Janus roared, and pounded on the door again. “Open!”
“Not going to happen, either,” Nate said.
Janus turned back. “Let me go!”
“No.”
A frustrated scream filled the space. At first, the big man just stood there, shaking, then something seemed to snap in his mind, and he sprinted toward them as if he were going to rip them apart, piece by piece.
The first bullet slowed him, but didn’t stop him.
The second, the same.
The third brought him to his knees.
The fourth sailed over his head as he collapsed onto the floor.
Quinn and Nate heard steps running down the stairs behind them. They turned quickly, ready to shoot again.
Orlando appeared first.
“Just us,” she said, holding up her hands.
The two men lowered their guns.
Daeng showed up a few seconds later, carrying an old man. Romero, Quinn realized.
“You two had your hands full,” Orlando explained. “So we thought we’d get him while you were occupied.”
“What about Harris?” Quinn asked, worried that the bald man had gotten away.
“No longer a problem,” Daeng said. The look on his face left no question as to what had happened and who had pulled the trigger.
A silent moment passed, then someone yelled from the other side of the door, “Everything all right out there?”
Quinn walked over and said, “You can open up now.”
The hinges creaked as the door swung inward. Lanier looked out, Berkeley and Curson right behind him. Grins broke out when they spotted Janus on the floor, then full smiles at the sight of Romero.
CHAPTER 60
Quinn, Orlando, Nate, and Daeng made a sweep of the entire fort to make sure there weren’t any more of Romero’s soldiers hiding out.
The only other people they found were two other nurses, and the three men who had been handling the cooking and the housekeeping. After a quick discussion, they locked the five of them and the nurse from Romero’s room in the kitchen, where the group could wait for the officials who would descend on the island after they’d been notified.
Once the fort was secured, Quinn and the others made their way up to the top of the wall. Keeping their bodies below the walkway lip, they spread out along the walkway. Quinn turned on the radio they’d taken from one of the soldiers.
“I’ve got a message for the group outside the fort,” he said in Spanish. “Can you hear me?”
Static.
“I’m calling the security force that was sent out to look for the man who escaped. Are you there?”
More static, then, “Who is this?”
“You don’t need to know that. What you
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Mr. Harris, who is now dead, and Mr. Romero, who I’m sure wishes he was. They are not in control of this fort anymore.”
A long pause. “Why should we believe that?”
“I assume you’re close to the wall. Am I right?”
No response.
“Doesn’t matter. I think you’ll get the message.” Quinn clicked off the mic. With his voice raised enough for his friends to hear, he said, “Now.”
As one, they angled their guns toward the jungle without exposing more of themselves than necessary. They let off two shots each.
Quinn keyed the mic again. “Hope we didn’t hit anyone.”
“What do you want?” The man’s tone had done a one-eighty.
“It’s not what
“You’d let us go?”
“Sure, we’ll let you leave,” Quinn said. “Or we could continue hunting you down and killing you off.”
The man took a moment before he spoke again. “Are we supposed to just
“There’s a boat at the other end of the island. We’ll give you thirty minutes to get there and shove off. Anyone left after that will be eliminated. Do we have an understanding?”
Daeng was tasked with shadowing the remaining soldiers and making sure they all boarded the boat and left. While he did that, Quinn called Gogan, the pilot of their private jet, and gave him the coordinates of the island’s airstrip. Then he, Orlando, Nate, and the other former prisoners-with the exception of Peter-moved the bodies of Harris and the dead soldiers into the downstairs room. They decided to leave Janus where he was, his bulk more than any of them wanted to deal with.
When they finished, Orlando retrieved the bag she’d brought downstairs. “For your trouble, gentlemen,” she said as she unzipped the bag and flashed the contents at Lanier, Berkeley, and Curson. “Doesn’t necessarily make up for what happened, but it’s something.” She zipped it back up and tossed it to Lanier.
A little while later, Daeng radioed in that the soldiers had all left. Shortly after that, Gogan called to say he was getting ready to take off and would be there in no more than twenty minutes.
When Quinn hung up, he walked over to where Peter was sitting with Romero.
“We need to head out. Are you ready?” he asked.
“Our friend here is being a little close-lipped,” Peter said. “Doesn’t want to say how he came into possession of our names or found out where I lived.”
“Unfortunate,” Quinn said. “You need a little more time? We could spare maybe another few minutes. You could hook him up to that electroshock machine.”
Peter frowned. “That would only kill him. Rather he died on his own at this point. It’s going to be painful.” He stood up. “Besides, I have a pretty good idea where the leak came from.”
“Well, if you need our help plugging it, you let me know.”
Once the others had all moved outside, Quinn took a last look around to make sure everything was just right.
The weapons the soldiers had been carrying were in a pile against the wall, and the bodies were laid out on the floor in a line. Directly behind them, strapped to a wooden chair, sat Romero. In his office, they had found digital movies of the whippings, with Romero clearly visible, watching the proceedings. Orlando had copied the videos onto two separate memory cards. One she kept. The other was in a plastic bag taped to Romero’s shirt, the words WATCH ME written across the plastic.
Everything in the room looked fine. Once Quinn and the others were in the air, a call would be placed to the Isla de Cervantes state police. The authorities would be told of a gunfight at Fort Duran, and of a band of the surviving rebels racing toward the main island in a speedboat at that very moment.
It wouldn’t provide complete satisfaction for what had happened, but it would do.
Quinn stepped outside and closed the door.
Janus knew his end was near, but it hadn’t quite arrived yet.
