Weapons of the Gods (Matt Drake Book 18)

by David Leadbeater

  Drake rolled off a body to find a leg wrapped around his neck, which he removed with the touch of his Taser, but he knew the charge was running low. He rolled back, rose with an elbow to a sitting man’s face, then flung his body headlong atop another. Alicia was giving no quarter, tasing everyone in the most easily available parts of the body, using her boots and a knife she had pulled loose from one man’s sheath.

  Mai strapped two guns over her shoulders, another across her back, and held a fourth leveled at head height. At the end of the corridor, a shadow shrouded by light, she was a vision—not least because her demure, slim figure belied the fact that it could bristle with such a collection of weapons. But the shadow had bite.

  A new merc came through the shattered façade of the police station, his semi-auto Mauser leading the way. Mai didn’t let him fire, just opened up with her own weapons instantly and watched the figure bounce off the rear wall, turned into a lifeless rag-doll without even spotting his killer.

  Another crouched down at his side, surveying the scene. Mai shot him too. Drake realized he’d disarmed most of the men, and scrambled back the way he’d come, dragging Alicia along by the elbow.

  “Time to leave.”

  “But they won’t take long to recover.”

  “Long enough.” Drake tapped his ears. “Listen.”

  Sirens wailed in the distance.

  They reached Mai and Kenzie; the Japanese woman distributing weapons. Drake took a last look at the bound policeman, saw all was okay and almost dashed on. But it was the look in the desk sergeant’s eye that stopped him—the fear, the slight shake of the head, the deliberate widening of the eyes.

  Without hesitation, he fired at the rear doors. A figure fell, groaning, followed by another mercenary, that he shot through the chest. Nodding at the policeman he lay the gun on the floor.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  The others did the same, recognizing they had little use for the weapons now. Doukas had been carrying the chain, but now Kenzie took it off him and hurried him out through the station’s rear parking area, back toward the gates. Drake used the same keypad as earlier and then they were squeezing through.

  They ran left between buildings and threaded a path back toward their waiting car.

  To meet up with Luther.

  And get the hell out of town.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Drake’s heart sank when he heard Hayden and the others were on the run, trying desperately to escape America before they were caught. Even Secretary Crowe and Lauren, who were relatively close by, couldn’t help them. Lauren continued to be blocked in her efforts to meet President Coburn, and Crowe had been forced into hiding. For now, they were only able to pull covert, invisible strings as they tried to make a difference.

  Similarly on the run, driving down a road somewhere in Greece, Drake’s team checked the Chain of Aphrodite and then dropped off Doukas. Drake made a call to Whitehall.

  “We’re sitting in a rented Merc C class, following a B-road through some form of flat purgatory to be honest. I have no clue where we are.”

  Alicia pointed at the satnav. “Tells you right there.”

  “It does, but I’m so pissed off I can’t be bothered to look. Cambridge, can you track us?”

  “Got your phone triangulated right now. We’ll collect the chain. Just keep going.”

  “How do these bastards keep on tracking us, mate?”

  Cambridge wasn’t slow to answer. “It’s not you, it’s the law of averages converging. It’s a worldwide web of facts and details stacked against you. They have instruments to track the weapons which are better than ours. Crowe found out there are many more weapons than we first thought, over twice as many. Tempest have a wide net, using terrorists and mercs. The chain gives us four weapons, and I’m betting they have double that. They’re jumping all over the world from job to job. One of the bigger problems is this terrorist camp. We don’t know where it is and Tempest will have a small army pretty soon.”

  “Understood.” Drake took in the mood of the people in the car. Still taut, they lived by the minute knowing they were fugitives and that Tempest had put a kill order on their heads. Of course they were fractious. Of course they were on edge. But over a dozen other estranged Special Forces teams were out there too—living every day under threat.

  “What can you tell us about the chain?” Alicia asked. “Doukas seemed to think it was Aphrodite’s sex toy.”

