The Lost Kingdom

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Drake relaxed for the first time in many hours as the team finally sprawled out around the safe house that a collaboration of Interpol and CIA agents had procured for them. Here in Hong Kong every agency in the world was active, and the SPEAR team hadn’t been willing to trust the local police, despite having concealed their identities. In truth, the safe house was a little drafty and noisy, since it was in actuality a converted warehouse and not exactly Victoria Peak. The team took it in their stride, but Drake could tell nobody was particularly comfortable with their surrounds. He trusted Argento at Interpol and he trusted his team’s abilities to be wary of their perimeter. For now, Honk Kong was far enough away from Japan and safe enough to hide in whilst others tried to collect Intel from the Yakuza HQ.

He tried to take their mind off it by jabbing the speakerphone open and calling Hayden in Washington. Now that they had Mai back they could all concentrate on and be useful in solving this lost kingdom problem; maybe even in apprehending Dudley and his cohorts. And it would keep Mai from tearing his and Hibiki’s heads off.

Hopefully.

But first they needed to know where Hayden was at.

Their boss answered on the fourth ring. “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

Drake gave her the summarized version, leaving out the lobby scene, the subsequent chase, and Mai’s exasperation.

But Hayden’s voice was still hesitant as she asked, “And how’s Mai?”

Drake glanced over at her but she lay lengthwise on the only sofa, tending her own wound with Grace kneeling beside her and pulling faces. “Good. Good. She’ll heal.” He didn’t have to add: I hope.

“You’re safe there in Hong Kong?”

“Safe and sound.” It came out “seyf and sooond” with his Yorkshire drawl.

The American pushed on, “You’ve missed one hell of a lot, guys, but I’ll try to keep it brief. The lost kingdom of Mu, a kind of precursor to Atlantis and the human race, is almost certainly real and submerged at the bottom of the sea between China and Taiwan.”

Dahl raised his voice immediately. “How can you be so sure?”

“Well, we aren’t but the Pythians seem to think it’s real and that’s what really matters. Castle walls have been found down there, other fortifications with perfect, genuine mortar joints, ancient structures and the Yonaguni Monument, stone circles — you name it. Real evidence exists, circumstantial or not. The find raises numerous problems, the potential worst of which is the location of the damn place.”

“You think there’ll be a squabble?” Alicia said drily.

“Shit, it could be outright war if someone lights the tinder the right way.”

“For a place that’s been missing for so long,” Dahl said. “It seems to have been found awful fast.”

“Once the right clues come to the surface it’s only a matter of how fast you work,” Kinimaka rumbled across the airwaves. “We found the tombs in Hawaii and Germany pretty quickly once the Icelandic one came to light.”

“What clues?”

Hayden butted in. “We’ll explain later. But the Americans have been searching for Mu since the 1940s so don’t think this is a lightning find. They’ve sunk ships, stolen treasure and hidden artefacts to do it.”

“Where does Dudley fit in?” Drake wondered.

“Working for the Pythians, he’s over in your — how do you say it?” Kinimaka pondered. “ ‘Neck of the woods’ right now.”

“Not bad, Mano, we’ll make an honorary Yorkshireman of you yet.” Drake ignored the Hawaiian’s snort. “Dudley’s in Asia?”

“Him and his inner circle of jerks. They call themselves the 27-Club and there’s seven of them.”

“Yeah, stay alert, man,” Smyth said. “They’re bug-fuck crazy, worse even than Myles.”

Alicia glanced over from her perch beside a makeshift bar, but didn’t deign to comment. Chances were high she hadn’t actually heard the entire sentence as Dai Hibiki was talking into his own cellphone beside her, liaising with his police office back in Tokyo. Hayden filled the silence. “Dudley has been seen in Taiwan, in the vicinity of where Mu is believed to lie. We’re still working on the language to give us an exact location. He could be overseeing operations there.”

“Interesting.” Drake keenly wanted to end the man’s involvement in world affairs once and for all. “We could always pay him a visit.”

“Sit tight for now,” Hayden continued. “All that’s old news. We’re struggling with something new at present. You see, if the Pythians have found Mu what do they intend to do with that knowledge?”

“Or rather — who do they intend to hurt?” Karin put in with a resigned sigh.

“Any ideas?” Drake asked.

“Yes,” Hayden said. “Unfortunately we do. Our friends in the Pentagon and others in the CIA report that the Chinese government is being ransomed for something, but we don’t know what.”

“The Pythians are ransoming Mu?” Drake said, feeling more than a little skepticism. “Its location maybe? That doesn’t sound right at all.”

“Not for them,” Smyth agreed. “Too tame.”

“And how’re they gonna stop the Chinese from getting to it?” Dahl said. “No, it’s something else.”

