Hayden cast about the top of the dusty hill. “Let’s see if any of these other clowns will talk to us.”
With the battle over, Hayden recalled the chopper and used its occupants to help secure a perimeter. Razin and Zanko had vanished so completely, Drake wondered if they had a hidey hole in the area. The pair of them were slippery enough, he knew, and unlikely to have revealed its location to their men. Nevertheless, the four swords were added to the two they’d already liberated and all set on the ground, inscription side up.
Akerman and Patterson cooed over them like grandparents over a newborn. Akerman again voiced the concern that the language differed from the one he’d been deciphering in the tomb. “But,” he pointed out hopefully. “The properties are very similar. We should start as soon as we’re able.”
Drake stared down at the weapons, stunning yes, but hardly a weapon that might save the world. “You sure these things can stop Odin’s doomsday device?”
Patterson looked stressed. “Alexander crafted them for that purpose. They are the Swords of the Seven Veils. Priceless. Given place of honor at Alexander’s deathbed. The real message is on the swords themselves — the inscriptions, but I can tell you now — it will center on the many earth energy vortexes scattered around the world.”
Hayden stopped at his shoulder. “C’mon, Drake. It’s hardly more surprising than when we first found out the gods were once real.”
“Still.” Drake stared up at the skies. “I sometimes get the feeling I’m just a main character in a story, y’know? Prancing around and not really getting anywhere.”
“Shit.” Alicia heard and laughed. “No one would be daft enough to make you the main character, Drakey. They’d choose me to help give the story a big pair of bollocks.”
Drake shook his head, trying to purge his mind of the idea, and turned away. He desperately needed some downtime and maybe a touch of Mai-time. He saw her now, staring off into space yet again as if expecting someone to materialize out of the dust and the shimmering heat-haze that stretched across the horizon. It looked like she was chatting on her cell.
Hayden broke out the team’s satphone and put in a call to Gates, through Karin, on the speakerphone. The Secretary sounded surprisingly upbeat at first.
“I’m sure you have nothing but good news for me, Hayden.”
“Well.” Hayden paused. “We have six of the seven swords, sir, so at least that’s something. We’re working on the inscriptions now. No luck yet.”
“I thought you had that language expert. Akerman, isn’t it?”
“He says the inscriptions don’t quite match the ones in the tombs.”
Gates sighed. “Of course they don’t. We really do have nothing here. You should also work on a plan for a last case scenario.”
Hayden flicked a glance across to Drake. “We should?”
“Yes, if you can find out what needs to be done if it comes to fight or flight. Hayden.” He went quiet for a long moment. “I’m counting on you.”
“Thank you, sir.” Drake studied her, wondering why she didn’t question the odd moment, but then she’d been dealing with Gates a lot longer than he. “Has Cayman resurfaced yet? Or his boss?”
“No. It feels a little like the calm before the storm here in Washington. All the main players out there are still jockeying into position. We don’t know their agenda. They won’t reveal their intentions until they’re good and ready.”
“Still,” Hayden brooded. “It infuriates us all, knowing they’re up to something so terrible and we’re powerless to stop them.”
“That’s what makes you the best team for the job,” Gates said. Drake tuned out as the Secretary continued and crossed over to Dahl and Kinimaka, who were crouched over a twitching body.
“Get what we need?”
Dahl turned around, his eyes wide. “I’m not entirely sure. If we’re to believe two out of two men, questioned separately, then the seventh sword has been sent to Zoya.” The Swede hesitated.
“Where the hell is Zoya?”
“Not a ‘where’, a ‘who’. Zoya is Zanko’s grandmother.”
Drake’s face fell. “Fuck off, Dahl. This isn’t the time—”
“I’m not joking.”
Kinimaka turned equally shocked eyes his way. “He’s not joking.”
Drake chortled, drawing attention from the others. “Zanko’s grandmother. And you believe them?”
Dahl’s gaze was speculative. “I get the feeling that although this is Razin’s operation, Zoya can start calling the shots at any time. Grandmother or not, it seems Razin has a very powerful sleeping partner.”
“Fine. Fine. I guess someone related to Zanko might not be quite what you expect. And in any case, we need that sword. You get an address?”
“Of course.”
Drake saw Alicia approaching. The expression on her face made him bite his tongue in order to stop the insult that was about to fly out. “Don’t say it.”
Alicia tried to grin but didn’t make it. “I only came back to help get you outta jail, Drake. Lomas needs me.”
“We need you. The world needs you.”
Now Alicia did laugh. “Don’t be a dickhead. You’ll be fine.” Her gaze turned to Mai. “Both of you.”
Drake took her in his arms, surprised at how soft her body felt in his embrace. You fought alongside someone so long, you watched them kill, bleed and struggle, you occasionally tended to forget they were just a girl.
Maybe that was part of why she was leaving.
“I hate saying goodbye to you,” he whispered into her ear. “Twice in two weeks is two times too many.”
Alicia grunted. “Bet you can’t say that again when you’re drunk.”
“I don’t get drunk anymore.”
She pulled away. Drake held on. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything by it. We’re family now, Alicia. You, Mai, me. Those idiots over there.” He pointed out Dahl, Hayden and Kinimaka. “You ever need us. Just say the word.”
Alicia’s lips moved against his throat. “My family ripped apart when I was eight. My dad started beating up my mum, and me when I stood up for her. I was too weak to do anything about it, so when I got older the first thing I did was join the Amy. I got out of there. My dad forged my fire, but the Army molded it into an art. All these years, Matt, I’ve just been fighting my dad.”
Drake swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe that here, in Iraq, atop the ancient Tower of Babel, Alicia Myles was finally opening up to someone. “Is your dad still alive?”
“He died of alcohol poisoning four months after my mum died of an overdose. Believe me, he was the lucky one.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you for my new family, Matt. I will try to visit.”
“Make sure you do.” Drake cleared his throat, averting his eyes until he felt he had some control. Alicia would join the crew on the chopper and head back to Camp Babylon, and from there back to Lomas and his biker crew. The rest of the SPEAR team would depart soon in the two vehicles that remained intact.
He sat down hard in the dust. Goddamn, he needed a rest.
The first thing Mai did in the aftermath of the battle was to check her phone. Sure enough, a message had been left. It was from Dai Hibiki, and the contents could not be good. She cast around first to make sure she was alone, walked closer to the edge of the mound, then ignored the message and hit the call-back button.
Hibiki picked up so fast he might have been sat on the receiver. “Mai? Where are you? Are you alright?”
“What is it?”
Her friend’s voice quavered half a world away. “The name of the man searching for you. It’s… it’s—”
“Gyuki?”