The Matt Drake Series Books: 7-9 (The Matt Drake Series Boxset 2)

by David Leadbeater

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  Drake saw eight rope lines dangling from the assembled choppers. The combined thunder from their rotors was more than deafening; it was a sheer onslaught to the senses. Keeping his sense of balance as low as possible he ran hard, following Dahl, hoping the mad Swede had some kind of plan.

  Dahl skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof. “Whoa, didn’t expect that.”

  Balls.

  Drake tackled a merc around the waist, forcing him to the ground. Alicia’s weapon barked. Mai peppered pilots with devastating ammo. Two choppers jerked violently as their pilots reacted, sending men tumbling from their ropes.

  But still more men landed than the five could deal with.

  Trent smashed his stern visage into a merc that landed just in front of him, then faced three more. A wild shot skimmed his midriff. Mai vaulted in gracefully from the side, using hands and feet to raise bruises and break bones. Trent joined her in the melee, battering his opponents with heavy strikes.

  Dahl stared over the edge of the roof. Alicia skidded up to him. “What the fuck’s up, Torsty?”

  Drake ground his teeth. “That’s a long drop, mate.”

  “No!” the Swede said. “There!”

  He sidestepped several times to a new position, right above a bright red soft drinks machine.

  “Ya thirsty?” Alicia wondered. “Or in need of caffeine?”

  Dahl jumped three feet to a lower thin brick ledge, then to the top of the drinks machine and, without pause, leaped off and landed with a roll across the grass. Then he was up, gun raised.

  Drake shook his head. “It better be as easy as it goddamn looks.”

  Alicia turned, opening fire as several men converged on their position. Mai and Trent were steps away, the west coast man flinging a struggling merc face-first to the floor. Even Alicia almost winced as the man bounced.

  “Nice move.”

  “Where to?”

  “Ah, down . . .”

  Drake jumped, landing briefly on the ledge and using it to spring forward so that he landed atop the drinks machine. From there he bounced and rolled just as Dahl had, becoming slightly tangled in his weapon’s strap but still retaining dignity.

  Alicia covered Trent as he jumped down. Then she waved Mai forward but the Japanese woman smiled sadly.

  “You first, Taz. This is part of my burden, I believe.”

  Alicia shot a looming merc. “You looking to die, Little Sprite?”

  “My own fate is out of my hands now.”

  Mai sprayed the mercs, giving them much to consider as Alicia made the jump. As she fired she plucked a smoke bomb from her vest and flung it. Mercs shouted and dived for cover, not knowing the type of grenade she’d used. Mai used the distraction to skip stylishly to the floor.

  “A tad better than Yorkshire style,” Dahl observed.

  “One thing I’ve thankfully never been accused of,” Drake said, “is having too much style.”

  The Swede moved to the side of the building just as men approached from the front parking lot. Before they could blink, the team were under fire again.

  Sirens wailed in the distance.

  *

  Crouch sprinted the length of the balcony as men shot at them from below. Caitlyn ran behind him, sheltered by Healey and Russo, both returning fire. Behind them raced Silk, Radford and Yorgi. The remainder of the company jogged in the opposite direction, splitting the enemy forces.

  Crouch reached a door and yanked it open, herding the others through. Healey headed straight for the stairs.

  “Move it,” Crouch told Yorgi, the last through. “There are civilians here. We have to vacate asap.”

  The Russian made eyes at him, probably wondering “Ya think?” and slipped one leg over the staircase handrail, passing their frontrunners as he slid down. Not the best of decisions, since he was a non-soldier and that put him first in the firing line, but one he couldn’t now change. Yorgi flew off the end of the handrail and landed face-first onto the carpet of the hotel lobby. Crouch flew down after him but Russo, seeing the danger, leaped three steps at a time and hit ground level almost simultaneously.

  Mercs were entering the front doors, spilling into the lobby. Russo saw a side door, yanked Yorgi up with one hand and headed right for it. They were halfway across the lobby before they were spotted.

  A shout went up. Guns swiveled. By that time Crouch and the others were behind Russo and already firing.

