bark an order at two of the men, and they started to stroll toward the house. They were heading right for where he waited in the shadows. As they walked past him, he fired twice. One of the men went down, the other had stopped to shout a question at his sergeant, and the two shots spat past, missing him by inches. But even though the Sig was fitted with a suppressor, there was enough noise to alert the hostiles.
He stood up, held his weapon in his outstretched arm, aimed and fired again. He made sure his second shot went home; the soldier had been trying to bring his rifle to bear. He didn't make it. He'd racked a round into the breech, and as the 9mm bullet took him in the chest, his finger tightened on the trigger, and the shot was loud as it whistled away into the night.
One of the remaining two soldiers started forward, until Will stepped into view and hit them with both barrels. The leading man went down, riddled with buckshot, but the other, the sergeant, was more careful and swerved aside after the first barrel fired. The scattergun volley slightly wounded him, and he rolled away into the darkness. The man disappeared behind a low, ornamental garden wall before they could get in another shot.
Nolan started edging toward where he'd gone to ground, but the Colombian NCO spotted him and emptied a long burst that forced him to duck away from the torrent of hot lead. He wasn't sure where Ryder and Rose were positioned, so he made another attempt to take him. He crawled around the other side of the SUV and once more began to snake through the shadows.
Suddenly, the Colombian popped out from behind the wall and fired a short burst to his left, aiming where Brad was hiding. Two loud reports split the night as Rose returned fire with the big old Colt Single Action. The sergeant fired again, and once again Brad popped off a couple of loud shots with the handgun. They were going nowhere, and soon the area would be swamped with soldiers. Nolan decided to do it the hard way.
He jumped to his feet and charged. The hostile saw him coming and triggered a short burst. One round almost parted Nolan's hair, and he was forced to take cover. It was another standoff, but then he saw a dark shadow moving through the night.
Ryder!
John-Wesley moved fast, smooth as a snake, silent, almost as if he were a creature of the night. He had a stone in his hand. Nolan saw his arm move as he threw it, and there was a loud clatter as it hit the concrete several meters away. The Colombian turned and fired two shots. They were the last shots he would ever fire.
Ryder fell on him like a savage wraith, moving swiftly out of the shadows. The knife fell repeatedly, and the man went down, his lifeblood pooling around him. They heard John-Wesley quoting a bible passage, spoken in a deadly monotone. "For he beareth not the sword in vain. He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." As he rambled, he kept stabbing down, butchering his victim.
"Enough!" Nolan's voice slashed out the order, "He's dead. Let's go."
The Texan turned to glance back at him with his dreamy expression, his killing face. Then he nodded and left the body.
They climbed into the SUV and found the keys in the ignition. Nolan took the driver's seat. He started the engine and drove away, out of the gate and onto the road. They were on the highway, speeding away from Taraza prison, and the four men relaxed as he pointed the wheels north and picked up speed, heading for the border with Panama.
"I've always wanted to see Panama City," Brad mused, sitting back in the soft comfort of the leather upholstery.
"You may have to wait longer than you thought," Will Bryce told him, "You've heard of the Darien Gap?" Rose shook his head. "I thought not. We're lucky we're traveling in a vehicle as tough as this one. When we reach the Gap, the roads are almost non-existent, so we'll be driving along tracks barely wide enough for a donkey to pass. We'll scratch