The Last Bazaar

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Drake returned to the dock area and a hellish scene of battle.

Barges and large boats fled the docks, scattered all across the river and at all angles underneath a sky darkened by the smoke from many fires. Rockets were being loosed between vessels and into the surrounding jungle, either as an attempt to destroy rivals or for interference. The jungle was starting to burn. Grim-faced men stood on decks, RPGs pressed to their shoulders. Others held machine guns with bullet belts wrapped around them. Still more had their entire decks lined by gun-toting guards. Upon another a deck-mounted missile launcher swiveled for a target. One more was the scene of a party, the guests oblivious or uncaring of what surrounded them.

“It’s all gone to hell,” Dahl said. “But then what do you expect of terrorists, drug runners and arms smugglers?”

“The prize.” Drake pointed their way through the ferocious extravagance.

Ramses stood poised on the wooden dock, men with weapons stationed at his back and the bodyguard, Akatash, at his side. He surveyed the fiery scenes with impassive regret, probably wondering where he’d gone wrong. Even the jungle area where he’d sited the bazaar itself was under fire now, flames and explosions erupting from the place and the sounds of buildings and trees collapsing reverberating through the jungle. Flames climbed the trees like fiery apes, crackling along the timber despite its wetness.

“The Crown Prince of Terror doesn’t look so smug about it now, eh?” Alicia grinned.

Mai picked foliage off her clothing. “His reputation exceeds all. Be very careful how you handle him.”

“You know about this guy?” Alicia asked. “Why didn’t you mention him before, ya damn Sprite?”

“I have been away,” Mai said matter-of-factly. “Out of the loop. You have no idea what I have had to endure.”

Drake gave Dahl a speculative look. “Oh, I dunno. We all have our burdens to bear.”

The Swede grunted. “Yeah, and Northmen being one of them. Shall we stop the chat and finish this?”

Drake slapped his friend on the shoulder. “After you, Agnetha.”

Dahl started forward and then stopped, turning even as an RPG streaked past them and exploded high in the trees. The team marched together, side-by-side, four abreast along the dock, raising weapons and taking aim as fires surrounded them. It took a moment but Ramses finally saw them…

And recognized them.

Loathing burned from those eyes, almost of a depth to burn everything to a crisp.

Ramses stood head and shoulders above the rest of his legionnaires, and he strode through them straight at the SPEAR team, Akatash at his side. Surprise made Drake question this confrontation, but his face and body betrayed no doubts. Ramses tried to come at them first, but Akatash squeezed past his master, suddenly to be blocked by Mai.

“I know of you,” the Japanese woman said. “Better than Beauregard Alain? Better than Mai Kitano? Let’s see, shall we?”

Akatash moved faster than a viper, fists, elbows and knees all striking in rhythm. Mai matched him move for move, a blurry, reactionary speedster. Akatash clearly sought to retain the momentum as he pressed forward without relenting. Mai slipped a little Aikido into her fighting, allowing Akatash’s pure force to work against him, but he countered almost instantly with a similar method, holding back on the power and trying to read her moves. The dock’s timbers shivered beneath their feet.

Drake felt Dahl and Alicia pass him to either side, taking on Ramses’ goons as the prince himself stopped only meters away. His size was quite literally shocking, and his eyes and facial expression right then could have quashed a volcanic eruption.

“The reprisals for this will never end.” His voice resonated with a depth equal to the Mariana Trench.

“Bollocks.” Drake laughed easily. “You megas… you’re all the bloody same.”

“Megas?”

“Megalomaniacs,” Drake said. “Dictators. Tell you what, bend over, ask somebody to snap a picture of your asshole, then take a look at your mirror image.”

Ramses frowned, clearly stumped, but at least it stopped him spouting the self-important expletives. In the end though he reverted to type. “Your cities are already in ashes and they don’t even know it.”

“Not yet they aren’t. Not yet. Now, you gonna flap yer mush at me all day or are we gonna tangle?”

Ramses swallowed flies for a second before Drake became bored and attacked. His right fist struck first, impacting with Ramses’ chest. It was like hitting concrete protected by brick wearing a sheet-metal coat. “What are you wearing?”

Ramses boomed out a laugh. “Virtuousness,” he said shortly and then flung a K-rail in the shape of a fist at the Yorkshireman’s head. Drake ducked thankfully, and skipped out of range. To add to the problems Ramses was fast and closed the distance almost instantly. Drake gave it a one-two punch, but barely made a dent. Time to start looking at more vulnerable options.

To his right Mai slipped on the moist decking and Akatash leapt upon her. Only flinging her head hard from side to side stopped him from breaking her cheek bones as his fists rained down. She rolled and flung him aside but a side-kick caught her in the ribs and doubled her over. Damn, the damage she had been subjected to over the years was finally starting to take its toll.

Akatash rose.

Drake leapt away from Ramses, covering Mai. Alicia dropped to one knee, firing bullets into two adversaries who fell into the river. Dahl flung a man over his shoulder and then wrestled another over the edge of the dock, but found himself tottering on the edge.

“Oh shit!”

Dahl lost his battle with gravity, but Alicia jumped and grabbed the front of his jacket, jerking him back to stability. By that time Akatash had signaled Ramses and the two were swopping vengeance for prudence and hotfooting it toward a waiting, bobbing speedboat. As the SPEAR team rose, regrouped and evaluated, half a dozen choppers rose like black predators from the trees all around.

“Hurry,” Dahl said. “He’s getting away.”

Drake eyed the swooping, pitching, soaring choppers that blocked out the majority of the light.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “This battle’s just getting started.”