Hayden let Kenzie and Shaw cover them and turned in the direction of the far woods.
And sent out a silent shout of good luck to her own family.
*
Drake chased Lupei, Aurelia and Hagi across the battlefield, tires sliding in the mud, skimming past groups of fighting men, through the remains of the stalls and stands of the thoroughfare, and toward the far woods. Alicia and Dahl powered along to each side, both leaned over their handlebars as they coaxed every ounce of power from their bikes.
Mud from Lupei’s rear wheel kicked up a shower of dirt. Drake bounced over a series of ruts and then throttled up to jump the bike over a wide gap. The tires came down and skidded, swerving the bike sideways, Drake just managing to catch it before it wiped out.
Hagi hit the treeline, disappearing among the massive trunks. Only seconds passed before Lupei powered along in close pursuit. The roar of racing bike engines filled the woods.
Drake skirted the helicopter wreckage, turning away from a wash of heat that reached for his face. Flames licked through the shattered hulls, melted metal pooling on the earth. Dahl moved ahead. Drake watched as the trees came up fast, looking for a path through the randomly spaced trunks.
All six members of the SPEAR team sped into the forest at the same time. Drake dodged left and then right, ducking his head to avoid being whipped by drooping branches. The path was barely a dirt streak in the ground. He stood up on the footrest, his posture that of a jockey on a racehorse, finding this easier to steer the bike in a hurry. Truth be told, Drake was better behind a wheel than a set of handlebars, but Dahl looked like he knew what he was doing, and no way was Drake going to let him take the lead.
Alicia swerved between trees to his left. Cam and Mai churned up the forest floor close behind. Kinimaka was at the back, yelling every time he bounced off a bough or hit a hidden dip. Drake imagined a pinball bouncing from flipper to flipper.
Ahead, Aurelia pushed her bike in pursuit of Lupei and Hagi. She veered around a clump of trees and then ducked beneath a thick branch, yelling out in pain when a thorny twig snapped at her exposed face. Drake closed the gap between them, letting her forge the way ahead and take the brunt of the damage.
Dahl followed suit with Lupei, closing in. Those ahead could not match the speed of those behind, not when they were shaping a new path through the undergrowth. In front, Hagi experienced a moment of fortune, breaking out of the forest and into a wide clearing.
The rest were seconds behind. Drake saw brief glimpses of Hagi through the deadly trees he was rapidly dodging, plowing across the clearing and into more undergrowth. He whipped the bike left and right, through puddles and narrow tracks. Alicia veered close and then apart as she found her own way, at one point coming near enough to almost touch Drake’s right arm.
“You good?” she yelled.
“Could be better, love.”
“Stop trying to match Torsty. You know he’s better than you at most things.”
“Piss off, Myles.”
Drake gunned the throttle in Dahl’s wake, almost brushing the other man’s back tire. “That’s better.”
Mai roared up alongside Alicia. “Stop goading him, Taz.”
“What’s wrong, Sprite? Missing your daily dose of Bryant’s man flesh?”
Mai pulled a face. “You really need a filter, Taz. Something that just turns you off occasionally.”
Alicia opened her mouth to retort, but the clearing came up at that point and negotiating it required all her attention. They came out of the treeline together, grabbing air, flying high before bouncing back down to earth, holding tight to keep their bikes straight. Drake’s engine roared several feet ahead.
Dahl took the chance to look back. “What the hell are you three doing? Chairing a fucking meeting? Come on!”
The four powered back among the trees, swaying left and right and ducking low. Huge trunks passed by on all sides, scraping them more than once. Lupei and Hagi swerved ahead, following a path that curved to the right before speeding forward once more. Drake took the bend at speed, hanging a leg out, using his boot to remain upright.
The Yorkshireman came up alongside Aurelia and considered pulling his handgun out, but the terrain was entirely unforgiving and didn’t give him the chance. One misstep would send a rider headfirst into a tree, which might be okay for Dahl—he wouldn’t harm anything important—but Drake could hardly risk brain damage.
Another clearing appeared ahead, this one three times the size of the one before. Hagi entered it first and then, to everyone’s surprise, steered his bike to one side and drove around the treeline in a circle. One hand stayed on the handlebars as he pulled a pistol out of a jacket pocket.
Drake sped into the clearing. Hagi was circling ahead of him, Lupei several feet behind. Hagi was turning in his saddle, lining Lupei up in his sights. A shot rang out, fired by Aurelia. Hagi’s bike jerked and then whipped out from under him, somersaulting left and right before flying off into the trees. Hagi rolled a dozen times before coming to a rest.
