The Collected Part 45

"No longer a problem," Daeng said. The look on his face left no question as to what had happened and who had pulled the trigger.

A silent moment pa.s.sed, then someone yelled from the other side of the door, "Everything all right out there?"

Quinn walked over and said, "You can open up now."

The hinges creaked as the door swung inward. Lanier looked out, Berkeley and Curson right behind him. Grins broke out when they spotted Ja.n.u.s on the floor, then full smiles at the sight of Romero.

CHAPTER 60.

QUINN, ORLANDO, NATE, and Daeng made a sweep of the entire fort to make sure there weren't any more of Romero's soldiers hiding out.

The only other people they found were two other nurses, and the three men who had been handling the cooking and the housekeeping. After a quick discussion, they locked the five of them and the nurse from Romero's room in the kitchen, where the group could wait for the officials who would descend on the island after they'd been notified.

Once the fort was secured, Quinn and the others made their way up to the top of the wall. Keeping their bodies below the walkway lip, they spread out along the walkway. Quinn turned on the radio they'd taken from one of the soldiers.

"I've got a message for the group outside the fort," he said in Spanish. "Can you hear me?"

Static.

"I'm calling the security force that was sent out to look for the man who escaped. Are you there?"

More static, then, "Who is this?"

"You don't need to know that. What you do need to know is that your bosses are no longer in need of your services."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Mr. Harris, who is now dead, and Mr. Romero, who I'm sure wishes he was. They are not in control of this fort anymore."

A long pause. "Why should we believe that?"

"I a.s.sume you're close to the wall. Am I right?"

No response.

"Doesn't matter. I think you'll get the message." Quinn clicked off the mic. With his voice raised enough for his friends to hear, he said, "Now."

As one, they angled their guns toward the jungle without exposing more of themselves than necessary. They let off two shots each.

Quinn keyed the mic again. "Hope we didn't hit anyone."

"What do you want?" The man's tone had done a one-eighty.

"It's not what we want. It's what you probably want. To get off this island."

"You'd let us go?"

"Sure, we'll let you leave," Quinn said. "Or we could continue hunting you down and killing you off."

The man took a moment before he spoke again. "Are we supposed to just swim?"

"There's a boat at the other end of the island. We'll give you thirty minutes to get there and shove off. Anyone left after that will be eliminated. Do we have an understanding?"

__________.

DAENG WAS TASKED with shadowing the remaining soldiers and making sure they all boarded the boat and left. While he did that, Quinn called Gogan, the pilot of their private jet, and gave him the coordinates of the island's airstrip. Then he, Orlando, Nate, and the other former prisoners-with the exception of Peter-moved the bodies of Harris and the dead soldiers into the downstairs room. They decided to leave Ja.n.u.s where he was, his bulk more than any of them wanted to deal with.

When they finished, Orlando retrieved the bag she'd brought downstairs. "For your trouble, gentlemen," she said as she unzipped the bag and flashed the contents at Lanier, Berkeley, and Curson. "Doesn't necessarily make up for what happened, but it's something." She zipped it back up and tossed it to Lanier.

A little while later, Daeng radioed in that the soldiers had all left. Shortly after that, Gogan called to say he was getting ready to take off and would be there in no more than twenty minutes.

When Quinn hung up, he walked over to where Peter was sitting with Romero.

"We need to head out. Are you ready?" he asked.

"Our friend here is being a little close-lipped," Peter said. "Doesn't want to say how he came into possession of our names or found out where I lived."

"Unfortunate," Quinn said. "You need a little more time? We could spare maybe another few minutes. You could hook him up to that electroshock machine."

Peter frowned. "That would only kill him. Rather he died on his own at this point. It's going to be painful." He stood up. "Besides, I have a pretty good idea where the leak came from."

"Well, if you need our help plugging it, you let me know."

Once the others had all moved outside, Quinn took a last look around to make sure everything was just right.

The weapons the soldiers had been carrying were in a pile against the wall, and the bodies were laid out on the floor in a line. Directly behind them, strapped to a wooden chair, sat Romero. In his office, they had found digital movies of the whippings, with Romero clearly visible, watching the proceedings. Orlando had copied the videos onto two separate memory cards. One she kept. The other was in a plastic bag taped to Romero's s.h.i.+rt, the words WATCH ME written across the plastic.

