needed
to stay nearby in order to complete their plans—just like when they blew up the Plantation.
Without delay, Payne hit the button on his radio and spoke directly to Sanchez. “Juan, get out of the house! Do you read me? Clear the area, now!”
“But, sir, we haven’t completed our objective. Do you understand? We haven’t—”
“Screw your objective, Juan! The house is hot. Get out at once!”
A few seconds passed before Sanchez replied. “But, sir, Ariane might still be in here.”
The notion hit Payne like a sucker punch. God, how could he have forgotten about her? How was that possible?
It took him a moment to shake off the guilt—for forgetting Ariane in her time of need
and
for the command that he was about to issue—but once he thought things through, he realized he couldn’t allow his personal feelings to interfere with his duties as squad leader. No matter how much he loved Ariane and how willing he was to give up his life for hers, he knew he didn’t have a choice. This wasn’t
Saving Private Ryan
. He couldn’t risk the lives of several men to save one person. That just wasn’t acceptable, especially since they were here as a personal favor.
After taking a deep breath to clear his mind, Payne turned his radio back on and said the most painful thing he’d ever had to say. “What is it about my order that you don’t understand? Get out of the house now!”
* * *
LEVON
Greene helped Hannibal Kotto to his feet before giving Edwin Drake a much-needed hand. Neither of the businessmen was thrilled with sneaking to freedom through the escape tunnel that started in the mansion’s basement, but once they were assured that it was the only way to get away from the MANIACs, Kotto and Drake relented.
“What now?” asked Drake as he dusted off his white cloak. “Do we make a run for it?”
Greene chuckled at the thought. “A run for it? Do you actually think we can outrun an entire platoon of soldiers? Fuck that! There will be no running from anything.”
Kotto heard the comment and moved forward. “Then how are we going to escape? Is someone coming to meet us?”
“No,” Greene assured him, “there’s no one coming to meet us. Octavian and I are going to take care of the MANIACs all by ourselves.”
“You’re what?” Kotto turned toward Holmes, looking for answers. “How are you going to do that?”
Greene answered cryptically. “Well,
we’re
not going to do anything. Your house is.”
“My house is? What kind of rubbish is that?”
Greene smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small detonator. “Not rubbish,
rubble
—because that’s what your house is gonna be in a couple of seconds. With a touch of this button, your house and our problems are going bye-bye.”
PAYNE
was relieved when the first wave of MANIACs made it across the moat, but they weren’t the men that he was truly worried about. That group was team two, the soldiers who were looking for the secret tunnel. Since they were ordered deep within the bowels of the basement, Payne knew it would take them much longer to evacuate.
He just hoped it wouldn’t take too long.
“All out,” declared Shell, who was the leader of the first team. “Should we secure the periphery as ordered, or lag here to assist the others?”
“Your orders still hold.” Payne wanted everyone as far away from the house as quickly as possible. “Be advised that six people have been spotted outside the fence. Repeat, six outside the fence. And some of them could be friendly.”
“Half dozen on the run: some cowboys, some Indians.” Shell waved his men forward before continuing his transmission. “Don’t worry, sir. We won’t let you down.”
Payne nodded as he turned toward Jones. “What can you see?”
He answered while peering through his night-vision goggles. “The two people on the ground seem to be slaves. Greene just kicked the one on the right.”
“Can you make out their faces?”
Jones shook his head. “Their cloaks prevent it. But if I were a betting man, I’d say the one getting kicked is a man. He’s way too big to be a female.”
Payne cursed softly. That meant the odds of Ariane being inside the house just increased. “And what about the other?”
“No idea. It could be Ariane, but I really don’t know.”
“Keep me posted,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’m going forward to help Sanchez’s crew.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m going to give them a hand. I’d lend them two if I could, but all I’ve got is one.”
