They had successfully defended their homes against a superior force. Many fell to their knees, some in gratitude, some in exhaustion. Many cheered and began to hug their friends. Drake found himself at the center of a group celebration amid the dirt and the blood and the biting winds. He clasped shoulders, grinned stupid grins with the villagers and let the tension go for just a few minutes. He danced around with one woman, high-fived a man, and saw people he knew by name holding bloody daggers and half-broken cleavers. He saw Brynn directing people to round up the captives and make them secure. Brynn is a teacher! Well, she makes a bloody damn good general as well. They moved to the village square, happy to be alive, and the SPEAR team managed to come together.
“Kimbiri lives on,” Drake said.
“But a long way to go,” Mai said. “There are other villages and we can’t be there for all of them.”
“I say we chop the head off the snake.” Smyth trotted up to them, covered in dirt and vegetation. “And I say we do it now.”
“Don’t worry, Lancelot.” Alicia winked. “Your queen will still be there when we get home.”
“Those assholes are running and they’re scared. In turmoil. We won’t get a better chance,” he huffed. “Take my advice or leave it.”
Drake studied Smyth thoughtfully and then said with some worry in his voice. “We do have to decide what’s the main priority.”
“Hayden,” Kinimaka said.
“Hit ’em while they’re down,” Dahl said. “Before they can make plans.”
“It does sound appealing,” Alicia said.
“And tonight we got a little lucky,” Mai added. “What if they’d attacked Nuno or a farm instead? We won’t get so lucky again.”
Drake nodded, gaze drawn over to the excited huddle of villagers. Curtis was beckoning him to join in. Brynn was waving them all over. It was good to celebrate victory tonight, Drake thought. But tomorrow would be a different day. Tomorrow Dantanion and his horde of cannibals could just reset and start again. A man with his means might even have an arms cache on the way. Secretary Crowe would not be held back.
“We achieved so much tonight,” he said. “But I don’t feel it’s enough. I think . . .” He gazed up at the mountains. “I think we have to finish this. Right now.”
“Hayden will be pissed,” Kinimaka said. “She pretty much just got there.”
“And the chateau’s still inaccessible,” Kenzie pointed out. “Nothing has changed there.”
“Not to me.” Yorgi kicked mud from his boots. “I could climb up the walls and find a way to let you all in.”
“Right into cannibal central?” Alicia drank water. “They’d just think you were the appetizer.”
“Is there another way?” Yorgi challenged.
Dahl nodded around a mouthful of food. Brynn had gotten fed up with waiting for them to join the impromptu celebration and had dashed across with a few bowls. She now listened to their conversation with interest.
“I know of a way,” the Swede said, and proceeded to explain.
Alicia rolled her eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Torsty, can’t you ever just use the front door?”
Kenzie came to his rescue. “I like it,” she said. “It breeds stamina.”
“It breeds bruises. That’s all it breeds.”
Drake eyed the Swede. “You think it can be done? I mean it’s not like we can come over the top of the mountain. The peaks are way too high.”
“Look over there. See how they shine under the full moon. What do you see?”
Drake did his best to discern anything other than shadows and lofty heights. “Shit, what did you put in that food, Brynn? The Swede’s finally lost it.”
“The passes.” Dahl waved indignantly. “Can’t you make them out against the mountain?”
“Mountain passes,” Mai said quietly. “There will be a way around the side of the mountain and thus above the chateau. It is the distance down we can’t control.”
“And how do you propose to find the right path?” Smyth asked.
Dahl nodded at Brynn, still chewing. The teacher nodded back immediately. “I do know several who could take you into those mountains. But it is up to them to decide if they want to go. Perhaps we will find one.”
Mai smiled agreeably. “Of course.”
Drake stared around at the group. “So we’re really going for the Mad Swede’s plan?”
Dahl looked offended. “I haven’t done anything mad in days.”
