Page 55

CHAPTER 54

DINNER AT THE castle that night felt like a medieval bacchanal. After the shoot-out in the forest, a fleet of jeeps had appeared. Masked guards with tasers and pistols escorted us back to the castle. When we arrived in the great hall, the table was filled with platters of grilled steaks, bowls of fried potatoes, and pitchers of cold beer.

The guards disappeared. Leo was nowhere to be seen. But I had no doubt he could see us.

I was eager to find out more about my squadmates. They were the strong, silent type, and our cells were all in different parts of the bunker. So far, I’d only picked out last names. Thanks to my fancy cutlass, I was still “Aladdin” to everybody. After the second round of beers, I started asking questions.

After the third round, I started getting some answers.

Crew Cut’s name was Blodgett. Turned out he was a former professional wrestler from Iowa. First name Neil. The guy with the walrus mustache was Jack Fenwick, a triathlete from Scotland. He had a brogue so thick I could barely decipher it.

The guy with the blond ponytail was Johnny Harper. He’d worked as a bouncer in Hamburg and a bodyguard in Iran. T.J. Tagaloa, The Rock’s doppelg?nger, was an Ironman competitor from Hawaii. Brooks Marley, the Black guy, was retired from Delta Force. He put the word retired in air quotes. We left it at that.

Blodgett pointed his fork at me. “What about you, Aladdin?”

“My name is Brandt,” I said. “I’m a professor of anthropology.”

Marley snorted. I could tell he thought I was a total bullshitter. I could only imagine how they’d react if I told them I was also known as Doc Savage.

The other guys were digging into the feast, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. The thought of blood-rare steak wasn’t sitting well.

“Who was the shooter in the woods?” I asked.

“Disposable,” said Blodgett, his mouth full of meat.

“Meaning what?” I said.

Fenwick put down a stein of beer, leaving foam dripping from his mustache. “Disposable. Some loser who washed out of training, or maybe tried to escape. Leo keeps a few around for cannon fodder.”

“Could happen to any of us,” said Harper. “So stay sharp.”

If Leo was building an army, I hadn’t seen much evidence of it. For the whole time I’d been here, these five guys were my only comrades. Maybe he was keeping his forces separated. Maybe he had cells of operatives in different locations around the world. Or maybe the six of us were just the vanguard—the few, the proud, the huge.

“What are we doing here—really?” I asked. I was still wondering if Leo was delusional or deranged.

“We’re getting ready to take back a third of a continent,” Harper said.

“And get rich doing it,” added Tagaloa.

At least we’d all been told the same story.

I looked up at the wall and took another hard look at the flag hanging there. Now it made sense. Black and red for Belgium. A yellow star for the Congo. Leo was serious. He was out to win back his family’s long-lost colony. He thought he deserved to be a king. It ran in his tainted blood.

“I heard he already sent a squad to take over a copper mine near Lake Tanganyika,” said Marley. “Skeleton force.”

“Maybe they need more muscle,” said Harper.

Fenwick licked the meat grease from his fingers. “What I need,” he said, “is somebody nubile and willing!” He was slurring his words as he pushed away from the table. But everybody knew what he meant. He meant sex. The others grunted in agreement.

From what I’d seen, there were no women anywhere in the castle—or anywhere on the property, for that matter. Abstinence was apparently part of Leo’s program. At least, abstinence from women.

“Look! I’ve spotted one!” Fenwick.

He staggered over to the wall and stared up at a life-sized painting of a female nude—a pale, well-rounded woman standing in a garden, with tendrils of her long red hair curled around her breasts. The artwork was old—maybe sixteenth century. And possibly priceless.

Fenwick grabbed the gilded frame with two hands and yanked the painting off the wall. Then he pressed his crotch against the figure of the woman and started humping it wildly.

“Better than nothing!” he shouted with a crazy grin. “What about you, Brandt? Got a honey stashed somewhere?” He kept thrusting his hips against the woman’s painted privates.

I flashed on Kira’s face. Her voice. Her body.

Something snapped.

“Knock it off!” I shouted.

Before I knew it, my fist was cocked and aimed at Fenwick’s jaw. Just as I threw my punch, I felt Marley grab my arm from behind.

Fenwick backed away, hands up, leaving the abused nude leaning against the wall. “Sorry, laddie. Did I tweak a nerve?”

I twisted free and went for him again. Marley and Tagaloa both grabbed me and held me back.

A door burst open. Six masked guards stepped into the room, rifles raised.

Party over.