The Blood King Conspiracy

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Instantly Kinimaka, Kennedy and Hayden fanned out to the sides. Alicia stayed where she was, eyeing the controller. Drake took a second to appraise the man who stood beside her, a slightly overweight bruiser with a tangled beard. The guy looked familiar.

Then Alicia broke the ice. “Hey boys! Like the look of yer pirate booty there. And speaking of booty,” her eyes flicked scornfully at Kennedy. “You still banging that serial killer’s bitch, Drake? American ass ride the waves better, does it?” She mimed a few air-spanks.

Drake’s eyes were on the gun. Ingram’s weren’t the best in the world, but at this range even the bearded tit beside her could probably take out half their team.

The tension rose. Drake cast a glance behind her. “Got a crew out there, Myles?”

Without giving her chance he stepped quickly towards her partner. Alicia’s eyes immediately lost their confident lustre. “That’s what we’re here about, Drakey. Hudson and I want to swop sides,” she paused. “Now.”

That was where he knew the guy from. He had been Abel Frey’s techno-wizard. Two months, and she was still with him. The look on her face gave him pause. “So you and the bearded tit want to join us? Why?”

Alicia moved closer to Hudson, Drake noticed, without even realising it. “My boss works for a bloody megalomaniac, Drake. I’ll explain in detail later, but I want to stick with you. As for now… we don’t have a lot of time. Peaches and cream here-” she indicated Hayden and Kennedy. “Need to put on some kind of show.”

“A show?” Mano Kinimaka stepped back. “I don’t think that’s appro-”

“Not that kind of show, dumbo,” Alicia snapped. “A show of arresting me, of carting us off. We need to get our ball-sacks out of here now.”

Kinimaka grunted. Drake pinpointed several movements behind Myles. “Lot of shooters out there,” he said. “How’d you find us? Ah! You were in Jamaica, am I right? You were watching Raychim.”

“Tamed and clever.” Alicia sent sly eyes at Kennedy. “Can you handle a man who doesn’t kill innocent women for a living?”

Kennedy leapt forward. Alicia grinned like her plan was in motion. With a fluid movement any wild Jaguar would have been proud of she twisted out of Kennedy’s reach, threw her spare weapon to Drake, and turned and started firing.

The Ingram fired loud. The streets of Key West came to a halt as people stopped what they were doing and turned an ear to the skies. What could that be? Not gunfire? Not here-

Drake shoved Ben around the side of the museum. Hayden drew her weapon, as did Kinimaka. Kennedy stayed with Ben. Drake fired as men emerged from cover about thirty feet away. Two came from behind a toilet block, running hard. Drake dropped them with two quick squeezes of the compact trigger.

Alicia was shooting on full-auto, but then she knew where her former comrades were hiding. Tourists and locals were scattering round the edges, jumping over fences and routing each other across the nearest hotel grounds.

Drake backed away. “Myles! Come on!” He knelt by the corner of the museum, his friends around him, and picked off every man who showed any part of his body. “Damn, we need a way out of this.”

“Got that right,” Alicia said as she scrambled next to him, Hudson in tow. “There are about thirty of ‘em out there.”

“Thirty?” Hayden looked horrified.

“Boudreau says his boss always goes over the top. Makes him look hard or whacko or something. Oh, they’ve got a helicopter too.”

“So you do work for Boudreau,” Hayden hissed at her. “How can you work for that maniac, you fucked up bitch?”

“Steady,” Alicia said without a flicker of concern. “That kind of talk may make me want to kiss you. Again.”

Bullets strafed the side of the wall next to them. Drake ducked as brick dust blasted past his eyes. “This way.”

Walking backwards, they cleared the museum and ran. Drake turned towards a hail of gunfire that clattered amongst nearby palm trees, but held fire, not wanting to exhaust the clip so early. Then they were suddenly on Duval Street, the thoroughfare still crammed with shoppers and tourists.

“We can’t go this way.” Hayden shot off to the left, heading towards the ocean and a narrow path. Kinimaka and Kennedy raced after her without pause.

Drake glanced around. At that moment a horde of bad guys came sprinting around the other side of the museum and aimed their weapons down Duval Street.

Hayden and the others were already out of sight.

Drake went the only he could. Into the crowd.

Kennedy sprinted in Kinimaka’s wake, not realising she was the last person until Hayden began to slow. When Kinimaka’s grunts lost some tempo she glanced back.

“Wait!”

Hayden stopped. “Damn! Where did they get to?”

The tree-lined pathway curved both ways, offering no clear view either forward or back.

“We have to help them.” Kennedy made a move.

“No! We must keep going.” Hayden still clutched the controller tight to her chest. “Drake can fight off an army if needs be. We must get this device to safety. The Blood King can never get both!”

“So he’s real again now,” Kinimaka was muttering. “Real. Myth. Real. Myth. Hard to keep up.”

