Jack looked at me and shook his head.
“No,” I said. “I’m not standing around debating the impossible. You said HQ is on the way. We’re going now, with or without you.”
She took a step back and raised her eyebrows. “Without me?”
“You don’t have to take part,” Jack said, “but I’m not missing this opportunity.”
“We’re sticking with the original plan,” I said. “Do you seriously expect us to back out?”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe I even asked you. I had to try for Martina. She’s gonna be pissed.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she thinks,” I said, no longer able to mask my irritation.
“Leave it. I’m sorry, okay?”
“Are we good to go?” Jack asked. “She won’t be causing us any problems?”
“None of us have too many choices anymore. I’ll deal with Martina.”
Lea’s boat slapped over the waves toward distant Hart Island. Jack and I crouched in the back and covered ourselves with a tarpaulin. We needed speed and direct force to overwhelm Anthony and Jerry before they could form any defensive positions. My heart thumped against my chest when Lea decreased the speed and steered to the left side of the island.
I pulled the tarpaulin to one side and looked out at it.
“That’s the light on the dock,” she shouted over the spray pounding the side of the hull. “We’ll be there in two minutes.”
I instinctively checked my rifle again and patted the magazines in my thigh pocket. A dim light on the center of the island illuminated a square brick building around three hundred yards to the left of the dock.
“Is that the control room?” I asked.
“It’s just a short walk through a field. We’ll be there in no time.”
Lea cut the engine, and we bumped into the side of the pontoon. Jack grabbed a support with both hands and held the boat steady against the wooden structure. Lea secured the rope, and we thumped onto the planks.
She motioned us forward with her gun. “Martina’s gonna stay out of view of the window, to give you clear shots.”
I wondered if it might be best to shoot Martina. Lea’s feelings were the only thing stopping me from putting a bullet in her partner’s head.
She strode off the pontoon onto a grass field. A well-trodden path cut directly through it to the gloomy building; the rest of the overgrown field swayed gently in the sea breeze. Dark shadows of trees surrounded most of the shore.
She turned back and whispered, “They’re still here. Can you—”
Bright light flooded the area, and people screamed from all directions.
I immediately dropped to the prone position and raised my head.
Two large halogen lights shone straight down the path, lighting up the area all around us. I crawled into the long grass. Jack did the same in my peripheral vision. Lea froze and raised her arms in surrender. The screaming voices closed in on my position.
I squinted against the lights but couldn’t see a thing.
“Drop your weapons and stand up.”
“Put your hands in the air, now.”
“You’ve got five seconds.”
“You’re surrounded! You’re not getting out of here alive unless you do what we say.”
The last shout sent a shockwave through my body. I thought about spraying the immediate vicinity, and I’m sure Jack did too, but it would be a death mission. We’d been caught in a professional ambush. They knew our exact location and we’d be taking potshots at muzzle flashes, all zeroed in on our position.
I looked at Lea. Her shocked expression was clearly visible in the artificial lighting. “I didn’t know, I… I…”
A man shouted, “Five… four… three…”
I stood up with my hands in the air. Jack followed and glanced across at me. “We’re dead meat—should have gone out in a blaze of glory.”
“We’d have been cut to ribbons in two seconds—”
Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a heavy blow slam into my back, and I staggered forward onto my knees. Strong arms forced me down. Multiple hands pinned me to the ground. My pack straps were sliced, and it was ripped off my back; my arms were pulled behind me, and my wrists were secured with a zipping noise, crushing them together. Hands searched every one of my pockets and emptied the contents.
“He’s clean,” the knife-wielding man said.
“This one too,” another voice said.
Somebody grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me to my feet. Jack stood close by with his hands tied. A guard led Lea at gunpoint toward the building. Two men grabbed my arms and frog-marched me behind her.
They stopped ten yards short of the building. One of the guards kicked me in the calf.
“On your fucking knees, now,” he said.
Saliva sprayed against my ear, and he kicked me in the back of the knee. I dropped to my knees.
A goon punched Jack in the stomach, and he crumpled to the grass. I couldn’t believe our hope had been ripped away in seconds, and I was under no illusion what they had in store for us. A quick death.
A tall, slim woman appeared in the doorway. Thin lips with peroxided blonde hair. I recognized her as Martina from the picture we’d recovered at Anthony’s house. She gave me a look of contempt.
“Why?” Lea said. “How could you do this to me?”
“I did this for your own good,” she replied in a chillingly calm voice. “HQ is coming, and we had to stamp out any threat. I’m choosing the right side for us.”
“You said you wanted out, and—” Lea said.
“Listen to her, Lea,” I said. “You’ve got a chance to get out of this.”
Jack and I didn’t, but at least she had a chance. I didn’t want her to waste it by falling on her sword.
A guard slapped me over the head. “Be quiet, asshole.”
Martina smiled. “Oh, how sweet. Look, he’s defending you.”
“You’ve betrayed me. We had plans,” Lea said.
I looked across to Jack. The guard twisted my head forward.
Martina walked past Lea and glowered at us. “I couldn’t let them get away with killing Ron. Which one of them was it?”
“Sorry, guys, I didn’t know, sorry…” Lea said. A tear rolled down her cheek as she turned to face Martina. “You said you’d have done the same in their position.”
“I would, but he was my uncle, your boss. You’ll come to realize that I’m right.”
Martina jabbed her fingernail into my forehead and twisted it. “Was it this one?”
“It was me, and he deserved it,” Jack said.
She spun toward him and slapped him across the face. “Kill this one. They can have fun with the other one.”
“No—no you can’t!” Lea shouted.
“She’s right, not yet,” a familiar voice said.
Anthony stood by the building’s door, holding a cardboard box. He looked even more like Larry David in this light. “I’ve got business with these two, and it’s going to be a long, long night.”
Jerry pushed past him. “Well, look what we’ve got here. You’re gonna regret the day our paths crossed.”
Anthony dropped the cardboard box. He didn’t have the same jocularly spiteful demeanor as Jerry. He narrowed his eyes and stared at me with a stone-faced expression.
“Just get it over with. We need to finish the presentation,” Martina said.
“I’ve invested a lot of time in getting my hands on these two,” Anthony said. “There’s gonna be no rushing.”
“Martina,” Lea pleaded, “tell them you won’t give them launch codes. You can’t let them do this!”
Martina looked indifferent and shrugged. “Sorry, it’s out of my hands. Come inside and we can talk.”
“I’m staying out here. With Harry and Jack.”
Anthony nodded at a guard. He shoved Lea forward with his rifle muzzle. She staggered into the building, and the door closed behind them. Muffled shouts and screams came from behind the door.