The Army woman is pointing at pistol at him!

How is this possible?

Where did she get it?

Where was it hidden?

He warns Paco, “Faster, faster, she’s armed!”

And then the bitch shoots first!

CHAPTER 84

AS PELAYO and my friend Archie yell at each other, I’m ignoring the words and instead looking for the threat. I’m looking at the Yukon, knowing there has to be at least a second or third gunman back there. There’s no way this cartel leader has come to this supposed swap by himself without extra firepower right next to him.

Movement.

I’m looking for movement.

And here it comes.

Now it’s my time.

A wind comes up, and I don’t care anymore if the breeze reveals the slit I earlier made in the rear of Archie’s suitcoat, which gives me easy access to my SIG Sauer pistol concealed in his rear waistband.

I grab it and it’s in my hands as Pelayo whirls out with a pistol, and a beefy-looking guy pops up with a cut-down H&K MP5—Nice intelligence work there, Amy, says a voice inside me—and I’m presented with two threats: I go to the deadlier one, the man with the submachine gun, and open fire.

Inside the Yukon, Hamid jerks at hearing the familiar sound of gunfire, and he turns in his seat, ready to slaughter the American behind him when the word comes, but the American is bent over, seemingly crying and sobbing, and Hamid shouts, “Shut up, you bawling woman!”

He has a pistol on him but is going to go with the folding knife that is now in his hand. A bullet to the American’s head would kill him and be merciful.

Hamid is not going to be merciful.

The little girl is also crying, and Hamid is ignoring her.

Tom Cornwall is bent at the waist, making noises to signal he’s crying and afraid of the gunfire, but he’s been in a number of tight places before, and the gunfire is now just part of the background noise, like the yells and the curses he also hears.

With his hands bound in tape, he is desperately working at his left pant leg, which he manages to drag up, revealing his sock and—

God, yes, the cutting tool.

He tries to work with the tool, cutting and slicing at the tight tape, and he winces as the blade twice cuts into his own skin, but he keeps on working.

The gunfire outside continues.

The bitch was using his father to get to him, Pelayo screams inside, and he opens fire, just as Paco aims at the woman, and there’s an ugly noise of metal being ripped apart, and then there’s a quick “oh” and the side of his face is suddenly soaked, and he spares just the quickest of glances, seeing the pockmarked metal on the Yukon’s hood where the woman opened fire in Paco’s direction.

It looks like four or five rounds worked their way up the metal, until the last bullet took off the top of Paco’s head.