Theatre of War (Matt Drake 28) Tenth Anniversary Novel

by David Leadbeater

  But that wasn’t possible.

  Her team no longer worked for the government or the President. They didn’t have access to anyone. Even Assistant Director Sutherland had gone dark for now. All those years, she thought. All those years fighting for our country, dying for our country, and who really cared? Who will stand up for us—the soldiers—now?

  She broke into a run, eyes fixed on the approaching ambulances. They pressed toward her, eventually stopped by the wreckage. Trauma teams piled out, racing toward the fallen. Hayden slowed as she reached them.

  A paramedic ran up to her, seeing the blood on her hands and face.

  “It’s not mine,” she said. “You’re needed up there.”

  She pointed to where she’d come from. She scanned windows, rooftops and the remaining cars for anything suspicious. A sense of hopelessness coursed through her. How could they—how could anyone—hope to stop such well-funded acts of violence? The world was a scary place even when it didn’t bring its troubles to your front door.

  But when it did...

  You fight.

  She raced across to help a young paramedic having trouble with a panicking male. She lifted the man onto a stretcher. She scanned Wall Street, searching for her enemy.

  And it came. As with every attack so far, as with any attack that produced terror, it was small and yet shockingly directed.

  Another three ambulances arrived on the scene, the last of which disgorged masked men carrying guns. These men turned their weapons on injured people and first responders, without mercy.

  Hayden drew her weapon and engaged them, shouting into her comms for assistance. The attackers, surprised to face such an immediate response, fell back or dropped to their knees.

  Kinimaka ran past her, targeting the gunmen. Bullets smacked into the sides of the fake ambulance.

  Hayden used the still-smoldering wreckages of vehicles to hurry closer to their physical enemy, staying low. Even as she went, she found more people who needed attention.

  Atrocity upon atrocity.

  Whoever planned this—they were the worst evil. Evil the like of which Hayden had never known before—a height reserved for the very worst. Who were the Scourge and why were they doing this?

  Drake and the others arrived to back her up. Together, the SPEAR team converged on the fake ambulance and its contingent of gunmen, forcing them to stay low with constant fire, eliminating a threat when it raised its head just a bit too far. Screams rent the air, those already injured forced to cover up and cry into the sidewalk, the first responders still working despite the gun battle.

  Further down the road, police cars were coming, and more ambulances.

  Hayden stood over the last of the attackers, never resting, searching for more.

  Thirty seconds later, she put her gun away and raced off to help more of the fallen. Drake and the others scattered to do the same.

  It was chaos. Wall Street bled smoke and debris, the thick black plumes rising over the city just another reminder to the, as yet unaffected, residents of New York that some shadow entity was trying to change their world, their entire way of life. A sign that they could no longer ignore.

  Drake rushed up to her. “What next?”

  Hayden saw the police coming, the paramedics working. Most of the injured had been taken care of, but she and her colleagues were covered in their blood. They couldn’t do anything for the people who had died in the first blasts, but they had saved lives.

  “No choice,” Dahl said. “We fade away.”

  Hayden turned away from the chaos, the living and the dead. They made their way back up the street and still, as the police passed among the people and tried to disperse a growing crowd, stopped to help those that needed it. Hayden and the others could not ignore them. Splitting up helped. There were dozens of civilians trying to assist the injured and several off-duty doctors and nurses. This way, the team made ground back toward the stock exchange, and a calmer, clearer area.

  “What do we do next?” Shaw asked.

  Hayden fished out her phone. “First,” she said. “I’m calling Trent and the Disavowed guys. They have to stop Madame Davic and this disinformation attack. They have to put everything into it, every resource they can get their hands on. If we can plug just one of these attacks, it’s a step forward.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Dahl acknowledged. “But the Scourge have now succeeded in three attacks out of three. We’re spread too thin to stop them.”

  Hayden fought the frustration. Always before, there had been a target, someone or something to focus their attentions on, to chase. With each successive attack, however, the Scourge were remaining elusive and showing just how well they had planned their strikes.

