The Lost Throne

25

Kaiser sat on a bench underneath one of the chestnut trees in St. Martin’s Square. A newspaper lay next to him. His manner was calm, completely relaxed. Like someone enjoying the warm weather on his lunch break. As people strolled by, he occasionally smiled and nodded. Sometimes he even waved. Whatever helped him blend in with his surroundings.

Payne and Jones watched him from opposite ends of the square. They scanned all the faces around him, making sure nobody looked out of place. Not because they didn’t trust Kaiser, but because they were about to break the law in a very public place.

And getting arrested was the last thing they needed.

Once Jones was sure the plaza was clear, he signaled to Payne by crouching down and tying his shoe. It meant Payne could approach the bench with caution. From that point on, if Jones repeated the action, it meant trouble was coming and he needed to leave. Just to be safe, Kaiser had a signal as well. If he noticed anything suspicious, he would simply stand up and walk away.

But so far, everything looked fine.

Payne approached from the front just to make sure he didn’t startle Kaiser. For a large man Payne was incredibly light on his feet and had the innate ability to sneak up on people. His grandfather used to call it “walkin’ like an Indian.” Payne realized the expression was no longer politically correct, but “walkin’ like a Native American” didn’t have the same ring to it.

“Take a seat,” Kaiser said.

Payne sat on the bench and glanced across the square. Jones was standing near a bus stop, casually looking for danger. He saw none. “Any problems?”

“Nope. I got everything you needed. Passports and visas are inside the newspaper. They look wonderful. You’ll be impressed.”

“Weapons?”

“In a shopping bag under the bench. Ammo, too.”

“Boat?”

“A fishing boat out of Finland. It looks shitty, but it’ll do the job. Details are inside the newspaper. Word of warning: The captain is something of a character. He was paid for twenty-four hours of service. After that, he’s out of there — whether you’re aboard or not.”

Payne nodded. That’s how most mercenaries worked. “Money?”

“I checked my account. We’re cool. Your transfer went through.”

“Good. The second half will arrive shortly.”

“I know it will.”

Payne smiled. It had taken many years to earn that level of trust through a combination of keeping his promises and keeping his mouth shut. Those two skills went a long way in this business.

“Anything else?”

Kaiser nodded. “Now that you mention it, a couple of things are bothering me.”

Payne glanced at him but said nothing.

“I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds when I told you guys about Russia. I know race is a sensitive subject to some people, but I would’ve felt like an asshole if I hadn’t mentioned it.”

Payne shook his head. “Not to worry. You didn’t offend anyone. In fact, D.J. appreciated your candor. You know us. We hate surprises — especially overseas.”

“Glad to hear it. I’ve been worried about that since breakfast.”

“Well, stop your damn worrying. Things are cool on our end.”

“In that case, let’s talk about the second thing. I wasn’t going to bring this up if you guys were pissed at me about number one. But since you aren’t, I figured I’d ask.”

“Go on.”

Kaiser leaned closer. “I need your opinion on something. Your honest opinion. Lies will do me no good here. I need you to tell me the truth.”

Payne looked him and nodded. “I promise. I’ll tell you the truth.”

A few seconds passed before Kaiser broke into a wide grin. “Where do you stand on the links versus patties debate?”

Payne and Jones took a taxi back to Ramstein Air Base, arriving an hour before their flight to Finland. Unlike the first leg of their trip, when they rode in the belly of a cargo plane, their second flight would be far more pleasant — thanks to good fortune and a few favors.

A brigadier general by the name of Adamson was vacationing in Helsinki and needed to be picked up that evening for a military summit in Stockholm. The transport plane was a richly appointed private jet — equipped with leather seats, TV screens, and a wet bar — that was owned and operated by military lobbyists based in Kaiserslautern. The flight was scheduled to be empty on its journey north, except for four armed guards who were to accompany the general to Sweden. But all that changed when Payne called one of his contacts at the Pentagon.

Suddenly, six passengers would be making the trip.

There were two main airports in Helsinki. Vantaa was the largest in Finland and the fourth largest in the Nordic countries. It handled most of the commercial flights into the capital city and served as the hub for Finnair, Finland’s largest airline. The other airport, Malmi, was much smaller and handled most of the private traffic into Helsinki. So that was where they were headed. Located 7 miles from the city, Malmi was much more relaxed than Vantaa in terms of rules, regulations, and inspections. Once they were on the ground, Payne and Jones knew they could slip into the terminal unseen. From there, they could take a taxi to Helsinki Harbor, where they would meet the boat captain that Kaiser had hired.

Reclining in a leather seat, Payne stared out the window as the plane lifted off the runway. Within seconds, Germany disappeared from view, hidden by a bank of clouds that cast a shadow on the countryside below. Jones sat across from Payne, separated by a wooden table and a map of Saint Petersburg. As in their earlier flight, they would do most of their planning while they were in the air.

“What’s on your mind?” asked Jones as he tapped his pencil on the table. He’d known Payne long enough to recognize his moods. Especially his bad ones.

“Just thinking.”

“About what?”

Payne sighed. “Sausage.”

Jones didn’t smile or laugh. It would only encourage Payne to joke around, as he was apt to do. “Seriously, what’s bothering you?”

Payne paused a few seconds before answering. “When I was growing up, I used to goof around with the same group of kids from my neighborhood. There were eight of us, all within two years of each other. A great bunch of guys. Every day after school we’d get together in this park near my house. Football, baseball, basketball, whatever. It didn’t really matter. If the weather was nice, you knew where to find us.”

Jones listened, unsure where this was going.

“Not surprisingly,” Payne continued, “I was the biggest kid on the block. Which, if you know anything about playground politics, meant I was the leader of the group. A real alpha dog.”

