Chapter 26 Party Time Ranger Style
A/N: So the party is starting….I got pictures for the mercenaries that go on the trip with Ranger and made a Pinterest page where I posted all of them. It adds a lot to the story to see the guys being talked about as you read. Check them out at www dot /rangerbabe21/mercenaries/
As I stalked off the ship, with every step I took closer to the airport, I left Carlos behind and morphed fully into Ranger. The ruthless unforgiving killer that was going to take down this threat to Stephanie, Julie and my family.
Saturday May 22 11:00
Once we were in the air I got out my Sergio go bag. From it I pulled out an 8 inch double sided hunting knife with a wooden handle and my battery powered jewelry engraver. Very carefully I carved, THREATEN WHATS MINE, on one side and I TAKE EVERYTHING OF YOURS on the other. Then I carefully slipped it back into its sheath and back into my bag.
The pilots had pushed it and the winds were behind us so we arrived in good time. It was just before 14:00 when we landed in Upton, California and I put the pilots on standby; to disappear for an hour and return to leave at 15:00 They knew we needed full tanks and we were headed to Panama, Venezuela and Colombia. I didn't know in what order but we were expecting to be gone until at least Monday. I was paying them an extra $50,000 each for the weekend on top of the regular $75,000 per trip.
Normally the $75,000 gets paid to the company and then they pay for the hangers, gas, pilots and stewardesses. But I asked them to file one flight plan to Colombia and back telling them that I would pay the company for both of these trips. The side trips to Panama and Venezuela were off the books so I would pay them the money directly on top of the $50,000 hush money I was paying them and they could do with it what they wanted. Money means nothing to me if I lose the people I love. They are priceless and irreplaceable. I am willing to spend the millions I have earned and saved to protect Stephanie, Julie and all the women in my family. Once the plane was parked in front of warehouse 38, the pilots got the plane scheduled to be gassed up and left.
Tank texted that they were waiting for us to arrive and once I called, five SUVs drove out to the warehouse. I stood outside the plane by the fence as they piled out of the cars like an endless clown troop. They just kept coming till I counted fourteen men plus Tank and Hector.
I knew all of them. I trusted most of them. Rascal was a little guy that could get in and out of anywhere unseen. Eagle has a tattoo of eagle wings on his chest and is one of the best snipers in the business. Bomber was a fighter pilot that can fly anything. Jack-knife can drive and crash anything. Grenade loves to blow shit up and got his name for his creative uses of grenades on several missions. Frizz is a big black man with hair that is combed straight up and dyed blond on the tips.
Basher is just a big guy who's a great shot but prefers to fight up close and personal. Dago is a pretty white boy that likes to make a big mess, he can also fly some planes. Starr has several star tattoos on his body. He is a big guy that likes to be the star in the middle of the action and leading the brigade. Lover Boy has a heart tattoo with mom written in it that he is forever being teased about, but he earned the nickname by using his good looks to seduce as many women as he could.
Hairy is ironically a bald older mercenary who can fly or shoot anything. Mr. T's origin is a mystery. He doesn't look black and doesn't look Latino but his skin is too dark for him to be just white. He wears a mohawk and is as big as Mr. T from the old tv show The A-Team. When asked; he tells you that a wood nymph fell in love with a gorilla and he is their bastard love child. Bullet was also a sniper but he's not just a great shot, he can hit anything from any angle. A great man to have on your side in a firefight.
Ice is a surprise. He is a ruthless killer and is not known for working with a group. His light blue eyes can stare ice daggers of fear into anyone, but he is really named because his heart is ice cold. There is nothing off the table, nothing that he won't do for the right price. The big surprise was Hector, code name Beaver. Small and behind the scenes he is probably the deadliest man here. If he wants you dead there is no saving you and he will take his knives and drag it out till you are begging for it. But the reason he is here now is because he can do anything with a computer that can be done.
With these sixteen men and me I really didn't need more men, but some of the guys I hired were specialists whose skills I felt I wanted. I guess I should have been more specific with Tank about who he was bringing. I had been guessing four or six men. I should have known better.
I greeted each man with a complicated handshake and welcomed them onto the plane. Each man carrying his own "go bag" of goodies. Grenade carrying two and Hector carrying three. When I loaded up they sat, all spread out throughout the front half of the plane. Many of these men were ex-special forces and many of them I had worked with, but these were mostly men with good morals who would take out the bad guy and his cocaine fields because it was the right thing to do. I addressed the troops.
