Down the hall behind another door, Eda shows him into a room about the size of the one he spent the night in. Wires are going everywhere, from various receivers to tape decks to an old-looking personal computer. Rico's sitting at a folding table in his cassock, listening to something on headphones and transcribing it onto paper. He offers his fist to bump and smiles silently. Eda points to the device he's listening in on.
"Technical Services came over years ago and put a pretty sophisticated bug on the cellphone tower. We've been listening in on everything in Roanapur."
There is a map of the city on the wall, newer than the ones Rock has studied. Someone has marked out the general hemispheres of influence in Roanapur, with the Triad and Italians on the western side and Russia and Nuevo Laredo on the others. The lines between the two used to go straight down the hill all the way to the beach, but it has lost its form during all the fighting, bulging East in some places, or sagging westward in others. It doesn't look like any particular side has made much ground, except for the complete conversion of Serbian territory over to the Triad's alliance.
"We heard Bogdan got wasted last night trying to kill you, and rest of his crew ran off." Eda says. "You should have seen his dossier, Rock, he was a real scumbag. I wish I could have been there to see Revy pop the fucker."
"That was me," Rock says without thinking.
"What?"
It isn't like him to brag, but something in him does not want to let that fact fade into obscurity.
"Bogdan... was shot by me."
Rico flashes Rock a thumbs up before continuing to transcribe, but Eda's response is slower.
"How the hell did that happen?" She sounds truly surprised.
"We took a wrong turn and got backed into a corner," he says. "It was either him or us."
"I guess Chang had a point when he armed you, then," she says. "Want to check up on him?"
She powered a monitor on and hefted what looked like a RC transmitter.
"We broadcast from the roof of the church," she says. "It gives us enough range to pilot our little plane around the city."
On the monitor, Rock sees an aerial view overlaid with digital white text. It reminds him of footage from the Gulf War, but over Roanapur instead. It is even better than the view Mr. Chang gets from his tower, Rock is sure of it. The camera can be panned and zoomed in a total 360-degree range, and Eda is sweeping her view past a few smoking buildings.
There were a lot of grenades thrown last night, and the firefighters couldn't get everywhere in time," she says. "And Bao might not believe it, but the Yellow Flag is completely untouched so far."
Roanapur's corps of medics and firefighters are made up of mostly local volunteers and funded by the gangs. It's in no one's interest to let the dead stay in the street or to let buildings burn down, so both groups must have been working overtime.
"The fighting is picking up again," Eda says, pointing out a spot up the hill just outside of Mister Chang's tower. Hotel Moscow had concentrated its efforts there, leaving its allies to hold the rest of their territory.
The quality of the broadcast from the surveillance plane is not the best and Rock can't make out anybody on the Russian side. The Triad men could be seen, most of them uniformed in black suits, moving guns and ammo through alleyways.
Eda pans the camera to look over the main boulevard. A few of the Mafia men are moving up, not interested in taking cover like the others.
"What the hell do they think they're doing?"
Less than a second later, one of the Italians jerks to a halt and falls backwards, blood already running down the sloped pavement. His friends scramble for cover, but one is too late. Eda hisses through her teeth as the man's head explodes, visible even without zooming any further in.
"God damn am I glad I'm up here," Eda says.
Rico has also been looking in. "Ronnie decided he needed to be more aggressive. Sicily wants things to be settled quickly."
More intel pulled directly from the cell tower. Rico must be able to translate Italian. That would mean he had information on Feng, who worked for the Sicilians. With all of their resources, they could tell him about anyone. They are showing off, but his curiosity is too great.
"Where are Dutch and Benny?"
Eda shrugs. "Benny left town early. I bet you tipped him off. Your old boss is still at the warehouse. I guess he doesn't want to go solo into the open seas."
"And Feng? You know, the—"
Eda laughs. "I wouldn't forget her so easily. We know where she is, nice and safe in Bangkok. I even have the phone number for her hotel. Want to give her a ring?"
