Inca Kings (Matt Drake Book 15)

by David Leadbeater

  “Might be a better plan.” Kenzie glanced over the edge at the hundred-foot drop. “You would keep them occupied for hours, Hawaiian.”

  “Well, thanks,” Kinimaka said grumpily. “Maybe you could join me and help ’em slice me up with that sword.”

  “Happy to.”

  Drake ignored the bickering, and helped find the pack with the pitons, hooks and rappel lines. Between them, Smyth, Dahl and he fixed four lines to the side of the mountain and tested them for strength.

  “Mano proof?” Alicia asked.

  Dahl puffed. “We’re about to find out.”

  The Hawaiian laughed. “I doubt there’s anything truly Mano-proof. Even this mountain. .”

  “We ready?” Smyth pushed. “Hayden ain’t gonna last forever.”

  Alicia glanced over. “Is that a cannibal joke, dude? ’Cause it’s not funny.”

  Smyth hissed at her, the annoyance rising red in his face. Without further comment he climbed out over the mountain and waited until Kinimaka and Dahl worked together to strap Brynn to his sturdy back. This way, making two trips each, the soldiers planned to get everyone down to the roof relatively quickly. Smyth set off and then Drake climbed over, followed by Dahl.

  Anica and Curtis climbed on. Alicia took Desiree, and then the whole group were either rappelling down the mountain or huddled on the bleak roof of the house, totally exposed to the elements. Smyth moved over to an air vent, unscrewed the fastenings and took a look inside. Drake crawled over, the group now operating only by the light of the moon. Silver turned his face stark and serious as he addressed the soldier.

  “We good?”

  “Yeah, but it’s tight.”

  Drake leaned inside. “Looks doable.”

  “I didn’t mean for me.”

  Smyth climbed inside, feet first and started to let himself down slowly, tethered by another rope. The group followed slowly, taking their time. Drake found himself surrounded by a darkness blacker than pitch black, but praised the fact that they were finally out of the wind and the cold. Now, he started to drip with sweat.

  “Bollocks. Can’t bloody win.”

  They inched down through the ventilation duct, which to Drake’s burgeoning and ghastly imagination had been built essentially to remove fumes generated inside the kitchen. The interesting realization that the cannibals’ lifestyle choices provided their enemies a way into their castle did not improve his horrifying theory.

  The shaft was made of mildly flexible steel and ran smoothly save for the joints. The team continued down until Smyth passed a quiet “stop” command up the line. Drake found himself swinging, heels brushing Dahl’s skull and being scraped on his own by Mai’s toe. The Japanese woman’s angry whisper echoed along the shaft.

  “Alicia, if you don’t stop tapping that tune out on my head I will tattoo it on your forehead.”

  “I’m good. I’m finished now. Never heard a drum solo sound so hollow.”

  Smyth took his time bending almost double to investigate the access cover below. “Crap,” he said. “Should have guessed, of course. The screws are on the other side.”

  Fifteen faces stared down at him, all grimacing guiltily.

  “Can it be dragged up into the shaft?” Dahl asked. “I mean are the flanges on the outside or the inside?”

  “Inside.”

  “Then tie your end of the rope around it and we’ll pull.”

  Two sweaty minutes later, they had yanked and twisted and buckled the vent cover until it pulled free of its moorings. Smyth used it as the new floor and quickly leapt out of the shaft, followed by Dahl and then Drake. They came once more to level ground—a narrow corridor, barely lit and cold, unfurnished. He waited patiently for the rest of the group to arrive as Smyth and Dahl proceeded carefully toward both ends. Dahl soon returned.

  “Nothing,” he said. “Dead end.”

  Smyth used the comms. “Walk this way.”

  The door he found possessed a viewing pane, through which Drake saw a much wider, plusher corridor running away toward a distant set of double doors. The area was deserted. They pushed through quietly and carefully, aware that silent alarms might be set on the access doors but seeing none. Moving as swiftly as possible they made the far set of doors—a plush, oak-paneled, self-important affair with golden pull handles.

  Smyth tested one. It moved easily. Checking weapons and positions, and guarding the rear with Yorgi, Curtis and Desiree, they breached the door hard, spreading out as they entered the room. Drake saw instantly that it was an office and empty.

