The Blood King Conspiracy (Matt Drake 2) (19 page)

Mobile crammed against her forehead she ran like a maniac, gun waving, still coated in blood, and all who saw her shied away and started reaching for cell-phones of their own.

“Drake?
Pineapple!
We’re done. Hudson’s . . . dead,” the words tangled in her throat. “There’s a bloody army on its way. You hear me, fuckhead?”

*****

Drake heard a hundred emotions in Alicia’s frantic tones. Chief among them was distress. And it was over the death of Tim Hudson. He felt a moment’s sorrow before the code-word
pineapple!
really struck home.

“Cover the lobby. We’ll be there in three minutes.”

Hayden was already frowning at him. The others were engaged in conversation.

“We’re compromised. The Blood King has found us.”

His words struck the room dead. “Don’t worry,” he spoke to them all. “We’ll get through this.”

“Leave it all!” Hayden shouted, already on the move. “We only need the controller.”

Kinimaka was at her side. Drake motioned Ben and Kennedy to follow and brought up the rear with Wells and Mai. As a group, they flew out of the room and down the corridor towards the stairs. The good thing was he heard no sound of fire coming from below. Perhaps the main force hadn’t arrived yet.

Which would allow them to fade away, slip down a few back alleys, steal a mini-van maybe, head for Fort Lauderdale.

They pounded down the stairs. Hayden banged through the door that led to the lobby and swung her CIA issue into a two-handed pose as she moved forward. Kinimaka fanned out to her right, brushing by the enormous fish tank. Drake pushed past Ben and Kennedy, eyes sweeping the three front entrances and trying to penetrate the darkened grounds outside.

Alicia hovered near the big desk. A different pretty girl stood behind it now, her face betraying how concerned she was about Alicia’s appearance.

Drake moved towards the girl. “Leave,” he nodded towards the back. “Please. Now.”

He’d seen the furtive movement outside. But his warning came too late for them all. The hotel’s front windows shattered as multiple weapons opened fire. Tons of shards and sheets of glass came crashing down in a deadly avalanche. Everyone dived for cover as bullets pinged and whizzed around the lobby, thudding into plaster walls and concrete beams and earthenware pots.

Drake dived on top of Ben and immediately began to shuffle them both across the plush carpet towards the hotel’s check-in desk, using sheer brute force.

“If only my mum could see me now,” Ben grunted, but at least he was keeping his chin up.

Drake grabbed him in a bear hug and double-rolled them behind the heavy desk. A few feet in front of him the desk clerk was on her knees, screaming. Blood soaked a patch on her shoulder.

Drake scooted across. “Listen to me,” he shouted. “Listen! Doing nothing will get you killed. Now,
go.”

He manhandled her towards the door that led to the back office. Not safe by any means, but safer than where she had been. A figure came around the corner of the desk, Kennedy, which made Drake exhale a gulp of relief. One of these damn days he was going to have to start carrying a gun.

But then, it was so much cheaper prying them from the hands of his dead enemies.

The sound of running boots galvanised Drake further. These bastards were taking no prisoners, attacking with devastating force and only one goal in mind. The ex-soldier popped up his head quickly to take in the scene.

Ruined front windows. His heart skipped several beats to see a group of tourists huddled over by the potted plants in the corner. They weren’t taking cover, just sitting there in shock, and the Blood King’s men were taking a bead on them.

“No!”

It did no good except to draw unwanted attention. Madness prevailed, as it had through every step of this Caribbean nightmare, as the innocents were shot dead. Now Drake could hear a voice screaming above all the noise, a voice that could only belong to Ed Boudreau.

From somewhere, Hayden and Kinimaka were firing back. The first wave of killers were quickly decimated as they ran into the hotel and collapsed, blocking the path of those running behind them.

