The Viper Squad Read Online Free Page A

Boston, no son of mine would set foot in El Salvador.” He looked at
     Sally. “Your wife?”
    “A friend,” Bennett said.
    “I see.” Bermudez’ voice was cold and he looked away from her. She was dismissed.
    Latin pig, Sally thought.
    “My schedule has changed,” Bermudez said. “Meeting first. Then interview. Come.”
    They followed him through the hallway to the door to the street, along with a dozen of the gun-toting security men. Two vans
     were now pulled up in front of the building.
    Bermudez gestured apologetically at the gunmen. “I try to be a man of peace as much as possible, but each day it becomes a
     little more difficult to go the way of nonviolence. Both the communists and the fascists want to kill me.Why? Because I suggested negotiation and peaceful solutions.”
    The Volkswagen van they rode in had metal plates bolted to the inside walls and roof. The window glass had been replaced by
     inch-thick clear plastic that Sally assumed was bulletproof.
    “I try never to confront them with violence,” Bermudez was saying, “because each time I do so successfully, I become more
     like them. That means I have to avoid being attacked, without running away. So I bring my armed security men with me everywhere
     without making a big show of it, as others do. And I change my routine every day. Often even I do not know where I will be
     in a few hours’ time. That way I stay alive and live to fight another day, no?”
    Sally couldn’t help admiring him a little for the way he handled himself, in spite of the fact that he enraged her through
     continuing to treat her as if she weren’t there. He’s religious, she decided. He probably saw her as some kind of scarlet
     woman. And he’d have his hand on her knee as soon as Bennett looked the other way. She knew the type.
    They came to a supermodern high rise, the kind she disliked in Boston but which, for some reason, looked great down here.
     Their van and the one following, bringing the rest of the security men, drove into the under—ground garage beneath the building
     instead of pulling up before it.
    The armed men tumbled out of the second van and looked about among the parked cars in the garage’s cavernous interior. Then
     they assumed positions with their guns swinging at the ready, and one nodded to the driver of their van. It was time for them
     to get out.
    Bennett followed the driver, the two security men next, then Sally, then Bermudez. Bennett panned his camera around the underground
     garage, complaining of the or light.
    A splatter of what could have been water tore across theconcrete wall behind their heads. The automatic gunfire was deafening in the enclosed space. Bermudez’ security men fired
     back, Sally could not see where. She and Bennett crouched behind a car parked near their van, along with Bermudez. There was
     a silence after the first bursts of fire. It seemed to goon and on. Bennett was filming. Sally suddenly remembered she had
     forgotten to mm the mike on and she knew how mad Bennett would be at her about it. She switched it on.
    Some of the security men were running from the cover of one parked car to another. One shouted a warning. They heard a metallic
     clatter underneath the van. The car they crouched behind sheltered them from the blast, yet it knocked them to the concrete
     floor. Bermudez fell on top of Sally. He kind of grunted and hung onto her.
    “Filthy animal!” Sally snarled and tried to lift his unresponsive bulk off her body. She finally managed to heave him off
     her and looked up to see what was happening. The van lay on its side, burning, and clouds of black smoke rolled beneath the
     low concrete ceiling. There was a long rattling of many guns. Then silence.
    Sally heard another metallic scrape. She looked. About five feet away on the concrete floor, a hand grenade spun slowly on
     its side. A small iron Easter egg, she thought, cold, malevolent…
    Mike Campbell pulled into the oasis of sorts that