“No it doesn’t,” corrected his comrade. “Lieutenant Baga is doing all the heavy lifting. She wants them dead, yeah, but how many men does it take to kill them? I’ll answer that—one. Bob Baga. We just have to help dig the graves. The idea of killing helpless people in cold blood doesn’t sit well with me, but for the kind of cash we’re making, I’d pull the trigger myself.”
My mouth dropped open in horror and I stopped listening. The idea of being killed in cold blood didn’t sit right with me, either. For some reason, I had thought we were in a pickle, but was foolishly confident we’d get out of this unscathed.
But not if the thirteen killers with guns had anything to say about it.
“Jason, I’ve got some bad news,” Tessa whispered ahead of me.
“Let me guess,” I whispered back miserably. “You heard the conversation about the nocturnal anteater.”
“I’m afraid so. When Baga said they’d leave us in peace after our talk, I guess he meant they’d leave us to rest in peace.”
“But we can still take them,” I said, clutching at straws. “Right?”
“We’d better hope so. Either way, it looks like we’re going to find out.”
25
I cursed inwardly. I had let Baga convince me we’d be okay, but we were back in hot water again. More like hot lava.
I’d been sure we were dead at the warehouse, and then in the jet, but then everything had changed. Hell had turned to Heaven. God had parted the sea and let us through, only to then collapse the walls of water to swallow up the enemy trying to follow.
I had gone from ultimate agony to ultimate ecstasy. Would it have been too much to ask not to return to the agony part in only a day?
I judged we were now about a half mile from our destination, so we didn’t have a lot of time. I asked Tessa if she had a plan, and in just a few sentences she told me. It was the same plan I had already guessed, not that getting it right had been much of a challenge. She had gone to great lengths to make sure Baga didn’t discover the contents of her hidden pocket, which made it obvious. The presence of sophisticated night-vision gear only made her strategy that much more effective.
Even so, we were greatly outnumbered, and anything could happen. And assuming we were triumphant—already an optimistic assumption—we might have further lethal obstacles to overcome before we could extricate ourselves from this situation.
I had resisted activating the mental side of the nanite package for the reason Nari had suggested. The added mental acuity, memory, and base of knowledge was more than tempting, but the changes sounded pretty irreversible, and I had no desire to risk messing with my own mind and personality.
On the other hand, I also had no desire to die in the woods of Australia. Or risk the woman I loved to this same fate. Feeling as if I had a gun to my head, I took a deep breath and ordered my nanites to install all mental functions at best possible speed.
“Let’s do this thing,” whispered Tessa just after I had given the mental order, her words once again at a level imperceptible to anyone without a nanite boost. “When our attack begins, find cover and stay put. I’ll get you a gun. Hopefully, you won’t need it, but I can’t guarantee it.”
“Understood,” I said, wondering when I would feel the effects of the nanites carrying out their recent orders.
“Okay. In five seconds—on my mark. Five. . . four . . . three . . .”
“Hold up!” I bellowed out loud, completely forgetting to whisper.
Baga spun around immediately. “What?” he said in confusion. “What is it?” he added before remembering to lower his voice. “And whisper. We don’t want to attract attention, remember?”
Even though I couldn’t immediately think of an explanation for my outburst, I remained calm as my mind raced. Perhaps the nanites steadying my nerves were helping.
“Sorry,” I said softly, clutching at my calf. “I have a cramp. I need to stop until it goes away. Sorry, Tessa,” I added. “I’m guessing you want to get this over with. But just bear with me.”
Baga looked confused by my apology to Tessa, but he didn’t question it. “You have one minute!” he told me, shaking his head in contempt. And rightly so. Who was in such bad shape that walking half a mile at night, at a snail’s pace, would give them a cramp?
“Actually, it’s gone already,” I said softly. “So I’m good to go.”
I had needed to explain my outburst, but I didn’t want to nurse a fake cramp any longer than necessary. While Baga was watching me I couldn’t communicate with Tessa. Even though my words would be unintelligible, he’d catch the slight movement of my lips.
“What was that all about?” said Tessa as soon as we set out again. “Why stop my countdown?”
“We shouldn’t escape now. We should wait until after our talk with Michelle.”
“No. That would be a mistake.”
“We have to learn who she is. What she wants. Since she plans to kill us anyway, she’ll have no reason to withhold the truth.”
There was a long pause. “We can’t risk it,” replied Tessa finally. “We have a good window now. Who knows what we’ll be facing after our meeting.”
“We can’t pass up this chance to learn what’s going on!” I insisted, although it was hard to use an insistent tone at zero decibels.
“What we can’t do is add to our risk. I’m sorry. I won’t gamble with our lives. Even with the ideal circumstances we have now we can’t be sure we’ll survive. And things could get a lot worse. I’m starting the attack with or without you.”
I sighed. She was right. Our lives were more important than satisfying my raging curiosity. “Okay,” I said in resignation. “Let’s do it.”
“Good,” she replied immediately. There was a brief delay as she got her game face back on. “On my mark,” she said, and I imagined her readying the small plastic device that she had squirreled away in her hidden pocket, her ace in the hole. “Three . . . two . . . one . . . mark!”