She pulls a cellphone from a pocket and extends the antenna. He stares at it for a few moments. It has been a long time since he has had a serious discussion with Feng. That was by intent. There is something about her that is too wise, a readiness to lay him bare that, frankly, intimidates him. He is not ready to speak with her now, in the middle of all this, while his heart and mind floats above the smoke of Roanapur. He shakes his head.
Eda gives a knowing smile and the phone disappears back into her habit. "What else do we have for him?"
"Lotton's roommates survived yesterday," Rico says. "The Russians lost half a squad trying to confirm their kill."
It must be incredibly difficult to storm a building with Shenhua and Sawyer on the inside. Considering how low Balalaika's manpower was to begin with, the loss of a squad is a major setback.
"They've gotta make a move soon," Eda says. "If the fighting lasts more than a day or two, the hush money will run out and the government will get involved. I'm sure there are already problems in the provincial capital."
The way the two of them treat the situation as if it is another day in the office. Rock realizes that even though Eda and Rico have spent years managing this area, they never developed the same personal connections that he had. Up on the hill with the Church, everything is reconnaissance and surveillance. It is no wonder Eda was so quick to forgive him: the mission will always go on, for as long as they serve.
Rock watches the city with them from their eye in the sky for a while longer, and then they have to bring the plane back down. They let him upstairs to see them fly it into a net the Church personnel stretch across the hilltop. Revy finally reappears from the bathroom.
"Whoa shit," she says, looking at the unmanned aerial vehicle as some of them drag it into a shed. "That looks expensive."
"Probably military surplus," Rock says. "But it still proves Roanapur is important."
Revy glances at him. "Eda didn't fuck us after your stunt."
"I told you, it was just a minor difference in scheduling."
He reaches into his pocket and finds his pack of cigarettes nearly empty. He shakes the last two into his hand and passes one to Revy. They light up without any theatrics, grateful for the open air and the blue sky.
Eda calls for them from the cellar doors. "Get back down here!"
"What's the fucking rush? You had us locked in there all night." Despite the protest, Revy begins walking back to the cellar entrance.
When they finally get back into the cellar hallway, Eda explains herself.
"It was already hard enough to get Yolanda to keep you here," she says. "Give me a break and stay put."
Revy grumbles but returns to her room, slamming the door.
"What's with her?" Eda's arms are crossed as she leans against the brick wall.
"Most people don't enjoy being locked up," Rock says. "Especially in a room like ours."
"What do you want? Smokes? Beer? Television? Maybe I can call down to Jackpot's club and get one of his girls for a show?" Eda grins. "It's not like I'm running a hotel here."
"You joke, but we actually are out of cigarettes," he says. "And a few Singhas would go a long way with her right now."
That makes Eda smile. "All right, I'll see what I can do."
In the room he shares with Revy, there is still nothing more than them and the camping furniture. Her eyes are closed as if she wants to get some rest, but she opens one when Rock enters.
"Fuck, I just remembered I left my tapes at my place." She clenches her teeth. "All my CDs, too."
From what he had seen on the map, Revy's neighborhood was under Russian control, one of the few places that had been held by Hotel Moscow overnight while the rest of the town fought against them.
"I don't think anybody can go and get them."
"Oh yeah?" Revy sits up. "I could make it."
She is acting as though she has something to prove. One night here has already made her stir-crazy.
"Why take the chance?" he asks.
She looks him in the eye. "It's my fucking stuff."
"You can always start your collection again," he says.
"It took me years to get all that. I don't have time to do it all over. Fuck that."
She slides the mags out of her Berettas to make sure they're loaded then double-checks her holster. "If the nun comes asking, tell her I went to the bathroom."
She stands up and he finds himself blocking her way to the door. At first he does not know why, but then he remembers seeing the carnage on the streets of Roanapur. It had looked like a warzone just like those he had seen on the news.
"Don't do it, Revy," he says. "Don't go out tonight. It's bad."
She steps closer, hands on her hips. "It's always bad. Get out of my way, Rock."
"I'm serious," he says. "Come on, just stay in for the night."
