“Stop.” Lilith knew her voice wouldn’t carry. The word was barely a whisper. But what she was seeing, what these men were doing…She had never known that such things could exist.
With so many of the shelters on fire, the village glowed orange. Lilith searched for the woman who had orchestrated the attack. She started to run farther into the smoke but stopped when she saw Echo standing a few feet away, her booted foot on top of Sister Peter’s head, grinding it into the dirt.
Lilith jolted forward. “Let her go!”
Echo glanced up and smiled. She had changed her clothes. When she arrived she’d been in khaki cargo pants and a T-shirt. Now she wore all black along with a vest that was practical rather than fashionable. Like her men, she had a gun holster under each arm. One of the guns dangled casually in her hand like an extension of her body.
“Sister! How smart of you to come so quickly. Like I said, I knew you were no dummy. You know what I want.”
“I was going to give it to you in the morning. You did not have to do this.”
“You were going to give it to me.” She laughed. “You know, I actually believe you. That proves how pathetic you are. You don’t surrender information like this. You hold on to it. You fight for it. You kill for it. Because there has never been anything so valuable.”
“Value is subjective.”
“That’s right, my little Buddhist philosopher.”
Lilith watched as Echo motioned to one of her men standing only a few feet away. “She’s got it on her. The satchel. Go get it,” she ordered.
Lilith didn’t move. Instead she held on to the strap of the bag and struggled to take her eyes off Sister Peter, who had managed to pull her face out of the dirt. The nun’s eyes were wide with fear, but Lilith could see anger, too. And a silent plea not to give in to the threat.
“Let Sister Peter go. She has nothing to do with this. I will give you the computer.”
Echo tilted her head, a nasty scowl forming on her face. “Don’t tell me what to do. Just because you were Mummy’s favorite, don’t think that makes you special.”
“I only want you to go.”
“Then hand over the bag.”
“Once you let her go.”
“Uric, take the damn satchel,” Echo commanded.
Echo’s man moved with determination to where Lilith stood. He pulled back a beefy hand and backhanded her across the face, wanting to knock her down first before removing the bag from her shoulder. Lilith barely had time to feel the sting of the blow before he was on the ground at her feet, convulsing. A few seconds later the convulsions stopped.
“Oooohh. That’s sick. He barely touched you and he’s dead. You’re a real menace, aren’t you?”
Echo bent down and pulled the nun up by the roots of her hair until she was on her knees. Sister Peter tried to struggle, but Echo’s superior strength was evident. Lilith could do nothing but watch as Echo pushed the point of the gun against her friend’s temple.
“Drop the bag and take a few steps back or I will kill her.”
Lilith complied immediately. She removed the strap from around her body, dropped the bag onto the ground and took several steps away from it. She would have given Echo anything to spare Sister Peter’s life.
“There. Take it and go.”
But Echo wasn’t moving and the gun remained at Sister Peter’s head. “Rolf, go get the bag.”
“But she touched it,” he said, hesitating.
“Good point.” Echo lifted her gun toward Lilith.
“The poison doesn’t transfer,” Lilith said quickly. There was no reason to lie when she wanted Echo to take the bag and leave. “It binds with water. And it can pass through material, but once it leaves my skin it’s harmless.”
“Hear that, Rolf? You’re as safe as a kitten. Go get me the bag.”
Done with their tasks of destruction, Echo’s remaining men rejoined her in the center of the village. The large man with the light skin moved to obey her order. He brought the bag to Echo and pulled out the laptop. Lilith watched as he tried to power it up.
He shook his head.
“The battery died,” Lilith interjected. “I had it on for a few hours but then it died. You can see we have no electricity here.”
Echo tugged on Sister Peter’s hair hard until she cried out. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“No.”
“Mummy sent you the laptop so you could read the files, but she sent the files separately. Do you know how I know this? Because that’s exactly what she did for me. Where’s the spider?”
Lilith hesitated.
“You say you don’t care about the information for yourself. So that can’t be the reason you’re not handing it over. Which must mean you just don’t want me to have it.”
“I do not.”
Echo’s jaw dropped in apparent shock. “Such disloyalty from my own damn family. You have five seconds to give me what I want or I shoot the nun. One. Two. Three…”
“Wait!” Lilith reached under the cotton slip she wore and pulled the spider out from between her breasts. “This is it. This is what you want.”
Echo practically glowed with triumph. “Yes. That is what I want. Gaudy, isn’t it? I couldn’t be bothered to actually wear mine. Silly me for thinking that I was the only one who got the necklace. That it was special. Now I don’t feel so bad for tossing it. After all, it’s only what’s inside that’s important.”
“Let her go. I will give you the necklace.”
“Again with the orders. I can shoot her, shoot you and take the damn thing for myself.”
“You could,” Lilith agreed. “But it might be a while before the poison in my system is neutralized and you can take the chance of removing the necklace. Unless you brought protective gear with you, that is. I said it doesn’t transfer, but it can be absorbed. Some materials can delay it. Most do not.”
