“Speak for yourself,” he said resignedly.
Blade crawled up next to Bear on the ridge and watched the doctor finish his meal and then take the two suitcases with the samples in them into a small house on the edge of the village, followed by the Mexican lady and the white woman.
He licked his lips and turned to stare at Bear. “How about we go down there and take them right now? We could be in and out with the samples in less than thirty minutes and on our way back to the real world in an hour.”
Bear stared back at him, his eyes narrowed. “And I guess they’ll just put down their Armalites and hand over the cure for the worldwide plague to us if we ask them nicely?”
Blade whipped out his knife. “Who says we’re gonna ask them anything? I say we take what we need and to hell with the doctor or the babe.”
Bear nodded. “I see, and the hundred or so villagers… or should I say witnesses, what do you propose we do about them?”
Blade grinned evilly, showing yellowed teeth. “Simple, like my biker friends always say, we kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out.”
Bear took a deep breath and rolled on his side looking at Blade. “I’m going to try to make this so simple even an imbecile like you can understand, Blade. Wouldn’t it be much easier, and a whole lot safer, if we just ambushed them along the trail back home… or even better yet wait until they make camp tomorrow night and take them while they’re asleep? That way there’re no pesky witnesses that have to be killed and we run almost no risk of them getting off a lucky shot with those Armalites and maybe killing one or two of us in the process.”
Blade’s face flared red at the word “imbecile” and his lips compressed into a tight white line. “I don’t know!” he growled.
“Jesus,” Bear said, “you’re even stupider than I thought.”
Blade grabbed Bear by the front of his shirt and stuck the point of his knife against Bear’s throat. “I’ve had about enough of…”
He stopped when he felt the barrel of Bear’s Glock push up against his groin. “Enough of what?” Bear asked quietly as he thumbed back the hammer on the 9mm. “Enough of living with your dick attached to your body… enough of lying there breathing instead of writhing in the dirt covered with your own shit… enough of taking orders from me? Well let’s ask the others if they want to follow my orders and get a huge paycheck, or listen to you and spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders after killing an entire village of one of the United States’ best and nearest allies?”
He ground the barrel against Blade’s balls until Blade was groaning and sweat was pouring off his face. “What do you think their answer will be, Blade?”
“Uh… uh…” he mumbled and lowered the knife to his side.
“I thought so,” Bear said derisively, “now get the hell out of my sight before I make you buzzard bait and blow your stinking brains all over my new fatigues.”
Blade backed up a foot and then he stuck the knife up to its hilt in the dirt in front of Bear. “This ain’t over yet, Bear.”
Bear sneered. “Yes it is, ’cause if you had the balls to challenge me you’d already have done it. You’re finished with this team, Blade, and after I get through telling our clients that you proposed killing an entire village, I don’t think you will be getting many calls for work in the future.”
Blade took a deep breath to respond, and then he noticed that standing behind him with weapons drawn and pointed at his back were Jinx, Hoss, and Psycho, while Babe was just standing with his arms crossed in front of him smiling as if he hadn’t a worry in the world.
“Man makes a lot of sense to me, Blade,” Jinx drawled, letting the barrel of his pistol drop just a little. “Perhaps it would be best if you go back to camp and hunker down and think about your options before you go off half-cocked, and we’ll see if we can’t get Bear to give you another chance to stay with the team.”
“Or you can pull that other pigsticker you have in that scabbard on your belt and we can finish this right now,” Psycho said with a wild look in his eyes.
Blade forced himself to chuckle and he held up his hands palms out. “Hey, guys, just a little disagreement between friends. Ever’thin’ is cool now, okay?”
“Yeah, cool,” Hoss whispered. “Now you go on an’ do like Jinx said an’ git yoreself all calmed down back at camp. We’uns will watch the village till it gits dark.”
After Blade had slunk off toward their camp hidden a hundred yards back in the jungle, Bear told Jinx to take the first watch and said the others would relieve him every four hours until dawn, when they would all be up and ready to shadow the doctor and his companion back toward the lab.
“What about Blade?” Jinx asked quietly.
Bear shrugged. “Keep one eye on him. If he behaves himself, I might let this slide. Otherwise,” he drew a finger across his neck.
“You want him to stand a watch tonight?” Babe asked, his eyebrows raised.
Bear grinned and shook his head. “Not unless you want to stay up with him. We’d probably all wind up with a knife in our gizzards.”
Chapter 31
Two hours after they’d laid down, the alarm on Mason’s wristwatch gave a series of small beeps.
He and Lauren came instantly awake. His left arm was under her neck and his right arm was curled around her cupping her breast while he spooned her from behind.
She yawned and said, “As nice as this is, maybe we’d better get up before we both get other ideas and fall behind schedule.”
He moaned in disappointment. “You are a hard taskmaster, lady.” He pulled his arm out, rolled over, and sat up to put on his shoes.
Moments later, they slipped out of the small bed they’d shared and began to get ready for their upcoming journey. They’d laid everything out so it would be easily found in the darkness, as they didn’t dare turn on a light for fear the watchers would see it and get suspicious.
Several small blankets were rolled up and put under the bedcovers to simulate two bodies still sleeping in the bed just in case someone decided to check up on them.
Finally, everything they were carrying with them was packed and ready to go. As Lauren moved toward the back door, Mason stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
As she turned to face him in the dark, he leaned down. “How about a kiss for luck?”
“You got it, boss man,” and she pressed her lips to his, wishing they had time for more than a quick kiss.
Mason eased the back door open and slipped out, moving in a crouch so he couldn’t be seen from more than a few yards away. Lauren followed close behind him, shutting the door behind her as she moved through the darkness.
The moon was obscured by a canopy of clouds, but they had no trouble following the path to the river as it was the only cleared ground through the jungle.
When they arrived at the river’s edge, they found Motzi sleeping in the boat he’d chosen for their journey.
Even their almost silent footfalls in the soft dirt of the trail were enough to bring the Indio boy instantly awake.
“Buenos noches,” he called softly to them as he stretched and jumped to the shore to help them load their cargo.
“Good evening to you, too, Motzi,” Lauren whispered, handing him a couple of blankets they’d use to cover themselves in the cool evenings on the water.
Mason grunted as he passed over the two Armalite rifles and a small bag containing extra clips and ammunition.
“Did Maria give you the other supplies?” Mason asked, looking in the boat to make sure the blood and plant samples had been packed securely under the bow.
“Sí, she give me food and water,” he answered, holding up a burlap sack filled with food and a five-gallon jug of water.