"See? You are are angry. I can hear it in your voice and I can hear it in the way you're talking. You're p.i.s.sed off with yourself, for not realizing it, but you're taking it out on me. Now don't deny it, because I've seen it too many times to mention." angry. I can hear it in your voice and I can hear it in the way you're talking. You're p.i.s.sed off with yourself, for not realizing it, but you're taking it out on me. Now don't deny it, because I've seen it too many times to mention."

"c.r.a.p," he said. Finally, he too slumped to the floor, the wall at his back as he came to a sitting position. "I just want out of here."

"That's not what you were saying a few minutes ago. A few minutes ago you were probably hoping no one bothered us for an hour or so."

"Yeah. Well, maybe. But that was before you were accusing Mary of murder."

"Think about it, Ron! Who else was with you when Dodd pa.s.sed you the disk? Who else knew about it?" about it, Ron! Who else was with you when Dodd pa.s.sed you the disk? Who else knew about it?"

"But she didn't know what was going on there, what he pa.s.sed on to me. She..."

"But she was there. You even told her you were going in to town to see Dodd. And he never made it, did he? You don't know what she saw when he gave you the disk. She's a sharp young woman. Maybe she knew what it was before you did.

"And you're going to tell me it was just a coincidence that she showed up at your place just in time to save you? And I'm willing to believe a woman can defend herself. But come on, on, Ron! She bested two professional killers? Give me a break!" Ron! She bested two professional killers? Give me a break!"

"I...I...can't believe it."

"You'd better start believing it. Or at least consider the possibility," she said.

There was a long pause. They sat there in the total blackness, each hearing the other breathing. From time to time Ron lifted his hand and pa.s.sed it before his eyes, saw nothing, blinked, repeated the process. It had been a long time since he'd seen darkness this complete.

"You okay?" she asked. "Your head, I mean. Where he hit you."

Ron reached back and felt the large but unpleasantly soft knot on the back of his skull. "I'll survive," he told her. "If we had any light, you could ask me how many fingers you were holding up."

Neither of them laughed.

"We'll be out of here soon," Kate said, as if she were certain of it and could have announced the precise moment if only she could read her watch.

"How do you know that? They haven't seemed too anxious to check up on us." He rolled his head on his neck, checking out the muscles there, and for any traces of dizziness.

"I know Adam, and I don't think he'll leave us here for too much longer. Even if Vance doesn't come right back in, I think he'll let us out. At least out of this room. Kamaguchi won't let him keep us cooped up in here. For a stoic Asian, he's got a soft heart, and he'll talk Adam into letting us out to use the facilities and get something to eat and drink."

"Well, you know 'em better than I do. Whatever they do, they're up the creek, I can tell you that. You can be d.a.m.ned sure I'm going to have the lot of them arrested for this stunt."

Again, an uncomfortable silence settled in. They sat apart, facing one another across the pitch-blackness, the soles of their shoes perhaps six feet from the other. Ron coughed. Kate sighed, cleared her throat.

"What?" he asked.

"I wasn't going to say anything. I just cleared my throat."

"Oh."

They blinked. Breathed. Rested. A few minutes creaked past.

"When they let us out, we have to tell them about Mary. About what we suspect of her," she said.

"But we don't know. Not for certain."

"Are you willing to risk your life on it? If she helped to deep-six Dodd, she can arrange for the rest of us to go, too. Think about it."

And even though he could not see her, could barely even hear her, Ron could feel a wave of anger emanating from where she sat. "But you still haven't given a reason why would Mary do such thing."

"Why does anyone do such a thing? Money, Ron. And the folks who offered it to her have very, very deep pockets. Take my word for it. Even Vance is nothing more than a b.u.mp in the road to them. She'd do it for the cash. I mean, the gator trapping business can't be that that lucrative." lucrative."

"But, Mary and I..."

"What? You had a thing going? You made love to her? It's sometimes not that big a deal, Ron. Not to someone who would cooperate in the murder of another human."

