Brothers In Arms (Matt Drake 5) (23 page)

“Interesting term.” Alicia picked up on it instantly. “Sleepers.”

“It’s what the Russians call them. It’s said the captives are put to sleep somewhere by the Koreans. For months. Years. But mostly—forever.”

“Because they die en route? From wounds you give them?”

“No. It is the sleeping that kills the bulk of them. I don’t know why.”

“Experiments.” Drake kicked a man in frustration. “You are providing human beings for experimentation.
I’ve seen the other end of the chain. It’s sickening.”

“We are just a
cog.” The German clearly sensed his anger. “Nothing more.”

Drake drew his gun and flicked the safety off. “Like fuck you are.”

“Wait.” Lomas stepped forward before the Englishman could pull the trigger. “If we kill the one who talks, we risk losing them all.”

Alicia nodded. “Spoken like a true
inquisitor.”

Drake fought the darkness back.
Thick black winds receded slowly from his vision and his soul.
Think of Mai,
he repeated the adage again and again. At last, he managed to lower the weapon.

Now Lomas
signaled to Whipper. “Got some use for you, darlin’.”

The leather-clad woman stalked forward, boot
heels clipping across the floor. In her right hand, she held a thin black object. When she stopped she let it unfurl.

A bullwhip.
A single-tailed length of braided leather with a twelve-inch, intricately formed leather handle. There was an even thinner piece of nylon cord at the whip’s end, which allowed the weapon, if thrown properly, to exceed the speed of sound and send back a sonic boom.

“Now.” Alicia grunted with malice in her voice. “Now you’re in trouble.”

One of the captives rose to his knees, shouting in defiance. Without warning, Whipper flicked out, arm muscles straining. The meat of the leather cracked the man across the face. The
cracker
snapped about a foot behind him. The clap of the sonic boom made everyone except Lomas jump.

The man, defiant no longer, thrust a palm
against his cheeks as they parted in the middle. Blood poured between his fingers and dripped to the floor in a red torrent.

The suit stared, aghast.
The words spilled from him faster than the other man’s blood. “The orders come out of Korea. And. . .and from the States.”

Drake’s ears pricked up. “What about the States?”

“It’s all I know. A powerful man is involved. An American. That’s all. He has contacts in Europe. They direct us to where the expat Americans end up living.”

“The Barcelona address
,” Alicia said. “Let’s have it.”

Whilst the man reeled off another European
address, Drake fished out a cellphone and dialed Hayden. The new boss of SPEAR answered on the first ring.

“Drake.
Thank God.”

“
Aye up. You guys still alive?”

“Barely. It’s war over here, man.”

Drake strode over to a quiet corner of the hangar, head down. “What’s going on?”

“
First off, we’re all okay. But the HQ suffered major damage. The enemy attacked en masse. Dahl and the others are pulling up to a safe house as we speak. And Drake—Ben didn’t take the fight well. He’s totally freaked.”

“Damn kid needs to go home
,” Drake said before he could stop himself. But he didn’t apologize. He wouldn’t apologize for Ben anymore.

“Keeps saying he’s got blood on his hands.”

Drake flashed back to the scene aboard the Destroyer after the Blood King vanished and started the blood vendetta. He saw Ben holding Kennedy’s body, blood everywhere.

“He’
ll be right.”

“Well, Mano and I are nearing the hotel.” She paused, then rushed on. “For work. It’s where this whole thing began.
Looks as though a Korean general and an American got scared when a bunch of strangers accidentally saw them together.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much. As it happened, they had nothing to fear. But they didn’t know that. Paranoia, my friend. Along with guilt, it’s our best psychological weapon against the madmen who aspire to rule our world.”

“
We’re starting to realize from this end that the kidnapping ring is directly connected to the island and even your American. And if the island is connected to your general, then he’s been involved in this thing for years. Not weeks.”

Hayden was silent for a moment. “Clearly
, we’re still missing a part of the puzzle. Somebody has to find out what really goes on at that island.”

“Have you heard from Mai?”

“Not yet. But she’s our best, Drake. She’ll be okay.”

Drake stared into space. “If you guys have been openly att
acked at the HQ and even on the road, it sounds like our American and Korean friends have started their endgame. I’m getting on a plane today with Alicia. You need us.”

The relief in Hayden’s voice was palpable. “Don’t be long, Matt.”

Drake stalked back to the interrogation. “Everything’s gone to shit,” he said. “New plan. Alicia—you and I need to head back to Washington. Romero—you and some of the local troops need to organize a raid on that house in Barcelona. You up for that?”

The marine looked surprised but agreeable. “Sure, man.”

Lomas met Drake’s eyes with a keen stare. “And us?”

“Go home
,” Drake said, “with my eternal thanks. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

“We’re going back?” Alicia was saying. “Right now?”

“Well, there’s a Dinorock answer to that. ‘Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go to Washington D.C.’ Something like that.”

“How about
‘Born to be Wild?’” Alicia pursed her lips as Lomas questioned her with a look. “You heard of that one?”

“If you’re still a part of this team
, you should come with me.” Drake saw now that his old friend had no agenda other than to follow her heart. She wasn’t playing anyone. She didn’t even know what she wanted from life herself.

For the first time
, he found himself wondering what had happened to her. What made a young girl aspire to become an elite member of a world-class Special Forces group?

Maybe a story for another time.

He waved a hand. “If not, you should stay with them.”

