Lita sobbed. “It’s not fair.”
He hugged her. She smelled so good, like jasmine and summer.
“No. It’s not,” he said. “But if all goes well, then I’ll be back in two days.”
“Do you promise?”
“Word of honor.”
They headed to the living room and sat down on the sofa. They didn’t say anything but just sat together in silence. It ripped his heart, but he had to do this.
When a few minutes had passed, he whispered, “I will be back. Count on it.”
He took his gear and left the apartment. When he closed the front door, he could hear her crying from within.
9
Fine, icy snowflakes whirled past the windows as the car passed the booms and continued up the bridge. The dark sky loomed heavy over Copenhagen, and Hugo tried to relax in the passenger seat. Sussie was driving; Mikko and Freya sat in the back seat.
“Are you sure about this?” Sussie studied him. Now was not time to show weakness.
Looking straight ahead through the windshield, Hugo answered simply, “Yes. I’m sure.”
Mikko chuckled behind him. “He’s as crazy as Felix. If not more.”
Hugo smiled. Mikko and he had met only once before, but the fact that he knew and loved his brother made Mikko feel like a close friend anyway. The big Finn patted his shoulder.
“Right, Hugo? Aren’t you a little crazy like your brother?”
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
Sussie used her voice to wake up her cell phone, which was docked on the dashboard, and called Madeleine’s number. It barely had a chance to ring before she picked up.
“Madeleine? We’re on the bridge now,” Sussie informed her. “We’ll be at Kastrup in ten minutes.”
Hugo let his mind wander as they approached the high bridge. A gust of wind caused the van to wobble, but Sussie handled the disturbance with expert skill.
“Sussie,” Hugo asked, “what kind of information do we have about Xi?”
Sussie was not only the most adept driver of the group but also their information and communication expert. She pulled an iPad from the door pocket and handed it to Hugo.
“Check it out. Unlock code is one-two-zero-three-eight-four. There’s a folder called Xi Liu. The guy’s a mercenary, born in the nineties. Grew up in Singapore and later lived in northern Africa. He’s worked for a lot of shady types over the years—we’ve run into him twice during assignments in the last two years. He’s an expert in martial arts, has a reputation for being a real sadist type. He’s not the top mercenary around, but he’s definitely a rising star.”
Hugo found the dossier and read through it. At the end were pictures of Xi. He was short, thin but fit-looking. His dark hair fell just over his eyes, and in some of the photos, he wore a thin goatee. A scar ran along his forehead and down his left cheek. Whatever had injured him had barely missed his eye.
They followed the exit from the freeway and continued down into the underground parking garage of the Copenhagen Airport. Once there, they unloaded their gear, and Mikko tossed a backpack to Hugo. Hugo caught it and swung it over his shoulder, then noticed that Sussie and Freya were staring at him. He nodded congenially. It was okay; he understood that they were wondering how anyone could leave a pregnant wife at home to set off on a mission to avenge his brother.
“I know. You think I’m crazy.”
Sussie shook her head. “No, not at all. I’m just trying to take it all in. I’m still disoriented from the attack, so I can only imagine how you must feel.”
Hugo shoved his hands into his jeans pockets to keep the others from seeing how badly they were trembling. The truth was that he was still running on adrenaline, though it was finally beginning to slow down.
“Well, I can’t just go home,” he said. “If the people who did this to my brother were to get away with it, I couldn’t live with myself.”
Freya hoisted a backpack half her size and swung it onto her back. “And what about your wife?” she asked.
“Girlfriend,” he corrected her.
“Girlfriend, then. Isn’t she pregnant?”
“Yes, she is. She’s due any day now, actually.”
Before anyone could say another word, Mikko burst out in shrieking laughter. Tears ran down his face and his howls echoed through the parking garage. After all the stress and death, there was something liberating about laughing. The others watched him in various levels of amusement. When a few minutes had passed and Mikko had collected himself, he wiped his eyes.
“You’re a really tough bastard,” he said to Hugo.
Hugo winked. “Got that right.” He threw a glance at Sussie and Freya. He sensed that they still hadn’t fully accepted him. If this mission was going to work, he’d need to convince them that he was serious.
“Listen. I get that it’s hard to understand why I’m doing this, but I need you to trust me. Felix has told me about assignments he’s done, so I know more about his work than you think. And with my background, jumping in to take his place and finish his work is something I can do.”
With all eyes on him, Hugo took the opportunity to explain to the group what he’d done before and what his life had been like. He talked until he’d told them everything.
*
It was too late to turn around now. Hugo threw two heavy bags of equipment through the door of the plane. Madeleine had called in some favors at a major transport company and arranged for one of their planes heading for St. Petersburg to allow the Novus team to tag along.
The cave-like cargo compartment was packed with boxes as far as the eye could see. At the end, two rows of seats fit snugly between the load area and the cockpit. The group brought their gear on board and sat, Mikko and Sussie in the second row behind Hugo and Freya.
Mikko patted Hugo on the shoulder. “What do you think? Getting used to things yet?”
“I’m impressed. Madeleine has good contacts.”
“She really does.” Mikko paused and said, “But I guess you’ve seen the inside of a transport plane before.”
“A few of them, actually.”
Freya crossed her arms in frustration.
“What is it?” Hugo asked.
She turned to him in a huff. “You told us the things you’ve done, but we still don’t know you as a person.” She looked around at the others. “We’re just supposed to accept that we’ve got to carry out a mission with this guy who’s basically wandered in from the street?”
Sussie leaned forward toward Freya’s seat. “Freya, that’s enough. Madeleine vouches for him—that should be enough. It is for me, at least. If she says he’s capable, I trust her judgment. And at Felix’s.”
“It’s easy for you to say that when neither of them is here.”
Hugo turned to Freya and looked her in the eyes. “Listen, I understand how you feel. Considering everything that happened this morning, none of us expected to be here. But now we are, and we need our vengeance. You have your reasons, and I have mine. I promise you that you won’t be disappointed. I have experience from my military missions—I’ve done this kind of work for years. I know it‘s hard to accept, but you’ve got to trust me for this to work. Can you do that?”