"That's hard to take," he told her.

"Well, start considering the possibility really fast. I doubt we have a lot of time left if she's able to get word out to whomever it is helped her take out Dodd. So stop being mad at me me for bringing it to your attention." for bringing it to your attention."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I reacted that way. But there's nothing I can do about it. It's just natural for me to come to her defense. It would be cruel to believe that about her."

"And we have another possibility to worry about," Kate continued.

"And what would that be?" Ron asked.

"She may have already gotten in touch with the other side."

"Other side?"

"The bad guys."

And although he didn't like what he was hearing and the suspicions that were creeping into his mind, he couldn't deny that Kate was onto something. Mary had been there when Dodd had pa.s.sed him the disk. She had become a familiar face in Salutations-at least in certain quarters. There had been the surprise that she and Tatum were acquainted. She'd even known Dodd.

It was possible.

He had decided that he would not say another word until their captors returned to release them, or someone appeared to rescue them. Ron would just sit there and keep his mouth shut. It would be best all around.

And that was when the first shot rang out.

Chapter Thirty-Three.

The fire team came down the approach road to the Eyesore as if they were merely a group of lost tourists. That was the way it had been planned, and that was the way it was supposed to have played out with the mole. They were in a plain white Astro van, four years old and completely untraceable. The tag was legit, but it would become invisible and lost for all time as soon as the job was done. The Colonel himself had taken care of most of the fine details, and what he had not accomplished himself he had left to men who were well versed in such misdirection. The last thing on the minds of the five a.s.sa.s.sins was whether their vehicle could be traced back to anyone who worked with Grisham.

Silently, they sat hunched in the van and all of them merely surveyed the new territory. Their mouths were closed. They had said everything that needed saying before they'd left Grisham's property. The lay of the land and the interior of Holcomb's compound were parts of an open book to them. The outside of the place had already been a faux target to them for months; the Colonel liked to use it in his games and drills and had never seriously thought of it as a legitimate mark. But the interior of the collection of buildings was another matter. One could conjecture, based on the exteriors, what lay inside. But of course they didn't have to guess, for a certain traitor was waiting to let them inside, and make things a little easier.

The sandy road leading down to the Eyesore had been deceptively long. Grisham had warned them that it would seem longer than its mile and a half due to the closeness of the vegetation. And because of the twists and turns it took due to Holcomb's reluctance to cut any of the larger trees that would have stood in the way of any sane man laying out a road. Again, they had been prepared for the illusion of remoteness that lay about this place. Logic told them that these buildings were visible from the center of Salutations, from the windows of any buildings there that were higher than the treetops around the Eyesore. But at ground level you would think you were in the midst of the wilderness. Trees and brush pressed in all around, which was a good thing. Because all of that vegetation would m.u.f.fle the sounds of gunfire, of which they were all certain there would be.

Mel Waters was the head of the fire team. It was his job to direct his men and see to it that this job went as smoothly as possible. None of them really knew why they were being ordered to do this, but they all realized that there must certainly be a fine reason for it. There were supposed to be at least five people inside Holcomb's compound, and only one of them was marked to walk out of there alive. Again, aside from the fact that this person had delivered up the blueprints of the buildings to them, Waters didn't know why he was ordered to spare this one life. If he'd bothered to think about it, he would have thought it best to kill that one, too. But Waters wasn't in charge and so had wasted almost no time thinking about it. It was his job to be a killing machine, to be precise, and that was all. He was certain that the rest of his team thought the same, if they thought at all.

Coming out of the forest, they were surprised at the sheer size of the compound. Of course they had heard that Holcomb was a very wealthy man, one of the wealthiest in the state of Florida, and that was saying something. Perhaps these buildings had been pocket change to him. Whatever it had cost Holcomb, Waters knew that it was costing Colonel Grisham some amount of concern: all the more reason to just put an end to Vance Holcomb's socialistic environmental crusade. He pulled the van up to the gated entrance of the Eyesore and stopped. As soon as he shut down the engine and turned off the air conditioner, the summer heat began to infiltrate the cab of the van. A line of sweat instantly appeared across his red, sunburnt forehead and began to advance down the slope of his brow.

