Chapter Eleven
"Here we are." a smiling Mike exclaimed, the first one to climb out of the jet once it had landed. "Beautiful Cuenca, Ecuador!" As the bald, African American descended the steps, Nessa and Sam followed him. "You know, I was doing some research about this place on the flight over, and it's pretty well known as a retirement town now. People mainly come here because of the low taxation, rarely enforced traffic laws…"
"Hey, walking travelogue" a gruff-as-ever Ed said as he opened the plane's cargo-hold. "Save your energy for unloading this bad boy!"
"Yes, sir." Mike replied, immediately rushing over to help.
"And what in the hell are you doing?" a curious Ed inquired, spotting Danny putting a hand on a duffel bag that had been loaded full of weaponry.
"Unloading the plane." Danny replied, stating the obvious.
"No, you're not." Ed shook his head, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder to restrain him. "You're supposed to be taking it easy, man. Save your strength and energy for later." A smile appeared on Ed's face. "Jack, Mikey and I can handle this."
"Actually, you might want to let him help, so we can get it done quicker." Keller disagreed, running over. The dark-haired man held his cell-phone in one hand. "I just heard from my contact. There's been another Professor sighting."
"Where?" Ed demanded as everyone paused what he or she was doing.
"In the jungle just over that mountain." Keller replied, pointing to a nearby peak. He looked reluctant to continue. "Apparently, something happened." Closing his eyes, Ed felt his heart sink, but prayed for the best. Reassurance and anger both found their way to Keller's voice. "They're still alive, Ed, but my contact did see the Professor hit Delinda across the face pretty hard."
"That bastard." Ed whispered, his quiet, yet livid voice and fierce blue eyes sending chills down the spines of everyone gathered around. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to murder him!"
"Come on." Mary quietly suggested, looking at Sam and Nessa. "Let's help them unload the plane, so we can go after this creep!"
The unloading of the plane's cargo onto two separate jeeps did go much faster with six pairs of hands, instead of only three. The only one who didn't help unload was Ed, who was too angry to really be of any help at that moment. The gray-haired, ex-CIA agent sat on a nearby log, thinking of all of the ways he would make the Professor pay for even thinking about laying a hand on his daughter.
"Uh, Ed?" a timid Danny said as he walked over. He motioned to the two jeeps behind him. "We've got everything ready to go."
"Good." Ed nodded as his anger immediately dropped from sight. He got to his feet and clapped a hand on Danny's shoulder. "Well, let's get going into Cuenca proper then."
"Huh?" a puzzled Danny inquired, wondering what the hell Ed was talking about and also about where exactly the older man's intense anger had mysteriously vanished to. "But the Professor was spotted in the other direction."
"We know that, idiot." Keller chuckled, clapping Danny on the back. "But we're going to set up a base of operations." He shrugged his shoulders. "Buddy of mine's got a hotel that we can use."
"All right." Danny said, pretending to understand as everyone climbed into the two jeeps. However, the brown-haired man was still baffled. Why in the hell did they need a base of operations when they weren't planning on staying that long? After all, they were just supposed to get in, get Jillian and Delinda and get out, weren't they? Realizing that something was not right, McCoy decided to keep his eyes on both Keller and Ed himself for the time being.
"Cuenca, Ecuador?" a puzzled Luis Perez repeated as he looked at a flight plan he had retrieved from the Montecito for one of the smaller, private jets. "Why in the hell would someone want to go to Ecuador? All of their in-town whales are accounted for, and none have recently come from there." Thinking for a few minutes, the realization came to the brown-haired detective as to the cause for the trip, and a hand came to his forehead. "That's got to be where Ed and Danny have gone."
"And Mary." Larry McCoy said, suddenly appearing in the doorway. Luis looked up at the sound of the older man's voice. "Mary's gone with them."
"Please tell me that you're joking." a stunned Luis replied, dropping his hand.
"I wish I was." Larry replied, handing Luis a note. "I went to check on her today because I know how she gets when Danny goes out on these kind of things, but all I found was this note."
"How in the hell did she…" Luis wondered, reading the note that was definitely in Mary's handwriting, which told Larry not to worry and that she had gone with Danny. "Why in the hell did he…"
"I don't know." Larry shook his head, not having any answers to give. He noticed that Luis had picked up the telephone. "What are you doing?"
"Calling Interpol and telling them to check things out in Cuenca, Ecuador." Luis replied, beginning to dial a number. "A Montecito jet left for that destination late last night." He sighed and looked at the older man. "I just hope that Danny and Ed can forgive me, but I'm not going to let them put innocent lives in danger."
"Why am I not surprised that a friend of yours owns a place like this?" Danny remarked as the group entered a dirty hotel room that appear to have seen better days. The one, queen-sized bed appeared as if it would fall apart if someone dared to even sit on it, the brown, shag carpet was sticky and stained, and the air conditioner made a rumbling sound as it blew cold air into the room.
"Hey, it's not the Montecito." Keller remarked with a smile, "But it's kind of cozy in its own little way." He laughed at Danny. "You really need to lighten up, you know that?"
"It pains me to say this," a disgusted Sam sighed, looking around. "But Danny's actually right." She turned to Ed next to her. "I feel like I'm going to come down with some sort of disease if I stay here any longer!"
"Yeah." Nessa echoed, "I mean, when was the last time anybody cleaned this place?"
"Jack, did you bring the you-know-what?" Ed inquired, changing the subject and ignoring his employees' comments. "You know that me and you can't go out on a mission with the traditional you-know-what."
"Yeah," Jack nodded, opening a small bag he had carried in with him. The dark-haired man produced from within in it a bottle of wine and seven glasses. "Can't go on a mission without the traditional drink first."