  Cambridge snorted. “By all accounts she was a bit of a minx, but I doubt she needed to resort to chains. It was fashioned for and given to her by a potential suitor, something about it symbolizing the way his heart felt every time he saw her.”

  Alicia choked. “Yeah, Drakey says that all the time.”

  Cambridge went on: “It wasn’t quite that easy. Aphrodite was married of course, and as her adulteries went on so her husband grew wiser. She grew bolder. The only way men could court her was to send gifts, the more heartfelt the more chance they stood of a midnight tryst.”

  The length of chain felt light to Drake as he handled it. Small links and slender metal made it suitable for any hands.

  “Makes more sense,” he said. “These wouldn’t even restrain Alicia, and she’s a wimp.”

  The Englishwoman made him groan with a punch to the shoulder, no doubt raising a new bruise. “Add that to your assortment,” she said.

  “Whilst we’re waiting for the collection,” Luther said. “We’re wasting time. Where are we headed next, Dartmoor?”

  Drake knew it was a nickname referencing Cambridge’s SAS background and smiled.

  “Well, we have that in hand too. The next weapon that we know of in your vicinity also happens to be in Greece, and you’re headed right toward it.”

  “We are? That’s great. What is it?”

  “We have a problem with this one—” Cambridge waited as the chorus of groans and “again” settled down. “I’m sorry, nobody said this was going to be easy. Next up is an artifact called The Waters of Neptune. Basically, it’s in Thessaloniki, a large Greek city, and we have a very good idea of where it is.”

  Drake scratched his stubble. “I’m guessing there’s a but.”

  “Name me a day when there isn’t. But . . . a man named Mattheus has it.”

  “Somehow, that doesn’t bring to my mind the image of an aging archaeologist,” Luther said.

  “It isn’t. Mattheus and Doukas don’t even live in the same universe. Mattheus is a criminal that runs a nightclub in a police no-go area of the city, a particularly violent type. He’s aware that the artifact is being sought and has surrounded himself with a small army. To be fair, the army is business as usual for him.”

  “There must be a story about how he came to own the artifact.” Kenzie sounded interested.

  Alicia leaned across to Drake and cracked a one-liner: “She’s hoping she didn’t sell it to him.”

  Kenzie turned, face serious. “In all honesty I have been wondering for some time if any of these artifacts might have crossed my path. Doubtful, but . . .” She shrugged.

  “You didn’t sell this to Mattheus,” Cambridge said. “He murdered an entire line of succession until it passed down to him.”

  Drake wished he could be surprised at the news, but wasn’t. “So, his father purchased it?”

  “Father to big brother to him, yes. Black market. Possibly even purchased at the last Bazaar of Ramses. You remember that?”

  “Oh, yeah. A lot of shit went down that day. Can you send us all the information you have on Mattheus and his nightclub?”

  “On its way. Mattheus’s father bought this at the last bazaar and then kept it hidden inside his home for some time. Mattheus saw it one day and coveted it, then brought it to his own home, which is this bloody nightclub. It’s a four-story building and we believe Mattheus has apartments comprised out of the top two. And I mean, a proper, ritzy abode. None of your cheap crap. Underground parking garage, dedicated elevator, the usual stuff t
hat criminals love. No doubt a slew of disposable bodyguards. You really do have your work cut out for you here, Drake.”

  The Yorkshireman rolled his eyes. “I’m wondering if Tempest are cherry-picking their jobs. Leaving the hardest until last.”

  “Probably,” Cambridge affirmed. “They could be waiting for their terrorist camp to come fully online.”

  Mai sat upright in her seat. “And that’s something else we can’t allow to happen.”

  “Any luck contacting any of the other teams that have been left out in the cold?” Luther asked.

  “Ongoing,” Cambridge answered. “You can imagine the logistical problems involved with approaching a dug-in, hyper-wary Special Forces team in enemy territory. Let’s say, we’re working carefully on it.”

  Luther tapped the satnav screen. “We’re approaching Thessaloniki, guys. Where is this nightclub?”

