Bodyguard: Ambush (Book 3) (39 page)

At the last moment Connor changed his mind,
nodding to Amber and the others to go with Gunner instead.

‘I can’t save you now,
children,’ said Minister Feruzi as General Pascal strode into the lounge,
accompanied by Blaze, No Mercy and half a dozen rebel soldiers.

‘I see you found my strays,’
remarked General Pascal, heading straight for the bar as if he owned it. His eyes
bloodshot, his skin oily with sweat and his injured arm wrapped in a bandage, the rebel
leader looked the worse for wear following his battle against the government troops. But
the infamous military skill of the man had evidently secured him another victory.

‘Whisky!’ he barked to one of
his soldiers. Scurrying behind the bar, the boy grabbed a bottle and filled an empty
glass. The general drained it in one hit and the boy replenished it immediately.

‘I understood that the army had been
diverted to sector
four
of the park!’ growled General Pascal, glaring at
the minister. ‘So how come soldiers attacked our camp
this morning in sector
eight
?’

Minister Feruzi blanched at the news.
‘Th-the major-general must have changed his plans without informing me.’

General Pascal stabbed a finger at the
minister. ‘You realize I’ve lost good warriors,’ he snapped.
‘What’s worse, the army’s probably blown half the diamonds to
dust!’

Tugging a
handkerchief from his shirt pocket, the minister mopped his brow in panic. ‘I
assure you, the major-general was instructed to search the south of the park. But what
about the diamonds? Do you still have control? Are there
any
left?’

‘Don’t worry your fat face about
it! My forces still command the valley and there’ll be plenty enough for
everyone,’ replied the general, grimacing as he inspected his swollen arm.
‘First let’s deal with this little problem of my strays. Then we can discuss
the future of this country, and your place in it.’

Stepping forward, Gunner spat at the
minister’s feet. ‘You treacherous piece of scum, you traded our lives for
diamonds!’

Minister Feruzi glanced down at the spit
smearing his shoe. ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Gunner.’

General Pascal nodded a silent order to No
Mercy. A deafening
bang
rang in all their ears as the boy soldier shot Gunner
in the chest.

‘Consider yourself fired,’ said
Minister Feruzi with a gloating smirk as the ranger writhed and groaned in pain on the
floor.

‘No, Gunner, no!’ cried Amber,
dropping down beside the ranger and pressing her hands to his wound, blood oozing from
between her fingers. Connor kept Henri close as Zuzu stared in wide-eyed shock at the
boy soldier standing over the ranger.

‘Finish him off,’ said the
general, his tone bored. ‘I can’t stand the groaning.’

On a do-or-die
impulse, Connor snatched one of the tribal spears from the wall. ‘Stay
back!’ he warned.

General Pascal eyed the old weapon with
amusement as he leant against the bar, swilling his whisky. ‘Now what are you
going to do with that, my White Warrior?’ he enquired. ‘Spear a
lion?’

‘No,’ Connor replied, pointing
the iron tip at him. ‘Skewer a snake!’

The Black Mamba laughed. ‘You have
fighting spirit, I grant you that. But playtime’s over. Drop the spear or Blaze
kills your girl.’

Blaze drew a handgun and aimed it at
Amber’s head. Connor turned the spear on the rebel. If he was quick, he could
perhaps drive it through the man’s chest before he pulled the trigger. But No
Mercy would have more than enough time to shoot Gunner again. And then what? Connor
glanced towards the bay doors. He wondered if they could flee via the veranda. Then a
rebel soldier appeared on the other side of the bay windows, cutting off their escape
route. Left with no option, Connor discarded the spear, the weapon clattering on to the
wooden floor.

‘You disappoint me,’ said
General Pascal, knocking back the last of his drink and coughing into his fist.
‘I’d hoped you would die fighting like a warrior.’

The general headed for the main door,
beckoning Minister Feruzi and the half-dozen rebel soldiers to accompany him.

‘Blaze, kill the strays,’ he
ordered. ‘Any way you wish. Just make sure the Batwa girl, who put the arrow
through my arm, suffers most.’

Forced at gunpoint to kneel, Connor, Henri
and Zuzu joined Amber on the parquet floor slick with Gunner’s blood. The
ranger’s breathing was now laboured and rasping. He’d fallen unconscious
with the pain but was clinging to life. Connor’s mind was racing, trying
desperately to think of some way out of their predicament. But No Mercy kept his AK47
trained on them and Connor knew at the first sign of resistance he’d simply shoot
them dead.

Blaze unsheathed his machete and caressed
the razor-edged blade with a finger. ‘This is my weapon of choice,’ he said
with a sadistic grin. ‘I can cut, cleave, slice, hack, chop or behead you with one
stroke of this beauty.’

The rebel paced slowly in front of them,
drawing out the tension as he casually swung the blade.

He jutted his chin at Zuzu.
‘I’ll leave you to last, Batwa,’ he spat with contempt. ‘Then
you can know of the suffering that awaits you.’

Understanding the threat but not the words,
Zuzu shrank away but her eyes remained fixated on No Mercy.

Blaze prodded the tip of his machete into
Henri’s chest.
‘You, I’ll
skin like a rabbit. Hang your hide out to dry in the hot sun.’