"Here?" she looks at the cracked walls, takes a deep breath of the mildewed air. "My blood's up, Rock. If I stay here, I'm gonna go insane."
When she steps closer, Rock is worried that she is about to get physical, but she still tries to stare him down. She wants to see if she can make him run.
"They will be set up around your place," he says. "With snipers and everything."
Her smile grows wider as she listens. "Sounds like an invitation."
Her next action comes suddenly. Her hand darts out towards him, but he intercepts with his own and holds it in place. She pulls back but Rock will not let go.
"Please," he says. "Stay here with me tonight."
One year ago, he would not have said that. Instead of begging, he would have stood firm in the doorway in silence, resisting her until the last moment. But there is no future in silent resistance: she has to decide for herself what will be done with the rest of her life.
Rock steps to the side of the door, her hand still held in his. The open doorway is all she can see for a few seconds, then she looks to him and down at his hand around hers. His grip is light, but she doesn't force herself out of it.
Something in her eyes softens. "You're that serious?"
"Yeah."
She screws her eyes shut, breathes out hard, then lets her shoulders drop. Just like that, she puts the fire out.
"I get it. You've got separation anxiety, right? Mama will stay here all night." she says. "But you better make it worth my while."
A few hours later, Eda gives them a few packs of cigarettes and a bucket of beers. They spend their second night in clouds of tobacco smoke and gentle intoxication. Something about the indolent night feels perverse to him, given what is happening in the town below.
He knows the morning has come from the glow-in-the-dark hands on his watch. He exits the room silently, careful not to wake Revy up. He needs a shower first, then coffee. He only gets as far as a shower in lukewarm water before Eda comes and finds him.
"Get some clothes on and get down to the radio room. We just launched the Pioneer."
On the monitor in the room, Rock sees a scene of sudden chaos, smoke pouring out of the penthouse of Chang's tower, with flashes of gunfire from the Triad men on the ground floor as they fired back through the narrow windows of the lobby.
"What's going on?" Rock asks.
"This is her last try," Rico says. "We heard the orders come in from Moscow- she's done in Roanapur."
"Why would she listen?" Rock takes a sip of burnt coffee.
"I think they offered her a better fight," Rico says. "They want her in Chechnya now. They've already made flight arrangements."
It sounds like more politics to him, so separated from the fighting in the city. Rock thinks he can see uniformed men storming into a building, but the camera isn't good enough to make them out at the distance. "She's doing this as her final demonstration, then."
From the roof of some shorter building he sees a streak of smoke rocket out towards the tower, then fire blossoms on the other side of Chang's penthouse as glass shatters and concrete cracks.
"Jesus, it's one hell of a fireworks show." Eda lets out a low whistle. "I guess Hotel Moscow is getting rid of their inventory."
It reminds Rock of the night that the FARC and Delta Force fought against Roberta. Balalaika had protected American soldiers, and even given them a full salute. These three days were like that for her, but without any limits. Now she wanted to prove that she had always been the apex predator in town, capable of fighting everyone almost single-handedly. After her snipers had brought the city to a shuddering halt, her men now were destroying Chang's own quarters in the tallest tower in the city.
"They can't kill them all," Rock says.
A voice comes from the door. "They don't have to." Revy has joined them, still yawning, her hair mussed.
Eda agrees. "Yeah. She's proving her point, right before the white flag goes up and they take their Beemers down to the airport."
Revy takes out a cigarette and leans for the flame from Rock's lighter. She smiles at him. "People get an urge to go fuckin' wild when they feel the end coming."
Balalaika's attack had been perfectly planned and executed. Even if her troops were outnumbered more than three-to-one, their coordinated movements let them advance and retreat without taking significant casualties. When they had the advantage, they would act without hesitating, and when their opponents began to resist them, a neighboring squad would cover their retreat. Their khaki uniforms surge forward into one area but disappear as soon as the soldiers are done exploiting the weakness in their lines.
"Where's Mister Chang?"
Eda zooms the camera out from the nightclubs on main street and over to Chang's building. He is surrounded by his lieutenants while he points out locations on a large map spread across the hood of a car.
