Page 349 of The Black Trilogy

“You tried to kill me too,” I said, stalling while I tried to work out what was going on.

“You took out fourteen of our best men. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get good staff nowadays?”

“Well, they weren’t that good, were they? They missed.”

I couldn’t help pointing that out, but it only annoyed him more. Fire blazed in his eyes, and his finger shifted on the trigger.

“A mistake which I do not intend to repeat.”

Great. I needed a plan. My pistol was still in my thigh holster, and by the time I reached for it, I wouldn’t have a head anymore. I was contemplating my options when something large and black leapt out of the trees and launched itself at Diego. He got a shot off, but it went high over my left shoulder. I didn’t hesitate. I drew my gun and fired into the men each side of him, then when the black thing rolled to the side, I double tapped Diego in the head.

What in the world just happened?

From the tangled mass on the ground wriggled what looked like a panther. It sat up and we stared at each other. Holy fudge, Bradley warned me there were big cats in the jungle, but I didn’t think they came out and attacked people like that!

Would I be next? What if it wanted dessert?

I trained my gun on it, not breaking eye contact. The sleek black cat was a beautiful creature, and I didn’t want to kill it if I could avoid doing so, plus it had just done me a massive favour. I took one step back, and it stayed still. I moved another foot, and it took a pace towards me.

Er, shoot.

I glanced to my right, looking for something I could use as cover. There wasn’t much, only trees and a few thorny bushes. Could panthers climb trees? I was pretty sure I’d seen a documentary a while back where they did exactly that.

And so our standoff progressed. The cat shifted slightly, and I glimpsed something around its neck. What was it? I risked a step to the side. It was a red belt. A red fricking belt.

Jane’s words came back to me: “He’s big and black, and he has a red collar on.”

This was her flipping pet? We definitely needed to work on her descriptive skills.

“Kitty?”

His ears pricked up, and he walked towards me. I stood dead still as he rubbed himself along my legs like a giant house cat. Kind of cute, kind of scary. I tentatively reached down and scratched his head. He started purring, a deep rumbling noise that sounded remarkably similar to a distant aircraft taking off.

“Well, Kitty, I guess Jane was right. You didn’t like Diego very much.”

Jane said she’d been feeding him, right? He didn’t seem so interested in feasting on Diego’s still-twitching body, so maybe he wasn’t all that hungry. We could leave that waste of space for Kitty’s wilder cousins.

With the big cat trailing after me, I walked further into the compound. Diego and his two buddies had to have got here somehow, and they didn’t pass us on the road. And there it was—a shiny red Eurocopter, glinting in the sunshine. Hallelujah! The devil had finally come through for me.

I hustled over to my lifeline, staying alert for any more of Ramos’s men. Kitty followed, his head swinging right and left, and I swear he was looking for bad guys too. I’d never been much of a cat person, but I was rapidly changing my mind.

When I opened the door to the helicopter, Kitty stopped and stared at me.

“What?” I asked him. “Do you want to come too?”

He leapt inside and sat in the co-pilot’s seat, staring out of the window. Guess that answered my question. I climbed in after him and gingerly buckled the seatbelt through his collar. Still purring, he expressed his gratitude by licking me, which felt like having my face sandpapered.

I shut the doors, strapped myself in, and warmed up the engine, the sound of the rotors sweet music to my ears. Once the turbine was good to go, I took off, following the road back to pick up Black.

To pick up Black and go home.

The trip was so much faster by helicopter, and I got to the dead truck in less than ten minutes. I had to fly a little further to find somewhere wide enough to land, then I hopped out and jogged back to find my passengers.

When Black saw me, he emerged from the undergrowth, holding Jane by the hand. A lump formed in my throat as he put his arm around her waist and guided her around the potholes, then helped her up into the back of the helicopter.

“Where did you find this?” Black asked, jerking a thumb at my new toy.

“I borrowed it from Diego. He won’t be needing it back.”

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