Imelda Cortez’s sprawling compound was found at the end of a very long, windy road that switched back and forth up a mountain and dead-ended at her property. The rain forest surrounded her on three sides. The team had already run through their routes over and over, and the most promising was on the southernmost tip of the estate. If they could get the children to that side of the compound, the forest was practically reclaiming the fences.

They came in two vehicles. Marcos, Conner and Leonardo were in the first one. Elijah and Isabeau with Rio and Felipe arrived in the second. The others had been shocked when they saw Isabeau. Her face was untouched, her skin flawless but pale. She moved like a much older woman, unable to stand straight, obviously in pain. She’d taken a painkiller, but it hadn’t seemed to help much.

“If Isabeau says she can do this, then she can,” Conner said, his voice terse. He hadn’t been able to dissuade her, not even when she’d rolled over onto her hands and knees, pushing up as her stomach heaved, protesting the severe beating. He didn’t know if it was her fear of Ottila returning, or her determination to see their mission through that got her on her feet, but she somehow had managed to get herself dressed and ready for the trip to Imelda’s.

Weapons were stashed in two secret locations just inside the rain forest. Without the rogue leopards guarding Imelda’s compound, it had been fairly easy to place the caches without detection. They had more stashed in the two vehicles, hidden from sight so it didn’t look as if they were going to war.

The gates loomed up before them, heavy ironwork designed to keep out anyone, or keep someone prisoner behind the eight-foot fence that surrounded the rolling grounds. Guards with dogs patrolled the fence and several more guarded the gates with automatic weapons. Conner was certain Imelda wanted a show of force for her visitors. He kept his dark glasses in place and spent most of his time looking indifferent as he studied the layout of the compound and the close proximity of the forest.

Had he been the head of the security force, the first thing he would have done would be to move back the forest. The fence itself was a security nightmare. Imelda wanted the top flat and wide enough for guards to use it, but she should have had it built so no one could climb it. Some of the lower branches actually touched the fence. The branches were often used as a highway for the animals, and both Suma and Ottila would have known that. They really hadn’t cared much about their job, or maybe they’d grown lazy, as no one ever challenged Imelda’s stranglehold on the Panama-Colombia border.