Boudreau melted away through the crowd, the grin on his face turning to a leer as he tasted his own blood and brandished the knife.
“Be seeing you,” he shouted over the din. “I know where you live, Miss Jaye.”
Hayden kicked one of the Blood King’s men out of the way, snapping the man’s leg like a twig as she cleared a path to Boudreau. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mai, clearly the game-changer in this battle, fighting unarmed against men with sharp weapons, the battle too close up for gunplay, and leaving them heaped at her feet. Hayden gaped at the dead and dying that twitched all around her.
Even Boudreau, she saw, did a double-take when he followed Hayden’s gaze and saw the legendary Japanese agent in action.
Mai eyeballed Hayden. “Right behind you.”
Hayden sprinted at Boudreau.
The Blood King’s top psycho took off as if a Hawaiian mongoose was snapping at his heels. Hayden and Mai pursued. Mai dealt a devastating blow to another of Kovalenko’s men as she passed, thus saving another soldier’s life.
Beyond the barn lay an open field, a helipad complete with chopper, and a narrow jetty where several boats lay at anchor. Boudreau sped past the chopper, heading for a big speedboat and didn’t even break stride when he leapt on board, tumbling through the air. Before Hayden could even make it past the chopper, the big boat was already burbling away and starting to inch ahead.
Mai began to slow. “That’s a Baja. Very fast, and with three men already waiting inside. Those other boats are sedate by comparison.” Her eyes drank in the chopper. “Now that’s what we need.”
Hayden ducked as a bullet whizzed by them, barely noticing. “Can you fly it?”
Mai favored her with a ‘are you really asking me that question?’ look, before stepping onto a skid and jumping inside. Before Hayden got there, Mai already had the main rotor spinning and Boudreau’s boat let out a mighty roar as it surged off down the river.
“Have faith,” Mai said softly, displaying the legendary patience she was known for as Hayden ground her teeth in frustration. In a minute, the machine was ready to fly. Mai finessed the collective. The skids left the ground. A bullet thudded into the pillar beside Hayden’s head.
She flinched away, then turned to see the last of the Blood King’s men collapse under fire. One of the Hawaiian special forces soldiers gave them a big thumbs up as the chopper began to dip and turn in preparation to pursue the speedboat. Hayden waved back.
Just another crazy day in her life.
But she was still here. Still surviving. The old Jaye motto crept back into her head. Survive another day. Just live. Even at moments like this, she sorely missed her dad.
In a minute the chopper wobbled and swooped off in hot pursuit. Hayden’s stomach was left somewhere back at the camp and she gripped the handholds until her knuckles hurt. Mai didn’t miss a beat.
“Keep your pants on.”
Hayden tried to take her mind off the hair-raising ride by checking the state of her weapons. Her knife was back in its holder. Her only remaining gun was a standard-issue Glock, not the Caspian she had favored lately. But, what the hell, a gun’s a gun, right?
Mai flew low enough to catch spray on the windscreen. The big yellow boat powered through the wide river ahead. Hayden saw figures standing in the back, watching them get closer. No doubt they were armed.
Mai dipped her head and then looked hard at Hayden. “Guts and glory.”
Hayden nodded. “All the way.”
Mai punched the collective, sending the chopper in a vicious dive, on a collision course for the yellow Baja. Predictably, the men stood around its flank fell back in shock. Hayden leant out of the window and squeezed off a shot. The bullet went hopelessly wide.
Mai passed her a half-empty M9. “Make ‘em count.”
Hayden fired again. One of Boudreau’s men shot back, the bullet pinging off the chopper’s canopy. Mai zigzagged the collective, sending Hayden’s head crashing off a support pillar. Then Mai dived again, aggressive, giving no quarter. Hayden emptied the clip of her Glock and saw one of Boudreau’s men go flying off the boat in a spray of blood.
Then another bullet hit the chopper, followed by a flurry of others. The big machine presented a big target. Hayden saw Boudreau at the wheel of the boat, knife held firmly between his teeth, firing up at them with a machine pistol.
