Page 87 of Red Boar's Baby

“No buts. You’re my backup. Delgado, if they start shooting, you start shooting back. Just don’t shoot me.”

The vehicles, several large SUVs and a Hummer, had stopped outside the gate. All Diana could see was a dark mass, with doors gleam in the moonlight as they opened and a number of men climbed down. They all seemed to be dressed in dark clothes, and she saw the flash of reflections off weapons.

“This is private property,” Costa shouted. “Authorities have been called and are on their way. I don’t know if you were told this, but I’m the head of a federal law enforcement agency. Turn around and leave.”

Diana held her breath.

The headlights of the Hummer came on abruptly, and Costa was flooded with light. He squinted, putting a hand in front of his eyes. In the backwash of reflected light, Diana saw several men on lightweight black body armor move around the cars. All of them were armed, pointing their weapons at Costa.

“This doesn’t need to get violent,” one of them called. “We’re here for a few specific people, and that’s all we want. We’ll take them with us. If you’re Cesar Costa, you’re one of them.”

“If you take me, will you leave?” Costa called, and Diana’s heart leaped straight into her throat. There was no immediate answer, which was answer enough, and Costa snapped, “No deal, then. I’ll tell you what you’re going to do, which is turn around and leave immediately. Or you can stand out there all night until the SCB team I’ve called in gets here.”

“You’re cut off,” the spokesman sneered. “You couldn’t have called anyone.”

“If I don’t check in regularly, they’re under orders to send a team out.”

“Yeah, well, we have orders too, and our orders are to take you with us.”

“Orders from who?” Costa demanded.

“Surrender and come out here, Costa. We can take you in alive, but—” The guns aimed at him seemed to take on an ugly air of threat. “—we don’t have to.”

At that point, Diana became aware of a low rumbling, vibrating through her feet. She might have noticed it earlier, but it had been blotted out by the noise of the convoy of vehicles.

“What the hell?” someone said on the other side of the gate.

Diana turned to look.

There was something coming towards them through the parking area, some kind of big piece of heavy equipment. It wasn’t until it made a slow, graceful turn in front of the gate and stopped that she realized it was a bulldozer.

A big one.

It was now blocking the gate completely. The engine died away.

“That’ll slow them down!” Aunt Lo announced cheerfully from the driver’s seat. “Glad I could get the thing started, it?—”

“Get down from there!” Costa jumped up on the treads on the away-from-gunmen side to help her down. “Good thinking, now get back in the house.”

“Wait.” Lo caught at his hand. “We think there are more of them at the back of the ranch. Rod’s pretty sure one of his traps got sprung up there.”

Costa cursed. “Someone was supposed to go up to Jenny and Jay.”

“I was doing that,” Lo said, “but I saw the dozer first. Do you want me to?—”

“No! Diana!”

“Here!” Diana called from the dark.

“I need you to get up to the back of the ranch. Don’t do anything, don’t engage, just make sure that Jenny and my nephew are somewhere safe. Can you do it?”

“I will,” Diana said.

It took everything in her to turn her back on Costa and the situation at the gate. But he was right, she was less help here than she would be protecting the noncombatants. She took off running into the dark.

Away from the gate and the Hummer’s headlights, the night was like pitch. She had a vague idea of the layout of the ranch, having been here enough times to know that there was a dirt road that went up behind the barn and outbuildings to the second cluster of residences on the back of the ranch, currently occupied by Jenny and her son.

Diana glanced back once, but the lights at the gate washed out her night vision, so she looked away.

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