  The hotel lobby erupted in a hail of gunfire. Potted palms disintegrated and turned into dust motes flitting through the air. Plaster exploded from the walls in large white chunks. Glass shattered, raining to the floor. Crouch and his team dived and rolled and crawled through it all, covered in debris, faces turned away from the worst of the flying wreckage. Most of the mercs remained upright and paid the price, struck by jagged pieces and razor-sharp shards, badly aimed bullets and falling candy-bar dispensers. Others fell back through the doors they had just entered, sprawling outside. Crouch hit Healey’s scrambling feet but rolled on, falling through a fragmented hell, blood trickling from a dozen cuts and gashes. Russo lumbered through the side door without even thinking of stopping to open it, the man-mountain tearing the hinges right off. Staggering outside, he still held the entire door as mercs descended on him. Russo swung it to and fro, knocking assailants aside like bowling pins.

  Crouch was the last to enter the parking lot as his team covered their flanks. Some way off to his right he had already spotted Drake’s impromptu team, keeping pace with them. His mind turned to thoughts of the others.

  *

  Hayden led the team that ran across the balcony in the other direction, followed mostly by SPEAR members with the addition of Special Agent Claire Collins. Kinimaka was beside her as always, positioned between her and the exposed railing. Hayden pushed her body hard, wondering if she’d feel any discomfort from the now relatively old gunshot wound, but felt nothing. Great news, considering the position they were in. Hayden slammed open the door, ducked as a stray bullet shattered the glass, and slipped through. Karin came next, pushed by Komodo. Smyth and Collins brought up the rear, untroubled by the mercenaries below.

  “Bastards are aiming at the other guys,” Collins barked. “Even after I wounded two of them.”

  “I know one way to help.” Hayden hastened down the staircase, finding it led to the rear of the property. On cracking the door she had a side view of the enemy. Quickly she turned back.

  “Ready?”

  Many weapons were raised in answer. Then Komodo said: “Wait. Where’s Smyth?”

  *

  The irascible Delta soldier muttered only three words in repetition as he pulled up in the line of fire.

  “Comin’ for ya. Comin’ for ya.”

  The room number jumped out at him, the sight of her lying so vulnerable, so drained it would be forever seared into his mind. Bullets sprayed the wall above, stitching a new line there. He smashed in the door with a kick as his comrades sprinted out of sight.

  “Comin’ for ya.”

  Lauren lay helpless, connected to tubes, with nurses hovering and looking scared out of their wits.

  “Does she have a chance, any chance at all, without these damn tubes?”

  “Not long,” one of them responded. “But then she doesn’t have long anyway. Take this.” She held out a long syringe filled with a clear mixture.

  “What the hell is it?”

  “A little something to slow her metabolic rate. Drastically. It should give you a few extra minutes.”

  “Why not give it to her now?”

  “Because if you do, when she wakes, everything will speed up and she’ll die faster.”

  Smyth understood. “I’m all for Hail Mary passes,” he said. Damn, he knew exactly where all this was coming from.

  Romero. That ass!

  Goddamn Romero had gone and got himself killed whilst running from the Blood King’s men. Smyth had loved that overgrown ass and would gladly have
taken the bullet. Now—Lauren had gone down under his watch—not in actual fact but since when did that matter?—and now he would give everything to save her.

  Smyth scooped her up, the lifelessness of her body causing his mouth to draw into a thin white line, and pocketed the syringe. “Lie low,” he said. “They’re not here for you. We’ll be luring them away soon.”

  Outside, he sprinted after his group.

  *

  Hayden moved out soundlessly, slowly, not wanting to draw any attention. The first merc to see her died with a shot to the forehead. As the rest turned her team opened fire, sending them cartwheeling and dropping desperately to the ground.

  “No time to waste.” Hayden swiveled and raced for the side of the building, the parking lot ahead. To her right, Crouch’s team were already in fast motion and far beyond them Drake’s team.

  Choppers lifted off the roof above, their guns rattling, and dozens of mercs surged from the hotel behind Crouch. Hayden dropped to one knee.

  “Cover them!” she cried.

  Her team knelt beside her.

  “Fire!”

