"Where are you going?" one of them asked.
"I don't know about you guys," Unkefer said, "but I took a bonus to sign on, and I accepted a job. Right now I'm going to try to get things cleaned up here and mount some kind of system and run this damned organization like something we can be proud of. You guys got any complaints?"
The men stood slack-jawed for a moment, then nodded their heads. "Okay," Unkefer said. "Let's get on with it."
Carter found Koven's corpse, retrieved Hugo, and set out to look for the motorcycle he'd hidden. Unkefer was going to have an uphill battle here. This group looked demoralized.
It took Carter twenty minutes to drive the cycle back up to the larger compound. With the exception of the vehicles he and Zachary had disabled, things looked more orderly here, and Carter noticed that guards had been posted outside each building. Before abandoning the cycle and setting out on foot again, Carter looked carefully for sight of the troop transport with Bezeidenhout and Rachel Porat. He saw it in the distance, sitting under the protective light of an arc light, guarded by two men with automatic weapons.
For the moment, everything seemed to be under control with the LT. Carter circled to the east and brought himself behind tree cover that gave him an opportunity to open fire on a small shed. He carefully planned the path he'd take, slipped off the safety on his automatic, and shattered the night with a long burst.
The Lex Talionis people were faster to respond. A group of three men started toward Carter's position. He followed his plan of moving about twenty yards to his right, firing another burst, then doubling back to his left. He put another long burst into the building, then opened up on the building next to it, trying to give the impression that there were at least two of him, working on a cross fire. The Lex Talionis men began firing at Carter's position. Two more LT men told Carter exactly what he wanted to know. They moved to the middle of the largest building in the compound, their guns at the ready. That was certainly the place Carter wanted, the place where Bezeidenhout had taken Rachel Porat.
He circled the compound, spraying the buildings within his range, bringing more LT men out to hunt for him. There was no point in letting them have any rest now. As Carter saw it, every attack, every round fired at the LT brought the group that much closer to chaos and ultimate destruction.
And if he'd timed things properly, the LT was in for yet another surprise.
Carter sprayed a building that turned out to be a kitchen: A small fire started in some cooking oil, and to Carter's satisfaction, as an LT set out at a zigzag to reach the building and see about the burning, a spray of automatic fire came out of the south, stitching a building Carter had hit several times. There was a tinkle of breaking glass and a smell of more burning.
Carter heard Bezeidenhout roaring at someone. "I don't care how many of them there are out there, I want you to get them, is that understood?"
The other source of automatic fire was no surprise to Carter. It would have to be the very welcome support of Sam Zachary. On the strength of another burst from the south, Carter zigzagged across the courtyard, risking some fire, but bringing himself within firing range of the main building.
Before he could open up, a spray of automatic fire came from the west. It was not as steady a spray, causing Carter to think the person doing the firing was more of an amateur. Perhaps it was one of Samadhi's teen-agers, he thought.
Carter circled around to see who his latest cohort was. For a moment he was pinned down by two LT soldiers, but help came from the rear. A covering blast drove the LT soldiers off, dropped one of them, and allowed Carter to make his circuit back to the cover of a clump of trees. In a few minutes he was joined by Sam Zachary.
"Who else is out there?"
"I thought you could tell from the irregular but accurate pattern. That's Margo, and I think she has the makings of a natural."
Zachary handed Carter a large metal canister. "One for each of us," he said. "It's from the PLO and it's a fire bomb. I think we ought to get this place up to barbecue level again and then we just might push them over the edge."
Carter studied the fire bomb for a moment, figured out the fuse device on it, then bolted toward the large building. "Cover me!" he yelled.
Zachary responded with a stitching from Carter's right. Off in the distance, Margo Huerta responded with such vigor that planks began to shatter in the right corner of the building and two LT soldiers made a run for it.
Carter was within ten yards of the building. He twisted the fuse activator, gained another few yards, and used an overhand heave to get the fire bomb onto the front porch. It bounced, rolled haphazardly, and for a moment Carter thought it might be a dud, but then there was an acrid smell spreading through the area, followed by a phosphorus sputtering and finally a splash sound.
Carter withdrew in the smoke, nearly bumping into Zachary who was on his own momentum. Carter began firing and two more LT soldiers made a break into the jungle night. Zachary's fire bomb brought down the front porch and caused a sheet of flame to spread across the building.
They heard a good deal of yelling, and through the smoke Carter saw two men lowering Rachel Porat, trussed and bound, through the window to the ground below. Carter had only a moment to respond, and he was immediately up and running.
Carter reached the heap that was Rachel. He waved the gun at both men who'd lowered her out the window. "Back!" he shouted. "Get back in!" Then he opened up, drawing supportive fire from Margo Huerta.
One of the LT men clutched at his chest, but the other retreated. Carter knew he'd try to get out through another window.
Carter brought out Hugo, stashed the bonds on Rachel, and tossed her Wilhelmina. "That's a good friend. Take care of it."
"Give me a boost," Rachel said, making a gesture of bringing her hands together. Carter understood exactly what she wanted. He made a stirrup of his hands and Rachel bounded from it into the window of the burning building. She was going in after Bezeidenhout.
Carter knew better than that.
He went around toward the back, bumping into an LT soldier who had long since thrown down his guns and now raised his hands at the sight of Carter.
There was a burst of automatic fire, and Bezeidenhout, protected by two men with Kalashnikovs, made a rush toward the secured troop transport. Carter went in pursuit and Bezeidenhout called after him, "You have not seen the end of Lex Talionis so easily, Carter." He showed Carter a large duffel bag. "There are plenty of resources to tide us over, and when the offshore well goes and the airline disaster is seen throughout the world, we will be back as strong as ever." He began laughing maniacally. "I am the law of the lion and I shall have the final say."
He moved closer to the troop transport, his laughter growing even wilder. As he neared the troop transport, there was another sound of laughter, almost like a hyena.
Bezeidenhout stopped, his eyes wide. "Who laughs at me? What is this? Are you laughing, Carter?"
The laugher grew even more scornful, and after a moment it definitely took on the sound of a group of pack animals surrounding their leader.
Bezeidenhout threw the duffel bag into the troop transport and tried to make his departure look dramatic. He slammed the door of the truck and suddenly the laughter changed to a series of guttural Arabic commands. The guards, all wearing LT uniforms, began to run, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the troop transport as they could.
The driver turned the ignition and the troop transport went up in a loud roar.
For several moments a shower of currency floated downward to the ground, and as it did, Carter and Zachary heard the laughter of Abdul Samadhi.