Inca Kings

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Drake fell in the dirt, spinning too fast, and caught himself by slamming an arm onto the ground. When he looked up he found a man called Curtis and a woman called Desiree staring at him fixedly, hands on weapons.

Trying not to laugh.

Drake rose, shaking himself down. “Well, folks, that’s how not to do it. Lesson learned? Let’s continue.”

They gave him a wry grin, barely understanding but understanding enough. The few spare guns they had brought had been given to the limited number of villagers who’d used one before — two. Alicia and Mai were imparting basic rules of hand-to-hand fighting to some of the other villagers; Alicia somewhat stumped on the art of using garden tools for weapons. Mai overcame it though, cutting the longer ones down and making the clumsier ones lighter and sharper. All around the village, Hayden oversaw major preparations to fend off an offensive.

They were making traps to stop the mountain creatures before they even reached the streets.

A trench was being dug — not deep — just enough to turn or break a limb, and being loosely covered over. These cannibals loved to use the darkness for an ally — let it be used against them, Hayden had said. Drake had experienced a rush of hope for these people when they responded enthusiastically, eager to get to work. Boulders were being lifted to the top of roofs, ready to be thrown on top of attackers. Four villagers proclaimed a proficiency in archery. One bow was found along with four arrows, causing some despondency, but then the villagers again showed their mettle and their desire to overcome as they set about creating rough weapons of their own.

Torches were planted everywhere — a rudimentary system of lighting they’d agreed upon — so light would bathe the village even in the darkest watches of the night. Drake wondered if the spy was still among them or had fled the area. Those that remained certainly seemed motivated enough.

He paused now, allowing Curtis and Desiree time to take a running, twisting run at a wooden target; teaching them to stay focused and readjust — always readjust. Watch your spaces. Watch your way ahead. Never stop planning.

“Wipe the sweat from your hands before you start,” he told Desiree. “Any kind of slip could leave you lying on the ground.” He pointed at himself.

She gave him a gap-toothed half-smile. “Then… chow… time,” she said, haltingly.

Well, at least they still had strong spirit inside them. These villagers impressed him more by the hour, stepping up to the plate and fighting for it. The stress they’d been under these past few months would have cowed so many people, but not these. Hardy folk, hardy living — it bred toughness he’d rarely seen.

And humility too. Curtis showed him once more, right then, what he’d been experiencing all over the village.

They watched Desiree run the circuit.

“I… thank…” The young man paused, thinking. “Thank… you… for all—” he spread his hands toward the village “—this. For all this.”

“No worries,” Drake said gruffly. “Nobody could walk away from this.”

He knew otherwise, and Curtis’s gaze told him the young man knew so too. “You… save… you save our lives.”

Drake watched Desiree complete the circuit, getting better with every run. “We’re helping you save your own. Target practice next.”

A deep voice came from behind. “Ah, excellent. Why don’t you set off running, Yorkie, and we’ll all see if we can hit you?”

“Y’know, it was fairly quiet around here without you, Dahl.”

“Well, the Vikings always did bring the noise.”

“Oh, so you think you’re a Viking now? Like Erik the Red? Ivar the Boneless? What are you — Torsten the Twat?”

Curtis and now Desiree were staring at them as if sensing conflict. Drake laughed it off and slapped the big Swede on the back. “You finished digging your pits?”

“Yeah. I’m thinking of blocking some of the streets off so we can create a kill zone. Bring the creatures right where we want them and then—” He slammed a fist into his hand.

“That might take longer than we have and if not done right could cause chaos.”

“I know.” Dahl nodded. “But it would end the battle very quickly and deter them from attacking again if they lost dozens at once. Also, they wouldn’t be able to retrieve the bodies.”

Drake gave him an agreeable shrug. The plan had merit. He asked Curtis and Desiree to take another run as Hayden walked toward them, followed by Kenzie and Smyth.

Hayden held a cellphone up. “I’m waiting to speak to Secretary of Defense Crowe,” she said in a worried voice.