  Mercs collapsed as they converged on Crouch’s team.

  Behind her, Smyth placed Lauren in the center of their defensive guard and faced the other way. “Rear guard,” he barked. “Fire!”

  More assailants dropped behind the hotel.

  Hayden dropped a raised fist. “Fire!”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Drake darted ahead with Dahl a step behind. He saw Hayden’s team drop and cover Crouch’s escape with bursts of gunfire, then watched the choppers lift off the roof. Now beyond the hotel’s property, he skidded to a halt on the gravel drive that led to the front door of a wedding chapel. Further down the wide road he spotted a large TGI Friday’s and, beyond that, the soaring Tower Hotel, wider at the top and bristling with windows that gave as good a view of the city as they gave of the falls themselves.

  With no access to comms or a radio—the raid had happened before they could be deployed—he signaled to Crouch that he should continue. Then he shrugged at the others. “Let’s make it tough for those choppers.”

  As the birds swooped down, Drake and Dahl with Trent alongside filled the air they flew through with lead. Alicia and Mai deterred the mercs atop the hotel roof from trying any potshots. Crouch’s team ran ahead, spilling out onto the road and then stopping and turning. The chopper veered up and away, then came down in the hotel’s parking lot, finally grudgingly accepting they offered no advantage and disgorging the rest of their men onto the ground.

  Drake and the others ran hard toward Crouch. His old boss met them in the middle of the road.

  “Keep running!” he cried. “Hayden needs your help. We’ll head toward that restaurant. We need transport fast.”

  Drake accepted the orders without question. He sprinted on, arcing around Crouch’s position and swinging toward Hayden’s. She was already in motion, sensing the backup, and urging her comrades onward. Drake stopped at the side of the road and fired at the mercs behind and to the side of Hayden’s position, making the already traumatized mercs lurch away in surprise.

  Hayden and her team raced past them. Drake covered their run, then he turned to Dahl. “Our turn. Let’s go.”

  The five whirled and ran hard. Ahead, Crouch and Russo, Healey, Silk and Radford stood in the center of the road, picking any mercs off who tried moving forward. Three more times they swept as separate teams in rough semi-circles, each team covering another as they opened up space between themselves and their enemies, following a curve to left and right, kneeling and standing, firing in ranks to keep up a steady hail of bullets.

  The lesser force pinned their enemy down.

  “Who says there isn’t safety in numbers?” Alicia grinned as they all finally merged with their comrades.

  With soldiers guarding their flanks, the sirens wailing ever closer and flashing lights now almost upon them, the company’s leaders came together. Hayden took point as Caitlyn and Karin handed out working comms.

  “We need two teams. One to hold these assholes off and stop them destroying any more of the city. The other to hit the facility before they move the friggin’ aerosols again.”

  “And the antidote,” Smyth said, still with Lauren over his shoulder. Komodo had already volunteered to take her for a while but Smyth held on as if she were the Holy Grail. Hayden gave him a wan smile.

  “Yes. The antidote. It must be at the facility, Smyth. Where else would it be?”

  “Those fuckin’ Pythians would keep it all for themselves. Make no mistake.”

  “You’re probably right.” Hayden glanced toward Drake. “Soon as we get a locale let’s split into a third team.”

  Drake nodded. “Let’s make this quick. Those wankers are regrouping.”

  Hayden fielded a call. “All right,” she said when she’d finished. “We have some sort of major activity at one of the warehouses where Dudley was spotted. Could be that this ongoing failure here has sparked something over there.”

  “Panic.” Alicia rubbed her hands. “Oh, let’s hope so.”

  “Failure?” Dahl breathed toward the now moving choppers. “Not exactly.”

  “I have the FBI and the Canadians patched into my comms now,” Hayden said, then glanced at Collins. “One of the station chiefs says hi.”

  Collins all but blushed and looked anywhere except at Trent.

  Radford leaned in. “Another dance partner?”

  Collins shoved him. “Shut your goddamn face.”

  Drake set off at a sprint. “Move it!”

  Crouch eyed those choppers still sat near the hotel’s parking lot, many of which had lost crew and pilots. “I have an idea,” he said thoughtfully.

