No Easy Target

  “You don’t have to remind me. I’m on my way there now.” He hung up.

  Yes, he knew the solution. He just hoped he’d get to those hills in time.

  * * *

  “You’re very quiet,” Salva said. “Not a word since we left the camp, Margaret. Are you having second thoughts about turning over Patrick to us?” He smiled. “I wouldn’t suggest that you pay any attention to them. Nicos isn’t going to be pleased when he realizes what a fake you are anyway. But to compound it by not giving him Patrick and Lassiter would be truly fatal. Isn’t that right, Nicos?”

  “Stop baiting her, Salva,” Nicos said. “Perhaps she was quiet because she had to focus her attention and power. If so, I understand and approve.”

  “No second thoughts,” Margaret said. “I didn’t think I had to chat or amuse either of you.” She looked out at the darkness beyond the window of the truck as it bounced over the rutted road. “But I guess I did have to focus my attention on something other than what’s waiting at the end of this road. I know neither one of you have any trouble with betrayal, but I’ve never done it before. I’m not looking forward to turning Patrick over to you again. So if you don’t mind, I’ll ignore both of you until I have to show you how to get to them.”

  She thought it sounded plausible and she didn’t care if they minded or not. She had only a few more minutes to concentrate, and this was a crucial period.

  Sticks.

  She had to think about the sticks.

  She began to focus again.

  “Here we are.” Stockton stopped the vehicle ten minutes later beside the river, jumped out from behind the wheel, and turned to Nicos. “Your orders, sir?”

  “Get the men into the woods,” Nicos said. “No noise. Don’t use the flashlights unless necessary. We don’t know what we’re going to find. We’re on a hunt, Stockton.” He watched Margaret jump down from the truck. “And here’s the woman who’s going to lead us to Patrick.”

  “I’ll need a flashlight.” Margaret said. “I won’t be able to track if I can’t see.”

  “Very true.” He handed her a flashlight. “Salva, why don’t you go with Margaret and help her to get started? I know I can trust you not to let her slip away. I’ll be along once I make sure Stockton has the men doing what I need them to do.”

  “I won’t take my eyes off her,” Salva said grimly. “And neither should you. This may be a wild-goose chase.”

  “Then she’ll die.” Nicos smiled. “But I have to give Margaret her chance. We’ve known each other so long.” He turned and watched Stockton and the men scattering along the river and into the brush. “I’m feeling very sentimental toward her. Just as I am toward you, Salva.”

  “Come on.” Salva grabbed Margaret’s elbow and pushed her down the trail. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t like it when Nicos is in this mood. He’s too unpredictable.”

  * * *

  “Dammit to hell.” Lassiter jumped out of the van, his gaze on the north hills. He could see the gleam of a few flashlights dotting the darkness, and the truck beside the river was unoccupied. He called Mandell back. “I got here too late. Everyone has scattered up into the hills. I was hoping to be here to take out Nicos and Salva when they arrived, but I’ll have to go after them.”

  “Does that mean we have to wait?”

  “Not if you move fast. Even if Brukman calls Nicos for help, you’ll still have that hour before any reinforcements from here can get back to the camp.” He paused. “But I don’t want Brukman to make that call before I take down Nicos. You know what Nicos’s first order would be.”

  “Kill all prisoners,” Mandell said grimly. “So he won’t make the call.” He hung up.

  Lassiter shoved his phone in his pocket and moved quickly down the riverbank. Mandell had jokingly said that any decent shot from the rocks where he was hiding would be a miracle shot. Now he was going to have to make that shot. Could he do it?

  Lassiter couldn’t worry about that right now. Margaret was in that forest with two men who wouldn’t hesitate to kill her once they discovered that she had lied to them. He had to track them down and get rid of them once and for all.

  And that meant he had his own miracle to perform.

  * * *

  Brukman was frowning as he stood talking to one of the guards in the center of the yard.

  What a shame the son of a bitch is so unhappy during the last minute of his life, Mandell thought.

