Rogue Angel 50: Celtic Fire (20 page)

Chapter 40

Traffic was backlogged more than a mile as the queue to the ferry terminal ground to a halt.

Annja was glad that they had set off early, not that it looked like it was going to make a lot of difference. She glanced in her wing mirror to see that Garin was still a couple of cars behind her and not moving, just as he had been for the past half an hour. Things would start moving when they opened the ferry doors, no doubt. They’d decided that it would be best if they arrived separately on the off chance Awena wouldn’t realize Garin was there. They didn’t know how much she really knew about their team; it was unlikely Roux had betrayed them with any meaningful details, but she could have been watching them a lot longer than they’d suspected. There was no telling what precisely there was left in the whole element-of-surprise department, but there was no point simply assuming the worst.

They had two cars, so use two cars. It was as simple as that, really.

She edged forward another car’s length in the time it took for the DJ on the radio to spin another track, then another during the news bulletin as the queue slowly eased forward.

It was still going to be a while before she reached the front but at least she was moving.

The clock on the dash flashed 12:03. She had less than an hour until the rendezvous.

She regretted giving in to Garin’s demand that they should eat before they left the hotel.

That plate of greasy breakfast could prove to be the difference between a decent recon and going in blind. It was stupid walking into a prearranged meet with no idea what was waiting for you. This was Awena’s meet. She’d chosen the place for a reason. Annja didn’t know what that reason was, which meant that Awena had at least one trump card if not all of them in her deck. She knew something about the site that they didn’t. Local knowledge.

Her phone lay on the passenger’s seat beside her. She kept glancing across at it in case it was ringing and for some reason she couldn’t hear it. There was a lot of noise around her, not just the incessant blather of the DJ, who seemed intent on proving he was the funniest man alive with the aid of prerecorded skits.

It wasn’t a watched pot that would never boil; it was going to ring. And the closer it got to the allotted time, the more likely it was to happen.

Two more songs, a few more yards of ground crept across.

It rang.

Annja snatched it up.

“I can see you,” Awena said.

“Hard not to, I’d think,” Annja replied.

“Quite. Coward’s yellow. Follow the signs to the short-term parking lot and wait for me to call you back.” She held on for a response. The phone went dead. She hadn’t asked if she had the mantle. Annja had been prepared to lie if the question was raised.

A car behind sounded its horn; the cars in front of her had moved up, opening a gap between them.

Annja raised a hand in apology to the driver behind her, then muted the radio and called Garin, using the hands-free speaker to try and hide the fact she’d made the call.

“She made contact?” he asked.

“Yep. Short-term parking and wait for her to make contact again.”

Despite the hands-free precaution, she didn’t want to stay on the line too long. There was every chance Awena could see her, not just the car, and talking to herself wasn’t exactly normal behavior.

“I’ll keep eyes on you. Don’t do anything stupid. I won’t be far away if you need me.”

“Nothing stupid apart from getting out of the car to meet a woman who’s just kidnapped Roux and has already tried to kill me once this week.”

“Right, nothing stupid.” He killed the call from his end.

She followed the sign for the short-term parking. It led her away from the ramps where most of the cars were crawling single file. Cargo bay doors of the ferry that would transport them over the Irish Sea to Dublin were now open.

Rather than take the first vacant spot she saw, Annja carried on to the end of the first row and around onto the second before she reversed into a spot there.

It gave Garin the chance to park close enough to maintain eye contact and put her near the terminal building.

She left the engine running.

She couldn’t see anyone in the surrounding cars. She couldn’t obviously see Awena on either the roof or observation deck of the terminal building, either. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. She had to assume Awena Llewellyn could see her and knew she’d parked.

So why wasn’t she calling?

Perhaps the delay was because she’d moved beyond her eyeline? It wouldn’t be easy to find a vantage point that allowed full three-sixty coverage of the lot and the surrounding network of roads and buildings. The place was a labyrinth of industrialization. There were buildings with tall chimneys and buildings sprouting communication masts and others that had huge steel roller doors and transit crates stacked up outside. There were a thousand places she could be hiding; none of them would allow her to see everything.