“Clever, sister,” Echo conceded. “Fine. Straight up. You toss me the necklace and I let your friend go.”
Lilith reached for the chain around her neck and tugged hard. She looked down at the ugly gold spider in her hand then at Echo.
“Don’t.” Sister Peter was still fighting Echo’s hold on her, shaking her head from side to side.
Lilith could see the stubborn gleam in her eyes, but her stubbornness was useless against Echo. It was a choice. Between the harm that Echo might do versus the harm that Echo would do if Lilith didn’t give her what she wanted.
She couldn’t take the chance.
Lilith tossed the necklace and watched as it fell at Echo’s feet.
Dropping to her haunches, while still keeping a grip on the sister, Echo plucked up the spider and smiled at the fearsome design.
“Yes, same as mine. My word, did Mummy have bad taste in jewelry.”
Then before Lilith had a chance to blink, the gun in Echo’s hand fired. Sister Peter fell lifelessly to the ground as the blood rushed out of her skull and into the dirt.
Echo stood, turning her gun on Lilith. “You didn’t actually think I was going to let her live, did you?”
Lilith had no air in her lungs to answer.
“Oh. I think you did.”
She could feel the heat of the fires burning around her. She could smell the smoke and see the villagers racing to carry pots of water from the river, but her brain wasn’t working any longer. It wasn’t telling her to run or hide. It wasn’t telling her to fight.
All she could think was that they had made a deal. The necklace for Sister Peter.
Echo hadn’t kept her part.
Stepping over the body, Echo moved closer. If she moved another few feet, Lilith might be able to reach out and touch her. She remained frozen.
Another footstep. One more. But Echo stopped just short of where Lilith wanted her.
The gun was aimed at her head. Death, a topic she had studied so closely as part of her faith, a topic she knew so well because of who she was, was only a trigger pull away. Lilith wasn’t f
rightened. Her only concern was how fast and in what form she would be reborn so that she could fight Echo in her next life.
“We have what we need. Kill her and let’s go,” said one of her men, who appeared bored by the night’s proceedings.
Echo whipped her head around. “Don’t distract me!”
In that second Lilith acted, but when she reached forward with her hands to touch her sister’s face she was stopped by a wall that she could not see.
“Uh, uh, uh,” Echo chastised. “I have my special gifts, too.”
Lilith pushed again but whatever it was, it was strong enough to keep her from touching Echo.
“It seems you’re not quite the good little girl you pretend to be. You didn’t hesitate to try to kill me. Me, your only remaining sister. Mummy actually might have been proud. At least you’re not quite as pathetic as I thought. You know, I don’t think I will kill you. Better to know you’re here, rotting in this forsaken jungle. Cursing me with every breath and knowing that you couldn’t do anything to stop me.”
Another gunshot fired, this one from a distance. Lilith was sure that it was heading in her direction. Echo’s henchmen doing what Echo had chosen not to? But instead she could see the bullet bounce off Echo’s invisible shield. It might have hit her head, but instead fell harmlessly into the dirt. Echo turned toward the gunshot in reaction and in that second Lilith could feel her hand press closer through whatever it was that Echo was using to block her out.
One more centimeter.
But Echo quickly returned her attention to her biggest threat.
“It seems one of these villagers found a gun. I wasn’t expecting that. I suppose it is time to leave. Anyone makes another move and I swear I will destroy this village and every living thing in it.” This Echo shouted to everyone within hearing distance. “Goodbye, sister. Say…thank you for not killing me.”
Lilith didn’t answer. Echo merely shrugged. “Fine. Be like that. Just be grateful I’m a woman of my word.”
She started to walk away then turned back. “Oh wait. That’s right. I’m not a woman of my word.”
Echo spun around quickly, anxious to see the expression of stunned disbelief when the bullet found her sister’s stomach. Instead of flesh her bullet met only air as Lilith darted off for the jungle.
“I can’t believe she ran. It’s like she didn’t trust me.”
“Should we track her down?” Rolf asked.
Echo considered her options. She had what she needed. Lilith was nothing like Kwan-Sook. She had no criminal empire at her disposal, no access to any contacts that might be dangerous to her or her plans.
There was nothing Lilith could do that would amount to any sort of threat. And what Echo had told her sister was true. There was pleasure in knowing Lilith was stuck in this lost part of the world, helpless. Really, Echo had just wanted to kill Lilith for the fun of it. Chasing her into the jungle to kill her for pleasure was self-indulgent.
There was a world out there for Echo to conquer, after all.
“Not necessary. She’s of no concern to me any longer.” Echo dropped the spider that was still in her hand, the last legacy from her mother, into her front vest pocket. “Go fire up the chopper. We’re leaving.”
Tarak slunk back into the jungle away from the black helicopter. He still didn’t understand how he had missed his shot, but now wasn’t the time to ask questions. Slowly he moved into the trees and bushes as if he were being sucked back into a black hole. A noise behind him caught his ear.
Breathing. Running.
Instantly he turned, prepared to fire another shot.
