Hunt at the Well of Eternity (15 page)

Looked like Mariella wasn’t the only one who knew some hidden trails and short cuts.

“What do you want, Podnemovitch?”

The big, broken-nosed man laughed. “What do I want? I want you dead, of course. Why don’t you just go ahead and jump off that bridge? Save us all a lot of trouble, don’t you think?”

“You first,” Gabriel said between gritted teeth.

A couple of other men stepped out of the jungle behind Podnemovitch. One of them carried a rifle, and Gabriel assumed that he was one of Esparza’s men. The other was short and slender and pale and wore a dirty, rumpled suit with no tie. He walked with a limp and used a branch in one hand for support. He laughed harshly and said, “You thought you could get here before me, didn’t you, Mariella? Think you’re so high and mighty, like you’re the queen of Cuchatlán!”

“Hector!” she said. “You…you traitor!”

Hector gave a mockery of a salute. “Soon
I
will be the ruler of Cuchatlán! Señor Esparza has promised me that I will be in charge here!”

What a fool, thought Gabriel. No one, no matter how self-deluded, should have been stupid enough to believe that promise, if indeed it had been made at all. The greed that had led Hector to betray his people in the first place was now blinding him to the truth of his own situation. He’d already been beaten to within an inch of his life, and as soon as Esparza had everything he wanted, that last inch would be taken from him as well.

But that time hadn’t come yet. Which meant Esparza didn’t have everything he wanted.

Podnemovitch said, “Step aside, Hunt, and let Señora Fargo past. Vladimir has decided that he will spare her life, as well as that of Dr. Almanzar. You and those two bandits, though, are of no worth to him.” He used the revolver to gesture at Escalante and Tomás. “You two, out of the way! Let the women come back off the bridge.”

“Gabriel,” Cierra said, “as soon as we get off the bridge, that bastard will shoot you all.”

In a low voice, he said, “When things start to happen, get around me, then you and Mariella make a run for the far side of the bridge.”

“You mean abandon you?”

“I mean get out of the way so we can make a fight of it.” Gabriel had heard voices not far away and knew that more men were coming. Esparza must have sent a few men hurrying ahead, but now the main party was approaching the Blade of the Gods. If Gabriel and his companions could just get across somehow and cut the ropes supporting the bridge before any of Esparza’s men could cross…

Of course, that would trap them in the valley, he realized, but they could deal with that problem later, once they’d made sure that Esparza couldn’t reach Cuchatlán.

“I’m losing patience, Hunt,” Podnemovitch called. “Let the women off the bridge now.”

Tomás took matters into his own hands then. The short bandit let out a yell of rage and hurled his machete end-over-end at Podnemovitch.

Gabriel brought up his Colt and yelled, “Go!” at Cierra.

Podnemovitch flung himself to the side and fired at Tomás, but the shot missed. At the same time Tomás charged toward the big Russian, bellowing in anger as he leaped from plank to plank, skipping every other one and causing the bridge to shake beneath him.

Cierra hurried toward Gabriel, who crowded against the guide rope to give her room to pass him. He reached out with his free hand to steady her, since she wouldn’t have anything to hold on to.

She didn’t get there, though. One of her feet slipped, and with a terrified cry her leg plunged between the planks. She started to tilt out to the side.

In desperation, Gabriel reached for her, caught hold of her shirt. It ripped down the front, the fabric parting under Cierra’s weight. But the shirt didn’t tear completely, and he was able to stop her fall and pull her halfway onto the bridge, which was now swaying worse than before.

Gabriel glanced up as shots roared out. He saw that Tomás had almost reached the end of the bridge, but Podnemovitch had set himself now and he didn’t miss as flame spurted from the muzzle of the big revolver. Tomás jerked and slowed as the slugs plowed into his broad chest. His momentum kept him going all the way off the bridge, however, and he crashed into Podnemovitch.

The other man opened fire with his rifle. Gabriel and Escalante ducked as bullets whistled past them. Escalante brought his Springfield to his shoulder and squeezed off a round. Esparza’s man doubled over as the bullet hit him in the midsection.

But his last shot had found a target, too, as Escalante twisted under its impact. Gabriel was trying to pull Cierra back fully onto the bridge—her leg still dangled through the gap between planks—ashe saw Escalante fall perilously close to the edge. The bandit leader dropped his rifle. It slid off the bridge and fell, turning over and over in the air as it plummeted toward the stream far below.

