by Rob Jones
“Two down and one to go,” he said.
“Plus the Goonies over there in the Viking,” Hawke said.
“Plus the Goonies, sure,” Devlin repeated.
The Viking SSV was almost at the maze, but now the final rider appeared. Seeing his dead associate he turned and disappeared into another maze pathway, but Scarlet saw a way to head him off.
She grabbed the trident and sprinted to the far corner of the central section where she slipped out into the pathway. She waited for a second until the man turned the corner, and when he did he was met with the trident’s prongs hard in his chest.
Knocked clean off his bike, he hit the grass with the trident still sticking out of his body. He howled and grunted as he wrenched the metal spikes from his chest, but Scarlet was in no mood for mercy.
He got to his knees and raised two palms of surrender, but she lashed out, kicking the wounded man in the stomach and sending him flying into the hedge. He howled again in triple agony at the force of the kick, the trident wound and the thorns now tearing into his back. Another kick to the face sent him off to dreamland and she headed back to the others.
When she got there, she found the Viking was parked up in the trail of destruction just behind the Lexus and the goons inside were engaged in a full-scale brawl with the ECHO team. Worse, smoke was spiralling up from the Lexus’s engine compartment and the tires were all blown out.
Lea was fighting a woman, and expertly blocking a rapid succession of strikes from her. She was good, but Lea was better and for several seconds the two of them took each other’s blows and bobbed and weaved in the chaos of the maze. Their macabre dance of death was brought to a swift conclusion when Devlin threw a knife into the woman’s back.
It thudded into the muscle, hard and deep and it was obvious that the blade had pierced her heart when she fell down onto her knees with blood frothing around her mouth.
“I had her, Danny!” Lea said angrily.
“Just lending a hand, Lea.”
One of the men rushed Scarlet, hooking her foot out from under her and making her tumble backwards. She reached out for something to grab but he finished the job by powering a palm strike into her solar plexus.
She hit the dirt floor of the maze with a thud. She was on her back and vulnerable to attack, but just as the man lunged toward her, the tall broad figure of Reaper appeared behind him. His shovel-like hands gripped the man by his shoulders and spun him around as if he was a child.
“Ça va?” he said, and rounded the question off with an eye-watering uppercut punch. It crashed into his face, immediately dislocating his jaw and shattering several of his teeth.
Scarlet winced. “Ouch. That’s gotta be like getting hit in the face by a massive French legionnaire – oh, wait...”
The man was on all fours now, spitting teeth and foamy blood from his mouth. He began to stagger to his feet but Scarlet leaped up and kicked him in the face. She pulled her leg back just as the now-unconscious man’s body slumped into the side of the hedge. He slid down to the dirt, the thorns scratching deep lines into his back as he went.
She got herself back together and saw Hawke and Lea crossing the center of the maze, they were followed moments later by Ryan, Devlin and Kim. Across the other side of the maze’s heart, Mack had wrenched a club from the statue of Heracles and was screaming at one of the men from the Viking. “You asked for it, ya tadger, so you’re gonnae get it!” He swung the club and knocked the man out with one blow, then strolled over to the others with his hands in his pockets.
“Aww, the family’s altogether again,” Scarlet said. “The Viking crew?”
Hawke smiled. “You and Mack just knocked the last ones out.”
“Good job,” Kim said.
“Always a pleasure,” Scarlet said, kicking one of the unconscious men in the balls.
Devlin winced. “He’s gonna love waking up to that.”
Hawke and the other men shared a look of understanding, then Scarlet turned to the other unconscious man and gave him the same treatment. “There,” she said, dusting her hands off. “They can share the pain, and you know what they say: a problem shared is a problem halved.”
“You are literally unbelievable,” Kim said.
“Oh, she’s real all right,” Ryan muttered. “Just ask that bloke there when he wakes up to find a couple of watermelons in his pants.”
“Just not funny,” Kim said. “It’s a British thing, right?”
