“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your lieutenant speaking. In exactly thirty seconds, we will be experiencing some violent turbulence, so I would advise you to prepare your night vision and put your firearms into their locked and loaded positions.” Shell smiled to himself before finishing. “And as always, thank you for choosing the MANIACs.”
Twenty … fifteen . . . ten . . . five . . . BOOM!
The earth shook as the explosion ripped through the power station, tearing the generator to shreds in one blinding burst of heat and light. Payne and Jones were tempted to glance at the display of sparks but realized it would ruin their night vision for the next several minutes. So they waited patiently, until the shower of orange light subsided and Kotto’s entire estate fell under the blanket of darkness.
When the moment felt right, Payne pushed the button on his transmitter and growled into the microphone. “Gentlemen, don’t let me down.”
With phenomenal quickness and stealth, the soldiers converged on the stone mansion and crawled across the structure’s moat in groups of two and three, using wooden boards that they carried with them. Windows, doors, and skylights were points of entry, and the MANIACs breached them effortlessly in a series of textbook military maneuvers.
“So far, so good,” Payne muttered as he watched the assault from Kotto’s yard. “I’d like to be inside, though, where all the action is.”
Jones nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, but there’s no way you could’ve climbed over the moat with that arm of yours. And you know it.”
“Actually, I
don’t
know it. I think if I was given the chance, I could’ve-”
Jones squeezed his friend’s injured biceps in order to prove his point.
“Jesus!” he grunted in agony. “You didn’t have to do that!”
But Payne was thankful that Jones had, because it reminded him that he’d made the correct decision by sitting this one out. If he hadn’t, he would’ve slowed down the team, and that was something he wasn’t willing to risk. At this point the only thing that mattered to Payne was Ariane, and everything else-his soldierly pride, his lust for action, and his desire for revenge-paled in comparison.
“I hope you realize there’s no reason to feel guilty. We’ve accomplished more in the last week than anyone, including myself, could’ve ever imagined.”
Payne didn’t respond, choosing to keep his attention on the mission instead.
“Plus, you set a good example for the squad by letting them take over. A man has to know his limits, and when he reaches them, he shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help.”
“I know that. In fact, I might ask for some more help right now.”
“Really?” The comment surprised Jones. “Why’s that?”
Payne took a moment to adjust his night vision, then calmly pointed over Jones’s left shoulder. “If I’m not mistaken, I think our targets might’ve found a way out of the house.”
Jones turned in the direction of Payne’s finger and had a hard time believing what he saw. Levon Greene was standing outside Kotto’s iron fence, helping Octavian Holmes climb out of a well-concealed passageway-a tunnel that wasn’t mentioned on the blueprints Jones had downloaded from a local database.
“Get on the comm,” Payne said, “and tell Sanchez to send half the team out to secure the periphery. Have the others continue their sweep for the slaves, but warn them about the tunnel. I don’t want Greene doubling back inside if we can help it.”
Jones nodded as he reached for the radio. “And while I do this, what are you going to do?”
Payne smiled as he grabbed his Glock. “I’m going to play hero.”
CHAPTER 61
USING
the darkness as his ally, Payne moved quietly toward the mouth of the tunnel, hoping to eliminate Holmes and Greene before they even knew what hit them. But as he approached the tall iron fence that surrounded the estate, he soon realized that there was more going on than a simple escape. Instead of slipping away from the house unnoticed, Holmes and Greene were trying to smuggle several slaves out of Kotto’s house as well.
“D.J.,” Payne whispered into his headset. “What’s your position? I need your input up here.”
A few seconds later Jones slipped into the bushes next to him. “You rang?”
“Take a look at them. Does this make any sense to you?”
Jones watched closely as the duo pulled two cloaked slaves from the tunnel and shoved them forcibly to the ground. Then, when Greene was satisfied with their positioning, he went back to the tunnel while Holmes hovered over the first pair with a handgun.
“No sense at all,” Jones answered. “They must have something up their sleeves, otherwise they’d be heading for the hills by now.”
“That’s what I figured, but what?”
Jones shrugged. “I don’t know, but it has to be something creative. They aren’t going to hold us off all by themselves.”
“Something creative, huh? See, that’s what I can’t figure out. What the hell could these guys come up with on such short notice? I mean, it’s not like they have a lot of experience with . . .”
Experience
. The word sent shivers down Payne’s spine, for he suddenly remembered what Holmes and Greene were experienced with. Of course! It made perfect sense. The reason they weren’t leaving was because they
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?”