The Sea Rats

by David Leadbeater

  Dahl walked up to Bakatin and Andropov.

  “You have no time,” Bakatin growled.

  “For a wanker like you, I’ll make time.”

  “Fuck you.” Andropov struck out at Dahl, his flabby, naked arms beating down upon the Swede. Dahl just stood there and looked at him, taking the blows and smiling.

  “If there was ever a man in you,” Dahl said. “That time has long gone.”

  He smashed Andropov in the mouth, bloodying it. The team collected around him. Finally, Dahl regarded the two old KGB leaders.

  “As I was saying,” he said. “You have a choice. And I think it’s a good one.” To make them sweat even more he drew zip-ties from an inside pocket. “You can either come back with us to America . . .” He paused with a grin. “Or you can use the window to escape.”

  He pointed at the large bank of glass that marched along the rear of the house. The glass was dark and they were three floors up. There was no ledge. The full impact of Dahl’s offer began to register in the men’s minds.

  “No, no, you can’t do this—”

  “What do you want?” Andropov asked in a surly tone. “Money? Girls?”

  Drake smiled at the arrogance, the superiority in that voice. The man was sufficiently out of touch and up his own arse to believe he could negotiate a way out of this.

  “I’ve thought of a third choice, wanker,” he said. “A bullet to the knees and then the window. Hurry up and decide.”

  Andropov protested. Bakatin practically wailed. Neither man would make a decision and, all the while, the vehicles approaching the country club drew closer.

  “Fuck this,” Luther said. “I’m making their decision for them.”

  And, against Drake’s expectation, he dragged Andropov toward him. He pulled out a set of zip ties and looked Andropov full in the face.

  “Ex-KGB chairman,” he said. “You’re coming to America.”

  Andropov wrenched away from Luther’s grip and ran. Luther fired several shots at his feet to herd him toward the back wall. In the end Andropov could only huddle there, his face slack, his will broken. He cowered there as many of his victims had been made to cower, as the ship’s passengers had cowered.

  Luther helpfully shot the window out for him. “There you go.”

  But Andropov was a coward. Even faced with Dahl’s dire threat he could not bring himself to end it. Thirty seconds later Molokai ran over, helped the Russian up into the air and then flung him over the window sill, out into the night. It took Dahl’s help to make Bakatin fly.

  “Job done.” Luther turned away.

  The room was almost empty. Three old Russians had survived and now sat on the floor, looking down. The women were gone. Drake decided this had been a fruitful day.

  “Time to go home,” he said.

  The members of Strike Force One melted away from the area, unseen like ghosts. The night claimed them, and they were never seen in that part of Russia ever again.

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  Waiting in the middle of a forest for the chopper to arrive, the team sat in a rough circle with Molokai and Luther on guard. Another mission had ended, and this time it had ended well, but another immense and lethal operation was already looming.

  Could they stop the Blood King?

  “I’ve just spoken to the Bainbridge and to G back at Strike Force HQ,” Hayden said. “They will furnish us with all the relevant information in flight.”

  “Where we headed?” Kenzie asked.

  “Classified,” Hayden said. “I don’t know.”

  “And the Devil?” Drake asked.

  “Nothing.” Hayden shook her head.

  “I just keep thinking about all those passengers,” the Yorkshireman said, “going about their daily business. A vacation they’d looked forward to for months, possibly years. The lives of children, too young to know anything about the world. I keep thinking about how the Devil ordered their killings.”

  “Don’t,” Alicia said. “It doesn’t help.”

  They were seated on the hard ground, tall black trees all around them. It was the middle of the night and there wasn’t a star in the sky. Drake felt remorse for the injured innocents and a desire to help. He knew the threat they faced next would be even worse.

  “You think we can spare five minutes to get Alicia’s nose fixed?” Kenzie asked. “I’m finding it hard to look straight at her straight.”

  Alicia bit back a comment, which was unusual for the blonde.

  Mai chimed in. “Have you tried kissing that yet, Drake?” she asked. “It’s gonna take some shifting about.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be the doctor who tried to put it back in line.” Dahl grinned and then forced a scared expression on his face.

