ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

sure that it doesn’t happen again. Employing the skill sets of your team is critical to success, guys.”

“I should have been paying more attention to that too. I may have gotten a little too wrapped up in the Go Boom stuff,” Dimitri added.

“Ya think?” Reggie said with a slight smile and a mildly stinging slap on Dimitri’s back. “You best hope your Go Boom stuff does the job.”

Dimitri winced slightly, not from the slap but more from her comments.

“Oh, no problem there, it will get the job done,” Dimitri said, now smiling as we headed to where our pack animals waited.

But right now, we’ve got to check on the kid and get the hell out of here. We just burned over an hour of our lead, so load up,” I said.

Doc and O’Reilly had gotten Eduardo up on the mule and were headed back to where the pack animals were tied. Joe had retrieved and packed up the drone and was heading up the trail.

I said, “Joe, we need to set up a trail cam in this area, so we know when to blow this thing and see what the results are.”

“Got it, I’ll put one just ahead. It will be out of the blast zone but still give us a clear shot of the fruits of our labors,” he said with a chuckle.

Chapter Twelve

Eduardo was doing better and riding the mule. It had been forty-five minutes since we left our booby-trapped site, and we had just made it to the Inca Road. This is where we knew we had to try and make up time. It wasn’t long before Joe said, “Colt, we’ve got movement.”

We stopped, and I told Doc to get Eduardo down for a short break and headed back to Joe, who was bringing up the rear of our group. He was staring intently at the screen of his pad as Dimitri and I approached.

“I just spotted a guy getting to the choke point; here, look.”

It was one man carrying a machete and looking very skittish, his head swiveling all around and moving cautiously. He walked past our rope still hanging on the wall of the gorge and stopped and looked back when he saw it. He turned and called back to someone we could not see. In a moment, a group of men carrying guns came trotting up to him as he pointed to the rope. They gathered in a group and were looking up when I turned to Dimitri. He had the “go boom” trigger in his hand with the safety cover flipped back, finger on the red button. It was then that another group joined the first, milling around the rope, talking, and pointing up.

“Time to go boom,” I said, and Dimitri pushed the button. The result was almost instantaneous as we heard the explosion through the speakers on the tablet coming from the mic on the camera and watched the men frozen in place as a thunderous storm of rocks and boulders rained down upon them. A few seconds later, we heard the noise of the blast from where we were standing. A huge cloud of dust soon blocked our view, but not before we saw men being smashed and covered by the falling rocks.

When the dust started clearing, we could see that the blast had done its job, and several of the men did not survive. The gorge was completely blocked, just what we had hoped for. It was then that the lone man who had been out front came back into view from up the trail. He must have taken off running as soon as he heard the blast and gotten to safety before the rockslide occurred. He stood there, staring in what must have been disbelief. He looked up and then began looking around as if expecting someone to jump out at him at any minute.

Reggie and O’Reilly had joined us and were looking at the screen—the carnage and aftermath of the explosion.

“Damn, Dimitri,” Reggie said, “when you say go boom, you aren’t kidding. Nobody’s going to be coming through there anytime soon.”

We were standing there when O’Reilly said, “Did you guys hear that? Joe, can you turn up the volume on that trail cam?”

“Sure,” he said, and in a minute, we could just barely hear a popping noise in the background.

“That’s gunfire,” and, as if on cue, our scared rabbit ran toward the rubble. A couple of seconds later, as more popping occurred, he turned and ran up the trail in our direction out of sight.

Dimitri turned to me and said, “Sounds like our Vatican mercs have just introduced themselves to the Brotherhood.”

“I think you’re right; they caught up pretty quickly. We’ve got no time to waste, though; let’s move out. Now we know the mercs are only about an hour behind us, plus however much time what’s left of the Brotherhood and the landslide buys us.”

Doc had stayed with Eduardo, who seemed to be rebounding from his fall. Ah, youth, I thought, to be able to bounce back that quickly. He climbed back on the mule without protest. Smart kid, he doesn’t jump back into the fray too quickly. As I walked up next to the mule, I asked, “How are you doing, Eduardo?”

“Better, Senor Colt, I have a headache, but I think I will be fine soon, and Senor Colt, I’m sorry I fell and let you down.”

“That’s nonsense, Eduardo. You didn’t let us down; you have proven your ability and courage time and time again with us. You have nothing to be sorry for. You’re a vital member of the team, and you did your job. Your fall was nothing more than an accident, and I can tell you we’ve all had our share of accidents. I’m proud of you, Eduardo. You did just fine… besides, I think Reggie needed the exercise,” I said with a smile.

“Now, just take it easy for a bit longer while you can.”

“Si, Senor Colt, I will.”

I nodded, smiled, and