He crouched low among the heavy foliage and waited for what he believed to be his enemy to emerge from a thicket northeast of his position. But when the figure burst through the trees into the small clearing he instantly recognized the form.
He stood and moved to catch her around the waist, preventing her from going any farther, but she quickly spotted him when he stood and stopped in her tracks. Not wanting her to make any noise, he thought the easiest course of action would be to secure her in his grasp with a hand over her mouth, but before he could move she was back-stepping out of his reach.
Gasps of high-pitched air escaped her mouth, but that was the only noise she made. He moved to put his finger to his lips but he didn’t know if she could see his action in the dark. Or, for that matter, recognize who he was.
But she wasn’t calling out for help. Or screeching in a way that might have invited visitors.
Good girl.
Holstering his gun, he used his hands to motion that she should crouch low. He put them over his head once to indicate his intentions and then again made the crouching motion. Following his own advice, he moved out of the small opening, closer to a thicket of trees that would secure his cover.
He waited for a whisper from her, or some other sound to announce her confusion. But there was none. Only a small rustling motion as she, too, buried herself amongst the trees only a few paces away.
The group emerging from the burning village felt no need to hide their presence. The men moved in advance of the woman whom Tarak had seen at the center of the chaos. Short cropped hair, purposeful stride, but with a figure that screamed all woman. He hadn’t seen her features, but he recognized her as the woman who shot the nun.
She barked some orders to hurry everyone along as they climbed inside the chopper. In the next instant the blades started to whirl until they were fast enough to lift the machine off the ground. An abrupt movement to his right let him know that his friend wasn’t prepared to let them go that easily.
He reached out with his hand to grab hold of something that would stop her chase, but she averted his grasp and sprinted forward. He might have been concerned if he wasn’t certain that by the time she got to the clearing the chopper would be gone.
Relaxed, he stood and followed the path she had taken. She stood in the indentation of mud where the front wheel had been and looked defeated as her eyes followed the line and sound of the machine as it lifted into the night sky.
“They won’t go far,” he informed her. He pulled a knife from his belt and held it up for her to see the outline of it in his hand. “Fuel line. They’ve got a few miles, I would guess. They’ll either recognize their situation and land or they’ll crash. Either way they’ll be far enough away from here not to do any more harm.”
Tarak took a step closer. Lilith took a step back. It was like a dance but only she seemed to know the steps.
“You have to help me.”
That had him smiling. “I believe I just did.”
“No, we have to go after them. Whether they land or crash we have to find her. We have to get it back.”
It. The necklace he’d seen exchanged. He remembered it from when he’d seen it dangling from Lilith’s neck between breasts that had been far more interesting to him. He didn’t like the necklace then. He certainly didn’t like it any better now.
“Retrieving the necklace won’t bring the nun back to life.”
“You saw it happen?”
He had. Bursts of orange light from the village had gotten his attention during his nightly walk to stretch and strengthen his leg. By the time the shots were fired he was already on his way down the hill from the monastery, taking his time to move in the shadows and assess the situation before he jumped in. By the time he reached the village, the showdown had already begun, but he’d heard the deal that had been offered. The necklace for the nun. Foolishly Lilith had given up her only bargaining chip and before the trigger had been pulled, he knew the nun’s fate was sealed.
At that moment he’d made his decision regarding the fate of the intruder and her thugs. A man had to pick a side.
“I promise you. They won’t make it. Even if they do manage to land, they’ll be lost in the jungle. I disabled the radio, as well.”
“There are other villages. Not close, but…”
“On foot. In the jungle. In the middle of the night. Witho
ut the right skills they’ll be some animal’s feast before dawn.”
She seemed to consider his conclusion but then she was shaking her head.
“I cannot take that chance.”
“It’s just a damn necklace,” he said, irritated with her insistence. Hadn’t he just avenged her friend? Hadn’t he thwarted her enemies? Where were the thanks?
“No. I must go and find them. You need to help me.”
Her urgency was palpable. So much that he was willing to bet it was more than just a damn necklace. Merciless destruction, cold-blooded elimination. All that for jewelry? No, he supposed there had to be more to the story. Tarak tried to summon a few reasons why he shouldn’t see this through. They came easily enough.
One: his leg hurt.
Two: he needed to be concerned about his future and that meant finding out who had betrayed him in the jungles of Colombia.
Three: as hot as he was for the nymph, she was more skittish around him than she was a leper. Which meant the likelihood of getting some action should he prove to be successful in his quest to retrieve the necklace was slim.
“Oh bother.” He sighed, knowing himself too well. “Fine. Say please.”
Her head tilted slightly to the right, a gesture he was coming to understand signaled her skepticism.
“Please,” he repeated. “You’re asking me to take off into the jungle after five armed men….”
“Four. One of them is dead.”
Interesting. He’d seen a body at her feet during the standoff, but he hadn’t seen what had happened before then. Was it possible his waif had actually taken one of the men down? Definitely interesting.
“Four men and one really badass woman. The least you could do is say please.”
“Please,” she whispered.
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