He came to the spot and shone his light through the prison bars set in the opening of a large alcove in the wall. These were the same bars that had held back scores of Union soldiers, although Quarry had refinished the rusting metal and reseated the bars back into the rock.
Against the back wall two men crouched. They were dressed in Army fatigues, their hands cuffed behind them. Quarry looked over at the small, wiry man who stood next to him on the free side of the bars.
“Let’s get this done, Carlos.”
The man licked his lips nervously and said, “Mr. Sam, all due respect, I don’t think we got to go down this road, sir.”
Quarry wheeled around on him, towering over the little man. “Only one damn leader of this band, Carlos, and that’s me. You got a chain of command here and that’s just the way it’s got to be. You’re an Army man and you know that’s the truth, son. Trust me, this is hurting me a helluva lot more than it’ll ever hurt you. And it’s leaving me shorthanded for what I got to do. A real pisser all around.”
The cowed man looked down, opened the door, and with a hesitant wave of his hand motioned the two men to step out. Their legs were shackled together too, so they hobbled forward. When they came into the wash of light from Carlos’s flashlight, the perspiration shone clear on their faces.
One of the men said, “I’m sorry. Jesus, sir, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry too, Daryl. This doesn’t give me any pleasure at all. None.”
While Daryl was thickset the man behind him was tall and reedy. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down in his terror. “We didn’t mean to do it, Mr. Quarry. But after we got the kid knocked out she came in and started screaming and fighting. Hell, look at Daryl’s face, she damn near scratched it off. It was just self-defense. We were trying to knock her out too and get her with the syringe, but the lady just went nuts.”
“What’d you expect a momma to do when you’re taking her baby? We went over that scenario a hundred times and what you were supposed to do in every damn situation. Killing was not an option. Now I got a little girl who’s never gonna see her momma again and it never should’ve happened.”
Daryl’s voice was pleading. “But the daddy was home. And he wasn’t supposed to be.”
“Don’t matter. Planned for that too.”
Daryl was not giving up. “She scratched me up good, dug a finger in my eye. I got real pissed. Lost my head. I just swung with the knife. Caught her right in the neck. I didn’t mean for it to happen. She just died. We tried to save her. Nothing we could do. I’m sorry.”
“You already told me all this. And if that had made a difference you wouldn’t be standing here right now and neither would I.”
Daryl nervously eyed the Patriot. “We always been there for you. You know that. And we got the little girl for you. Not a bruise on her.”
“One exception breaks the rule. When you agreed to help me do this, I told you there weren’t many rules, but you broke the most important one. You swore me an oath and I accepted that oath. Now here we are.”
He nodded at Carlos, who reluctantly gripped the men by their wrists and pulled them down to their knees.
/> Quarry stood over them. “Speak to your God, men, if you got one. I’ll give you time to do that.”
Daryl started mumbling what sounded like the fragments of a prayer. The thin man just started to cry.
Sixty seconds later Quarry said, “Done? Okay.”
He placed the Patriot against the base of Daryl’s skull.
“Oh, Jesus. Sweet Jesus,” wailed Daryl.
“Please,” screamed the other man.
Quarry’s finger slipped from the metal guard onto the trigger. Yet he ended up pulling away the Patriot. He didn’t exactly know why, he just did.
“Get up!”
Daryl looked at him in astonishment. “What?”
“I said get up.”
Daryl stood on shaky legs. Quarry stared at the man’s scratched-up face and the blood red right eye, then he ripped open the front of Daryl’s shirt. A large purplish bruise was revealed between the man’s muscled pecs.
“You say it was a woman who shot you?”
“Yes sir. It was dark, but I could still see it was a girl.”