Escalante went halfway off the bridge before he was able to grab hold of a plank. He pressed his other hand to the wound in his side. Blood pumped between his fingers.

“Hang on!” Gabriel shouted to him.

He struggled to lift Cierra, whose leg was now twisted and caught between the planks. A few feet away Escalante’s fingers scrabbled at the wood as his legs dangled off the side of the bridge.

Somewhere behind Gabriel, Mariella screamed.

He jerked his head around to see that two more of Esparza’s men had emerged from the thick growth at the
eastern
end of the bridge—the Cuchatlán side—and charged out onto the span. One of them had hold of Mariella and was trying to drag her off the bridge. The other came at Gabriel, his lips curled in a snarl.

Gabriel understood now what had happened. Hector had known a shortcut of his own and gotten a small group of Esparza’s men to the gorge ahead of Gabriel and his companions. These men crossed the bridge to the eastern side and concealed themselves there. It had been a trap, all right, and Gabriel had walked into it.

With a desperate heave, he finally lifted Cierra onto the bridge. “Grab the rope and hang on,” he told her. Then he swung around to face the man who was almost on top of him.

Gabriel hadn’t had a chance to use his Colt yet, and he didn’t get that chance now. The man’s hand chopped down in a vicious blow. The side of it caught Gabriel’s wrist and knocked the gun loose. The Colt fell and landed on the planks at Gabriel’s feet.

He didn’t have time to try to retrieve it. Instead he swung a fist at the man’s head, knocking him backward. As the bridge swayed to the side and the man almost pitched off of it into nothingness, he flung out a hand in desperation and grabbed the guide rope. He swung his foot up in a kick that landed in Gabriel’s stomach and knocked him back against Cierra, who screamed again as she hung on to the guide rope for dear life. Her torn shirt hung open, her breasts barely covered beneath it in a red bra. The sight caught the eye of Esparza’s man; he only hesitated a split second, but it was enough for Gabriel to bring his right fist up in a sizzling uppercut that landed solidly on the man’s jaw.

This time the man didn’t have a chance to grab the guide rope. The punch propelled him back and to the side, and suddenly there was nothing under him but air. He shrieked in terror as he fell, tumbling for a few seconds before he reached the bottom of the gorge and the fading screams abruptly stopped.

Gabriel glanced one way, saw that the second man had succeeded in dragging Mariella off the bridge. He looked the other way and saw Cierra still clinging to the guide rope. Escalante had finally been able to pull himself back onto the bridge, but he was still bleeding as he lay on the planks, breathing heavily.

At the western end of the bridge, Podnemovitch had gotten up after being knocked down by Tomás, who still lay there on the grassy verge. With his already ugly face made even uglier by the rage contorting his features, Podnemovitch stood over Tomás and pumped three more rounds into him, the shots slamming out and echoing back from the walls of the gorge.

Gabriel’s Colt still lay on one of the rough-hewn planks, its muzzle lodged against a large splinter. That was all that had kept it from falling off while the bridge was swaying beneath them. Escalante reached out with a bloodcovered hand and closed his fingers around the revolver’s grip. He lifted it and fired at Podnemovitch, who ducked back toward the jungle. Over the echoing roar of the gun, Escalante shouted to Gabriel, “Take Cierra and go! I’ll hold him here!”

Even if the bandit hadn’t been wounded, Gabriel didn’t think he would have been any match for the big Russian. He knew that Escalante was offering himself up as a sacrifice.

But that was Escalante’s decision to make. He knew how badly he was hurt, knew he probably wouldn’t make it anyway. Gabriel couldn’t let that gesture go to waste, so he grabbed Cierra’s arm and urged her toward the eastern end of the bridge.

“No!” she cried. “Paco!”

“Go!” Escalante told her.

Cierra sobbed as Gabriel dragged her toward the end of the bridge. There would still be Esparza’s other man to deal with once they got there, but for now the important thing was to get off this perilous span.

As they approached the end of the bridge Gabriel saw that Mariella was still struggling with her captor. She landed a round house punch as Gabriel and Cierra stumbled off the bridge. Solid ground had seldom felt as good under Gabriel’s feet as it did at that moment.

As Cierra slumped to her knees, he let go of her arm and lunged forward to grab the shoulder of the man Mariella had just punched. The man was off balance from that blow, and Gabriel was able to jerk him around and throw a right cross that slammed into his jaw and put him down, out cold.