  They had to find a way to turn it all around.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Drake jumped out of the car as Kinimaka brought it to halt outside a low-key Hell’s Kitchen hotel. They paid in cash and rushed up to their rooms, grabbing showers to finish a job they’d started in the car by rinsing their hands and faces with bottled water, standing for a minute under the warm streams before meeting once more in Hayden’s room.

  This time, it was a war summit.

  “We can’t continue bumbling along,” Dahl said, drawing the curtains apart to stare down at an eerily empty street, and at a sky obscured by smoke.

  “He’s right,” Drake said. “The fact is we arrived before that attack and still weren’t able to prevent it. As long as we don’t know who we’re dealing with, we’re just fighting smoke and shadows.”

  “Zuki gave us several clues,” Mai said. “Something about the Romanovs. Maybe someone could research them.”

  The team looked at each other. To be fair, none of them were researchers and wouldn’t know where to start.

  “I’ll contact Karin,” Drake said. “Again. Maybe Dino can help.”

  “I’ll call Sutherland,” Hayden said. “And see how he’s getting along with the investigation into President Lacey.”

  Five minutes later, they had little more information that would help. “She’s on it,” Drake said. “But without boots on the ground in Russia, the Romanov angle is tricky at best. It’s always been shrouded in mystery.”

  “No doubt deliberately,” Hayden said. “Sutherland now has a decent-sized force of men and women. A real resistance.”

  Drake shook his head. “It sounds surreal.”

  “Lacey has surrounded himself with secret allies working against the States, and duty-bound men and women who believe they’re working for its best interests. They will follow his orders, right or wrong.

  “And in the meantime?” Dahl asked. “What do we do?”

  Drake noticed a lot of questions among his friends. He realized then that he’d been asking them too. It was a consequence of the mountain they found themselves up against. The sheer lack of information and an unattainable figurehead to take down.

  And the desperate need to prevent America from collapsing in upon itself.

  Where did you start?

  “The fourth attack,” Mai said, sitting down. “Zuki said it was personal.”

  “That’s right,” Drake said. “And being personal maybe it’ll reveal something more of whoever’s behind all this.”

  “She said it was puzzling, personally motivated,” Mai went on. “The Scourge demanded that the collection of Fabergé eggs we saved in Las Vegas should be stolen. We were never told the US decided to keep them. Essentially belonging to an unnamed Russian, the Fabergé eggs weren’t returned. She knew that the Devil was tasked to regain this collection of Fabergé eggs and that he had a list of the world’s best thieves to complete the task. Only the very best. Infamous, I believe was the word.”

  “And the fifth attack?” Drake wanted to talk them all through.

  “Power grids. Police. Humanity breaking down,” Hayden said. “It takes less time than you would imagine.”

  “The sixth?” Alicia asked.

  Mai looked up glumly. “Z
uki said the Devil never disclosed the sixth attack. We killed him before he had the chance.”

  “I’m not sure I believe her,” Dahl said.

  “Agreed,” Mai nodded. “Let me check into something. Dai mentioned there were some survivors during Zuki’s escape. Maybe they heard something.”

  Mai left the room to make her call. Drake considered all they knew about the fourth attack and then nodded at Bryant. “Talk to Sutherland. Find out where they stored those Fabergé eggs.”

  “We going to Vegas?” Alicia asked with a slight smile.

  “I don’t see any alternative. If we can catch and interrogate this crack team of thieves, we might learn something.”

  “I hate to throw water on your bonfire,” Cam spoke up then. “But we aren’t thieves. And if they’re good enough to steal from a casino vault—” he shrugged “—what chance do we have of stopping them?”

  “We’re not without skills.” Alicia waggled her fingers at him.

  “I’m not really sure what that means.”

  “Trust me,” Drake said. “You don’t want to know. But you’re kind of right. We can’t ask the casino owners for their cooperation because we don’t have government credentials anymore. This is kind of a... stealth operation.”

  “Not my favorite.” Alicia grimaced.

  Mai returned to their room, still holding her phone. “I spoke to Dai,” she said. “Zuki’s guard detail were decimated in the attack. Out of thirteen men, ten were killed outright. One is still in a coma, but looking promising. The other two are recovering with injuries.”

