Free Behind the Mask (Undercover Associates Book 4) by Carolyn Crane Page B

stiffened, transfixed.
    Kabakas never did that; yet the brutality, the outrageousness, that felt very Kabakas.
    No. No way.
    Feverishly she worked at the knots as gunfire raged, as men cried out.
    Concentrate, focus.
    Things grew silent. When she looked up again, everyone was dead except for Aguilo behind her and Guz, who cowered behind an overturned truck.
    Motion from the side. A small, dark figure strolled out from the jungle wall, assault rifle in hand. He, too, wore a blood-red mask, but he was small. Just a child.
    The Kabakas impostor ignored the boy; he was going for Guz, clutching the curved hilt of the barong. His hand gripped and pulsed with power inside that glove.
    Guz scrambled out from behind and took off toward the Jeep—toward her .
    No!
    He’d draw the Kabakas impostor’s attention toward her. She redoubled her efforts to get free.
    Guz slowed enough to twist around and shoot wildly behind him as he ran.
    Calm and sure as the moon, the Kabakas impostor strode on, right into the gunfire. With a flick of the wrist, he threw a knife, and Guz was down. Pierced in the knee.
    Wailing in pain, Guz rolled over, leveling his pistol at his masked attacker.
    He was between her and Kabakas now.
    She stiffened as Guz shot, once and then again at nearly point-blank range.
    The man acting as Kabakas reached over his shoulder into his pack and drew out a barong sword. Now he had two. He began to swing them in a figure eight, Sinawali style, as he strolled toward the leader.
    He wouldn’t .
    Except, he would.
    He swung them quickly, expertly. It was something to behold, the way the silver ends shone in a figure-eight blur that sometimes shifted into more of an X pattern.
    Guz shot at him, and the Kabakas impostor just kept walking. Guz shot again.
    Clang.
    Zelda felt the breath go out of her. Using the blades to block bullets. A Kabakas hallmark. It wasn’t magical; if you angled blades just so, and if you were good at gauging directions and trajectories, you did have roving plates of armor.
    Still, it took practice, not to mention guts.
    He might not be Kabakas, but this attacker was nothing short of magnificent.
    Guz scrambled backward and got in a wild shot.
    And the attacker kept going. He understood what Kabakas always had: the closer he got, the more frightened Guz would become and the worse his aim would become, erasing the advantage of point-blank proximity.
    The strange attacker was close enough now for her to see the calm in his eyes through his mask. There was something almost mountainous about him: hard, ancient, immovable.
    Whoever he was, she knew one true thing about him: he was completely in the zone, beyond confidence, a mindless unity with everything that was happening around him. It broke her heart to recognize it, to remember it.
    A desperate yearning for everything she’d lost crashed over her. She worked at the knots.
    She could hear Aguilo panting behind the Jeep. Kabakas always killed everybody but one. The messenger. It was why Aguilo was hiding. He wanted to be the last one.
    Kabakas had never utilized a female messenger. In fact, he’d slaughtered scores of women at the Yacon fields.
    She had to get away. She formed a plan: she’d kill Aguilo herself and force this guy to use her. He’d use her if she forced his hand.
    She sat right up on the side of the Jeep, smashing her wrist. She barely felt it in her fury to get free; she went at the knot with her fingers behind her back. It made her big and made her a target, but it was the only way.
    Guz had thrown away his gun. He scrambled back as the barong blades flashed. It was like a lawnmower coming at him, tipped the wrong way. Maybe ten more feet before contact.
    Kabakas spoke. The breeze had kicked up and she couldn’t hear, but she made out the words Buena Vista as he advanced. Buena Vista, the town the men had been laughing about.
    One side of the knot loosened. She was getting it!
    Guz was weeping, apologizing. The man didn’t stop