Iris Johansen - Stalemate

"So am I." He pronounced every word with precision. "Let me go."

She slowly released him. "It's going to be okay, Joe." She wasn't sure if she was lying. Even if they got out of this alive, she couldn't be sure that anything would be okay for them again. She got to her feet. "Try to believe me." The helicopter had landed and the cockpit door was opening. Two men got out of the aircraft and came toward them.

Diaz pointed his gun at the men.

She stepped between them and jerked her head at Joe. "Untie him and then get him out of here."

"Wait until he's in the helicopter to cut him loose," Diaz told them. "She's trying to save his dignity but it will be much easier for you."

The pilot looked at her. "Ma'am?"

She turned away. "Just get him out." She didn't want to see him struggle. "Don't hurt him."

She heard Joe's muttered curse and then the closing of the door of the helicopter. A moment later she heard the whine of the rotors and glanced back to see the aircraft take off.

He was gone. He'd be safe. Her relief was mixed with sadness. Jesus, she'd bated to do it this way.

"The skull," Diaz prompted.

She tore her eyes from the helicopter. Get down to business. "Very well." She turned on her heel and strode back through the cemetery in the direction from which she'd come. "Follow me."

"I wouldn't think of doing anything else. But tell me where we're going."

"Not far."

"Where?"

"We're almost there." She glanced at the tomb they were passing, where Diaz's mother was interred. "It's really amazing that you were born to a woman, Diaz. I'd think that you'd be hatched by some vermin under a rock. It didn't surprise me that you tried to use a snake to kill me since you're so alike."

"Are you trying to make me angry? Why?"

"Because I'm angry. I don't like what you did to Joe. What you made me do to him."

"Too bad. Where's the skull?"

"Here." She stopped just beyond the tomb. "But you'll have to dig for it."

"Dig?" His eyes narrowed on her face and then went to the grave beside which she was standing. "The Armandariz woman's grave?"

"I thought it fitting that I return her skull to her resting place."

"You're lying. How would you do that? I've had you watched since you reached the hill. You had no time to come here and plant the skull."

"And you probably had the church watched. If I'd done it myself, it would have been suicidal and I've already told you I've no desire to do that."

"If you didn't do it, who did?"

"Sean Galen. I told him where I'd hidden the skull in the jungle outside the compound and he went to get it. He slipped in under your nose and buried the skull."

"Galen." He frowned. "He's been causing me a good deal of disturbance. I believe I'll have to deal very harshly with him." He looked around the cemetery warily. "And where did Galen go?"

"Are you afraid he's going to pop out from behind one of those tombstones? You know he's not here. Your men must have surveillance on the entire area."

"Yes." He looked back at her. "But I never trust the predictability of a woman. They don't think rationally."

"Do you want the skull?" She picked up a shovel leaning against the tomb. "Dig."

He stared at her for a moment and then leveled the gun at her head. "I think not. I don't do hard labor. Suppose you do it for me?"

Disappointment and fear surged through her. She'd hoped to distract him. There was no help for it.

She started to dig.

"The helicopter should be approaching the tower within the next ten minutes, Perez," Nekmon said into the phone. "Bring it down. Blow it out of the sky."

He hung up the phone and brought the binoculars up to his eyes again. What the hell was happening down there? The woman was digging. Was Diaz making her dig her own grave? It was possible. He'd seen him do it before to those missionaries who'd made him so angry preaching against him to the farmers.

Yes, that must be it. He remembered him threatening to bury her in the same grave with Montalvo's wife and he was much angrier with her than he had been with the missionaries. There had been no doubt in Nekmon's mind that Diaz would kill Eve Duncan and he had been bewildered when she had not been put on the helicopter with Quinn.

Oh, well, it was only a delay and none of his business. Nekmon had done his part and couldn't be blamed. Let Diaz toy with the woman to his heart's content.

In a few minutes Quinn and the CIA agents would be incinerated by the missile. The woman would be shot and disposed of and life could get back to normal. All this uproar since she'd arrived on the scene had been very annoying.

She'd stopped digging and was glaring at Diaz. She was saying something to him.

If her words were as provocative as her demeanor, she might not live to finish digging that grave.

The Tower

12:32 A.M.

Perez could hear the faint sound of the helicopter in the distance. It was still too far away but it would be on him before he knew it.

He steadied the missile launcher on the stone sill of the window. He would probably only get one shot and it had better be a good one. Diaz did not excuse failure.

He would not fail. He was the very best, Perez thought. Diaz would not have chosen him to take down the helicopter if he hadn't known how good he was.

The helicopter was closer. He could see it now, gleaming in the moonlight.

Come a little nearer, little bird. I'm going to pluck your feathers…

12:40 a.m.

"If you want me to keep on digging keep your mouth shut," Eve said. "I'm tired of that poisonous slime you're spitting out."

Diaz's lips tightened. "Have you noticed I have a gun pointed at your head? I'll say anything I like to you."

"You don't want me dead. Armandariz would know that-"

"You think you're safe because of that bullshit? I can get around it. Though it would have been better if you'd boarded that helicopter with Quinn. Keep digging."

She tensed and then sank her shovel into the earth again. "What do you mean?"

"Presently. When you hand me the skull. If it's truly buried here, as you told me. I'm beginning to doubt it."

"It's here." She shoveled more quickly. "A few more inches…There!"

The dull gleam of the brown leather of the case was revealed as she scraped the dirt from around it. She picked up the case and held it out to him. "Now tell me what you meant when you said it would have been better if I'd gotten on the helicopter."

"Open it."

She unsnapped the case and lifted the lid.

He shone the flashlight down at the reconstruction. He gave a low whistle. "Yes, that's the bitch. You did a good job."

"What did you mean?" she repeated.

"It's true I don't want to disrupt my very tentative relationship with the CIA. To kill an agent would bring pressure to bear to wipe me out." He reached out and took the case. "But if Montalvo does it, then everyone goes after him. The helicopter should be blown out of the air in his territory in about three minutes."

"No!"

"Yes. I don't think we can hear it but we may be able to see the sky light up to the west. I believe we'll wait and let you see it before I kill you."

She climbed out of the grave. "You son of a bitch."

"Of course, we'll have to transport your body to the wreckage immediately so that you'll be found with Quinn's remains. A little gasoline bonfire and your body should be similar to the other corpses."

"They'll find the bullet wound when they do the autopsy. The burns wouldn't mask it."

He snapped his fingers. "That's right. What a fine scientific mind you have. I might have made a mistake. Let's see, then I'll have to break your neck, won't I?"