  All eyes in the room turned to her.

  “I really hope there’s some good news,” Shaw said.

  “Maybe,” Mai said. “Under guard, the team continued to quiz Zuki. Apparently... she knew more of the fourth attack than she let on, and did know at least the origins of the sixth and final attack.”

  “Origins?” Dahl wondered. “And why tell them but not you?”

  Mai scrunched her face up as she thought. “You have to understand this royal brat. Her upbringing. Her outlook. She seriously believes she’s of a different class, belonging to a higher and utterly privileged slice of humanity. It would appear strange to her if there weren’t people to walk on, necks bowed, foreheads scraping the ground. There are no repercussions in her world. They said she got bored.”

  “Who said?” Dahl blinked.

  “Her guards. They said she got bored waiting around, and started telling them all about the attacks. You see... life’s a game to her, a game without consequence. She hides or reveals information on a whim. On a fancy. She lives and thrives on impulse. It’s what drives away the boredom.”

  “Tell us more about these sixth attack origins,” Dahl said.

  “Not much to tell,” Mai said. “Apart from—Zuki is involved in them. The Devil formulated them around her. It’s why there was a plan to spring her from prison. The sixth attack centers around Zuki and involves the Scourge and the world’s ancient royal families.”

  “I remember,” Dahl said. “There are secret bloodlines in Europe, Russia and America. Old money from old pioneers. Railroads. Pharmaceuticals. Construction. Property.”

  “That’s right,” Drake said. “I heard the Duke of Westminster still owns half of London.”

  “You’d be right. But the Windsors can hardly be called shadow royals,” Hayden said. “You’d have to look for an older connection.”

  “Is that all you know?” Alicia asked Mai, getting them back on topic.

  “Yes, but it’s not all bad. If we find Zuki, we can stop the sixth and final attack.”

  Drake rubbed tired eyes. “You said she knew more regarding the fourth attack?”

  “Only the name of a great thief.” Mai sighed.

  “If you’re about to say Yorgi, I’m gonna kick his little Russian arse all the way back to Vladivostok.” Alicia growled.

  “Not Yorgi,” Mai said. “It would actually work out better for us if it was Yorgi, our old friend. This man’s name is Guy Bodie.”

  Drake frowned. “Then we find this Guy Bodie, slap some sense into him and his crew of wankers, and stop the theft. Maybe Bodie knows something about his employers that we don’t.”

  “Easier said than done,” Kenzie speculated. “I’ve heard of this Bodie. We all have. Didn’t his team find the statue of Zeus and then Atlantis?”

  Drake blinked, remembering. “Maybe. The Relic Hunters, or something?”

  “They also found King Arthur’s tomb. The Holy Grail. The—”

  “All right, all right,” Drake snapped. “So they’re clever wankers. Old missions tend to have a way of coming back and biting you in the throat.” He spread his hands. “Case in point. Our last nine missions are somehow wrapped up in this one huge undertaking, all coming to a head right now. Now that you mention it—I’ve heard of Guy Bodie too. Pretty sure he’s been on our radar before.”

  “His team used the sword Cam and I found in Mexico,” Alicia said. “The Sword of Saint Peter. We saved it from the galleon and gave it to the authorities. Bodie and his team used it to locate the tomb of King Arthur and the Holy Grail.”

  “So what are they?” Kinimaka asked. “Chancers? They find anything for a good pay day?”

  “Maybe,” Hayden said. “But I’m sure it goes deeper than that. Let me contact a few old friends.”

  “Old friends?” Kinimaka looked surprised. “You’re thinking CIA?”

  Hayden nodded.

  Mai got to her feet. “The Scourge don’t only want to be the world’s first royal shadow family,” she said. “They want to be the only shadow family. They’re going to wipe out all the others.”

  “Well, this just gets worse and worse,” Kenzie said.

