Page 94 of Dead Drift

Luke pulled strings to get on a flight to Auckland, to see if he could cut him off there. If not, he was heading to Niue, where he’d have to figure something out.

What he wasn’t going to do was let Ebeid get away again.

40

Ebeid stepped off the private plane that had just landed in Niue, looking tired, disheveled, and like a man who had been flying halfway around the world. He had changed his appearance at JFK enough that if Luke hadn’t seen the security video footage, he might not have recognized him.

The man took a moment to stretch and look around. It was dark outside. Silent. Trees swaying in the warm breeze. There were just their two private planes currently on the tarmac. Ebeid squinted at the sight of Luke’s plane, but Luke remained hidden.

Ebeid straightened his shirt collar, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and flung his white jacket over his shoulder before striding confidently forward. He believed he’d gotten cleanly away. And he nearly would have if it weren’t for Luke’s amazing pilot, who’d flown him from Auckland to Niue in record time to get him there moments before Ebeid landed.

With a steadying inhale and a prayer, Luke took immense pleasure in stepping out of the shadows and into Ebeid’s path, gun aimed at the man’s heart.

Ebeid’s face paled in the tarmac lights, even paler than the makeup had made him. “You have no jurisdiction here. It’s a non-extradition country,” he said smugly.

“You’re right, but I’m going to get you on that plane back to Auckland,” Luke said, pointing at the small plane that had made the three-and-a-half-hour trip in just over three hours thanks to the wickedly skilled pilot, Hauger.

“You’ll have to kill me first,” Ebeid spat.

“Not a problem.” Luke kept his gun aimed at Ebeid’s heart. “Your choice. Get on my plane or die now.”

Ebeid looked back at his pilot, who upon seeing Luke armed, quickly retreated onto his plane and closed the entry door. Ebeid looked to Luke’s pilot, but he only waved. Luke was tipping Hauger big time. Luke had spent the three hours, or a good portion of it, explaining Ebeid’s depravity and intent for evil. But thanks to a quick call to Declan while switching planes in Auckland, he’d learned Declan, Tanner, and their Atlanta team had stopped the threat. Not only did they have the driver in custody and the anthrax seized, but they were interrogating Bedan’s accomplice from the CDC, a scientist by the name of Barak Notauli. An interrogation that Luke bet would last a long while.

“I’m losing my patience,” Luke said, having given Ebeid more than a second’s reflection. “What’s it going to be?”

Defiance washed over Ebeid’s face. In a flash, a gun appeared in his hand.

Luke fired, shooting Ebeid in the heart.

Ebeid stumbled back, firing, the bullet hitting Luke in his collarbone.

Staggering backward in blistering pain, Luke fired again, shooting Ebeid in the head.

Ebeid dropped to the ground, his body going limp, the gun slipping to the dirt runway.

It was over. Ebeid was gone.

Relief washed over Luke in a way that he hadn’t experienced in over seven years, not since the day he’d let Malcolm recruit him into the Agency.

It was finally over.

His head swam and his vision blurred as Hauger rushed toward him.

“You okay, ma—”

41

Parker knelt along the shoreline where Jenna had been found. Sweet Jenna. Moonlight illuminated the waves crashing offshore, the sand cool beneath his knees.

He laid down the bouquet of yellow hibiscus, Jenna’s favorite, that he’d managed to get imported from the Big Island of Hawaii. It’d been their dream to visit Hawaii. They’d even considered honeymooning there.

He sniffed back the sobs threatening to wrack his body. So many dreams, so much future ahead of them—all gone in the blink of an eye.

When Avery had been shot in front of him at CCI, the intense horror of losing another woman he desperately loved had nearly destroyed him. But it was in that instant that he knew he loved Avery differently than he’d loved Jenna. Not less, or more, but different. What he and Avery shared was deeper—partially because of all they’d been through and partially because they were older. Jenna was and always would be his first love. She would always hold a special place in his heart, and Avery—wonderful woman that she was—respected and honored that. She loved him for it rather than in spite of it.

“You would have liked her, Jen,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’m so glad you can finally rest in peace. We got him. Griffin got the monster who took you away.”

Warm tears slipped down his cold cheeks, the late fall air dipping to near freezing.