Chapter 62

62

Anchored just off the coast, all eyes in the op center were focused on the smoldering rubble of the Vendor’s HQ when it suddenly erupted in a massive explosion.

“This guy has a thing for self-destruction mechanisms,” Stoney said, recalling the automated plane that blew itself up after Juan had compromised it.

“Covering his tracks,” Juan said. His spirits fell. The Vendor was a murderous sociopath, but he wasn’t suicidal. The auto-demolition of his base of operations was proof enough that he had already fled the scene.

“With your permission, Chairman,” Murph said. “I’d like to take one precaution.”

“Go for it.”

Murph launched one of the Oregon’s latest devices, a counter-electronics high power missile, aka CHAMP missile. It was essentially a flying EMP machine that wiped out enemy electronics. Murph was concerned about electronically activated mines or other remote-controled weapons systems that could harm the landing party. He also wanted to kill whatever was blocking satellite transmissions on the island. The missile made three runs over the island before it ran out of fuel, and Murph crashed it harmlessly into the sea.

“Let’s put a shore party together,” Juan said. “We just might find a fragment of gold in that garbage heap.”

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★Juan, Eric, and Linda poked through the rubble of the main building for nearly two hours searching for clues as to the Vendor’s whereabouts or his operations. Cabrillo hoped at the very least they would have found the Vendor’s corpse buried in the rubble or tenderized by one of Murph’s tungsten rods. Such was not the case.

The closest they got to actionable intel was locating a charred computer crushed beneath a chunk of concrete. Eric opened it up only to find the hard drive had been removed.

The Vendor had covered his tracks thoroughly.

Juan rubbed his face with frustration, smearing it with ash. Surviving the deadly island was its own reward, but he had nonetheless failed his primary mission to capture or kill the Vendor.

While Juan was probing the ruins, Eddie Seng’s Gundogs had spread out in three-man squads across the island. Like the Oregon herself, each Gundog was skilled at both fighting and intelligence collection.

Over the tactical net Cabrillo listened in real time as Eddie’s team easily dispatched a suicide attack by the last of the Vendor’s bodyguards. Other squads reported in as they combed through the armory and other buildings, all of them coming up short on actionable intel.

Linc and Raven searched for Plata’s corpse at the last battleground around the mass grave. Linc found the headless body. He searched through the man’s blood-soaked pockets and came up with a satellite phone, but nothing else of value. Linc also did a head count and confirmed that the last six Vendor mercs, including the Russian, had been killed. Several other shattered corpses were strewn about in the field and the tree line. Murphy’s Gatling gun had done a number on them all.

Cabrillo hadn’t much cared for any of the mercenaries, including the Frenchman who had saved his life—they were truly killers for hire. His first instinct was to leave them all to rot where they lay. But they were all soldiers of a sort who had sworn at least one honorable oath in their lifetimes. Out of respect for that selfless moment he personally took charge of disposing of their corpses in the mass grave he and Linc had fought in. With any luck, they would be the last to die on the Island of Sorrows.

Juan also made a mental note to notify the Frenchman’s family of his death. It would allow them closure. The man’s warning had saved his life, and Cabrillo made it a habit to owe no man anything.

When it was clear his people had recovered everything they could, Cabrillo ordered them back to the ship. There was no doubt he and Linc had emerged victorious in their battle with the Vendor, but it gave him little satisfaction. The fact of the matter was that their one and only clue as to the Vendor’s whereabouts had put Juan within striking distance on this small island, but he had slipped his grasp.

And if Eric and Murph couldn’t tease anything of value from what little intel had been collected, it was likely the Vendor had escaped for good.