Before Jones could argue, Payne sprinted full speed toward the moat. He wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do once he got there, but there was no way in hell he was going to sit passively while some of his men were still in danger. His men were his responsibility, and he was going to do everything he could to guarantee their safety—even if it meant risking his own life.
Once Payne reached the edge of the moat, he cast his eyes downward and studied the fifteen-by-twelve-foot trench that extended for several hundred feet around the base of the entire mansion. The walls of the pit were made of seamless concrete and had been laid with a steep slope to impede the climb of possible intruders. To discourage unwanted visits even further, Kotto had filled the bottom of the chasm with a freshwater stream and a family of Nile crocodiles that hissed and snapped like a pack of hungry guard dogs anytime humans approached.
“Knock it off,” Payne growled, “or I’ll make shoes out of your ass.”
Captain Sanchez heard the comment as he emerged from the house. “I hope you weren’t talking to me.”
Payne instinctively raised his weapon but relaxed when he realized who it was. “Sorry to disappoint you, Juan, but I don’t want to do
anything
with your ass.”
Sanchez smiled as he traversed the narrow plank with the ease of a tightrope walker. He’d risked his life way too many times to be worried about heights or a bunch of hungry reptiles. After reaching Payne’s side, he said, “I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but what are you doing here? You should be back by the fence, where it’s safe.”
“And let you play with the crocs by yourself? Not a chance. Besides, you know how I am on missions. I’d rather do jumping jacks in a minefield than sit around, waiting.”
“But, sir, aren’t you just waiting up here, too?”
Payne was tempted to lecture him on the basic concept of leadership—never put anyone in a situation that you’re not willing to be in yourself—but before he could, a second MANIAC exited the house.
The soldier immediately said, “Four more behind me, but I don’t know where.”
Payne nodded as he got on his radio to find out. “Team two status check, team two status check. What’s your twenty?”
“I’m coming out now,” answered the first, and a moment later he stepped outside.
“Making my way up the stairs,” replied another. “About fifteen seconds ’til daylight.”
Payne waited until the second soldier arrived before he went back to the radio. “Team two status check . . . What are your positions?”
Unfortunately, the remaining members of team two didn’t reply.
Confused by their silence, Payne asked Chen, the soldier who had just emerged from the house, if he knew anything about their whereabouts.
“It’s tough to say, sir. That basement is a labyrinth of empty jail cells and twisting corridors. There’s no telling where they are or if they can even hear you. The walls are pretty thick.”
“Damn!” Payne growled. He knew if he didn’t get his men out of the house immediately, they were going to die. It was as simple as that. Out of sheer desperation, Payne used their real names over the airwaves. “Kokoska? Haney? Do you read me? Squawk if you can hear me.”
But the only noise that followed was the foreboding sound of silence.
CHAPTER 62
THE
sound of Payne’s radio disrupted the quiet of the Nigerian night, but the message didn’t come from the missing MANIACs. It came from Jones, and his words were ominous.
“The Posse’s taking cover. Prepare for detonation.”
Without delay, Payne ordered his men from the area while he dropped to his knees to secure the wooden plank with his good arm. After locking it in place, he yelled to Chen, the soldier on the other side of the moat. “Run for it!”
The young MANIAC did as he was told and started across the temporary bridge. Unfortunately, as he neared the halfway point, the first explosion erupted and its shock wave knocked him forward with the force of a hurricane. He instinctively tried to regain his balance using his arms as counterweights, but the jolt was way too powerful to overcome.
As Chen started to fall, Payne was tempted to lunge for him but knew it wouldn’t do either of them any good. Even if he’d managed to latch on, there was no way he would be able to maintain his own balance. So, instead of doing something impossible, Payne used his energy to yank the board off the far side of the moat while holding on to his end the best that he could. Agony gripped its claws into his injured biceps as the plank slammed into the water below, but he didn’t have time to suffer. If he didn’t get to the bottom of the chasm immediately, Chen was going to be the only human in a battle royal, and he wasn’t about to let that happen.