“Hold on, Hayden,” Kinimaka said so softly he probably thought nobody could hear him. “We’re on our way.”
Smyth shook the vegetation from his jacket. “We all going then?”
Drake smiled. “Yeah, and Lancelot can lead the charge.”
“Oh, don’t start with all that. Just don’t. I came clean, I fessed up. Don’t see anyone else doing the same.”
Silence as deep as the depthless caverns inside the mountains fell over the group, making everyone feel a little uncomfortable. In the end it was Brynn who broke it.
“Shall we ask around?”
“Yeah.” Drake eyed the path of their future. “And then finish this thing.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
“Your first step. Your first initiation,” Dantanion purred, his voice soft and liquid, like honey poured over a spoon. “Anything new may be abhorrent. To open the eyes, we need persuasive stimulation. To open the heart, we need compelling emotion. But to open the mind, do you know what we need?”
He paused, but continued quickly, not expecting to be interrupted.
“A weighty shock,” he said. “Something sharp that cuts deep. Something that changes our outlook on what we see and know. So here, this is for all of you.”
Hayden watched as two men came forward and offered the four new recruits a paper cup. Half filled with a clear liquid it was clearly yet another rite of passage. Hayden saw no choice, trapped and surrounded as she was. Fay took the cup and tipped it back without blinking. One of the men asked what was in it.
“A cushion,” Dantanion said.
Hayden thought, what the hell, and threw it back. Experience was everything, right? Especially in a life that had largely been led hopping from one major case to another. A warmth drifted through her system, dulling her senses and taking the edge off.
A cushion.
But a cushion for what?
She saw at least half the people leave the caves then, and wondered if Dantanion might be conducting a raid on one of the villages tonight. Fear for her friends broke the rising inner miasma for a few seconds, but then the blurriness returned. The stuff was better than three quick shots of neat rum, and was that a fox’s tail now growing out of Dantanion’s head?
Crap. This is not good.
Feeling vulnerable, she folded her arms and leaned back. Dantanion waited for another minute. “Tonight, you will first witness a small feasting. Then, later, in the darker watches, you will offer a part of yourself—to yourself. The fundamental ritual. And it must be completed on the first day. If this shocks you, ladies and gentlemen, just remember—you signed up for it.”
Hayden had signed nothing. Or had she? Truly, she couldn’t remember much past just now and the edges were all blurry. Probably best to just nod and get on with it. She watched dispassionately as Dantanion and two of his followers squatted down to show them how to move differently, how to bend their limbs for some kind of game. She had a feeling she’d seen it before, but couldn’t place the memory. The teaching stuck in her head though. A robed man was then brought forward, his hand placed on a square of stone like an altar sticking up through the floor, and a scalpel introduced to the hand.
Hayden felt a rush of fear, a hot panic, but shrugged indifferently. It was only a sliver of flesh, only a blade, and only a trickle of blood. The portable stove helped cook the flesh and then the man offered it up to Dantanion. In ritual mode, the leader smiled inscrutably, warming the whole room before generously taking the flesh and offering it to another. This man
popped it into his mouth and chewed happily, swallowing it down after a minute.
Dantanion addressed the recruits. “When the cushion is removed you will find that your mind has changed,” he said. “The initiations have begun. Be ready for later tonight.”
Hayden allowed herself to sink onto a bed, watching Dantanion walk away and enjoying the experience. Should it worry her that if he grinned at her right now she’d chase after him like a faithful hound? Probably. But she couldn’t seem to care. The deceptive, illusory aspect that now constituted reality didn’t seem half bad.
It took some time, she didn’t know how much, but the effects of the drug started to wear off. Fay ended up beside her, sniffing and staring at the ceiling, mesmerized by the endlessly adjusting cameras.
“You okay?” Hayden asked.
“I’ve been better, and that’s saying something. My head hurts and my throat’s dry but I guess I’ll be okay.”
Minutes passed and then Hayden said, “Did I understand it right? They just ate some guy’s skin?”