  Cambridge reeled off the coordinates, which Luther tapped into the vehicle’s navigation system. “Twenty three minutes,” he said. “We should find a hotel close by.”

  “Not too close,” Mai said. “In case you’re all wrong and Tempest are here already.”

  “Not a problem,” Alicia said. “We’ll kill anyone that gets in our way.”

  “That’s not always the answer,” Mai said obstinately.

  “Works for me,” Alicia said. “They’d do as much or worse to us. And besides, I still have a demon in my soul that needs appeasing.”

  “Since birth,” Mai muttered.

  “Hey,” Alicia said. “You have to admit I’m better than I used to be.”

  Mai grimaced. “In the same way a predator is better when it cuts down by one meal a day.”

  “Eh?”

  “It’s still a predator and it’s still only happy when it’s eating.”

  “You’re saying I’m only happy when I’m fighting the scumbags? That’s not true.”

  Mai gave her a long look and then turned away. Alicia looked deep in thought. Drake decided it was best to ignore them both and watched the wet city streets passing by through a raindrop spattered windscreen.

  “Hotel.” He pointed. “Let’s get registered and make a plan.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  “Place looks clean,” Luther said, studying the nightclub’s exterior and surrounds through field glasses.

  Alicia shook her head sadly. “Poor Luther’s never been inside a nightclub,” she said. “He thinks they’re clean.”

  “No, I didn’t mean—”

  Drake watched the building from a different angle. It sat wide and squat on a piece of land between two diagonal-running streets, somewhere near the heart of Thessaloniki, in the tourist district. Four concrete steps led up to the front doors, which were black and, currently, shut tight. A-boards sat outside, advertising events and opening hours. All the windows were opaque, some on the first floor covered in sign-writing. Drake could see a clear difference between the bottom and top two floors—the latter obviously having had some lavish expense thrown at it, including ornate balconies, a roof garden and, he imagined, much more besides. The stonework was dirty and unwashed, which backed up Alicia’s experienced presumption of a grungy interior.

  Luther was rephrasing. “No obvious signs of enemies,” he said. “Tempest, or otherwise.”

  “Agreed,” Drake said. “When does the place open?”

  “According to the website,” Kenzie said. “Nine p.m. tonight.”

  “Why do they open at bedtime?” Dahl wondered.

  “Latest Intel just arrived.” Cambridge was talking on Drake’s cellphone. “This is recently in from a deep-cover informant, and I’m quoting here: ‘Mattheus stores this weird idol thing in a safe in the nightclub.’”

  Alicia bit her lip. “By the sound of this guy that could be anything.”

  “I guess,” Cambridge said. “But if it isn’t the Waters of Neptune then it’s some twisted coincidence.”

  “An idol, not a statue?” Mai said. “Do we have any information on the artifact?”

  “Yes, they documented it briefly before it went missing. The problem with these artifacts is—the people stealing them are the ones documenting them, so they make the description as brief as they can with ‘more to follow.’ Neptune was, of course, the god of the sea, the Roman counterpart to Poseidon. The description depicts an obsidian block with a smooth granite feel and a representation of the god and his trident. A rough estimate of size places it no larger than, say, a microwave.”

  “Which would fit in a safe?” Alicia questioned.

  “Yes. The informant tells me Mattheus’s safe is floor to ceiling. It’d fit.”

  “Could be the break we need,” Drake said. “We do have access to the club at least. Not like the rest of the building.”

  “If you call access to a room full of sweaty, heaving bodies being watched by over a dozen guards, bouncers, CCTV cameras, and a mezzanine level of offices,” Cambridge said. “Then, sure, you have access.”

  “I call that more than access,” Alicia said. “I call that party time, baby.”

  Cambridge made no comment, instead returning to the artifact. “Neptune was also the god of lakes and springs, hence the ‘waters’ reference in the title, I guess. Only a single temple existed to him in Rome, built before 200 BCE. I’m quite sure you will know the idol when you see it.”

  Drake was staring at Alicia. “What do you think?”