“Why the hell did you ring her?” Drake had been dreading such a call since they arrived.

“I didn’t, dumbass. Her office rings you, places you on hold and then puts you through.”

“Can’t you drop it?” Dahl asked. “Flat battery. Gust of wind. Use your imagination.”

“I could jam it down your throat.”

Kenzie skipped over to Dahl’s side. “And you thought they’d missed you, baby.”

Drake did a double-take. “That’s one ugly looking baby, love.”

Dahl gave them both a warning glare. Hayden turned away slightly and began to speak. “Hello, Madam Secretary. Yes, we’re there now following some promising leads.”

Drake watched her body language, seeing the tension, the worry. If they were called back to DC… sent somewhere else in the world…

“Now?”

The sudden, snapped word grabbed all of their attention. A few villagers wandered up, perhaps sensing the anxiety.

“Madam Secretary, we’re close to ending this. I realize we’re operating outside—”

Drake let out a long breath, letting his eyes linger on the houses and streets of the village only they could defend.

“It’s one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of all time,” Hayden pressed. “Mostly, I guess, because we know the gold really existed. Dahl and Kenzie just returned from Europe with a solid lead. It will just take a few days.”

They were hoping that the creatures would attack again tonight so that they could weaken them significantly; giving a retaliatory attack on the chateau every chance of succeeding. Drake leaned forward as Hayden listened to Crowe’s reply.

A minute passed and then she ended the call without another word.

“Shit.”

“We’re heading out?” Smyth asked without emotion.

Hayden pinched the bridge of her nose. “This thing in Egypt is just too big now. Escalating every day, she says.”

“Horsemen?” Dahl asked. “Earth’s corners?”

“Yeah, and I thought the bloody planet was round. We’ve been ordered to report back to DC, hand this off, and make plans for Egypt.”

Drake swallowed as eight pairs of villagers’ eyes switched between him and Dahl and Hayden. “Bollocks.”

The team made eye contact. Kinimaka, Yorgi, Alicia and Mai came up and listened as Hayden repeated herself. Nobody looked impressed. Drake felt an upsurge of sentiment, of empathy. Right from the beginning he’d harbored a feeling that they were in the right place at the right time. The villages of Kimbiri, Nuno and Quillabiri confirmed he was right, along with the farmsteads scattered all around. Right now, it felt like a giant hook was trying to tear him away from where he wanted to be.

“If we skipped heading back to DC,” Kinimaka said. “And went straight to Egypt, that would save us a day or so.”

“There is no question,” Mai said without moving. “That I am staying.”

Hayden threw a much troubled expression at them. “I understand. I’m with you. But, as ever, we go where the trouble is worse. Where the threat’s deeper. And right now that’s not here.”

“I will stay,” the Japanese woman said again.

“And what if thousands then die in Egypt? Hundreds of thousands?”

The dilemma ate at Drake. In dispassionate terms there was no right answer, but in real, human terms the solution was only too clear. And the other huge conundrum was the person in charge — the team ought to follow her lead.

Hayden eyed the mountains that stood resolute and indifferent all around them. These ancient places had felt the steps of Inca kings, Spanish conquistadors, Asian nomads who crossed the Bering Strait over fifteen thousand years ago. They had been home to one of the oldest civilizations in the known history of the world. They had echoed to the roar of dinosaurs, withstood a hundred thousand earthquakes. In them, she found strength.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said softly, her face twisted in anxiety as she waved away the team’s protests. “We’re going to DC and that’s the end of the matter.”

Alicia straightened as Mai glared. Drake gritted his teeth to stop an outburst. He felt Dahl bristling alongside him.

Hayden wasn’t finished. “As long as I lead the SPEAR team, we follow what Crowe says. Not following orders is incredibly dangerous for all of us. If anything went wrong they’d probably use us as the scapegoats.”

Drake hadn’t thought of that but he did know governments had no qualms about throwing ultimately loyal and highly successful agents to the wolves when it suited them. Mai clicked her tongue.

