“You gonna squeal, Ed, or you wanna find out how they make sushi in the UK?”
Boudreau glared at her with murder in his eyes. A thin drool slid from the corner of his mouth. His emotions were getting the better of him, just as they did when he smelled a close kill. Hayden didn’t want him shutting down on her.
Alicia was already close to the bars. “You ordered the execution of my boyfriend. You should be glad it’s Drake doing the dicing and not me. I’d make the bitch suffer twice as long.”
Boudreau stared between both of them. “You had both better make sure I never get out of here. I swear I will cut you both to pieces.”
“Save it.” Hayden was watching Drake squeezing Maria Fedak’s neck. “She doesn’t have much time.”
Boudreau was a hard man, and his face shut down. “The CIA won’t hurt my sister. She’s a United States citizen.”
Now Hayden truly believed the madman truly didn’t get it. “Listen to me, you crazy bastard,” she hissed. “We’re at war. The Blood King has murdered Americans on American soil. He has kidnapped dozens. Dozens. He wants to hold this country to ransom. He doesn’t give a shit about you or your stinking sister!”
Alicia muttered something into her earpiece. Hayden heard the instruction. So did Kinimaka.
So did Drake.
He let go of the woman’s neck and unholstered the gun.
Hayden ground her teeth together so hard, the nerves around her skull screamed. Gut instinct almost made her cry out and order him to stop. Her focus blurred for a second, but then her training kicked in and told her this was the best chance they had of tracking down Kovalenko.
One life to save hundreds, or more.
Boudreau had noticed the play of emotions across her face and suddenly he was at the bars, convinced, reaching out and snarling.
“Don’t do it. Don’t you fucking do it to my baby sister!”
Hayden’s face was a mask of stone. “Last chance, killer.”
“The Blood King’s a ghost. Whatever I know, it might be a distraction. He loves that sort of thing.”
“Understood. Try us.”
But Boudreau had been a mercenary too long, a killer too long. And his hate for authority figures had blinded his judgment. “Go to hell, bitch.”
Hayden’s heart sank, but she tapped the monitor on her wrist mic. “Shoot her.”
Drake raised the gun and put it to her temple. His finger squeezed the trigger.
Boudreau bellowed in horror. “No! The Blood King’s in—”
Drake let the horrible sound of gunfire mask all other sounds. He watched as blood exploded from the side of Maria Fedak’s head.
“North Oahu!” Boudreau finished. “His biggest ranch is there…” His words tailed off as he sank to the floor, watching his dead sister slump in the chair and looking at the blood-spattered wall behind her. He stared in shock as the balaclava-clad figure came up to the screen until he filled it. Then he removed the mask.
Matt Drake’s face was cold, detached, the face of an executioner who loved his job.
Hayden shuddered.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Matt Drake stepped out of a taxi and shielded his eyes to study the tall building that rose before him. Grey and nondescript, it was the perfect frontage for a secret CIA operation. The local agents would enter via an underground parking garage after running the gamut of multiple security levels. Anyone else, be it agents or civilians, entered through the front door, purposely presented as sitting ducks.
He took a deep breath, almost sober for the first time in as long as he could remember, and pushed through the one-man revolving door. At least this setup seemed serious about its security. A plain desk faced him, manned by half a dozen stern-looking men. No doubt many more were watching.
He walked across the polished tile floor. “Hayden Jaye is waiting to see me.”
“The name?”
“Drake.”
“Matt Drake?” The guard’s stoic exterior slipped a little.
“Sure.”
The man gave him the kind of look a person might use upon seeing a celebrity or a convict. Then he made a call. Seconds later, he was showing Drake to a discreet elevator. He inserted a key and pressed a button.
Drake felt the lift shoot up as if on a cushion of air. He chose not to think too hard about what was about to happen, he would let events take care of themselves. When the door slid open, he was facing a hallway.
At the end of the hallway stood his welcoming committee.
Ben Blake and his sister, Karin. Hayden. Kinimaka. Somewhere at the back stood Alicia Myles. He didn’t see Mai, but then he didn’t really expect too.
The scene was wrong though. It should have included Kennedy. The whole thing looked odd without her. He exited the elevator and tried to remember they were probably feeling the same way. But did they lie in bed every night, seeing through her eyes, wondering why Drake hadn’t been there to save her?
Then Ben was in front of him and Drake said nothing and enfolded the young lad in his arms. Karin was smiling uneasily over her brother’s shoulder, and Hayden came forward to lay a hand on his arm.
“We missed you.”
Desperately, he held on. “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to be alone,” Ben said.
Drake took step back. “Look,” he said, “it’s important to get one thing straight. I’m a changed man. You can’t rely on me anymore, especially you, Ben. If you understand that, all of you, then there’s a chance we can work together.”
“It wasn’t your—” Ben started in on the problem straight away, as Drake had known he would. Karin, surprisingly, was the hand of reason. She grabbed him and pulled him aside, leaving Drake a clear route through to the office behind them.
He strode through, giving Kinimaka a nod on the way. Alicia Myles regarded him with solemn eyes. She had also suffered the loss of someone dear to her.
Drake stopped. “It’s not over, Alicia, not by a long shot. This bastard needs to be eliminated. If not, he might burn down the world.”
“Kovalenko will die screaming.”
“Hallelujah.”
Drake continued past her into the room. Two big computers stood to his right, hard-drives whirring and clicking as they searched and fed off data. A pair of floor-length, bulletproof windows faced him, looking out over Miami Beach. He was suddenly struck by an image of Wells, pretending to be a pervert and asking for a sniper scope to pick out the tanned bodies down there.
The thought gave him pause. It was the first time he’d thought of Wells coherently since Kennedy had been murdered. Wells had died badly at the hands of Alicia or Mai. He didn’t know which one and he didn’t know why.
He heard the others filing in behind him. “So…” He concentrated on the view. “When do we go to Hawaii?”
“In the morning,” Hayden said. “Many of our assets are now focused on Oahu. We are also checking the other islands because it’s known Kovalenko has more than one ranch. Of course, it’s now also known that he is a master of deception, so we are continuing to follow up other leads in different areas of the world.”
“Good. I remember a reference to Captain Cook, Diamond Head, and the Gates of Hell. Have you pursued that?”
Ben took that one. “Extensively, yes. But Cook landed at Kauai, not Oahu. His—” The monologue abruptly broke off. “Umm, in a nutshell. We’ve found nothing unusual. Yet.”
“No direct links between Cook and Diamond Head?”
“We’re working on it.” Karin spoke up a bit defensively.
“But he was born in Yorkshire,” Ben added, testing Drake’s new barrier. “You know, God’s Land.”
It seemed as though Drake hadn’t even heard his friend speak. “How long did he spend in Hawaii?”