Payne smiled as he grabbed his Glock. “I’m going to play hero.”
CHAPTER 61
USING
the darkness as his ally, Payne moved quietly toward the mouth of the tunnel, hoping to eliminate Holmes and Greene before they even knew what hit them. But as he approached the tall iron fence that surrounded the estate, he soon realized that there was more going on than a simple escape. Instead of slipping away from the house unnoticed, Holmes and Greene were trying to smuggle several slaves out of Kotto’s house as well.
“D.J.,” Payne whispered into his headset. “What’s your position? I need your input up here.”
A few seconds later Jones slipped into the bushes next to him. “You rang?”
“Take a look at them. Does this make any sense to you?”
Jones watched closely as the duo pulled two cloaked slaves from the tunnel and shoved them forcibly to the ground. Then, when Greene was satisfied with their positioning, he went back to the tunnel while Holmes hovered over the first pair with a handgun.
“No sense at all,” Jones answered. “They must have something up their sleeves, otherwise they’d be heading for the hills by now.”
“That’s what I figured, but what?”
Jones shrugged. “I don’t know, but it has to be something creative. They aren’t going to hold us off all by themselves.”
“Something creative, huh? See, that’s what I can’t figure out. What the hell could these guys come up with on such short notice? I mean, it’s not like they have a lot of experience with . . .”
. The word sent shivers down Payne’s spine, for he suddenly remembered what Holmes and Greene were experienced with. Of course! It made perfect sense. The reason they weren’t leaving was because they
to stay nearby in order to complete their plans-just like when they blew up the Plantation.
Without delay, Payne hit the button on his radio and spoke directly to Sanchez. “Juan, get out of the house! Do you read me? Clear the area, now!”
“But, sir, we haven’t completed our objective. Do you understand? We haven’t-”
“Screw your objective, Juan! The house is hot. Get out at once!”
A few seconds passed before Sanchez replied. “But, sir, Ariane might still be in here.”
The notion hit Payne like a sucker punch. God, how could he have forgotten about her? How was that possible?
It took him a moment to shake off the guilt-for forgetting Ariane in her time of need
for the command that he was about to issue-but once he thought things through, he realized he couldn’t allow his personal feelings to interfere with his duties as squad leader. No matter how much he loved Ariane and how willing he was to give up his life for hers, he knew he didn’t have a choice. This wasn’t
. He couldn’t risk the lives of several men to save one person. That just wasn’t acceptable, especially since they were here as a personal favor.
After taking a deep breath to clear his mind, Payne turned his radio back on and said the most painful thing he’d ever had to say. “What is it about my order that you don’t understand? Get out of the house now!”
*
LEVON
Greene helped Hannibal Kotto to his feet before giving Edwin Drake a much-needed hand. Neither of the businessmen was thrilled with sneaking to freedom through the escape tunnel that started in the mansion’s basement, but once they were assured that it was the only way to get away from the MANIACs, Kotto and Drake relented.
“What now?” asked Drake as he dusted off his white cloak. “Do we make a run for it?”
Greene chuckled at the thought. “A run for it? Do you actually think we can outrun an entire platoon of soldiers? Fuck that! There will be no running from anything.”
Kotto heard the comment and moved forward. “Then how are we going to escape? Is someone coming to meet us?”
“No,” Greene assured him, “there’s no one coming to meet us. Octavian and I are going to take care of the MANIACs all by ourselves.”
“You’re what?” Kotto turned toward Holmes, looking for answers. “How are you going to do that?”
Greene answered cryptically. “Well,
not going to do anything. Your house is.”
“My house is? What kind of rubbish is that?”
Greene smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small detonator. “Not rubbish,
– because that’s what your house is gonna be in a couple of seconds. With a touch of this button, your house and our problems are going bye-bye.”
PAYNE
was relieved when the first wave of MANIACs made it across the moat, but they weren’t the men that he was truly worried about. That group was team two, the soldiers who were looking for the secret tunnel. Since they were ordered deep within the bowels of the basement, Payne knew it would take them much longer to evacuate.
He just hoped it wouldn’t take too long.
“All out,” declared Shell, who was the leader of the first team. “Should we secure the periphery as ordered, or lag here to assist the others?”
“Your orders still hold.” Payne wanted everyone as far away from the house as quickly as possible. “Be advised that six people have been spotted outside the fence. Repeat, six outside the fence. And some of them could be friendly.”
“Half dozen on the run: some cowboys, some Indians.” Shell waved his men forward before continuing his transmission. “Don’t worry, sir. We won’t let you down.”
Payne nodded as he turned toward Jones. “What can you see?”
He answered while peering through his night-vision goggles. “The two people on the ground seem to be slaves. Greene just kicked the one on the right.”
“Can you make out their faces?”
Jones shook his head. “Their cloaks prevent it. But if I were a betting man, I’d say the one getting kicked is a man. He’s way too big to be a female.”
Payne cursed softly. That meant the odds of Ariane being inside the house just increased. “And what about the other?”
“No idea. It could be Ariane, but I really don’t know.”
“Keep me posted,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’m going forward to help Sanchez’s crew.”
“You’re what?”
“I’m going to give them a hand. I’d lend them two if I could, but all I’ve got is one.”
Before Jones could argue, Payne sprinted full speed toward the moat. He wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do once he got there, but there was no way in hell he was going to sit passively while some of his men were still in danger. His men were his responsibility, and he was going to do everything he could to guarantee their safety-even if it meant risking his own life.
Once Payne reached the edge of the moat, he cast his eyes downward and studied the fifteen-by-twelve-foot trench that extended for several hundred feet around the base of the entire mansion. The walls of the pit were made of seamless concrete and had been laid with a steep slope to impede the climb of possible intruders. To
