"Ransom," Carter muttered to himself. "A big, big score." He looked intently at the nervous trio. "Okay, here's what I want you to do," Carter told the Japanese investment bankers, leading them outside toward the Jeep. He tugged the girl gently by the wrist, bringing her along. "There isn't much time, and you must obey my instructions carefully."
The bankers followed Carter to the Jeep, listening to him give directions to Belize City to their cook. Then he told them what they must do when they arrive. "You go to a hotel with a telephone. Call the Japanese embassy in Mexico City. Identify yourselves, and tell them what has happened to you and where you are. Don't open the door for anyone who can't convince you that you ought to. Do you understand that? You go only with your own people. Okay?"
"We are in your debt a thousand times."
"Once is enough," Carter said, sliding behind the wheel of the Jeep and firing the engine.
"How can we repay you?"
"Simple," Carter said. "There are bound to be police involved in this. They will ask you questions and show you maps. You are smart gentlemen and have traveled around the world, no doubt. I want you to promise that you will not bring them back here. You will not show them the way. You will forget where you were. That's the price, understood?"
"You want this place for yourself?" one of the three said.
Carter nodded slowly, his lips a tight line. "The Lex Talionis is mine." He got out of the Jeep and motioned the woman into place, Carter had to struggle to get the seat close enough for her legs to reach. "Head for the road, turn right, and keep going." He reached into the glove compartment and produced a large flashlight. "Use this when you have to." He showed them the weapons. "Use those if you have to." He picked up each piece and showed them how to remove the safety catch.
The three bankers got out of the car and bowed their thanks.
"Will you guys move it?" Carter said. "We'll have time for this later."
"You come to Japan?"
"I promise," Carter said.
"We will honor you when you come." They got back into the Jeep.
"I owe you," the young woman said.
Carter touched her cheek gently for a moment, then gave her an encouraging pat. "Move it," he said.
She engaged the gears expertly and moved smoothly down the turnoff toward the road. There was a coordinated sound of acceleration as the Jeep picked up momentum. She shifted through the gears as far as third by the time Zachary returned from his last sweep of the area. "They're off?"
Carter nodded.
"Good timing," Zachary said. "Looks like we got company."
Seventeen
The Jeep with the Japanese bankers was heading north and would soon angle to the northwest for a heading straight to Belmopan.
Two Jeeps edged their way up the road from the south. Carter estimated the Japanese bankers had a ten-minute head start. He made hand signals to indicate that Zachary get one of the arriving Jeeps. He'd take the other.
They waited in the thicket near the area where the disabled vehicles were parked. The important thing was to make sure the approaching Jeeps weren't in radio contact with anyone and didn't have transceivers. Otherwise, the entire force of Lex Talionis could be up there and all over them.
Carefully screwing a silencer onto Wilhelmina, Carter got the front tire of his Jeep just as the driver turned off the engine.
"Damn!" the driver cursed, killing the engine and hopping out. Two others followed him. "Hey, look at this," he shouted at the discovery that the other vehicles were disabled. "Something's going on here."
Zachary hit a tire of the second Jeep. The men in it spilled out. "What the hell's going on?" someone barked.
"I'll tell you what's wrong, those rice balls got away. And someone's still out there. Dammit, with all the men we've got, they can't guard these Japs properly."
Another voice complained, "Where the hell are a bunch of Japanese bankers going to go in this country? Use your head, man."
"That's the trouble. Too much thinking. When I was with the Marines, they put three men on small stuff, four on medium stuff, and a whole platoon on big stuff. You think that guy. Calley, made first looey from his thinking? He knew how to use his fieldpiece, that's what."
Carter aimed at the men he'd chosen. He opened up before his men drew weapons. He popped the driver and a man with long mustaches. A third dropped to a crouch and took cover close to the incapacitated Jeep, fumbling at his holster to bring out a .45.
Zachary got one of his quarries, but the other two began to fan out in the darkness. Carter saw one, used a two-handed grip on Wilhelmina, and popped off a shot. Zachary's man groaned and fell. Carter wanted to make sure the survivors stayed out of the Jeeps, even though the vehicles were disabled. No use taking chances about radios.
Carter's survivor edged his way toward some of the other vehicles. The Killmaster pounced after him, diving under a Jeep and rolling through to the other side, grabbing his man by the ankle of his military boot and yanking. The guy went down, eating a bit of gravel and grass. Carter pounced on him, then finished him with Hugo.
Zachary had one survivor to go.
As Carter made his way back to the two new Jeeps, he heard a brief scuffle followed by a sharp intake of breath, then the sound of a body being lowered to the ground.
"All accounted for," Zachary said.
Carter shone his flash on the two Jeeps. Working quickly, he and Zachary removed the distributor rotors and tossed them into the underbrush. Carter also used Hugo to make a hash of the coolant hoses. One of the Jeeps had a radio, and Carter pumped four shots into it.
They went to the other vehicles and poured sand in the gas tanks. "Two hours," Carter said. "We bought them a two-hour lead. They won't get antsy and send someone to look for another two hours. If that doesn't get them out of here and to some kind of safety, nothing will."
Carter and Zachary took a hurried look around and decided to head back to the arts center. "They probably aren't in close contact with the center. I think that's just a big blind. We'll go back, get the car and our equipment, and take on some South African big game."
Zachary nodded, then started back on his own route. "I'll see what I can spot on the way."
Carter moved back through his assigned grids cautiously, looking for signs of trails, roadways, buildings, and vehicles. It was already four and dawn would be breaking soon; there was not very much time left. One of the last squares he could take before having to go back at a dead run had a particularly promising configuration: a small savannah amid the thinning forest. Beyond, Carter could hear running water in enough quantity to know that it was a stream that had been dammed.
Carter paused on the edge, knowing he had to risk it now that he was so close. If there were indeed some kind of building here, he'd head back the first thing tomorrow night when they were free from the constraints of their cover.
He started ahead but froze when he heard a rustling behind him.
Carter held his position, realizing he'd been meant to overhear his follower.
After a long pause, the rustling was heard again and a voice came out of the night. "Man, if you aren't something else, running that fancy grid pattern of yours. Where'd you learn that, man? Some Ivy League school?"
There was no scorn in the voice — far from it. Stepping out of the darkness to greet him and give him an affectionate embrace was Chepe Munoz.
Before Carter could speak, the Cuban said, "I don't kill so easy, man, not when there's work to do."
Carter gave him a big grin. "What the hell happened back there in Mexico City, Chepe?"
"The bastards! They suckered me with hydrate in the beer. How they got it inside that fuckin' can beats me. Next thing you know I'm on some two-bit cargo plane, headin' wherever, you know? When we land, I returned the favor, suckered the guys right back. Those mothers think I'm trussed up all nice when I ain't, right? I bashed me some heads and did a fast fifteen hundred under three minutes and I'm gone, out of there, man."