“There’s a fire, sir,” Guido said, pointing as if Tucker couldn’t see the smoke.
“How did it start?” he replied.
At first, none of them answered. Finally, Tucker reached out and grabbed Guido by the shirt, pulling him in close.
“How did it start?” he asked again, this time through clenched teeth.
“We’d lit a little oil lamp, sir,” Guido said. He was one of the smaller mercenaries. “When the explosion buckled the floor, the lamp fell on some bar rags or something.”
“Put it out,” Tucker said, shoving him against the nearest wall.
The three men turned and rushed away. Tucker walked to the door and saw flames on the bar, licking up the wall beside the back door. He saw the blackened shell of the lamp still lying on the ground. They hadn’t even bothered to pick it up. His men began beating at the flames with towels and rags. Futile. Stupid.
“There has to be a fire extinguisher around here,” Tucker shouted. “Find it!”
Just then, he spotted the empty wine bottle on the near end of the bar. It was the breaking point. He’d contained his emotions by sheer force of will, as he usually did, but his whole body was shaking with it now. Reaching out, he snatched up the bottle and flung it at Burgers who was still fighting the flames. The young mercenary wasn’t ready for it, and the bottle hit him in the forehead. It broke, pieces flying in all directions.
“If you scum ruin this mission, you’ll never make it off this island alive,” Tucker shouted. “Mark my words, I want blood!”
Spence was huddled over the bank of video screens when Elna stepped into the surveillance room. At first, she started to sit down in the chair next to him, but it made her back and shoulders hurt too much. Instead, she leaned against the back of the chair. Malin stood in the door. The others had been taken into the makeshift clinic room, where Dr. Ruzka was treating their wounds.
After the explosion, everyone in the bunker had rushed to the central room, and most of them were still there. Daniel and Chloe were currently trying to calm poor Sniffy, but the dog was not having it. The explosion had finally tipped him over the edge, and he was back to his furious barking self.
“I just wanted you to see this,” Spence said, pointing at the screen on the lower left corner. “We can see through the window here, and the mercenaries are frantic.”
Elna gazed at the screen. It was one of the more alarming hidden cameras, the one that gave a view of the back of the guesthouse, including the back door and the windows into the tasting room. Through a window, she saw smoke gathering near the ceiling. But Spence tapped his finger in a corner of the screen, and she noticed people moving through another window. Mercenaries in black clothing. One of them appeared to be clutching his face, as another man—a much larger man—advanced on him, the neck of a broken wine bottle in his hand.
“We’re pretty sure this guy is in charge,” Spence said, pointing at the larger guy. “He’s not happy. Beating the crap out of his men.”
“Good,” Elna said, but her heart sank. The tasting room was on fire. Would the whole building burn up?
As she thought it, she felt a hand on her back. She looked up to see Malin. He gave her a sad smile.
“Home is about who you’re with,” he said, as if reading her mind. “Not about a place. At least we made it out of there without more casualties.”
“Yeah,” she replied. He was right, of course, but she couldn’t help feeling the loss. And she couldn’t help wanting revenge against the men who had invaded her home.
28
Those who were able gathered around a table in the central room. They retrieved some of the folding card tables from the game room and laid down the dirty, damaged bunker map. Among the Marines, Spence, Golf, Prig, Mac, and Cat were present. Among the islanders, Elna, Malin, Raymond, and Norman were present. Selene and Pop were being treated for wounds. Miriam, Danny, and Chloe were in the corner with Sniffy, and the poor Dulleses were huddled together on a bunk at the far end of the barracks room.
Elna had trouble finding a comfortable position to sit in, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of her injuries. Nothing appeared to be broken, and there were pressing matters at hand. She wouldn’t miss out. However, as Prig spread out the map on the table, she couldn’t help leaning over and resting her head in her hands.
“Your skull still ringing from the explosion?” Malin said, leaning in close to whisper in her ear.
“Absolutely,” she replied. “I feel like my brains got scrambled. But…” She sat up and swept her hair back behind her ears. “I’ll be fine.”
Prig tapped the back corridor on the map. “Well, it’s a shame about Fish, but he was reliable to the end, guys. We got that passageway down. The mercenaries won’t be coming at us from that direction. That’s the good news.”
“I always thought Fish was indestructible,” Spence said. He had a tiny scrap of paper caught between his first and middle finger, and Elna realized it was the last piece of his last Mentos package. The
