Inca Kings

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Kinimaka made the call very quickly. The rest of the team, apart from Mai and Dahl, stood around for moral support.

“Of course I’m being straight up with you, Secretary Crowe,” the Hawaiian grimaced, “and we’re close to deciding on a plan of action.”

He listened for twenty seconds.

“I realize we’re angling for more time, and this sounds like the perfect way to gain a few days, but—”

He stopped as she interrupted.

Drake leaned over toward Alicia and stage-whispered, “She’s not daft.”

Kinimaka held out a hand as if to say, “why would you?” Drake realized his whisper might have been a little loud.

“Nobody, ma’am, just a passing villager. I speak for all of us when I say…”

Now Alicia whispered back. “She’s got ears like a bat.”

Kinimaka looked like he wanted to throw the phone at her. Again he apologized. Again he brushed the truth with away with a thick, bristly veneer. “They came as we were readying to leave. Hayden was—”

Another interruption. This time, Kinimaka listened and frowned over a much longer period.

“Understood. We’re totally on board with the Egypt situation, ma’am, and anxious to get involved. As soon as we rescue… yeah, I’d better stop talking and get a move on. Bye, then… bye.” He was left staring at a dead phone.

“That went well,” Smyth jested.

“She’s not stupid. She knows something’s not quite right.”

“Next time try to sound more whiny,” Alicia said. “Like when Smyth’s talking to Lauren.”

“Shit,” Smyth growled.

“Or when Taz sees a Reece Carrera movie,” Mai said, having just returned. “Please Reece. Ah, Reece, ah, ah.”

“Hey, I watch those in private.”

Drake was counting bullets. “I’d forgotten your old nickname.”

“Yeah, the bikers gave me it. Seems… out of place… now.”

“There’s something else,” Kinimaka said quietly. “Crowe said, ‘we’ll sort out the consequences later.’”

“Fuck that,” Drake said. “We’ve time for all that. Right now, are we ready to bring this storm down on Dantanion’s head?”

“The cannibals are going to be pissed.” Dahl grinned.

Kenzie finished cleaning her blade. “And Peru made a little safer.”

“We sure the plan’s in place? CIA prepped?” Kinimaka played devil’s advocate.

“Took some doing,” Drake said. “But yeah. They’re ready, and will be along whenever the hell they feel like it.” He took a moment to breathe and then nodded toward Dahl and Mai. “How did you guys get on?”

Mai managed to look a little uncomfortable but Dahl blustered right on in. “Brynn got it very wrong,” he said. “Three she said. Three villagers might know the mountains and only one might be willing to help us.” He sighed. “More like the whole bloody village is gearing up to come along.”

Drake felt gratitude and affection rise inside and attempted to keep it hidden. “The entire village?”

“Dahl may be exaggerating somewhat,” Mai said. “But they all want to help in some way. These people possess such a sense of integrity it reminds me of my old home.”

“We settled on eight,” Dahl said. “Eight of them. Eight of us.”

“But how will we get them down—”

“Matt.” Mai held up a hand to stop him. “We will find a way.”

The night deepened. Animal screams or worse flowed down out of the mountains. Drake fancied he could see torches wavering up there, distant as the stars, showing something the way home. A sense of urgency fired his soul and then a sense of loyalty as the eight chosen villagers walked up. They carried extra jackets for the soldiers.

“The cold cuts deep up there,” Brynn said. “We will all need the extra protection.”

With quiet and heartfelt goodbyes the soldiers, along with Curtis and Desiree, Anica and Marco, Brynn and others, took their leave of Kimbiri and lit their torches, following a landscape of flame and shadow, treading the final path that would either finally rid them of a terrible, clinging evil or send them plunging into a pit fashioned in the more desperate chambers of Hell.

A torchlit procession wound up the mountain, guns and ammo strapped around their waists and chests and thighs and anywhere else they could physically attach it. Utter darkness crouched just beyond the flames, a tangible force. Distant, bleak, stars glittered high above and half of a barren moon lit the edges of scudding clouds with silver. Drake and Dahl walked ahead.

“Seems like we’re always heading out on some do or die mission, mate,” Drake said.

“Not like this,” Dahl replied. “I’ve never done anything like this.”

Drake took in the surroundings, the team and their compliment of villagers. “Shocking that nobody would help them.”

“But look how they’ve thrived with just a little help.” Dahl took the lead through a narrow gap as they started to ascend a mountain. “Sometimes, that’s all a person needs.”

“I do feel responsible for them.”

“You and me both, pal. You and me both.”

Onward and upward, circuiting first one mountain and then another, following narrow trails cut or worn into the bare rock, by turns inching along a rocky outcrop with a deadly fall to the left and then hugging pitched stone faces as they climbed a random rockfall. In one way they followed a trail left by the cannibals, in another a route recommended by some of the men. One by one they helped each other along, pulling, prodding, encouraging. Sixteen chasing many and with retribution on their minds.

And finally the great house that clung to the mountain came into view, lights ablaze warding away the night, walls thick and lofty and strong and seemingly insurmountable. Drake flinched as a terrifying, vicious howl echoed through the night.

“What the hell was that?” Alicia was suddenly an awful lot closer. “Alpaca?”

“Worse,” Dahl said. “Sounded remarkably like—”

“We’ve heard these stories,” Brynn said, shuddering, face cast into fiery shadows by the torches. “Killer wolves. They’re guarded by killer wolves. I didn’t think they were all true.”

Fearful, the villagers regarded the moving shadows.

Drake listened as more mournful voices took up the call, as the baying grew louder and hungrier. He watched the track ahead.

“We’re about to find out,” he said.