More shots blasted. Gabriel saw that Escalante had managed to pull himself to his feet. The bandit stood on the bridge shooting at Podnemovitch, who was returning the fire as he advanced, striding deliberately from plank to plank as he approached. Escalante’s wound had weakened him to the point that his aim was shaky and his shots missed Podnemovitch.

Not so the slugs fired by the big Russian. They pounded into Escalante and slewed the bandit around. Escalante grabbed the rope with his free hand and looked back at Gabriel, Cierra, and Mariella.

“Cut the ropes!” he cried with fading strength. “Cut the ropes, Gabriel!”

Gabriel looked down at the man he had just knocked out, saw a sheathed machete at his waist. He bent and yanked the big blade from its sheath, spun toward the bridge. “Head for the jungle!” he told Cierra and Mariella as he slashed at the anchor ropes.

Podnemovitch roared something in Russian that sounded like a curse. He fired past the sagging Escalante at Gabriel, who brought the machete chopping down on the rope again. One of Podnemovitch’s bullets chewed splinters from the anchor post. Gabriel thought one more strike might part the rope, which would cause the bridge to twist and throw Podnemovitch off into the gorge.

Before the machete could fall, though, Cierra and Mariella both cried out in alarm. A new voice called, “Drop the machete, Señor Hunt, or my men will kill you and the women both.”

Gabriel recognized those arrogant tones. He looked behind him and saw that Vladimir Antonio de la Esparza had emerged from the jungle on
this
side of the bridge, along with a dozen heavily armed men who had rifles trained on him.

So much for a small group having reached the bridge before them.
All
of them had made it here and crossed over the gorge, leaving only Podnemovitch and a few other men to follow behind and set up the ambush.

He wasn’t ready to drop the machete just yet, though. He said, “Back off, Esparza. You can’t have me gunned down fast enough to stop me from cutting this rope, and if I do, Podnemovitch better know how to fly.”

The threat didn’t appear to ruffle Esparza. “If you do that, Señor Hunt,” he said as he brought up a pistol and pointed it at Cierra, “I will kill Dr. Almanzar and then have my men shoot you.”

“Do it, Gabriel!” Cierra cried. “I don’t care what happens to me! Just do it!”

Gabriel glanced along the bridge at Podnemovitch, who now stood over Escalante’s motionless body with a tensely expectant look on his face. He had to know that he didn’t have time to make it back to the other end of the bridge before Gabriel could chop through the final strands of the rope.

But Gabriel couldn’t do it. Slowly, he lowered the machete, then let the handle slip through his fingers. The big knife fell to the ground at his feet.

“Very wise, Señor Hunt,” Esparza said. “More wise than you know. You see, I’ve decided that I’m going to let you live for the time being. I want you to witness my triumphant entry into Cuchatlán.”

Gabriel didn’t say anything. Cursing wouldn’t help matters.

He looked back out onto the bridge and saw Podnemovitch reach down to pick up the Colt Escalante had dropped. As Podnemovitch did so, Escalante’s hand came up and caught feebly at his arm, as if the bandit were trying to throw him off the bridge. That surprised Gabriel a little, since he had thought that Escalante was already dead.

Escalante was too weak to budge Podnemovitch. The Russian laughed harshly, straightened, and said, “Old fool.” He hooked a toe under Escalante’s shoulder and rolled him off the bridge. Cierra screamed in horror as Escalante fell, but not a sound came from the bandit himself.

Gabriel looked away, not wanting to see the end of Escalante’s plunge into the gorge. He saw that Mariella had put her arms around Cierra and turned her away from the chasm as well. Whatever friction there had been between the two women was gone; they had worse enemies to face than each other now.

“Bring all three of the prisoners,” Esparza snapped at his men.

Podnemovitch reached the eastern end of the bridge. The traitor Hector limped across after him. Podnemovitch said, “When the time comes for Hunt to die, Vladimir, I want to be the one to kill him.”

“Of course, Alexei,” Esparza replied with a smile. “I think you’ve earned that right. Señor Hunt has proven hard to kill, though.” His voice hardened slightly. “Next time, make certain that he’s dead.”

With that he turned to stalk onto a trail through the jungle, and his men surrounded Gabriel, Cierra, and Mariella and prodded them along after him.