"A counterattack?" Rock says.
"It probably isn't his first time raiding a crowded city block. Being a Hong Kong cop is going to help him out here." Rico kicks his legs up on a table, ready for a show.
With Eda's view from the sky, they all get to watch as finally, the sleeping dragon of the Triad wakes up. Ronnie isn't on the front lines, but his capos are organizing diversions to grab Hotel Moscow's attention, allowing the massive alliance to begin haphazardly coiling around Balalaika's central group. The police hold their posts, uninterested in participating directly in a fight.
The Albanians bring their own snipers to counter Balalaika's units, and their experience in urban sniping during the civil war gives them a boost versus veterans of a desert war. Soon, dozens of men are crossing the main street for the first time in days, pistols, machine guns, and rifles in their hands.
"They're going to surround them," Rico says. "The Serbians aren't covering the southern end now."
Mister Chang had been patient for the last two days, letting Balalaika exhaust herself off with attacks. Now he begins to tie the noose.
"Bullshit," Revy says, turning her head away from the TV. "She's faking it."
"Still looks like she's losing to me."
"Fuck if I know what she's after, but no way she would give up this easy."
Rock's been updating the map based on what Eda is getting from her plane, and he has to agree that something feels off. Hotel Moscow's forces had been quick to move earlier, but now they seem sluggish. They barely return fire before pulling deeper into their territory, and there doesn't seem to be a single sign of planned ambushes or secondary lines of defense. It would seem as if she has given up, and her forces are moving in a slow retreat to the eastern end of the city.
"Revy's right." Rock says.
Eda raises her eyebrows but decides not to say anything. Her camera will show them everything they need to know. It takes less than an hour for Hotel Moscow's headquarters to be surrounded, with all of their personnel placed inside their office building. The windows are fortified, except for tiny slits for the men inside to shoot out of, but the front door lies open like an invitation.
No one seems willing to approach any further. Eda's plane circles the headquarters until Mister Chang makes an appearance, twin guns held ready in front of him. He stands proud just ahead of the front door.
"He's saying something to the people inside," Revy says. "Chang's cool like that."
Then Chang steps back from the door, leaving plenty of space. At first, Rock does not understand what is happening, but then Eda zooms in close as they all see Balalaika march out. She's wearing her field uniform properly, but still has the dress-jacket draped across her shoulders, hiding her hands.
Chang has his guns down low, pointing into the ground.
"A fuckin' duel..." Revy cannot believe her eyes.
Neither can Rock. He can process it, and maybe even understand it, but seeing pride in other people after the past few days feels surreal. Balalaika's vendetta is strong enough to place the fate of the city up to a duel, and Chang is concerned enough with his public appearance to take her up on the offer.
They even begin to circle one another, all of their allies and enemies giving them the space to do it. Rock thinks there is a certain madness in Roanapur, or maybe it is one of the only places in the world that will allow it to flourish: an egomaniac's paradise, home to tens of thousands of people, and its future seems to lie on whether one person is shot, or the other.
Balalaika makes the first move. She surprises everyone with how smoothly she pulls the shortened Kalashnikov carbine from under her jacket, pulling it tightly against the sling with a single outstretched arm.
But as soon as Rock sees the gun, he sees it jump out of Balalaika's hand, kicked sideways by some unknown force. Even Mr. Chang is surprised, lowering his guns again as the assembled crowd looks in one direction.
"East!" Rico says. "High up."
Eda banks the plane steeply and adjusts the camera. Men in black uniforms are arrayed on top of an apartment building, at least four stories tall. One of the men stands proudly with his face uncovered and a black beret on his head.
"Angel," Rock says.
Balalaika takes the longest time to process it, looking first to Angel and his shooters before looking to her hand. The rifle had been shot right out of her hand, probably wrenching her wrist. She looks down to it and then up at Angel. Rock can only imagine the expression on her face. Boris emerges from inside the headquarters to drag his commander back inside.