  “Quick check,” he said. “See if there’s anything that can help us.”

  Smyth and Kinimaka moved over to the desk, the latter switching on a desktop PC. Alicia headed for the picture window and the view across the dark mountains.

  “Big knob’s office,” she said. “Probably this Dantanion.”

  Mano used a flash drive to copy data from the computer. Smyth rifled the drawers. Mai shifted paper and pens, trays and bowls around on the polished surface of the table. She beckoned Drake over, pointed into a white porcelain bowl.

  Drake wondered at her secrecy, then saw what was in the bowl. Gorge filled his throat as he saw three full-length fingers, complete with blue-painted nails, cooked to a brownish shade and nibbled around the edges.

  The things you see, you can never unsee, he thought. A basic fact around the protective net parents threw over their children. He closed his eyes and turned away.

  “Let’s finish these bastards off once and for all.”

  It took five more minutes to walk the corridor, descend a staircase and then traverse another hallway. By now they were hearing a great, swelling roar, a gathering of people in one cavernous space. The closer they came the noisier it got. Smyth stopped when he reached the end of a hallway and peered out over the railing.

  “How’s it look?” Kinimaka’s voice came over the comms. It was easier and safer than crowding forward.

  “Massive set of doors leading into a huge room. Probably hundreds of folks. No obvious guards. Can only see floor and legs. A few heads. Looks like they’re all partying down there.”

  “Move out,” Kinimaka said with haste and venom.

  “Wait.” Brynn must have been listening through Yorgi’s earpiece and now spoke up. “How do we know who is prisoner and who is true enemy?”

  “Same way we always figure it out,” Alicia replied. “If it attacks you, fuck it up. Now let’s gatecrash this mother.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Dantanion’s scream: “Kill the newcomers! Kill them all!” ripped the air to shreds. Hayden saw the man see the SPEAR team almost instantaneously; saw the recognition and the incredibly swift intellect assess the situation; saw the certainty that this was about to become the bloodiest of all fights to the death.

  She was part of a group lining up to leave the hall, the effects of the drug already wearing off. When Smyth stepped through the door she saw him and ran the possibilities, but not as fast as Dantanion, it seemed. Within seconds though, a plan came to her. A plan centered around the survival of the innocents, because there was no way her saviors could know all the bad from the good.

  “Stick with me.” She grabbed Fay’s hand and beckoned to the others. “Now!”

  They ran; most complaining that their fingers were really starting to hurt. Hayden ignored the gunfire and pushed bodies aside, rushing at her friends. Already they were fanning out, taking aim and waiting for the attack. Hayden ran in first, dragging Fay along.

  “Three with me!” she cried. “We have to secure the caves and protect some of these kids.”

  Kinimaka, Smyth and Yorgi peeled away, joining her group. Running away from the hall was easy; it was the team she worried about and what she now saw were quite a few of the villagers. She struggled with elation and fear, trying to maintain focus. Kinimaka handed her, her comms back, and she smiled, relieved to see the concern on all their faces, but especially his.

  “I’m fine,” she said
over the comms. “Just a scratch.”

  “So long as you didn’t give ’em a helping hand,” Alicia quipped darkly, “or end up in hot water.”

  “Good to hear they weren’t nasty bastards then,” Kenzie said surprisingly, then added, “Did they butter you up instead?”

  Hayden grunted angrily. “Stay alert, fools. There’s a hundred sets of teeth in there with your fucking names on ’em. Chew on that.”

  Down they went, reaching the caves and bracing against the cold. Hayden met a guard blow for blow, then took a punch to the face as Smyth squeezed by to engage a second. Her head jerked back, just giving Mano enough room to plant his enormous fist into the guard’s nose. Not even a whimper escaped him as he slithered into jelly. Smyth shot the next point blank.

  “No fucking around,” he said. “No more.”

  Hayden pulled him back. “I found the cave entrance,” she said, “but couldn’t get inside. We have to get down there. It’s below the house, not a part of it. If the others fail, we can defend it.”

  Kinimaka looked shocked. “Fail?”

