Inca Kings

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

Drake bent as the first slavering beast came into sight, running hard around a bend ahead. It was large and lean, jaws bared, fur matted to its body. Within seconds its brethren could be seen rushing behind it, the pack incensed by something their handlers had done and clearly set on the intruders.

Gun up, he dropped the first, scattering it in front of its fellow runners, upsetting their balance. Dahl was at his side, also crouched because on this narrow path nobody else could come alongside. Behind and above them stood Alicia and Smyth, also firing.

Bullets ripped into the pack. The wolves screamed and howled, their cries echoing between canyon walls and surging across the mountain. Other, far away, plaintive cries took up the call. Drake doubled down — two shots for each wolf. He had more compassion for these creatures than any mercenary, but they were still trying to kill him. The speed of the beasts rapidly closed the gap between them.

A wolf slowed and then leaped, sleek and graceful, legs straight, jaws endlessly snapping. It landed to the right of Dahl, rebounding off the mountain wall. Smyth managed to wing it as its paws hit the ground and then again as it recovered and snapped at Dahl. The Swede never lost concentration on the oncoming pack, ignoring the wolf and trusting Smyth to have his back.

Drake whistled softly at Dahl’s trust. “Not even a twitch?”

“Balls,” Dahl replied, “of steel.”

“More like brains of mush.”

“Seeing is believing,” Alicia piped up from behind.

“Hey.” Kenzie was crouching frustrated to the side, fingers nervously flexing mostly because they were empty and feet inching forward at every snarl and howl and animal grunt. “I got first dibs on those.”

Alicia grinned, dropping a wolf. “All right, I’ll ride shotgun.”

“How would that work?”

“Y’know, top and bottom. One—”

“Hey!” Dahl cried. “I’m right here, for fuck’s sake.”

“And me,” Drake added.

He counted eight wolves left alive with eight more dead or dying. The ones at the rear of the pack struggled to make ground, hampered by bodies, but the more creative of them — or the hungriest — soon began to use their fellows’ bodies to leap from. A wolf landed at Drake’s feet, snapping, dropped by Smyth. Its fangs brushed his sleeves, leaving a string of drool.

“See. I got dem balls too.”

“That’s just stupidity.” Dahl eyed the drool. “Stop trying to be me. Never gonna work.”

Drake rose fast then as a wolf leaped desperately high and cleared its fallen. The gun was useless. Its body slammed down, heavy as a man, smashing hard against his shoulders. He caught it, wrestled with the balance of weight, then dashed it onto its back hard against the rock floor. It squirmed hard, jaws snapping around. Alicia leaned around and shot it. Dahl stepped forward to meet the last three oncoming wolves.

Drake stared. “Really?”

One used its incredible speed to partially mount the right wall of the canyon, claws tapping, and came at Dahl at an angle. He caught its leap, grabbed its haunches and threw it straight into the next running wolf. The two collided hard, tumbling together in a mass of legs. The third would have latched onto his shoulder, again using forward momentum to perform an incredible leap, but Kenzie rushed forward with perfect timing, drew down with her katana and ended its assault with one smooth stroke.

Dahl winced, splashed by blood. “Jesus, Kenzie. Have a care. They’re wolves, not bloody mercenaries.”

“Yeah, just mindless animals,” Drake said.

Mai crouched watching. “A good description of every mercenary I’ve met.”

Kenzie wiped her sword. “Who ended their poor suffering quicker? You with your bullets or me with my blade?”

Drake knew several animals were wounded and moved quickly to end their pain. Mai joined him and then Kinimaka. The villagers congregated further down the canyon, keeping an eye out for any further ambush. Drake walked beyond the dead wolves and peeked around the furthest corner, Dahl at his side.

“You think that goes all the way above the house?”

The pass twisted to the left and ran upward at a sharp angle, still traversable but only just. Drake could just make out twists and turns as it progressed, and thought he saw the briefest sign of it continuing beyond the house, edges picked out by silvery skies.

Brynn was at their backs. “Nobody from Kimbiri has been even this far,” she said. “There could be other traps.”