  He lined up the shot.

  Then he adjusted for wind two-thirds down the way to the target, as he always did.

  Now clear your mind of anything but the shot itself.

  Imagine every step, from pressing the trigger to watching the bullet striking Brukman.

  Cool. Precise. Calm.

  It would have to be an incredible shot, as he’d told Lassiter, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do it. He’d done one almost this difficult five years ago in Afghanistan.

  And the motivation had not been nearly this strong.

  “Here we go, Dietrich,” he murmured. “You might help a little, if you can. I called Carlos Estefan and told him that he should launch the attack the minute they hear the shot. I’d hate to have egg on my face if I screw up.”

  Dietrich. Patrick. All those other poor bastards who had been tortured by the man in his sights.

  No way was he going to screw up.

  He pressed the trigger.

  Yes!

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Salva asked Margaret as he stopped on the trail. “You’ve been winding in and out of these trails for the last twenty minutes and you’ve come up with zilch. You tried to convince Nicos that you could track Lassiter. Now do it, or I’ll call Nicos and tell him you were bullshitting him.”

  “And get myself killed?” Margaret stopped on the trail and aimed the beam of her flashlight at Salva’s face. “That wouldn’t be smart, would it?”

  “It’s going to end up like that anyway.” He smiled. “We both know that you’ll be able to fool Nicos for only so long. He’s not overly bright, but he has a wonderful sense of self-preservation and a certain cunning. But I admit it was clever of you to try to turn his venom on Brukman and me.”

  “Try? How do you know I didn’t do it?”

  “Brukman feeds his bloodlust. And I’ve made sure that Nicos knows that he needs me to survive.” He added mockingly, “Self-preservation, Margaret.”

  “But you ignored his one characteristic that gives me a chance: ego.” She tilted her head, listening. Faint. Very faint. Perhaps … “I’ve noticed you’ve made that mistake before.”

  “And when he finds out that you’ve fooled him, his ego will have him burning you at the stake back at the detention camp. We both know that you have no magic and you’re not going to find any tracks.”

  “There’s magic, and then there’s magic.” She started back down the trail and shifted the beam of her flashlight on the rutted earth before them. “And I know it will disappoint you, but I’m very good at tracking. In fact, I’ve already found the track I was looking for.”

  He stepped closer, his gaze on the ground. “You’re bluffing. I don’t see any—” Then he saw the fresh print Margaret was looking at. “Shit!”

  No perhaps this time.

  Not faint at all.

  He was here.

  Now!

  This is my gift?

  Yes. As I promised you. To seal our friendship. Not worthy, but it should please you.

  A moment of appraisal and assessment.

  It will do.

  The jaguar leaped out of the darkness at the side of the trail!

  Salva screamed as the big cat took him down. He struggled desperately to get out his gun.

  Margaret warned the jaguar again, as she had when she had linked with him driving here. The sticks!

  It had been the only term she could think of to describe the danger of a gun to an animal who had never seen one.

  But
he remembered and acted with lethal ferocity.

  The jaguar’s strong jaws clamped down on Salva’s wrist and shattered it. The gun fell from his useless hand.

  Then the jaguar went for his head.

  Crunch!

  Salva went limp.

  Margaret was gazing down at that crushed, bloody head. She thought she would feel horror and she did, but it had nothing to do with Salva’s death. Salva was a horror in himself and deserved it. Block it. Someone might have heard that scream, and she had to protect the jaguar.

  Go. Take him and go.

  Of course, I always do. The jaguar was dragging Salva’s body toward the trees. Too many thieves in the forest to take what’s mine. I will take him up high until I finish with him. You will bring me other gifts?

  I don’t know. Only if the gift is true prey.

  I will be happy to see you.…

  And the jaguar was gone.

  She knelt there on the trail, shaking. It had been so fast, so violent, that she had barely had a chance to realize what was happening.

