Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,97

into Emiliano’s stomach, driving the lawyer down to his knees. Emiliano clutched his stomach and looked up at the colonel, waiting for an explanation.

“You think I don’t know who decoupled my train car. Left me stranded in the middle of nowhere. You think that was a funny joke?”

“Not especially,” said Emiliano, grimacing in pain and rising to his full height again. The colonel reversed his submachine gun once again so that its muzzle was now pointing at Emiliano and Jackie. No one could mistake the fact that he was deadly with either end of the weapon.

The colonel spat out orders to the driver of the truck. The man quickly got out of the cab and unlocked the grill. He made a motion to the figures inside the back of the truck, and twelve bedraggled prisoners clambered out, their arms and legs obviously stiff from being in such close confinement for so long. Among them, Jackie could make out a dark-haired beauty who looked familiar. Even shorn of her blond wig, she was obviously Rosario, whose real name Emiliano had told Jackie was Gabriela. Jackie looked at her and felt an immediate pang, identifying with the young woman and all she had gone through.

“So let me get this straight,” the colonel said to Jackie and Emiliano. “There is no treasure. No gold bars. No antique coins. No jewels. No agreements making Cuba a sovereign nation. Nothing.”

“Nada,” responded Emiliano.

“That is too bad, because you heard what I said would happen if the treasure was not turned over to me. I said that these twelve prisoners would be executed.”

Jackie tried hard not to look over at the truck but couldn’t resist a peek at the prisoners, who all had justifiably terrified looks in their eyes.

Sanchez shouted out more orders to the driver. The man had the prisoners line up with their backs against one wall of the fortress. They stood facing the sisters Death and Night, who walked over to them with their machine guns drawn.

Jackie felt her knees go weak and her heart begin to hammer as she realized that she was about to witness a mass execution. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

“You can’t do this,” Emiliano stated firmly.

“Why not?” asked the colonel. “I can do anything I like.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Emiliano said, speaking to the colonel as though he were arguing a brief against execution before a hanging judge.

“Right doesn’t have anything to do with this. I made you an offer. You reneged on it. It was a simple contract. As an abogado, you should understand this.”

“As a human being, you should understand that some things are beyond a person’s control.”

“Then that is your second mistake—mistaking me for a human being.”

The sisters Death and Night moved several steps to the side and took up positions to the right and left of the line of prisoners, who faced their executioners with a variety of looks on their faces—sadness, anger, terror, despair. Jackie was glad to see that Gabriela looked defiant. Jackie suddenly flashed on Gabriela coming to her aid at the crocodile farm and knew that she couldn’t let her die. Couldn’t let any of them die. There had to be something she could do. And in fact, there was…

Colonel Sanchez addressed the prisoners. “You have one minute to say your prayers and make your peace with God.” The colonel took out a pocket watch and looked at its sweep-second hand.

For Jackie, that minute seemed to last an eternity, but she was grateful that it gave her more time to work out her plan. When it was over, the colonel looked up from his watch and said, “On the count of three, my agents will fire. Uno…”

Jackie looked at the prisoners. Some of them began to cry. Still others begged for their lives. She knew that the time had come to do something.

“…dos…”

Before Sanchez could say tres, Jackie shouted out, “Colonel Sanchez.”

The colonel looked at Jackie, annoyed to be stopped in midcount.

“Yes, señorita, what is it?” he asked with false patience.

“Take me.”

“What?” he asked, not fully understanding what she was saying.

But Emiliano did understand what Jackie meant and cried out, “Jackie, no!” He grabbed her by the arms, as though ready to shake sense into her if he had to. “I can’t let you do it.”

“You have to.”

More insistently, he said, “You can’t do this.”

“I have to,” Jackie said with equal insistence.

Jackie broke free of his embrace and put her hands on Emiliano’s arms as though