The Collected

A quick search of the room at the base of the wall revealed a separate storage area filled with extra gear for the soldiers.

The men each donned one of the spare uniforms. None was small enough for Orlando.

“You two stay here while Daeng and I do a recon,” Quinn told Orlando and Nate.

“You don’t know the place. I do,” Nate said. “I should go.”

“I’m guessing you’re a pretty hot commodity around here right now. As much as I’d like you to come, best if you stay under wraps as long as possible.”

“Don’t you dare cut me out,” Nate said.

“Not cutting you out. Just making the smart play.”

Nate locked eyes with him for a moment before he reluctantly nodded. “Okay, okay. I’ll stay for now.”

Daeng’s Asian features would be impossible for anyone to miss if they got too close. But at a distance and with the bill of his cap pulled down far enough, his dark skin and black hair would actually be an asset.

They took a stone stairwell up to a hallway on the next level, and, after a few minutes, located the hallway with the rooms where Nate and the others had been held. Since there were no guards around, it seemed a pretty good guess that the prisoners weren’t around either.

Just to be sure, Quinn made a quick trip down the block, while Daeng stood guard outside, and checked the cells. Though it was obvious they were being used, all were empty.

Quinn and Daeng followed Nate’s directions on how to get from there to the courtyard. A few times, they heard footsteps down intersecting halls but had yet to cross paths with anyone.

Upon reaching the courtyard door, Quinn eased it back a few inches and peered out. He realized why they hadn’t seen anyone else. Most everyone who was still in the fort was in the courtyard. He could see a portion of the top of the wall. There were three soldiers spread out along it, and in the actual courtyard were four more. There was also a big blond guy sitting in a chair, soaking up the sun. He had to be Janus.

“Watch out for him,” Nate had said as he briefed them. “He’s a tough son of a bitch.”

The most shocking sight was the four figures with black bags over their heads. They were dangling in the air by arms hooked to chains. Their backs were the worst part. They were even more chewed up than Nate’s. It was clear from the blood dripping down that they’d just been whipped again.

Peter, Lanier, Berkeley, and Curson.

Quinn watched each man for a moment to be sure they were all still breathing, then moved to the side and let Daeng take a look. When the Thai man was done, they shut the door.

“Back downstairs,” Quinn whispered. “We need the others.”

On the way back to the stairs, they made a wrong turn and ended up in a hallway they hadn’t been in before. Realizing their mistake, they turned around and started back they way they’d come. A moment after they made the U-turn, they heard a door open. Footsteps in the hallway behind them.

There was a part of Quinn that wanted to pick up the pace and get out of there as quickly as they could, but he knew doing so would bring unwanted attention, so they continued on at a purposeful, but non-rushed pace.

“You, there,” the man behind them yelled.

They kept moving, pretending like they hadn’t heard.

“Hey, I’m talking to you.”

“Stop,” Quinn whispered. “But only I will turn.”

Quinn faced the man who’d called them. He had expected the speaker to be another soldier, but instead he was looking at Harris, the bald former mercenary himself. Quinn kept his expression neutral.

“Tell your commander that I’ll be in my room and am to be notified the moment the fugitive is brought in.”

“Yes, sir,” Quinn replied.

Harris opened a nearby door and passed inside. Quinn marked the location in his mind, and told Daeng who he’d just seen.

“If Harris is here,” Daeng said, “then Romero’s got to be somewhere nearby, right?”

“One would think so.”

“When they brought us back, Janus and one of the guards would come into the cell with me,” Nate said. “I couldn’t see what was going on with the others, but it sounded like the same thing.”

Nate told them that so far, after every torture session, they would leave the prisoners outside for a while before taking them back to their cells to await the next event. That was good. Quinn had been worried they would just be left in the courtyard. Making an assault there would have been a quick way to get one or most of the prisoners and themselves killed. The guards on the wall would quickly pick everyone off before Quinn and the rest had a chance to do much of anything.

When they finally settled on a solution they all thought would work, Quinn said, “From this point forward, if someone’s in your way, kill them. Understood?”

It wasn’t a hard sell. Though none of their job descriptions was that of professional killer, they had all killed before. Given what had been happening at Fort Duran, none of them would take issue with doing so again.

They checked their comm-gear, got into their positions, and waited.

The pounding of feet echoed down the hallway, signaling the imminent arrival of the prisoners back to their cellblock.

“Daeng, are they to you yet?” he said into the radio.

Daeng was in a room down the hall with the door open but lights off. His would be the first position they passed.

“Seconds away,” Daeng whispered.

Quinn and Orlando were in the same hallway, but on the other side of the door to the cellblock, hidden by the curve of the corridor. Nate was in the cellblock itself, at the far end, tucked around the elbow turn of the hall he’d used to escape.

There was a click over the radio-Daeng letting them know the soldiers and prisoners were outside his door. A few seconds later, he whispered, “Four guards and that big blond.”

“Copy,” Quinn replied.

“Copy,” Nate chimed in.

The footsteps kept coming, until it almost seemed as if they would pass the cellblock entrance and head right around the curve of the hall to where Quinn and Orlando waited. But then, not quite in perfect synchronization, the prisoner detail stopped.

The door to the other hallway opened with a creak, and the ragtag march started up again as the prisoners were led inside. As soon as the door closed, Quinn and Orlando came around the corner and stepped over to it. Daeng joined them a few seconds later.

“In position,” Quinn said into his mic.

A single click from Nate. Message received.

Quinn grabbed the door handle, ready to pull the door open as soon as Nate gave them the two clicks that meant go.

Nate stood as close to the corner as he could possibly get, waiting for the preplanned moment. It wasn’t hard to imagine what was going on. In front of every cell, a soldier-and-prisoner pair stood waiting until Janus deemed it was their turn to go in.

A door opened, then three sets of steps-Janus, a guard, and a prisoner. As they passed into the cell, the sounds of their movements diminished.

Janus’s voice drifted down to him. “Do not get too comfortable. You will not be here long.” This was followed by a laugh, and the sound of Janus and the guard exiting the cell and closing the door.

One down.

Nate continued to listen as the second prisoner and then the third were put back in their rooms.

When the door to the third cell shut, he clicked his radio once. Be ready.

The fourth cell opened. Janus and one of the guards took the last prisoner inside.