Lupei roared toward him, lining his front wheel up with Hagi’s head. Drake jumped off his own slowing bike, landed, rolled and came up with his Glock pointed at Lupei’s head.
“Don’t do it!”
Lupei didn’t slow. Aurelia turned and fired a gun at Drake that churned up the earth near his boot. Alicia and Mai both skidded to a stop in front of Lupei’s wife, throwing a shower of mud into her face, the momentum knocking her backward to the ground. Drake squeezed off one shot.
The bullet lodged into Lupei’s bike, making it swerve and send the man headlong over the handlebars.
Dahl sped up to him, still riding the bike, and grabbed Lupei’s jacket, hauling him along at speed. Cam and Kinimaka pulled up at Hagi’s side.
Dahl let Lupei slide into a mound of dirt. The man hit the soft pile headfirst, and slid for several feet, plowing up a bow-wave of mud ahead of him. Drake hauled Hagi up by the scruff of the neck, letting him hang head-down for a while. Alicia let Mai wade through mud to drag Aurelia free and out into the open. Kinimaka was still approaching more cautiously through the thick forest.
“You three,” Drake breathed angrily. “Call it off. Stop the battle. Stop it now or I’ll shoot you all in the fucking face.”
Lupei glared at him with sullen disregard. Hagi’s eyes flickered and then grew clearer. “All I wanted was to teach him a lesson. To show him that nobody wanted a king. To... to avenge my daughter.”
“You’ve done that.” Drake held out a two-way radio. “So call your men off.”
Hagi glared at Lupei. “Only after he admits he killed my daughter. And calls his own men off.”
Drake bunched his fists in frustration.
Dahl threw Lupei at Hagi’s feet. “Do it,” he said. “Or die.”
The Swede leveled his gun at Lupei’s face. Aurelia screamed. Lupei rose to his knees, turning eyes full of rage on Hagi.
“Your daughter died screaming for you, Hagi,” he rasped. “She died in a tank, drowning in agony, a dumb fucking bitch who—”
The gunshot rang out loud across the clearing, but it didn’t come from Dahl’s gun. Aurelia screamed in despair as Lupei collapsed, dead, and Drake blinked twice before looking across to his right.
Cam stood there, Glock in hand.
Hagi stared at the young man. “You would kill your own father for me? Good. Then hand me the radio.”
Drake did so, still staring at Cam and wondering how he’d ever get past this. Hatred, despair and pride was one thing. But murder...
Hagi made the call to end the battle. Kinimaka was still riding up to them. Alicia walked over to Cam, holding her hand out for the gun.
The young man turned to her, tears blurring his eyes. “I did it for the Roma,” he said. “For the good of our people.”
“I know,” Alicia said, hugging him.
Aurelia burst into action, pulling away from Mai and dragging a sawn-off shotgun from under her coat. The twin barrels l
ifted swiftly in Cam’s direction and took deadly aim.
“Kill your own father? I will make you burn in hell.”
Aurelia squeezed double triggers. Cam couldn’t move. Alicia was just as vulnerable, with her arms around him. Drake yelled a warning but there was no time. There was a burst of sound, a roar, and Mano Kinimaka did the thing that he did best. Still atop the bike, he collided with Aurelia less than half a second before she fired the gun, smashing her aside with an audible crack of breaking bones. The woman slammed into the ground before she could blink, having no knowledge of what happened to her, unconscious and bleeding. Mai kicked the weapon away from her to be safe.
Kinimaka swung a leg off the bike. “What did I miss?”
Drake watched as Alicia tied Hagi’s hands with some twine. The SPEAR team came together in the center of the large clearing, surrounded by a circle of trees, right at the center of the ceaseless downpour.
“It’ll be dawn soon,” Mai said. “We should head back to the carnival and round up the others.”
Drake nodded and put a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “You okay, mate?”
Cam only looked sad. “I never wanted an outcome like this. I wanted him to see sense. To atone. But my people, the Carnival and all the good, worthy souls that make it a decent home come first.”
Hagi met Cam’s miserable stare. “Lupei was a killer through and through, son. He got everything he deserved.”
“Maybe,” Cam said. “But you are not so different. Starting a war to avenge your daughter. Why could you not face him in a ring, man to man? Be counted the Roma way? Why cause so much death?”
Hagi attempted to answer but found that he couldn’t; his lips moved but no words came out.
In the end, Cam turned away in contempt. “We should return to what’s left of the Carnival,” he said. “My people will never leave it and they will need our help.”
