The Blood King Conspiracy (Matt Drake 2) by David Leadbeater Page A

threatened to stretch into something more uncomfortable. Hayden filled the gap eloquently.
    “I can explain how the CIA knew that a crappy looking box suddenly went viral and shocked the underworld to its core.”
    Ben pulled a face. “OK.”
    “The uplift was filmed on national TV,” she said. “Regretfully. The moment that box broke free of the water, the very second it began to spin slowly with all those cameras focused on it, monitored ‘chatter’ went up five thousand percent.”
    “Five thousand? ” Drake breathed, and even Bradey looked impressed.
    “That’s how we knew it was something special.”
    “What type of chatter?” Ben pressed.
    “The type that’s attributed to bad people in bad regions. The type that’s filled with flagged code-words. The type that’s passed on through less-than-legal channels. Channels we know about but allow to operate to give us the heads up. Basically, the things the CIA are paid to do.”
    “Cool.” Ben nodded. “I get that now. But . . .”
    “Yes, yes, I know - the Bermuda Triangle part. Well . . .” Hayden now seemed a little embarrassed. “There are so many things recorded throughout history. We all know this. What many people don’t know is that the CIA employ various people - boffins, super-intellectual geeks, fantasists, professors - just to collect and read all this shit and feed it into a super-computer.” She grinned at Ben’s expression. “For real. We do. And we’re by no means the only U.S. agency or world government that does so.”
    “It’s said they hired a bunch of writers to sketch out various scenarios that the government stiffs would never dream of after 9/11,” Kennedy said. “This ain’t so far-fetched.”
    “They did,” Hayden said. “ We did. The CIA. Anyway, this shit sticks, so to speak, to the grey matter. They found old writings that indicate Blackbeard was in possession of a ‘cheap trinket box that fairly made the ground sway and turned a man’s legs to jelly’. It went on to describe people just vanishing in the pirate-king’s wake, and played a massive part in cementing Blackbeard’s fearsome legend and reputation. It also mentioned a second device, a colourful bit of ‘swag that might fetch more’n a pretty penny’, but no more than that.”
    Hayden looked scared. “Boudreau knew this second device was a controller. The CIA did not. Now, if that doesn’t scare any of you, then I suggest you go home now.”
    “I get it,” Ben said again. “The cheap box is the hard-drive, the engine. The pretty device controls it. So the man who holds both . . .”
    “. . . Manages a portable displacement device,” Drake finished.
    “I still don’t know how it’s responsible for the Triangle phenomenon,” Ben stated flatly.
    “What we now think is this: that the second device controls the output, the on/off and directionality. But - that the box has juice of its own. And that an unknown chain of events has, quite randomly, set it off several times over the years.”
    “You do realise what you’re telling us?” Drake said to her, already utilizing the old SAS brain for weighing and measuring the ship’s defences. “You know what a displacement device is - in plain terms?”
    “A time-machine. Yes. And one that can be controlled by the man who acquires both devices.”
    “The Blood King?” Kinimaka sounded scared, a sentiment that just didn’t fit him.
    “I can see why a thirty-year-old myth would come out of hiding to acquire such a thing,” Bradey said. “For unlimited power. The chance to rule the world through blackmail.”
    “It predates all known histories,” Hayden went on. “Within its makeup are certain elements and minerals that haven’t existed since times unknown. So long before the dawn of civilisation it makes the mind boggle.”
    Drake wondered about that. Hadn’t Odin’s Shield contained something similar?
    Harrison interrupted his thoughts. “It has some of the oldest known