“It’s funny you should mention magic, because that’s exactly what I had in mind. With a little help from you, I think we can make the Posse disappear.”
CHAPTER 64
JONES
waited for Payne’s go-ahead before he walked toward the enemy. Jones continued forward while doing nothing to conceal himself. In fact, he so desperately wanted to be seen by Holmes and Greene that he fired his weapon into the air just to get their attention.
“You know,” he exclaimed, “you guys are pretty damn bad at taking hostages. For this tactic to work, you’re
supposed
to issue a crazy list of demands. I’ve been waiting for several minutes now, and I haven’t heard a peep.”
Greene’s bass-filled voice emerged from the center of the huddle. “That’s because we’ve been waiting for you. Now that you’re here, I guess we can start this shit.”
“Oh, goody!” Jones mocked. “But before we begin, I think it’s only fair if I introduced the rest of my negotiating team. Fellas, why don’t you come out and say hello?”
Like ghosts emerging from a sea of fog, the MANIACs simply materialized out of nothingness. One second they weren’t visible to the naked eye, and the next they were standing with weapons raised, like Spartans waiting for an approaching horde.
“As you can see,” Jones continued, “we outnumber you by a large margin.”
“What, is that supposed to scare us?” Holmes screamed, his head bobbing ever so slightly as he did. “You might outnumber us, but there’s no way you can shoot us without endangering the hostages. And trust me, if you guys come any closer, I’ll kill one of them myself.”
Jones smiled at the threat while taking another step forward. “I don’t believe that for a second. Why? Because if you hurt anyone, you’ll be killed. I know it, and you know it. Hell, everyone here knows it. So why even bother to threaten us? It’s just so clichéd.”
“Maybe so, but it’s the truth! I wonder how Payne would feel if I sliced up that tasty bitch of his? How do you think he’d like that?”
“That’s a good question. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“I would, if he showed his face. Where’s that pussy hiding?”
Payne answered the question by tapping Holmes on the shoulder. “Right behind you.”
Like a well-orchestrated magic trick, Payne had used his assistant to lure everyone’s attention forward while the key maneuvering was being done in the background. Of course, now that the deception was over, Payne needed to finish the performance in grand style. He did so by sliding his knife across his enemy’s throat with assassinlike perfection. Crimson gushed from Holmes’s carotid artery, staining the front of his cloak like a wounded deer in the snow, but that wasn’t good enough for Payne. He immediately tossed Holmes over his shoulder and finished him off by falling backward and slamming his elbow into the bridge of his nose. The maneuver drove Holmes’s nasal bone into his brain with brutal efficiency.
Death was instantaneous.
With his first rival vanquished, Payne sprang to his feet and searched the huddle in front of him for his next target. Unfortunately, despite his speed, Payne was still too slow for Greene, who had latched onto Ariane’s throat at the first sign of trouble. He was currently shoving a .45-caliber pistol against the side of her head.
“Stay back!” Greene demanded as he dragged her toward the tunnel. “I swear to God, if you come any closer, I’ll kill her.”
“Calm down!” Payne pleaded. “Don’t do anything stupid. Just relax.”
But Payne knew that would be tough, because he was having a difficult time doing it himself.
He had been a rock—poised and relaxed—when he crept up on Holmes, but some of his composure disappeared when he got his first real glimpse of Ariane since this ordeal had started.
One look and his heart started racing.
“Are you all right?” Payne asked.
“Been better,” she mumbled with her swollen jaw. “And you?”
“Pretty damn good,” he lied. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for a while. You’re a difficult girl to track down.”
“Sorry about that. I’ve been doing some traveling.”
“Traveling?” Payne took a step closer, looking for an opening. “Come on, why don’t you just admit it? You’ll do anything to get out of an ass-kicking on the golf course.”
“Darn, you finally figured me out. All of this has been—”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Greene yelled. “Your love-sick banter is driving me
crazy
.” To prove his point, he tightened his grip on Ariane’s neck, nearly cutting off her airway. “This is my time to talk, not yours! Do you got that, Payne? My time!”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Go ahead and talk. I’m listening. I swear.”