  No, it had not “happened”; I’ve done this, Margaret thought. Don’t blame fate, when I planned and worked to make this occur. Get over the shock and horror and accept it. Salva had been almost as bad as Nicos. He had killed and made all the evil happen. He had stood by and watched Nicos torture Rosa. How many little girls had he brought to Nicos to curry favor? She reached out and touched a streak of blood on the path. Not much blood. It had all been too quick.

  And then Salva was gone.

  And she still couldn’t stop shaking.

  “Very good, Margaret.”

  Her head jerked up and she saw Nicos standing behind her in the middle of the path. “You saw it?”

  He nodded. “I was right behind you. But I would have come running anyway when I heard Salva scream. It was quite bone-chilling.” He came toward her. “I gave you the opportunity and you took it. A wonderful demonstration. No guns. No knives. Just pure power … The big cats are so much more effective than dogs, aren’t they?”

  There was something in the way he was looking at her.…

  She got to her knees, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. “What’s wrong?” she asked warily. “I did what you said you wanted.”

  “What’s wrong?” He smiled as he stopped before her. “As I said, a wonderful demonstration. But you can hardly pull a jaguar out of your hat on every occasion. What good would you be if I needed someone eliminated in downtown Miami or Bogotá? What would you do then?”

  She met his gaze. “I’d find a way to do what I had to do.”

  “I believe you.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun. “You have power and intelligence, and what you did to Salva was something of an eye-opener. I didn’t expect to feel that shocked. You were just a tool. But I watched that jaguar tear into him and it made me realize that it could have been me. Unexpected. Out of the darkness. No warning.”

  He was going to kill her.

  She could see it in his face. It was the same wild, intense expression she’d seen in those moments before he’d shot Rosa.

  “But it wasn’t you,” she said quickly. “I only got rid of the man you told me to kill. You’re being unreasonable.”

  “Am I? Somehow I don’t think so. I could keep you as a pet, leash you, think I was safe from you. But you’re not like anyone else. And someday there might be a moment like the one Salva just had. A monster attacking out of the darkness.” He raised the gun. “So I need to make certain that day never comes.”

  Think.

  Stop him from pulling that trigger.

  Keep him talking.

  Don’t let this end without keeping my promise to Rosa.

  Find a way to take him off guard.

  “You’re right. It could end that way. You’re very clever to realize that I’ll always be a threat to you.” She moistened her lips. “Do you know, I wasn’t certain who was going to be the victim tonight. You gave me two possible choices, but you were always in the running. I had several scenarios mapped out and you figured in most of them.”

  He was listening. Good. Maybe he wouldn’t pull that trigger as long as she kept his mind occupied.

  “Too bad they’ll all go to waste,” he said. “You didn’t have a chance of taking me down, Margaret. Not from the time I took you and Rosa from her home in Guatemala.”

  “I had a chance and I took it. I couldn’t do anything else. I promised Rosa.” She met his eyes. “I brought her spirit back, you know. She was in such torment that it was easy for me. Who do you think helped me to escape you all these years?”

  His eyes widened. “You’re lying.”

  “She helped me. She’s still helping me tonight. She remembers what you did to her.” Her glance shifted to a point beyond Nicos’s shoulders. “As I got stronger, so did Rosa. Don’t you feel her? You should. She’s right there behind you. Move a little closer to him, Rosa.”

  Her gaze shifted back to Nicos. His eyes were glittering with fear, the muscles of his body rigid. “She’s going to touch the back of your neck,” she said softly. “When I count to three, you’ll feel her.”

  “There’s no one there,” he said hoarsely, looking straight ahead.

  “Why don’t you believe me? You know what I can do. She’ll make you believe me. She’s been waiting for this.” She started to count. “One. She’s moving nearer.… Two.” She could see the sweat break out on his forehead. She gathered her muscles. “Three!”

  He flinched and involuntarily half-turned his head to look behind him.

  Margaret picked up the flashlight on the ground in front of her and hurled it at him! She rolled into the shrubs at the side of the trail.

