“You can’t do anything, Amber. No one can stop this. I have to do it. Things fall apart, you see. Even friendship. The ceremony of innocence is drowned. There is anarchy. I will destroy the slouching beast. It is my duty and my revenge.”
Amber blinked. The drug must be affecting her. Lily was murmuring some familiar lines that sounded like one of her father’s speeches when he preached. Things fall apart…yes, she remembered now. It was Yeats, her father’s favorite poet. Her brain was getting addled. She was hallucinating Lily talking like her father.
“That’s right.” Lily’s voice was growing soft and drifting. “Don’t fight the drug. Let it take you somewhere so you won’t see or feel anything. I wouldn’t wish that on you or anyone. I don’t want you to end up like Tatiana. If Hawk is too late, you won’t remember more than blurred images. No pain. Not like me, always remembering the pain. Always seeing their faces in my head. I wouldn’t want you to not let Hawk or Brad or anyone make love to you again without feeling like you’re a helpless victim. I wouldn’t do that to you. This way is better. You won’t need to constantly want to be in control of everything, even sex.
“Listen to me. Hawk is coming for you. There is hope. Don’t let me down, Amber. You and he belong to each other. Maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t want you to think of Brad. Just remember, what they do to you is nothing. Dilaver will be killed and so will every one of those bastards who hurt us and our girls. You will finally be one of us, Amber.”
Amber shook her head, but even that felt like it took too much energy. It made everything spin around, as if she were at the edge of being drunk. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant at all. Part of her mind was screaming, trying to stop what was happening, but the floating sensation was so soothing, so relaxing. She wanted to tense up. But why? It was nice not to feel anything. She knew what was coming. Dilaver. His men. And she should be…She didn’t even feel it when Lily kissed her forehead.
“Things fall apart. The blood-dimmed tide is loose. I must do this, Amber.”
“The countryside looks like the Middle Ages here,” Jazz noted. “Oxen-drawn carts and wooden wheels. Not quick enough transportation to the city. Look at those walls. Are they guarded? Once we’re inside, we have to find transportation to the target area.”
Hawk looked at his best friend. It was definitely good to stand beside him again. He had missed the easy camaraderie between them. His fake “friendship” with Dilaver only emphasized how much his friend meant to him.
Jazz was the strategist in their team, always mapping out a plan of attack, always looking for the weakest points of the enemy. With his quick foresight, he protected his team from surprises ahead of them.
“Dilaver has chosen one of his favoritekafenasfor the exchange,” he told his team quietly. “Not the compound, which is fortified by an even bigger wall. What does that tell you?”
“He wants you to get to him easily,” Cucumber replied.
“Thesekafenasare crowded with UN soldiers,” Hawk continued.
“He’s also making sure he’s surrounded by the blue army so you can’t simply throw in grenades,” Dirk said, referring to the blue uniforms of the UN forces.
Hawk nodded. He had supplied them with details of his capture and escape.
“He wants an exchange and then he’ll have his men capture me again. This time, he has Amber.” Hawk paused, glancing away for a second before meeting his men’s eyes. “Look, this is personal to me. It’s not for glory or country or any of that stuff. My woman’s in one of those whorehouses and…and if anything happens to her, I’ll kill every fucking one of them, blue army included.”
Cucumber spat to the side. “If they’re in there doing what I think they’re doing, then they have no right to hide behind any uniform. Let’s go get them. I’m with you.”
Jazz laid a hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “We aren’t here just to help you destroy those caches, buddy. We’re here for you. We’ll go save Amber and you can take down Dilaver any way you please. Just save a little piece of action for me. He owes me something for the wallop he gave Vivi.”
Hawk recalled how hard Dilaver had punched Vivi, which reinforced his urgency to get to Amber. “I’m very familiar with all the back alleys and pathways in Velesta,” he said. “During the months here, I had thought of destroying these whorehouses before I finished up, so I’ve explored a lot in the dark, waiting for this moment. I have C-4 and wires ready in certain weak spots. All I need is to activate the fuse and every fucking one of the walls will fall down like cards. We start doing this at the same time except for the target area.”
“Surprise attack,” Jazz said, nodding. “Everyone would panic inside. Each of us will go to different points and will keep in contact through intercom and wire.”
“Estimated time thirty minutes,” Hawk said. He showed them the map he had drawn. “I’ll use a word when I give Dilaver the decoy. Pick one.”
“Kaboom?” Mink suggested helpfully.
“Make it a phrase to be sure,” Jazz said. “How about ‘It’s over’?”
It’s over. “Yeah,” Hawk agreed.
“Let’s party! We’re going to have what the Americans call a freebie. Averyspecial freebie. Some of you might even know her and I’m going to be the first to show you how to have a good time with a blond bitch. Bring her.”
“Hey, it’s the café lady!”
Amber felt light as a bird. The voices didn’t frighten her. She recognized one of them but couldn’t quite place it. She didn’t care, although she knew she should. Something bad was going to happen to her, but it was all right. She wasn’t afraid.
“Hey, Dilaver, that’s our boss’s woman you’re doing, man. We can’t let you do this.”
“You’re going to have to. Look around you. You’re all surrounded by my men. And what’s more, you’re going to watch and report back to that son of a bitch what happens to people that raid my places.”
“Fuck this, I’m here for a good time, not to watch you rape a woman.”
A shot rang out. “There, you’re no longer watching. Gentlemen, you’re young. Got to toughen up a little. This woman is nothing. There will be more of her kind. After I show you what she’s got underneath those clothes, after you hear her moan from my taking her right here on our favorite whore table, you can all take turns. Who’s going to complain? Look.”
