Elijah laughed. “You would. But not this time. He wants you in the forest taking care of his wife, Isabeau. He said to tell you to look out for her until he can get there. She’s got an enemy—a leopard. Only another leopard can protect her.”

The boy pushed out his small chest. “I can do it.”

“Let’s go then.” Elijah anxiously assessed the fire. In a few more minutes it was going to cut off their escape route. They had to go. He signaled to Rio that he was moving with the boy. He shifted Mateo to his back. “Hold on. We’re on the move,” he barked into his radio, not wanting his own men to accidentally shoot them.

The fire was becoming a larger threat than the erratic gunfire. Rio signaled to his men to follow Elijah and get out. They couldn’t wait any longer. He tried to warn Conner that the base of the tower was on fire, but the leopard had already made it to the top and was just beneath the platform. He didn’t want to give Imelda any warning of the cat’s presence, not when she seemed to have a small arsenal at her fingertips.

The smoke rolled into the air, turning everything grayish black, dropping visibility. It was helpful to Elijah as he took the boy out of the compound into the safety of the rain forest, but the smoke was nearly choking Rio. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief as he strained to see what was happening above him on the tower. He no longer could see Imelda, but she had to be aware of the crackling flames greedily rushing up the supporting legs of the tower.

THE smell of the fire was overpowering to the large leopard. Every survival instinct he possessed urged him to run for his life. The leopard snarled as the smoke stung his eyes, but he kept climbing, determined to put a stop to the gunfire as Imelda continued to fire into the hazy yard below her. Conner’s leopard dragged himself onto the platform in absolute silence.

Through the swirling clouds of billowing smoke, he could see the woman, lying on top of the tower, weapons strewn around her, an automatic gun sweeping the yard below with no regard for who she might hit. Below, the men broke under the assault, abandoning their tries to put out the fire, running instead to get out. The ground below was in chaos.

Imelda screamed at them, swearing and hurling curses, most directed at Elijah and Marcos. She must have believed that they had deceived her in order to take over her drug routes. It obviously didn’t occur to her that they had come to rescue the children. She swore vengeance and death to their families as she continued to shoot at anything that moved below her.