the northwest corner. He touched the zoom. It was Leo Tucker.
He lowered the binoculars and handed them to Nate. “The man on the rock. At the far end.”
“What about him?”
“Just take a look.”
Nate lifted the glasses to his eyes.
“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “Is that…?”
“Is that what?”
Quinn and Nate turned in unison toward the voice that had come from behind them. Orlando was a dozen feet away, crawling between two of the rocks.
Nate smiled, then glanced at Quinn.
“Where the hell have you been?” Quinn asked.
“I was trying to disable the helicopters,” she said. “That’s what you asked, wasn’t it?”
“Doesn’t look like you succeeded.”
“I could only get to one before they showed up,” she said. “Sorry I didn’t get myself shot taking care of the other three.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Quinn said.
“Sure you did. That’s exactly what you meant.”
It wasn’t, but she seemed to be in an arguing mood, so he decided to change the subject. “How’s your shoulder?”
“It’s fine,” she snapped. “What were you two looking at when I walked up?”
“Nothing,” Nate said. “Just looking at the helicopters.”
“Don’t try to lie to me, Nate,” she said. “I can always tell.”
Quinn hesitated a moment, then said, “Give her the glasses.” She needed to know.
Nate looked at Quinn as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly, then held the binoculars out to Orlando. She took the glasses as she knelt down between the two men.
“What am I looking at?” she asked.
Quinn pointed toward Tucker. “There,” he said. “That guy on the boulder.”
It only took her a couple seconds to zero in on him. Once she did, she froze in place, the binoculars seeming to meld with the skin around her eyes.
When she did move them away, her gaze remained riveted on the man on the rock.
“He’s mine,” she said.
Neither Quinn nor Nate argued with her. How could they? She had business with Tucker—the kidnapping of her son, Garrett. The only reason the Australian was still alive was because of the deal he’d made with Quinn to reveal Garrett’s location in exchange for being able to walk away. A deal Orlando had hated, but could think of no alternative solution.
But the deal expired the moment they found Garrett. Though they never talked about it, Quinn knew in Orlando’s mind Tucker had been living under a death sentence to be administered at a time she deemed best—a time that looked like it might soon be approaching.
“Ah … unless we do something fast,” Nate said, “we’re going to lose him.”
“What?”
Nate pointed at the rock Tucker had been standing on. The man was gone.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” he said. “But it looks like they’re all loaded up and ready to go. Our old friend just climbed on board the one farthest from us.”
Nate was right; all but a handful of the men had boarded one of the working helicopters. Within seconds, the helicopter nearest them lifted into the air. The other two soon joined it.
“Down!” Quinn yelled.
They pressed themselves against the rocks as the helicopters rose in the air high enough to spot them. But soon all three aircraft were flying west toward the mountains.
“I think we just lost control of the situation,” Nate said.
“Exactly when did we
“I don’t see a problem,” Orlando said.
“You did see them fly away, right?” Nate said. “All that noise a few seconds ago? The sudden breeze?”
She peeked over the rocks at the remaining helicopter. “I’m betting one of them knows where their friends are headed. We just get them to fly us there.” She smiled, then pulled out a palm-size circuit board from her pocket. “Of course, they’ll need to put this back in first.”
Quinn smiled, thinking that maybe they still had a chance.
Then from the clearing below, they heard a woman scream.