Fay pulled a face. “And will make us do it too.”
Hayden laughed. “Yeah, they can try.”
A woman with short-cropped hair was passing, stopped and leaned down to fix Hayden with a worried stare. “I was forced to pass the fundamental ritual last night.” She hugged herself. “It’s bad, very bad, but easier than the alternative. Those that refused . . . they threw them from the cliffs.”
“Is that a bad joke? Are you kidding?” Fay blurted.
“No, no. They keep saying we signed up for it. Do you remember signing up? The whole thing’s a blur for me. And I sure don’t remember any flesh eating rituals in the friggin’ contract. Nor any cliff divin’.”
“Crossing barriers,” Fay said. “Overcoming taboos. I read the damn form three times and that’s what it said.”
“Well, they weren’t friggin jokin’. After two weeks of this shit my brain’s goin’ to be a jelly.”
Hayden listened, wondering if the woman hadn’t hit the proverbial nail on the head. Dantanion’s process had to be a concoction of drugs, brainwashing and enforcement. Vulnerable people were more susceptible. Those without homes craved families. Any family. In any case, the immediate future was incredibly clear.
She had just a few short hours to find out what she needed to know and get the hell out of there.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
Kinimaka made the call very quickly. The rest of the team, apart from Mai and Dahl, stood around for moral support.
“Of course I’m being straight up with you, Secretary Crowe,” the Hawaiian grimaced, “and we’re close to deciding on a plan of action.”
He listened for twenty seconds.
“I realize we’re angling for more time, and this sounds like the perfect way to gain a few days, but—”
He stopped as she interrupted.
Drake leaned over toward Alicia and stage-whispered, “She’s not daft.”
Kinimaka held out a hand as if to say, “why would you?” Drake realized his whisper might have been a little loud.
“Nobody, ma’am, just a passing villager. I speak for all of us when I say . . .”
Now Alicia whispered back. “She’s got ears like a bat.”
Kinimaka looked like he wanted to throw the phone at her. Again he apologized. Again he brushed the truth with away with a thick, bristly veneer. “They came as we were readying to leave. Hayden was—”
Another interruption. This time, Kinimaka listened and frowned over a much longer period.
“Understood. We’re totally on board with the Egypt situation, ma’am, and anxious to get involved. As soon as we rescue . . . yeah, I’d better stop talking and get a move on. Bye, then . . . bye.” He was left staring at a dead phone.
“That went well,” Smyth jested.
“She’s not stupid. She knows something’s not quite right.”
“Next time try to sound more whiny,” Alicia said. “Like when Smyth’s talking to Lauren.”
“Shit,” Smyth growled.
“Or when Taz sees a Reece Carrera movie,” Mai said, having just returned. “Please Reece. Ah, Reece, ah, ah.”
“Hey, I watch those in private.”
Drake was counting bullets. “I’d forgotten your old nickname.”
“Yeah, the bikers gave me it. Seems . . . out of place . . . now.”
“There’s something else,” Kinimaka said quietly. “Crowe said, ‘we’ll sort out the consequences later.’”
“Fuck that,” Drake said. “We’ve time for all that. Right now, are we ready to bring this storm down on Dantanion’s head?”
“The cannibals are going to be pissed.” Dahl grinned.
Kenzie finished cleaning her blade. “And Peru made a little safer.”
“We sure the plan’s in place? CIA prepped?” Kinimaka played devil’s advocate.
“Took some doing,” Drake said. “But yeah. They’re ready, and will be along whenever the hell they feel like it.” He took a moment to breathe and then nodded toward Dahl and Mai. “How did you guys get on?”
Mai managed to look a little uncomfortable but Dahl blustered right on in. “Brynn got it very wrong,” he said. “Three she said. Three villagers might know the mountains and only one might be willing to help us.” He sighed. “More like the whole bloody village is gearing up to come along.”