"I don't know why you think you are here, but we are hosting a week-long party for Hollywood bigwigs in Palmsdale. I have contracts for everyone to sign stating that is what we are doing. Pay is half a mil, to be paid two weeks from today. I only brought a limited number of contracts and we are expecting eight more guys so there will be several of you signing per contract.
"El jefe del perdón tengo una impresora." Hector told me. (Pardon boss I have a printer.)
"¿Puede copiar?" I asked. (Can it copy?)
"Si" Hector answered.
"Hacer diez." (Make ten.) I opened my file, handed him a copy, and he disappeared to the back of the plane.
I kept the file open and passed out the thirteen contracts I had left. "With this signature I need pictures of each of you in a suit. Email them to me in the next week." Several of the guys pulled out their phones and sent me pictures right then. "Now we are waiting on the party planner and the rest of the men. Are there any specific party favors you want for this party?"
"What exactly are we doing?" Bomber asked.
"Unofficially flying all over South America and taking down a man named Sergio Valentino."
"What did he do?" Star asked.
I gave Tank a raised eyebrow that asked 'why were they here if they don't know what we are doing and why'. He gave me a half shoulder shrug and a look that said 'they wanted to come blow shit up. What did you want?'
"We'll go into those details when everyone else arrives. You arrived early."
"Some of us have been hanging around this airport since yesterday." Frizz said.
"Meetup was today at 15:00 and it's only 14:20 now. I already put an order for equipment in but if you were going to be blowing up a bunch of buildings and burning down a lot of coffee fields what kind of equipment besides hellfires and hot blowers do you want to have?"
"Flame throwers" Jack-knife said.
"C4 and detonators. I like to build my own." Grenade answered.
"Lots of dynamite." Starr replied.
"RPG - Grenade launchers" Frizz revealed.
"Be old fashioned, just go for TNT." Bomber explained.
"Don't be ridiculous just get some HMX." Eagle stated.
"Rocket launchers" Basher declared.
"Drip torches." Lover Boy desired.
"Ping pong ball launchers." Came from Rascal.
"GroundRX hellfires are to burn down the fields. They are twenty-foot strings of thermite. I plan on buying timers to light them so they can be set to burn in the middle of the night when no one is in the fields. This way we can burn down twenty-five fields at the same time. The buildings are going to be more difficult. Expect guards and possible nightshift workers. Hot blowers have to be set right up next to the building but you can time them to start at one end, then 10 minutes later the middle of the building, then the front of the building so the people inside have a chance to get out. They will burn long enough and hot enough to burn each warehouse and everything in them to the ground."
"I was told we were going to blow shit up spectacularly. This sounds boring." Basher said.
"I was planning on blowing up the buildings and killing the guards but if there are workers inside we need to have some options. There is plenty of killing to be done but I would like to keep the deaths of the innocent workers to a minimum." I told them. "After the fields and the warehouses come the five main compounds, seventeen smaller compounds and family houses.
At that moment my watch beeped and I excused myself to go out to the runway and greet the party planner. Gunnit is an ex-Mexican, ex-everything military guy who now supplies ex-military employees with ex-government hardware. He was a marine, who became a navy SEAL, but after an argument with a supervisor transferred and became a Green Beret, then that wasn't exciting enough so he moved to Delta Force. Most recently after surviving a deadly IED attack that took out his team, he was retired and got into the supply business. He drove in a black SUV right up to the plane, with two semi-trucks behind him. He got out, wearing a bespoke Armani suit, white striped shirt open at the collar with a large side arm on his hip as did three more men carrying assault rifles who were obviously there to protect Gunnit and his hardware.
"How did you get on the tarmac?" Called Tank as he followed closely behind me.
Gunnit took off his jacket, leaving it in the driver's seat. He approached us carrying a clipboard, with several pens, a highlighter and two black markers in his top shirt pocket. He walked around to the back of the second semi, lowered a hydraulic rear lift and opened the back of the trailer. Inside was a small forklift. "I told them we had to load the plane with this and gave the guard some personal cooperation compensation as we call it in this industry. To let us through and not check our cargo too closely."
"What have you got for me?" I asked.
"All kinds of treats for your party. First a crate of seventy-two GroundXR hellfires. That's three for most of your fields and will take care of your problem nicely." Gunnit said as he ushered me and Tank onto the lift and raised it up level to the rear opening. He ushered us past the forklift as he hit a switch to turn on some interior lights. He walked us past two large wooden crates and popped open a large black metal crate. Inside were round dirty-silver coils about five-inches tall and a hand width across the top, stacked three deep. I quickly counted twenty-four and calculated out seventy-two total. I nodded to him.
