The Swords of Babylon

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Drake used the downtime to allay at least one demon. He made the call to Ben Blake, the one he’d been promising himself to make for the last few weeks. A careful, profound conversation was long overdue, but, even as he dialed the phone, Drake knew this call probably wouldn’t go well. In some ways, he still partly blamed Ben for Kennedy’s death, but that was the soldier in him unable to accept that the kid hadn’t made at least some attempt to save her. On the other hand, he had dragged Ben into this from the very beginning and, at first, it had just been the two of them. Not even six months had passed since they’d begun their quest for the bones of Odin, and an awful lot of turbulent water had passed under the bridge since then. Ben himself had gotten blood on his hands and faced death many times. And now that Drake was at least starting to move on with Mai, a few things had attained a clearer perspective.

Ben Blake had been his best friend before all this began. Ben had offered his friendship and his help for free before, and after, he knew what kind of man Drake was. The poor kid had lost Hayden Jaye, possibly the best catch of his life. He deserved better than being shunned.

“Hello? Matt?”

“Hey, Ben.”

“I can’t hear you. Matt? How you doing?”

“Good. I’m good!” Drake raised his voice. The noise coming from Ben’s side of the phone was horrendous. “What the hell’s that? The frog chorus?”

Ben groaned. “In a manner of speaking. It’s the band.”

“The Wall of Sleep. I hear you haven’t improved much then.”

“I just got back a couple of weeks ago. Give me chance. What have you been doing?”

“Ah, not so much. Kidnapped, tossed into jail. Almost got to play a game of footie with the inmates, though, before God-Zanko fell on me.”

“Eh? Which god now? You went to jail? I thought you were fighting the North Koreans.”

Drake snorted. “That was last week. This week it’s the Russians and maybe someone else. You know the drill.”

“Russians?” Ben sounded scared. “Is the Blood King—”

“Nah. Don’t worry about that bastard. He’s away for life. Even his men have vanished now. This is another set of nasties. Anyway, enough of that bollocks. How’s it going with you?”

“Mum and Dad were happy to see me, but they miss Karin. How’s she doing?”

“She misses you, Ben.”

“I’m okay. And… and Hayden?”

“If you spoke to them when they called you, then you’d know.”

A powerful guitar riff drowned out Ben’s reply. Drake heard the guys calling him in the background. Ben heaved a sigh. “Well…”

“Alright, mate. But Ben, the next time I’m in England, we need to talk.”

“That would be good.”

Feeling as though he’d accomplished nothing, Drake finished up. Next he rang Sam, his ex-SAS buddy and the man who had helped him take down the terrorists in the Czech Republic not so long ago. He asked that Sam and Jo, his other great Army friend, keep their eyes on Ben whenever they were able. Sam told him it would be tough, but promised to do what he could. Drake couldn’t ask for more.

As he dumped the cell phone on the bedside table, Mai walked into the room. Her shoulder length, black hair was drawn severely back, her dark eyes troubled. Drake knew she would speak her mind if she felt the need, so said nothing.

A little while later, she sat beside him on the bed. She placed a hand on his knee, but not in a sensual manner, more of a comforter.

“Matt.” She stared at the floor. “I don’t lose often. And to get beat and lose you…” she shook her head. “I’m not used to it.”

“It’s not your fault. Hey, I got beat too. Twice, actually, if you include my jail-yard brawl with King Kong’s big brother.”

Mai’s expression put him in his place. “You do lose, Matt. I don’t. And this is the worst possible time for me to start failing.”

“Why? Because of Cayman and the Babylon thing?”

“Of course not. Something else is in play, Matt. Something that leads all the way back to my childhood. You know about that of course.”

“Fuck me, Mai. That’s huge.”

“I know. I just can’t lose my edge now.”

Drake relented. “We got complacent. We took a few days off. We shouldn’t have to be on our guard twenty four hours a day, but,” he shrugged, “that’s the job. And, Mai, I’m always here for you.”

Mai stood up. “It won’t happen again. Look, when this is over I want to go and see Chika. Visit her in Tokyo. Maybe the two of us?”

Drake grinned. “Sound idea. Bloody sound. I haven’t visited Tokyo since the old Coscon days.”

Mai looked wistful for a minute, remembering. “Those were the best of days.”

Drake framed her face with his hands and leaned in to kiss her. “And so are these.”