46 | John W. Warner IV Aye, sir. Si, senor. Baijauna. Charges set, the doors were blown. At each lower entrance, the two-person SOE man and woman team entered and shot the three armed Arab men in tan suits and tall black fezzes that stood guard. Stunned, their return fire was panicked, haphazard, and hit no one on Bernies team. Amateurs versus professionals. It sounded the same on the far side. Shots. Yells. Now!yelled Bernie, descending the ancient stairs. He almost tripped on a crack. Shit! ‘The two remaining women covered Bernies rear. Jesuit monks came on the run. The women kneeled and squeezed off carefully-aimed shots, downing eight handily. Bastardosl Infantophilesr Some were innocent, some ignorant and naive, some not, but they all had to go. The women spat on them. Dios would sort them out, they thought. Bernie kicked the heavy main door to the cellar; it didnt budge a hair. Then with all three of them shoving, it cracked open after several tries. A shot found its way through the thick wood just above Bernies head, then two more. Ive got the middle the flanks are yours! Bursting through, Bernie unloaded a blast at two men in robes, their pistols drawn. The SOE man shot three more to the left, and the Spanish woman downed two of the black-robed women at right. The initiates had been armed only with short swords, their ancient inner sanctum always seemed before now. Always. When Bernie rushed to the table, six children were dead. He swiveled his Thompson. Everyone down on the floornow! Put your damn hands on your head, you. He kicked a white-robed man in the balls, collapsing him. Look who I caught, sir, the bloody Black Pope himself, growled the other SOE man, a grizzled sergeant. He pushed the bishop to the floor and kicked him hard in the ribs; a hidden ornate silver-handled knife fell from his silk sleeve, its tip stained with poison. Fancy the nippers do ya, dogshite? Bernie took the butt of his Thompson and smashed the bishops knee cap so the man wouldnt run or set about to mischief. I need him alive. As for the rest of you goat-fuckers… ^ndiamo, said the Basque commando. Bonds cut, she and another woman led