Page 100 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

“I don’t know if I can make it,” Eidolon said. “My health isn’t so good.”

“If you slow us down, you won’t like it. After all, you don’t need your fingers to remember a passcode, do you?”

Varik swallowed hard. “I’ll do my best.”

The squad leader pulled him close. “And if you’re lying to me about this passcode?” He ripped off a string of epithets that would make a Danish sailor blush.

Varik could smell his cigarette-stale breath. He wanted to gag.

“If I’m lying to you, then your boss will kill me.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about,cucaracha.”

“But if I’m telling the truth, he’ll thank us both—and make you a very rich man.”

The Mexican squad leader nodded to the Guatemalan, who flungthe door open. The Mexican shoved Varik onto the wide porch and followed him out with one hand gripped on his collar. The Cuban came next, trailed by the Guatemalan, who didn’t bother shutting the door behind him.

Five steps out onto the front porch the Mexican stopped and looked around. The thick clouds heavy with rain shadowed the moonlight. It was nearly pitch-black. He scanned the area for his two men standing guard outside, but didn’t see them.

“Paco! Ramiro!” He looked around. It was deathly quiet. Even the insects were silent. The Mexican’s neck tingled as his eyes made out a shadowed lump on the ground several yards away.

“Quick, back into the shack!”

Too late.

Bang!The Cuban’s head split open like an overripe melon as the heavy AK round ripped through the side of his skull. Varik screamed as the hot gory mess splattered over him.

The Mexican dragged Varik behind him, close on the heels of the Guatemalan racing back inside the cabin.

Two sharp cracks of a 9-millimeter pistol echoed in the house, dropping the Guatemalan to the floor.

His ears ringing from the gun blasts and nearly blinded by the flashes, the Mexican pulled his weapon and fired in the direction of the pistol shots, but Raven had already ducked behind the cabinet in the kitchen.

The Mexican pulled Eidolon close just as heavy footsteps thundered through the front door. The Mexican whipped around firing point-blank, but the big African American judo-rolled to safety behind the nearest wall.

The Mexican wrapped an arm around Eidolon’s throat and pulled him against his chest like a Kevlar vest, and pressed his back against the wall, using Eidolon as a human shield.

Link and Raven drew their weapons and put a bead on the Mexican from behind their respective covers.

“There’s no way out. Give him up,” Raven called out in Spanish.

The Mexican pointed his pistol at Raven’s slim profile, then swung the barrel back over toward Linc in the opposite direction, trying to make himself as small as possible.

Both Raven’s and Linc’s weapons were pointed directly at him. There wasn’t a clear shot. They couldn’t take the chance of killing Eidolon.

The Mexican pressed his pistol against Varik’s temple.

“You’re right, there is no way out,” he said in English.

“We can figure this out,” Linc said.

“I already have,yanqui.”

Bang!Eidolon’s head jerked violently as blood geysered from the wound. Without hesitation, the Mexican put his pistol to his own temple and pulled the trigger. Both bodies hit the floor with a sickening thud.

Link and Raven rushed over to the pile of carnage.

“What was that?” wide-eyed Raven asked. “Why?”