“You care about that?”

Hayden forced herself to challenge the stare. “Y’know, Mai, I guess I don’t. I guess when I think straight for a minute, there could be a way around this. It’s a way I’ve been considering for a few days now. But whoever leads is gonna be in the worst danger of their lives.”

“I don’t care,” Mai said.

Drake stepped forward. “Let Hayden speak.”

Mai whirled. “Why? Do you think we should leave too? Has your new girlfriend beaten your integrity down to her own levels?”

Alicia whistled very softly. “That’s a very dangerous thing to say.”

Hayden tried again. “I’m your boss,” she spoke up. “Like it or not. That’s the way it is. Life’s beating us all down at the moment, Mai, so quit your whining and your disputes and friggin’ listen. There ain’t nothing more dangerous than going into the lion’s den and since I’m boss — I’ll be doing it.”

Drake was at a momentary loss. “Not sure I understand, love.”

“We don’t know how the battle will turn out. We don’t even know if they’ll come tonight, or tomorrow night. We don’t know which village or home they’ll hit. We do know attacking the chateau’s suicidal. And we do know that Dantanion’s recruiting.”

Drake measured the words, still not seeing it. Dahl turned, confused, as Kenzie let out a little gasp.

“Hayden Jaye,” she said. “Considering what we know, that’s one of the boldest plans I ever heard.”

Kinimaka thrust out a hand as if to comfort Hayden, then managed to stop himself at the last moment. Still, he appeared distraught.

Dantanion’s recruiting. Finally, it hit him. “You’re saying you’re going into the Cannibal King’s lair as a recruit? Fuck that.”

“It’s a way in. The only way I can see. And Crowe will be forced to capitulate if you say they took me. It’ll give us a few days of breathing room.”

“But… but… you know what they do in there, right?”

“Well, I sure know they don’t play reindeer games.”

“Hayden,” Kinimaka could barely contain himself. “You’ll be alone. Unarmed. Among more than a hundred enemy soldiers. Monsters. No way of rescue. No communications. No friends. It’s… suicide. Knowing their ways, it could be worse than suicide, I think.”

“Yeah, well, you keep wanting me to change, Mano. Something big, I heard you say, to make me see things a better way. That right? Well, lucky you. Lucky all of you. I am still the boss and this is the plan. Let’s make it happen.”

For once in his life, Drake didn’t know what to say. The team clearly all felt the same — even Mai who might be thinking she’d just bullied Hayden into taking the most incredible risk. It was at that point that a group of men and women strolled up, clad in their colorful robes, with big smiles on their faces.

“Soldiers,” one of them said. “We bring you this. We… make… you this.”

They stood aside to show what two of them were carrying — a rich platter of food: meats, breads, fruit.

“We want you… stay strong. Thank you… for helping us. For training us.”

Drake swallowed the lump in his throat, turned away.

“And this too,” another said, holding a tiny bottle tied around the top and containing a dark liquid. “It is love aid. Make man focus. Make him stronger and last longer.” Her eyes twinkled.

Alicia almost tripped over her own feet she moved so fast. “I’ll take that.”

Drake found his voice. “Steady on, love. It’s not like we need any of that. Is it?”

Kenzie stroked Dahl’s shoulder. “Certainly Torst doesn’t need it.”

“How would you know?” Dahl said quickly, uncomfortably, and then added, “But of course I don’t.”

Alicia raised an eyebrow at Mai. “Oh, oh. Looks like lil Spritey wants to stamp her wickle foot.”

Smyth turned away and Yorgi moved around to Hayden’s side. Drake and Dahl accepted the offering and the entire team sat down in the short grass alongside the smiling villagers, their jackets fastened and collars turned up, side by side, to enjoy one last gorgeous meal as a team.

One by one the soldiers all quietly offered to change places with Hayden.

But she only stared hard into the gaps between the mountains as if the next ordeal was going to be one worth facing.