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the jungle with only the insects and amphibians to provide music. Bruzual s
man eased the guitar player back in his chair as he died.
No, Ray said, his voice low and angry.
José looked up at him through the window and made an apologetic gesture, as if
he d had no choice but to do what he had done.
Thank God, a Green Impact member grumbled from the next hut, unaware of why
the music had stopped but evidently pleased. Now we can finally get some
sleep.
Peta stifled a gasp and moved forward as if to help the guitar player. Ray
stopped her and signaled José to come back. They watched until the guitarist
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stopped twitching and simply bled onto the uneven floor.
Ray faced the Venezuelan. Now, get your ass back and disable every last one
of their boats, he whispered angrily. And remember. If anyone else dies, so
will you.
As a scowling José crept through the mud toward the wider caños, Ray motioned
for Terris and Manny to move clockwise around the compound while he and Peta
and the other two mercenaries headed counterclockwise.
McKendry thought for a moment that Rodolfo would have believed this was
exciting. He would have wanted to come along and he would either have been
killed, or have gone back to huddle in the boat, making up stories he would
tell later to the women in silvery miniskirts who clung to him in Caracas s
discos and nightclubs.
Let s get moving, he whispered to Manny. Or we ll end up like that poor son
of a bitch in there.
31
Taking a roundabout route, Ray Arno circled the outer perimeter of the
encampment, with Peta and the mercenaries forming a ragged line, twenty paces
between each of them. As he moved through the mud and underbrush, ignoring the
insects and the wetness, he reminded himself that he had been on movie sets
that had made him more miserable than this.
Following naturally was the thought that those jobs had never been as
important as this. It wasn t hyperbole to say that the fate of the world could
depend on their success. And that success depended on this assault team.
Manny and McKendry were good men. Peta was a trooper. The men provided by the
Venezuelan minister of security were what gave him pause.
He had worked with mercenaries before, more than once. The whole point of
using them was that they did what they were paid to do. Problems arose only if
they were serving two masters, in which case they would do what they had been
told to do by the highest bidder.
According to the plan, José should have incapacitated the guitarist, tied him
up so they could question him to see if he knew where Selene was. Not kill
him. There was nothing Ray could do about it now, but there would be plenty he
could do when it was time to make the final payment to José.
Frowning, he looked at the encampment, mentally ticking off at least a dozen
safety violations that some OSHA representative on a movie lot would have
written up. Here, it might even be an advantage. He knew from Manny s rough
map of the camp where the terrorists kept most of their supplies. What wasn t
on the map was where Green Impact kept its munitions. Food was in sealed
lockers, some of which were suspended from trees, though the monkeys could
still get at them. The rest of the cases and cans remained in the individual
huts.
Two large propane tanks provided fuel for grills in what passed for the camp s
mess. He was surprised to note as he circled the building that the tanks also
ran a heater and water pump attached to a shower at the back of the mess.
He was examining the tanks when Diego, one of the Venezuelan mercenaries,
found the weapons cache in a small, partially camouflaged hut apart from the
main encampment. After making whispered calls and gestures, to which Ray,
Peta, and the third Venezuelan soon responded, the mercenary used a long knife
to pry open the first storage locker.
Both of Bruzual s other men dropped their old rifles and hauled out assault
rifles and boxes of ammunition, making far too much clatter in their
excitement. Ray cautioned them to be quiet, but the mercenaries seemed unduly
greedy. He wondered if they would simply snatch the contraband rifles, which
they could sell at a handsome profit on the black market, and flee with them.
Most of all, Ray was concerned with keeping the resources out of the hands of
Green Impact.
He reached a decision. Glancing first at the luminous dial on his wristwatch,
he nodded to himself and rapidly opened the rest of the cases. With a
shoestring attachment of wires and connected detonators, he rigged up three
armed grenades, stuffed them in among packages of C-4 and Semtex, and played
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out the cord behind himself.
The Venezuelans looked at him, scowling with disappointment as they saw what
he meant to do. Clearly, they would have preferred to confiscate the
explosives, not destroy them. Ray held the detonator string in the fingers of
one hand and urgently waved them away with the other.
One of the Green Impact men rustled through the bushes, calling out, Hey,
what s going on? The voice held annoyance and curiosity, but not suspicion.
Not yet.
Ray yanked the string, pulling the grenade detonator pins. The Green Impact
guard, finally doing his duty, switched on a big flashlight and shone it
around the jungle. The beam of light, splashing like melted butter across the
branches, struck a scrambling Ray and his partners.
Hey! I see you! the Green Impact man called out.
As if on cue, the grenades exploded. Thatch smoldered and burst into flame.
Green Impact members started screaming.
I see you too, Ray muttered as the shock wave bowled him over into the muddy
ground.
32
By the time the grenades exploded, Manny and McKendry had reached the third
hut. They saw two blond men on separate cots scrambling awake, shouting,
looking at each other. In an instant, both of them had grabbed pistols from
beneath their beds and lurched up, swinging the weapons to point at the door.
McKendry was determined to make an arrest, as if to prove to himself that he
was in control. He even shot the first round, hitting one of the terrorists
squarely in the right shoulder. The crack of his weapon fire sounded loud but
was rapidly overwhelmed by the racket in the encampment.
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