  Russo and Healey grinned at the same time. “Yes, sir.”

  Drake headed for the shadowy first-floor level of the TGI Friday’s multi-story parking lot, seeing several patrons hovering around their cars. Knowing it would be traumatic for them and hating himself for it, but still putting the safety of the greater world first, he waved his gun at the sky.

  “Keys,” Alicia said, dashing past and commandeering a vehicle.

  Drake leaped onto the back of a midnight-black MV Augusta, opening the throttle even as he landed on the seat. Alicia, already climbing into the car—an old Alfa Romeo—shot him an irate look.

  “Bastard.”

  Dahl altered his run at the last moment, jumping up behind Drake. “Nice idea, Yorkie.”

  “Thanks, Ikea. You’re only on here to piss Alicia off.”

  “Of course!”

  Drake peeled out of the parking area, threading a line through parked and exiting vehicles, swerving around the side of a black-and-white police cruiser. Alicia, Mai and Trent were in the Alfa, struggling to keep up. The huge yellow TGI’s writing set against a long, curving wall and red-and-white livery flashed by to their left as they hit Fallsview Boulevard at speed.

  Hayden stayed in their ears. “We’re a minute behind you. See the Tower Hotel to your left, white fascia?”

  “Aye, and the Marriott,” Drake drawled.

  “Forget it. Head back down Dunn Street and then left on to Ailanthus. Then it’s the 49 to Stanley. Got it?”

  “Yup.”

  Drake gunned the Augusta, feeling Dahl wrenched back in surprise behind him. The Swede’s scrabbling hands tugged at the front of his jacket for a moment.

  “Careful, Dahl,” Drake breathed. “If I were Alicia you’d be dead by now.”

  Alicia’s voice came over the comms. “He just grab your tits?”

  Drake chuckled. “Yeah.”

  “He’s right, Torsty. I don’t stand for that groping crap.”

  Dahl took hold of his seat and exhaled with gusto. “Just drive.”

  Drake took the hint, unleashing the Augusta’s power as they leaned into the corner that led to Ailanthus.

  Hayden’s voice came over the comms. “A truck is preparing to leave the facility. Hurry!”

  *r />
  Crouch ran for the nearest chopper, sprinting across Dunn Street in full view now that their enemies had regrouped a little further away, preparing to utilize the helicopters nearer the hotel and still on the roof. At first they ran unseen, cutting the gap in half, but then the call went up.

  “Damn!”

  Crouch herded Caitlyn behind him and ordered Russo and Healey out front. When he looked around he also noted the presence of Silk, Radford and Yorgi.

  Two birds then, he thought. Bloody hell we’re going to cause mayhem.

  Was there an easier way to guard Hayden’s and Drake’s back and complete this takedown?

  Right then the question was rendered moot as four mercenary helicopters took off from the grounds of the Maple Lake Hotel, their innards bristling with paid, corrupt men toting machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and much more.

  “Let’s take this battle to the skies,” Crouch shouted as he reached the first unmanned chopper and waved Russo into the second.

  The mercenaries swooped into attack formation.

  *

  Drake followed Hayden’s instructions, leaving the tourist areas of Niagara Falls behind and proceeding into an open-plan industrial area. Drake marveled at the wide roads, huge intersections and appealing tree-lined avenues.

  “If this were back ‘ome,” he grumbled. “There’d be a multiplex, a supermarket, three bathroom outlets and a bowling alley on one road, two gyms, a police station and a nightclub on another, one bus route and some knobhead counsellor who doesn’t drive sitting in an office, looking at ways to make it even harder for cars to get around.”

  Dahl pointed ahead. “There!” he shouted. “Coming toward us. That’s the truck!”

  Drake gunned the bike, swerving around the front of the white van and laying the bike into a short arc as he passed around the back. For one moment his eyes met those of the men in the front.

  “There’s no mercy gonna be shown here, guys.”

  Three hundred yards from the secret facility, Drake chased the escaping van along the wide road, using the Augusta’s speed and dexterity to bring him close to its rear. Dahl unstrapped his gun from around his shoulders.