Grabbing his Glock, Payne sat on the smooth plank, which rested at a forty-five-degree angle, and started his descent on the kiddie slide from hell. He’d gotten a third of the way down the slope when he spotted Chen, who was injured and struggling to get out of the shallow water by the far bank, and the twelve-foot crocodile that was chasing him.
With the confidence of a big-game hunter, Payne aimed his weapon at the croc’s head and fired. The bullet struck his target directly below its eye, causing the reptile to roar in anguish and thrash its tail like a flag in a violent storm, but that wasn’t good enough for Payne. He realized that wounded animals were often the most dangerous, so the instant his feet touched liquid he finished the job by depositing two more rounds into the angry beast.
“Holy shit!” Chen gasped from the nearby shore. “That was unbelievable.”
“Not really. I practice that move in my swimming pool all the time.”
“Seriously, that was awesome!”
But Payne shrugged off the praise. After all, Chen was there to do him a favor. “Are you hurt? Can you make it back up the plank?”
“Doubtful, sir. I messed up my knee pretty bad when I landed.”
Payne nodded as he scouted the waist-deep water for more crocs. Thankfully, the others huddled lazily on the opposite shore. “But you’ll live, won’t you? I mean, I shouldn’t just leave you here as an entrée, right?”
Chen smiled through his pain. “No, sir. I don’t think I’d like that very much.”
“Good, then let’s figure a way to get you out of—”
Before he could finish, a second explosion ripped through the house, one that lit the surrounding sky with a massive ball of flame and hurled chunks of wood and metal high into the air. To escape the falling debris, Payne shoved Chen under the lip of the concrete ledge and sheltered him with his own body while waiting for things to calm down.
JONES
covered his head as another blast shook the earth but refused to take his eyes off the enemy. They had settled behind a rock formation near the escape tunnel, and he figured they’d stay there as long as there were more charges to detonate. At least he hoped that was the case, because while they sat on their asses watching the fireworks, his team was moving in to finish them off.
A static-filled message trickled over Jones’s radio, but he was unable to make out the voice.
“You’re breaking up,” Jones shouted into his mouthpiece. “Repeat.”
There was a slight delay. “This . . . Payne. Can . . . me?”
“Jon?” He cupped his hand over his earpiece so he could hear better. “Is that you?”
“Of course . . . me! I can’t . . . you’ve already forgotten . . . fucking voice!”
Jones was thrilled that Payne was bitching at him. That was his way of saying that he was fine. “Where are you, man? I was told you got caught up in the pyrotechnics.”
“I did. Thankfully, Chen and . . . were . . . the moat during . . . big blast. The concrete shielded . . . getting hurt.”
Jones did his best to make out the words, but the tumult and the static made it difficult. “Are you hurt? Do you need me to get you out?”
“. . . banged up, but I’m . . .” Dead air filled the line for a few seconds before Payne’s voice could be heard again. “. . . word on Ariane?”
“We’re still not sure where she is. Shell called in and claimed he could see a female with the Posse, but that report is unconfirmed. Repeat, that is unconfirmed.”
“. . . about . . . oska . . . Haney?”
“No word from Kokoska or Haney. But we aren’t giving up hope. Those two have been through worse.”
Several more seconds passed before Jones could hear him again, and when he could, Payne was in the middle of a long message. “. . . is a hole up . . . it might be . . . way into . . . I’m going to . . . Chen . . . it out.”
“Jon,” he shouted, “you’re breaking up. I can’t understand you. Please repeat.”
“. . . hole . . . moat . . . a way into the . . .”
Unfortunately, nothing but static came across the line.
PAYNE
wasn’t sure if his message had gotten through, but he realized he couldn’t waste any more time on the radio trying to find out. He and Chen were currently sitting ducks, and he knew if they stayed put, it was just a matter of time before something—an explosion, a crocodile, or an enemy soldier—took them out.