He got out of the van and took two steps to the west of it. There was a truck parked outside, as he had been told to expect. It was a government vehicle, and it would be a pleasure for him to kill its driver. He hoped that he would receive the honor of putting a bullet through the Wildlife officer's stinking skull. A dragonfly whizzed past, an almost machinelike burr to the clacking of its amazing wings. It was a flash of blue and gray, a retreating sound vanishing into the shrubs.

Waters looked at the watch strapped firmly to his freckled wrist. The gates were supposed to be open. But he could plainly see that they were locked. This wasn't right. Something had obviously gone wrong with the plans, blame lying at the feet of the resident Benedict Arnold inside. Well, they had a backup plan. It wasn't finesse and it wasn't pretty, but it was a plan. They had a schedule to keep.

The soldier climbed back into the van and started the engine, revving it a couple of times. He knew the resumption of the air-conditioning was a welcome relief to the uncomplaining members of his team, but of course none of them said a thing; they just sat stoically and waited for the moment they'd be allowed to act. He put the van into gear. Stomped the gas pedal.

And rammed the ridiculous excuse for a gate, tearing one side of it completely off its hinges. The block of chain link bounced against the hood of the van, smashing the left headlight and pulled free of its moorings to go sailing over the roof of the vehicle. At the front door of the compound, Waters brought the van to a halt, scattering sand and fine dirt that clouded into the air and provided them with unexpected cover.

As a unit, the doors of the van opened wide and all five men poured out. The big gla.s.s doors of the compound were unlocked, as had been promised, and they merely trotted inside. Firearms had sprouted almost magically from the duffel bags that had lain at their feet as they'd driven in. Quickly, they fanned out, Waters heading down the main hallway with Whitcomb, while Rhodes, Graves, and Hinton faded left. So far, no one had come running to investigate the destruction, but he knew that there would be targets soon. They knew to whom they owed their easy entrance, and anything else that moved was toast. That was all there was to this simple plan.

Wordlessly, each team headed down the hallways. They moved quickly, stopping at each doorway they came to, checking for movement. No target presented itself. Waters was poised to use the radio b.u.t.toned to his shoulder to contact Rhodes, but he hesitated, not wishing to break the vocal silence. At that moment he came out into a large room, just as he had figured, and saw one of the men he was expecting. According to his briefing, this one was named Kinji Kamaguchi, a j.a.panese national working as a zoologist for Holcomb. Intelligence had stated that the man knew how to use a gun if the situation arose, and as the two faced one another across the wide s.p.a.ce of the room, Waters immediately noted the rifle that Kamaguchi was carrying. Someone had warned them that they were coming; that was the only explanation.

"What," Kamaguchi shouted as Waters and Whitcomb appeared from the main hallway. "Who the h.e.l.l are you?" he was asking as he began to bring the barrel of his weapon to train on Waters.

Well, perhaps they hadn't been warned precisely what to expect. In the instant before he brought his Browning to his shoulder and fired, Waters thought that it could be something else entirely that had alarmed the inhabitants of Holcomb's compound. As Kamaguchi's head exploded in a quick burst of red, Waters pointed toward the open doorway that the Oriental had been sitting in front of before they'd arrived. It almost looked as if the man had been guarding the door for some reason. They would check it out as soon as they swept the rest of the building. There were at least four others in there, and that meant that they had at least three more people to kill.

Adam Levin had been in one of labs near the back of the main building when he heard the crash of something smashing through the gate. "d.a.m.n," he had cursed himself for being lax. His first thought was that Riggs had somehow alerted the police, telling them that he had been kidnapped. It would be just like those government types to overreact and come in with guns blazing. Holstering the .357 he had been saddled with since deciding to hold Riggs and the others, Levin had started toward the source of the commotion.