  Minutes later, Hayden cursed as she hung up the phone. “Oh, crap,” she said. “You have no friggin’ idea.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  “Apparently,” Hayden began, settling herself on the bed. “Guy Bodie and his team of relic hunters were coerced into working for the CIA after the Agency broke Bodie out of a brutal Mexican prison a few years ago. They saved his life, then put him and his team to work. Their handler—a top agent named Heidi Moneymaker—managed the crew as they located all these items around the world—”

  “Wait,” Alicia said. “Just wait. I’m sorry—you said Agent Moneymaker?”

  Hayden nodded. Drake sighed. Mai shook her head. “Go on, get it out of your system.”

  “What? Me? I’m afraid you’re gonna have to wait until we meet her for that.”

  Hayden went on. “All seemed well until recently. Bodie’s been working for the CIA under duress. They’ve lost people. Following the discovery of the Holy Grail, they hatched a plan to escape the CIA and live free on a ranch in Mexico. Now, that plan, to a degree, worked perfectly. The CIA didn’t know where they were despite sending Agent Moneymaker and a CIA killer named Kenny Pang to hunt them down. Bring them back at all costs. The Relic Hunters escaped.”

  Drake frowned. “I don’t get it. If that’s the case, why the hell are they taking jobs in Vegas?”

  “It didn’t end there,” Hayden said. “They fell foul of the Illuminati along the way. What followed was an attack on their ranch, a capture and interrogation that led to a potentially world-saving quest across the globe. It’s only just ended.”

  “Did they win?” Kenzie asked.

  “We don’t know,” Hayden said.

  “So they’re like us,” Alicia said. “I like this Bodie guy already. Do you have photos?”

  “Calm down, tiger,” Mai said. “You have a boyfriend as I remember.”

  Alicia frowned. “Nobody said we were exclusive.”

  “Hey,” Drake growled at her. “Hey, can we get on?”

  Hayden cleared her throat. “Okay, so, Agents Moneymaker and Pang have been hunting Bodie and his crew across the globe but now even they’ve gone off the grid. Could be dead. Could be... whatever. Nobody knows. Maybe the Relic Hunters killed them. And maybe...
they’re already in Vegas.”

  “Unlikely,” Dahl said. “They’re unlikely to return for a week’s vaycay in the country that’s hunting them. It would be a quick insertion, in and out, a matter of minutes rather than hours.”

  “I’d say hours rather than days,” Hayden said. “Since the Fabergé eggs have been placed inside the vault at the Bellagio.”

  Dahl winced. “That’s one of the most secure places on the planet.”

  “Agreed. But George Clooney and Brad Pitt managed to pull it off,” Kinimaka said.

  “With a little help from Hollywood,” Hayden said. “I could give Matt Damon a call.”

  “I wish,” Alicia brooded.

  “How do we find Guy Bodie?” Drake asked.

  “A very good question,” Kenzie said. “They escaped the CIA and the Illuminati, it seems. They’re good enough to be top of the Scourge’s list of top thieves. And on top of that, the fourth attack must be pretty imminent.”

  Drake walked across to the room’s only window, elbowing Dahl out of the way. “Everyone leaves footprints,” he said. “Even us. I mean, sometimes we have the Swede stomping about in his elephant shoes. Sometimes it’s Mai in her ninja plimsoles, but we still get tracked.”

  “Why Mai?” Alicia asked. “I can be quiet too.”

  Drake laughed.

  “And... plimsoles?” Mai made a face.

  Drake was trying to stop laughing at Alicia. “Look, it was just a picture. Nothing else. Bodie and his friends must have left a few coffee grinds in their wake, if you know what I mean. We just need the right man to find them.”

  “Good analogy,” Alicia said. “We need a good sniffer. I know where you’re going with this.”

  Drake nodded. “Michael Crouch. My old boss. Crouch could sniff out coffee grounds in a tornado. I’ll give him a call.”

  Alicia looked a little aggrieved—Crouch being in charge of her second team. Their mutual ‘gold’ team had located many treasures in the past—her best memories being the Aztec and galleon gold hauls. The latter adventure was where she’d met Cam and saved him from the mercs who murdered his sister. Alicia had never had an awful lot of luck making friends, but Cam at least had been a success and had mostly integrated himself into the SPEAR team.