The Vagabonds (The Code of War Book 4) Read online

  Krieger frowned. He’d heard the name uttered a few times over the past few months. All the Peacemakers knew about this strange group of mercenaries was that they tended to pop up in war zones with heavy PMC activity.

  The General spoke quietly. “Go on.”

  Agrippina inhaled, “Ever since the invasion of Ascension Island, Olympus has maintained a presence in the country of Venezuela. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that they’ve signed a contract with the government forces to aid in their war against the civilian opposition. For a while now, the Vagabonds have been fighting a covert war to try and weaken the Olympus foothold within the country. Our leader has made it his mission to force Olympus from Venezuela, no matter what.”

  “Venezuela,” repeated Krieger, looking over at Brick, “Isn’t that where your lady friend Sarah Anders is working—”

  “Shut up Krieger,” Brick hissed.

  “This leader—” Walsh asked Agrippina, his voice guarded, “—what’s his name?”

  Agrippina smiled and said, “Lennox. Leo Lennox.”

  The General visibly blanched at the sound of the name.

  Brick looked to his CO. “General, does that name mean anything to you?”

  Walsh swallowed. “Did Lennox send you here?”

  Agrippina shook her head, “No. I came here because we lost contact with Lennox. There was an assassination attempt on his life two weeks ago.”

  “Assassination attempt?” Walsh repeated.

  Agrippina nodded, “He was investigating a man named Damien Sledge. I know you’ve heard of him.”

  Walsh nodded, “The billionaire aeronautical engineer. Of course I’ve heard of him.”

  “Lennox believed Sledge was supplying Olympus with some sort of secret munitions or something—he never found out what. Now, Lennox has withdrawn with most of his army somewhere into the cloud forests of Venezuela. I have no clue where he is or if he’s even still alive. Olympus has been hunting him relentless over the last few days.”

  “So why try to steal the Code?” Brick asked, obviously not trusting a word the cruel woman said.

  “Olympus has been plotting something huge over the past year,” Agrippina answered, licking her dry lips. “Whatever it is, they require the entire Code to make their plan work. Before he disappeared, Lennox told me to find the Code disc and bring it to him for safekeeping.”

  Brick raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean ‘entire Code’? The other disc was lost back in Kazinistan when we dropped you into that inferno.”

  Agrippina rolled her eyes, “Thanks for reminding me. Don’t you think that if I survived that fall, the other Code disc did too? If you can’t speak smart, then stop interrupting me, Bricktop.”

  Brick glowered angrily. Krieger had to hide a smile.

  A sound at the door of the brig caused everyone to turn. Orchid stepped into the room, having shed her silver skin and donned a simple set of fatigues. She took her place behind the Russian, her face impassive at the sight of the Olympus criminal. There was a brief moment when Agrippina’s eyes met the Japanese sniper. Krieger could feel the hate simmer between the two women. Orchid had not forgotten Agrippina’s betrayal back in Zimbala almost a year ago.

  Agrippina turned her eyes back to Walsh. “If I failed to capture the Code disc—which Lennox believed would be the likely outcome—I was to offer information to Joe Braddock to barter aid from the Peacemakers.”

  “Why does Lennox want the Code?” Brick asked, still puzzled, “In fact, how the bloody hell does he even know about the Code?”

  “Lennox knows more than you can ever imagine,” Agrippina answered, simply.

  Walsh took a step closer to the assassin and asked, “What information does Lennox wish to barter to Joe?”

  “Secrets—” the assassin replied, “—secrets about the Code of War, about Olympus and about an…acquaintance we all share. A man who once fought for you—” Agrippina’s eyes sparked, “—Danny Callbeck.”

  A jolt went through the Peacemakers. Walsh stepped forward angrily, saying, “Danny Callbeck is dead. The Centurion defector, Delacroix told Braddock he saw him die in an escape attempt.”

  Agrippina shrugged. “He lied, or he simply saw what Olympus wanted him to see. My money’s on the later. In any case, Danny Callbeck is very much still in this world...and only Lennox knows how to find him.”