  “He has nothing to fear,” Alicia said briefly. “Depending on how he packs out his doctor’s coat.”

  “When you say coat . . .” Mai let it hang.

  Drake couldn’t stop the smile. Hayden and Kinimaka chimed in. The night watched over them. When the dark bird came to claim them, to lift them up into its black maw and whisk them back to the real world, they were ready for whatever came next.

  They were friends that trusted each other, warriors that had each other’s backs, a team that fought as one and, if need be, would die as one.

  They all knew it. Hayden, despite her thoughts of buying a villa with Kinimaka, loved her team and wanted to stay a part of it. Luther, with his growing feelings for Mai and an instinct that told him Molokai and he should branch out and take charge of their own team—he felt the love and camaraderie in this team like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Mai, with her feelings for Luther and certain knowledge that she couldn’t work forever with her ex and his girlfriend, a woman she couldn’t sort her feelings out for—she too knew that once you had something good, you should hold on to it as long as you could.

  Chances were, you’d never get it that good again.

  Between Dahl and Kenzie, who had both lost recently in different ways, there was the unspoken promise of a potential future. They, in particular, needed the team dynamic to shelter and nurture that future. They didn’t seem capable of doing it by themselves.

  And Drake. Where was he even going with Alicia? He didn’t know what their future held. He didn’t know what came next or what they should be striving for. The only thing he could do was hold on to the coattails of fate and allow himself to be dragged along.

  There were worse ways to live your life.

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  The Devil wasn’t sure what was worse. The Blood King’s betrayal back on the island or what he considered his second loss in a row to this particular Special Forces team. There wasn’t a man, woman or organization in the world that could find or best him, but this team was starting to become annoying.

  He remembered holding the life of Torsten Dahl’s wife and children in his hands not so long ago. That day had been the most fateful of their lives. The Devil had let them live because his most base desire had been taking revenge on the Blood King.

  Now he wasn’t so sure.

  He sat back in his leather chair, taking stock of the situation. He was an experienced man, in his forties, tall and lean, with sufficient combat skills to fight his way out of most battles. His real skill however lay in planning the destruction of others, particularly those whose deaths had to appear to be accidents, one among many. This was the work he loved, the work he was most famous for.

  More famous now that the Blood King had nuked his private island.

  The room he occupied was large and high-ceilinged, a step up from the control room he’d built on the island. This one had all the mod cons, the super-computers and enough CCTV feeds to embarrass any government. It was his hub, his operating center. Even now he had two sets of teams scouting out two new jobs, one for himself, the other for the Chinese. Both were on American soil.

  For one minute he let himself feel. The anger and hatred that welled up sent him into a mighty rage. He kicke
d and punched the bag in the corner. He bloodied his knuckles on a wall. He headbutted a desk and kicked a chair so hard he thought he’d broken his foot. But it didn’t end there. An outpouring of wrath and resentment made him hurt himself, his operational center and two men that one of his pet assassins were currently watching. It wasn’t their time to die yet, but the Devil made it their time, dropping the hammer of fate on their sniveling necks.

  “Matt Drake,” he said, rolling the name around his mouth before spitting it out.

  “Hayden Jaye.” He did the same.

  He went through the entire team, watching video feeds from the ocean liner, from Salene’s compound, and even one from the USS Bainbridge. He burned their visages into his brain. He wanted to kill them, to crush them into dust. To leave no trace of the flesh and blood mortals they had once been.

  But the Devil didn’t work that way.

  There was another way to exact vengeance.

  First, he would see how they handled the Blood King. Volkov had given them valuable information—as the Devil had known he would—and was looking to help stop a worldwide catastrophe. If he was being honest the Devil didn’t want a catastrophe of that magnitude getting in the way of his business.

  Clients would die.

  In the meantime, the Devil would plan. He would orchestrate a vengeance attack on Drake’s team. Not a direct one. Something he could attribute to them, tell them all about it. Something they could not stop. He would let the world know that the Devil’s attack was a direct consequence of Drake and pals’ interference. He would prey on them from afar, make them destroy themselves through guilt.

  There would be a terrible attack involving lots of innocent deaths and the Devil would make sure Drake’s team were the reason why it happened. It was a different kind of vengeance, a crueler, longer, more vindictive and devastating one.