“Oh,” Mai’s shout was an understatement as black smoke suddenly billowed out of the chopper and the engine note changed drastically from a roar to a whine. Without guidance, the chopper began to weave and jerk.
Mai blinked at Hayden.
Hayden waited until they were over Boudreau’s boat and threw open her door as the chopper came down.
She looked into the very whites of Boudreau’s eyes, said, “Fuck it,” and leapt out of the falling helicopter.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Hayden’s free fall was short lived. It wasn’t far down to Boudreau’s boat but she struck the man a glancing blow on the way down before she crashed to the deck. The air wooshed out of her body. The old wound in her thigh screamed. She saw stars.
The chopper spiraled down into the rushing river about thirty feet to the left, the thunderous sound of its death drowning out all cohesive thought and sending a gigantic wave across the speedboat’s bows.
A wave powerful enough to alter the very course of the boat.
The vessel lost its velocity, sending everyone flying forward, and began to tip. Then at the end of its forward momentum, it rolled right over to land belly up in the white water.
Hayden held on as the boat tipped. When she went under she kicked hard, aiming straight down, and then struck out in the direction of the nearest bank. Cold water made her head ache, but soothed her aching limbs a little. The tug of the current made her realize just how tired she was.
When she surfaced she found herself near the bank, but facing Ed Boudreau. He still had the knife clamped between his teeth and snarled when he saw her.
Behind him the wreckage of the steaming helicopter began to sink beneath the river. Hayden saw Mai chasing Boudreau’s two remaining men to the muddy shore. Knowing she would not survive a water fight, she struck out past the madman and didn’t stop until she hit the bank. Thick mud oozed all around her.
There was a heavy splash at her side. Boudreau, gasping. “Stop. Fucking. Running.” He panted.
“You got it,” Hayden scooped up and flung a heap of mud into his face and scrambled up the bank. The mud and dirt clung to her, tried to drag her down. What should have been an easy crawl to dry ground got her only a couple of feet above the river line.
She turned and smashed a dirty heel into Boudreau’s face. She saw the knife he gripped between his teeth slice deep into his cheeks, cutting him a wider smile than the Joker’s. With a scream and a spit of blood and ooze, he belly-flopped onto her legs, using her belt as a means of hauling himself up her body. Hayden struck down at his unprotected head but her blows had little effect.
Then she remembered her knife.
With her other hand she reached beneath her, pushing, straining, lifting her body an inch as the mud squelched and tried to hold on to her.
Her fingers clasped around the hilt. Boudreau practically tore her trousers off as he heaved one more time, coming to rest right on her back, head and lips suddenly right beside her ear.
“Nice fuckin’ try.” She felt blood dripping from his face onto her cheek. “You’re gonna feel this one. It’s going in nice and slow.”
He spread-eagled his weight over her whole body, driving her farther into the mud. With one hand, he pushed her face into the goo, stopping her breath. Hayden struggled madly, bucking and rolling as best she could. Every time her face came up, covered in sticky filth, she could see Mai in front of her, taking on Boudreau’s two henchmen alone.
One fell in the three seconds Hayden’s face was held under. The other backed away, prolonging the agony. By the time Hayden’s face had come up for air th
e fourth time Mai had finally cornered him and was about to break his back over a fallen tree.
Hayden’s remaining strength was almost gone.
Boudreau’s knife pricked her skin around the third rib. With an agonizingly slow and measured thrust, the blade began to slide in deeper. Hayden reared and kicked, but couldn’t remove her assailant.
“Nowhere to go.” Boudreau’s wicked whisper invaded her head.
And he was right, Hayden suddenly realized. She should stop fighting and let it happen. Just lie there. Give herself time—
The blade sank deeper, steel grating against bone now. Boudreau’s chuckle was the call of the Grim Reaper, the call of a demon mocking her.
The knife beneath her body came free with a heavy sucking sound. With a single movement, she reversed it in her hand and jabbed it hard behind her into Boudreau’s own ribs.
