Blood Vengeance

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Kinimaka listened to his head and not his heart, and waited for the ambulance to turn up. It arrived accompanied by a military escort. Karin, using newly established local contacts, and Kinimaka, using his juice as an ex-CIA agent, had pulled every string in their respective bows to get Hayden escorted to the nearest best-guarded hospital. The men they had spoken to had won their confidence and come through with the prompt ambulance and heavily armed escort. The SPEAR team was still under threat, a point acknowledged by all, and were permitted as much security as the authorities could spare.

Kinimaka watched with a pained expression and an aching heart as Hayden was carried away on a stretcher. He held her hand until the last moment, its limp weight almost breaking his heart. The paramedics didn’t need to say that his impromptu field surgery had saved her life. He just hoped they could keep it that way. He glanced up into the morning sun as the ambulance drove away, seeking solace in its warmth, then returned to the ruined safe house.

“I’ll see you again,” he said under his breath: a promise, a wish.

“Tell me again,” he added, louder, “Why I can’t go with her.”

“This is why.” Karin held out her phone. “The team needs you more than Hayden does right now. So does this country. I have Drake on speakerphone. Listen to this.”

“Kovalenko got away, Mano. He blew up some underground tunnels, used some kind of drone and escaped through the labyrinth beneath Washington.”

Karin knitted her brows. “They’ll still have him on CCTV, Matt,” she said. “There’s surveillance cameras below DC too, and most other major cities.”

“I know. But the arsehole’s got some tech wizards working for him. They disabled some remotely, destroyed others. We have some patchy footage, but nothing that tells us where he and his psychotic band of brothers came out.”

“Tech wizards for sure,” Karin said. “Covert agency standard at least. Controlling that drone must have been almost as hard as stealing it. Then we had the traffic light fuck up. The Special Agent Grid incursion. What next?”

“He hit hard and fast,” Dahl said. “He put everyone on the back foot. Especially us, with all the extra suffering we’ve had to face. Now he’s on the run. This is our chance to pull together and end this the right way.”

“You have everyone with you,” Kinimaka said. “We all owe that bastard.”

“Damn straight,” Smyth rasped quietly, a look of sadness on his face. “What’s the plan?”

“Head for the Foggy Bottom Metro and use your IDs. Coburn’s calling together the meeting of all meetings. I have an idea… a good one,” Drake paused. “But I need all of your support to help me pull it off and make it look good.”

“On our way.” Kinimaka looked around. “C’mon, guys. It’s time to make Kovalenko pay. Time to shed some blood.”

Smyth snarled, “And get a fuckload of vengeance.”