Echoes at Dawn (KGI #5)(88)

Around him, the room had filled up with a steady stream of KGI members. Most left him alone to do his brooding. Terrence sat across the room next to Elizabeth, talking in soothing tones to the sobbing girl.

Rio should say something to her. Offer comfort. He wasn’t a complete bastard. But what could he say to her? He was raw and hurting, knowing that this child lived because of Grace, and that at any moment Grace could be taken from him.

The hum of conversation that echoed through the room came to an abrupt halt. The hairs on Rio’s nape prickled and he turned to see Hancock standing in the doorway, still in fatigues, blood—Grace’s blood—still smeared on his shirt and his hands.

Hancock started forward, stopping a safe distance from Rio. He regarded Rio warily, without the innate cockiness that always accompanied Hancock’s demeanor.

ȁ΀ C;Grace?” he asked.

“In surgery,” Rio said shortly. “No word. They didn’t give us much hope.”

“Take a walk with me. There’s a lot I want to explain.”

He hadn’t said “need,” because Hancock was the sort who never felt the need to do anything. If he wanted you to know something, he’d tell you. But he never felt compelled to offer anything.

Rio’s gaze drifted downward and Hancock emitted a soft laugh. “If I had any intention of killing you, you’d long be dead, my friend. I’m unarmed, which is saying a lot, since I walked in here with over a dozen men all ready to slit me from ass**le to appetite.”

Rio glanced toward Nathan, who was the closest to him and Hancock. “We’ll be just down the hall. Come get me immediately if there’s word on Grace.”

“Will do, man,” Nathan returned.

Rio followed Hancock into the hall and down the long corridor, ironically into a small chapel at the end. Hancock stopped a moment in the doorway, made the sign of the cross and then passed through.

Rio also paused, reached into his pocket for the rosary his mother had once given him. He made the sign and then kissed the beads and whispered a prayer.

“I’m not a good man. I’m not worthy in so many ways. But Grace is all that’s good. She’s one of yours. A gift to so many. She’s my light and my hope. Please don’t take her. I’ll do my best to prove worthy of her and of the gift of her. Just please bring her back to me.”

He walked farther into the chapel and settled on the front pew next to Hancock. For a moment, no words were exchanged. Then Hancock turned to Rio.

“Grace was never the target. She was just a means to an end.”

Rio’s lips tightened. “She wasn’t the target and yet you damn near got her killed. Hell, you might have killed her.”

Hancock continued on in an emotionless tone. “Farnsworth was and always has been the primary objective. He was a slippery, cagey bastard who always had an eerie sixth sense when someone was closing in on him and he’d pull a disappearing act. It helped that he was one of the most paranoid bastards to ever live. He trusted no one. But he had a weakness.”

“His daughter,” Rio muttered.

Hancock nodded. “When she grew so ill, Farnsworth got sloppy. He would have done anything in the world to save her, and yet no one could give him what he most wanted. His contact in the government made sure he leaked information about Grace Peterson, whom the government also had a keen interest in.”

“So you dangled Grace in front of him like a f**king carrot.”

“Basically, yeah. The problem was that Farnsworth wouldn’t do face-to-face meetings. If he did, it would have been a simple matter when he hired Titan. I could have gotten to him then and Grace would never have been involved. But the only way we were going to get close to him was if we handed Grace over to him. And in order to do that, we had to have her.”

Rio shook his head. “Then why the f**k did you let us go that first time?”

Hancock looked away, toward the crucifix centered behind the small pulpit. “Because I owed you. You saved my life. I’m not completely without honor. I knew that Grace had been through hell. I knew she wouldn’t be worth a damn if I took her to Farnsworth in her present condition. I wanted to buy her time because I knew it would damn well kill her to heal his daughter, and if she failed, sheӀe failed’d be dead anyway because he’d kill her in his rage.”

“Who wanted Farnsworth?” Rio asked bluntly. “Who are you working for these days? Last I heard, Titan had ceased to exist even unofficially.”

A crooked grin lifted Hancock’s lips. “Don’t believe everything you’re told. I haven’t completely lost all my belief in my country or the principles that made it great. Farnsworth was an evil son of a bitch who deserved to die. He was responsible for a lot of American lives lost. Military lives. Men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. He had no honor. He had no principles. Some would say the same for you and me, and yet we know that to be an untruth. What we did and do isn’t always on the straight and narrow, but they are necessary things and they are for the greater good. The day I stop believing that is the day I die because I don’t want to live in a world where I believe that good has no place in it any longer.”

The quiet impassioned words cut straight to Rio’s soul. It was as if he’d been taken back in time, so many years before when he and Hancock had fought so hard. For a cause. Because they believed in what they were doing.