  The Englishwoman read his mind. “You mean Mai and me? I’m thinking the same thing.”

  Luther put the field glasses down on the scarred wooden table of Drake and Alicia’s hotel room with a thunk. “That worries me.”

  “I don’t see why,” Alicia said. “We’re both females looking for a good Greek time. On vacation. Both young . . .” She paused. “At least I am. Mai’s chomping on that chain a bit.”

  “It’s fine.” Mai nodded. “A good idea. They won’t suspect us.”

  “They will if your photo’s in their database.”

  “Why would it be?” Mai was already rising to her feet. “Tempest are the loudest players here. We’re just background noise. C’mon, Alicia, let’s get ready.”

  “Why? Are you gonna dress me?”

  “You wish. We need to coordinate. Find a place to hide all those cameras.”

  “Sounds fun. Is there anywhere—”

  Kenzie cut in. “Hey, I’m going too. Can’t hurt, right?”

  “Three’s a crowd, bitch.”

  Drake wasn’t watching but didn’t need eyes to know whose response that was.

  “The problem,” Mai said seriously. “Is that they may have your photo. A result of your previous employment.”

  “I never came across these people. The only Greeks I used for business were based in Athens and various Egyptian cities.”

  “I’m sure we can work it out,” Mai said, and then in answer to Alicia’s groan: “She’s right, Taz. Three is better than two on this occasion.”

  The woman started walking toward the door. Alicia voiced the comment that she was looking forward to a great night out.

  Drake winced and glanced glumly at Luther.

  “Shit,” he said. “This isn’t gonna end pretty.”

  *

  Alicia leaned on Kenzie’s shoulder as they entered the club, whispering exactly what she thought of her. Kenzie smiled and grinned at the doormen as they pranced by. Mai stayed close to the back of the pair, playing mother. Due to lack of time and ease of purchase they’d been forced to wear new jeans and tourist T-shirts, but weren’t too far removed from the norm. This nightclub at least, didn’t have a rigid dress code but cared more about patrons handing over money.

  Mai laid a hand on each of her companion’s shoulders. “Stay cool, girls. Do what we came here to do and get out.”

  Alicia pushed Kenzie away, playfully yet with force. The Israeli barely managed to catch herself before striking a wall.

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” she cried as if she’d inhaled a bottle of red wine on
the steps.

  Alicia moved to push her again, faking a laugh, but Kenzie defied her inebriation and slipped deftly around Alicia’s other side. “Miss me, bitch?”

  Leaning in, she hooked an arm around Alicia’s neck and squeezed. Alicia let her tongue fall out, acting the fool, but in truth finding it increasingly hard to breathe.

  Mai parted them with difficulty. “Focus, kids. We’re in.”

  A wall of noise abused their senses as they were allowed through a final door and into the heart of the nightclub. One enormous room, it was roughly circular with mini-dancing-stages all around the outside and a lengthy bar to the right. Glasses and bottles sparkled under bright lights all along its length, the glitz instantly attracting the newcomers.

  Alicia stepped down onto the central dance floor, taking it all in. Couples and groups capered to and fro and screamed into each other’s ears to make themselves heard. A dance beat pounded from wall to wall and through the floor, thrashing its way into Alicia’s bones and dampening her senses.

  She leaned back, grabbing Mai by the head and shouting into her ears. “Fuck me, I do not miss this shit!”

  The Japanese woman smiled softly. “It’s different when you’re young.”

  “Yeah, damn right. I was far stupider then.”

  “Are you ready to do this?”

  Alicia steeled herself. They knew where the guards were. They knew where the guns were. They knew where Mattheus was, and where the criminal boss that ruled this police no-go area kept his safe.

  “Bring it on.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Knowing in advance that communication would be verging on impossible outside the restrooms, they had decided on a series of hand signals. Used by the military, they were quite familiar with them, but hoped no ex-army bodyguards would also recognize the gestures. The trio cut through the crowd, hands in the air, skirting a shrill hen party and then several couples and a man dancing on his own.