his balance and sliding off, plummeting twenty feet to the white concrete. He reached the sloping tail and could see nothing; everything was encased in metal… no, not everything! Straddling the sleek body while holding on to the rising tail, he leaned over and spotted two thick, ropelike cables that branched off into the right aileron. Working furiously, his sweat dripping and rolling down the shiny metal, he could feel the wire cutters doing their work as succeeding strands of the top cable sprang loose. Suddenly there was a loud snap—too loud, a massive crack in the still night—as a whole louvred section of the aileron thumped down into a vertical position. He had done it; his backup was secure.
Running feet! Shouts from below. '?Que cosa? ?Que dese?' Beneath the tail assembly the guard stood on the concrete, his rifle angled up in his right arm aimed at Evan while his left hand reached for the radio alarm clipped to his belt.
The Icarus Agenda
Chapter 42
It could not happen! As if he had suddenly lost all balance, all control, Kendrick raised his arms as he slid off the fuselage, crashing the wire cutters down into the stock of the rifle. The guard started to cry out in pain as the weapon was whipped out of his arm to the ground, but before the scream could reach a crescendo Emilio was on him, crashing the blunt end of his hatchet into the man's skull.
'Can you move?’ the Mexican asked Evan, whispering. 'We must leave here! Quickly! The other guard will run over to this side.'
Writhing on the concrete, Evan nodded his head and struggled to his feet, picking up the wire cutters and the rifle as he rose. 'Get him out of here,' he said, instantly realizing that he did not have to give the order; Emilio was dragging the unconscious man across the helipad into the tall grass. Limping, his left ankle and his right knee burning with pain, Kendrick followed.
'I have made a mistake,' said the Mexican, shaking his head and still whispering. 'We have only one chance… I watched you as you walked. We can never reach the dock and the boats without being seen before the other guard will understand he has no compauero.' Emilio pointed to his oblivious countryman. 'In the darkness I must be him, and get close enough before the other one realizes I am not.'
'He'll shout first, ask you what happened. What'll you say?'
'I stepped into the grass to relieve myself and struck a large sharp rock in my haste. I will limp as you are limping and offer to show him where I bleed.'
'Can you get away with it?'
'Pray to the Virgin that I can. Otherwise we both die.' The Mexican rose and slung the rifle over his shoulder. 'One request, please,' he added. 'This guarda is not a bad man, and he has family in El Suazal, where there is no work at all. Bind his legs and his arms and stuff his mouth with his own clothes. I cannot kill him.'
'Do you know who the other guard is?' asked Evan harshly.
'No.'
'Suppose you can't kill him, either?'
'Why is it a problem? I am a strong fisherman from El Descanso when there are boats that will hire me. I can bind him myself—or bring back another companero for us.'
The second option was not to be. No sooner had the limping Emilio reached the dirt road at the side of the helipad than the south guard came running down. As they drew closer there was a brief exchange in Spanish, then suddenly a vocal eruption from one of the two men and it was not the fisherman from El Descanso. Silence instantly followed and moments later Emilio returned.
'No companero,' said Kendrick, not asking a question.
'That snarling rata would claim his mother is a whore if the policia paid him enough!'
'“Would,” as in the past tense?'
'No comprende.'
