Hayden approached him from the right. “Bruno. We know you. We know the rest of the Cusco Militia. But you’re a lucky man today. Tell us what we need to know and we’ll let you live.”
“Americans?” Bruno grunted. “Americans go fuck yourselves.”
Drake heard a crackle over the comms and listened as Kinimaka explained how the second team had cornered Desi at the dark end of a side alley. Their interrogation would have to be short and discreet, but it was ongoing.
Alicia stalked over, raised a knee and planted her foot on the sofa close to his groin. She leaned forward. “What? You don’t want me now?”
“Dunno. You don’t sound American.”
“Funny guy.” Alicia slapped his face so fast he didn’t even blink. But he did raise a hand to his cheek in the aftermath, eyes watering.
“I normally charge extra for that,” Alicia assured him with a smile.
Hayden leveled her Glock at his face from the other side. “No charge for this,” she said. “I’d be happy to do it.”
Mai came to Drake’s shoulder, making him suddenly hyperaware of the concentrated female strength present within the room. These were the strongest women he’d ever met and, sometimes despite even themselves, the best intentioned. He watched Bruno’s eyes flit from one to the next, finally settling on Drake as if seeking a male connection. But Drake only shrugged.
“Tell ’em what they need, pal,” he said. “Maybe you’ll live.”
“But you are going to hospital,” Alicia growled. “That’s a given.”
“I have done no wrong!”
“We know about the Cusco Militia.” Hayden tapped his temple with the Glock. “Pay attention.”
Bruno looked like a rabbit trapped in the headlights. “You know what happened to Joshua?”
“They’ll never find the body,” Hayden said shortly. “What will happen to yours?”
“I am small part.” Bruno showed them an inch gap between thumb and forefinger, making Alicia laugh.
“I already saw that.” She snorted.
“In militia,” he said desperately, looking from Hayden to Alicia to Mai. “Not even enforcer. I transport.” He mimed the driving of a wagon and then a long, winding road. “I plan. I deliver.”
“Logistics?” Drake said. “I guess that makes sense. Most of what these guys are into will need moving around, from goods to bloody people.”
“You are one of the twelve though,” Hayden said. “So you will answer our questions.”
Bruno nodded unhappily.
“The chateau in the mountains,” Hayden said. “Who the hell owns it?”
Bruno frowned excessively. “The sha… two?” He wrapped his tongue around the word thickly.
“The big house,” Drake amended. “On the side of the mountain.”
“Ah, it is said to belong to quiet man called Dantanion. Never see him. He send his people to town.”
“We already know that.” Drake wondered now if they might be able to tie both cases together. “Do these people try to sell relics? Inca treasure?”
Bruno shook his head without hesitation. “No. They buy food. Only important things. To live with.” He struggled to describe it but Drake guessed he was trying to describe the everyday essentials of living.
“Soap,” he said. “Medication… tablets? Food. Drink. Clothing. That sort of thing?”
“Yes, yes. But mostly best they can buy. They have much money.”
“And these people?” Alicia said. “Would you say they look less like human beings and more like… spiders?”
Bruno gawped. “I do not know what you mean. They young and old. No talk. No smile. Just people.”
Alicia looked around at Drake. “Two separate cases?”
Hayden coughed. “How many houses exist out in the mountains near Kimbiri and Nuno?” she asked. “I mean modern, expensive ones?”
“Or indeed, modern, humble ones,” Mai added with thought.
“Only one that I know of,” Bruno said. “Dantanion’s. Cusco knows of the house but not the owners. All the rest — homesteads. Farms. Old families.”
Drake saw the tension in the shoulders, the tightness of the lips and the way Bruno refused to look anyone in the eye. He supposed it could all be down to Alicia’s treatment of his manhood, but somehow doubted it.
“You’re lying,” he said. “You know more about this Dantanion’s house than you’re letting on. Give it up, mate. It ain’t worth upsetting Alicia for.”
The blonde’s boot planted itself in his chest and then traveled dangerously lower. Hayden backed it up with another thump of the temple, the Glock striking dully.
Bruno winced. “You will not believe me.”
“In your defense I totally understand why you might think that, but tell us anyway.”
Bruno shifted uncomfortably, glancing down at Alicia’s dirty boot. “I know little of Dantanion. They say so little. He is tall; he is good; he is a god. He is their leader. He provides for all. Yah, yah.” He made his hand talk. “Yah, yah. For sure he is a mystery. To have such power over people.”
“Go on.” Alicia ground her heel.
“Ow. Be careful, bitch. This Dantanion — some in Cusco believe he is today’s Dracula,” Bruno started laughing. Drake noticed, however, that the noise was forced. He watched the man carefully.
“So the dopey twats think he’s drinking blood, eh?” But the memories of the Feasting Trail and what they had found there prodded his mind like the smooth knob of a stripped bone.
“Not that. Not blood.” Bruno stopped laughing now, and a slightly hysterical intake of breath filled his lungs. “That house. It has been there for a three centuries… clinging,” he struggled with the word as if he’d heard it from another, “clinging to the cliffs like some… some ravenous spider from before history. Three times, it has been home to men. Three times.” Bruno swallowed drily. “In mid-1800s thousands of Chinese came here, and one legendary noble. Fingers like knives, they say. Face like plastic that warped. Always wore a red and gold robe. He owned the house and filled it with peasants; threw them from the walls for his pleasure. Burned them for fun. Brought with him this, opium? Something like that. They say clouds melted the snow above his house. But when he started taking locals — not Chinese — somebody started a revolution. An attack. They killed the man and shunned the house, leaving it empty for a hundred years.”
Alicia leaned back, amused. “First he won’t talk. Now you can’t get a word in edgeways. Must value his hazelnuts.”
Hayden picked up on something. “You say the house is three hundred years old? But it looks modern.”
Bruno nodded. “Dantanion used his people to make it new,” he said. “Even use local builders before cut off.”
“Who else owned the place?” Mai wondered.
Bruno blanched. “Drug trafficker. It was what you call? House of horrors?”
“Haunted?” Mai tried.
“No, no. He made it house of horrors. I heard from my grandfather, who cleaned there. Whole rooms full of blood to wipe down. Chains and hooks in roof, still with flesh…”
“Ok, man,” Hayden interrupted. “We’ve heard enough of the damn house. What about this Dantanion who lives there now? His people? What’s going on there today?”
“It is… shameful. Appalling.” Bruno shook his head, adamant despite Alicia’s warning look.
“Worse than what you just told us?” Drake forced a laugh. “C’mon, pal.”