The Collected

CHAPTER 56

“Nate?” Quinn said.

Nate, dirty and bruised and beaten, stared up at him. “Quinn?”

Quinn reached down and helped Nate to his feet.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked.

“What are you doing out here?” Nate shot back.

“What do you think we’re doing here? We came to get you.”

“The others with you…?”

“Orlando and Daeng.”

Nate closed his eyes, his head lolling back, relieved.

“Are you all right?” Quinn asked.

Before Nate could answer, Daeng emerged from the bushes to the left. He pulled to a sudden stop when he saw Nate. “Well, that was easy.”

Quinn rubbed his neck. “Not quite as easy as you think.”

Orlando joined them a moment later. “Oh, thank God,” she said.

She threw her arms around Nate, but he instantly winced and pulled back from her grasp.

“Sorry. Just a little sensitive,” he told her.

She moved around behind him, and lifted the back of his shirt before he could stop her. “What the hell?”

Quinn stepped over so he could see. Nate’s back was lined with bright red welts and open wounds that could have only been caused one way.

“You need to sit down,” Quinn said.

“I’m okay. Really, I’m going to be fine.”

“No,” Orlando said. “You won’t be fine if we don’t do something. These wounds are going to get infected, if they’re not already.”

“It’s fine.”

“We need to take him back to the boat,” Orlando said to Quinn.

“No,” Nate said.

Ignoring him, Orlando went on. “The sooner we get him to a hospital, the better.”

“No!” Nate repeated. “Not yet. There are others still being held.”

“We know,” Quinn said. “Peter, right?”

Nate wrinkled his brow. “Yeah. And three more.”

“Lanier, Berkeley, and Curson.”

He smiled in genuine surprise. “You figured it out?”

“Pullman got us started, then we had a nice chat with your friend Burke.”

“That bastard,” Nate said, his eyes narrowing. “He set me up.”

“That, he did.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Thought that was a choice you should make. He’ll be easy to find, though.”

Nate nodded, but said nothing.

“I’m serious, Nate,” Orlando said. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”

“Not until we get the rest of them. They’re going to be killed, probably sooner now that I’ve escaped.”

“And exactly how did you do that?” Daeng asked.

“I’ll tell you over a beer later.” He looked at each of them. “With your help, I think we can do it.”

“What’s your plan?” Quinn asked.

“I’ve been picking them off one at a time. Have seven of them out of the picture already.”

Quinn was impressed. “The tree branch and the groan was your attempt to get the rest to come out.”

“Yeah. Shouldn’t be much longer. If we get into position, we can start getting rid of them a lot faster.”

“Now that there are four of us,” Quinn said, “maybe we don’t need to worry about them at all.”

Quinn, Orlando, Nate, and Daeng watched from the brush as eight soldiers exited the door in the fort wall, and moved as a group into the jungle toward where the noise had occurred.

As soon as they disappeared, Quinn and the others jogged over to the door.

“Everyone ready?” Quinn whispered.

The three others pressed themselves against the wall, off to the side, holding their guns in front of them.

“All set,” Nate said.

Quinn raised his fist and knocked. In Spanish, he said, “Open up. I found one of the missing men. He needs help!” He knocked again. “Hurry, hurry! He needs medical attention!”

Something that sounded like a bar moved on the other side. The latch turned.

A soldier opened the door and looked out. “Where is he?” he asked. He then seemed to realize Quinn wasn’t who he expected. “Who are you?”

“We’ve come to pick up our friends.”

“What?”

The other three stepped out to where they could be seen, their guns pointed at the soldier. The man’s eyes widened. He reached for the rifle on his shoulder, but before he could pull it off, Quinn stepped inside and twisted it free.

The man seemed to suddenly find his voice, and started to yell as he ran toward the interior door. Quinn jabbed with the rifle, knocking the man down and cutting off the warning. He rolled the guy over with his foot.

“You open your mouth again, it’ll be the last time. Sit up against the wall. Hands on your knees.”

While Quinn dealt with the soldier, the others stepped inside. Daeng immediately closed the door and dropped the locking bar in place.

“You down here all by yourself?” Quinn asked the soldier.

“Go to hell,” the man said. He spat at Quinn.

Nate came up next to Quinn. “I know you. You were one of the guys who helped escort me to your boss’s office yesterday. Bet you also helped take some of my friends out of their cells.”

The man’s look of defiance slipped. “I…I was just doing what I was told.”

“Did you watch as they whipped us?” Nate asked.

The man blinked and looked away.

“Maybe you were the one who hooked my hands up.”

“No. That wasn’t me.”

“But you were there.”

A slight nod.

“And you did nothing.”

“What could I do?”

Nate placed the end of his suppressor against the man’s forehead. “I guess we’ll never know.”

“No! No! Please!”

There was a pop, only it wasn’t from Nate’s pistol. It was from the vaccine gun Orlando shoved against the man’s arm.

“So which way from here?” she asked Nate.

“Up.”