Hayden set off again, this time with her gun poised and the artefact held more securely. Kennedy reluctantly stayed with them, trusting that Drake along with Alicia Myles as back-up knew how to win a war.

Behind them, gunfire erupted.

Drake blended with the crowd as best he could, pushing Ben before him and trusting Alicia to do her bit for Hudson. They moved up Duval Street, past the small cafes and bars, flitting from group to group and putting as much distance between themselves and their pursuers as they could.

Drake spotted them intermittently. Several were talking into wrist mics and clicking Bluetooth ear receivers. Instructions were being sought.

What worried Drake was the Blood King’s reputation. What had probably been a good move on any other day and with any other enemy could well backfire on him today. Hudson was already labouring, he noticed. That kid needed to lay off the bacon butties and stick to lettuce for a while.

The sudden sound of a machine-gun’s rattle brought him up short.

The mad bastards were sprinting up Duval Street, machine-guns shouldered, firing as they ran.

Drake did the only thing he could. Dragging Ben and screaming at Alicia to follow, he cut left and pounded straight through the grounds of a restaurant. Slamming people aside, he charged through the front door.

Hayden forced them on by sheer will power alone. Even then it was only when Kennedy heard sounds of pursuit coming along their own path that she put a spurt on. With the bad guys just behind they broke free of the palm-tree lined path and emerged onto a sun-drenched causeway. High concrete embankments were fashioned to form a docking area, running up to the wide road with every manner of boat imaginable tied up to either side. The causeway was their only way forward, yet it offered no concealment.

Hayden kept on repeating the old Jaye doctrine over and over in her head. Survive another minute. Survive just another minute.

When she glanced back again she saw the lead pursuers break clear of the trees. She dropped to her knees and quickly fired off three shots. The men went down in a tangle, catching the legs of those behind them. Mayhem ensued.

Kennedy had sprinted on ahead and now turned, squinting in the bright sunshine. “Boat’s the only way off here. Any preferences?”

“One that’s already running.” Kinimaka barrelled past her and almost bounced off the causeway, landing on the deck of a big white speedboat that lay at rest, burbling in its own gentle wake. Its owners started around in alarm at the big man and then grew even more upset when he waved his gun at them.

“Off.”

Without hesitation they dived into the clear, rippling water.

“Nice day for a swim anyway,” Kinimaka muttered as Kennedy came to his shoulder.

Hayden landed feet first in the speedboat with shots slamming and skimming off the concrete causeway above her. “Go!”

Kinimaka slammed a huge paw at the throttle. The speedboat responded with a furious roar, taking off faster than a slapper heading backstage at a Kid Rock concert. They threw themselves into the bottom of the boat as machine-gun fire fizzed through the air, less deadly at range than the venomous shouts that were aimed their way.

Hayden put her head up a little and was thankful to see the causeway fading behind. “Keep to the coast!” She shouted at Kinimaka. “We need to call Drake.”

And then, behind them, she heard the unmistakable whickering of fast-moving blades.

“Chopper!”

Drake prayed the savages back there had ceased fire when their quarry entered the restaurant. Attacking a CIA safe-house and a military cruiser was one thing — shooting between tourists on one of the busiest streets in Florida was urban warfare.

He raced through the tables, shouting and urging everyone to clear out. Blank looks greeted him at first and a little laughter, until they saw his gun. Then there was a sudden upsurge and a cacophony of screams. But Drake and his colleagues were already through it, the blockage intended to slow their hunters down.

Out through the back door and they were in a small alley. Drake cut left, dragging Ben. A minute later and they were on another street.

An open-topped sports car idled at the kerb before them, its occupant shouting into a mobile phone.

Drake glanced around at Alicia. “That’ll do.”

Kinimaka pushed the throttle as hard as he dared. Something as powerful as a speedboat could quickly flip and crash in the hands of an inexperienced driver. The chopper soared high into the sky and then angled towards them, men dangling from its open doors with weapons aimed.

The chopper came alongside. Kinimaka turned sharply just as the bad guys opened fire. The boat swerved with a massive plume of water and spray, sending a wave across the helicopter’s bows. The machine jerked when the pilot became unsighted and one of the shooters lost his grip and fell screaming into the ocean.

“Hope Blackbeard’s waiting down there for you, you asshole,” Kinimaka breathed.

The helicopter was swinging around again. Head on, Hayden fired a few shots. Even this close her small revolver struggled to hit the target but she saw at least one of the bullets smash a spider-pattern into the windshield.

But without veering an iota off course the huge machine ploughed on.

This time Kinimaka swerved them underneath the chopper, but the pilot had guessed their strategy. He jerked on the collective, shot the chopper up and over the huge surge of water and dropped it down on the other side.

Good pilot, Hayden thought as she lined his forehead up between her sights and pulled the trigger.

