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your families will be safe. If not, you will all pay the price for failure, ME ENTIENDE?”

“Si, Senor, it will be done.”

He slammed the receiver down, cursing under his breath—one more call to make. He regained his composure and dialed the number. When it was answered, he said, “I would like to leave a message for Dr. Burnett.”

We walked out to the Beast Thursday morning, and there, sitting on his duffel bag, was Eduardo. As we approached, he jumped to his feet and said, “Senors and Senorita, I am ready to go.” His smile was enormous and catching as we all began smiling. His enthusiasm was unbridled as we shifted our load and tied more on the Beast’s roof rack. Dimitri, O’Reilly, and I sat in front, with Joe, Eduardo, and Doc in the back. We had a full load with supplies, but this is what we had designed and built this vehicle to handle, and handle she did, no problem.

Based on our last trip, we knew it was going to be a long day, around six hours if we were lucky, so we settled in. Eduardo was wound up, chattering away with the guys in the back. They had been covering a multitude of topics. After an hour, he leaned forward and said, “Senor Colt, were you in the Army?” which surprised me.

“No,” I replied, “I was in the Air Force. Dimitri was in the Army; why do you ask?”

“Senor Sean was in the Army, and while you were gone, he took me out and taught me to shoot.”

“Really?” I said in response to both parts of his statement.

“Si, Senor, actually, he said I should learn how to handle a weapon properly. It was not easy, and it took me a while to get used to it. We had a rifle and a pistol, and he taught me how to use and take care of both. He said I must respect the weapons, and they are only to be used as a last resort or in self-defense.”

“Is that right? Sean said that?”

“Si, he said that’s what he was taught; he was in the One Zero One in the Army, and it was important I learned the proper way to handle the weapons.”

“The One Zero One?” I asked.

“Si, he said they got to jump out of airplanes and everything.”

I looked at Dimitri, who had been listening intently to the conversation, and said, “The 101st Airborne Division.” Dimitri nodded and grinned.

“Si, Senor Colt, that is what he said, the 101st Airborne; that was his unit.”

O’Reilly said, “101st, you didn’t know about that?”

“No, I didn’t. I had no idea—interesting new fact.”

“Indeed,” she said.

“So, you learned how to shoot a rifle and a pistol?”

Si, I am a pretty good shot too—a natural is what Senor Sean said.”

“So, what kind of rifle and pistol did Sean teach you to shoot? A hunting rifle?”

“No, it was an M-16 like the ones you have, and a Colt .45; he also had an AK-47 that he let me shoot.”

“Nice,” Dimitri said under his breath.

“Do you know where Sean got them?”

“No, he did not say, but he wraps them carefully in oily rags and keeps them locked in a metal cabinet in his office. I had never seen them before. He even taught me how to clean them and make sure they were working properly before we put them away. He said it was important that you do that every time you use them.”

“Well, he’s absolutely right,” Dimitri said, “So, don’t forget it.”

“No, Senor, I won’t.”

O’Reilly leaned over and quietly said, “Hope we never have to ask him to help, but it sounds like he could take care of himself.”

“I hope you’re right on both counts,” I replied.

The rest of the trip was made with small talk and discussions about the mountain trek that lay ahead of us. Joe double-checked the GPS unit for our map and waypoints. We figured we would need four mules or llamas to haul our gear and hoped that Senor Mata would be able to provide those. We had noticed he had a small herd of both on our last visit to his farm.

Late that afternoon, we pulled up to the gate, and Eduardo and Doc went up to the house to announce our arrival. Senor Mata and his sons came out to greet us like old friends. They were delighted to see us and assured us it would be acceptable to park the Beast on his property. Once again, there was a dinner invitation, which we graciously declined, but Eduardo proved to be our diplomatic liaison and accepted. He made sure our refusal didn’t create any hard feelings.

It felt great to get out and stretch our legs; the ride up here, while not terribly uncomfortable, was an arduous one. So, walking and stretching was the activity for the first ten or fifteen minutes. We had started unloading our gear and setting up camp by the fire pit we had used on our last visit when Reggie arrived. She dropped her pack, laid her rifle down, and after greeting everyone, said, “Great, just in time for dinner.” It was MREs all around. As we were finishing, she said, “You guys know you’re being followed, right?”

“Not surprised; how far back?” I asked.

“They were a good mile, mile and a half behind. I’m sure they’ve caught up to us and are surveilling us right now. They had three vehicles, an SUV and two pickups. Maybe twelve to fourteen men.”

Doc nonchalantly looked around into the thickening darkness and said, “I hope they don’t try anything tonight; I wouldn’t want to endanger Mata and his family.”

O’Reilly said, “You think it’s the Brotherhood?”

“Probably, Paco said he only saw six of the mercs at Diego’s. That doesn’t mean there aren’t more, but I doubt it. And you remember the crowd the Brotherhood brought to the barroom brawl. My guess is they travel in large numbers,” I answered. “They don’t strike me as the surgical strike team type. More of

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