Then Royce sat very still for several minutes, thinking hard, trying to come to a decision he didn't want to face. Some said ignorance was bliss. But ignorance could also be dangerous.

"Grab your gear and let's get moving," the team leader announced. He was ahead of his own order, as he had his rucksack slung over one shoulder and his weapon in his hand.

The three other members of the team looked up from what they were doing. The Sicilian slid his knife into its scabbard and without a word, began gathering his equipment. The black mercenary considered the order for a few seconds, then complied. The Australian began gathering his gear, but had to ask: "What's the rush? The main team hasn't even gone in yet."

"We're going to the Philippines," the team leader said, "but just to cross-load."

"Where to then?" the Australian wanted to know.

"What's the op?"

"We're staging out of Manila," the team leader said.

"Civilian flight from there."

The Australian was getting exasperated by the slow flow of information.

"You bloody well gonna tell us where we're going and what we're gonna be doing or you going to wait till we get there?"

The team leader walked up to the Australian. The blood was pulsing in the scar on his head, backlighting the barbed-wire tattoo.

"You want to run this team?"

"I want to know what I'm going to be doing."

"You'll know when you need to know," the team leader growled.

The black man stepped between the two, dwarfing both.

"There's no reason for you not to tell us where we're going and what we're going to do."

He put a hand on the team leader's chest, forestalling whatever he was about to say, and looked at the Australian.

"But you know what, mate, what the fuck difference does it make?" He spread his massive arms, pushing the two back.

"It's the job we signed up for, and it isn't like we can quit. So let's shut the fuck up and get going."

Vaughn and Tai didn't need the GPS to make their way to the mountain. From the beach, they shot an azimuth to the crown of Hono Mountain and then moved out into the jungle, staying on that track. Tai was on point, Vaughn right behind, close enough to reach out and touch her. All he could see were the two reflective cat eyes sewn into the back of her patrol cap. He knew all she was focused on was the glowing needle of her compass. Her concentration was verified by the occasional grunt of pain as she walked into a tree or log.

It was hard going, breaking their way through the tangled vegetation. Vaughn kept a pace count, and after two hours he reached out and tapped her on the shoulder, signaling a halt. They did rucksack flops on the jungle floor, each half sitting, half lying on their packs, weapons across their laps, facing each other but offset, so they had clear fields of fire.

Not that they were likely to bump into anyone around here. They had yet to see any sign of civilization, not even a trail. Vaughn remembered from isolation that the north side of the island was almost completely unpopulated, which was a blessing, given the screw-up this mission had been so far.

"I need to call in a situation report," he whispered.

"I know. Wait until we stop for daylight," Tai advised.

"No. I want to call it in from a location where we won't be staying."

Tai digested that.

"You're that worried?"

"You're the one that had three malfunctions on one jump. I've done over two hundred jumps and never had one malfunction. I'd say that constitutes reason for worry. I'd prefer that the only one who can pinpoint our location be us."

"All right."

By feel, Vaughn got the satellite radio out. He typed a message into the keyboard, telling the rest of the team that he would not be on the mountain until the following night and would send in a report as soon as he discovered something. He signed off and put the radio back in his rucksack.

"We should be pretty close to the hot spot," he said to Tai.

She already had her GPS unit out. She turned it on and waited while it acquired the nearest positioning satellites, then put a poncho liner over her head and turned on the back light on the unit.

"How close?" Vaughn asked as he kept watch on the surrounding darkness. Even if they had their night vision goggles, he doubted they would see much in the pitch-black underneath the jungle canopy.

"Eleven hundred and twelve meters. Two hundred and four degree azimuth."

Vaughn remembered blundering around in the dark years ago at Fort Benning on night land navigation courses. Technology had certainly changed things, although the loss of the night vision goggles during their water landing and the disaster of the laser targeting during the earlier raid he'd led made clear that one could not totally count on the equipment. He clicked in the correct azimuth on his compass, an older but more reliable technology.

"Let's move," he told Tai.

"Do you want me to take point?"

"For a little while."

She turned off the backlight.

Vaughn got to his feet and shouldered his rucksack. He felt Tai's hand on his shoulder as he led the way through the dark jungle. He had his MP-5 slung over his shoulder. In one hand he had the compass, while he held the other out in front of his face to prevent losing an eyeball on the vegetation they were moving through.

The ground was sloping up, which didn't aid movement. Checking the altimeter on his watch, Vaughn saw that they were up over a thousand feet in altitude. He was taking short, careful steps, but that didn't help him as he tried to plant his left foot and it touched nothing but air. He tried to pull back, but his momentum was too strong and he tumbled forward.

Behind him, Tai was surprised to see the two little reflective cat eyes on the back of Vaughn's cap disappear and his shoulder vanish from her hand. She froze, knowing right away he'd fallen. The question was, how far? She could hear his body breaking through brush and a muffled curse.

Kneeling down, she felt forward with her free hand, found the dropoff and leaned over it.

"Vaughn?"

"Yeah."

He didn't sound too far away, but his voice had a strange echo.

"I think we found the heat source."

CHAPTER 14

Ruiz watched the computer screen and the large numbers go from the single account on the left to the fourteen accounts on the right. Those fourteen represented various groups around the world, most of which were on the United States watch list for terrorist activities.

A large sum from the previous night's auction still remained, and he shifted that to an account representing the government of China. At least that's what the Chinese liaison had told him, but Ruiz had his doubts since the routing number indicated it was a Swiss bank. Corruption was nothing new to China, or any other government for that matter. Still, that large sum had not only paid for the platform to hold last night's auction and the one to be conducted this evening, but would be forwarded through cutouts to other organizations that the Abu Sayef supported in the war against the West.

Ruiz was no fool. And Abayon had not tried to fool him. The old man had been blunt. While the money was a great benefit to the worldwide cause, the real purpose of the auction was to draw out the hidden enemy. Abayon had told him of the secret pact between the Americans and Japanese regarding the Golden Lily. The visit by the Yakuza representative indicated the matter was far from forgotten.