He was out of the lab, where he had been sitting nervously for some minutes, wanting only to be somewhere he could think clearly and relax. His first thought was to go straight for the source of the noise, but he pa.s.sed one of Holcomb's locked security rooms and instead stopped there and unlocked it. There was a video monitoring system inside, and he would be able to access most of the compound from there with a flip of a switch or two. He knew how to use it quickly and effectively. In fact, he could even look in on Riggs and Kwitney if he so wished.

Closing the door behind him, he sat down in front of a big video monitor. The system, at least in this part of the building, used a single screen that could be split into four sections or used to singly watch the reception of any of the cameras placed throughout the compound. You could even see outside, and Holcomb had once shown him the view from one of the savannas where he had hidden a camera before the terror birds had found and disabled it. Shoving all such thoughts from his mind, he activated the screen and began to look.

First, he got a view of the main gate. It had been broken completely in, half of the chain link section lying in the sand. He switched to the princ.i.p.al foyer and could see a damaged Astro van parked just outside the door, but could see no one there. Where was Billy? He had left Billy to see to the garage when he had gone off to sit and think, to be alone. Billy should have been the one closest to the invaders and should have already confronted them. But he couldn't see his Seminole friend anywhere.

Levin knew precisely where Kamaguchi was, though. He had told Kinji to sit and watch the hallway and make sure that Mary Niccols did not escape somehow. That friend of Riggs' was no weakling, and it wasn't out of the question that she could work her way free of the ropes. They'd tied her pretty well, but it was best to be safe rather than sorry. Adam tried to remember which camera number was a.s.signed to the room where he'd left Kamaguchi. It was the west wing, and those camera numbers were all prefixed with a W W. He jotted one, saw an empty lab. "W-8," he muttered to himself. And was rewarded with a soundless vision of Kamaguchi standing to face two men who had, at that instant, burst into the room.

Adam Levin stared in frozen horror as the strange man who had first stepped into the room brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired a single shot into Kinji's brain. Kamaguchi fell lifelessly to the floor in stark blacks and grays, and Levin's eyes were locked on the dead man's form. The killers didn't even pause to check on the man they had shot. They were sure that they'd killed him. As Levin looked on, the one who had fired the shot gestured toward the hallway Kinji had been guarding and then they both pa.s.sed through the room and into the main hallway. Sitting and staring for a few seconds, Levin slowly realized that they were headed directly toward him and that they would be outside the room in which he would be effectively trapped in about fifteen seconds.

He shut down the security monitors and got up.

"That was a gunshot," Ron said.

"I'm not deaf," Kate told him.

"What's going on? You don't think Levin and Kamaguchi shot Mary, do you?"

Kate had stood, as Ron had done, and after some groping about, both had found their way to the door where each had pressed an ear to it, trying to hear more. "No. I don't think they'd shoot Mary. I told you I don't think they want to shoot any of us. Right now, I'm more worried about Levin and the others. He thinks Mankind is going to destroy this planet, and I can see him getting itchy in this situation." She sighed. "But, that wasn't Adam."

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"First of all, Adam's not a gun man. He hates the things. Yeah, he knows how to put the bullets in, and has fired them, I know; but he hates them. Also, that was a rifle shot. Adam had a pistol. A .357. Kinji has the rifle."

"Or he did when they both left here. Levin could have it now, for all we know."

"He could. And there's Billy. He was armed, too. But I just can't see Billy shooting anyone. Especially not Mary."

"Why not?"

"Because he's a Seminole, just like Mary is. And I think he likes and respects her, anyway. Billy used to make his living trapping gators when he was a kid. He and his dad, he told me. Shooting Mary would be too much like shooting someone he knows. He wouldn't do it. h.e.l.l, he probably knows her."

"But Billy did did have a firearm." have a firearm."