  Brick, more puzzled than ever, asked, “Why would Olympus be keeping Danny alive?”

  Agrippina tossed her sweat-soaked hair behind her head. “That depends on your definition of alive. Callbeck was badly injured during the fight with Prometheus. Olympus has been performing experiments on him that in some way have to do with their new plan.”

  “…and what is this plan?” Walsh asked.

  “To raise the Fog of War, of course,” Agrippina replied, cryptically.

  Krieger was quickly losing his temper. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “I’m not saying any more than that,” Agrippina said, her manner becoming immediately frosty, “You stopped me from getting the Code. Fair’s fair. Now I’m offering you a chance to stop Olympus from what it is they’re plotting and retrieve your fallen comrade.”

  Krieger thought he heard a tremor of emotion in the assassin’s voice as she said those last few words.

  Orchid spoke for the first time, her voice heavy with anger, “Don’t trust her, General! She doesn’t care about us. Whatever she’s after, she will always be loyal to Olympus,” she sneered at Agrippina, “You have no honor, dog!”

  “Yes, I am a dog,” the assassin agreed, her eyes meeting Orchid’s without flinching, “But a dog is obedient to its master. Olympus is no longer mine. Lennox has my fealty now. And if we don’t find him soon, Olympus will and they’ll kill him. And if he dies—” Agrippina suddenly grew quiet.

  “What?” asked Walsh, “What happens if Lennox dies?”

  “Then the secret of the Code dies with him. He is the only one outside of the Olympus hierarchy who can tell you what its power truly is. He never told me or anyone else in his service. And Lennox will only tell the secret to Joe Braddock. Oh…and there’s one more thing.”

  Walsh raised his eyebrows. “Yes?”

  “You have to take me with you.”

  There were murmured guffaws from the group of Peacemakers.

  Brick scoffed. “General, you can’t seriously think we can trust—”

  Agrippina cut him off, “If I don’t go, Lennox will never reveal himself. Not even to Braddock. The man is cautious to a fault. I’m the only person here he…mostly trusts.”

  The room was silent for a few long seconds. The whole group seemed to mull over the incredible tale the harpy was spinning.

  Krieger broke the silence, “So…are mosquitoes still the size of birds in Venezuela or am I crazy?”

  The Peacemakers groaned in unison.

  Walsh brought things to an end. “Everyone outside—let’s get some air, I know I can use some.”

  AS THE team filed out, Orchid hung back for a moment. In front of her, the raven-haired assassin stood as defiant and haughty as ever, even in a state of submission. The sight of Agrippina was enough to break through Orchid’s normally cool demeanor. The two enemies eyed one another coldly before Agrippina’s silky voice broke the silence.

  “You want to kill me, don’t you Orchid? I can see it in your eyes.”

  “I can see right through you, Agrippina,” Orchid snapped, “You may trick them into trusting you, but I swear I never will.”

  “That may cause me some sleepless nights, Yuanza—I don’t know how I’ll cope.”

  “It should. You’re a warrior with no honor. And when the day comes, I will be there to put you down. I swear it!”

  “Are you done? Your friends are waiting.”

  Orchid saw Agrippina smirk from behind her black tresses. A desire to bash the assassin’s head into the cell floor flooded through the Asian sniper.

  Discipline. Remember your honor. Justice must
wait.

  Orchid took a deep breath and turned back to the door to join her comrades.

  Agrippina called after her, “Don’t take too long deciding. There’s a war waiting for us all, and I’d hate for you to be late to it!”

  * * *

  “She’s telling the truth, at least about Lennox and the Code,” Walsh said as he lit a cigarette, headless of the no-smoking signs pinned up along the brig corridor.

  Before anyone else could respond, Orchid practically exploded—her veneer of carefully modulated Asian discipline vanishing. “With respect, General, how can we trust her? This woman almost killed Joe for god sakes! She helped Yune escape back in Africa—she may even have killed this Lennox herself for all we know!”