All four of the spectators in the radio room do not know what to say. Eda doesn't move the camera's position, and Rock finds himself staring at the fuzzy image of Angel. Mister Chang had been caught unprepared when Balalaika pulled her gun out. He would have been killed if Group X hadn't made their surprise appearance. But why would Angel turn against his own benefactor? Balalaika had shown him plenty of favor- Rock had seen it himself. Their relationship was not purely economic.
Rico hears something in his headset. The call is so short that he doesn't even bother to write it down. "Hotel Moscow will negotiate a ceasefire. They were using pretty formal English. One of their demands was that they get one last call into the local radio station."
"And what did Chang say?" Eda seems interested in this last part.
"He said 'O.K'. Didn't even have any demands of his own."
A white cloth napkin is tied over the barrel of a Dragunov sniper rifle and stuck out of a window. The white flag of surrender. Mister Chang enters the building unaccompanied by anyone else.
Rock puts his hand to his side as he watches them. He is getting a bad feeling, something a lot worse than usual. Chang and Balalaika are not going to destroy each other. In fact, Hotel Moscow is already preparing to call in to the radio station and give their farewell address. If Mister Chang and Balalaika were both planning to leave the city, what could they possibly discuss in that room? What loose ends remained to be tied?
He almost topples the radio set, switching it to FM and spinning the dial to the city's main radio station. He tries to keep his actions smooth and controlled, even though he can feel the panic rising. He had planned for either Balalaika or Mister Chang to be removed from the city during the fighting, not for them to meet together beyond Eda's surveillance equipment. There is only one enemy that the two leaders have in common, and only one person who they both know as a mutual annoyance.
"The hell are you doing?" Eda asks as Rock turns the sound dial up. The radio is still playing music.
There are a few seconds where he loses his sense of English. The words of his childhood are in his head, Japanese words that he hasn't spoken to a soul in years.
He breathes out and refocuses himself. "They are talking about unfinished business," he manages to say in English. "And both of them know who caused this mess."
Eda must have held similar suspicions. "Shit. That means us." She points at Rico. "Get Bangkok on the line. Now."
She uses her own cell phone to call Yolanda. The church and its smuggling operation are the easiest target.
Rock points out a familiar smudge on the screen. It's a boat in port. "The Black Lagoon is still in its berth. Do you think Dutch could give us one last ride?"
Revy grins. "Always wondered what it would be like to be a passenger. Guess I'll find out."
The first one to get done with their business is Rico. "There's a chopper arriving in an hour," he says. "If this really is a clusterfuck."
"If we're burned, we won't have an hour to bug out." Eda makes sure her Glock is loaded.
Mister Chang and Balalaika had only ever agreed to form the Commission because they were unable to eliminate each other. In a Roanapur without Hotel Moscow, the Triad will have to reconsider who its largest enemy is. Angel's last-minute betrayal made Nuevo Laredo safe. That leaves one last thorn in Mister Chang's side.
Rock knows him as a man who hates pretension and insincerity, and absolutely despises the meddling hand of the Americans. There was no greater symbol of that than Sister Eda, a fake nun in an empty church who communed with the American government. Now that Rock served her, he was an equally valid target.
Sister Yolanda barges into the radio room, zeroing in on Eda. "What could possibly be the matter? I've just been told they are making peace down in the city."
"That's the problem. Chang stopped answering my calls. I think he's gone rogue."
"Fears of a Russian-Chinese alliance?" Yolanda's face wrinkles up as she smirks. "How very American."
Before Eda can explain herself, the music on the radio stops. Rico turns the volume up. A voice comes through the radio in accented English.
"This is the Captain of the forces of Hotel Moscow."
Balalaika has called into the radio station- she is allowed one final address.
"The battle is over. The skill of our men has been witnessed by all of Roanapur: we fought with effectiveness beyond our numbers and courage beyond that of our enemies. The Triad recognizes this and has negotiated a settlement to secure our withdrawal from this area of operations."
She is speaking with all of her usual strength and has not even suggested that this is a surrender.