  “Worst case scenario,” Hayden said. “But I have to entertain it. Oh, and the Inca treasure is down there too.”

  “Ah.”

  She engaged the next guard, and took him down in a headlock. He struggled wildly until she increased the pressure on his jugular. “Where’s the key?” she whispered. “The key to the caves?”

  “Fu . . . fu . . . fu—”

  “No, no, no. Do you wanna die, or run?”

  Straight into the SPEAR team.

  “Run,” he choked. “Please run.”

  “Just tell me.”

  He balked. Kinimaka dragged over another, more pliant individual. The scrawny guard looked like a toothpick in the Hawaiian’s grip.

  “Over there.” He waved. “Office. Safe code is seven-oh-nine.”

  Hayden hadn’t noticed an office on her previous reccy, but put it down to anxiety and lack of time. Smyth bounded away and soon returned, the gleaming key grasped firmly in one hand.

  “C’mon, guys. Let’s see what’s down there.”

  “You really think treasure still lies down in cave system?” Yorgi asked. “And not above somewhere?”

  “Nah, he kept it extremely hard to find,” Hayden said. “The man’s a loner. Trusts nobody. I bet he went down there alone and brought each piece back separately. One of the reasons he took so long about it. Wouldn’t want his family torn apart by greed. I bet it’s a warren.”

  “Traps?” Smyth asked worriedly.

  “Only if Dantanion made them,” Hayden said. “I hope.”

  Smyth approached the arched wooden door that barred the entrance to the caves. Hayden heard cries all around and turned swiftly as Fay began to shout and point. Behind them, filling the corridor and the entrance to the caves, came a surge of attackers, mostly guards but with some of the human-spider creatures among them.

  She took a Glock offered by Kinimaka. “Thanks.”

  “If what appears to have happened to you did happen, I have to say—that took some bravery, Hay.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it. They’re coming.”

  “Neither would I,” Kinimaka said. “But I know damn well you didn’t do it for yourself.”

  Hayden pushed Fay behind her. “Just shut the hell up and start shooting.”

  Kinimaka smiled. Hayden couldn’t figure out why, and then the attackers were rushing down upon them, brandishing sharp weapons and clubs, axes and hammers, their cries making her blood curdle.

  The attack on the chateau had come early, too early. Many would live or die today depending on the skills of the team and the villagers they’d brought along. Innocents were at risk, but wasn’t that always the case?

  She stepped forward to defend them with all she had.

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  Drake let loose the fury of war as a hundred snarling enemies charged.

  One shot per man, one downed and another tripped over and then another with each shot. The mags emptied fast but the attackers kept coming. Dahl ranged to the right, Alicia to the left. Mai chose hand-to-hand combat for the first wave, sending each to the ground, and then used intricate holds to twist them against the next. People fell around her, but if they weren’t dead or unconscious they were still extremely dangerous. No reaching for lost weapons here; the cannibals came at her with their teeth.

  Kenzie used her Glock; part of the weapons cache they’d liberated from members of the Cusco Militia. A man jumped at her, shot through the chest, but on landing bore her to the ground, bleeding all over her and snapping with his teeth, trying to take the end of her nose off. She held him away with one hand, and brought her gun around with the other.

  She pulled the trigger, then moved on to the next.

  Drake aimed and fired two bullets, then looked down in horror as something jerked at his arm. Jaws were fastened around his wrist, the teeth gnashing hard at the leather and cloth that protected the flesh. He could feel the points through his clothes, cutting deeper. He smashed the cannibal on the top of the skull, then again, and finally a third time as hard as he could. The figure slumped away; the teeth marks forever impressed in the leather around his sleeve, torn through and almost reaching the skin. He saw a woman leap for Dahl’s throat to be brushed aside by the Swede’s arm.

  Not just a battle. This is raw, visceral bedlam.

  A bite on his thigh made him scream. Shock and disbelief tore the sound from him. Kenzie came down hard on the offender, unleashing her katana and severing the offending body part.

  “Do you like me now?” she asked.

  “Fuck yeah.” Drake waded into a group of cannibals. Kicking, smashing with hands, knees and feet, he forced them apart, shooting his weapon until it ran dry.

