emotions that threatened to undo me. “If something happens to me, I want her to know it wasn’t just for now. It was forever, at least for me.”

“I think she already knows,” Mamie said. “But I understand.”

“Thanks.”

We sat quiet again. I knew my end wasn’t coming tomorrow—Tink had shown me that all those years ago in the rainforest that the end came in the desert somewhere—but for some reason, saying goodbye seemed too permanent.

“I need to sleep,” I finally said. “I’m going to Istanbul tomorrow.”

“You get all the cool places,” Mamie said, a hint of a smile in her voice. “Oh! Do me a favor. Hug—wait, I’ll let you be surprised.”

“Surprised at what?”

“Hey, playing ‘I know something you don’t know’ is the only perk that comes with my particular gift,” she said, smug. “Enjoy your surprise.”

Her teasing lightened my mood and a huge weight lifted from my chest. She shared my secrets; it was enough. “Wilco.”

“’Night, Matt.”

“Goodnight.”

As I drifted off to sleep, I thanked whoever was listening up there for letting me have the best sister in the universe.

* * *

We landed in Istanbul early the next evening. Istanbul Atatürk Airport was bustling with people but no one noticed us because Lanningham had suggested we travel in civilian clothes, rather than BDUs. Not standard protocol, but when we made it to a cab without so much as a second glance from anyone, I had to admit it was a brilliant idea.

Taskim Square, the heart of the city—or so Davis’s intel report said—was where we were to meet up with our reinforcements. They’d be waiting at a hotel. He didn’t specify who would be there, which made me wonder if Mamie had told everyone to keep me in suspense.

Uncle Mike would totally agree to that.

Lanningham tipped the driver and we went inside an older hotel with worn furniture and a marble-topped reception desk in the lobby. While he and Blakeney checked in, I wandered to the small coffee bar around the corner, then stopped short, staring at the two very familiar men smiling back at me.

“When the colonel said he was sending me some help, I didn’t think he’d pull you guys!” I said.

Captain Johnson’s laugh rumbled the tiny coffee cups on the table. “Well, my wielder is in good hands with Nguyen. They’ll be done in Taipei and on their way to China in a few days anyway, so I thought I’d join your party instead.”

Happy as I was to see him, a tiny part of me felt like a failure. Uncle Mike might’ve sent him because he realized I needed a senior officer to run the show. “Cool, but that doesn’t explain why Jorge is here.”

His intense eyes met mine. “Budapest didn’t take much time.”

By himself. He took out all the monsters in Budapest by himself—in only a few days. “What did you find out there?”

He snorted, almost sounding offended. “Giant moths. I mean, really, what’s the fun in that? They did have fangs and stingers, but still.”

I burst out laughing at the thought of him running around with a butterfly net and his knife. “The snakes were a little more nasty.”

“So I understand,” he said with an understanding nod. “The colonel said if the two of us paired up, we could probably clean out most of continental Europe in the space of a week.”

Nice cover for sending reinforcements. I couldn’t let that bother me, though. “So what are we after here?”

Now Johnson sighed. “I got the intel from Davis. Rats, Archer. We’re hunting rats.”

“Eight-foot long, four-hundred pound rats that can walk on their hind legs, I’m guessing?”

He picked up his phone and squinted at the screen. “Only seven feet long. But they have the most gnarly barbs on their tails. Like machetes.”

This sounds entertaining,
Tink chirped.
Dangerous on both ends.

I groaned. “Fun. Let me go change into some BDUs, then we can go scouting.” On my way back to the lobby, I paused. “What were the Taipei monsters like?”

“Lord almighty, I’ve never seen anything like them. Some mix of lobster, slug and octopus. Defied explanation.” He held up his phone. “I have pictures if you really want to know.”

“Forget I asked.”

“Asked what?” Johnson called at my back.

Precisely. Because for now, giant rats were more than enough to think about.

