“Bastards are giving chase,” he said. “Vladimir must be scared of his masters. This FrameHub? What do you know of them, Luther?”
“Fuck off, Drake. We ain’t friends.”
Drake shrugged as Dahl chortled. “Our charismatic leader,” the Swede said. “Working at the top of his game.”
“Maybe I can help,” Alicia panted from behind as they jogged up an incline. “After all, I’m pretty sure we’ve…”
“I remember you,” Luther growled. “Yeah, it took me a while but I remember you now.”
“There you go,” Alicia said as if they were now all good friends. “Problem solved. Sometimes bumping uglies can be useful too.”
“We bumped heads, not uglies,” Luther said, legs pumping hard. “You worked for the other side back then, Myles. Seems you still do.”
“I did?” Alicia frowned. “Stop being such a smug shit. America and all its covert agencies change sides every week. You’re just an order taker, Luther. Might as well work at a restaurant.”
Luther rumbled like an angered bear.
“Guys,” it was Hayden speaking. “Can you stop trying to make friends? I thought we established that’s not your forte.”
Drake stopped at the top of the rise, shading his eyes as he gauged the lay of the land. The desert stretched to all sides, in places flat and in others composed of rolling dunes. Far away to the east he thought he spied a narrow black strip.
“There we go,” he said. “Good call, Luther. I guess even a grunt can be right once a day.”
“You got a problem with grunts now? We can settle this right here, asshole, if you wanna.”
“I have no problem with grunts,” Drake set off. “Just wankers that follow blindly.”
“You were like that once,” Crouch called over. “It’s how they shape you.”
“True,” Drake admitted. “But then I was still a teenager.”
Luther looked over as they ran carefully downhill. “Army man straight outta school?”
“Yep. Never knew nothing else.”
“Same here. Parents almost killed me.”
From the rear of the pack there came a shout from Mai. The Japanese woman had ranged back a little to get a feel for what was following.
“Twenty armed mercs, including Vladimir and Saint. Get a move on.”
Drake was worried. The mercs were relatively fresh, trained and hungry for blood. They had their boss with them who, no doubt, was eager to finish and probably earn a decent pay day. Thinking it through, he decided the road was too far.
“Plan B,” he said.
Dahl chuckled. “Not that old maxim.”
“Always works,” Drake said. Quickly, he shouted out a strategy and received a plethora of thumbs-up.
“How many rifles we got?”
Three shouts — Kinimaka, Smyth and Pine — one of Luther’s boys.
“Can you handle it?”
Three affirmatives.
“Then do it. Mai, you hang back to supervise it.”
Drake slowed as they found their positions. Kinimaka ran to the right, a hundred paces; Smyth to the left. Pine remained at the center and Mai watched over it all. They hunkered down on one knee, sighting carefully until the enemy were in sight.
Drake led the pack away at a steadier rate. Hopefully the shooting would cause confusion and mayhem among their pursuers, bringing the road into the options scenario. Of course, it was merely a road and who knew how well traveled it might be?
The shooting began behind them. Measured, even shots designed to take out the lead runners. Kinimaka, Smyth and Pine were well covered back there, able to concentrate and fully trust that Mai had their safety as her priority. So far seven gunshots had rung out with no return. The signs were good.
“Wish we had comms,” Drake said.
“Y’know,” Alicia returned. “That’s becoming the new proverb.”
Luther ignored them and moved over to his remaining protégé, a woman called Carey. Drake heard him checking on her spirits. Carey seemed capable, but quiet, reserved. Drake wondered if it was her first outing with Luther.
Bad luck.
Taking down the SPEAR team was never, ever going to be easy.
Drake paused now, taking stock. The road was visible ahead and random cars were running along it. He wondered what Vladimir had done with the remaining vehicles. Carefully, he checked the status of those that guarded their backs.
Running now. On the way here.
Then we’d best be ready to help them. The wolves would be at their backs.
He wiped sweat from his brow in rivulets, looking at Dahl.
“Plan B worked,” he said. “How about a C?”
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Karin Blake sat with her back to the tall white fridge, the laptop open in front of her on the scarred wooden table. Palladino and Wu sat opposite, legs propped up on tired-looking chairs, a bottle of chilled beer clasped in their hands. The house in the Californian desert was cool, due to cold snap sweeping through the state, and a tranquil breeze blew through the open doors.
“You relaxed enough there, Dino?” Karin asked the young soldier.
“Oh, yeah, I’m good. I could get used to this.”
Wu saluted his friend. “Me too, bud. Me too.”
Karin shook her head, but it was for show. Truth be told something had just popped up on her computer screen that she didn’t want them to see.
Am I really seeing this now? I really don’t want to see this now.
Plans were already prepped. Arrangements made. Time was ticking and she didn’t have long before they were due to head out. It had taken awhile, even for her, to sift through Tyler Webb’s maze of secrets, draw out the useless from the perverted and the plain silly to those skeletons in the closet that might just rock the world.
Three she classed as megaton blasts, but one of these was in play even now — the American splinter group that had disavowed SPEAR without anyone’s knowledge and were pursuing world-domination of their own, codename: Tempest. It was an attempt to amass the most terrible weapons that had ever existed — the weapons of the gods. Two more were imminent, but it was the Tempest riddle that she had to unravel first.
It would do no good if they succeeded.
So, the enigma presented itself. She and SPEAR were on the same side, at least for a week or so. Another issue that made what had popped up on her laptop rather timely and interesting.
“You checking up on Drake again?” Dino asked. “Hey girl, you still on board with the plan?”
“I am.” Karin nodded. “They’re somewhere in Egypt right now chasing down the seven seals. Last I heard, seal four was down and then they vanished off the radar. Even our radar. Luther was closing in.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s all over.”
“We need to get going soon,” Wu said. “Enough of this waiting around. We end this, and then we can move on. You can move on. We’re a team, right? You ready?”
“Give me thirty,” Karin said. “Still a few things to finish off.”
Guiding her plan to fruition had already caused great heartache, and the dangerous part was yet to come. Since the day Komodo died on the streets of Tokyo, since Drake found a place for her in the army training camp… since then the wheels had never stopped turning. In truth they’d been turning long before that — when Ben died perhaps — but not so loud that they consumed her every waking and sleeping moment.
Tyler Webb had owned a wealth of secrets. Karin and her team had appropriated them a short time ago. Now, she knew.
She knew everything.
One member of the SPEAR team was dying.
And Drake? Well, his secret would have to wait. She didn’t know whether she hated the man or admired his tenacity, but when all the people he proclaimed to love died around him and still, pigheadedly, he forged on down the same path, the reasoning had somehow become lost.