"He has access to a number of guns here. He's handy with a shotgun, as I recall. But I told told you. Billy wouldn't shoot her. But Billy and Mary...they could maybe shoot at us." you. Billy wouldn't shoot her. But Billy and Mary...they could maybe shoot at us."

Ron exploded. He couldn't see Kate, but he could feel her body heat. "How do you know know that? Huh? You don't know that? Huh? You don't know what what these dumba.s.ses are capable of. h.e.l.l, they kicked your a.s.s in here with me and leveled a gun at you. You don't know these dumba.s.ses are capable of. h.e.l.l, they kicked your a.s.s in here with me and leveled a gun at you. You don't know what what they might or might not do." they might or might not do."

He could hear her breathing, her low, even breathing, and once again Ron found that he could not read Kate Kwitney's emotions. Perhaps she had spent so many years hiding her feelings that she had become uncannily adept at masking them. It was something he had found intriguing before, but now he saw it as truly creepy. "I know, just believe me. If we're in danger, then it won't be from Adam or Kinji."

"I hope you're right about them, because I know Mary isn't capable of what you're accusing her of," Ron told her, an edge in his voice that he could not cover. "So, all around, that would mean we'll get out of this alive." Once again, in the darkness, he and Kate were facing one another, unseeing. Some of the things she had mentioned concerning Mary seemed too logical to dispute. But as Kate had outlined her case against Mary, Ron had felt the old feelings for her coming to the surface. He felt like defending her and he couldn't help himself. He did, he realized, still have strong feelings for her.

They were standing, facing one another in opposition when a key was jammed suddenly into the door's lock and it flew open, flooding the room with soft but blinding light. Ron's pupils quickly contracted to pinpoints and the pain caused him to flinch back. He caught just the glimpse of a human figure, arm extended, gun in hand. It was, he saw as he recovered, Levin. The .357 was aimed right at him.

"Let's get out of here," Levin said.

Ron stepped toward the doorway, right behind Kate whose long legged strides had already taken her out of the room. The three of them stood in the hallway. Levin's face was ashen, and he kept glancing up and down the hall, as if expecting Satan himself to come flying down it on gigantic leather wings.

"What's going on, Adam? We heard a shot."

"You didn't shoot Mary, did you?"

Levin's pale face turned toward them. "Someone killed Kinji," he said. "I saw them on the security monitor. They shot him in the head. He's dead."

"Who did that, Adam? Who did you see?" Kate's hand had reached out to take Levin's shoulder, to support him. "You see, Ron? What did I tell you?" Her hand squeezed Levin's shoulder to accent her request. "Now, who did you see?"

"I don't know who they are. Two men. With guns. They came into the room where Kinji was and they just shot him. Just like that. They were coming right for me, but I unlocked the freezer in the west lab and came through it to this hallway. I tricked them," he said, a silly smile on his face. "I tricked them."

"Suck it up, Adam. I think you're in shock. I don't believe you're thinking straight."

"I saw them, I tell you." His face was grim and as white as paste.

Kate reached out and without hesitating, she took the pistol from him. He didn't resist. "Let me have the gun, Adam. You do as we say and we'll find out what's going on." She, too, looked down the hallway and up it, searching for anyone who might be coming their way. "What did they look like?"

"Just two men. Nothing special about them. But they didn't even think about it, shooting Kinji, I mean. The one in front just aimed his rifle and shot him right in the head."

She took a second to glare at Ron. "Wonder how they knew we'd all be here? How about it, Ron?"

Ron ignored the verbal barb and stepped up to put his own hand on Levin's back, at the base of his neck. The man was shivering, perhaps already suffering from clinical shock. Now Ron knew he needn't have worried about this pitiful fellow killing anyone. "How were they dressed? Were they cops? Maybe someone called in cops or something. Maybe they thought Kamaguchi was going to shoot at them and they reacted to that."

"No," Levin said. "They aren't cops. They're dressed in regular shirts, jeans. Not cops."