"In fact, in honor of our years of collaboration, they have made me aware of a certain fact: there is a spy in our midst, an agent of the United States Government. They have deceived all of us for many years, but the time has come to reveal their identity."
"Shit," Eda says.
"Sister Eda has hidden herself in the church on the hill, spying on our city and reporting it all to the country that has persecuted us for so long."
Rico does not wait for the order, he begins gathered up papers and dumping them into an empty oil barrel. Balalaika keeps going, her voice rising in anger.
"Even more than that, she used her own agents to fabricate this destructive war of ours, killing policemen and one of my own soldiers to ignite the conflict. We cannot tolerate such influence, and neither can the Triad. Our peace settlement has given us one last act in this city: I offer a five-hundred-thousand-dollar bounty for whoever kills this spy in the church, and half that to kill anyone aiding or protecting the traitor."
"Gott in himmel," Sister Yolanda says. Her surprise is clear on her face, but she stays clearheaded. "Eda, dear, this seems to be the end of our arrangement. I'll give you a five-minute head start."
"Five minutes? God damn it!" Eda shouts but Yolanda has already disappeared.
Eda has already ripped the hard drive out of the room's computer and Rock has taken the map down from the wall. There is a fire going in the oil barrel, and Rico has begun to drop the broadcast equipment into it. The smoke is absolutely vile in the underground room.
Revy is watching the door already, knowing that any of the workers at the Church could become enemies. She's trying to figure out a way out.
Rock turns to her. "They might have a blockade on the highway. Are we going back down the hillside?"
"We have preparations," Eda says. "Come help us with dumping the rest of this."
Everything in the room ends up in the can, and the smoke truly begins to choke them. They climb out of the cellar into strong sunlight and Rock stands there for a few seconds, disoriented.
"No fucking time," Eda says. "Come this way."
Behind the church, there is a steep cliff. Eda comes to the edge of it and then points down near the base. There's an old house near the bottom, and it looks abandoned.
"We keep a jeep in there."
Revy looks at the long drop. "How do we get down?"
Rico opens his pack and retrieves a long length of rope. "Rappelling."
Rock looks closer and sees the metal stake hammered into the rocks. He had gone climbing, once. "Where's the rest of your kit?"
"Don't need it," Rico says. "I'm your belayer."
If he stays at the top to help control their descent, he will not have any one to help him down. Is he planning to stay behind? Eda is wrapping the rope around herself as if this is all part of the plan.
"I'm not coming," Rico explains. "There's one last piece of evidence..." He nods towards the cell tower.
"Don't worry. He can handle himself," Eda says. "They'll be looking for me, anyway."
Rico tears his priest collar off and sheds his cassock, wearing an olive drab t-shirt underneath. This must be what he lives for- he has a smile on his face as he wraps the rope around himself.
Eda descends first, with Rico slowly unwinding the coil from around himself. Rock follows much slower, then Revy is the last. They all crane their necks to look up at the top of the cliff, and Rico waves at them.
"Good luck," he says. "See you on the other side."
The house at the bottom of the cliff is surrounded by an old bamboo fence, which Eda kicks down unceremoniously to save the time unlocking the gate. Under a sheet-metal shelter, she has a jeep under a tarp.
When she turns the key, it starts up right away.
"Okay," Eda says. "With Chang and Balalaika running this manhunt, every road in the province is going to have roadblocks up. Any ideas on where we go from here?"
"Dutch still has his boat at the dock," Rock says. "And it's very hard to catch him out at sea."
There are no better options, but Eda is cautious. "What do you think, Revy? You've been awful quiet."
She gets in the back of the jeep. "What I think is we gotta go before every motherfucking gun in the city picks up on our plan."
Even now, Balalaika's information would have to be passing from person to person, the news of the bounty forcing even the most hungover thugs out of bed. In an hour, at least a fourth of the town's population would be ready to shoot Eda- and there were already hundreds who knew.
"Fine." Eda revs the throttle. "Here goes nothing."
The path goes from the farmers' fields onto the familiar road that he and Revy had walked along two days earlier. Even with the cease-fire, the people of the neighborhood remain locked tight in their homes.