“Well, that’s what we think,” Karin said. “Trouble is, it’s the Chinese inner circle who are being ransomed and — to quote the great William Goldman — ‘nobody knows anything’.”

“I may have something.” At that moment Hibiki pocketed his phone and walked over to Drake. “Since you’re already knee-deep in this Mu thing and I’m right here with you I’ve been asked to act as liaison between our insiders in Beijing and Tokyo. Nothing risky or serious,” he said in response to a look from Chika. “Just collating the facts that trickle out of China’s capital.”

“You’re their first contact?” Karin asked.

“I am now.”

“So what do you know?” Drake slid the cellphone closer to him.

“There’s an emergency meeting of the inner circle of the Chinese government scheduled for later today. Something’s wrong with Mu, and the men of power aren’t happy.”

“What is wrong?”

“Like you said — nobody knows. But there’s not one scrap of elation over the sudden discovery of Mu. Not an ounce of celebration. This kingdom is their ancestry, part of not only their beginnings but the creation of the human race, and all we hear coming out of Beijing are these sneaky connivings… and fear.”

“The Pythians are up to something,” Drake affirmed.

“Yeah,” Hayden drawled. “But what?”

Mai lay back, struggling with the bizarre dilemma of occupying a room with so many people she loved and wanting to hurt most of them. Even Chika should have known better than to infiltrate the Yakuza. It was only going to end one way.

So she side-tracked herself with Grace. The young girl was none the worse for wear after her Kobe adventure; even more bubbly than usual because the constant activity had helped distract her mind. Even so, Mai saw dangerous storm clouds sweeping through the girl’s eyes.

“There’s something new,” Mai said, sitting up a little, wincing as pain from the bullet wound and new aches began to pulse. “I can tell. Another memory?”

“Having the Japanese mob chasing me isn’t enough?”

“No.”

A sigh. “I just wanna be part of the team, you know? If I can’t be a fighter let me be a geek. Like Karin. Drake said it’d be okay.”

“Did he?” Mai wasn’t entirely sure the Yorkshireman would have agreed.

“Well, he didn’t say no. So that’s a yes. Right?”

Mai read the flippant way Grace tossed the situation away and decided to dig a little deeper. The barriers were up. Maybe a little heartfelt admission would help. “Look, I’m grateful all these amazing friends came to help me. I really am. But I’m also really mad at them right now for endangering so many lives, including their own! I’m not a heartless bitch, Grace, I’m a caring one and that’s why I’m furious.”

“Even at Drake?”

“Especially at Drake.”

Grace sniffed. “I like him. I’ll take him off your hands.”

Mai did a quick double take. The girl wasn’t joking. “All right, all right, let’s get real. You’re sixteen going on thirty, I get that. But Grace, you need your own life. The fourteen years between now and then are the years that are going to shape you, make you, and heal you. Believe it — when we get back to the States it’s straight to school for you, young lady.”

Grace pouted. Mai had intended the statement to be part fact, part joke, but the huge implications of it suddenly weighed heavy upon her. Could she ever go back? Could Chika? The Yakuza would hunt them forever. They would have to be in hiding for the rest of their desperate lives.

She studied Grace closely. “Is that it? Nothing else?”

“Whilst Drake was out sorting the bikes and the cash yesterday,” Grace spoke her mind out of the blue. “I got a call from the investigator, Hardy. He told me…” the seventeen-year-old paused, the words caught in her throat.

Mai reached out, sensing her distress.

“He told me that my real parents have been traced and that they’re dead. They blamed themselves for losing me, couldn’t cope, and fell apart. They just… gave up.”

Mai saw tears in Grace’s eyes and grabbed hold of her, hugging her close and cursing silently at the world. It couldn’t even give this girl a break. Grace was trying her heart out, struggling to overcome her past, and Mai wished she could just get one fucking break.

“I’ll train you,” she said abruptly, out of nowhere.

Grace sniffed and pulled away. “Eh? You’ll what?”

“I don’t know.” Mai’s head was mush, full of doubt, uncertainty, anger and even fear.

“You said you’d train me. I heard you.”

Drake heard and came right over. “Mai’s a great teacher,” he said with an idiotic smile that Mai wanted to slap right off. “You couldn’t do better.”

Grace looked even happier. “I’d love that. I really would. I’m already fast, maybe half-trained after… well, you know. See, I remember that. Oh, this is great. Let’s start now!”

Mai could have slapped herself for blurting out such thoughtless words. To train somebody was to consciously place them in harm’s way. It was not a passive act, not even a defensive one — not the way she did it. If she trained Grace it would be to turn her into a weapon.

And, after that, what came next?

Where do we go from here?