With his heart in his throat, Payne pulled out the mirror, then dragged Jones and Dial down the hall where he described the layout. Four armed guards. One boss. Two hostages. A couch and some chairs. A large desk. No windows or side doors. One entrance that was being guarded. Boyd was out cold, and Maria was being questioned. No gunshot wounds on either hostage.
‘What do we do?’ Dial asked.
Jones looked at Payne. ‘Fast and hard?’
Payne nodded. It was their only choice. If they tried to draw the guards out of the office, they might summon additional guards from the lake. Or the fence line. Or somewhere they didn’t know about. And if that happened, they were screwed. On the other hand, if they waited for the local cops to arrive, there was always a chance that one of the hostages could be killed.
No, they needed to attack. Right away. With lethal force.
Payne explained what he had in mind, and Dial looked at him like he was crazy. Meanwhile Jones nodded his head, impressed. Not only with Payne’s idea but with the size of his nuts. Regrettably, Payne wouldn’t know if he was stupid or courageous until he saw the outcome. Payne knew they only had one chance at the element of surprise. That meant they had to get through the door on their first attempt. Simply had to. And picking the lock was out of the question, since a guard was standing next to it. Not only might he hear them, but there was a chance that his ass was actually touching the mechanism that Jones would be working on, meaning the slightest vibration might lead to their deaths.
On the other hand, Payne wasn’t quite sure if he had the strength to kick down the door. It was big and thick and sat on old iron hinges that looked like they were made by Leonardo da Vinci. Therefore, he had no idea what they could withstand. The same thing with the lock. Would it shatter like a modern one or could it withstand the force of a medieval battering ram?
Either way, Payne didn’t want the entire success of this mission to ride on his right foot, so he decided to stack the deck in his favor. Instead of attacking the door alone, he told Jones to fire a round into the lock a split second before Payne’s foot made contact with the wood, hoping the gunshot would weaken the bolt. Of course, if Jones fired too late or the bullet ricocheted back toward Payne, the odds were pretty good that he’d lose some toes.
Oh well, Payne joked, there was always a chance that they would grow back.
Without delay Jones positioned his gun while Payne measured his approach. He had room for three steps before he hit the door. Three strides that would determine everything. Dial stood behind Jones, ready to charge into the room and take out the guard by Boyd. Jones would get the one by Maria. And Payne would take out the one behind Benito. The fourth guard, the one by the door, was the wild card. Payne was hoping he would eliminate him on impact. If not, one of them would have to pull double duty. And the odds were pretty good it would be Payne. Not that he was complaining. Situations like this had always been his specialty.
Anyhow, since Dial was the one with the least to do, Payne put him in charge of counting.
Three. Jones pointed his weapon at the door lock.
Two. Payne anchored his foot against the back wall like it was a starting block.
One. He burst from his stance, ready to strike.
Jones fired his gun a split second before Payne made contact with the door. Metal groaned and wood cracked as the door slammed into the back of the fourth guard, knocking him to the floor. Somehow Payne kept his balance, allowing him to lead the charge into the room. Jones and Dial followed, bursting into the room with their weapons drawn.
Their attack was so precise that they were able to hit the guards before they knew what happened. Payne clubbed his target with an elbow and followed it with a knee to the chin, knocking him on top of the fourth guard who was sprawled unconscious on the floor. Partially because of the impact of the door. Partially because Jones’s gunshot had gone right through the door lock and into the guard’s ass.
Without delay, Payne grabbed both of the guards’ guns, then checked on his team. Jones had eliminated his man with a kick to the throat then had gone after the old man in the chair. Dial, on the other hand, was struggling. He was playing martial arts patty-cake with his target until Payne clubbed the guard with the butt of his gun and threw him face-first against the wall.
Smiling, Dial gave Payne a look that said, My clients are normally dead when I show up.
Payne gave him a look that said, Mine aren’t.
Meanwhile, Jones was all over Benito. He dislodged his weapon before wrapping his arm around Benito’s neck and giving it a tug. One little squeeze, and the old man stopped fighting. No threats. No struggle. No bribes of any kind. In Jones’s mind, it was kind of pathetic. He was expecting so much more from the notorious Benito Pelati.
‘Kill him,’ Maria begged from across the room. She was tied to her chair, staring at her father. The crazed look in her eyes told everyone she was serious.
She wanted Jones to snap Benito’s neck like a wishbone. ‘He killed my mother. He killed my brother. He deserves to die.’
‘You’re probably right, but — ’
‘But what? Don’t you get it? They will never put him in jail. He knows too much about the Church! They won’t press charges against him. No one will press charges! He’ll be freed like you were in Pamplona.’
Payne listened to the two of them as he searched the room, making sure there were no surprises. He found one, though, behind the desk. Dante was lying there in a puddle of blood.
‘Maria,’ Jones argued. ‘I wish I could, but I can’t. I just can’t — ’
‘Then let me do it! Just untie me. We’ll say he died during the rescue. No one will know.’
‘I’ll know,’ Dial said from across the room. ‘And since I’m in charge, I’d have to stop you.’
‘Besides,’ Payne said as he checked Dante’s pulse. ‘You’re wrong about your brother. He’s still alive.’
The police arrived a few minutes later, giving Dial a chance to call the NCB officers at the airport. They informed him that one of the crucifixion crews had been caught and were spilling their guts about the other three teams. Dial figured with a little luck that all of them would be captured by daylight. And the whole crucifixion ordeal would be over.
‘And what about me?’ Boyd demanded. His left eye was swollen shut. Gauze covered the gash in his forehead. ‘When will I get my reputation back?’
Dial grimaced. ‘That one might take a little longer. I’m working on it, though.’
‘I should bloody well hope so,’ Boyd said, only half kidding. ‘So what are you waiting for? Go work on it. I’ve got things to do and people to meet. I’m a busy man, Mr Dial.’
Laughing, Dial gave him a mock salute and headed for the dining room.
‘Good guy,’ Payne said to Jones, who nodded in full agreement. ‘Thank God he’s gone.’
Payne still didn’t know what had happened during the last few hours and was dying to be debriefed, not only about the laughing man but about the Pelati family. The last time they’d seen Dante he was loading Boyd and Maria onto a chopper. Now she was begging a doctor to save her brother’s life as they loaded him into an ambulance.
Obviously, they’d missed something important.
The house was abuzz with activity, so they went out by the pool where Dr Boyd filled them in on everything from the shooting to Dante’s hatred of his father. He also told them about his prior chat with Dante, which pissed Payne and Jones off until they realized that it occurred way before the events at Orvieto and had little bearing on their safety. In Boyd’s mind he didn’t know whose side Dante was on until they’d reached the house, so he kept that information to himself.