Drake used the disruption to vault the check-in desk. He landed and rolled to the left, scooping up a weapon as he went. In another moment he was smack-bang in the middle of a melee. The enemy came at him from all sides, too close to use weapons effectively, but striking with arms and heads and knees. Drake blocked and ducked and side-stepped, but still he would have faltered if it wasn’t for Hayden and Kinimaka clinically taking out every man around him. Then, as if Christmas had come early, Mai had waded in to his right and Alicia was to his left. Killing machines both, they cut a swath of destruction through the bad guys. Mai ended a life with every strike of her limbs. Alicia hurt or maimed a man with every punch. Drake used the gun.

For a moment the enemy onslaught faltered.

Then Drake saw the second wave coming, armed to the teeth, and he knew this night was far from over.

“Cover!” he cried. “Regroup to cover. Now!”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Using the carnage as cover, Drake and his comrades made for the back stairs. Drake remembered to drag the terrified clerk with them, putting Ben in charge of her.

“Babysitting duty,” he muttered. “Bit of a U-turn for ya.”

Their rooms had been prepped. The bad guys couldn’t know where the controller was being kept so would have to exercise some caution, at least. They left Kinimaka watching the stairs. When they dog-legged past the corridor that led to the small bank of lifts Wells stopped them by saying: “Any way we can dismantle those?”

Hayden floundered. Mai took immediate control of the suggestion. “You go on. I can take a look.”

“I’ll back you up.” Wells patted his pocket. Drake hoped to God there was a gun in there. He motioned that Alicia take position behind Mai and Wells just in case they needed back-up.

Hayden reached their rooms. It took a moment to make a call. “Alert’s out. Cops are already on their way. Army soon after.”

“Army?” Drake frowned.

“Figure of speech. SWAT. Marines. Delta, whatever. They’re sending whoever’s nearest.”

“Not convinced the cops are a good idea,” Drake said. “They’re have no training in-”

Kennedy cut him off. “Cops are better than you give ‘em credit for, Matt. Don’t spin that inter-agency superiority crap. I’ve heard a lifetime of it.”

“I was just trying to
protect
them.” Drake saw it was no use. “Fine. Ok. I doubt we could stop them anyway.”

He ducked back out of the room, leaving Hayden to get on with it. At the far end of the corridor Mai and Wells had called the lift and were staring at something. Alicia was watching, her face a mask of stone. He heard nothing from Kinimaka, so had to assume the stairways were quiet.

He walked down quickly to Alicia. “I didn’t realise,” he said in a low voice. “About Hudson and you. I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I never knew how much you cared for him.”

“He kept
them
at bay,” Alicia said with a faraway look on her face. “You know what I’m talking about Drake. You know.”

“That I do. But you can find happiness, Alicia. You know that now.”

Alicia’s face turned stormy. “Don’t patronise me, Drakey. No way have you found eternal
happiness
with that fucked-up cop. Not a chance in hell.”

“I didn’t mean-”
Ah, what was the point?
he thought. Everyone was always misunderstanding him.

Mai and her shadow, Wells, came trotting back. “I ripped out the control mechanism,” Mai reported. “Should slow them down a little, if they were ever dumb enough to consider using the lift in the first place.”

“They were,” Drake said. “And not because they’re dumb but because the man driving them is insane.”

“Boudreau’s beyond certifiable,” Alicia said. “He’d send a hundred men over the barricades just to check if it was raining on that side.”

“I meant the Blood King,” Drake said. “But I guess they’re both crazy.”

Kinimaka popped his head around the corner. “Incoming,” he breathed as quietly as he could and then started blasting away with his weapon.

Drake smiled. “Levity even in a fire-fight,” he said. “Nothing like it.”

He raced across to back up the big Hawaiian. There were men flooding the stairwells, trying to gain a foothold by sheer force of numbers. Kinimaka would run out of ammo before he stopped them all.

Doors were cracking open up and down the corridors. Drake roared at them all to get inside and stay there until the cops arrived. Most complied. Those few that didn’t might well be on their own.

“Fall back,” Drake signalled Mai and Alicia to cover them as they flew up the corridor. “We’ll man this corner too. Make every step as costly for them as possible.”

Mai smiled sweetly. “That’s what we do.”

Drake raced on, dragging the Hawaiian with him. Hayden was stood half-way out the door. “Progress?”