They climbed into the Viking SSV, and with Hawke at the wheel they raced up the smooth slope leading away from England’s largest maze. Up ahead was Horak’s enormous ivy-clad Georgian mansion.
And Dirk Kruger.
“So how are we going to play this?” said Lea.
“We initiate Secret Plan A,” Hawke said.
“You mean burst in and just start shooting and punching with minimum finesse and zero tactics?” Scarlet said.
Devlin chuckled and Ryan rolled his eyes.
Hawke sighed. “That was the secret plan. How did you know about it?”
She shrugged. “Just a lucky guess.”
Up close, the property was even more impressive than it had looked from the western edge of the estate. There was a main house with two large wings and jumbled around them were several outbuildings, including what they now saw was definitely a stableblock and also what looked like some kind of studio. The honey-colored Cotswold stone reflected the heat of the summer’s day and the sun flashed on the lead-lined windows.
Hawke pulled the Viking up on the gravel drive and killed the engine. “So this is how the other half live!”
“Sadly yes,” Scarlet said. “This house has only got three storeys. Spence’s has five.”
Hawke gave her a look but made no reply. After everything she had gone through as a girl, it was good she could joke about her family. Holding onto one of the roll bars he pulled himself out of the Viking and his boots crunched on the gravel. The others joined him and they stared up at the house.
“Doesn’t look like the fracas back at the maze caused too much consternation,” Scarlet said.
Devlin looked at her. “Fracas?”
“The bunfight back there.”
“Don’t count on it,” Hawke said. He stepped in the flower bed running around the base of the main house and cupped his hands against a window. “If they’re around the back they wouldn’t have heard a little upset like that.”
“A little upset!” Kim said. “You guys really are crazy.”
Cupping their hands against the lead-lined windows they saw the typical English country house with oak panelled doors and a wall of library books.
“I keep expecting Lara Croft to swing into the picture on one of those chandeliers,” Ryan said, staring up at the ceiling.
“Expecting, or fantasizing?” Scarlet purred, giving him a seedy wink.
“Give it a rest, Cairo,” he said. “But yeah, fantasizing.”
Suddenly they all saw a blue flash emanating from one of the downstairs windows in the west wing.
“Holy shit – the sword!” Kim said.
“All right,” Hawke said. “Time for us to crash this party. Kruger and Zito and the rest of their baboons are in this house, and so is Horak. It’s possible they’re coercing him, or he may be complicit. We also know they’re planning on escaping using the chopper, so we’re going to need to split up. One team goes into the house, gets Kruger and the sword, and the other heads over to the hangar compound and makes damned sure none of the helos are taking off today.”
“Great plan,” Scarlet said. “Except when was the last time anything we ever did went to plan?”
Hawke gave her a look and said, “Lea, Reaper and Mack with me, and Scarlet can lead Kim, Ryan and Danny on the sabotage mission.”
“Let’s go smash some skulls!” Scarlet said.
“Did anyone ever tell you that you have a serious attitude problem?” Devlin said.
“Not more than once, honey.”
The Irishman laughed and shook his head.
It was time to smash skulls.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
As Hawke led Lea, Reaper and Mack into the ground floor of the mansion, they all heard a strange, electrical crackling sound and then another bright blue flash. It was followed by the sound of a man’s terrified screams.
“Through here!” Hawke said, darting toward a door on their left.
They entered the room they had seen from the outside but there was no sign of any flashing light or sword. Then, a section of the wall containing the bookshelves slid to the right and revealed Vermaak and an Italian. The bookshelves were on a fake wall and now both men stood in an open doorway leading into another previously hidden section of the drawing room. The South African was holding a commando knife in his hand and the Italian was armed with two pistols.
“Well, howdy Tex!” Lea said.
Vermaak scowled at her. “Shut the fuck up, bitch.”
Everyone stared at Hawke, looking for his lead, but there was nothing he could do so he turned to Lea and gave her an apologetic smile.