Greene took a deep breath. “First of all, tell your men to get back. When I get anxious, my muscles start to contract, and if that happens, I’m liable to break her fuckin’ neck!”
“Not a problem, Levon. But first you gotta ease up just a little bit. Let her breathe, my man. Just let her breathe.”
“I’m serious, Jon. Get them back!”
“I will, I promise, but only if you stop hurting her.” Payne took another step forward, trying to get as close to Greene as possible. “Come on, Levon, why don’t you just put down your gun and walk away from this? If you do that, I promise we won’t kill you.”
“Great! So, what are you going to do? Cart me back to the U.S., where I’ll be viewed like Michael Vick times a million? Screw that! I get out of this free, or I get slaughtered right here! There’s no quit in me! You should know that. I don’t quit!”
Another step forward. “It’s not quitting, Levon. It’s simply doing the smart thing.”
“Stay where you are, or I’ll kill her! I mean it!”
Payne threw his hands up in acceptance. “I won’t move from here, okay? I just want to talk to you. Don’t do anything stupid. I just want to discuss things.”
“Then tell your men to back off! If all you wanna do is talk, there’s no reason to have them so close!” The tension in his voice proved that he was close to losing it. “What difference is it gonna make if they back up? They’ll still be close enough to kill me if I make a move, so get them to back up!”
Payne looked at Jones and reluctantly nodded. “Not too far, but ease the grip slightly.”
“You heard the captain,” Jones told the men. “Give them ten more feet of breathing space. But if Greene even sneezes, take him out with everything you’ve got.”
The men followed their orders, dropping back several steps but never taking their aim off Greene. When they reached their mark, Jones shouted for them to stop.
“Is that better?” Payne asked. “I did like you wanted, as a sign of good faith. I didn’t have to, but I did. Now, why don’t you do the same for me? Why don’t you give me something?”
“Like what? The only thing you want is the girl, and do you know what? I can see why she means so much to you. I had a chance to check her out in the shower, and let me tell you, she’s one tasty piece of ass.”
Normally, Payne would’ve gone after somebody who made a comment like that, but in this case he all but welcomed it. He realized it was an opportunity that he could use to his advantage.
“Jeez,” he said to Ariane, “you should consider yourself lucky! You’ve always wanted to hook up with an NFL player, and he sounds pretty interested. This might be your big chance.”
Calmly, as if she wasn’t in a life-or-death struggle, Ariane turned her attention to Greene. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that she was supposed to distract him with conversation. “You played in the NFL? Oh, my God, that is so cool! What’s your name?”
But before Greene could speak, Payne answered for him. “That’s Levon Greene. I told you about him, remember? He’s the linebacker I met while playing basketball. You know, the one with the bad left knee.”
“You have a bad knee?” she groaned. “How horrible! That’s one thing I always hated about sports. The moment a player gets hurt, their opponents take advantage of it.”
And then she proved her point.
Slowly, she lifted her left foot until it was directly in front of Greene’s knee. Then, she thrust it backward with as much strength as she could, ramming it into his kneecap at a perfect angle. The pain from the blow caused Greene to howl in agony, but more importantly, it caused him to loosen his grip on her neck, which gave her the chance to get away.
The instant she dove to the ground Payne raised his weapon like a quick-draw artist and fired. Jones did the same from farther back, and the two of them filled Greene with enough bullets to take down a polar bear. Shot after shot entered his chest and neck, causing his body to dance to the rhythm of gunfire. It continued to do so until both of them had emptied their entire clips into the man they had once considered a friend.
When the firing stopped, the MANIACs charged forward to deal with Kotto and Drake and the slaves that remained in the tunnel, but Payne wasn’t worried about any of them. His only concern was Ariane, and he ran to her side to see if she was all right.
“I’m so happy to see you.”
“I love you so much,” she insisted, crying tears of joy on Payne’s shoulder as they sat on the ground. “I can’t believe that you found me.” She sobbed for an entire minute, clinging to him like a favorite stuffed animal. “But what took you so long? I thought you were supposed to be like Rambo or something.”
