Smiling, Chepe Munoz was marched out of the room. Carter slipped into the night and-lay waiting. When the squad of baby-faced LT soldiers marched the burly Cuban out and turned toward a stout cinder-block building, Carter opened fire. He picked off two of the guards before they were aware they were being fired upon. The other four, as he'd expected, hit the ground in panic, leaving Chepe Munoz momentarily forgotten. The big Cuban moved like a scalded cat and was almost to the cover of the first building before the guards knew he'd moved.
"The prisoner!"
"Get him, you jerks!"
All four scrambled up to chase the Cuban, forgetting Carter. The Killmaster cut down two more with two slow shots. The remaining two clawed for the dirt again. Before they even raised their heads, Munoz vanished into the shadows, and Carter was a hundred yards away on his original quest. Chepe Munoz would take care of himself. It was time to find Zachary. He continued his survey of the buildings in the compound but was not successful in locating the shaggy-browed CIA man. Had they finished him off? Carter wondered. Taken him to another compound?
He started due east, looking for the site of another reservoir on the Mossad map. It might give him a good idea when the time came to take this place off the map. It also gave him an opportunity to estimate the number of LT forces in the area. So far, he figured close to six hundred.
There was indeed another compound and Carter saw the outline in the dark. He started making his way toward it, but he was stopped by the sound of shooting.
The shooting was coming from the south, handguns and automatic weapons. Carter had no idea who the combatants were. For all he knew, it could be the young Arab kid from the Samadhi group, trying to win his honor and some shoes back.
Carter got as close to the exchange of fire as possible, moving from the shelter of trees and low shrubs. He got out his infrared scope and tried to get a fix, but he was too far away to see anything.
He moved in closer, using the sounds of the gunfire to cover his less controlled movements. Taking out the scope again, he got a fix on two Lex Talionis soldiers with automatic weapons.
They had someone pinned down who was nevertheless doing a good job of keeping them hopping, driving them back, forcing them to move away from higher ground.
One of the LT soldiers tried to do a flanking maneuver and got grazed on the left shoulder for his efforts.
Carter tripped over a snag and drew fire himself from the individual the LT men were shooting at. He decided it was time to get out of there, circle back, and see if he could discover who it was these LT were after.
Moving in a low crouch, he heard a familiar voice he could not place, swearing in the night, then there was another furious burst of fire and a scramble of feet over gravel and rocks. Carter heard two more LT men arriving from a westerly direction. They were counting on surprise, moving on their stomachs, looking as if they'd done two, three hundred hours in some commando course. They gained their position by stealth, but when they opened up fire, all they did was tear a tree to shreds. Their quarry had evaded them, done a half circle, and gained some high ground over the other two LT. A barrage of shots caught one of the surprised LT men and dropped him cold.
Whoever it was they were after, he knew his way around in a fight, and it was beginning to look as if he might be able to take all four of the LT.
Then Carter heard the familiar, guttural voice swear and saw a handgun thrown in disgust. The three surviving LT figured they had their prey trapped. They opened up on him. One of them, a big guy with a pencil-thin mustache, was surprised beyond measure. Another handgun sounded, catching Mustache in the chest. The LT boys were down to two, nervous and frustrated. They had a lot of shells and didn't mind shooting it up.
Carter got in close enough to get his scope out and see what was happening. The LT men were equipped with Kalashnikovs. They had the quarry at bay now, although the way they were going at it, there was a good possibility they'd get each other in their carelessness.
They opened fire, wasting a lot of ammo. Carter saw their quarry and admired the fight he'd put up. Even while taking a hit from one of the assault rifles, he raised up, used a two-handed grip, and popped off two quick shots that took one of the LT men.
The surviving LT was really caught up in it, stitching fire back and forth over everything in sight. Then it was all over. One young LT soldier was left, panting, charged with adrenaline and fear, already thinking how he was going to present his story. It had taken four of them to get Chepe Munoz.
Still panting, the surviving LT came charging down to where Chepe lay and began pulling out his knife.
Carter used the infrared scope to take careful aim with Wilhelmina. It was by necessity a one-handed grip. Carter held his breath, and pulled off one shot. Wilhelmina barked sharply in the night.
The LT man's howl of rage and surprise rang out as he went pitching facedown near the man whose corpse he'd been about to mutilate.
Carter couldn't tell if there was any life in Munoz or not. He stood near the Cuban for a moment. "Good to know you, amigo," he said. "I haven't forgotten our pact. I'll get them."
Now Carter had enough weapons and ammunition. He didn't have to bother checking the LT corpses.
Twenty
Nick Carter was carefully examining the buildings in the next compound, hoping to find a trace of Zachary.
Bezeidenhout could have made it a major goal to get the CIA man to come over to Lex Talionis. LT could have made Zachary an offer. And Zachary, wealthy in his own right, would have laughed and that apparently was something you did not do with Bezeidenhout. You didn't laugh at him, and you didn't ignore his offers.
Carter could be in this by himself now.
He got past a patrolling sentry and made a bolt for a place about a hundred yards from some buildings. There were three or four trees including one rotted stump, which was just right for Carter's purpose. Cupping his hands carefully, he lit a cigarette and let the smoke run in the stump. He'd covered half the buildings in the compound and had decided which one he'd look at next before he moved out.
When he heard the whistling sound, he nearly laughed aloud. He took one last puff of his cigarette, ground it out, and carefully destroyed all traces of it. By that time, a loud thump had landed on one of the buildings Carter had already checked. The thump caused a small explosion and a lot of thick, white smoke. Another whistle and another projectile hit the building.
Carter was positive it was Samadhi and his boys, hitting at the LT camp.
Men ran from the shed, waving away smoke, grabbing at weapons. One more shell arced from its firing position, slammed into the shed, and caused the biggest explosion so far.
Carter heard a good deal of yelling in Spanish, French, and English. Lex Talionis men were trying to form a group and start some kind of counterattack.
A shell hit another building in the roof and got enough of a fire going so that Carter thought he'd better get some distance. Even though there was general confusion, it made no sense to take the chance of being seen by patrols. He headed down to the farthest of the sheds he'd wanted to check out. Gunfire erupted and for a moment he found himself caught in a hail of shots, but a last shell took a building squarely on the roof, filled it with smoke, and produced a shattering blast.
Carter could see as many as twenty LT men, weapons out, firing at everything that moved. To his right, someone yelled, "Here it is! Those pigs had a grenade launcher and a bazooka!"
By the burning or smoking buildings, a number of men, unfamiliar with chemical fire extinguishers, were trying to put out the fires that had been started. The air was filled with smoke and pungent smells. One shed must have contained ammunition. It was rocked by a series of explosions that destroyed all the internal support. The room came pitching in, sending more sparks and flames into the night sky.