Drake broke out the pencil flashlights, their beams tiny but powerful, and waited until everyone switched to theirs. The procession began to pick their way upward, exposed to the elements, scoured by winds and cold, shocked at turns by the sudden drops that almost seemed to jump out to left and right. It was at these hazards that the team moved closer to each other, holding onto jackets at times to make sure their closest neighbors didn’t stray to their deaths.

The path wound hard, up and up, and they lost sight of the house to their right. Drake saw it only twice, the high, brick walls rising like pillars of darkness toward some distant, high altar where blood sacrifice was performed.

They climbed together, but fought separate battles. Drake worried for the team — how Smyth might overcome his fears for Lauren, how Mai and Alicia might end up, how Dahl struggled with his wife and she with him, how Kenzie might turn out, how Kinimaka and Hayden would end. Unable and unwilling to affect any of it, he nevertheless was good-hearted enough to worry. The team was in flux — but wasn’t change a good thing? With Webb’s statement still largely unaddressed what did that bode for the future?

And where the hell is Karin Blake?

They fought the slope, a step at a time. They used rocky handholds to pull themselves up. They rested on outcroppings as the trail wound to both sides. Once again they saw the chateau, this time unexpectedly and abruptly. A sheer brick wall greeted them at the end of another passage. Drake stopped and looked up, now able to see the top of the roof and the continuing mountain above.

“Almost there,” he breathed. “Pass it along.”

Mai, Smyth and Kinimaka dropped back to help the villagers, though all were fit and hardy and wouldn’t accept assistance to walk up a mountain. Nevertheless, they let the soldiers walk with them, primarily as guards. They paused momentarily at the edge of a mountain plateau, the deep valley running away from the chateau spread out before them. Drake caught his breath for a few minutes.

“I’ve rarely seen anything more stunning,” he said. “Remember Iceland? During the Odin thing? That was pretty good.”

Dahl was so close Drake could hear him breathe. “Been a long road, matey. So many adventures. I wonder where it’ll all end.”

“Our finest hours,” Drake said with certainty. “That’s where it always ends.”

The group looked ahead, and moved out. Drake hated being fatalistic, but adventure couldn’t go on forever. The pass continued at a sharp angle for two more minutes, views open and deadly to their left, away from the house, until the route leveled off and an opening appeared up ahead and to the right. Dahl arrived first, nodding into the darkness. Drake came up alongside him.

“Risky,” he said.

“Strap on your big panties.” Dahl nodded in agreement.

Alicia made a sound of protest. “Don’t tell me I have to climb all the way back down to go get them.”

Smyth walked along the chest-high promontory, looking out over the edge. “We can attach the hooks here,” he said. “It’s pretty solid.”

“Yeah, Lancelot,” Alicia said. “That’s why it’s called rock.”

Kinimaka came up. “Make it a firm fix, guys. I don’t wanna end up crashing through that roof and ending up on a dinner table.”

“Might be a better plan.” Kenzie glanced over the edge at the hundred-foot drop. “You would keep them occupied for hours, Hawaiian.”

“Well, thanks,” Kinimaka said grumpily. “Maybe you could join me and help ’em slice me up with that sword.”

“Happy to.”

Drake ignored the bickering, and helped find the pack with the pitons, hooks and rappel lines. Between them, Smyth, Dahl and he fixed four lines to the side of the mountain and tested them for strength.

“Mano proof?” Alicia asked.

Dahl puffed. “We’re about to find out.”

The Hawaiian laughed. “I doubt there’s anything truly Mano-proof. Even this mountain. ”

“We ready?” Smyth pushed. “Hayden ain’t gonna last forever.”

Alicia glanced over. “Is that a cannibal joke, dude? ’Cause it’s not funny.”

Smyth hissed at her, the annoyance rising red in his face. Without further comment he climbed out over the mountain and waited until Kinimaka and Dahl worked together to strap Brynn to his sturdy back. This way, making two trips each, the soldiers planned to get everyone down to the roof relatively quickly. Smyth set off and then Drake climbed over, followed by Dahl.

Anica and Curtis climbed on. Alicia took Desiree, and then the whole group were either rappelling down the mountain or huddled on the bleak roof of the house, totally exposed to the elements. Smyth moved over to an air vent, unscrewed the fastenings and took a look inside. Drake crawled over, the group now operating only by the light of the moon. Silver turned his face stark and serious as he addressed the soldier.

“We good?”

