Alicia drew his attention with a feisty smile. “Keep it down, five-o. Just drive.”
The cab driver muttered something that sounded like “Fuckin’ haole,” but switched his eyes to the road and went silent. Drake thought about where they were going. “If this really is Buchanan’s office, he’s unlikely to be there at this time.”
Alicia snorted. “Drakey, Drakey, you just don’t listen hard enough. When we finally realized that the silly man, Pilipo, had jammed his throat so hard into your hands he was turning purple we set about saving his ridiculous life, and he told us that Buchanan has a house.”
“A house?” Drake made a face.
“Of business. You know these dealers. They live and eat there, play there, organize their local jobs from there. Keeps it neat. He’ll even keep his men around. It’s a nonstop hard-core party, dude.”
“Which will help keep the nightclub events quiet, for now.” Mai said as the cab stopped outside the mortuary. “Remember when we infiltrated that shipping magnet’s office in Hong Kong? Fast in, fast out. That’s what this should be.”
“Just like when we hit that place in Zurich.” Alicia said loudly to Drake. “It’s not all about you, Kitano. Not by a long shot.”
Hayden entered the apartment she’d been assigned within the Honolulu CIA facility and stopped dead in surprise. Ben was waiting for her, perched on the bed, legs swinging.
The young man looked tired. His eyes were bloodshot from days of staring at a computer screen, and his forehead looked a little scrunched from concentrating so hard. Hayden was pleased to see him.
She made a show of looking around the room. “You and Karin finally got the umbilical snipped?”
“Har, har. She’s family.” He said it as if their closeness was the most obvious thing. “And she sure knows her way around a computer.”
“Genius-level IQ will help you with that.” Hayden slipped her shoes off. The thick carpet felt like a foamy cushion beneath her aching feet. “I have absolute faith that tomorrow you will find what we need in Cook’s logs.”
“If we can even locate them.”
“Everything’s online. You just have to know where to look.”
Ben frowned at her. “Does… does it feel like we’re being manipulated here? First finding the Tomb of the Gods and then the displacement devices. Now we discover that the two are linked. And—” He paused.
“And what?” Hayden planted herself next to him on the bed.
“The devices might to be linked to the Gates of Hell in some way,” he reasoned. “If Kovalenko wants them, they must be.”
“That’s not true.” Hayden leaned in close. “Kovalenko is a madman. We can’t presume to understand his thinking.”
Ben’s eyes showed he was fast losing track of his thoughts and flirting with others. He kissed Hayden when she dipped her head against his. She pulled away as he began to fumble with something in his pocket.
“I’m more comfortable with it coming out through the zipper, Ben.”
“Uh? No. I wanted this.” He pulled out his mobile, flicked the screen to the MP3 player and selected an album.
Fleetwood Mac began to sing ‘Second Hand News’ from the classic Rumours.
Hayden blinked in surprise. “Dinorock? Really?”
Ben flung her onto her back. “Some of it’s better than you’d think.”
Hayden didn’t miss the poignant sadness in her boyfriend’s tone. She didn’t miss the theme of the song apparent in the title. For the same reasons as Ben it made her think of Kennedy Moore and Drake and all that they had lost. Not only had they both lost a great friend in Kennedy, but her violent death had reduced every one of Drake’s friends to mere background noise.
But when Lindsey Buckingham began to sing about tall grass and doing his stuff, the mood soon changed.
Mai asked the cab driver to wait but the man wouldn’t listen. As soon as they cleared the car, he revved the engine and set off in a spray of gravel.
Alicia stared after him. “Wanker.”
Mai motioned toward the intersection ahead of them. “Buchanan’s house is to the left.”
They walked in comfortable silence. A few months ago, Drake knew such a thing would never have happened. Today, they had a common enemy. They had all been touched by the Blood King’s lunacy. And, if allowed to stay at large, he could still hurt them dearly.
Together, they were one of the best teams in the world.
They cut across the intersection and slowed as Buchanan’s property came into view. The place was ablaze with light. Curtains drawn. Doors were open so music could spill out into the neighborhood. The thud, thud of rap music could be heard even from across the road.
“A model neighbor,” Alicia commented. “Someone like that — I’d just have to mosey on round and smash their Goddamn music center to pieces.”
“But most people aren’t like you,” Drake said. “That’s what these people thrive on. At heart, they’re bullies. In real life, they carry shotguns and have no compassion or conscience.”
Alicia grinned at him. “They won’t expect a full-frontal assault then.”
Mai acquiesced. “Fast in, fast out.”
Drake thought about how the Blood King had ordered the murder of so many innocents. “Let’s go fuck ‘em up.”
Hayden was naked and sweating when her cellphone rang. If it hadn’t been the distinctive ringtone of her boss, Jonathan Gates, she would have blocked it out.
Instead, she groaned, pushed Ben away, and jabbed at the answer button. “Yes?”
Gates didn’t even notice her breathlessness. “Hayden, apologies for the late hour. Can you talk?”
Hayden immediately snapped back to reality. Gates deserved her attention. The horror he had endured for his country was way beyond the call of duty.
“Of course, sir.”
“Dmitry Kovalenko holds captive members of the families of eight United States Senators, fourteen Representatives and one mayor. This monster will be brought to justice, Jaye, by any means necessary. You have all resources.”
The connection went dead.
Hayden sat there staring into the semi-dark, her ardor completely extinguished. Her thoughts were with the prisoners. The innocent were suffering yet again. She wondered how many more would suffer before the Blood King was brought to justice.
Ben crawled over the bed to her and just held her like she wanted.
Drake went inside first and found himself in a long hallway with two doors opening off to the left and an open kitchen at the end. A man was coming down the stairs, eyes suddenly registering shock as he saw Drake enter the house.
“What the—?”
Mai’s hand moved faster than the eye could see. One second the man was drawing breath to shout warning, the next he was tumbling down the stairs with a tiny dagger in his throat. When he hit the bottom, Mai finished the job and retrieved her dagger. Drake advanced up the hall. They turned left into the first room. Four sets of eyes looked up from the plain boxes they were packing with explosives.
Explosives?
Drake recognized the C4 instantly, but had no time to think as the men grabbed carelessly abandoned weapons. Mai and Alicia danced around Drake.
“There!” Drake pointed to the quickest. Alicia felled him with an ungraceful kick to the groin. He went down burbling. The man in front of Drake came at him fast, leaping over the table to get some height and power to his attack. Drake angled his body underneath the man’s flight, and when he landed, kicked out both his knees from behind. The man screeched in rage and spittle flew from his mouth. Drake brought a devastating axe-kick down on the top of his head, all brute-force and power.