“She’s still with you?” Drake was shocked.
“Umm, yeah. Is there a reason she shouldn’t be?”
“Just be careful,” Drake said. “Watch her.”
The jagged shadows of mountains appeared ahead and Ramses’ chopper started to descend.
“We’re in business,” Drake told Hayden. “He’s headed down.”
“And he knows we’re here. Be careful, no heroics.”
Dahl tapped Drake on the shoulder. “Was that directed at you? Or me?”
“Both. Why?”
“Well, it’s my normal state. Does she really want me to change this?” He stared at his own figure in the window’s reflection.
Alicia was gazing at Mai. “That’s a helluva scar you have there, Sprite. What did you do — lose a battle with your shaver?”
“Is that a way of intimating that I have facial hair?”
Alicia shrugged. “It’s not a criticism.”
“Well that would be a first, coming from you.”
The team quieted as Ramses’ chopper suddenly swooped toward the oncoming peaks. Winds buffeted them, attacking from both sides and shrieking like Valkyries. Beauregard weaved between peaks, following Ramses’ line to perfection. Drake experienced a little nausea as the close proximity of the mountains revealed just how high they were much more theatrically than flying across a roof of green leaves.
The lead chopper dived hard and then leveled out, still falling down the side of a vertical cliff face. Peering hard, Drake finally saw their terminus, a sprawling gray structure that sat upon a lower peak, overlooking the valley below.
“A castle,” Drake said. “The man’s full of surprises.”
Beauregard sent their own chopper hot on the heels of the first. As the castle walls grew clearer and the highest tower approached Drake saw men positioned along the battlements.
“Evade!” he shouted. “Now!”
Legionnaires fired up from below, automatic weapons chattering as Ramses landed in the small courtyard. Beau pulled hard on the cyclic stick, wrenching the chopper aside, but the combined force of gravity and heavy shells sent the helicopter into free fall. Drake gripped the sides of his seat and braced his entire body. Dahl breathed heavily. Another flurry of fire and holes appeared in the metalwork. Beau worked hard to haul up the controls, trying to bring the nose up. The engine suddenly cut out and a terrible silence filled the cockpit, accompanied by the whine of free fall.
Beau’s last movement was a shuddering heave on the cyclic stick.
Drake grimaced as the rock came up fast and the chopper crashed against the walls of the castle.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
Drake held his body as firmly as he could when the impact came. Against Hayden’s original wish, Beau had done a heroic job — practically leveling the chopper off as it crash landed. Its underside struck the castle walls, shattering them, rubble raining down inside and outside the structure. A new hole appeared right next to the front gates and the drawbridge that spanned a house-sized ravine. Everything juddered as they broke through the walls, then shook and bounced as the helo wobbled and vibrated its way down and into Ramses’ inner courtyard.
Drake stayed still as the world spun. Then, steeling himself, he launched into action, checking the others for wounds.
“Sound off.”
Affirmatives rose very quickly and clearly, the best sign that nobody was injured. Drake pushed at the door, cracking it open a little before it wedged. Beau shoved at his side, creating a gap large enough for them to squeeze through. The Frenchman went first, drawing his weapon, then Dahl and Mai. The chopper wheezed and coughed around them, glass trickling to the floor and metal shrieking as its weight shifted. Alicia paused a moment to grab more ammo and Drake gave her a shove.
“Hurry, the others are clear.”
“You’ll thank me later. And quit poking me, it’s friggin’ freezing out here.”
“It would be. You’ve just spent days in the Amazon.” Drake spoke before feeling the chill draught of the mountain air roll into the cabin. Alicia was right, it was actually “friggin’ freezing”, but at least they were well below the snow line.
Drake compressed his frame to fit through the small gap, gasping a little. Bacon butties, he thought, will be the bloody death of me. The sound of gunfire erupted from somewhere, shots being fired at his comrades. Drake looked up to see a swarm of legionnaires bearing down on them from the inner courtyard and more scrambling down the wreckage of the walls. Ramses stood in the center of it all, directing men, and Drake could hear the deep timbre of his voice.
“Bring me any memento you like. But make sure they’re dead.”
A price on our heads? No change there then.
Dahl had topped the rubble pile and was now scrambling over it, heading away from the castle and toward a stand of trees some way off. Mai and Beau quickly followed. Drake urged Alicia along as legionnaires bore down on them from three sides.
“We good?” Drake heard Dahl call.
“Go, go, go!” Alicia cried back, running so fast her legs, slipping on the shifting rubble, suddenly went out from beneath her.
Drake caught her under the shoulder, spun and rammed a fist into the first attacker. He lifted Alicia. The blonde fired instantly, two men dropping to their knees. Together, they attacked the rubble pile again, nearing the top, but they had already fallen far behind.
A whistle, and the sound of a streaking missile made his heart skip a beat. Are they firing RPGs at us? No, he decided a second later, they’re firing at the rubble pile!
The rocket hit and exploded, shifting heaps of mortar, stone and rock, a percussive blast ringing around the mountains. The large mass relocated, swelling and rippling and becoming as unstable as melting ice. Drake tried to catch Alicia as she fell, but failed, for he was already tumbling himself.
Back down into the courtyard the two soldiers fell. Back down toward Ramses.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
Drake struggled as the bonds bit hard.
Surprisingly, they had been well treated so far. They were seated on a deep, plush red sofa, hands tied behind their backs and feet strapped together. The sofa faced a picture window that stared out over towering peaks and down into the valley. A meandering lane led from the gates of the castle, over crumbling hills, through both thick and sparse stands of trees that eventually led to a rolling, grassy floor, many hundreds of feet below. Drake guessed they had been waiting there for an hour before a door opened.
Ramses stood behind them, out of sight.
“I could use assets like you,” he was saying. “Somebody willing to take a risk, put themselves on the line to make a difference. For me. Yes, I have many already but I could use people with brains. With instinct. With initiative. You would be very well reimbursed for your efforts.”
Alicia shuffled. “Untie me first. Then we will talk.”
“You would be willing to switch sides?”
“I’ve done it before.”
Ramses walked into view, standing like a mountain himself before the picture window. His frame blocked out all but a little light. “Then we shall talk.” He nodded behind Drake.
A gun barrel pressed against his temple. Akatash, he thought. The swift, silent assassin. Alicia blinked in shock, not having sensed the bodyguard’s presence.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” Ramses said. “I am good too. I used to believe I could take care of myself, against any opponent.” He sighed. “Then I met Akatash.”