“Cops are imminent. I can hear the sirens. We need to see what goes down.”

Drake indicated the other two rooms they had purchased. “They overlook the front and left-hand sides.”

Hayden took off, motioning that Kinimaka should keep watch. They unlocked the furthest room and moved cautiously towards the windows. Even from half-way Drake could see the flashing lights. They seemed to fill up half the roads in Miami.

“My God,” he breathed.

Hayden sucked in a breath. “There’s no way this can end well. No way at all. Drake, we need to get this controller out of here. Now.”

Drake was thinking hard. “How many civilians do you reckon are staying here, Hayden?”

“Drake!”

“What?”

“Do you
want
a madman calling the shots? Plundering the economy? Setting impossible goals?”

“Would we notice the difference?” Drake couldn’t resist. “Sorry, just kidding. I know, I know. No time for it. I can’t leave these people to face that madman’s army, Hayden, so make your own choice. Look, I know I’m not your boss, but it could be more dangerous out there than if you stay here. For you and the controller.”

Hayden’s face revealed her uncertainty. For once, the CIA agent seemed at a loss.

“There are some major players here,” Drake pushed a little. “Mai’s the best. Wells, he’s ok and could bring an army of his own in about thirty minutes. And Alicia, she’s pretty formidable when she’s on
our
side.”

“That depends on what colour pants she’s wearing, if any.” Hayden flashed a weak smile.

“We
do
have the high ground,” Drake assured her as they exited the room. “Technically speaking.”

Gunfire echoed along the corridor. Something even louder rocked the night around the front of the hotel.

Drake headed back into the room.

It was going to be a long night.

*****

The scene outside the hotel reminded him of war zones he’d visited. Miami P.D. had barricaded the streets as far as he could see. Hundreds and hundreds of black-and-whites and police vans were cordoning off the area. Figures dressed in bullet-proof vests were approaching the ‘hot’ zone even as Drake watched with a shiver of trepidation running down his spine.

Boudreau would have expected the law.

When the police advanced to within ten metres of the hotel grounds the seemingly impossible happened. Half a dozen car bombs exploded, traps that the cops had walked right past. At the same time shooters hidden in nearby buildings opened fire, picking off cops like plastic ducks at a fairground shooting gallery.

Fire and metal bloomed high into the air, crashing down amidst panicked men.

Drake watched the horror and the slaughter for another minute. If this was the force that Boudreau and the Blood King were willing to bring to bear then that changed his outlook somewhat. Maybe Hayden had been right. Maybe it was time to get out of this death-trap.

Time for Plan B.

He ran out of the room, relaying to Hayden what he’d seen and telling her to mobilise. When he reached the corridor junction he paused. Kinimaka and Alicia were keeping the enemy at bay with sparse covering fire, but when Drake risked a peek around the corner he saw something that made his blood run cold.

Boudreau’s men were starting to drag people out of their rooms. They were herding them into a group and were clearly going to force them forward and use them as cover.

Kinimaka stared at Drake with frantic eyes.

This wouldn’t stand.

Drake stepped into the open and began to advance. In full sight he breathed deeply, took careful aim, and began squeezing shots off. One shell whizzed through the curls of a blonde-woman’s hair to smash through the forehead of the mercenary behind her. The second shell grazed past a man’s neck and destroyed the throat of his aggressor. The third found an enemy who popped his own head up in shock.

Drake continued forward, calm, focused. One of the enemy soldiers hit the deck and fired a shot off. The bullet tugged at Drake’s jacket but he only needed a millisecond to readjust. His fourth bullet sent the man spinning against the corridor wall, painting the blue wallpaper in crimson whorls.

He reached the group. The hotel guests ducked as he went by. He took a brief moment to fire off more shots until his clip ran empty before herding the shell-shocked people into the nearest room.

He studied them for the one who looked most capable.

“That’s all I can do for you. Now you have to help yourselves.” He’d addressed a tough dude who looked like a biker and had been sheltering his wife with his own humongous arms. “Barricade the door after me. Make it hard for them to get in here and they won’t even bother trying. And find something you could use as a weapon. Anything.”