Men’s bodies were dangling so far out of the chopper doors that the only way they could stay grounded was by other men hanging on to their ankles. A mighty strafe of machine-gun fire erupted. Hayden felt white heat tangle her hair and pass so close to her temple that it left heat residue on her skin.

She fell back, staring up at the bright sky. It had all almost ended right then. Little blisters of heat still festered on her temple.

But then the chopper dived and headed straight for the speedboat.

Drake kicked out the squawking sports car owner and jumped behind the wheel. Once the others were inside he set off at pace.

Checked the rear view. No bad guys were coming around that corner yet.

Alicia was grinning from ear to ear. “Fucksake Drake!” She shouted. “That sure made me horny. And keeping to the pirate vernacular — want me to walk your plank?”

Hudson laughed along with her, obviously accepting her for what she was. Maybe that was why she liked the bearded geek. And now Drake knew she did like the lad. He had seen her covering him with her body, protecting him, making sure he didn’t stray too far. He had never imagined Alicia Myles would fall for a man.

The old Alicia would have been positioning his chunky body in front of her at every turn. And on top of that, he wondered, why had she decided to change sides?

Did she know something about the Blood King?

Drake stepped on the accelerator, weaving in and out of traffic, enjoying the roar of the refined engine. They had outstripped their followers by miles. He found his mobile and tapped the speed dial.

Kennedy heard the phone ring and practically wet herself. Machine-guns had just opened fire. The boats deck had been hit badly, and was taking on water. All they needed at the next pass was for one of the bad guys to grow a brain and aim for the engine.

“What?”

“Alright, love? It’s Matt.”

“I know. Where are you?”

“Leaving Key West by car. You?”

How the hell could he sound so serene and matter-of-fact? “We’re in a goddamn firefight here!” In the background she could hear young Ben chatting to his dad and laughing. Their world seemed a more than a world away.

The chopper was coming in low. Kinimaka had steered the speedboat close to the embankment that led to Highway 1, the overseas highway that linked the Keys to Florida and Miami. They were so close they could see the people in their cars craning over to take a look.

“Are you on Highway 1 yet?”

“Just. Why?”

In the next moment the roar of the chopper drowned out everything except fear and adrenalin and personal well-being. The skids hovered inches from the racing speedboat. Men were now standing on the skids, taking better aim. Hayden picked off two and sent them somersaulting through the turbulence into the sea.

More men stepped out to the slaughter.

Was Boudreau in the chopper? Hayden wondered. Or on the other end of a phone, promising a harsh death to anyone who betrayed him.

Kinimaka threw his gun to Kennedy. He needed to concentrate on keeping them straight. Highway 1 loomed to their right. A bridge was coming up fast. If the speedboat flew under the bridge it might gain them a second or two.

“Three rounds left!” Kinimaka shouted. “Don’t waste ‘em!”

“Never do.” Kennedy took aim and sent another man hurtling to his death. Drake was shouting down the phone now, asking for their position. By the sound he couldn’t be that far behind.

Then she saw him to their right. A bright yellow drop-top Hummer with four people somehow crammed inside. She stared.

Jesus, Drake was stood in the passenger side taking aim with Alicia’s machine- gun.

Everything else was just a shrieking blur.

All three vehicles rocketed along at breakneck speed. The chopper beside the speedboat, the Hummer on the road beside them, keeping pace. Bullets flew from one to the other. Water and debris from the embankment slewed and sheeted over the bottom of the chopper and the sides of the boat. Kennedy slipped and started rolling around the boat. Hayden picked another bad guy off and then shook her weapon.

“Last one,” she flung it aside.

Then the skids of the chopper clipped the speed boat, making the watercraft swing up the embankment. Stones and moss and paper erupted from underneath. The boat hit the water again with a jarring thud but the manoeuvre had hurt them.

The chopper came in again.

In that moment Drake fired his machine-gun. A string of high-powered rounds clattered across the chopper’s windshield, stitching a desperate mouth shape into the glass. Blood sprayed around the cockpit and burst out through the bullet holes. The chopper veered up and then down. Men went free-falling from its wide-open doors, screaming all the way to their deaths.

The helicopter came crashing down onto the embankment as the speedboat flashed underneath it. The explosion shook the day apart. Metal and body parts and engine oil burst in every direction.

Kennedy stared at the wreckage they left in their wake. The sudden silence left by the departure of the chopper was almost deafening.

On the road above, Drake was waving at them to slide part-way up the embankment.

“Pull up there!” Hayden directed Kinimaka. “The car will be safer. They don’t know how Drake escaped.”

“Hopefully,” Kennedy mumbled as she began to crawl up the embankment.

In another moment Alicia Myles’ grinning face greeted them. “Not bad for a set of Yanks,” she shouted through the window. “Get the fuck in then. Let’s go!”