with a pistol pointing at me. I shot him in the heart. Another man rose from behind the bed, his arms in the air. Simmermon.
'Don't shoot,' he said. 'I'm a man of God.'
I waved the rifle toward the door. 'Come with me, Reverend.'
'Who are you?'
'I'm your worst nightmare.' I'd always wanted to say that.
'Where are we going?'
'Never mind. You can come or I can just shoot you.'
'I'm coming.'
We went back down the stairs, jock leading the way, Simmermon next, and then me, with my rifle touching his sorry back. We reached the hallway and started for the front door. A bullet whizzed by my head, burying itself in the steps behind me. Simmermon and I both dove for the floor.
Peggy had moved out of the living room. She slammed the door shut and dropped back to the floor.
'Where's the girl?' I shouted.
'She's under the sofa,' said Peggy. 'She's the housemaid. She'll be fine right where she is.'
Logan had moved into the living room and was peering out a window. I joined him.
'The guards are getting into position in the front,' Logan said. 'I saw a couple more head for the back of the house.'
A disembodied voice came out of the dark courtyard, amplified by a bullhorn. 'You assholes are surrounded. Come out with your hands up.'
There were probably fifteen men with rifles in kneeling firing posi- dons in the courtyard. Not a very good tactical position. Amateurs. They were like the ducks in the shooting gallery at the carnival. Just waiting to be taken down.
Logan had gone to the back of the house. I heard him call out. 'There're half a dozen armed men at the back of the house.'
Jock said, 'Oh, shit.'
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
'What now?' asked Logan.
'We attack,' I said.
'Attack? Okay,' said Logan.
'At Bragg, they taught us that when surrounded, we Attack! Attack! Attack!'
Jock grinned. 'Sounds like a plan.'
Peggy spoke up. 'You're all as crazy as the Rev'
'Jock,' I said. 'Go out the back and use some of those grenades when I give the word. Logan, you stay with me. We're going to shoot the asses off those people. Peggy, you stay down.'
I turned to Simmermon. 'If you make one move I don't like, you're a dead man.'
'I'm a man of God,' he said again.
'I'm on my way,' said jock as he ran for the back of the house.
I shouted to the men in front, 'We've got the Rev'
The bullhorn came back. 'It don't matter. We've got our marching orders.'
'I've also got Michelle Browne,' I hollered.
'That don't matter none either,' came back the bullhorn enhanced cracker voice.
Jock yelled from the back of the house. 'I'm in place.'
'Go when you hear the first shot,' I said.
'Got it,' said Jock.
I could see the guy standing in the middle of the courtyard with the bullhorn to his mouth. He'd turn to the side occasionally and spit. 'If you don't come outta there, I'm gonna turn my boys loose,' he said.
I shot him in the chest. I moved my sights just to his right and pulled the trigger again. Logan took out the one at the end of the firing line, and then the next one. I knocked another over and moved to the next one.
By then, they were getting the message. They'd gone prone on the ground, and were backing to the cover of the cabins. Five of them lay dead on the courtyard.
Just as I fired the first shot, I heard the first of a series of explosions. Jock was throwing the hand grenades with deadly accuracy. The explosions kept coming, one after the other. After the fifth one, there was quiet. Jock called out, 'I think I got them all. Let's go.'
Simmermon was still on the floor. He lay there, his arms shielding his head, whimpering. I kicked him. 'Get up, you sorry bastard,' I said.
'No. I'll die.'
I put the muzzle of my rifle in his ear. 'You're going to die if you don't get your sorry ass on your feet.'
He came to his hands and knees and then to his feet.
I took Peggy by the hand and led her to the back of the house, nudging Simmermon with my rifle. Logan kept firing out the window at the fleeing guards. As I got to the back of the house, I called for Logan to join us. He came on the run.
I put Peggy's hand in Jock's. 'Take her back to the boat. Logan, you bring up the rear, and take care of Simmermon. I'm going to stay here for a minute or two to make sure none of the bad guys are still up for a fight.'
They went out the back door. I stood in the darkness, staring through the night vision goggles. A wave of disgust washed over me. I'd just killed several men and scared the piss out of some others. I wondered if they were just young men caught up in this in the same way Peggy was. I hoped not. I wanted them to be really bad guys. Maybe I'd feel better about killing them.
I didn't see any movement. I headed out the back of the house, found the trail, and walked carefully toward the boat. As I got close, I heard Logan say in a loud whisper, 'Matt?'
'It's me,' I said. 'I'm coming in.'
Logan had stopped about a hundred feet from the water, guarding the rear, giving jock and Peggy time to get onto the boat. He'd tied the preacher's hands with some twine and stuffed a handkerchief in his mouth as a gag.
We eased our way toward the shoreline. Jock and Peggy crouched in the bushes near the water. Jock turned and put his finger to his lips.
We crawled up to where Jock was hiding. He put his finger to his lips again, and then pointed toward the boat. There was a figure standing in the water at the bow. In the green glow of the goggles, I saw the man standing in knee-deep water, talking into a handheld radio. Then I saw movement at the stern. Somebody was trying to board Recess.
I touched Logan on the shoulder and pointed to the man at the bow. I pointed to myself and then to the figure at the stern. Logan's old infantry training kicked in. He raised his rifle, pointing at the man at the bow. Just as he fired, I shot the man on the stern. Both bodies crumpled into the water.
'Let's go,' I shouted.
Jock boosted Peggy up onto the boat while Logan and I stood watching the shoreline.
'Okay,' Jock said, 'I've got it. Come on aboard.' He was scanning the shoreline, rifle at the ready.
I reached down and tugged at the anchor, loosening it in the sandy bottom. Logan shoved Simmermon up the ladder and into the cockpit. I climbed up the stern after Logan, got to the helm, and used the windlass to retrieve the anchor. I cranked the big Yamahas, turned the boat on its axis, and came on plane as I ran the reciprocal course of the one we'd come in on. If I ran aground, we'd be in big trouble. Simmermon was lying on the deck, and Jock and Logan were putting new clips in their rifles.
We roared into the turn into the Boca Grande Channel, and set a course for Naples. I wasn't going back to Key West that night. As we came around the northern end of Blood Island, I heard Logan curse. I turned to see what the problem was. Two go-fast boats full of riflemen were rounding the head of the island, heading straight for