  It would be the worst attack of its kind ever to take place in the world.

  The Devil liked that. He liked every last beautiful morsel of it. There was no one more qualified alive to pull it off. The only question now was: What should I do?

  Oh, the wonderful scenarios that ran through his mind. The glorious possibilities. He was content here, in this place now. His new home. He didn’t miss the island at all. This patch of land in the American Badlands was all he needed. This and a few paid employees, servants and teams of assassins.

  This was Devil’s Junction. And it was where he belonged.

  THE END

  Read on for more information about the future of the Matt Drake series.

  Here ends The Sea Rats. Did you enjoy it? Please drop me a line to let me know. As usual, I’ve tried to keep things fresh whilst maintaining the ongoing storyline and camaraderie of the whole team. No member of the team knows where they’ll end up. I don’t know where they’ll end up. I just want to have a good time getting there!

  Next up, in December it’s THE AMBER SECRET, to be published by Amazon’s own imprint—Thomas and Mercer.

  After that, it’s the big one. Yes, Matt Drake 24 will be THE BLOOD KING TAKEDOWN and will throw the team into their biggest, most dangerous mission yet. Look for this in January 2020.

  As always, if you enjoyed this book please leave a review!

  If you would like to be kept up to date with new releases from David Leadbeater, please complete a contact form by clicking below:

  Other Books by David Leadbeater:

  The Matt Drake Series

  A constantly evolving, action-packed romp based in the escapist action-adventure genre:

  The Bones of Odin (Matt Drake #1)

  The Blood King Conspiracy (Matt Drake #2)

  The Gates of Hell (Matt Drake 3)

  The Tomb of the Gods (Matt Drake #4)

  Brothers in Arms (Matt Drake #5)

  The Swords of Babylon (Matt Drake #6)

  Blood Vengeance (Matt Drake #7)

  Last Man Standing (Matt Drake #8)

  The Plagues of Pandora (Matt Drake #9)

  The Lost Kingdom (Matt Drake #10)

  The Ghost Ships of Arizona (Matt Drake #11)

  The Last Bazaar (Matt Drake #12)

  The Edge of Armageddon (Matt Drake #13)

  The Treasures of Saint Germain (Matt Drake #14)

  Inca Kings (Matt Drake #15)

  The Four Corners of the Earth (Matt Drake #16)

  The Seven Seals of Egypt (Matt Drake #17)

  Weapons of the Gods (Matt Drake #18)

  The Blood King Legacy (Matt Drake #19)

  Devil’s Island (Matt Drake #20)

  The Fabergé Heist (Matt Drake #21)

  Four Sacred Treasures (Matt Drake #22)

  The Alicia Myles Series

  Aztec Gold (Alicia Myles #1)

  Crusader’s Gold (Alicia Myles #2)

  Caribbean Gold (Alicia Myles #3)

  Chasing Gold (Alecia Myles #4)

  The Torsten Dahl Thriller Series

  Stand Your Ground (Dahl Thriller #1)

  The Relic Hunters Series

  The Relic Hunters (Relic Hunters #1)

  The Atlantis Cipher (Relic Hunters #2)

  The Amber Secret (Relic Hunters #3)

  The Rogue Series

  Rogue (Book One)

  The Disavowed Series:

  The Razor’s Edge (Disavowed #1)

  In Harm’s Way (Disavowed #2)

  Threat Level: Red (Disavowed #3)

  The Chosen Few Series

  Chosen (The Chosen Trilogy #1)

  Guardians (The Chosen Triology #2)

  Heroes (The Chosen Trilogy #3)

  Short Stories

  Walking with Ghosts (A short story)

  A Whispering of Ghosts (A short story)

  All genuine comments are very welcome at:

  davidleadbeater2011@hotmail.co.uk

  Twitter: @dleadbeater2011

  Visit David’s website for the latest news and information:

  davidleadbeater.com

  Copyright © 2019 by David Leadbeater

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher/author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  This ebook is for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase any additional copy for each reader. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Thriller, adventure, action, mystery, suspense, archaeological, military, historical, assassination, terrorism, assassin, spy