"I'll take the crate. Timers?" I asked.
"I have some over here." He said as he marked it on his sheet, took a black marker and marked the crate then led us to the back past several stacks of things. "They come in boxes of twenty so you can have sixty or eighty of them."
"Will they also light the hot blowers?"
"They are not made for them but yeah you can wire them up if you want." Gunnit said.
"I'll take eighty to start. Let's see what else we can use them for."
"Here are two cases of hot burners as you requested but these are not the best things to take down a building."
"There are some buildings that very likely will have workers in them. I want to give enough notice for the innocent people to get out, which prohibits just blowing up the buildings. But I need the fires hot enough and long enough to burn all the processing equipment inside those buildings."
"Then I recommend fire bombs. Smaller than a rocket launcher, or RPG, larger than grenades specifically designed to start fires in buildings and vehicles and can be launched from twenty to thirty yards away. They are the size of a Monster drink will penetrate a 12 inch concrete wall and burn hot for about an hour."
"I've heard of them. I've actually seen them in use several years ago. I just didn't know they were so widely used they could be gotten hold of outside the military."
"At this point, for the right money, I can get anything the military is using. I can get a used F-16 if you have enough money. Your problem is finding an airport that will host it and getting the special fuel it needs to fly properly. Maintenance is a bitch and getting parts impossible."
"How can you do that? I thought they were highly regulated." Ranger questioned.
"Under the wire I legally opened my own storage and processing military base approved and certified by Congress and I have eight army personnel working there that the army operates and I pay under the table. If I have the money and can show a military requisite order I can get anything. I'm just not approved to sell anything overseas. Which is a shame because there are several countries that would make me rich like a Rockstar to provide military hardware for them."
"I have twenty-nine warehouses, five compounds and seventeen other houses to take out."
"And your trying to avoid all casualties." Gunnit clarified.
"Maybe not all casualties." I told him.
"We'll get to that in a minute. Let's go to the other truck." He said.
He led Tank and me back to the lift and lowered us to the ground. In the other truck were most of the fourteen guys from the plane. Another guy with a clipboard watched as several of them were walking away with equipment. Dago had a flame thrower. Basher and Starr each had a rocket launcher and Frizz, Lover Boy and Jack-knife were carrying rockets.
"Guys. I'm buying the equipment for this trip. For now put it all back. I will get to it." I told them. Shoulders slumped and several of them turned around and headed back to the trailer, but Basher just kept walking.
"Basher, you will get what you need to blow shit up. Let me do it one order at a time. I will let you have a rocket launcher but I have to start from the top and work my way down the list of things to buy."
"Fine" he huffed and headed back to the truck.
For the first time I noticed that the logo 'Green Jeans Super Foods' with a bunch of fruit and vegetables was painted on the sides of each truck and trailer.
"Bet your greens all come with a bang." I told him.
"Actually, a good bit of my business is food for several bases. I set up my own contracts with local growers and farmers, getting prices cheaper than the military negotiated and I store what's not immediately needed or sell it off to other grocery chains. It's a large part of my business and how I got my standing as a military storage and processing facility."
"Damn, sweet contract and you do this on the side." Tank interjected.
"Actually, now I do. I have a lot of nationwide private stores that can carry some military stuff that I have built a steady business on. I process food and ordinance going to three local bases and several bases overseas that are half my bread and butter. Over two-thirds of my business is legitimate these days." We climbed into the back of the first trailer and he walked up to some big silver crates. "I have ten of these." He said as he popped the first one open. "You have to wear gloves to fire and handle them. The tubes get really hot and many men have been burned on their arms and chest by holding the tube against them. They are as easy to use as grenade launchers just slide in the ordinance aim and fire. You get sixty to ninety feet. Of course a higher trajectory will aid in them going further, but if you are punching through a solid wall thicker than 6 or 8 inches you want to aim directly at it." I picked up one of the 'bullets' and looked at it. It was coned at the end, slightly bigger around than a can of soda and about ten inches long.
"They fire like a bullet, the back third of it launches it out of the tube, but unlike a rocket it doesn't keep propelling it. That's how they are more like grenade launchers. Once fired that's all the umpft you get. When they land they don't explode, they create a large twelve foot fire that will burn everything including concrete and steel for at least an hour. This way you don't have to get too close to guarded buildings and you can set one end on fire driving everyone out the front of the building."