"Too quiet," Eda says, and then turns left onto the main road.
They drive by storefronts that Rock has memories at, empty food stands where once he had sated himself. Corner stores where he had bought things cold and nice and sweet to fight the heat. Places where he had seen drunks and junkies lay in front of as they waited to die, bars and clubs where beaten and broken bodies bled out onto dirty concrete. This is his last time seeing all of it, he realizes. It is the end of the city for him, at least.
There is not a single car on the road with them as they turn onto the seafront. Rock can see the Lagoon Company warehouse a couple of dozen meters away. He checks the road behind them.
Right then, there is a loud bang. The hood of the jeep pops up and a cloud of steam shoots from the radiator. A well-aimed shot from somebody out there. The engine is gone, Rock can feel it dead. Eda pulls the steering wheel hard to the left and the jeep coasts into the huddle of storage units neighboring the Lagoon Company.
"That was a sniper," Eda says, and hops out of the driver's seat. Revy has to pull Rock out and behind the meager cover of the jeep. Her move saves his life, because the metal frame of the jeep begins rattling from a close-range barrage of bullets. Revy is ready to shoot but Eda stops her.
"Fuck it, Revy, we aren't at the ship yet. Do your last stand there."
The ambush is well-attended. More people are shooting at the jeep now, popping the tires, shattering the windscreen. The attackers can't see through the cloud of stream, but they are desperate to hit somebody before it clears. They must have seen Revy riding in it.
Eda and Revy keep low to the ground as they move between each building- the storage units had been built in a grid layout, with narrow little paths between them. At each corner they come to, danger can come from all four directions.
The shouts of men can be heard now too, enough of them that they are not worried about giving away their position- voices in English, coming from around them.
Revy takes charge now, pointing them to the next corner and covering them with her guns. Rock starts to hear footsteps, can make out the individual words.
"They're not here!" someone shouts from the vicinity of the Jeep.
Rock looks over his shoulder, and that's when he sees a man with a ball-cap poking his head around the corner.
"I see 'em!" the man yells, right before Revy shoots him.
"Fuck," she says.
Their position is given up, and the situation becomes hell right away. They really do seem surrounded. Revy shoots in one direction, then another, then a third. "Get to the corner by the warehouse. I know that fence is rusted to shit."
It is not so easy to run. The promise of a payout makes these gunmen brave enough to face Revy. Eda shoots a man with a shotgun just as he jumps out from behind a corner. Rock wants to go for his gun, but there seems to be no time as they make a halting dash for the metal barrier that separated the storage units from the Lagoon Company's warehouse.
Rock kicks rusted panels of sheet metal off of poorly secured stakes. The gap is enough to let one person through at a time. He goes in second, but before he does, he shouts for Revy one last time.
Eda shoots him a dirty look for giving away their position and blasts a hitman in a ragged uniform as he stands up on a rooftop. Revy follows a few seconds later, emptying both her mags behind her.
All three of them make it to the dock. There is no one there to greet them. The windows of the warehouse have the blinds open, but no one looks down from within.
"Where's Dutch?" Eda asks.
It is strange- Dutch would not leave his most prized possession unaccompanied in the middle of all this trouble. Revy is too busy shooting gunmen to recognize the problem.
"I might be able to start it up," Rock says. He wasn't even as experienced as Benny.
He climbs up onto the armor-plated deck. It feels good to be back on the old boat again. He looks in the cockpit but sees no sign of Dutch. The only other place would be the engine room, doing repairs.
Rock lifts the aft hatch. A strong smell rises from inside, sweet but harsh, the odd pleasure of gasoline. But the scent is not a good thing. On the boat, smelling gas meant that the fuel was already spread through the air, hydrocarbons and oxygen just waiting for ignition. It is just a sign of caution at first, but he doesn't realize just what it is until he sees the fuel has flooded the floor of the hold, lapping against the side of a single wooden box. He reads the military print on the side of the container: explosif.