The psycho reared back, screaming, the knife’s hilt protruding from his ribcage. Even then Hayden couldn’t move. She was jammed too far into the mud, her whole body being sucked down. She couldn’t even move her other arm.
Boudreau wheezed and panted atop her. Then she felt the big knife being removed. This was it then. He would kill her now. One rigid thrust to the back of her neck or to her spine. Boudreau had beaten her.
Hayden opened her eyes wide, determined to see the sunlight one last time. Her thoughts were of Ben and she thought, judge me on how I lived, not how I died.
Again.
Then, looming large and as terrifying as a charging lion, Mai Kitano came storming in. About three feet from Hayden, she launched herself off the ground, pouring every ounce of momentum into a flying kick. One second later, and all that force shattered Boudreau’s upper torso, breaking bones and organs and sending splintered teeth and splatters of blood in a wide arc.
The weight was lifted from Hayden’s back.
Someone lifted her out of the mud with seeming ease. Someone carried her and laid her gently on the grassy bank and stood over her.
That someone was Mai Kitano. “Relax,” she said easily. “He’s dead. We won.”
Hayden couldn’t move nor speak. She simply stared up at the blue sky and the swaying trees and at Mai’s smiling face.
And, after a while, she said, “Remind me never to piss you off. Truly, if you’re not the best there’s ever been I’ll. . .” Her thoughts were still mainly with Ben, so she finished with something that he might say. “I’ll show my arse in Asda.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Blood King pushed his men to the absolute limit.
The fact their pursuers had almost closed the gap made him furious. It was the overlarge contingent of men slowing him down. It was their dim-witted guide, dawdling over trivialities when they could be making strides. The amount of men who died claiming this prize was irrelevant. The Blood King demanded and expected their sacrifice. He expected them all to lay down and die for him. Their families would be looked after. Or at least, they wouldn’t be tortured.
The prize was everything.
His guide, a man called Thomas, was babbling on about this being the level some other geek called Hawksworth had named envy. It was the fourth chamber, the Blood King fumed. Only the fourth. Standard legend spoke of seven levels of hell. Could there really be three more after this one?
And how did Hawksworth know? The scribe and Cook had turned and fled, balls shrunken to the size of peanuts, when they beheld the trap system after level five. Dmitry Kovalenko, he thought, certainly would not.
“You are waiting for what?” he growled at Thomas. “We will move. Now.”
“I haven’t quite worked out the trap system, sir,” Thomas started to say.
“Fuck the trap system. Send the men in. They will find it faster.” The Blood King curled a lip in amusement whilst studying the chamber.
Unlike the previous three, this chamber sloped down to a central shallow basin that looked like it had been hewn out of the very rock. Several thick metal stanchions protruded from the hard floor, almost like stepping stones. The sides of the chamber narrowed as they proceeded, until after the basin when they started to widen out again.
The basin appeared to be a ‘choke-point.’
Envy? the Blood King thought. How did such a sin translate to real life, to this subterranean world where shadows could as soon kill you as protect you? He watched as Thomas ordered the advance. At first all went well. The Blood King cast a glance back the way they had come, as he heard the distant sounds of gunfire. Damn Drake and his little army. Once he got out of here, he would personally ensure the blood vendetta achieved its cruel aim.
The gunfire galvanized him. “Move!” he cried, just as the lead man stepped on some kind of hidden pressure point. There was a crack like stone falling, a woosh of air, and suddenly the lead man’s head bounced to the stone floor before rolling down the sharp gradient like a football. The headless body collapsed into a bloody heap.
Even the Blood King stared. But he felt no fear. He only wanted to see what had caused such trauma to his lead man. Thomas shrieked beside him. The Blood King pushed him forward, following in his steps, taking great delight in the man’s fear. At last, beside the twitching body, he stopped.