"Right." Ed grinned back at his former partner. "You got something to pop the cork with around here?"
"In the kitchen." Jack said, nodding towards a small, separate room off of the side. Winking, he handed the bottle and glasses to Ed. "Why don't you open it anyway? They'd probably suspect that I was poisoning them or something."
Just as he was about to remark about the truth to that comment, a realization flashed across Danny's mind as to what they were doing in that hotel room in the first place. If Jack was allowed to pour and serve the wine, then everyone would be immediately suspicious that he had tampered with it, and most likely wouldn't drink it. However, none of them would suspect that Ed would do something to their drinks. Keller's wink definitely confirmed for McCoy that something fishy was definitely going on, something that only the two older men knew about. But how could the ex-Marine confirm his suspicions?
"You still with us, space cadet?" a curious Ed inquired, breaking McCoy out of his thoughts. The gray-haired, powerfully built man stood in front of his protégé, invitingly holding a full wine glass. "Here you go, kid."
"Ah, no thanks, Ed." Danny declined, putting his hands up. His mind quickly searching for a reason behind the rejection. "Alcohol apparently conflicts with the painkillers I'm on, so the doctors don't want me to drink anything."
"Oh, that's right." a remembering Ed nodded, emptying Danny's glass into a nearby potted plant. "I can't believe that I forgot about that."
"That is some good wine, Mr. D." Mike complimented after downing his entire glass. Setting the glass down on a nearby table, the African American man shook his head. "Your impeccable good taste strikes again."
"Oh, please!" Danny muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes at his friend's obvious brown-nosing.
"I'm going to go talk to my friend, and tell him that we're going to be using this room for a few days." Jack stated, looking at Ed, but motioning to the front door.
"All right." Ed nodded as Keller walked backwards through the front door. "But if you're not back here in five minutes, we're leaving your ass!"
The dark-haired, younger man simply smiled back before closing the front door behind him. Danny's eyes were pulled away from this visual quickly as he noticed an unsteady Sam putting her hand on the table behind her and Mike.
"You okay, Sam?" a concerned Danny asked, looking at her.
The brown-haired woman opened her mouth to respond, but fell lifelessly forward before she could speak. A silent Ed caught her before she could hit the ground, and looked around at the others. Danny wasn't stunned to see that his mentor wasn't surprised by what had happened, confirming his suspicions about Ed tampering with the wine. He realized that Deline was probably looking around to see who would fall next.
"Sam!" a worried Mary exclaimed, looking down at Sam, who Ed had layed upon the ground. "What happened?"
"I don't know." Ed replied, shaking his head. "I don't know what the hell happened to her."
"I think I do." Nessa said, putting a hand to her forehead. It apparently was the black woman's turn to fall into unconsciousness. "The wine…drugged…"
Once again, Ed caught Nessa in his arms as she too fell forward. Danny couldn't help but feel angry with Ed as he watched this play out in front of him. If the older man didn't want them coming along on this mission, then why in the hell did he bring them in the first place?
"Danny." a weak-sounding Mary said, getting the ex-Marine's attention. The red-haired woman appeared to be struggling to keep her eyes open.
"You'll be all right, Mary." a reassuring Danny soothed, gently taking her in his arms and rubbing her arm. "You're just going to go to sleep for a little while."
Suddenly feeling himself supporting the woman's entire weight, Danny sighed in reluctance before picking his best friend since childhood up and gently laying her on the bed behind them. He smiled and gently caressed her face with his injured, right hand.
"Mr. D.?" a woozy, surprised Mike asked, "What…why?"
"You'll understand one day, Mikey." Ed reassured as the bald, African American man sunk to the floor, the last to fall unconscious. Sighing and running a hand through his hair, the gray-haired man turned to face Danny. "I had a feeling that you wouldn't fall for this."
"Why didn't you just leave us back in Vegas, Ed," a curious, angry Danny inquired, motioning around to the unconscious bodies around them. "If you were planning on doing this all along?"
"And risk you all doing this on your own?" Ed countered, suddenly reaching into his pocket. He shook his head. "No, it's better that you were all somewhere where I could keep an eye on you."
"You're not leaving me behind Ed." Danny stated, shaking his own head firmly. "Not after I've come this far! I'm not leaving you alone now!"
Saying nothing in response, Ed simply walked up to his protégé with a sad smile on his face. It was clear that he admired the younger man's loyalty to him, but he clearly also didn't want Danny to accompany him on such a mission, especially in his injured state. McCoy questioned what Deline was going to do to stop him, but suddenly felt a needle prick his arm. Looking down, the ex-Marine could see that Deline's hand had moved out of his pocket and was now holding a full syringe, which he had stuck into Danny's arm.
"You son of a…" Danny started before unconscious claimed him. The prepared Ed caught the younger man in his arms as he fell forward.
"He's going to kick your ass later for that." a smiling Keller remarked, walking back into the room as Ed pulled the syringe out of Danny's arm with one hand.
"Shut up and help me get him on the bed!" Ed instructed, struggling to hold on to Danny's limp form and not willing to take any of his former partner's crap. After Keller walked over and grabbed Danny's feet, the two men managed to lay the brown-haired man down next to Mary, and looked around at the unconscious forms surrounding them. "You sure that they'll be okay?"
"They'll be fine." Keller nodded. "Miguel's got a crew on standby if the Professor even gets within 10 miles of here."
"Good." Ed replied, pulling an envelope out of his pocket, and placing it on the nearby table. Inside was a letter from Deline, apologizing for what he had done and explaining where he had gone. After taking one last look at his unconscious employees, the gray-haired man nodded at Keller. "Let's roll!"
To be continued...