I was expecting twenty-four guys at this point. This meant fewer locations per team but more ordinance would be needed.
"I'll take all ten. I only see six bullets."
"Every case has six, giving you a total of sixty. You mentioned fifty-one targets. A couple of these will work for a warehouse, manufacturing plant or regular house. But you keep mentioning compounds. How big are we talking and is there a high fence around them?"
I stood there debating how much I could trust him. Hell, I already had twenty-four men who were going to know the game plan. I walked up to Tank whispering: "Photo evidence." He immediately pulled out his phone and started playing on it but I knew he was really taking pictures of Gunnit with everything in these trucks.
"Gunnit I know you can keep my confidence. I have pictures of all the compounds in the plane." I turned away walking to the back of the trailer and hopped out.
"Killer plane," Gunnit said as he followed me. "I didn't know there were any more of these around."
"Leasing it from a company in France. There are only a few left. They refurbished them all and started leasing them out."
We walked up the steep stairs. If this was my plane I would have some couches and tables installed. I got the folder that I had wedged in between the front two seats and sat down motioning for him to do the same. I opened the thick folder and started pulling out pictures.
"His southern compound is the largest on over 25 acres. The house is over 20,000 square feet and set up like a small hotel with the main family in one wing but eighteen smaller king size bedrooms in two other wings. Then it has a ballroom, library, a set of offices, and bathrooms all over. It's huge and the largest structure we are up against. The main house is surrounded by a ten foot concrete wall. The next two compounds are only about 10,000 square feet and the forth compound is even smaller, it is only about 7,000 square feet again surrounded by a wall. The final compound is small, only 5,000 square feet, but it is on a large piece of land that is very wooded. There are a lot of smaller buildings on this compound. Because of the woods and a natural river that runs behind the property there is only a wall in the front and sides of the property. All of the properties have a full contingent of guards. He is not mafia but he works with several cartels and he protects his people and properties like a cartel. Minimum 10 guys with guns on the properties inside and out at all times." I flipped through the pages.
"The warehouses and production plants are all rather small by comparison. Most of them are between 3,000 and 5,000 square feet. Again two or four guards stationed outside the properties, if there are workers more guards are inside the properties. All of the smaller residences are mostly rural. None are on anything bigger than three acres, most on less than one, but nothing nearby to burn with the structures. These are not in close neighborhoods like that. I want no one in the houses left alive. I want them to go up all at once, instant death." I explained.
"Ok so the fire bombs are good for the warehouses, I have five RPGs and three rocket launchers for the houses. But I have a proposal for the compounds. Do you need the people out alive?"
"Not on those properties."
"I have some drones sitting down in South Cali. With the direct coordinates we could do a few strikes say some time tomorrow."
"You have drones?"
"Yes and you are not buying the drones themselves. But we have been flying a few random missions off the books for the Mexican government against the cartels as backup and support. So I sell strikes. Charge for each missile launched and for the distance traveled and you have to leave a retainer for the cost of each drone. They can get shot down and if that is the case you are on the hook for the whole thing."
"What does that cost?"
"For Colombia, $25,000 for the flight and $5,000 for each missile."
"That's a lot higher than a few RPGs which is what I saw in your trucks and would do the job nicely from a distance."
"But you have to have men on the ground against guards that are going to shoot at them and try to chase them down. Plus, you would need a lot of RPG's against compounds this large. More RPG's than I have. They would leave a lot of the structure standing and left burning for a fire department to put out. You can't guarantee the annihilation of all the people inside with just a few RPG's. The drones are problem free. You give me a time and location and I can take out all five compounds from the air. Most importantly, no matter what happens it can never be traced back to you."
"I'm going to have to think on that one because I'll still want boots on the ground confirmation of each strike."
"I think you don't trust me." He said, hand on his chest acting like he was shocked.
"Gunnit this maniac threatened to do horrible torture and death to my mother, my daughter and other members of my family. This is a him or me proposition and I have to have complete confirmation that the threat has been eliminated."
"Understood, what is your timeline?"
"Teams were going in tonight to eliminate the land and warehouses. Tomorrow night was going to be the compounds and houses."
"So start with the compounds, say 22:00 tomorrow night, Colombian time. Have men there watching. Once you have confirmation you can hit the smaller houses throughout the night."