  She heard him swear as she jumped to her feet and started running through the forest.

  A bullet splintered the wood of the palm tree next to her head.

  He was shooting!

  She saw the beam of his flashlight bouncing off the glossy foliage in front of her. He had light to see her and she had only darkness.

  It would have to be enough. Use her mind and her senses. It was not a forest she knew, but if she opened herself, if she listened, the woods would help her as they’d done before. She started to zigzag through the trees.

  Another bullet whistled by her cheek.

  Head for the river. The river could save her.

  Pain.

  She stumbled against a tree and held on as the shock wave hit her. She’d felt the agony of the bullet entering her shoulder before she’d heard the sound of the bullet.

  “Got you!”

  She heard Nicos’s triumphant yell and the crashing in the brush beside her.

  It jarred her out of the trauma of pain and shock and sent her running again.

  She felt the blood running down from the wound in her shoulder.

  She could hear the sound of the river now.

  Keep moving.

  Ignore the pain.

  More shots.

  She was the prey. But if she could get to the river, that would change.

  She was getting weaker.

  Another bullet … close.

  “Stop … you bitch,” Nicos called. “Give it up. I know I hit you. You’re probably bleeding out.”

  But the river was right ahead.

  And she would no longer be prey.

  Nicos was very close.

  Too close.

  Faster.

  She had to go faster.

  “You’re slowing down,” Nicos shouted mockingly. “I told you that I—” He screamed in pain. “Son of a bitch!”

  “Down!” Lassiter was suddenly beside Margaret. “I only got a glancing shot at him. I was afraid not to take it when he was talking about you bleeding out.” His gaze was searching the darkness. “But I hear that bastard still running. Keep down and I’ll go back and finish him.”

  Or Nicos could finish Lassiter.

  “No.” She shook her head dazedly. “The river. I have to get to the river.?
??

  She was running again.

  Lassiter muttered an oath and then he was running beside her, his arm around her waist, taking her weight.

  The river was only yards away.

  Then she broke away from him. She was in the water, wading out in the fast-moving current. Then she started swimming toward the middle of the river. Safe distance. Had to get to safe distance …

  But where was Lassiter? He had to be safe, too. “Lassiter!”

  “Margaret, dammit, you’re crazy. You’ll drown with that wound.” Lassiter had jumped into the water and was swimming out to her. “Or Nicos will be able to pick—”

  “Be quiet!” She closed her eyes for an instant. She had to hold on. She had to reach out. But she was so dizzy.…

  Here. Safe. River.

  “Margaret!” Nicos burst out of the brush, his eyes blazing, blood flowing from the wound in his side. He stopped short at the edge of the bank. “You thought you’d get away by jumping into the river? You must have been desperate.” His face twisted with malicious pleasure. “You, too, Lassiter? My lucky day.” He started to raise his gun. “And then I’ll go hunt down Patrick. Think about that when I send you both to—”

  “I’m not desperate,” Margaret called out. “We just had to get in the river because I was afraid there would be confusion.” She met Nicos’s eyes across the water. “The river was a good meeting place, but I wasn’t able to spend as much time with her. She might not have known which was friend and which was gift.”

  “What are you talking about?” Nicos was scowling. “Meeting place? More bullshit about Rosa? I won’t be fooled like that again. You’ll have to—” Then he went still as the realization hit him. “Not … Rosa?”

  “Did I forget to mention that the jaguar who took down Salva has a mate?” Margaret asked. “It didn’t seem fair to give him a gift and forget about his mate when she has a cub to feed. She’s very hungry. Do you hear her moving through the brush toward you? Remember what you said?” She quoted softly, “‘A monster attacking out of the darkness.’ But she’s not the monster. You are, Nicos. I’m looking at her more as an avenging sword in Rosa’s hand.”

  “You crazy bitch.” He swung toward the brush and started firing wildly.

  Everything was getting dim, Margaret realized. She had to hold on. It wasn’t finished.