He walked away. Alicia
threw a stone at his back and then grabbed Lomas by the hand, leading him toward his Ducatti Monster.

“Fuckin’ hell, Drake. I just meant give me ten minutes.”

Hayden pocketed her cell, buoyed by the news that Drake was on his way back.
The team needed every one of its members if they were to put down this latest threat. She spared a moment for Mai, hoping the Japanese agent was okay. If anyone could come out of that ordeal alive and enriched, it was, without doubt, Mai Kitano.

The room around her buzzed with activity.
They had been authorized to request the local PD’s help. Within half an hour, they had a forensic expert and a fingerprint team scrutinizing the suite where Lauren Fox had spent the night on January 10
th
.

With the techs swarming and searching every nook and cranny
, it left Hayden and Kinimaka with little to do except watch. The hotel management had so far been of little use. It seemed the place was often used by passing celebrities, and the management respected their right to privacy. With supervisors stalling and decision makers unable to be reached, Hayden had taken the decision to examine the room instead. They might find a whole bunch of fingerprints, but the prints they found would surely be more revealing than a guest name of Joey Tribbiani.

Even now
, the manager was still grumbling about a warrant. Hayden had left Mano to deal with him, citing national security issues, which was awfully close to the truth.

Now Kinimaka watched the bustle passing them by.
“These guys rock, don’t they? Reminds me of my days in the Honolulu PD.”

“Those days,” Hayden said, referring to her own in the PD as well
, “at the time they seemed so hard. So manic and rough around the edges. Now—” She clicked her tongue. “Feels like they were a cakewalk.”

“Good days. Good friends.” Kinimaka stole a glance at her. “Nothing’s changed.”

“Oh, I’ve changed, Mano. I used to do everything for my dad.” She held a forefinger and thumb an inch apart. “Every. Little. Thing. Now, I do them for myself.”

She took hold of his hand and led him into the bathroom.
She closed the door and locked it. She stared hard into his eyes.

“You got something to say to me?”

*****

Karin Blake
stared at her brother as if he’d suddenly sprouted wings.

“You
’re
what?”

“You heard me, sis. The call of the wild and all that.”

Karin frowned in worry. “You’re not making any sense.”

“Says you.” Ben threw back the standard brotherly reply. “Mum and dad are chuffed.”

“Of course they are. You’re talking about moving back home. Leaving a potentially dangerous job. You can’t run away from real life, Ben.”

“There’s no
talking.
I’m doing it. The band wants me. Mum and dad want me. Here—” He stared around the safe-house’s untidy kitchen. “Nobody needs me.”

Karin held back a face slap, but only just. “You broke up wit
h your girlfriend. Big deal. That can happen back in England too, you know.”

Ben fiddled with a switch. “Kennedy died protecting me when she should
’ve been helping herself. So did Colin Patterson. Do you even know who that is?”

“Of course. It’s the soldier you tried to help back at the third tomb.”

“There’s too much blood on my hands,” he said, checking his phone when it vibrated. “Taxi’s here. I’m off to the airport.”

“Now?”

“Right now.”

“Are you even allowed to do that?”

Ben turned away. Karin watched his back, stiff and resolute, an answer in itself. She watched him walk past Torsten Dahl and Komodo without so much as a glance. She watched him walk out the front door.

She heard the car pull away.
Sadness filled her. Ben was a pain, but he was her brother and still one of the few people alive with whom she had shared the terrors of her past. It was a rare day when Rebecca Westing’s name or face didn’t nudge its way into Karin’s thoughts.

It did now. As Ben left for the airport
, Karin found herself remembering that distant day when she had lost her faith in people, and life.

*****

Kinimaka’s eyes grew huge. He stared at Hayden as if she were the Devil. After a second, she raised herself up on tiptoes and brushed her soft lips across his cheek.

“Next time,” she said, with a cheeky smile. “Be ready.”

Next time?

Mano
watched as she turned and walked out the door, unable to take his eyes off her body. How did the saying go?
Hate to see you go. . .love to watch you leave.
That about covered his thoughts for the next sixty seconds. He had no doubts that he wanted to take her out. That wasn’t the issue. But Mano had been raised by his mother to respect authority, to adhere to the rules and the chain of command.

Was it ethical to ask his boss out? Hayden had been his boss for
so long the dynamic was set in stone between them. How would that dynamic then transfer itself to a relationship?

It couldn’t hurt to find out,
the hot-blooded side of him whispered.

Oh, but it could,
the more conservative side shot back.
It could ruin everything.
He loved his job. He loved his boss—as a boss. He loved the new team, even Alicia. The hours he’d spent with her and Belmonte in that bar in Vienna opened up a whole new side of her. Alicia was a woman with no agenda, but with a past that was, literally, explosive. Mano had only heard a brief part of it, but his heart had instantly melted.

After a while
, he realized he was alone in the bathroom, staring through the open door. The techs were staring at him. With a grunt, he strode back into the main room. Hayden stood by the big window, framed in sunlight, her long, blond hair on fire.

She turned at once, happy. “Drake and Myles will be landing tonight. 8 p.m.”

A tech guy stood up so fast he knocked a kitschy brass table over. The noise didn’t even reach him or make him stop turning a tablet computer around and around in his hands.

Hayden put a hand on his shoulder. “
You okay?”

The man stared at her and then thrust the table
t into her face. “Shaun Kingston,” he said. “Owner of Kingston Firearms. One of the biggest legit arms dealers in the country. If he’s in bed with the Koreans. . .”