Annja shut off the engine and picked up her cell phone. Once she was outside of the car she leaned against the canary-yellow bodywork waiting for the woman to call.

The phone rang again.

“Stay where you are. I’m coming to you,” Awena said, and again Annja was left holding a dead line.

She leaned against the car, alert for any movement, looking around to see where the woman was coming from.

Garin had parked two bays over, and was facing her.

She tried not to look at him as she swept her gaze around the lot.

Even so, Awena had almost reached her before Annja realized it, clutching what could only be her sword. The blade was wrapped in a piece of sacking.

“Where is it?” Awena asked when she was close enough.

“Where’s Roux?”

“Show me the mantle.”

“We could do this all day. I’m not showing you the mantle until you prove to me that Roux’s unharmed.”

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Uh-uh, not going to happen. Where is he?”

“Fine.” Awena reached into her pocket and pulled out a ticket. “He’s on the ferry, fast asleep in the trunk of my car. You’re going to have to be quick if you’re going to get to him before the ship sails. This ticket is for you once I have the mantle. I told you, I’ve got no intention of hurting him.”

Annja snatched the ticket from her hand.

She didn’t hesitate; she ran between the parked cars, straight to where Garin was clambering out of his car. It wasn’t the smartest move tactically—she thought about disarming the woman, taking her down and making sure she couldn’t use the sword—but the cargo bay doors would be closing any minute and they needed to get to Roux.

“He’s on the ferry,” she told him, thrusting the ticket into his hand. “Get him. I’ll deal with her.”

Garin didn’t waste any time. With a squeal of tires on asphalt he reversed out of his space and cut across the lot, angling for the front of the snake of cars.

“You double-crossing bitch!” Awena screamed as she ran toward Annja, lips curled back in a feral snarl. “Where is it? Where is
my
mantle?”

“I don’t have it. I told you, it wasn’t there.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

Awena was right up in her face, inches from her, so close she could taste the sour reek of teeth that hadn’t been cleaned in a couple of days.

“Where is it?”

Annja said nothing.

“Where is the mantle?”

“I don’t have it,” Annja said again. “Look in the car for yourself. Go on. I haven’t got it. There was no cloak.” She stepped back to let the woman get through, but instead of leaning in to check the backseat for the treasure, she leaned in and brought her right arm up. She slammed her forearm into the burns on the side of Annja’s face and, as Annja stumbled back, shocked, drove a fist hard into the side of her head that sent Annja to the ground.

Awena stepped over her and delivered a rib-crushing kick.

It was a small mercy that she didn’t drop the muslin sacking from the sword and plunge it into Annja. Gasping for breath she struggled to get up as Awena ran off between the cars. Dazed, Annja crawled to the end of the car, only to be greeted by the blare of a car horn as she very nearly stumbled straight into its path.

She scrambled back to her feet, leaning on the nearest car, and scanned the lot for Awena Llewellyn, but there was no sign of her.

Instinctively, Annja’s gaze went to the wheels of the Porsche as she reached it, but they hadn’t been slashed.

As she stood there, a car roared past so close the wing mirror clipped her arm. Annja wrenched her arm away, wincing, and turned, catching a fleeting glance of the driver and the white-haired passenger in the backseat.

The passenger turned to look at her back through the rear window, face unreadable.

Roux.

Chapter 41

“She tried to
trick
me!” Awena screamed, slamming her fists on the wheel, then lashing out at the dashboard. Rage seethed through her. She wished she’d hit the woman harder, breaking something in her skull or chest, or just run her down. That would have been poetic. Annja could lay there in the street, her lifeblood leaking out, waiting for someone to come and save her, just like her father.

“Did she?”

“You know she did. You are in this together! That was the plan, wasn’t it? Fool stupid Awena...take advantage of me to get what you want. I should cut your lying tongue out. That would show you.”

“Honestly, what did you expect?” Roux asked.

“I expected her to be honorable. To do the right thing. I expected her to save you.”

“But think about it, Awena, if she’s telling the truth, how could she bring the Mantle of King Arthur with her if it wasn’t there?”

“Stop trying to confuse me, Roux. No one knew it was there. It had to be there.”

