The team sat around him, flashlights illuminating each other and the darker spaces. Down here, among the riches and the ghosts and the sand they all felt a sense of peace. Only the outside world brought danger.
“From Odin to the ghost ships,” Drake remarked. “It’s been a helluva rough ride.”
“But not without some merriment,” Dahl said.
“And the best camaraderie,” Hayden added.
“The making of the best team in the world,” Smyth said. “And more than a few hard farewells.”
“A new family,” Kinimaka began. “Who—”
“For fuck’s sake,” Alicia hissed. “Are we all gonna kiss now? I’ll tell you one thing that’s gonna be changed tomorrow — me.”
“I knew it.” Hayden smiled.
“But not too much.” Alicia winked. “Still gotta keep you wankers in line.”
“Are we done here?” Smyth asked.
Drake unhooked his backpack and pulled out a bottle of rum. “Y’know,” he said. “The world can wait. I think we’re just getting started.”
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Drake passed around the rum, smiling as the whole team swigged it straight from the bottle. The pirate ship with its vast treasure groaned and moaned around them, its timbers expanding, its decks scoured by desert squalls. When his turn came the liquid burned a fiery path to his stomach and instantly put the world in better perspective.
“To fallen comrades,” he said and passed it around again.
Whilst he waited, Dahl turned toward him. “Have you heard anything from Mai?”
“As much as I expected to,” Drake murmured, but shook his head at the same time. “Grace is in hospital, fighting hard. She’s a battler that one and she will survive.”
“I have faith in Mai as much as anyone I have ever met,” the Swede said. “She will return.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Drake swigged again as the rum returned, now half empty. Sighing, he rested his weary back against a treasure chest. The bruises that marred his torso would be turning purple by now. The empty tooth socket ached. But none of that mattered.
“To the future,” he said. “To beating Webb and any other idiot daft enough to take us on.”
Hayden accepted the bottle with a bow of her head. “Speaking of that,” she drank deeply before continuing. “The latest intel on Ramses and that terrorist arms bazaar is quite promising. It’s imminent. Any day now. The NSA are working on a location.”
Smyth cleared his throat. “At least give us chance to wash the desert’s dust off.”
“Webb will be there,” Hayden responded. “Beauregard said so. And if that pans out, I don’t care if it’s tomorrow morning, we will be there too.”
Alicia took a double swig. “Shit, woman, chill out.”
“You ever wake up with a stranger staring down at you in bed?” Hayden flung back, but then — at the look that crossed Alicia’s face — had to laugh. “No, no, don’t answer that.”
“It will never happen to you again,” Drake said as Kinimaka laid a huge hand over his girlfriend’s. “No more splitting up for this team. From here on in, what we do we do together.”
“As good as that sounds,” Hayden smiled, “it might not be entirely practical.”
“Clearly.” Dahl huffed slightly. “Nobody shares my bed except my wife, pal.”
Drake looked exasperated. “Oh aye! That’s clearly what I meant—”
“I did promise Crouch one more treasure hunt,” Alicia said, handing the bottle to Yorgi. “But if this arms bazaar is as big as you say — we could gain an awful lot of scalps there.”
“Exactly.”
“You and your treasure hunts.” It was Dahl’s turn to take a sip of the rapidly dwindling liquid. “Always running.”
Alicia plucked the bottle from his hands before his lips reached the neck and finished it off. “Not anymore,” she said simply. “I’m not saying the road ahead isn’t going to be hard — more like hell with me — but I’m going nowhere fast anymore.”
“I hope so.” Dahl nodded and looked at Drake. “Got any more o’ that good grog, matey?”
Drake laughed, shaking his head. “Next time you try fighting whilst protecting a liter plastic bottle of rum in your backpack.”
Hayden held up a hand. “To craziness.” She held up an imaginary glass. “And all the things we have done.”
Drake saluted, his mind flicking back past the Odin and Blood King escapades to Babylon and the madness in DC. He lingered over the Pandora event where they had teamed up with a talented trio of ex-CIA agents called the Disavowed — Trent, Silk, Radford and now Collins were a force to be reckoned with and no less zany than Drake’s own team. He hoped one day to team up again.
Quickly, he told them all about Karin and her request. The words were met with solemn appraisal and a blanket acceptance. Fort Bragg certainly wouldn’t damage Karin and, chances were, it could help. The conversation reminded them all that Karin, Lauren, Jenny and Nicholas Bell were still out there.
Drake shifted, groaning. “I guess we should be heading out.”
“One more minute,” Alicia said softly. “I like this.”
The team settled again, wounds and bruises aching, but even behind the grimaces hidden smiles formed. There was no greater team than the one that fought for each other, played for each other and died for each other.
“Whilst we’re talking,” Hayden then said, “and nicely isolated here—” the old galleon moaned and grunted around them, scoured by sudden breezes, eddies of sand blasting through the deck in mini-tornadoes; the great, heavy treasure chests complaining with age and the surrounding timbers belligerent and burdened, “—I believe we need to investigate Robert Price.”
Dahl shifted uncomfortably. “The Secretary of Defense. You mentioned something like this before. Has he disobeyed one of your orders?”
“Very funny. No, I first heard it from General Stone. Remember him? He alluded to Price being dirty when he had no reason to. I just think… there’s something off about him, and we should be careful. We have too much at risk.”
Drake didn’t need to question her. “Whatever you say.”
“We ain’t sending Lauren in this time,” Smyth barked. “Not after the last shitstorm.”
Drake cocked his head. “Is that the real reason?”
“Sure it is!”
“I heard she was sweet over Nicholas Bell.”
“Fuck Bell. He’s going to jail.”
Drake refrained from ribbing the snappish soldier beyond his limits. Bell might actually be set loose if he could help them arrest Webb. He studied Alicia who sat relaxed at his side. Her blond hair had fallen across an eye and one cheek was all squashed up as she rested her head against a crate.
“You ready?”
Alicia considered the team sat around her. “One extra minute,” she said. “Just one. There’s no rush.”
Please read on for more information on the future of the Matt Drake world
Here ends the current adventure but fear not! There’s much more to come. I’m often asked/told never to end the Matt Drake series and always reply the same way — no end in sight yet! Plans are already afoot for the next three adventures, The Last Bazaar, The Edge of Armageddon, and one more, which will follow a very different style, and all hopefully be released in 2016, along with Alicia 3, again heading in a different direction. One of the Drakes might slip to 2017, we’ll see. I even have a fresh idea for a stand-alone Torsten Dahl novel! Out of interest I am also toying with the idea of a Drake/Myles origin novel (set in the nineties it would begin their story within a larger adventure). Good idea or not? Let me know. Beyond that look out for regular signed paperback giveaways on my Facebook page.