The Gates of Hell (Matt Drake 3) by David Leadbeater Page A

little.
    “Sure.”
    The man gave him the kind of look a person might use upon seeing a celebrity or a convict. Then he made a call. Seconds later, he was showing Drake to a discreet elevator. He inserted a key and pressed a button.
    Drake felt the lift shoot up as if on a cushion of air. He chose not to think too hard about what was about to happen, he would let events take care of themselves. When the door slid open, he was facing a hallway.
    At the end of the hallway stood his welcoming committee.
    Ben Blake and his sister, Karin. Hayden. Kinimaka. Somewhere at the back stood Alicia Myles. He didn’t see Mai, but then he didn’t really expect too.
    The scene was wrong though. It should have included Kennedy. The whole thing looked odd without her. He exited the elevator and tried to remember they were probably feeling the same way. But did they lie in bed every night, seeing through her eyes, wondering why Drake hadn’t been there to save her?
    Then Ben was in front of him and Drake said nothing and enfolded the young lad in his arms. Karin was smiling uneasily over her brother’s shoulder, and Hayden came forward to lay a hand on his arm.
    “We missed you.”
    Desperately, he held on. “Thanks.”
    “You don’t have to be alone,” Ben said.
    Drake took step back. “Look,” he said, “it’s important to get one thing straight. I’m a changed man. You can’t rely on me anymore, especially you, Ben. If you understand that, all of you, then there’s a chance we can work together.”
    “It wasn’t your—” Ben started in on the problem straight away, as Drake had known he would. Karin, surprisingly, was the hand of reason. She grabbed him and pulled him aside, leaving Drake a clear route through to the office behind them.
    He strode through, giving Kinimaka a nod on the way. Alicia Myles regarded him with solemn eyes. She had also suffered the loss of someone dear to her.
    Drake stopped. “It’s not over, Alicia, not by a long shot. This bastard needs to be eliminated. If not, he might burn down the world.”
    “Kovalenko will die screaming.”
    “Hallelujah.”
    Drake continued past her into the room. Two big computers stood to his right, hard-drives whirring and clicking as they searched and fed off data. A pair of floor-length, bulletproof windows faced him, looking out over Miami Beach. He was suddenly struck by an image of Wells, pretending to be a pervert and asking for a sniper scope to pick out the tanned bodies down there.
    The thought gave him pause. It was the first time he’d thought of Wells coherently since Kennedy had been murdered. Wells had died badly at the hands of Alicia or Mai. He didn’t know which one and he didn’t know why.
    He heard the others filing in behind him. “So…” He concentrated on the view. “When do we go to Hawaii?”
    “In the morning,” Hayden said. “Many of our assets are now focused on Oahu. We are also checking the other islands because it’s known Kovalenko has more than one ranch. Of course, it’s now also known that he is a master of deception, so we are continuing to follow up other leads in different areas of the world.”
    “Good. I remember a reference to Captain Cook, Diamond Head, and the Gates of Hell. Have you pursued that?”
    Ben took that one. “Extensively, yes. But Cook landed at Kauai, not Oahu. His—” The monologue abruptly broke off. “Umm, in a nutshell. We’ve found nothing unusual. Yet.”
    “No direct links between Cook and Diamond Head?”
    “We’re working on it.” Karin spoke up a bit defensively.
    “But he was born in Yorkshire,” Ben added, testing Drake’s new barrier. “You know, God’s Land.”
    It seemed as though Drake hadn’t even heard his friend speak. “How long did he spend in Hawaii?”
    “Months,” Karin said. “He returned there at least twice.”
    “He may have visited every island then. What you should do is check out his logs, not his history or his achievements. It’s the things