Page 85 of Fear No Evil

Lobo’s mouth firmed. “You know I’ll take the blame for your decision.”

“Then tell Commander Strong I went AWOL. I don’t care.” His future in the Teams wouldn’t matter anyway, not if Lena vanished from his life. She was the reason he was a SEAL and a SOG in the first place.

With a shake of his head, Lobo seemed to accept Jake’s decision. “Fine. But we’re not leaving you without our SERE kits and whatever arms and food we can spare. You could be stuck here a long time.” He pushed away from the tree, leaving Jake to his thoughts.

A sense of calm stole over him, even as he kept a sharp eye out for the remaining tango. He didn’t have to leave El Castillo. With supplies and weapons, he’d be fine out here. Hadn’t he emerged from survival training in the jungles of Panama withmere cuts and bruises? It wasn’t himself he was worried about. Lena was the one truly in peril here. God have mercy on her.

CHAPTER 17

Gallo burst into thecasita, startling David as he applied the sticky mixture ofajo sachapaste over the señora’s festering wound. His patient, lethargic with fever, nonetheless lurched up in the hammock, ready to protect herself. But it was David who needed protecting as Gallo bore down on him wild-eyed.

“What are you doing?” He hauled his pistol from the holster on his belt and pointed it at David’s head, causing him to drop the wooden bowl with its potent-smelling poultice and back away from Gallo, his hands raised.

“I…I’m sealing her wound. She is feverish and could die.”

Gallo raised his voice and waved his pistol in Madeleine’s direction. “She is not your concern! She is a spy!” He had lost his hat. The hair on his head stuck straight up, and his eyes bulged. “Some soldiers came for her‍—” He cut himself off abruptly and spun away, dragging fingers through his hair as he commenced pacing thecasita.

David divided his attention between the señora’s glazed expression and the crazedmondo, whose energy was even more unpredictable than ever. Where was Gallo’s partner in crime?He scrounged up the courage to ask. “Where is the Venezuelan captain?”

Gallo wheeled around, pointing a finger this time, even as he jammed his pistol back into its holster. “We don’t know.” His breath came in hard and fast.

We?

Gallo waved a hand at the door. “He went out last night to relieve himself, and he never came back. Perhaps a jaguar ate him. This is the story you will tell.”

“But‍—” Gallo’s wild look kept David from protesting,“But you left with him this morning.”

Clearly, something had happened to Vargas that Gallo didn’t want his superiors to know. Did that mean the Venezuelan was dead? Who had killed him‍—possibly the soldiers Gallo had just mentioned? Had they been looking for Madeleine?

Glancing back at his patient, David caught a glimmer of tears in her eyes before she turned her face away. She had obviously heard Gallo’s words, gleaning that whoever had come for her was gone now‍—gone as in dead. But they’d managed to kill Vargas, at least, leaving one less devil to contend with.

Poor señora. Nobody would rescue her now. David gulped. It was up to him to look after her. Seeing Gallo head back outside, David snatched up the fallen bowl and continued to tend his patient’s wound.

He was scrubbing the bowl in the bucket of water when Gallo returned. David watched warily as themondomarched straight for Madeleine. Using a key on his key chain, he unlocked the padlock that had kept her chained to the wall. As Gallo freed the length of chain, the woman sat up slowly. She was right to be wary of themondo, who then hauled her out of the hammock with a yank.

David abandoned the bowl, hurrying to catch his patient as she stumbled.

Gallo glared at him. “Tie her wrists behind her back. We’re leaving.”

David glanced at Madeleine’s pale face. “But, Mondo, she’s too sick to go anywhere.”

Gallo flashed out a hand and cuffed the side of David’s head, leaving his ear ringing. “I said,tieher wrists.”

David stared at him a moment. For the first time in his rebel career, he wished his weapon weren’t useless. “Yes, sir.”

Turning away, he hunted down the length ofhamakfiber that strung her up the night before. While securing the woman’s wrists behind her back, as Gallo instructed, David asked himself when and how he would free her‍—how he would free themboth.

Her health was not going to improve. Certainly, theajo sachawould help to stave off infection, but stress and starvation would sicken her. “Are we taking her toArribanow?” He was afraid to ask.

“We?” Gallo’s dark glance should have incinerated him on the spot, it was so filled with loathing.

David wet his dry lips. “Rojas ordered me to keep her alive.” It was only a matter of time before Gallo learned he was lying.

As themondohuffed out a breath of annoyance, David’s heart fluttered like a bird’s.

“Then you must come along, I guess.”

David nodded, though his victory was short-lived. Once atArriba, it would be next to impossible to free Madeleine. The most he could do was to keep her alive longer. Perhaps Padre Josué was still at the old radio station, not far fromArriba, and could help David.

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