Stalemate

duty that night.'

She watched him walk away and drew a deep breath.

So far, so good.

'Armandariz should be in the glade just ahead,' Soldono murmured. 'I can't go any farther. He said for you to come alone. I'll stay here and guard your back.'

'If Armandariz has as many guards milling around as he did in the camp, that's not going to be very effective.' She moved down the path. 'But thanks for the thought.'

'Don't push him too hard,' Soldono said. 'He wasn't eager for this meeting. If he gets too angry with you for lying to him, he might cut your throat.'

'I'll push him as hard as I have to.' She strained her eyes to see in the darkness that was only marginally lessened by the coming dawn. 'I have no choice.'

Soldono was leaning against a tree and straightened when she came down the path an hour later. 'I was getting worried.'

'So was I.' She started down the trail. 'He didn't want to believe me. I was too convincing before.'

'But he finally did?'

'After telling me that if I didn't leave Colombia by the end of the week, I'd go home in a casket.'

'But he didn't give you the reconstruction?'

'On the contrary, he threw it at me.'

'You don't have it with you.'

'I hid it on the way back. I couldn't chance Montalvo catching me and taking it away. I'll pick it up on the way to meet Diaz.' She paused. 'I'm going to need your help there too. Phone Venable and tell him to have one of his men pick me up here at ten tonight and drive me to the hill outside of Diaz's village. I'll make my own way from there.'

'He's already consented to giving you the helicopter escort. He might not want to-'

'Just ask him.'

'What about Montalvo? He's no dummy. Won't he know you're up to something?'

'I'll be visible during the early evening and he won't expect me to stick around later.' She added grimly, 'He knows I'm mad as hell with him and our relationship has been very cool.' She looked up at the sky and started to trot. 'It's beginning to turn light. We have to get back to the compound…'

11:55 P.M.

Nekmon phoned Diaz at the church a few minutes before midnight. 'She's coming. She's down from the hill and just came out of the forest.'

'Alone?'

'Yes, absolutely.' Nekmon paused. 'She's not carrying anything.'

'She said she wouldn't bring it to the church. She'd just better have it close by.' He turned to Joe Quinn. 'She's coming to rescue you. Isn't that sweet? What devotion. I do love to see a woman protect her man. Too bad she believes she's trading you in for a new model.'

'You're lying.'

'I have a few doubts myself but since I have little faith in the human race, I think it likely she's as faithless as most women. Montalvo had the reputation for being very good with the ladies when he was in the rebel army. Sex is sex.'

'Shut up, Diaz.'

'Ugly.' He backhanded him across the face. 'Will you never learn? I really should take you back to the castle instead of proceeding with the current plan. I didn't get my fill of you.'

Joe's eyes were blazing in his bleeding face. 'Do it. Let's go.'

'So that I won't get my chance at Eve Duncan? She really doesn't deserve you. How can I convince you of that?'

'You can't.'

'Nevertheless, I'll try. Disillusionment can be a torture in itself, I've discovered. Women are instinctively self-serving, Quinn. They try to mask it by preaching fairness and goodness but it's always to make their own position in life more secure. Christian behavior dictates that they be treated with kindness and tolerance. It doesn't matter how they interfere with a man's drive to better himself. It's always best to use them and then walk away. You'll know better next time.'

Joe didn't answer.

'Providing you go on living after tonight.' Diaz moved over to the window. He could see the woman walking swiftly through the cemetery. She should be here in a few minutes.

She was passing his mother's tomb now. Do you see her, Mother? She's another one like you. So sure she's right. Despising me for being evil and yet she excuses her own sins. It's going to be a pleasure killing her. Just as it was a pleasure killing you.

Eve stood before the church door, hesitating. 'Diaz.'

'Come in,' he called. 'We're waiting for you.'

'That's what I'm afraid of,' she said. 'Come out into the open and bring Joe with you.'

'You don't trust me?' he asked mockingly. 'I don't know why. Haven't I done everything you've asked?'

'You're entirely too fond of torture. What's to stop you from grabbing me as soon as I walk through those doors and trying to make me tell you where I placed the skull?'

'An excellent idea.'

'Come out here.'

'Did it occur to you that I could have had a sniper behind every tombstone in the cemetery to pick you off?'

'As you must know, Venable's helicopter pilot did a sweep before I left the forest.' She held up a small radio receiver. 'He said that there were possibly two men in the forest but none in the cemetery.'

He chuckled. 'There are three in the forest. And any one of them could have killed you before you reached here.'

'But that wouldn't have served you. What about the skull?'

'Yes, what about the skull? Where is it?'

'Bring Joe out and we'll talk about it.'

He turned and said over his shoulder, 'Come along, Quinn. The lady has a desire to see your handsome face.'

A moment later he appeared in the doorway. 'Here we are. Now tell me where the skull is.'

He looked no different from the newspaper photo she had seen of him. A little heavier, a little older, perhaps. 'I'm not going to-' She inhaled sharply as she saw Joe with hands bound behind his back, behind Diaz. 'My God. What did you do to him?'

'Nothing much. I had no time,' Diaz said. 'He was unconscious at first and then I had to be careful to make sure I had something to trade you.'

The bruises on Joe's swollen face made him almost unrec-ognizable. 'It must have been a real thrill beating up on an unarmed man.'

'You shouldn't have interfered, Eve,' Joe said. 'Why the hell did you?'

'If you don't know the answer to that, then there's no use talking to you.' She