His mind goes blank. His feet hit the wood of the dock, he doesn't care about taking cover, he just needs to get away. He shoves Eda back in the direction of Revy and the force surprises her.
"What the hell?"
Rock grabs her forearm and pushes her in front of him down the dock. He's running, feet hurting in hard-heeled shoes, but he knows it's too late already and so his mind won't stop his body. Bullets whip past him but he does not even care.
"Revy!" he shouts with breathless lungs.
Her ponytail swings and her eyes find his. He doesn't have to tell her there's a bomb. She sees him running and recognizes the situation right away. Some part of her had always been expecting this. Their last path to escape was a set-up.
He gets to the end of the dock where she has been holding out behind oil drums. He counts each moment in sequence. First he pushes Eda up the concrete boat ramp and into the warehouse, then he reaches to pull Revy up the steep slope. She pulls the trigger on another man, then drops the empty gun and takes his hand. Rock wants her to get up ahead of him and into the building, but she stops. It is too late.
Behind her he sees the hull of the boat buckle inwards. The explosion inside draws in air as if it is breathing deep. Revy does not even think before reacting. She leans over and covers his body with hers. He does not see the explosion directly, only feels the flash in his eyes and the sudden percussive wave of heat.
The pressure wave hits last, but Rock cannot remember that. Instead, his next conscious thought is looking up at the wide-open sky as the setting sun turns it all blood-red. The Black Lagoon is already sunk, and Rock knows that too much time has passed with him laying helpless.
Revy's weight is slack against his body, and something hot and wet is running down his pants leg. He is not seeing clearly, and his movements are weak as he tries to look down at Revy. A shadow darkens his vision.
Angel stands there with his rifle at rest, looking down at Rock. He seems bemused at what he sees.
"Pozo ha cavado, y lo ha ahondado" he says, while the rest of Group X takes up defensive positions. "Y en el hoyo que hizo caerá."
While Angel talks, Rock tries to take a look at Revy. He forces his slack arm to roll her off of him, gently letting her down onto the concrete. Right away, his eyes go to a wide piece of metal embedded in her side, right under the rib. The blood has been oozing out while they were unconscious, turning her shorts black with blood and sticking his pants legs to her skin.
Witnessing the wound makes his head swim. He clenches teeth in his dry mouth.
"Su iniquidad volverá sobre su cabeza."
Rock does not bother trying to decipher Angel's Spanish. "She needs help," he says weakly. His entire body hurts, and his brain is throbbing with the promise of an almighty headache. He wants to go to sleep. But Revy is unconscious and bleeding.
Angel raises the rifle, puts the stock to his shoulder and levels his sights on Revy. Rock's palm closes with the handle of Revy's Cutlass in her shoulder holster. He draws it and with a shaking arm points it at Angel's head.
Silhouetted by the sun, the expression of his face cannot be seen, but Rock sees the shoulders lift up in a shrug. Angel lowers his weapon.
"All right, man," he says. "It doesn't have to be that way. Where's la religiosa?"
Eda groans, stepping out of the damaged warehouse. "What's your deal? You could have told me about the bomb."
"I do not trust the cell towers, and you were not answering on the military radio. How would I have told you?" Angel is still looking at Rock and Revy.
Eda coughs a few times, casts an eye over unconscious Revy. "Forget it. I'm out of here anyway. Get my girl some medical help."
Angel calls for his medic. "What about the other one, the businessman?"
Eda kneels close to inspect Rock, waving a hand in front of his eyes. "Yeah, he looks pretty fucked. If I'm hurting, these two must be in hell."
The horror rises in Rock as he recognizes that he cannot move. Whatever compelled him earlier is gone now, and his body is buzzing with a sort of generalized pain. He stares straight ahead into the skies above Roanapur, frozen in place. It is hard to him to focus his mind or pay attention. Eda and Angel are talking while cottonball clouds drift past a backdrop of bright red arterial blood, then it all quickly flips over into nighttime. Something is loud in the distance and he senses light playing along his eyelids, but the endless void is indistinguishable from dreamless sleep.