Lieutenant Arrieta was standing next to the cot. After each man finished with Teresa, he said, “Have you had enough, Sister? You can stop this at any time. All you have to do is tell me where Jaime Miró is.”
Sister Teresa did not hear him. She screamed in her mind: Smite them down with Your power, Lord. Wipe them out as You wiped out the other wicked ones at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Incredibly, He did not answer. It was not possible, for God was everywhere. And then she knew. As the sixth man entered her body, the epiphany suddenly came to her. God was not listening to her because there was no God. All these years she had deceived herself into worshiping a supreme power and had served Him faithfully. But there was no supreme power. If God exists, He would have saved me.
The red haze lifted from Sister Teresa’s eyes and she got a clear look at her surroundings for the first time. There were at least a dozen soldiers in the tent waiting their turn to rape her. Lieutenant Arrieta was standing at one side of the bed watching. The soldiers in line were in full uniform, not bothering to undress. As one soldier lifted himself from Teresa, the next soldier squatted down over her and a moment later penetrated her.
There is no God, but there is a Satan, and these are his helpers, Sister Teresa thought. And they must die. All of them.
As the soldier plunged into her, Sister Teresa grabbed the pistol from his holster, and before anyone could react, she turned it on Arrieta. The bullet hit him in the throat. She then pointed the gun at the other soldiers and kept firing. Four of them fell to the floor before the others came to their senses and began to shoot at her. Because of the soldier on top of her, they had difficulty aiming.
Sister Teresa and her last ravisher died at the same moment.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jaime Miró came awake instantly, aroused by a movement at the edge of the clearing. He slipped out of the sleeping bag and rose, gun in hand. As he drew nearer he saw Megan on her knees, praying. He stood there, studying her. There was an unearthly beauty about the image of this lovely woman praying in the forest in the middle of the night, and Jaime found himself resenting it. If Felix Carpio hadn’t blurted out that we were headed for San Sebastián, I wouldn’t have been burdened with the sister in the first place.
It was imperative that he get to San Sebastian as quickly as possible. Colonel Acoca and his men were all around them, and it would have been difficult enough slipping through their net alone. With the added burden of this woman to slow him down, the danger was increased tenfold.
He walked over to Megan, angry, and his voice was harsher than he had intended.
“I told you to get some sleep. I don’t want you slowing us down tomorrow.”
Megan looked up and said quietly, “I’m sorry if I’ve angered you.”
“Sister, I save my anger for more important things. Your kind just bore me. You spend your lives hiding behind stone walls waiting for a free trip to the next world. You make me sick to my stomach, all of you.”
“Because we believe in the next world?”
“No, Sister. Because you don’t believe in this one. You ran away from it.”
“To pray for you. We spend our lives praying for you.”
“And you think that will solve the problems of the world?”
“In time, yes.”
“There is no time. Your God can’t hear your prayers because of the noise of the cannons and the screams of children being torn apart by bombs.”
“When you have faith—”
“Oh, I have lots of faith, Sister. I have faith in what I’m fighting for. I have faith in my men, and in my guns. What I don’t have faith in are people who walk on water. If you think your God is listening now, tell him to get us to the convent at Mendavia so I can be rid of you.”