“Guns out of holsters and on the floor,” Vermaak said. “And then raise your hands to whatever god you choose.”
Hawke pulled his Glock from the holster and lowered it down to the large Persian rug on the floor, and Lea and the others followed a second later. “You really are starting to get on my tits, Vermaak,” he said.
“I’m glad to hear it, you bastard,” Vermaak sneered. He lifted the blade and pointed its tip at Hawke’s face. “You and this knife have a date with destiny, Pom. I was going to retire this week – make this my last job. But now I know you’re on the guest list I’ve decided to stick it out a bit longer.”
“Please, not in front of my girlfriend,” Hawke said.
Vermaak scowled. “You think you’re so damned funny, Hawke. You always did, even back in the day when you were just an ordinary soldier. But now you’ve met your match.” He tossed the knife into the air. It spun around and he snatched it back with a commanding swipe. “I’d kill you right now, but unfortunately Mr Kruger has other plans for you and the rest of these losers.”
“How kind.”
“If it was up to me I’d gut you with this blade and let you bleed out on the floor before shooting your friends down like the stray dogs they are.”
“I’d pay good money to see you try,” Mack growled.
“I think I’d plump for meeting your Mr Kruger if that’s the alternative,” Lea said.
“Keep the hands high and get over here, bitch,” the South African commando said. He walked to Lea and pushing the gun in her face. “You want to die today?”
Lea kept her mouth shut, and Hawke used the moment while Vermaak was distracted to remove his earpiece and slide it down into his shirt. Reaper and Mack saw him and did the same.
Vermaak walked away from Lea, smiled coldly at them and raised the pistol in their faces. “For you, the war is over.”
*
Scarlet Sloane led Kim, Ryan and Danny Devlin around the back of the stables and over toward the hangar compound. They followed a narrow trail cutting through a small copse of chestnut trees and then emerged once again much nearer the site. Now she could see a low jumble of red-brick buildings and a small helicopter hangar beside them. Inside the hangar was a Bell 204 and outside were the AgustaWestland and a Europcopter.
“That’ll be our place then,” Devlin said, rubbing his hands together.
“And that looks like Kruger’s escape plan,” said Ryan. He pointed at the AgustaWestland on the tarmac outside the hangar. Its engine was idling and some men were milling around it. A few meters behind a man was servicing the Bell 204 helicopter just inside the hangar.
“Let’s get on it,” Scarlet said. “Then we can get back to Hawke.”
They made their way to the hangar but then everything changed. One of the men in an office saw them and ordered an attack. The next thing they knew someone was firing grenades at them from a handheld launcher. The first went wide but the second caught them before they could take cover and blasted all four of them into the air.
Ryan landed on the grass at the side of the airfield, but Scarlet, Kim and Devlin had been too close to the blast and were now sprawled out in the sun, as lifeless as three corpses. With more incoming grenades Ryan scrambled over to them. They were all alive, but out cold. The shock wave had knocked them for six, and now another grenade exploded right beside him and nearly dealt him the same hand.
He realized he wasn’t just putting his own life in danger by not taking cover – he was endangering the lives of Scarlet, Kim and Devlin too. The men attacking them were unlikely to waste ammunition on unconscious combatants.
He leaped to his feet and sprinted for the cover of the hangar. Bursting through a side door, he found himself in a long corridor which was lined on either side with several windowless doors. A line of three strip lights lit the dreary, gray breeze block walls as he made his way toward an internal entrance that led through into the main hangar.
With the rest of his team out of the game, it was up to him to sabotage the helicopter, but when he turned into the hangar he was faced with the terrifying sight of two men staring back at him. One of them was a giant with a shaved head. He was wearing mechanic’s overalls and gripping a heavy wrench in his hand. The other was Bruno, and now the Italian spoke.
“Well, look who it is... get him!”
