Greene’s bass-filled voice emerged from the center of the huddle. “That’s because we’ve been waiting for you. Now that you’re here, I guess we can start this shit.”
“Oh, goody!” Jones mocked. “But before we begin, I think it’s only fair if I introduced the rest of my negotiating team. Fellas, why don’t you come out and say hello?”
Like ghosts emerging from a sea of fog, the MANIACs simply materialized out of nothingness. One second they weren’t visible to the naked eye, and the next they were standing with weapons raised, like Spartans waiting for an approaching horde.
“As you can see,” Jones continued, “we outnumber you by a large margin.”
“What, is that supposed to scare us?” Holmes screamed, his head bobbing ever so slightly as he did. “You might outnumber us, but there’s no way you can shoot us without endangering the hostages. And trust me, if you guys come any closer, I’ll kill one of them myself.”
Jones smiled at the threat while taking another step forward. “I don’t believe that for a second. Why? Because if you hurt anyone, you’ll be killed. I know it, and you know it. Hell, everyone here knows it. So why even bother to threaten us? It’s just so cliched.”
“Maybe so, but it’s the truth! I wonder how Payne would feel if I sliced up that tasty bitch of his? How do you think he’d like that?”
“That’s a good question. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
“I would, if he showed his face. Where’s that pussy hiding?”
Payne answered the question by tapping Holmes on the shoulder. “Right behind you.”
Like a well-orchestrated magic trick, Payne had used his assistant to lure everyone’s attention forward while the key maneuvering was being done in the background. Of course, now that the deception was over, Payne needed to finish the performance in grand style. He did so by sliding his knife across his enemy’s throat with assassinlike perfection. Crimson gushed from Holmes’s carotid artery, staining the front of his cloak like a wounded deer in the snow, but that wasn’t good enough for Payne. He immediately tossed Holmes over his shoulder and finished him off by falling backward and slamming his elbow into the bridge of his nose. The maneuver drove Holmes’s nasal bone into his brain with brutal efficiency.
Death was instantaneous.
With his first rival vanquished, Payne sprang to his feet and searched the huddle in front of him for his next target. Unfortunately, despite his speed, Payne was still too slow for Greene, who had latched onto Ariane’s throat at the first sign of trouble. He was currently shoving a .45-caliber pistol against the side of her head.
“Stay back!” Greene demanded as he dragged her toward the tunnel. “I swear to God, if you come any closer, I’ll kill her.”
“Calm down!” Payne pleaded. “Don’t do anything stupid. Just relax.”
But Payne knew that would be tough, because he was having a difficult time doing it himself.
He had been a rock-poised and relaxed-when he crept up on Holmes, but some of his composure disappeared when he got his first real glimpse of Ariane since this ordeal had started.
One look and his heart started racing.
“Are you all right?” Payne asked.
“Been better,” she mumbled with her swollen jaw. “And you?”
“Pretty damn good,” he lied. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for a while. You’re a difficult girl to track down.”
“Sorry about that. I’ve been doing some traveling.”
“Traveling?” Payne took a step closer, looking for an opening. “Come on, why don’t you just admit it? You’ll do anything to get out of an ass-kicking on the golf course.”
“Darn, you finally figured me out. All of this has been-”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Greene yelled. “Your love-sick banter is driving me
.” To prove his point, he tightened his grip on Ariane’s neck, nearly cutting off her airway. “This is my time to talk, not yours! Do you got that, Payne? My time!”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Go ahead and talk. I’m listening. I swear.”
Greene took a deep breath. “First of all, tell your men to get back. When I get anxious, my muscles start to contract, and if that happens, I’m liable to break her fuckin’ neck!”
“Not a problem, Levon. But first you gotta ease up just a little bit. Let her breathe, my man. Just let her breathe.”
“I’m serious, Jon. Get them back!”
“I will, I promise, but only if you stop hurting her.” Payne took another step forward, trying to get as close to Greene as possible. “Come on, Levon, why don’t you just put down your gun and walk away from this? If you do that, I promise we won’t kill you.”
“Great! So, what are you going to do? Cart me back to the U.S., where I’ll be viewed like Michael Vick times a million? Screw that! I get out of this free, or I get slaughtered right here! There’s no quit in me! You should know that. I don’t quit!”
Another step forward. “It’s not quitting, Levon. It’s simply doing the smart thing.”
“Stay where you are, or I’ll kill her! I mean it!”
Payne threw his hands up in acceptance. “I won’t move from here, okay? I just want to talk to you. Don’t do anything stupid. I just want to discuss things.”
“Then tell your men to back off! If all you wanna do is talk, there’s no reason to have them so close!” The tension in his voice proved that he was close to losing it. “What difference is it gonna make if they back up? They’ll still be close enough to kill me if I make a move, so get them to back up!”
Payne looked at Jones and reluctantly nodded. “Not too far, but ease the grip slightly.”
“You heard the captain,” Jones told the men. “Give them ten more feet of breathing space. But if Greene even sneezes, take him out with everything you’ve got.”
The men followed their orders, dropping back several steps but never taking their aim off Greene. When they reached their mark, Jones shouted for them to stop.
“Is that better?” Payne asked. “I did like you wanted, as a sign of good faith. I didn’t have to, but I did. Now, why don’t you do the same for me? Why don’t you give me something?”
“Like what? The only thing you want is the girl, and do you know what? I can see why she means so much to you. I had a chance to check her out in the shower, and let me tell you, she’s one tasty piece of ass.”
Normally, Payne would’ve gone after somebody who made a comment like that, but in this case he all but welcomed it. He realized it was an opportunity that he could use to his advantage.
“Jeez,” he said to Ariane, “you should consider yourself lucky! You’ve always wanted to hook up with an NFL player, and he sounds pretty interested. This might be your big chance.”
Calmly, as if she wasn’t in a life-or-death struggle, Ariane turned her attention to Greene. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that she was supposed to distract him with conversation. “You played in the NFL? Oh, my God, that is so cool! What’s your name?”
But before Greene could speak, Payne answered for him. “That’s Levon Greene. I told you about him, remember? He’s the linebacker I met while playing basketball. You know, the one with the bad left knee.”
“You have a bad knee?” she groaned. “How horrible! That’s one thing I always hated about sports. The moment a player gets hurt, their opponents take advantage of it.”
And then she proved her point.
Slowly, she lifted her left foot until it was directly in front of Greene’s knee. Then, she thrust it backward with as much strength as she could, ramming it into his kneecap at a perfect angle. The pain from the blow caused Greene to howl in agony, but more importantly, it caused him to loosen his grip on her neck, which gave her the chance to get away.
The instant she dove to the ground Payne raised his weapon like a quick-draw artist and fired. Jones did the same from farther back, and the two of them filled Greene with enough bullets to take down a polar bear. Shot after shot entered his chest and neck, causing his body to dance to the rhythm of gunfire. It continued to do so until both of them had emptied their entire clips into the man they had once considered a friend.
When the firing stopped, the MANIACs charged forward to deal with Kotto and Drake and the slaves that remained in the tunnel, but Payne wasn’t worried about any of them. His only concern was Ariane, and he ran to her