With scared men all around him the Blood King studied the ancient mechanism. A razor thin wire had been strung at head height between two metal poles that must have been held in position by some kind of tension device. When his man stepped on the release lever, the poles had released, and the wire swung around with them, severing his man’s head at the neck.
Ingenious. A wonderful deterrent, he thought, and wondered if he might employ such a device in the servant quarters of his new home.
“What are you waiting for?” he bellowed at the remaining men. “Move!”
Three men leapt forward, another dozen followed close behind. The Blood King saw the prudence of leaving another half dozen behind him just in case Drake caught up fast.
“Quick now,” he said. “If we go faster we get there faster, yes?”
His men ran, deciding they actually had no choice and there was an outside chance their deranged boss was right. Another trap triggered and a second head went bouncing down the incline. The body fell and the man behind it tripped over it, counting himself lucky when another taut wire sliced open the air right above his head.
When the second group started down, the Blood King joined them. More traps were sprung. More heads and scalps rolled. Then, there was a booming clap that echoed through the cavern. On either side of the narrowing pathway mirrors sprung out, positioned so that they reflected the man in front.
At the same time there was the sound of water rushing and the basin at the bottom of the incline began to fill up.
Only this water wasn’t just water. Not judging by the way it was smoking.
Thomas shouted as they ran toward it. “It’s being fed by an acid lake. That’s when the gas sulfur dioxide becomes dissolved in water and produces sulfuric acid. You definitely don’t want to touch that!”
“Do not stop,” the Blood King bellowed as he saw men begin to slow. “Use the metal poles, idiots.”
The entire team hurtled down the incline as a pack. To left and right, random traps flicked open with a sound like a bowshot. Decapitated bodies fell and heads rolled like discarded pineapples among the men, tripping some over, being inadvertently kicked by others. The Blood King noticed early on that there were too many men for the number of poles and understood that the pack mentality would drive the less sharp amongst them to leap without thinking.
They would deserve their fate. An idiot was always better off dead.
The Blood King slowed and held Thomas back. Several other men also checked their pace, affirming the Blood King’s belief that the only the brightest and best would survive. The lead man of the pack leapt out onto the first metal upright and then began to skip from pole to pole over the rushing water. At first he made some headway, but then a virulent surge splashed up at his legs. Where the acidic
water touched, his clothes and his skin burned.
When his feet touched the next pole the pain made him fold and he fell, splashing down right into the teeming basin. Furious, agonized screams echoed around the chamber.
Another man toppled off a stanchion and fell in. A third man pulled up at the edge of the basin, belatedly realizing there was no free pillar for him to leap to, and was pushed in as another man barreled blindly into his back.
The mirrors reflected the man ahead. Would you envy the man in front of you?
The Blood King saw the purpose of the mirrors and the beating of the trap. “Look down!” Thomas shouted at the same time. “Look down at your feet and not at the man ahead. This simple practice will see you safely over the uprights.”
The Blood King came to a stop at the edge of the newly formed lake. By the way the water was still rushing in, he saw the tops of the stanchions would soon be under the swirling surface. He pushed a man on before him and dragged Thomas behind. A trap activated just out of range, so close he felt the wind as the metal post blasted past his shoulder.
Out onto the poles and a quick dance in a haphazard pattern. A brief pause as water splashed ahead. One more pole, and the man in front of him tripped. Screaming, he performed wonders by managing to catch his fall by landing on another pole. The acid-laced water splashed around him, but didn’t touch him.
Yet.
The Blood King saw his chance. Without thought or pause he stepped onto the man’s prone body, using him as a bridge to walk over and reach the safety of the far shore. His weight pushed the man farther down, dipping his chest into the acid.
In another second, he was lost beneath the vortex.
The Blood King stared after him. “Fool.”
Thomas landed at his side. More men lept deftly between metal poles to safety. The Blood King looked ahead to the arched exit.
“And so to level five,” he said smugly. “Where I will emulate that worm, Cook. And where finally,” he snarled. “I will destroy Matt Drake.”
The Gates of Hell (Matt Drake 3) Page 17
