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.He chopped the guy hard in the base of his skull to buy himself a few more minutes to make his escape.Working fast, he tore a piece of cloth off his own ruined shirt and stuffed it in the guy’s mouth.Out of deference to Katie, he checked the guy’s nostrils to be sure they were clear and that the guy would be able to breathe while gagged.He tore more strips off his shirt and used them to bind the soldier’s wrists and ankles together.Housekeeping matters taken care of, he put on the soldier’s uniform.It was a reasonably good fit.Beret jauntily cocked over his right eye, Alex dragged the guy through the fence and behind a pile of stones.He bunched driftwood over the unconscious soldier hastily, and then jumped back through the fence.He picked up the guy’s cigarette, which was just burning out.And in the nick of time, too.Another soldier poked his head around the corner and barked at Alex to get back to his post.Face downcast, he ground out the stub beneath his heel and muttered an acknowledgment.He took a deep breath and rounded the corner.He had no idea what the soldier’s post was.Rather than try to fake it, he struck out confidently across the yard, as if he’d been sent on an errand for someone.He veered first toward the helicopter.It was an easy matter to open the cockpit door, reach under the instrument panel and yank out a big fistful of wires.He grabbed another handful and tore them out, for good measure.After that, he made his way to the parked vehicles.His nerves were jumping all over the place, and he had to consciously force them into silence.Funny thing, fear.Once he’d learned to control it and hold it at bay, it had become more of curiosity to him than an actual force in his life.He spotted the guy who’d yelled at him heading down toward the dock.Alex hurried his steps to reach the nearest truck before the guy could get where he was going and turn around.Alex tested the door handle.Unlocked.He slid into the vehicle and hunted in the usual places for keys.No luck.He lay down on the seat and opened the glove compartment, and voilà.A key on a ring.He snatched it out and tried it in the ignition.For once, the gods of luck seemed to be on his side.The key fit.Hot-wiring vehicles was Spy Craft 101, but it took a few minutes he could ill afford at the moment.Pulling on a pair of sunglasses he found on the dashboard, he started the truck, threw it into gear and pulled out of the yard.No one yelled at him.Which meant it would take a few minutes for someone to casually ask someone else who’d just left and why.Then there’d be a few more minutes of confusion while everyone was accounted for and then questioned.He figured he would get about ten minutes’ head start, worst case.The moment he rounded the headland, he floored the truck.The ride was horrendous, but time was against him and banging his head on the ceiling was a small price to pay for his life.The only passable road in the area was the main one back toward Baracoa, so that was the one he followed.Just north of Baracoa, a secondary road cut inland, eventually curving south to rejoin the main highway in the mountains.It was for this he headed.The sky stayed thankfully empty of helicopters.He must have done a number on the bird back there.As he reached the south end of the flat plateau of plantations and farming co-ops, he spied a long puff of dust in the distance behind him.The good news was the vehicles were so far back he couldn’t even count how many there were.The bad news was that even the cloud of dust looked pissed.The road rose out of the long valley into the hills and he banged along, trying not to get thrown out of his seat while looking for the turnoff he wanted.There.The intersection loomed just ahead.He careened around the corner and screeched to a stop.Leaping out of the cab, he used a big palm leaf to rub out his tire tracks hastily.It cost him precious time, but he hoped it would throw the convoy behind him off his track at least temporarily.The quality of this road was significantly worse.More than once he tested the limits of the truck’s heavy-duty suspension.He almost got stuck crossing a swollen stream, but the spinning tires caught at the last minute and hauled him up onto the slippery far bank.He stopped again to erase his tracks from the mud and then proceeded onward.His entire world narrowed down to walls of green growth crowding him, and watching his rearview mirror.Whenever a patch of sky opened up overhead, he scanned it anxiously for helicopters.His hands ached from gripping the steering wheel, and the tops of his thighs were sore from banging into the steering wheel’s bottom rim.The afternoon passed in a green haze, and as night was falling, he finally emerged into a decent-size intersection.He’d reached the main highway again.Gratefully, he turned south.The quality of the road didn’t improve much, and the tree cover was substantially less.His nerves stretched tighter and tighter.If he was insanely lucky, the Cubans had pegged him for a simple thief and hadn’t thrown their whole damned military at him.But he wasn’t counting on that much luck.At some point, they would put up another helicopter and his run of luck would cut off.If only Katie was all right, he wouldn’t mind having the entire Cuban Army on his tail.He’d purely hated splitting up with Katie, but it really was the only way.Not that she was likely to forgive him for pushing her down that hill any time soon.Not long after dark, he spotted blinking lights in the distant sky.He pulled the truck over quickly underneath a tree and hopped out to throw what downed tree limbs he could lift over it to obscure its profile.He crawled under the truck and prayed its warm engine would hide his human silhouette on any infrared radar the chopper might have.He didn’t have long to wait to find out.The helicopter, a small two-seater, landed in a field maybe a hundred feet from his position.Swearing, he rolled out from under the truck and crept away fast as a soldier disembarked from the passenger’s side of the helicopter.The terrain sucked for cover.It was open country with only small rocky outcroppings, and the grassy valley sadly lacked for bushes or tree cover.He could low-crawl on his belly through the knee-high grass without being seen, but that was about it.Staying low, he eased around behind the soldier carefully.A bold idea struck him.It was crazy.Stupid, even.But it just might work.He waited until the soldier’s full attention was lasered in on the truck.The guy had a weapon drawn and was approaching the vehicle cautiously.Alex darted behind the soldier’s back, sprinting for the helicopter.Even if the guy turned around and spotted him now, the soldier couldn’t safely fire toward the ’copter and its flammable fuel tanks.Not to mention, it was the guy’s ride out of here.Alex closed the last few yards to the passenger door.Sure enough, the soldier behind him shouted.The pilot, not understanding, looked out his own door toward his colleague, who was waving his arms frantically.It was the opening Alex needed.He threw open the passenger door and slid into the seat, pointing his pistol at the pilot.The guy lurched and shouted incoherently at him.Alex held up an imperative hand to silence the pilot.Tersely, he explained in Spanish, “I know how to fly this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]