  That sounded perfectly reasonable to Krieger. But rather than agree, the Russian wisely decided to stay out of the argument brewing between the General and the sniper.

  Orchid seemed to remember who she was speaking to and immediately cooled down.

  Walsh responded to the Japanese sniper, saying, “Specialist, I understand your feelings about this woman, but you can trust me—she’s telling the truth. I know this man, Lennox.”

  The brig corridor was deserted at this time of night, save for a few security personnel guarding one of the cells further down. It was safe enough to speak. Walsh set his cane down and collapsed into one of the waiting chairs set up beside the door to Agrippina’s cell. The General blew a lungful of smoke as he spoke.

  “Lennox has been one of my principal sources of inside intel to Olympus for…a long time. The man is a ghost, I’ve only met him once. If Agrippina says he’s hard to find, she’s certainly not lyin’ about that. He’s supplied me with information on things like the location of the Olympus prisons in Kazinstan back in 2014. To tell the truth, without him, we’d have never gotten our hands on the Code disc back then.”

  Dashing out the cigarette on the chair handle, the General continued, “But about a year ago, I lost contact with him. Just stopped one day. No clue why. The last time I was contacted by him was when he told me my…” the General’s words became difficult, “…son had been captured.”

  The group grew even quieter at the revelation.

  Headcase braved a question. “Why is this Lennox only willing to trust Joe with this information?”

  Walsh gritted his teeth, searching for the best way to respond. “I can’t tell you. All I can say is we have to find this man. If I’m right, Lennox will lead us to Danny and the secret of that fucking disc.”

  “General,” said Brick, solemnly, “I’m sure I speak for all of us here when I say that we would follow you to the ends the earth and back. If finding Leo Lennox is our mission, then so it is.” There were murmured agreements from the group.

  Doctor Cairncross spoke next, “I must say, I’ve been here for two hours and this little Unit of yours has proven most interesting, General.”

  Krieger raised a brawny arm, “Can I talk now?” All eyes turned to the Russian. Krieger smiled. “Excellent. I know I am not speaking just for myself here—” his eyes moved to Orchid, “—but I would like to point out this woman has tried to kill me, Orchid and Joe many times. And now you want us to work with her. Have you all taken idiot pills today or what?”

  Brick scowled, “I’d have thought you’d have spent enough time in this Unit to grow some sense of dedication for your teammates, Krieger. We have a man down somewhere in Olympus’s control. Would it hurt you to act like a soldier for once in your life?”

  “I am no soldier. I fight in Unit because I am big and bad and enjoy killing Olympus scum. General Walsh points me at someone he doesn’t like, I shoot them many times. It is formula that works. But right now we are being asked to trust a woman that might kill us in our sleep. You could say I have big problem with this.”

  Walsh leaned on his cane and stood to his full height. “I appreciate your candor, Krieger, but I want you to look outside the box here. This woman has intimate knowledge of Olympus. She can be a major source of intelligence if we play it smart. What I’m asking here is for you men and women—you Peacemakers, to make a choice. Trust me on this and maybe we can find the truth about this Code and perhaps bring home a good man who would do the same for any of you.”

  Krieger let out a sigh. The General really did have a way with words. “Alright,” he said, shaking his head, “Venezuela it is. After we all get killed by Government militants or guerilla fighters or Olympus Centurions or just plain dysentery, I hope someone mails my body back home to Planet Sensible.”

  Chapter 6

  The Sirens

  Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean, October 2nd

  THE FACE in the mirror was no face he recognized. What stared back at Titus, Secondus of the Olympus PMC, was the face of a monster—a creature charred and broiled beyond recognition. Within the privacy of the washroom in his tiny quarters on Ascension Island, Titus had removed the bandages from the remains of his face—now partially reconstructed by a multitude of surgical procedures. What was left of his once proud, handsome features was a mass of gruesome scarring. Over the past few months, the best surgeons in Olympus had used every technology known to restore some semblance of normalcy to his features. Even though his body was in full health, save for the many scars on his torso, his face remained a grisly reminder of Titus’s failures.