Confronted by his tormentor once more, Henri
began to sob and tremble uncontrollably. Blaze laughed. ‘Pathetic!’

Leaving the boy quivering at the thought of
his impending gruesome demise, Blaze crouched before Amber. He pushed aside a lock of
her hair with his machete, then rattled his macabre necklace in front of her face.

‘Perhaps I’ll add one of your
teeth to my necklace,’ he said, leering at her.

‘I hope you burn in hell,’ she
said, her eyes fierce and defiant.

Blaze blew her a mocking kiss. ‘And I
hope I meet you there.’

Connor was driven to the point of madness.
Powerless to do anything, he could only watch as Blaze tormented each of them in turn.
Grimly aware that it was now a stark matter of life and death, Connor resolved to die
trying to save Amber and Henri. He still had his father’s knife tucked on his hip.
He wondered if Zuzu was thinking the same thing. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the
boy soldier and his gun. Perhaps if he made a move to tackle Blaze, she’d go for
No Mercy and try to wrestle the weapon from him.

The rebel regarded Connor. ‘I know
what you’re thinking, but if I see you even twitch I promise to make your girl
truly
suffer.’

Connor glared up at Blaze. ‘I’ll
tear you limb from limb if you dare lay a finger on Amber or Henri.’

Blaze smirked. ‘It’s me
who’s going to enjoy taking
you
apart, piece by piece. But who should go
first? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,’ he said in a sing-song voice, the tip of the blade
swinging from Connor to Amber to Henri and back again. ‘Catch a lion by the nose.
If he roars, let him go. Eeny, meeny, miny,
moe
.’

The machete came to a stop in front of
Connor. Blaze grinned. With a violent sweep of the blade, he cleared one of the
lounge’s coffee tables, the candles and place mats scattering on to the floor.
Then he grabbed Connor by the hair and held the blade to his throat.

‘So, what will it be – long or short
sleeves?’

Connor stared up at him, at once baffled and
petrified by the question.

‘No Mercy, hold out his arm,’
Blaze ordered.

Suddenly it dawned on Connor what the rebel
had in mind. He struggled wildly but Blaze pressed the machete harder into his neck,
drawing a thin line of blood.

‘Don’t fret. It only hurts
after
I cut your arm off,’ explained Blaze as No Mercy slung his AK47
over his shoulder and seized Connor’s wrist. With surprising strength, he pinned
Connor’s arm down on the coffee table.

‘
Deo?
’ uttered Zuzu,
staring at No Mercy.

The boy soldier didn’t react.

‘
Deo! C’est ta
sœur!
’

No Mercy looked at her
uncomprehendingly.

Zuzu became more frantic.
‘
Deo!
Mon frère! S’il te plaît, ne lui fais pas de mal! Je t’en
prie.
’

‘
Tais-toi!
’ barked
Blaze, striking her with the back of his hand.

The blow was so
violent that Zuzu was flung against the bar, her head cracking against the mahogany
panel.

No Mercy frowned, still holding
Connor’s arm, but his attention now on Zuzu. Her lip bleeding, tears rolling down
her cheeks, she continued to beg the boy soldier to listen to her. Connor couldn’t
understand a word. His heart thudded in his chest as the blood rushed through his ears.
A paralysing wave of panic overwhelmed him and his limbs refused to respond as Blaze
took up position to hack off his right arm.

‘Don’t close your eyes. You need
to see this,’ said Blaze, licking his lips in anticipation. ‘I promise
you’ll remember this for the rest of your life.’

The machete came down. Amber screamed and
Henri covered his eyes. Zuzu’s shouting grew louder. Connor fought to break his
paralysis, scrabbling for his knife. At the last second No Mercy let go of his wrist and
Connor snatched back his arm, the blade embedding itself deep into the wooden table.

Blaze glared in furious outrage at No Mercy.
‘You idiot! Why the hell did you let go?’ he roared.

As he tried to yank the machete out of the
table, No Mercy picked up the discarded spear. Before Blaze knew what was happening the
boy soldier had buried the iron tip deep into his back. Blaze let out an agonized howl
as the spear pierced his heart and burst out through his ribcage.

No Mercy twisted the shaft one last time and
Blaze slumped to the floor. ‘That’s for making me believe my family were all
dead!’

Still trembling from shock, his arm clutched
protectively to him, Connor watched in stunned amazement as Zuzu rushed over and
embraced her long-lost brother. No Mercy stood rigid and emotionless, unsure how to
handle such affection, his first in years. Then he surrendered himself to his sister,
resting his head against hers.

Amber, clasping her own brother, smiled with
joy at the heaven-sent reunion. His eyes red and puffy, Henri stared at the contorted
body of Blaze, the spear tip protruding from his chest. ‘Is he dead?’

No Mercy nodded.

‘Good,’ said Henri, free at last
of his tormentor.

Connor snapped back to his senses. Blaze
might be dead, but there were at least half a dozen more rebels led by the Black Mamba
that weren’t. Getting to his feet, Connor rushed over to Gunner. The ranger was
still breathing.

Judging that the boy soldier was now on
their side, Connor said, ‘No Mercy, help me.’

‘My name is Deo,’ said the boy
soldier softly. ‘That’s my
real
name.’