Burial Ground

III

10:12 p.m.

Tasker led McMasters around the western edge of the clearing, careful not to stray into the light. The sentries hadn't split up as he had assumed they would, but that didn't faze him in the slightest. He adjusted his plan on the fly as he always did, and in the process of doing so, was struck by a bolt of inspiration. Rather than just killing two birds with one stone, he could kill all of them every bit as easily. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun as cornering those cowering inside the stone dwelling and executing them in front of each other, but in one swift stroke, the deed would be done and they would have the ruins all to themselves.

Bushes rustled behind him and something splashed in a puddle off in the jungle to his left. Their stalkers were growing more bold by the minute. Fortunately, his masterful solution ought to serve the dual purpose of scaring them off as well.

It was the most perfect plan ever devised. Too bad there would be no one left to share in his triumph when all was said and done, and he was staring out over the Caribbean from the balcony of his private villa.

He paused when they reached the back side of the palatial structure and signaled for McMasters to do the same. Other than the clamor of the rain and the stealthy movement in the trees, he heard nothing, no sign that their ruse had been detected.

With a nod, he guided McMasters over the mounds of rubble that had nearly been reclaimed by the earth to form a rugged hillside from which trees of all shapes and sizes grew. Had he not seen it from the front, he might never have suspected that anything manmade resided under his feet. Silently, they worked their way through the overgrowth until the light from the torches blazed from beyond the next row of trees, and then lowered themselves to their bellies and scuttled toward the edge.

Tasker locked stares with McMasters and pushed himself up just high enough to peer over the precipice. While he couldn't see the guards directly underneath him from that vantage point, at least he could confirm that neither of them had wandered away from their posts far enough that they could clearly see the jungle growing on the roof above them.

He eased back to his stomach, pressed his index finger to his lips, and craned his head to listen.

Faint voices drifted up from below. He couldn't make out their words, but he didn't have to either.

He turned back to McMasters and gave a single nod.

McMasters licked his lips and rolled over onto his back. He reached into the front pocket of his jacket, removed the object as they had discussed, and turned back over again. Holding it tightly in his fist, he pulled the pin with his opposite hand.

The grenade would shred the sentries and undoubtedly collapse the entire ancient structure.

They just needed to make sure that they weren't on top of it when it fell.

Bushes shivered to Tasker's right.

They weren't alone.

McMasters shoved himself to all fours, staying as low as he could, and crawled toward the edge. With the grenade in his right hand, he leaned out over the unsuspecting men below.

Colton watched the branches across the clearing slowly tremble back into place. Again, the forest fell deathly still.

"Where are they?" Sorenson whispered. "I can't see a blasted thing."

Colton could feel them all around him. The weight of unseen eyes made his skin crawl.

The creatures were smart, too smart to blindly charge out into the light. But they weren't passively waiting out there for their prey to make the first move either. They were the hunters, and the darkness was their ally. Colton sensed them surrounding the clearing, just out of sight in the protective embrace of the shrubs and shadows.

The noose was tightening, and soon---

He felt a gentle tap on his right shoulder and leapt away from the wall before the pebble that had fallen from the lip above him even hit the ground. Twisting in midair, he raised his weapon toward the roof of the building and squeezed the trigger.

Automatic gunfire chattered.

McMasters was thrown away from the edge and into the air. Geysers of blood trailed him as he flopped backward.

Tasker watched the arm holding the grenade go limp and the hand relax. The grenade tumbled through the underbrush toward the dark side of the building.

McMasters's body formed a rainbow arch, frozen in time by the strobe of a lightning strike. Dark shapes lunged out of the shrubs and attacked him in midair with a flurry of claws and teeth. Clothes tore and skin parted. A rain of blood patterned the mud, but Tasker only felt it spatter his legs as he propelled himself diagonally to his right. He barely managed to get his legs underneath him in time to launch himself over the front corner of the structure.

Light flashed behind him. With a clap of manmade thunder, the concussive blast hurled him out over the nothingness in a fiery cloud of shrapnel.