  The young Secondus had long been proud of his handsome features. As a youth, they had made him irresistible to women and he used his gifts to remarkable advantage.

  Now…I’m a freak.

  Titus sneered at the face looking at him in the mirror. Reeling his arm back, he smashed his fist through it, full force. Shards of glass exploded around the washroom.

  A year. A year of agony. And for what?

  Looking down, he placed a hand on the helmet that sat resting on the washroom table. Made from pure obsidian, the vaguely skull-shaped design was his true face now. This was who he was—a creature of pain. He would wear this mask until his dying day or at least until Cicero had devised a technique to remake lost skin. Who knows? The man had invented stranger things.

  Titus turned his mind away from the Olympus Elder Architectus and back to thoughts of the present. He left the washroom, turning the light off as he went. It was nearly noon, yet he’d refused to leave his quarters today. For most of the day so far, Titus had been staring at something on the laptop sitting on his desk—a single video file that had haunted his dreams since it had been recovered a year ago.

  Titus slumped down into his chair. Calling up the video file, he sat back, watching the screen. He’d seen the tape a thousand times, but each time he did felt like the first.

  There they were—the Peacemakers—as they shot their way out of the Presidential compound on Sadoma City. The closed circuit security cameras had captured much of the action perfectly. He could see the Peacemaker’s pet Russian terrorist, Krieger, pull open the hatch to the Gorgon tank and get in, followed by the black British SAS soldier. The bitch redhead reporter, Sarah Anders, went next.

  And then he appeared on the screen.

  Joe Braddock.

  The man helped another woman onto the tank, like some sort of fucking hero. Titus’s stomach churned as the moment crept closer. The woman on the tank pointed at something just off the camera’s left. Joe swirled around and fired his rifle. Titus could almost feel the impact of the bullets, even though there was no sound on the footage. Finished, Joe climbed into the tank and fled with his group of cowards.

  Then, the worst part.

  The camera panned over to reveal a body, lying just in front of the entranceway to the garage underneath the compound.

  It was a woman, lying in a pool of blood.

  Octavia.

  His lover.

  A moment later, he saw himself enter the frame. Titus watched as he crouched over her body, clutching her to him in a final moment of grief.

  Braddock murdered her. In cold blood. She hadn’t even been armed.

  Mas
sacred like a dog in a street.

  A cold rage replaced the grief, coupled with the desire to feel Braddock’s spine crumble in his hands. The time would come, he had no doubt of that. His father, the Imperator, could not keep him from his revenge forever and when that day came, he would enjoy it immensely.

  A popup window on the laptop interrupted Titus’s thoughts. Switching over to the comm channel, he accepted the call. A face appeared on the laptop, that of a man in his early forties. The man was unusually gaunt—with eyes that sank back almost too far into his head. He wore an Armani coat and sported an expensive teased haircut.

  “Mister Sledge. What may I do for you?” Titus spoke with uncharacteristic politeness. He could do nothing else when speaking to a man whose business would either make or break his bid for the leadership of Olympus.

  “Tribune Titus,” Sledge said, his voice sallow and quiet, “I don’t wish to talk for long. I need to know when Olympus will step up its on-ground forces within Venezuela.” If the sunken-eyed billionaire was in any way intimidated at talking to the masked Secondus of Olympus, he did not show it.

  “Within the next few days, Damien. Tiberius has decided to await the orders of the Imperator before we step up our attempts in quelling the riots.”

  “I can’t wait that long!” the man hissed, “I’ve lost months of production already. And now this bastard Vagabond group is trying to hunt me down! How much longer before Olympus fulfills its side of our agreement?”

  “The Vagabonds will soon be of no concern. Trust me, all efforts possible will be made to hunt down its leader.”

  “Don’t condescend to me, Titus! I have already provided Olympus with access to my aeronautics division and drone technology. When will you make good on your promises?”

  Titus felt his anger rise. The man’s patronizing tone was more than the Secondus was prepared to deal with this day.