Everything in the room looked fine. Once Quinn and the others were in the air, a call would be placed to the Isla de Cervantes state police. The authorities would be told of a gunfight at Fort Duran, and of a band of the surviving rebels racing toward the main island in a speedboat at that very moment.

It wouldn't provide complete satisfaction for what had happened, but it would do.

Quinn stepped outside and closed the door.

__________.

Ja.n.u.s KNEW HIS end was near, but it hadn't quite arrived yet.

He had regained consciousness to the sounds of voices. He recognized one right away. It belonged to the prisoner Quinn, who had escaped and ruined everything.

Without opening his eyes, he tried to follow their conversation, but it was hard to focus. He had been shot-how many times, he didn't know-but his body refused to die.

Finally the voices stopped, and a door closed.

They're gone.

He lay there for a moment, just to be sure, and then pried his eyelids apart.

With effort, he pushed himself into a sitting position before rising painfully to his feet. He had to pause and grab the wall. He thought he was about to pa.s.s out again, but then the haze cleared and he was back.

He looked around.

I'm downstairs.

Right. That's where he'd been when they shot him again.

To his left was the way back into the fort. To his right, the open door to the antechamber that housed the fort's exit. Through the doorway, he could see something odd on the floor, something his mind was having a hard time processing. He walked over for a closer look.

Bodies. All wearing uniforms.

No, not all. Harris was there, too. Dead.

"Huh," he said, feeling no emotion whatsoever.

"Ja.n.u.s?"

If Ja.n.u.s had been able to, he would have jumped in surprise. Instead, his head slowly turned to the voice.

Strapped to a chair directly behind the bodies was Senor Romero, looking even more frail than usual.

"Ja.n.u.s. Untie me. Now!"

Ja.n.u.s staggered into the room, and stopped beside Romero's chair.

"Come on!" Romero said. "Quickly!"

He looked at the old man, and glanced at the straps holding Romero down. They looked like the same straps that had been on the electroshock machine upstairs. Thick and strong. A good choice.

"Hurry! Get me out of this chair!"

Ja.n.u.s walked over to the pile of weapons, awkwardly lowered himself to his knees, and hunted around.

"What are you doing?" Romero asked. "Get over here!"

Ja.n.u.s found a knife and pulled it out.

"If that will make it faster, fine. Now cut me out."

A knife was fine, but there was something that would do the job even better. Back on his feet, Ja.n.u.s raised the rifle he'd grabbed and shot Romero in the chest. No sense in letting the old man outlive him.

He stared at his work for second. His bullet had gone right through the letter A of the word WATCH that was on a piece of plastic attached to Romero's s.h.i.+rt. Why it was there, he had no idea, nor did he care.

For a moment, he lost focus, his mind drifting off. When he snapped back, he was looking toward the door to the outside.

Yes. That's it.

Using the rifle as a cane, he made his way outside.

There was one other person who needed to die before he did today.

__________.

THEY MADE IT to the airstrip five minutes before they saw the jet descending toward them.

"You broke the first rule, you know," Quinn said to Nate as they waited.

"Never get caught," Nate said with a nod.

Quinn put a hand against his forehead to shade his eyes as he tracked the plane's progress. "I've never been caught."

Nate's face scrunched up on one side. "Is that true?"

"It's what I'm telling you."

"So it's not true."

"It might be.

"And it might not."

They fell silent for a moment.

"Thanks for coming to get me," Nate said. "You know I'd do the same for you."

"Whether you would or wouldn't have before, you have to now. You owe me."

"Oh, good Lord," Orlando said. "Are you boys finished? The rest of us don't want to hear this."

"I was just thanking him," Nate said.

"And I was just accepting that thanks," Quinn added.

She rolled her eyes.

Seconds later the plane swooped in, its tires emitting a rubbery screech as they touched down. Before the jet had even stopped moving, the group headed down the clearing beside the tarmac to meet it. They were about a hundred feet away when the door opened, and Liz hopped down the ladder.

"Nate!" she said, running toward him.

Nate paused for half a second. "Liz?"

"I knew there was something I forgot to mention," Quinn said, allowing himself a playful smile. "And by the way, you and I need to have a talk about what you're allowed to tell my sister and what you're not."