* * *

Eighteen days later, I sat on a bench near Notre Dame in Paris. Every joint ached and a patchwork of bruises, stiches and scrapes marked my skin. “A week, my ass,” I muttered at a few pigeons picking at crumbs on the sidewalk.

A shadow fell over me. Funny how such a small man could cast such a large shadow. Jorge came around to the front of the bench and lowered himself slowly, wincing. “I think the colonel underestimated the infestations out here.”

“I’m glad he teamed us up, though,” I said. “Trying to divide and conquer might’ve been a disaster.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” He frowned up at the roof of Notre Dame. “Those gargoyles were a true pain in the posterior.”

“I fought rock monsters once before, but they were slow, stupid and had a nice, easy target under their arms.” At the time, it hadn’t seemed easy, but I was more battle-tested now. “Fast, flying stone monsters? God, I thought we’d never get that last one.”

“Me neither.” He sighed. “I sent the others back to the hotel to sleep for a while.”

“You settle up with the Cardinal?”

“To the extent I could. Wrecking a third of one of the world’s most famous churches didn’t endear me to him very much.”

“How soon before the press gets here?”

He shrugged. “Not long, I suppose. We should get back.”

We both rose, but it cost us. I groaned and threw the last of my croissant at the birds. “Bon appetit.”

Catching the metro seemed like too much work, so Jorge hailed a cab. The driver looked us over. “Wielders, oui?”

“Oui,” we grunted in unison. We’d heard that exact question fourteen times in the last twenty hours.

“The ride is on the house,” he said in passable English. “And I’ll not tell a soul where you are going.”

“Thanks.” I told him which hotel—a small one near the Arc de Triomphe. No more five-stars for us since Marrakech. I spent the rest of the ride with my head leaned against the headrest and my eyes closed.

Jorge nudged me awake when we arrived. All I wanted was a really hot shower and my bed. This was supposed to be the last hot spot in Europe, and I hoped that meant I’d get a short furlough before Uncle Mike sent me anywhere else. The thought of Ella’s lips against mine was the only thing that could force me to crawl out of the cab.

We’d barely made it into the lobby, though, when we found Johnson waiting for us. Dark spots smudged the skin under his eyes, which were bloodshot.

“Heard from the colonel,” he said. “Jorge, he asked if you would go to Alaska and meet up with Ramirez. Apparently the monsters from Vancouver have cousins up in the tundra somewhere. They’ve torn up two entire villages—sixty-eight dead or missing—and are en route to Anchorage.”

Jorge shot him a baleful look—it was Alaska in November, after all—but nodded. “I assume I can sleep a few hours before flying out?”

“Yeah, you don’t leave until early evening.”

“And us?” I asked, getting the sinking feeling I wouldn’t be going home anytime soon.

Johnson gave me a pat on the back that nearly sent me to my knees. “We’re going to China.”

Chapter Nineteen

Excitement mixed with wariness and a good shot of dread danced the tango in my stomach as the plane touched down in Bejing. We weren’t staying here, because after nearly a month of urban warfare, we were going back to our roots—jungles, forests and villages. The things we were searching for out here had gone to ground far from the main population. We aimed to keep it that way.

The plane taxied to the jetway and I stood as soon as the seatbelt light dinged. “That was a long, long time to be on a plane.”

Johnson stretched. “Not as bad as Tokyo to L.A. but close.”

“We still have another three hour flight to go, though.” I looked out the little window. “Pretty foggy. I’m surprised they let us land.”

He laughed. “That’s not fog. It’s smog. Welcome to the air pollution capital of the world.”

“That’s gross.” Good thing we weren’t staying. “At least we’re on the ground, right?”

“Hooah,” Blakeney murmured, collecting his stuff. After three weeks of travel and fighting, he was a little worse for wear.

We all were.

What I didn’t know was whether Will would be meeting me, or if it would be someone slightly less welcome: my father. I still hadn’t heard from him. D. C. had been half-demolished—I thought that might rank a phone call, but apparently not.