*
Inside the drawing room, Kruger and Zito were leaning against a substantial mahogany desk while the other men lounged around on various chairs. The bodies of two dead men were still sizzling on the floor. They looked like they had been seriously burned.
Mack saw them first. “Run out of sausages for the barbecue, Dirk?”
Kruger looked up at his prisoners. “Ah – Josiah Hawke and some other key members of the Red Hand Gang, and all right here in my new house.” He was holding a large tumbler of what looked like vodka filled to the brim with ice. He gave them a smile and took a sip of the drink.
“Your house?” Lea said.
Kruger gently pushed the leather swivel chair around with his snakeskin boot to reveal the dead body of Pavel Horak. A single bullet hole was drilled into his forehead and a look of terrified surprise was etched on his face for eternity. “Sadly, Mr Horak tried to modify the agreement he had struck with the Oracle. As you will know, he is not a man to trifle with.”
“The Oracle?” Lea said, taking a step back.
“Bugger me,” said Hawke. “I thought you were working for him,” he nodded in the direction of Horak’s corpse. “But I can see now how such a working relationship would have its limitations.”
“So you gave the Tinia idol to the Oracle?” Lea said.
“You catch on quick.”
“How could you?”
“Only the Oracle knows the purpose of the idols.”
“If you’re involved with Wolff then you’re a bigger fool than I imagined, Kruger,” Hawke said. His eyes were drawn to the bag containing the sword. It was parked innocuously on a long leather couch running under one of the bay windows.
Kruger saw him looking at the bag and his smile grew wider. “You want it, don’t you? You want to know what it really is, and what it does! You want to know about the gateway.”
“You’re a bastard, Kruger,” Lea said defiantly. “How could you work for a man like the Oracle?”
Kruger took more of the vodka while he and Vermaak shared a glance for a few seconds. “He has taught me a great deal. For a long time I thought diamonds and gold were the most precious things in this world. How wrong I was... how wrong I was.” His voice started to trail away, but then he came back sharp and loud. “The question you have to ask yourself, young Miss Donovan, is whether or not the Oracle really is a man.”
“There’s an obvious joke there,” Lea said, never taking her eyes off Kruger. “But I’ll leave it till the company’s better.”
“I’m not interested in
your pithy one-liners, Donovan,” Kruger said, rounding on her. “Tell me, any luck working out who killed your daddy?”
Lea lunged for him, cursing his name as she rushed forward but Hawke grabbed her arm and stopped her. “Leave it, Lea. He’s baiting you and you should know better.”
Kruger laughed and finished his drink. “Quite the temper on that one, indeed. Quite the temper...” he tutted. “Very sharp.”
Lea scowled at him. “You join me in a fair fight and you’ll find out just how fucking sharp.”
Kruger ignored her comment. “When the Oracle has this sword, he will be able to open the gateway to the king’s tomb. After that, your fight will be over.”
“What do you mean gateway?” Reaper asked.
“Yeah,” Lea said. “And what king’s tomb?”
Kruger cackled. “I’m loving this. The great ECHO team begging me for information. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
“Oh, it does,” Lea said. “Like when the Oracle works out he’s used you for all he needs and then has you snuffed out. I just hope I’m there to see it.”
Reaper nodded. “Et moi, aussi.”
“The Oracle is very generous to loyal servants,” Kruger said. “And as for the second part of your little fantasy – you’ll all be dead within the hour, and about fucking time too.”
“People have threatened that before, mon ami,” Reaper said. “And yet here we all are.”
Hawke pointed at the dead men on the floor. “What happened to these men, Kruger?”
“Ah – yes, very sad... they tried to wield the sword, but unfortunately it turns out the legend is true.”
“What legend?” Lea said.
Hawke sighed. “Where the hell is Ryan when you need him?”
“The legend of the Sword of Fire states that only a person of innate goodness can wield it. Those with an evil lurking within are, apparently, char-grilled. It has something to so with negative and positive ions.”
