Hours later, they were herded into the back of a van before being driven into the heart of Washington DC.
A suited man wearing sunglasses opened the back door. “Out,” he said.
They complied and the van drove off.
“This is it?” Dahl asked. “Years of blood, sweat and turmoil and we’re dumped in the street?”
Hayden turned around, looking at the buildings. “This is D Street. How about we wander across to the Hyatt over there and see if these credit cards still work?”
Drake nodded. “Aye, love, let’s get plastered and then someone can tell me what the hell happened to Kova-fucking-lenko.”
*
At that moment, across the city, eighteen men were converging on a secret Internet HQ. They were well-armed, well-informed and well-paid. They were ex-Delta Force operatives, seduced by the darker side of the mercenary life and the wages it paid.
Only eighteen blocks east of where Drake was starting on his first Jim Beam and Coke, they slipped through a dark back alley. They paused alongside a dumpster, backs to the wall in single file. Their leader—a man named Spartak—waited two long beats.
And then threw a grenade at a steel door.
The grenade exploded with a sharp report. Smoke billowed up the side of the building. The steel door buckled, leaving a gap that Spartak soon filled, and then his men. Together, they infiltrated the secret HQ.
It wasn’t fancy on the outside, just a maze of corridors with walls covered in moth-eaten, beige carpet. Another steel door with a keypad faced them at the end of the corridor, which Spartak again dealt with. Beyond that, they were inside the inner sanctum of the Strike Force internet HQ.
A man faced them. He was broad shouldered and sported a thick beard. His bare arms were muscle-bound and covered in faded tattoos. When he saw the men that came for him he opened fire with his Sig P226. His first bullet struck Spartak, driving him back. His second took off a man’s face. His third perforated a thigh.
He never got a fourth. Men poured in through the breached door, firing as they came. Bullets riddled the bearded man, who collapsed to the floor.
“Is he dead?” Spartak gasped, winged in the right bicep.
“Yes, sir. Dead as disco.”
Spartak wrapped his arm and made his way over to the dead man. All around the room computers blinked and two banks of monitors showed more than twenty video feeds being monitored by the room.
“So,” Spartak said. “This is G.”
“This was G,” a man said. “Now he’s one more notch on my barrel.”
“Destroy it,” Spartak said. “The Blood King wants the Strike Force teams all out in the cold. Cut off. No resources, no aid. Just destroy this entire place and then we’re out of here.”
The destruction began, starting with bullets and boots and then fire. Grenades were left behind. The man known as G didn’t suffer.
He was already dead.
*
Drake and the others knew nothing of it. For them, after everything that had happened, tonight would be a good night. They would toast the loss of their friend—Coburn—and toast the arrival of new friends—Cam and Shawnasee.
Hayden had related an interesting fact to Drake. Both Cam and Shawnasee had been released in her care . . . she was responsible for the both of them since the American authorities didn’t really know what to do with them.
“They’re mine,” Hayden had said, laughing. “How about that?”
Drake saluted them and then turned somber. “I gotta ask before I get too drunk.” He addressed the entire team. “What comes next?”
“Strike Force isn’t done yet,” Kinimaka said. “We have seven days. Something could change.”
Drake nodded. “But if not?”
“We could go it alone,” Mai said. “We have all the right contacts.”
“They don’t send private contractors into the kind of situations we tend to specialize in,” Hayden said.
“But what if they could? No blowback. No risk. We offer our services, together or separately, as an independent contractor. There are some places and some situations many governments would prefer full deniability.”
“Many,” Luther said.
“We’d need money,” Hayden said. “Funding. Maybe we could do a kickstart campaign.”
“She’s has a point,” Drake said. “And I’m sure, with our contacts and through favors owed, we could find the funding.”
The team discussed it for hours, sipping water and whiskey and wine, content on the lower floor of the hotel’s bar, surrounded by a quiet, calm ambiance and dim lighting. The more they drank the better the idea seemed.
But Drake decided to think on it more in the morning.
Yesterday, it seemed, all had been normal. The President presided over a prospering country. Strike Force One had completed a successful mission against the Sea Rats. And then the Blood King returned, bringing with him new victims and utter turmoil.
Where would they be tomorrow?
His train of thought led him back to Luka Kovalenko. Hayden had been told that the Russian had been freed. Clearly, due to the terrible leverage he had. Fifteen nuclear weapons were hefty leverage. Drake couldn’t have imagined America ever freeing the man that shot its President, but he understood why.
The big question remains, he thought. With the Blood King back out there, free to plot, and fifteen nuclear weapons on the loose, why the hell was someone shutting down America’s most effective teams?
Maybe G would have the answer.
THE END
As ever, I hope you enjoyed this rollercoaster novel, the good, the bad and the sad of it. Next up should be more Relic Hunter stories and then the next Drake.
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 Sea Rats (Matt Drake #23)
The Alicia Myles Series
Aztec Gold (Alicia Myles #1)
Crusader’s Gold (Alicia Myles #2)
Caribbean Gold (Alicia Myles #3)
Chasing Gold (Alicia Myles #4)
Galleon’s Gold (Alicia Myles #5)
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 Trilogy #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:
[email protected]
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
The Blood King Takedown Page 22