28
They negotiated the terms of the exchange.
Lenny would escort Lilyanna across the wooden bridge that stretched over the lazy river and onto the Maize Pool deck. When his spotters on the roof confirmed the hostages were released, then, and only then, would he let Lilyanna go. But above all else, there was one condition that absolutely, positively had to be met, or the whole thing would be called off: Rico Flores would stay inside Building A, and he’d keep that damn rifle with him.
Rico accepted. Which meant nothing, of course.
But Leonard Layout, still sullen from earlier, planned for that.
“I got it,” he said to everyone, hunched over a map of the resort in the Building C lobby. He held a rag to his nose. “Look at this. We send someone behind enemy lines.” He pressed a gloved finger into the map and slid it along the eastern edge. “We use the tree line to sneak them over there, get ’em near A. Stall till they get eyes on Rico. If that size-fourteen boot takes one step outside the front door, they tell us, we bail.”
Dan’s eyes flicked to Alan’s. It was a bad plan, had more holes in it than Rico’s latest victim, but there was a scheduled execution in fifteen minutes—what choice did they have? God, Rico had them scrambling, right where he wanted them, and Dan’s dread was so heavy that it threatened to sink him into the earth.
Lenny sat back and sighed. “It’ll work. It’s got to. Only question is—who we sendin’?”
Mara wrapped around Dan’s arm like a sloth. Charles clutched Alan’s shoulder.
“I’ll do it,” Dan said, ignoring Mara’s sharp tug. She wanted him to help, right?
“Can’t be any of us,” Lenny said. “If we’re spotted—he knows us.”
“Let me do it.” It was Madge. She had retrieved Lilyanna from the third floor and shoved her into a chair beside Lenny, gun still trained on her. “I’ve been listening to this one all night. Let me do it.”
“Are you sure?” Mara asked. “This seems so dangerous, Lenny. What if—”
“That’s perfect.” Lenny stood, took hold of Madge, gave her a little shake. “He don’t know you. Even if he spotted you, he don’t know, you could be from Building A.”
No one knew Madge, not really, but one look at her, and it was obvious she wasn’t from Building A.
“I like the idea of Danny doing it,” Lilyanna said, and she winked at him.
Madge slapped the back of her head. “If I get the drop on Rico, why don’t I just shoot him?”
“If you shoot him, his men shoot the hostages,” Alan explained. He was still agitated. Restless.
“What about after the handoff? I could shoot him then.”
“Have you ever shot anyone before?”
Madge’s bottom lip swallowed her upper one. “I stabbed my ex-husband once.”
The snow had picked back up. Residents of Building C congregated outside the lobby door, far enough back to be safe, probably, but close enough to satisfy morbid curiosity. The bonfires at the base of Building A roared in the distance, candles beckoning Lilyanna home.
Dan hated this. All of this. The recently drained pools and lazy rivers were dark, eerie voids. They offered too many opportunities for ambush, too many places to hide. They’d have eyes on Rico, yeah, but what about his men? Dan took a deep breath through his nose and out his mouth. Mara sang softly.
Lenny radioed upstairs. “This is Lenny. We in position?”
“Position one checking in.”
“Position two checking in.”
Then, after a moment, Madge crackled through. She whispered, “Position three. I’ve got eyes on Rico. He just reentered A.”
Lenny put his gun to Lilyanna’s back. He turned to the others and shrugged, like, Here goes nothin’. The lines on his forehead cut deep. He set his eyes forward, grunted, but before he could take that crucial first step, Gloria was on him. She snatched his wrist and laced her fingers with his.
“No, Glor, you’re stayin’,” Lenny said. He tried to shake free of her, but she held on.
“I’m coming, Len, I’m coming. Don’t waste your breath.”
That was that, they all knew it was settled, and Lenny quit fighting, and Lilyanna mockingly said, “Aw.” Gloria was going with her man. Obviously.
“Be right back,” Lenny said to Dan. “With the others.”
“Okay.”
Lenny switched the radio to channel five. “Rico.”
“Yup.”
“We doin’ this?”
“Waiting on you, tubs.”
Lenny turned his radio back to Building C’s channel, lowered his shoulders, and they walked. Well, Lenny and Gloria walked—Lilyanna strolled. She may as well have been shopping on Rodeo Drive with the way her arms swung, the way her head bobbed playfully. By the time they reached the arched wooden bridge that crossed the lazy river, Dan’s insides were rioting. They were out of reach now, on their own.
Lenny’s voice crackled through the radio. “How we lookin’?”
We’re lookin’ pretty damn exposed, Dan wanted to say, but as he brought his radio to his mouth, one of the other guards buzzed through.
“All clear. It’s hard to see in this snow.”
“Our people are walkin’?”
“Yes. They have them grouped real tight. Guard on either side. They just reached—uh—they just reached the loungers south of the Sola Pool.”
“Why’d you hesitate?”
“One of them tripped over a pool noodle. They’re up, walking, we’re good.”
“Eyes on Rico?”
Madge chimed in. “Followed him inside. He’s still here.”
Dan and Mara shared a glance. Followed him inside? How the hell did she do that? She was talking into a radio, for Christ’s sake. They’d spot her in two seconds.
