“Who’s gonna stop you?” Greene smiled at Holmes. They had discussed this moment back at the house, and Greene had volunteered for the duty. “Me, my Glock, and I.”
Greene pulled his trigger and the thunderous blast echoed off the water and the surrounding trees. The bullet struck Jackson in his forehead and plowed into his brain with the finesse of a bulldozer. Then, as if in slow motion, Jackson slumped to the edge of the dock and hung there for just a second before he tumbled into the water with a loud splash.
“Nice shot,” Holmes remarked. His nonchalant tone suggested that Greene had just made a free throw in a game of HORSE. “Try to keep your elbow in more. It’ll improve your accuracy.”
“Thanks. I’ll have to remember that the next time I kill someone.”
Holmes glanced at his watch and realized time was running short. “That might be sooner than you think. We have to take care of Webster before we leave. Why don’t you give him a call and see what’s keeping him?”
Greene nodded. The adrenaline from killing Jackson surged through him, practically making him giddy. “Breaker, breaker, one nine,” he said, laughing. “Theo, do you read me?”
There was a slight delay before Webster answered. “I’m here, Levon.”
“Where’s here, Theo? We’ve been waiting for you at the dock.”
Another pause. “I’m up at the house. I figured we’d have to flee, and I wanted to pack a few things before we left.”
“No problem.” This would work out well for Holmes and Greene. They needed to stop by the house before they left the island anyway. “I’ll tell ya what, why don’t we swing by the mansion and help you out with your things?”
Relief filled Webster’s voice. “That would be great. I wasn’t looking forward to going down to the dock by myself. I’m not very good with guns.”
A wide grin returned to Greene’s face. “Don’t worry, Theo. I am.”
PAYNE
patted Webster on his head, then took the radio from his hands. “You did great. You sounded very natural.”
But he refused to speak. Instead, he slumped in his chair and pouted about getting caught.
“What now?” Jones asked as he chewed on his first food in what felt like days. “We got them coming here, but what are we going to do with them when they arrive?”
Payne flicked Webster on his ear. “I say we make a trade. I’ll gladly give up Theo here if they give us Ariane. As far as I’m concerned, anything we get after that will be icing.”
Jones swallowed a mouthful of apple and decided it was the best goddamned piece of fruit he had ever eaten. “Speaking of icing,” he said as he searched the pantry for anything that resembled cake. A box of Twinkies was the only thing he could find. “Once we get Ariane to safety, will we have time to hunt down Levon?”
“I don’t care what we do as long as you understand that she’s the number one priority here. After that, I’ll back you on anything that your heart desires.”
“Cool,” he mumbled as he stuffed half a Twinkie into his mouth.
While Jones chewed the yellow cake, Blount entered the kitchen from the security office. “They’ll be here any second. I just saw ’em pull their truck onto the road from the dock.”
Webster stared at Blount in disbelief. It was the first time he’d heard Bennie speak normally.
“What kind of truck?” Payne wondered.
“Flatbed. Both guys are in the front, but it appears they have some hostages in the back.”
Payne prayed one of them was Ariane. “Were they guys or girls?”
Blount shrugged. “Kind of looked like females, but don’t quote me on it.”
Jones continued eating Twinkies as he ran several different scenarios through his mind. Finally, he came across one that he liked. “Okay, fellas, this is how we’ll play it. Instead of picking these guys off from a distance- which I could do with my eyes closed-I think it’d be best if we dealt with them up close and personal.”
“Why’s that?” Payne demanded.
“First of all, if I kill these guys long-range, there’s no one to stop their speeding truck. I mean, the last thing we want is for Ariane to smash into a tree with a bomb strapped to her leg.”
“Good point.”
“Secondly, I get the feeling Holmes has been running things, and if that’s the case, it’d be foolish to kill him without interrogating him first. There’s no telling where he has slaves stored, and if we shoot him, there’s a chance we won’t be able to find them for a very long time.”
Payne groaned at the possibilities. “Isn’t a face-to-face confrontation kind of risky?”
“Definitely. And if you’d prefer, I’m still willing to pick these guys off with a scope. Of course, keep this in mind: Ariane
be one of those hidden slaves.”
THEY drove straight to the house, across the grass of the main yard. Once they had stopped, Holmes honked the horn, hoping Webster would come to the front door. It worked. He immediately swung the door open, sticking his head out of the narrow crack.
“Can you guys come inside and give me a hand? I’m not strong enough to carry this stuff.”
Greene looked at Holmes and frowned. He didn’t have a clean shot from his current position, and by the time he raised his weapon, Webster would be able to duck inside the house.
“Before we do,” Greene countered, “we want you to give us a hand with something.”
“Really? What do you need?”
Greene glanced at Holmes and shrugged. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.
Holmes jumped to his rescue with the first thing that popped into his head. “The guards have Payne and Jones cornered by the swamp, and we need help flushing ’em out. You’re the smartest guy here, so we figured you could come up with something.”
A grimace filled Webster’s face. He didn’t know what to make of Holmes’s comment, but he realized something strange was going on. “Guys, I’d hate to waste my time going all the way down to the swamp for nothing. Are you sure you have them cornered?”
“Oh, yeah,” Greene claimed. “We got ’em trapped all right. I made the identification myself. Now we just need some help flushing ’em out.”
Payne, who was hiding behind the door, sensed Webster’s desire to make a break for the truck, so he tightened his grip on him before he could move.
“Don’t even think about it,” he whispered. “Tell them you can’t leave until they come inside and give you a hand. Insist if you have to.”
Webster obeyed. “Guys, I can’t help you right now. I’ve got other things to worry about
.” He tilted his head toward the door in an effort to signal Holmes and Greene, but they didn’t understand what he was pointing to. “I think it would be best if you gave me a hand.”
Greene growled softly as he watched Webster twitch his head. He couldn’t believe how swiftly he was becoming unglued. “I don’t know what your deal is, but we need you in the truck right now. Time is running out, so let’s go.”
“Come on!” Holmes shouted. “We need your help immediately!”
Webster tried to move toward the truck but wasn’t strong enough to tear away from Payne. In fact, the only thing that he managed to do was piss him off.
“Do that again and I’ll bite off your fucking ear.”
“Come on,” Holmes repeated. “Let’s go! Now!”
“I can’t come,” Webster assured him. “I’d like to, but I can’t. I really can’t.”
Greene had heard enough. The cops were probably on their way, and the only thing that stood between him and freedom was a 150-pound computer geek. Angrily, Greene threw his door open and climbed out. “I’m sick of this. Come out here now before you really piss me off.”
He accented his statement with a slam of the truck door.
And that was what Jones and Blount had been waiting for. They quietly opened their windows on the second floor of the plantation house and thrust their weapons outside. Once they had settled into comfortable positions,
