"I've dealt with everyone in this stinking jungle at one time or another."

"Then will you help me?"

"I shouldn't do it. And you shouldn't trust any bargain you make with Diaz."

"I don't have a choice." She added unsteadily, "You saw what he did to Miguel. That's not going to happen to Joe."

He frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know if I can convince Armandariz."

"Try. He wants to believe his daughter's still alive. That should take him halfway. He doesn't like Montalvo and that may bring him the rest of the way. Will you do it?"

"How soon do you have to meet with him?"

"Tomorrow morning. And ask him to bring the reconstruction with him. He may not go along with it but we have to make the attempt."

"This isn't smart, Eve."

"It's the best I can do. I won't have Joe killed." She repeated, "Will you do it?"

He hesitated and then slowly nodded.

"Thank God." She squeezed his arm. "And thank you, Soldono."

"You can thank me by getting out of this in one piece. My job is keeping you safe, not Quinn." He turned away. "And I'd better get my ass in gear. I'll need to go some distance into the jungle if I'm going to phone Armandariz with no risk of being monitored. And it may take a long, long discussion to get him here." He glanced back over his shoulder. "Change your mind, Eve. This is too risky. If the rebels don't kill you, Montalvo will."

"Why not throw in Diaz?" she asked. "There's no win-win situation here. I just have to survive and keep Joe alive." She turned on her heel. "I'll be in my room waiting for you to tell me what's happening."

Soldono didn't show up at her room until almost 2:30 a.m.

"This morning before dawn," he said when she opened the door. "Sorry you're not going to get much sleep but it's safer for me to smuggle you out of the compound at that time."

"That doesn't matter. Where's the meeting?"

"At a clearing about five miles from here."

"Is he going to bring the reconstruction?"

He shrugged. "He wouldn't commit himself. You'll see when you get there. I did the best I could."

"You did very well. Thank you, Soldono."

"I'll meet you on the veranda at five-thirty a.m. We've got to be over the wall and on our way fifteen minutes later."

"How can you be sure that we'll be able to get out?"

"I'm not sure. But the west wall was guarded by a man named Destando and Montalvo paid him a visit last night."

She stiffened. "Destando? He's the man Miguel said could be the informant."

He nodded. "I heard a shot about five minutes after Montalvo went into Destando's quarters. Evidently Montalvo took care of his leak. If the west wall is guarded, it won't be by anyone experienced. Quinn and Galen went over the west wall. I'm wondering if Destando was deliberately remiss in his duty that night."

She watched him walk away and drew a deep breath.

So far, so good.

"Armandariz should be in the glade just ahead," Soldono murmured. "I can't go any farther. He said for you to come alone. I'll stay here and guard your back."

"If Armandariz has as many guards milling around as he did in the camp, that's not going to be very effective." She moved down the path. "But thanks for the thought."

"Don't push him too hard," Soldono said. "He wasn't eager for this meeting. If he gets too angry with you for lying to him, he might cut your throat."

"I'll push him as hard as I have to." She strained her eyes to see in the darkness that was only marginally lessened by the coming dawn. "I have no choice."

Soldono was leaning against a tree and straightened when she came down the path an hour later. "I was getting worried."

"So was I." She started down the trail. "He didn't want to believe me. I was too convincing before."

"But he finally did?"

"After telling me that if I didn't leave Colombia by the end of the week, I'd go home in a casket."

"But he didn't give you the reconstruction?"

"On the contrary, he threw it at me."

"You don't have it with you."

"I hid it on the way back. I couldn't chance Montalvo catching me and taking it away. I'll pick it up on the way to meet Diaz." She paused. "I'm going to need your help there too. Phone Venable and tell him to have one of his men pick me up here at ten tonight and drive me to the hill outside of Diaz's village. I'll make my own way from there."

"He's already consented to giving you the helicopter escort. He might not want to-"

"Just ask him."

"What about Montalvo? He's no dummy. Won't he know you're up to something?"

"I'll be visible during the early evening and he won't expect me to stick around later." She added grimly, "He knows I'm mad as hell with him and our relationship has been very cool." She looked up at the sky and started to trot. "It's beginning to turn light. We have to get back to the compound…"

11:55 P.M.

Nekmon phoned Diaz at the church a few minutes before midnight. "She's coming. She's down from the hill and just came out of the forest."

"Alone?"

"Yes, absolutely." Nekmon paused. "She's not carrying anything."

"She said she wouldn't bring it to the church. She'd just better have it close by." He turned to Joe Quinn. "She's coming to rescue you. Isn't that sweet? What devotion. I do love to see a woman protect her man. Too bad she believes she's trading you in for a new model."

"You're lying."

"I have a few doubts myself but since I have little faith in the human race, I think it likely she's as faithless as most women. Montalvo had the reputation for being very good with the ladies when he was in the rebel army. Sex is sex."

"Shut up, Diaz."

"Ugly." He backhanded him across the face. "Will you never learn? I really should take you back to the castle instead of proceeding with the current plan. I didn't get my fill of you."

Joe's eyes were blazing in his bleeding face. "Do it. Let's go."

"So that I won't get my chance at Eve Duncan? She really doesn't deserve you. How can I convince you of that?"

"You can't."

"Nevertheless, I'll try. Disillusionment can be a torture in itself, I've discovered. Women are instinctively self-serving, Quinn. They try to mask it by preaching fairness and goodness but it's always to make their own position in life more secure. Christian behavior dictates that they be treated with kindness and tolerance. It doesn't matter how they interfere with a man's drive to better himself. It's always best to use them and then walk away. You'll know better next time."

Joe didn't answer.

"Providing you go on living after tonight." Diaz moved over to the window. He could see the woman walking swiftly through the cemetery. She should be here in a few minutes.

She was passing his mother's tomb now. Do you see her, Mother? She's another one like you. So sure she's right. Despising me for being evil and yet she excuses her own sins. It's going to be a pleasure killing her. Just as it was a pleasure killing you.

Eve stood before the church door, hesitating. "Diaz."

"Come in," he called. "We're waiting for you."

"That's what I'm afraid of," she said. "Come out into the open and bring Joe with you."

"You don't trust me?" he asked mockingly. "I don't know why. Haven't I done everything you've asked?"

"You're entirely too fond of torture. What's to stop you from grabbing me as soon as I walk through those doors and trying to make me tell you where I placed the skull?"

"An excellent idea."

"Come out here."

"Did it occur to you that I could have had a sniper behind every tombstone in the cemetery to pick you off?"

"As you must know, Venable's helicopter pilot did a sweep before I left the forest." She held up a small radio receiver. "He said that there were possibly two men in the forest but none in the cemetery."