  “Should have kept some, ya knob.” Dahl was close by. “Look up there.”

  Drake raised his eyes above fang level. Along the upper reaches of the hall were arrayed a row of interior balconies, mostly for show, but some of Dantanion’s men had climbed up to them and were aiming their bows from above, sighting in on the team. Dahl shot one down, but two more loosed arrows. Bolts slammed into the crowd, parting Curtis and Desiree but hitting neither. Brynn struggled with an aggressor but Mai was soon at her side, flinging the woman away. The villagers still kept hold of their own guns, though did not advance on the crowd, overwhelmed and alarmed.

  Drake flinched as another arrow flew down. This one glanced off the polished floor at his feet. A body took him about the waist, but not in the usual sense. This one contained a set of teeth that instantly started worrying at his stomach, biting and tearing and trying to find a way inside. An elbow to the neck sent the aggressor to the floor; a boot to the same area finished him. The next onslaught came and he deflected the leap, allowing the body to fly past. Dahl picked off another archer. Two remained though, and now sent down bolts that struck Mai and Kenzie.

  “No!”

  Kenzie fell to one knee, gasping. The black bolt had pierced her clothing, but only an inch of skin, flashing through at pace and drawing a long furrow. The wound bled, but she ignored it, stabbing at an oncoming victim. Mai saw the arrow coming and dodged faster than the eye could follow, but even then it would have struck her forehead if a foe hadn’t deflected it with his own. Still it came though, tumbling though the air, striking her with the bulk of the shaft and leaving a mark. She fought on without stumbling, blinking furiously.

  Alicia saw her struggling and moved toward her back.

  “Thanks,” Mai gasped.

  “Wouldn’t want you to miss our showdown, darlin’.”

  “Of course.”

  Spider creatures now jumped away from the walls and came swarming across the floor. Many hopped up onto the colossal table, and sent pots, pans and plates spinning as they surged across it, bodies cavorting and limbs pivoting at practically impossible angles.

  Kenzie, alone, jumped up onto the table and stood tall, immobile, her sword pointed at its
surface, resting. “You will not get past me,” she said to them all.

  They capered straight for her. With grace of movement, she lifted and swung the katana, a deadly arc of artistry, blade flashing, glinting, and then washed with blood. The downward swing became a sideways sweep and then an upward curve, painting the air with trails of crimson. Three were at her feet, twitching. A dozen more came.

  Kenzie stepped forward with economy of movement, a shuffle of her feet at a time, using the table’s width and dancing from left to right. The katana swished and curved and diced the air, chopping through a creeping body or catching one in mid-air.

  Alicia ran down the side of the table to help, picking off a few stragglers at the back with the last of her bullets. Kenzie painted new and skillful shapes of blood in the air, stepping among the showers, dripping red, and starting to attract the attention of more than just the spider creatures.

  Drake saw nostrils flaring and jaws widening as they aimed toward her. Taking stock, he quickly evaluated their position. The villagers were knotted in one corner of the room, Mai before them, taking their fair share of attackers away from the main battle. Drake saw to his dismay that two had already fallen. Dahl was in front, softening the onslaught. Up ahead, he watched as Dantanion studied the fight, the enigmatic leader saying nothing and moving little, but seeing everything. A shrug of a shoulder sent the last of his spider creatures into the fray, all bounding creepily toward Dahl and Alicia. And still he watched, both hands holding a ghastly chain of finger bones that hung around his neck.

  From behind Dantanion came the feast that had been prepared, only now it was being propelled by two huge men dressed in chef’s uniforms. The strangeness and creepiness of it all staggered Drake, but he rushed forward anyway, barging two cannibals aside and punching a third in the head. The huge lead chef confronted him, cleaver in hand.

  “You ruin it alllll!”

  Drake staggered back as the chef upended the huge platter onto him. The prepared dead body looked whole, but had been quartered, so the arms and legs fell separately to the main cadaver. Drake warded off an arm but was struck by a falling leg, the bone hitting his forehead like a fist. It was only by luck that he then saw the descending cleaver—its blade flashing and catching his eye.