Page 79 of Witness Security Breach

“Here he is as promised, and the money.” Walsh held up the briefcase and opened it, revealing bundles of cash. “Where’s the flash drive?”

“Are you all right?” Aiden asked Edgar. “Did they hurt you?”

“He’s walking and talking,” Walsh said. “So he’s fine.”

Sweat trickled down the side of Aiden’s face from the steamy jungle atmosphere as he raised an eyebrow. “Well, I haven’t heard the talking part yet.” For all he knew, they’d cut out the man’s tongue.

“Tell him.” Walsh poked Edgar in the cheek.

Wincing, Edgar recoiled. “I’m fine.” His voice was low and hoarse, like he’d been screaming and lost it.

“I want a closer look at him before any exchange. Bring him up here.” Aiden waved them up the right set of stairs.

As Edgar limped up the steps with Sideburns behind him, the other man set a foot on the left staircase.

“No.” Aiden drew the suppressed Beretta he’d stolen from Devlin and pointed it at him. “You and Walsh stay there. Just them.”

Edgar and Sideburns continued walking. The others stayed put.

Aiden backed up, drawing them in to where he wanted, without the gunman feeling crowded, threatened. Shifting to the side, Aiden guided them to move clockwise, ninety degrees. Right where the proverbial X marked the spot.

Sideburns held the back of Edgar’s shirt collar with one hand and leveled the gun at his head with the other.

Looking over Edgar, Aiden noticed his eyes were bloodshot and swollen, and he kept swallowing in a weird way, like his mouth was sore. Hundreds of tiny red marks covered his face, throat, hands.

Were those bug bites?

Aiden had a plan to keep the conversation going until Garcia arrived. Edgar’s current state was the perfect thing to pursue and draw things out, but every second he wasted stalling was one more second that Devlin had to kill Charlie.

“Where’s the flash drive?” Walsh asked.

In his peripheral vision, Aiden caught the one wearing the ball cap slip his gun from his holster and creep up the left staircase, one slow step after another.

“Set the briefcase on the ground,” Aiden said, tracking the progress of the one moving. By the time Walsh did as he was told, the other man reached the midway point on the stairs.

Precisely where Aiden wanted.

They were always going to try to close in around him. No warnings or threats were going to stop it, only delay it. So he had to prepare for the inevitable.

With the lush jungle environment, leafy tropical plants and verdant vegetation, it was easy to miss all the items that Aiden had hidden.

He let the guy take one more step. Then Aiden pulled the Smith & Wesson from his waistband with his left hand, aimed at the booby trap and pulled the trigger.

The portable fire extinguisher taped to a pole and concealed with palm fronds exploded in the guy’s face. He shrieked and slipped backward down the stairs.

Aiden dropped to one knee—anticipating Sideburns would refocus the barrel of his gun away from Edgar’s head toward the threat—and took aim in his direction. Edgar instinctively cowered, his hands covering his head, arms in front of his face as Aiden fired again.

With a loud pop, a second extinguisher exploded, sending a cloud of dry white chemicals bursting through the air around the pavilion.

Sideburns screamed, throwing an arm up to cover his face.

Aiden coughed from the particles in the air but had turned away to avoid getting any in his eyes. He reached out and pulled Edgar to the ground, getting him out of the way, and shoved him into the corner.

A bullet hit a nearby wooden post. Walsh was firing at them.

“Stay down, here,” Aiden said to Edgar. Then he jumped up and threw a side kick into Sideburns’s chest.

The blow drove the thug backward, the momentum carrying him over the rail of the pavilion into the piranha tank below.