Warlord of Azatlan

and ankles already burned away.

The night stank of scorched flesh.

Other mercenaries crowded around, laughing and guzzling booze. As Nate and Lyons approached, another torturer heated a steel rod red hot. Then he jammed it into one of the boy's eyes.

The image and the scream tearing through his consciousness, Lyons staggered, dizzy with horror and sorrow, his gut knotting. He stumbled, Nate catching him.

As the fascists a few steps away laughed at the nightmare, Lyons dropped to his hands and knees and vomited. Nate knelt beside him, his good left arm over Lyons's shoulder as he gasped and choked. Nate felt a sob wrack the North American.

'Can't keep that booze down, eh, man?'

'Take a drink,' said a voice.

Nate looked up. A drunken mercenary held out a pint bottle of aguardiente. He took it. 'Thanks.'

'Tonight a party,' the mercenary laughed, twisting off the cap of another bottle. 'But tomorrow, the orgy starts.'

The guy moved on. Nate offered the bottle to Lyons. Around them, mercenaries looked at the blond man staring into his vomit, then turned back to the spectacle of the Indians.

'Drink, they're looking at us.'

Lyons's hand moved for the grip of his Atchisson. Nate grabbed his arm and held it tight. He whispered to Lyons: 'Don't see it. There's nothing we can do. They're done for. But, they would understand. They know we're here, but they've said nothing. Therefore they know they'll not die for nothing. We are going to walk past, and then we are going to burn this monster. If we can do it quick, they'll survive long enough to know it. Let's do it before they die.'

Nodding, wiping his face, Lyons stood. He gulped from the bottle and staggered. As they passed the horror, Lyons looked again.

Lyons was no longer broken by the crime. Nate saw a face that had become stone, although it was streaked with tears. The sparking and popping of the welding torch lit his hardened features as Lyons looked at the scene, and scorched the image into his mind forever.

They walked toward the cave. Pouring aguardienteinto his hand, Lyons washed his face with the high-proof alcohol. He brushed back his short hair. Nate heard Lyons's breath shuddering in his throat.

For the first time, Nate trusted this stranger who fought with him and his Quiche friends.

'You know how I came here?' Nate spoke suddenly, his voice as loud as the other mercenaries walking around them. 'You must think Guatemala is nowhere. When I was eighteen, I was a badass Marine Recon warrior dropping into Laos. Had some severe personality conflicts with my commander. We did not agree on what was acceptable human behavior with prisoners and non-combatants.'

As they approached the mercenaries working in the cave, Nate lowered his voice. 'I liked those people. I wish we'd won the war, I wanted to stay there. Instead, my commander got shot in the back one mission. I get convicted of shooting him, Murder Two. Life in Leavenworth.'

'Did you shoot him?' Lyons asked.

'I don't know. Maybe. Things get confused when you have a People's Army battalion chasing you through the jungle.'

The two men entered the cave. They passed unchallenged through the preparations for the next day's coup. In the center of the cavern, parked among the Cobras and Hueys, they saw a blue-and-white executive helicopter.

'Is that his?' Lyons asked.

'I've seen it before. But...'

Walking along the side of the three-story barracks, they scanned the officers of the command staff. They saw plainclothes guards standing at the doors of one office.

'His men?' Lyons asked.

'All the Guatemalan and Salvadoran fascists have bodyguards.'

'You break out of Leavenworth?' Lyons had to know.

'Out of a prison bus. Two other prisoners had friends ambush the bus on the highway. I'd done two years in the brig while the trials and appeals went on, and I knew what to expect in Leavenworth. I escaped with them. They took me to the Black Panthers and the Weatherman. I was the most qualified soldier that ever came their way. They wanted me to be a guerilla warfare instructor. To help them kill police. Politicians. I told them to stuff it. I went south. Through Mexico, into Guatemala, into the mountains. I had a good life, never wanted to go back. But Unomundo came.'

Nate pointed behind the prefabricated mess hall and kitchens. They stepped off the concrete path. Maintaining an even, unhurried pace across the irregular stone of the cave floor, they walked behind the kitchens.

Stenciled red warnings marked the sides of a gleaming white cylinder.

DANGER

LIQUID PETROLEUM GAS

EXTREMELY INFLAMMABLE

This was what they sought. Lyons and Nate crawled along under the pipes and concrete blocks that supported the prefab units, then waited and watched. Footsteps crossed the floor of the mess hall, making the metal floor creak.

Only ten feet separated them from the one-inch galvanized pipes connecting the tank to the kitchen. They waited for a minute, then crawled to the pipe. It was dangerous; they were exposed to view.

Nate closed the emergency valve. He took the radio-fused slab of C-4 explosive from under his shirt and gave it to Lyons. He slipped a hacksaw blade from the bloodstained top of the gray boots he wore.

As Nate sawed on the pipe, Lyons moved back to snake himself under the tank. He put the first charge where the base brackets met the cylinder. Molding the puttylike explosive, he formed a strip along a foot of the tank's circumference. He came up on the far side of the tank. He found a valve welded into the end of the tank. A steel cap sealed off the valve. The second charge went around the weld. He could take his time because he was concealed from view.

'What the hell you doin', soldier?'

A cook stood on the walkway. The guy wiped his hands on his stained apron as he looked down at Nate. Lyons stayed flat on the rocks.

'Leak in the joint,' Nate told him, pointing to the emergency valve.

'Where?'

'Here. You can smell it.'

The gray-haired, overweight cook waddled over to the pipe. 'I didn't notice anything.'

Nate stood as the cook bent down to look.

'Hey, you're hacksawing the goddamned...'

Grabbing the mercenary's head by the ears, Nate slammed his head into the valve again and again, using the valve handle to crush his forehead. He shoved the body under the mess hall.

'Close,' Lyons hissed.

'A few more minutes.'

'Cut it. But don't open the valve yet. I want to confirm that he's here, right now, in the cave.'

'How?'

'I'll do it.' Lyons keyed his hand-radio. 'Pol. Wizard. Charges are set. He's cutting the line. I'm going to go confirm on the man.'

Blancanales answered. 'Next bus, we're coming in.'

Lyons left Nate sawing at the line. Forcing himself to walk slowly, his eyes swept the vast cavern for the blond, half-German Unomundo. At the executive helicopter, a Hispanic in a tailored Italian suit, gold flashing on his wrist and fingers, supervised the work of a crew of mechanics.

At the steps to the rows of offices, two well-dressed Hispanics with Uzis questioned a mercenary soldier.