Payne laughed loudly, thankful for a girl who was able to keep her sense of humor despite all that she had been through. “Hey, you said you were looking forward to the long weekend, so I figured I should take my time in getting here.”
“A long weekend is one thing, Jonathon, but an entire week is quite another.”
He smiled, wiping away her tears with the cloth of her cloak. “Look on the bright side. It’s already Friday, so by the time we get back to America, it will actually be the weekend again.”
Ariane sighed as she pulled him against her chest.
She never wanted to let go of him.
Jones was hesitant to break up the tender moment, but he needed Payne to decide what they were going to do with Kotto and Drake. “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I’d like to borrow Jon for a minute before you two start shagging on the damn ground.”
Ariane glanced at Jones and gave him a warm smile. She knew that he’d risked his life on several occasions during the past week and wanted him to realize how much she appreciated it.
“He’s all yours, D.J. There’ll be no shaggin’ until I get cleaned up.” She stood from the ground and dusted herself off. “Besides, I wanted to check on someone.”
Payne raised his eyebrows. “Did you make a friend in prison? How cute!”
She smiled again, despite her sore jaw. “I think his name’s Nathan, but that’s all I really know. He doesn’t talk too much because of all the torture.”
“Big guy, lots of scars? He was in the Devil’s Box before me. Hakeem said he’d left him in the device for several weeks. Unfortunately, I have no idea who he is, though.”
“I do,” interjected Sanchez, who’d been listening to their reunion. “I’m from San Diego, so I should know who he is.”
All three turned toward him, looking for information.
“His name’s Nate Barker, and he plays for the Chargers. According to ESPN, he’s been missing for a few months now, simply disappeared from his house one night.”
“Are you sure?” Payne asked. It seemed risky for the Posse to kidnap someone who was famous. “Why would they grab a high-profile guy like that?”
Sanchez offered an explanation. “If I remember correctly, he’s the player that hurt Levon’s knee. Snapped it like a twig up in Buffalo.”
Payne glanced at Barker and studied his haggard appearance. He certainly had the height to be a football player, even though it was painfully obvious that he’d lost a lot of weight during the past several weeks. “This was all done for revenge? My God, what a sick bastard Levon turned out to be! I would’ve never guessed it before all of—”
“Sirs!” Shell shouted urgently. He was on his knees near Greene’s body, and the look on his face suggested that something was wrong. “Get over here, sirs!”
Payne, Jones, and Sanchez dashed forward while Ariane chose to stay behind.
“It’s Greene,” Shell said. “He’s still alive. He was wearing a vest under his cloak.”
“Are you serious?” Payne sank to the ground next to Shell and looked into Greene’s eyes. They were open and, considering his current condition, fairly active. “Levon, can you hear me?”
Greene nodded his head slightly, as blood gushed from the wounds in his neck and shoulders. “You got me, Payne. You got me good.”
“I didn’t get you, Levon. You got yourself. I can’t believe you did all this shit for revenge.”
Greene closed his eyes to escape the agony but managed to turn his lips into a large smile. “No regrets,” he groaned. “I got no regrets.”
Payne was ready to lecture him further when he suddenly sensed a large presence hovering behind him. Looking up, he was surprised to see the battered body of Nate Barker.
“Levon,” the lineman croaked. His throat was dry and cracked from severe dehydration.
Greene reopened his eyes and stared into the face of his enemy.
Barker leaned closer, letting Greene see his face. “That play,” he said. “That play where you got hurt? I didn’t try to hurt you. I swear, I didn’t.”
But Greene wouldn’t accept it. He closed his eyes and shook his head in denial.
It wasn’t something that he’d ever believe.
“Honestly,” Barker continued. “I’ve never hurt anyone on purpose in my entire life. I swear to God, I haven’t.” Then suddenly, without warning, he placed his foot on Greene’s left knee and anchored it with his body weight. “That is, until now!”
