Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [86]
“Where will you go?”
“After I leave you? Off to our processing facility. It’s even more impressive than this station. I wish you could see it, Annja, but I’m afraid the time has come for me to leave you in the very capable hands of my guards.”
The first guard started toward Annja while the second guard brought his gun up and leveled it on Annja’s head. He was too far away for Annja to smack it off-line and she had little choice but to accept the handcuffs that the first guard put on her wrists.
“This isn’t the last you’ll see of me,” Annja said.
Henderson nodded. “Yes, I know. You’ve got that dying urge to tell me how you’ll hunt me down and get your vengeance. Wonderful. Well, I look forward to it. And so, too, does Sheila, I’d expect.”
“What about these guys?”
Henderson nodded. “They’ll be fine.” He addressed the guards. “After you get her and the man positioned, take the second shark and rendezvous with me at the processing facility.”
They both nodded and then led Annja back up to the ladder and forced her to climb out of the submarine. The act was considerably tougher with her hands restricted, but fortunately, they’d cuffed her hands in front of her rather than behind.
The first guard nodded back at the sub. “He’s going to be harder getting out of there.”
“It was your idea to cuff his hands behind him,” the second guard said. “Have fun hauling his ass up here.”
The first guard left. Annja looked at the second guard, who stood next to her on the submarine. “Not very smart that guy, huh?”
“Shut up.”
“Just making small talk.”
“I said be quiet or I’ll shut you up.”
Annja nodded. “All right, then. I just can’t believe you guys are going along with this. All this destruction. People are going to die.”
“What the hell do I care?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you care?”
The guard looked at her. “You know what kind of life I had back in the States? I came home from Iraq and my government forgot about me. I lost my house and my car. Then my wife. It all went to shit because all I was good for was holding a gun and killing terrorists. No one cared. At least with Henderson there’s a chance of getting ahead.”
“But you’re still just toting a gun.”
“So what? I don’t care anymore.” He looked at her. “Now shut up. I don’t want to have to punch you in the face, but I will if you talk to me anymore.”
“All right, fine.” Annja fell silent and watched as a submarine she hadn’t noticed before drifted down a tunnel. “Is that the rest of the workers?”
“I said be quiet, lady.”
“Just wondering.”
“Yeah, okay? That’s them. That tunnel leads out of the cavern. And that’s where we’ll be heading once we finish strapping you and your friend to the bomb that Henderson had built for him.”
“Who built it?”
The guard chuckled. “Some Pakistani scientist who thought he was working for al Qaeda. It was actually pretty funny. Imagine his surprise when Henderson killed him after he took delivery of it.”
“Just a trail of bodies in Henderson’s wake, huh?”
She heard a noise and saw the top of Cole’s head appear out of the conning tower. The second guard helped him out and then the first guard emerged huffing and sweating after the exertion. “Well, that sucked,” he said.
“Help me get them ashore so Henderson can leave.” The second guard elbowed Annja. “Let’s get a move on.”
Annja walked over toward the gangplank, amazed that the sub had stayed close to the dock despite none of the ropes still holding it there.
As she came abreast of the gangway, Annja spotted a familiar face. Sheila was walking toward her. And the smile on her face was anything but friendly.
“Hiya, Sheila, sorry about the wrist.”
Sheila punched Annja in the gut. Annja retched and bent over, trying to get her wind back. When she came back up, Sheila was in her face. “I wanted to kill you myself. But Henderson insisted. Here’s the good news, though. I’m going back to the Seeker and I’m going to kill everyone on that damned boat. Hunter, Dave, Sammy, all the rest of them. And then I’m going to have a real nice