In daylight, the place had an even stronger resemblance to hell. The shadowy figures he’d seen the night before were now in stark focus and full color. Worse, the climbing temperature was raising a translucent mist that seemed to magnify the stench of excrement and death, now joined by an acidic hint of vomit.

Most of Auma’s followers were down. Some already dead from the ricin, the others were on their way. Girls—badly broken versions of the one trailing Auma—surveyed the scene from the trees. A few that had started to venture out retreated at the sight of the cult leader.

Rapp turned his attention to the two armed men guarding a wooden cage full of weapons. They glanced at Rapp but were much more interested in Auma. Despite everything they’d just witnessed, their eyes still brimmed with an odd mix of terror, adoration, and gratitude. Did they think he had saved them? That God had deemed them his only worthy followers?

An interesting question, but not one Rapp really needed answered. He pulled his Glock from a holster in the small of his back and fired a single round into the forehead of each man. Both collapsed unceremoniously to the ground.

Auma apparently saw that as his moment. He grabbed the girl, pulling her to him in a way that would both shield him from Rapp’s bullets and cause the explosives glued to his genitals to kill her if detonated.

The African backed toward the cave as Rapp tracked him lazily with his Glock. In truth, he was more concerned with the surviving men strewn around him and even the girls in the trees. In a situation like this, it was hard to know how people would react and who might attack.

In the end, the answer was no one. While some of the boys on the ground still had the energy to writhe around a bit, they no longer seemed to have any idea what was going on around them. And the girls just inside the tree line seemed content to stay there.

“Tell them I’m dead!” Auma said as he continued to pick his way through what was left of his disciples. “You got what you came for.”

Rapp didn’t react, even when Auma dragged the stunned girl back into the cave. There was no reason to. The cult leader was playing checkers while Joe Maslick was playing chess. While there was indeed a detonator button in Rapp’s pocket, it didn’t send a signal as Auma assumed. In fact, the opposite was true. The remote was in constant communication with the bomb placed on the man and the button shut down that connection. More simply put, the explosive wasn’t designed to go off when signaled. The signal was what kept it dormant. Once Auma moved out of range, he was going to get a very unfortunate surprise.