“Yeah, but it’s tight.”

Drake leaned inside. “Looks doable.”

“I didn’t mean for me.”

Smyth climbed inside, feet first and started to let himself down slowly, tethered by another rope. The group followed slowly, taking their time. Drake found himself surrounded by a darkness blacker than pitch black, but praised the fact that they were finally out of the wind and the cold. Now, he started to drip with sweat.

“Bollocks. Can’t bloody win.”

They inched down through the ventilation duct, which to Drake’s burgeoning and ghastly imagination had been built essentially to remove fumes generated inside the kitchen. The interesting realization that the cannibals’ lifestyle choices provided their enemies a way into their castle did not improve his horrifying theory.

The shaft was made of mildly flexible steel and ran smoothly save for the joints. The team continued down until Smyth passed a quiet “stop” command up the line. Drake found himself swinging, heels brushing Dahl’s skull and being scraped on his own by Mai’s toe. The Japanese woman’s angry whisper echoed along the shaft.

“Alicia, if you don’t stop tapping that tune out on my head I will tattoo it on your forehead.”

“I’m good. I’m finished now. Never heard a drum solo sound so hollow.”

Smyth took his time bending almost double to investigate the access cover below. “Crap,” he said. “Should have guessed, of course. The screws are on the other side.”

Fifteen faces stared down at him, all grimacing guiltily.

“Can it be dragged up into the shaft?” Dahl asked. “I mean are the flanges on the outside or the inside?”

“Inside.”

“Then tie your end of the rope around it and we’ll pull.”

Two sweaty minutes later, they had yanked and twisted and buckled the vent cover until it pulled free of its moorings. Smyth used it as the new floor and quickly leapt out of the shaft, followed by Dahl and then Drake. They came once more to level ground — a narrow corridor, barely lit and cold, unfurnished. He waited patiently for the rest of the group to arrive as Smyth and Dahl proceeded carefully toward both ends. Dahl soon returned.

“Nothing,” he said. “Dead end.”

Smyth used the comms. “Walk this way.”

The door he found possessed a viewing pane, through which Drake saw a much wider, plusher corridor running away toward a distant set of double doors. The area was deserted. They pushed through quietly and carefully, aware that silent alarms might be set on the access doors but seeing none. Moving as swiftly as possible they made the far set of doors — a plush, oak-paneled, self-important affair with golden pull handles.

Smyth tested one. It moved easily. Checking weapons and positions, and guarding the rear with Yorgi, Curtis and Desiree, they breached the door hard, spreading out as they entered the room. Drake saw instantly that it was an office and empty.

“Quick check,” he said. “See if there’s anything that can help us.”

Smyth and Kinimaka moved over to the desk, the latter switching on a desktop PC. Alicia headed for the picture window and the view across the dark mountains.

“Big knob’s office,” she said. “Probably this Dantanion.”

Mano used a flash drive to copy data from the computer. Smyth rifled the drawers. Mai shifted paper and pens, trays and bowls around on the polished surface of the table. She beckoned Drake over, pointed into a white porcelain bowl.

Drake wondered at her secrecy, then saw what was in the bowl. Gorge filled his throat as he saw three full-length fingers, complete with blue-painted nails, cooked to a brownish shade and nibbled around the edges.

The things you see, you can never unsee, he thought. A basic fact around the protective net parents threw over their children. He closed his eyes and turned away.

“Let’s finish these bastards off once and for all.”

It took five more minutes to walk the corridor, descend a staircase and then traverse another hallway. By now they were hearing a great, swelling roar, a gathering of people in one cavernous space. The closer they came the noisier it got. Smyth stopped when he reached the end of a hallway and peered out over the railing.

“How’s it look?” Kinimaka’s voice came over the comms. It was easier and safer than crowding forward.

“Massive set of doors leading into a huge room. Probably hundreds of folks. No obvious guards. Can only see floor and legs. A few heads. Looks like they’re all partying down there.”

“Move out,” Kinimaka said with haste and venom.

“Wait.” Brynn must have been listening through Yorgi’s earpiece and now spoke up. “How do we know who is prisoner and who is true enemy?”

“Same way we always figure it out,” Alicia replied. “If it attacks you, fuck it up. Now let’s gatecrash this mother.”