Drake jerked his head back in shock. “Was that a joke? Whoa, Smyth, watch it. We’re gonna start thinking the Koreans replaced you with a robot, mate.”
There was no time for a rejoinder as the choppers swooped back around. Then several things happened all at once. The American marine commander appeared through the black smoke, screaming at Drake’s team to take cover. Something big was coming. The Blood King’s helicopter team opened fire again; bullets thwacked off stone and dirt, and whickered through the heavy, menacing air. Kovalenko rose like an avenging demon, using the last of his strength to push Alicia aside and make a beeline toward Drake.
The supersonic roar of a jet-fighter, a Raptor, boomed like God’s own thunder across the valley, shaking the very mountains. With a whoosh like an ocean boiling, the first missile was loosed, scoring a direct hit on the first chopper, causing a mid-air explosion. The second missile destroyed the second chopper a moment later; fire, machinery, flesh and bone thrown skyward and straight down to the ground.
Drake suddenly found himself in a hellfire battle. Charred bodies and burning chunks of metal rained down all around him and his team. Boulder-sized chunks of jagged metal delved into the earth. A huge intact rotor blade slammed against the tiled roof directly above them and started to slide down, still spinning faster than the eye could follow.
“Move!”
Drake hurled his battered body from under the roof, dragging Komodo with him. Alicia and Dahl hurtled clear. The Blood King slipped and fell, directly in the path of the onrushing rotor blade.
At the last second, Smyth audibly cursed, reached down and scooped Kovalenko up; the Delta man running and dodging deadly debris, all but dragging the Blood King with him. The rotor smashed into the ground, crunching its blades. Deadly shards sheared away in the collision. Drake heard the sonic boom of the Raptors coming around and the shouts of the American commander to say all was well on the ground.
All’s well? Are you fucking kidding me?
Drake looked up, still dodging and ducking as death rained from the skies. The bulk of both choppers now crashed down into the courtyard with an almighty noise, not exploding but sending out another wave of compressed machine and body parts.
Drake staggered as the shockwave struck, shielding his face with his arm and turning away. Something hard glanced off his Kevlar vest, leaving yet another bruise; something soft and wet collided with his leg. He didn’t look down. A spray of tiny objects spattered past, at last leaving a vacuum in their wake.
Only a burning hell remained, but it was now a safer hell. Drake turned to see where Smyth and the Blood King had landed.
“Looks like you got to the gates of Hell twice, Kovalenko.”
The Blood King grinned back at him.
“Which one of you assholes dies first, hey?”
CHAPTER FORTY NINE
Drake goggled and listened to the rest of the team’s simultaneous curses. Somehow the Blood King had wrenched away from Smyth, found a pistol, and was now holding it against the soldier’s head. His body was almost entirely concealed by Smyth’s bulk and he had positioned his back against a soot-smeared, half-crumbled wall.
Drake let out a long breath. “Jesus Christ, Kovalenko, don’t you know when you should just die?”
“Death does not scare me.”
Alicia came to stand beside Drake. “It’s over,” she said with an uncharacteristic softness in her voice. “You are well and truly done.”
“Perhaps. But my Vendetta will live on. I take as many of you with me as I can, and then she will—”
The Raptor boomed overhead for the last time, drowning out Kovalenko’s next words.
Drake met Smyth’s eyes. The soldier was ready for any instruction, letting his body stay relaxed and loose. The gun barrel wavered not an inch from his right eye. It was going to be almost impossible to save Smyth’s life.
Kinimaka whispered from the rear. “I have the bastard in my sights.”
The approaching army ground to a stop as its commander saw the situation. The man crouched and waved some of his men forward. Each one took careful aim. The commander spoke quietly into his comms.
The crackling of many fires, the groans of injured men, and the soft warping of overheated metal were the only sounds. The castle was lit by a silvery moon and savage flame. Once more, time stood still.
Drake took a step forward.
“You have done enough damage. Kovalenko, your name will become the staple word for dishonor. For infamy. Your fame? It will be meaningless.”
“You think I did it all for fame?”
“Course you did,” Alicia said. “You’re a damn psycho bird.”
“And I had plan for you, Myles. A great one. You were to be my masterpiece. I would take you and break you. Lock you away in dark place for many years. And when hardships of my life got me down, I would look at what you once were, and what you had become. A broken shell. You would have been my object lesson, the example for any future potential traitors.”
Alicia looked sideways at Drake. “He really has to die.”
“Wow, I’d almost forgotten you used to work for this freak. You didn’t…?” Drake raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“I worked for him for a couple of hours.” Alicia sniffed. “Doesn’t really count. And no! I don’t shag everyone I work for, you know.”
Drake grunted. “I bloody well hope not. We’re working for the President right now.”
All the while the two were drifting closer.
“Stop!” Kovalenko cried. “Stop with that moving right now! You think I am stupid? Eh?”
Alicia was in the middle of a dirty laugh. “C’mon BK. I’m in the middle of a fantasy about the Oval Office here.”
Then Drake suddenly did stop. A thought had occurred to him, one both the SPEAR team and the American government really needed an answer to.
“Someone helped you secure that drone, Kovalenko. Give us a clue.”
The Blood King took a moment to decipher Drake’s accent, then smiled slyly. “A new player has entered the game. And with a plan even I found intriguing. Unfortunately though,” he grunted, “I can’t join the New Order or the quest for Pandora.”
Drake thought about that as his feet inched forward again.
Kovalenko ground the barrel of the gun into Smyth’s temple. When blood began to flow, both Drake and Alicia stopped. They had drawn their guns and were mere feet away.
“Who dies?” Drake whispered hotly. “Live or die, Kovalenko. Who lives or dies today?”
The Blood King sneered. His finger tightened on the trigger. Drake felt his own finger pulling back. Smyth closed his eyes.
The world paused.
The gunshot, when it came, startled everyone. The noise was a harsh explosion that destroyed the menacing silence. Karin screamed. The marine commander let out a loud curse. Kinimaka fell to his knees in exhausted acceptance.
“Oh no.”
Smyth slumped to the side. Drake reacted instantly, shouting abuse at the Blood King. His finger was a hair’s breadth from discharging the bullet.
The Blood King stared back at him stupidly, shocked. No bullet his come from his gun.
Drake felt shock hit him like a blazing RPG. The shot hadn’t come from Kovalenko’s gun!
In fact, it hadn’t come at all. Smyth’s eyes suddenly flew open, his face twisting into a stupid grin. In that instant Drake knew the noise had come from Smyth’s authentic sounding gunshot message tone, and he absolutely knew who the sender was.
Mai! She had saved Smyth’s life and served the Blood King up on a platter all the way from Tokyo.