Drake let him take the lead, falling in behind. The road back was going to be long, treacherous and miserable, but he wasn’t about to let Cam walk it alone.
CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT
The lone Ferris wheel was a forlorn sight, standing tall at the east end of the carnival grounds, its clanking cars blasted by gusts of wind, its great spokes assaulted by endless sheets of rain, the massive wheel creeping round slowly, powerless and alone. Behind it, streaming through leaden cloud, a crimson dawn was blooming; deep red streaks breaking though blankets of gray and spearing determinedly toward the drenched earth.
Drake and the rest of the SPEAR team sat around the base of the Ferris wheel, perched on struts, rungs and sheets of steel, the only firm ground they could find. They turned their faces toward the rising sun, yearning for the new warmth to lift their waning spirits.
It had been a long, hard, different, strange and unsettling year.
Everything had changed. They’d been forced apart, to isolate from the people they loved in order to protect them. Forced beyond all normal measures and way outside their comfort zone.
“Maybe I was wrong before,” Drake was saying. “Maybe we should stick together. We’re better working together; first with Marinette’s voodoo soldiers and now here.”
Dahl nodded. “You were wrong... and you were right, weirdly. The incident in Clearwater proved that. Our enemies will always be chasing us, hunting us. So in that sense—you were correct. But together—we are stronger, better, deadlier. An unstoppable force of nature. I don’t think we should break the team up again.”
Drake nodded slowly. “I agree.”
“In any case,” Hayden said, sipping from a Styrofoam cup of coffee that the carnival folk had somehow, miraculously, been able to concoct from the ravaged remains of their stalls. “We may have won this battle, but the long war is right in front of us. It has been for some time now.”
The team shifted, unsettled and unsure. “We’re at a milestone,” Alicia said. “How long have we been doing this? Feels like forever, but the hardest, darkest and longest night is still ahead of us. How do we even start...” she tailed off.
“To take down the President of the United States?” Mai said. “Carefully.”
“Or noisily,” Dahl said. “Forcefully. Directly.”
“We have no bloody proof he’s guilty of anything other than being a bellend,” Drake said. “Which, unfortunately, isn’t a jailable offence.”
“It will when I become Madam President,” Alicia said.
There was a reflective and sudden lull in conversation as everyone considered that.
“Anyway, I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for bellends,” Alicia went on. “Along with car thieves, bullies, yobs and those knobs who don’t pick up their dogshit.”
They were all silent for a moment, sipping from coffee cups or water bottles. Rising red sunbeams coated their faces in a refreshing warmth.
“Maybe some of the other teams will help,” Kenzie said.
“Just remember,” Hayden said. “If President Lacey is working for an unknown entity, there will be a very special and secret reason. A goal. To unmask him, and them, we’ll first have to unearth that goal. When the Blood King fired the bullet that killed our friend, Coburn, Vice President Lacey already had plans in place.”
“Including ghosting the Special Forces teams,” Kinimaka said.
“Exactly. But Lacey is comfortably settled in the White House now. There has to be a way to exploit that.”
“Sounds like a challenge,” Alicia said.
“Well, I guess it is. Fighting the president will be the fight of our lives, the hardest thing we’ve ever done. And we’ll need special help from some of the best hunters out there. Are you guys ready for that?”
“For a return to the US? Together? To kick Lacey’s arse? Oh, yeah.” Drake managed a smile.
Hayden turned her face into the rising sun once more.
“Then let’s get started,” she said.
THE END
Please read on for a very important update to the Matt Drake world.
I hope you enjoyed this story as much as so many of you did the last, written in a slightly different style. Of course, the team is now back together and heading for the long-awaited showdown with the new President Lacey—but that’s only the start. The next book, slated for a June 2021 release, is Drake’s TENTH ANNIVERSARY NOVEL!
Yes, Drake, Alicia, Dahl and co. will have been entertaining and getting into trouble for ten years, and I’m planning a HUGE story to celebrate. Not to give too much away, but it will involve the face-off with the corrupt President of the United States, the SPEAR team back on track, and some very popular special guests! Plus, lots of festivities and giveaways through my Facebook page—davidleadbeaternovels—starting in May 2021. Please join me for the tenth anniversary book and celebrations!
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)
Blood King Takedown (Matt Drake #24)
Devil’s Junction (Matt Drake #25)
Voodoo soldiers (Matt Drake #26)
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 Hostage Diamond (Relic Hunters #4)
The Rocks of Albion (Relic Hunters #5)
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
The Carnival of Curiosities (Matt Drake Book 27) Page 24