“That’s because it’s at your back, sir. The frontal glare prevents our night vision from working properly. Without ’em, our snipers don’t have enough light to shoot.”
Jones couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Each man was equipped with enough optical equipment to see a lightning bug fart from a half mile away, but they couldn’t see a 275-pound man in the light of a raging inferno. “Let me get this straight: You’re telling me it’s too bright and too dark for you at the exact same time?”
Shell grinned at the paradox. “Ain’t it a fucked-up world we live in?”
WHEN Payne reached the end of the passageway, he gazed through the thick wall of vines that had obscured the tunnel’s presence from the outside world and studied the scene before him. The six people who had escaped through the corridor were now dressed identically and standing in a compact huddle—their arms around each other’s shoulders and their heads tilted forward in order to obscure each other’s height.
“Damn!” he growled. Even from point-blank range, there was no way he could risk a shot.
“D.J.,” he whispered into his radio, “where are we positioned?”
Jones smiled at the sound of Payne’s voice. He knew his best friend would pop up eventually. It was just a matter of when. “We’re in a semicircle with a radius of twenty yards. We’d surround them completely, but the fence cuts off their route to the east, so there’s no need.”
“Have they attempted to make contact?”
“No, which is kind of puzzling. They obviously know we’re out here, but they haven’t come forward with any demands.”
“That is kind of strange,” Payne admitted. “Almost as strange as their formation. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Me, neither . . . Out of curiosity, where are you right now?”
“Me? I’m about ten feet to their rear, watching them from the door to the escape tunnel.”
“Did you say you’re in the tunnel?” Jones shook his head in amazement, stunned at Payne’s ability to turn up in the damnedest of places. “How did you pull that off?”
“Long story. Oh, and just for the record, I stumbled upon our missing brethren. They’re a little banged up but very much alive.”
“Thank God! I was worried about them. Any need for emergency evac?”
“Nah, they’ll be fine until this crisis is over. By the way, how are you planning on ending it?”
Jones laughed at Payne’s choice of words. Both of them knew who was going to put an end to things, and it certainly wasn’t going to be Jones. “Thankfully, that’s not my decision, Jon. Now that you’re back as team leader, I can sit back, relax, and watch you work your magic.”
“It’s funny you should mention magic, because that’s exactly what I had in mind. With a little help from you, I think we can make the Posse disappear.”
CHAPTER 64
JONES waited for Payne’s go-ahead before he walked toward the enemy. Jones continued forward while doing nothing to conceal himself. In fact, he so desperately wanted to be seen by Holmes and Greene that he fired his weapon into the air just to get their attention.
“You know,” he exclaimed, “you guys are pretty damn bad at taking hostages. For this tactic to work, you’re supposed to issue a crazy list of demands. I’ve been waiting for several minutes now, and I haven’t heard a peep.”
Greene’s bass-filled voice emerged from the center of the huddle. “That’s because we’ve been waiting for you. Now that you’re here, I guess we can start this shit.”
“Oh, goody!” Jones mocked. “But before we begin, I think it’s only fair if I introduced the rest of my negotiating team. Fellas, why don’t you come out and say hello?”
Like ghosts emerging from a sea of fog, the MANIACs simply materialized out of nothingness. One second they weren’t visible to the naked eye, and the next they were standing with weapons raised, like Spartans waiting for an approaching horde.
“As you can see,” Jones continued, “we outnumber you by a large margin.”
“What, is that supposed to scare us?” Holmes screamed, his head bobbing ever so slightly as he did. “You might outnumber us, but there’s no way you can shoot us without endangering the hostages. And trust me, if you guys come any closer, I’ll kill one of them myself.”
Jones smiled at the threat while taking another step forward. “I don’t believe that for a second. Why? Because if you hurt anyone, you’ll be killed. I know it, and you know it. Hell, everyone here