“People knew it was there, Awena. I knew it was there, you knew, your father—that’s three of us right there. And someone else knew. A friend of mine. It’s long gone. I should have known.”

“So where is it, then? Where is it if you’re so clever? Take me to it and I’ll spare your life.”

“I don’t know where it is, and the woman who I think moved it has been dead for years, so we can’t ask her.... It is lost to the world.”

“No!” Awena slammed the steering wheel hard, impact-pain shooting up her arm.

“I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”

“You lie so much you don’t even remember what the truth is,” she spat. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need it, anyway.”

“Don’t need it for what?”

She ignored his question, accelerating into the road and cutting straight across the line of traffic taking her away from the terminal.

“Your choice. If I tell you I will not be able to let you go. So, decide. I tell you my wicked plan, and you don’t get out of this car. Is that what you want?”

“No, that’s not what I want, Awena. I want everyone to walk away from this while they still can. There’s been enough dying to last a lifetime as far as I am concerned. Believe me, if Annja had the mantle she would have given it to you to free me, even if she knew that I wouldn’t have wanted her to. She’s like a willful child—she never listens to me.”

“You would rather die than let me have it?”

“Don’t take it personally,” Roux said. “I’d rather die than anyone have it, but then I’ve been alive a very long time, so that’s less impressive than it might sound. You need to understand, girl, these treasures are
dangerous.
They affect people, they change them. Look what they did to your father. You know he killed my friend, but you still remember the man who couldn’t hurt a fly. There’s nothing good that can come out of this. These are weapons from a bygone age. A time of blood and death. You shouldn’t wield that sword. No good will come of it.”

“I see things more clearly.”

“Do you? Are you sure about that?” Roux pressed.

She knew he was just goading her to put doubts in her head. She had no room for them. She was doing the right thing. She was righting a wrong that had festered for far too long.

She glanced in her rearview mirror. The canary-yellow Porsche was unmistakable. It wove in and out of traffic trying to get closer to them.

“She’s gaining on us,” Roux said.

“Then I’ll drive faster.”

“Not forever you won’t. You’re in a tortoise, and she’s in a hare.”

“So what, then? I just pull over and let you out? Or maybe I should jam the brakes on and let her rear end me, then get the sword and finish this once and for all, right here, right now. Is that better?”

“No. Slow down enough for her to get close. Stay near the verge. Let me jump. It’ll look like I’m escaping.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m giving you a chance to end this. She’ll stop to pick me up, and she won’t come after you.”

“She won’t come after me,” Awena repeated. It was a statement, not a question.

“Sooner or later you’re going to have to kill me or let me go. There’s no other conclusion to this. We all know that. So you may as well get it over with. I don’t think you want to kill me, so why not use me? Use my escape to buy you an advantage.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“Because I want to get out of the car alive. Does there need to be another reason?”

He was right. She’d gambled and failed. He wasn’t the key to getting the mantle because Annja Creed didn’t have it. She believed him when he said that the woman would have used it to save him. Why wouldn’t she? He was an old man. She’d come running the moment she thought he was in trouble. It wasn’t Roux’s fault. He could have made things considerably more difficult if he’d wanted to. He hadn’t tried to escape. He hadn’t fought her in any way. He’d been docile, waiting to allow the scene to play itself out. He had acted according to rules when there should have been none.

“Are you sure that she’ll stop for you?”

“I’ll make sure that she does. I’ll buy you time. I can’t promise that she won’t come looking for you, but you’ll have a head start. You have my word.”

“What about the sword? Are you just going to forget about it?”

“I already have,” Roux said.

For the very first time since she’d taken the old man prisoner she wasn’t sure she could believe him.

There was a bend up ahead as the road swept around to the right before leading to a junction. Beyond that there was a choice of several roads, meaning the opportunity to lose Annja Creed. She just wanted this over. It was never meant to be like this.

This wasn’t the life she’d always dreamed for herself.

But that life wasn’t gone for good.

She could still claim it, even if she let the old man go.

She touched the brake, slowing slightly.

“Be ready to jump,” she said. “And pray for a soft landing.”