Page 60 of Circle of Death
Hawkeye looks relieved. “Lycksele? Yeah. I do. Old army buddy of ours. Runs an airfield there. That’s where Tapper must be hiding out. Can you reach him?”
Burbank shakes his head. “Nothing but static.”
“I’m not worried about Tapper,” says Hawkeye. “If I know him, he’s huddled somewhere in a bunker, taking a nap.”
“What’s this?” Jericho reaches around Maddy to pick up a video stick from the console.
“Another video. Delivered last night,” says Hawkeye. “More of the same.”
Maddy watches as Jericho plugs the stick into the console. The screen lights up. Hawkeye’s right. These scenes are starting to look way too familiar. Blackened buildings. Shallow graves. Bloated corpses. She reaches to turn off the monitor. “Enough of this crap. I’m sick of watching things we can’t do anything about.”
Hawkeye grabs her hand before she can touch the switch. “Hey. Lamont and Margo are working on it. They’re doing something right now.”
“Right,” says Burbank. “We just don’t know what it is.”
“Hold on!” says Jericho. “What’s this?”
He’s pointing at the screen. Right in the middle of the scenes of misery and mayhem, there’s a brief shot of a New York City street. No more than twenty frames.
Easy to miss. Surveillance video of a heavy-duty vehicle, surrounded by bodyguards.
Hawkeye rewinds and freezes the image. He pokes Burbank in the arm. “Did you see this?”
Burbank looks up. Shakes his head. “Looks like an editing glitch.”
“It’s not a glitch,” says Hawkeye.
“Who’s this?” asks Jericho, tapping the image of a man emerging from the car.
Burbank unfreezes the video and lets it inch forward, one frame at a time. Everybody in the cramped space leans in.
“Holy shit,” says Hawkeye.
Jericho squints. “What?”
“That’s Toor Bayani.”
Burbank rocks back in his chair, scratching his scalp. “What the hell is the ruler of Chinasia doing here?”
“You mean the repressive, assholedictatorof Chinasia,” Maddy retorts. She knows her world affairs—and her world despots. It was never on the school curriculum.
Banned material. So Jessica taught her at home—the whole truth about power and corruption. No matter how ugly.
For decades, Bayani’s regime controlled the lives of more than three billion people, from the Indus River to Oceania. Like every other world despot, he was subject to the whims of Shiwan Khan. After Khan’s defeat a year ago, Bayani reasserted his grip.
“That’s nuts,” says Jericho. “Bayani never leaves his compound.Never.”
“You’re right,” says Hawkeye. “Why would he risk coming out of his cocoon?”
“To enjoy the World’s Fair?” says Burbank. Silence. “Sorry. Bad joke.”
Hawkeye stops the video on a frame of Bayani in the middle of the sidewalk. “There’s only one reason a guy like this shows up this far out of his comfort zone. He’s been summoned—by somebody he’s afraid to turn down.”
“Only one person in that category,” says Jericho.
“The Destroyer of Worlds,” says Maddy.
“Hey!” Burbank interrupts. “I’m getting something.”