“Do you still have those binoculars?” Mara found Alan and Charles in the crowd at the base of the building. “Something seems weird, we just want to—”
“I heard,” Alan said. He pulled the binoculars from his coat, scanned the resort. “I don’t see him. But I can hardly see anything, these things are shit.”
“Yeah, well,” Dan said, “they’re for bird-watching.”
Alan gave up. “Lenny’s going to get us all killed.”
“You’ve mentioned that,” Mara said.
“It’s fucking true.” Alan tossed the binoculars to Dan.
“Stop bickering, y’all, please,” Charles said. “God, I’m so nervous, I could scream. They wouldn’t risk Lilyanna like that, right? They wouldn’t do that.”
Dan couldn’t find Rico with the binoculars either, so maybe he really was inside. Instead he focused on Lenny and the others. They’d reached the edge of the Maize Pool, stood frozen on its lip. Gloria tried to stand beside her man, but Lenny repeatedly pushed her behind.
“Where they at?” Lenny asked. He held the radio button down too long though, so in the background Dan could hear Lilyanna saying, “Let me go, y’all, we’re here, let me walk.”
A spotter weighed in. “They’ve come to a stop just west of the Sola Pool. They’re just…standing there.”
Dan couldn’t help himself. He buzzed in. “Madge. Where’s Rico?”
Silence.
“I repeat, Madge. Where. Is. Rico? ”
“Do I let her go?” Lenny asked. “Feeling pretty vulnerable here. No, Gloria, stay behind me. Behind me, babe.”
“Madge, report in!” Dan pleaded. “Do you have eyes on Rico? Is he still in Building A?”
Nothing.
Mara’s hands were clammy. “Danny,” she said. “Why isn’t she responding?”
Dan tried again. “Madge?”
Nothing.
“Fuck,” Alan said.
“What?” Charles’s voice was a dog whistle.
“ Fuck ,” Alan repeated.
The crowd buzzed like a hornet’s nest. Some split off and scrambled back into Building C. “Double cross,” someone screamed, “Get out there,” another yelled, and another babbled, “Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, something’s wrong.”
“Madge.” Lenny’s voice over the radio. “Talk to me.” But he held the radio button down too long again, and Lilyanna was speaking now, and it sounded like she’d been laughing.
“Y’all really left me alone with a single mother for twelve hours.”
Dan thought Lenny exploded after the first shot. He hadn’t, of course, there were no cannons on the island, no grenade launchers or bombs, anything like that. But part of him disappeared, a chunk from near the center, and what remained fell limp in Gloria’s arms. A lot happened at once after that, so much that Dan could hardly process it all, but he knew for sure that Lilyanna screamed, and ran, and was gone. Then there were some other shots, and Mara screamed too, and she disconnected from Dan’s arm to sprint toward the pool, but he snatched her and pulled her back.
“We have to help them, Danny!” she pleaded, struggling to escape his grasp, but Dan wouldn’t listen. More gunfire. His eyes shot to Alan.
“The plane,” Alan shouted, his voice clear and steady. He tugged Charles and Dan away from the pool. “We go for the plane right now. Right fucking now! It’s our shot!”
Dan could do it. He could throw Mara over his shoulder, kicking and screaming, he could get her on that plane. They could escape in all this chaos. He could do what a man would do, do what he never had the guts to do before, do what Alan would do. She’d eventually understand. Eventually, she’d—
Mara’s nails dug into his face. She yanked his head to the side, forced him to stare into her terrified eyes. “ We can’t leave them, Danny ,” she said, and Dan heard her this time.
Why hadn’t he heard her before?
He jerked free of Alan’s grasp, and together he and Mara sprinted toward the pool. They went up over the wooden bridge and down the other side, and there were more flashes of light on the opposite end of the resort, near the hostages, and Dan and Mara collided with Lenny and Gloria, and they all tumbled into the snow in the deep end of the Maize Pool, a tangled pile of limbs and sweat and blood.
Dan ripped himself from the pile and tore Mara away, pinned her against the side of the pool, and checked her for injuries, for holes, for any disappeared parts. Her eyes were wild, and she had blood on her face, but Dan was pretty sure it wasn’t hers. She looked him over briefly and then shoved through him toward Gloria, who was hovering over her husband screaming, “Len, no, no, no, Len. Len. Len!”
“Fuck,” Mara said. She undid Lenny’s coat, ripped open his shirt. Gloria gasped when she saw what Rico had done to him.
“What do I do?” Dan asked. “ What do I do? ”
Dan flinched as more gunshots erupted, but they were coming from both sides of the resort now, bullets flying just above the pool.
Mara tossed a torn segment of Lenny’s shirt to Dan. “Apply pressure. Here. And here!” But she’d only given him one small piece of fabric, barely enough to cover the first hole, so Dan used his hand, but it was no use, poor Lenny was all shot up, all shot to hell.
“Use snow!” Mara commanded. “Pack the wounds with snow, Danny, come on. Quick.”
Dan frantically did as he was told. But this was just a show, he realized, Mara was putting on a show for Lenny, and for Gloria, and probably for him too.
Gloria cradled Lenny’s head, she pleaded with him, and she said, “Len, please. I love you. Please, don’t do this, don’t do this. Don’t you do this, Len. Please.”
Lenny held her hand. His eyes were like glass, and he smiled at her, one more self-assured smirk from Leonard Layout. There was a finality to his next breath, a short, shallow gasp, and he was gone.