“Who ar—”
The man dropped to the ground.
Quinn kept his gun on the man as he ran over, but there was no need to pull the trigger a second time. The guard was dead.
He dragged the body over to the elevator door, then removed the M16 from the man’s shoulder and set it on the floor. He ripped the sleeve off the man’s shirt, knowing he’d need it for cleanup. After prying the sliding doors of the elevator apart, he used the guard’s shoulders to wedge them open. He then wiped up a small pool of blood where the man had fallen, and the trail of drops that led back to the elevator.
Once he was done, he dumped the man’s body and the sleeve into the shaft, slung the M16 over his shoulder, then slipped through the doors himself, and over to his waiting rope.
Tucker was pissed.
He had four Superhawk helicopters sitting on the ground, but only three with rotors turning.
“I thought you said everything was working fine,” he shouted at the lead pilot.
“Everything checked out okay when we fired them up last,” the pilot said. “I have our engineer looking at it now. Thinks he might be able to get it up and running in thirty minutes.”
“We don’t have thirty minutes.” Tucker looked back at the helicopters. “God
“We all won’t fit in three.”
“Then some people will just have to stay, won’t they?” Tucker said. “Get back to your aircraft. We go on schedule.”
“Yes, sir.” The pilot turned and walked away.
Tucker brought his radio up to his mouth. “Petersen?”
“Yes?” Petersen’s voice said on the receiver.
“Split the cargo between the three working helicopters. Just don’t put the juice and the special package with the triggering mechanism in the same aircraft. Then divide up the men. Nonessentials stay behind.”
“So the fourth copter’s out, then?”
“At least for now. Those who stay behind can take it out once it’s fixed.”
“Copy,” Petersen said. “Is Delgado with you?”
“I told him to do a final check of both floors before coming up. If he takes too long, assign him to helicopter four.”
“Copy.”
Quinn found Nate on a hill overlooking the makeshift heliport. Again the rocks played into their favor by creating several nooks from which they could observe what was going on without being seen.
“What happened to disabling the helicopters?” Quinn asked.
“Very funny. The crews were already there when I got here. Kind of think they might have seen me if I walked up and started messing with their engines.”
“What about Orlando?”
“I texted her what you wanted us to do, and said I’d meet up with her. She texted back ‘OK,’ but that was it. Haven’t heard anything more from her.”
“Let me see those,” Quinn said, motioning for Nate’s binoculars.
As soon as Nate gave them to him, he raised them to his eyes. Men were moving three-foot-long metal baskets from a truck to the helicopters. In each basket was one of the children.
“Only three of the helicopters are running,” Quinn said.
“Still?” Nate said. “I was thinking they just hadn’t fired the fourth one up yet.”
“Looks like someone’s got an access panel open and is looking inside.”
Quinn continued his scan of the landing area, stopping only when he spotted a man standing on a boulder at 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