Drake felt gratitude and affection rise inside and attempted to keep it hidden. “The entire village?”
“Dahl may be exaggerating somewhat,” Mai said. “But they all want to help in some way. These people possess such a sense of integrity it reminds me of my old home.”
“We settled on eight,” Dahl said. “Eight of them. Eight of us.”
“But how will we get them down—”
“Matt.” Mai held up a hand to stop him. “We will find a way.”
The night deepened. Animal screams or worse flowed down out of the mountains. Drake fancied he could see torches wavering up there, distant as the stars, showing something the way home. A sense of urgency fired his soul and then a sense of loyalty as the eight chosen villagers walked up. They carried extra jackets for the soldiers.
“The cold cuts deep up there,” Brynn said. “We will all need the extra protection.”
With quiet and heartfelt goodbyes the soldiers, along with Curtis and Desiree, Anica and Marco, Brynn and others, took their leave of Kimbiri and lit their torches, following a landscape of flame and shadow, treading the final path that would either finally rid them of a terrible, clinging evil or send them plunging into a pit fashioned in the more desperate chambers of Hell.
*
A torchlit procession wound up the mountain, guns and ammo strapped around their waists and chests and thighs and anywhere else they could physically attach it. Utter darkness crouched just beyond the flames, a tangible force. Distant, bleak, stars glittered high above and half of a barren moon lit the edges of scudding clouds with silver. Drake and Dahl walked ahead.
“Seems like we’re always heading out on some do or die mission, mate,” Drake said.
“Not like this,” Dahl replied. “I’ve never done anything like this.”
Drake took in the surroundings, the team and their compliment of villagers. “Shocking that nobody would help them.”
“But look how they’ve thrived with just a little help.” Dahl took the lead through a narrow gap as they started to ascend a mountain. “Sometimes, that’s all a person needs.”
“I do feel responsible for them.”
“You and me both, pal. You and me both.”
Onward and upward, circuiting first one mountain and then another, following narrow trails cut or worn into the bare rock, by turns inching along a rocky outcrop with a deadly fall to the left and then hugging pitched stone faces as they climbed a random rockfall. In one way they followed a trail left by the cannibals, in another a route recommended by some of the men. One by one they helped each other along, pulling, prodding, encour
aging. Sixteen chasing many and with retribution on their minds.
And finally the great house that clung to the mountain came into view, lights ablaze warding away the night, walls thick and lofty and strong and seemingly insurmountable. Drake flinched as a terrifying, vicious howl echoed through the night.
“What the hell was that?” Alicia was suddenly an awful lot closer. “Alpaca?”
“Worse,” Dahl said. “Sounded remarkably like—”
“We’ve heard these stories,” Brynn said, shuddering, face cast into fiery shadows by the torches. “Killer wolves. They’re guarded by killer wolves. I didn’t think they were all true.”
Fearful, the villagers regarded the moving shadows.
Drake listened as more mournful voices took up the call, as the baying grew louder and hungrier. He watched the track ahead.
“We’re about to find out,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
Hayden soon found that the few short hours she thought she had vanished faster than the last embers of a dying fire. Fay questioned her some more and then last night’s victims spoke up about their ordeal. It wasn’t as if Hayden didn’t know what was going to happen. The question was—were all the situations she saw unfolding around her worth going through it all?
She saw frightened youths—male and female—who’d signed up to participate in a test and wanted out. She saw others on the road to an unsteady acceptance—either because they liked the idea of belonging or were too scared to protest. She saw others who appeared intoxicated with the drug Dantanion had introduced and were desperate for more. Within the group wandered older initiates, spreading more poisonous persuasion and honey-coated lies. Each one was fair of face, lithe of body, and displaying a fixed smile that looked like it had been carved in place. Hayden had seen it before on ballet dancers and pageant queens, and thought it about as hideous a subversion of true happiness as was possible.
Inca Kings (Matt Drake Book 15) Page 22