Payne laughed at the memory. It was a cherished part of his life.

“One day when I was nine, my best friend in the group — his name was Chad — couldn’t play because he had to rake his yard. We lived in this wooded stretch of Pittsburgh where the trees outnumbered the houses by about five hundred to one. I’m talking Sherwood Forest minus Robin Hood. Oak trees, maples, you name it. Everywhere you looked, nothing but falling leaves.”

Jones smiled in empathy. His town house was pretty close to where Payne grew up.

“Anyway, Chad was a clever kid. He tried to convince me to get all the guys to help him rake his yard so we’d have the same number of players for our afternoon game. Obviously, I laughed in his face. No way in hell I was going to rake someone else’s yard for free. I mean, I was nine years old. No one volunteers to do chores when they’re nine. That’s un-American.”

“Amen, brother.”

“So,” Payne said, “the seven of us go to the park to play football. I’m all-time quarterback, wearing my Steelers jersey, and we’re playing three on three. The sun goes down, the lights kick on, and we keep on playing well past dinnertime. This goes on for another hour or so. We’re covered in mud, having the time of our lives, laughing like there’s no tomorrow. Simply having a great day…”

Payne paused. “Until we heard the siren.”

Jones felt his stomach drop.

“We’re kids, right? And damn curious about life, so I grab the ball and run toward the noise. Soon another siren can be heard in the distance. And another. And another. We see the flashing lights and think it’s the coolest thing in the world. Something exciting is happening on our block! I’m leading the pack because I’m the fastest runner. The whole time I’ve got the ball under my arm, pretending I’m being chased by the Dallas Cowboys. I’m dodging mailboxes, jumping over curbs, acting like a total idiot. Without a care in the world. Until I saw Chad’s bike in the middle of the street. The damn thing was completely mangled.”

Payne cleared his throat, fighting back his emotions. “I skid to a stop and so do the other guys. There are seven of us, just standing there on the side of the road, growing up in the blink of an eye. None of us knew what to say or do. Finally, one of their parents — I can’t remember whose — ran over to us and made us turn away so we wouldn’t see the cops scrape Chad off the road. Sorry, too late. I had already seen more than I’d wanted to… Lucky me, huh?”

Jones asked, “How did it happen?”

“My best guess is that he raked his yard until it was too dark to rake. After that, he knew we’d still be playing in the park under the lights, so he hopped on his bike and pedaled as fast as he could to join us. Some guy driving a truck didn’t see him, and, well, that was that.”

Payne paused before continuing. “That night, as you can probably imagine, I had trouble sleeping. My parents, who were still alive back then, came into my room in the middle of the night to make sure I was okay, but I wasn’t in there. They looked all over the house, but I was nowhere to be found. So now they start panicking. One kid had already died that night, now they’re worried about me. They call the cops. They call the neighbors. They call everyone they can think of. In less than an hour, a search party was formed and they’re out looking for me. I mean, my parents were freaking out. Totally sick with worry. Finally, after an hour or two, somebody spots me and tells my parents where I am.”

“Where were you hiding?”

“That’s the thing. I wasn’t hiding. I was in Chad’s yard, raking leaves.”

Jones smiled sadly. He had never heard this story before. “Do you remember why?”

Payne nodded. “I felt responsible for Chad’s death. In some ways, I still do. I mean, if I had helped him out with his chores, he’d still be alive today.”

“Jon—”

“I know! It’s completely irrational. But that’s the way I feel. That’s why I went to his yard in the middle of the night — to finish what he’d started. It’s the same reason I went back the next day and the day after that. I raked until that yard was clean. Until it was spotless.”

Payne shook his head and laughed at himself. “How messed up am I?”

Jones knew it was a rhetorical question. Instead of making an easy joke, he asked a question of his own. “What made you think of this? You rarely talk about your childhood.”

“Honestly? This mission reminds me of Chad.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Call me crazy, but if I had answered my damn phone, Richard Byrd would be alive today.”

“Jon—”

“Don’t even start with me,” Payne ordered. The tone of his voice suggested he wasn’t in the mood to argue. “I know it’s nuts, but that’s the way I feel. If I had answered my phone, if I had given him the help that he asked for, he’d still be alive today… Pretty ironic, huh?”

“Ironic?”

“The reason I can’t sleep at night is because of Chad, and my parents, and all the bad shit we saw overseas. So what do I do? I take a sleeping pill to get some rest. Of course, in this case the sleeping pill is the reason I didn’t answer my phone to begin with, so a lot of good it did.”

“Wow,” Jones said, trying to lighten the mood. “You are fucked up.”

“For the record, I said messed up. But thanks for making me feel better about myself.”

“Hey! That’s what friends are for.”

Payne smiled, hoping to change the subject. “Anyway, enough about that crap. Let’s talk about the mission.”

“I thought that’s what we were doing.”

“No, we were talking about my demons.”

Jones shook his head. “No, we were talking about your motivation. That’s far more important than anything else.”

“How so?”

“Tell me, why are we going to Russia? Is it to rescue the girl, or is it to rake leaves?”

Payne grimaced. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, Jon. You know damn well what I’m talking about. Is saving Allison enough for you, or do you need more from this trip?”

“Like?”

“Finding out why Byrd was killed and completing his mission. If that’s the case, I’m completely cool with it. I really am. I’m willing to do whatever I can to help you sleep at night. But you have to come clean and tell me now so I can adjust our itinerary.”

“And you won’t be mad?”

“Mad? Not at all. In fact, I’m kind of curious.”

“About?”

“His death, the Archives, his search, and so on. It’s all very compelling.”

“Compelling, huh?” Payne thought about things for several seconds before he smiled. “Fine! If you feel that strongly about it, I’ll tag along with you. I mean, that’s what friends are for.”