I sat thinking about the possibilities. This would show amazing firepower and range to anyone that would threaten me and there would be no direct links to me. The police would be stumped. Of course all the properties combined would point to a personal attack on Sergio and his businesses but maybe I can leave clues to point to one of the cartels he doesn't do business with. Or one of the ones he does business with that maybe he screwed over in a deal.
"Fine, two missiles each for the four compounds. Start at 21:00. The fifth compound I have to visit personally anyway.":
"Eight missiles means two drones, they only carry six apiece."
"I want total destruction and no one left alive."
"Two drones, eight missiles. Just for you Ranger I will drop those extra missiles anywhere you want no extra charge."
"I'll take you up on that offer, even though I know you just want to drop the payload so you'll use less gas and have a faster flight back."
He just smiled at me and I pulled out the sheets that had the coordinates on them and wrote them down.
"This one is in Panama, this one is in South Colombia. I want them hit first and drop one extra on Panama and two extra on South Colombia. This one is West Colombia drop the other extra there. If you drop the first loads at 21:00 when will you get to the second targets?"
Gunnit sat there calculating on his phone for several minutes.
"Between 00:00 and 01:00."
"I'll have teams there."
We went back outside to the trucks.
"I want all the fire bombs you have with ammo for the warehouses. The case of 72 GroundXR HellFires for the fields, all three rocket launchers with the rockets that you have and the five RPGs with all the ammo you have for the houses."
Gunnit was following me with his clipboard, pen out marking things as I spoke and marking crates as we passed them by.
We got to the table in the back where there was a bunch of guns.
"I want an unregistered gun per man." I explained as I picked out the best of what he offered with ammo.
He read the list back to me and ended with the four drone hits for the compounds.
"Your total is $364,883.00." He read off his calculator.
I transferred the money into his account and I waved at my men to start loading it up.
Half of them looking serious and half of them smiling like idiots. Basher carried two rocket launchers and kissed one of them as I stood supervising the loading of all the ordinance. Didn't want anything exploding before we got there. We all knew how to jump from an exploding plane but I was sure there were not enough packs and they would kill each other to get the few that were there. I pulled my thoughts back to the present.
"Here is your 'receipt'." Gunnit offered me a piece of paper that listed pounds of carrots, onions, broccoli and asparagus, with the totals for the ammo.
"I need your phone." He told me holding out his hand. "I'm going to download a program onto it so you can watch the same screen the remote pilots of the drones watch while they are in flight. These are fully manned missions. The drones are watched the whole time they are in flight and you can watch one of them." I handed him my phone.
"Which one do you want to watch?" He questioned.
"The South Colombia compound." I told him and he started downloading the program on my phone.
"Tank" I called. He put down the crate he was carrying and walked over.
"I need your phone." With out questioning me he pulled out his phone and handed it to me.
"Gunnit is going to set up your phone to watch one of the drones. You can only watch one drone per phone. I'd like you to watch Panama." I explained as I took it.
Gunnit handed me my phone back and took Tank's. A few minutes later he was done.
"Thanks Gunnit for driving down to meet me and bringing all the hardware. I promise to put it to good use." I gave him a complicated handshake and he and his men loaded up and were gone.
By the time everything was loaded my next group of mercenaries had arrived and boarded. Snark was an old tattooed information man. He was always in touch with the underground and could get information about anyone, but more importantly he could get any information out of anyone. He was going to be useful. Hangman was a killer. He had a noose tattooed around his own neck because he knew his line of work would be the death of him, but he could kill anyone, anywhere, in anyway, for any reason. Really he had the least morals out of everyone here but Ice.
Wolf was full blooded American Indian and a hunter by nature, a medic by training. Tres Amigos were Afable, Muerte and Negro, a three person team that was a force to be reckoned with on their own. Afable meant suave and was the smooth partner that could fit into any social situation and seduce any woman. Muerte meant death and was the killer and leader of the group. Negro meant black, he was very Hispanic with a large mustache but his soul was dark, he was a great torturer and nothing was off the table for him. Skeleton was deadly but he was also a pilot. Irish was big and built, spoke with a smooth lilt but again could pilot anything. Considering the eight I had recruited, they were more ruthless and had less morals than the fourteen Tank had brought.
Once everyone was loaded I texted the pilots that we were ready to leave. They showed up twenty minutes later and began the process for takeoff. I gave them the name and coordinates for the small airfield in South Colombia where Sergio kept his planes.
Then I turned back to the men I had assembled and debated on what kind of groups I could put them in and which partners to assign to whom. I was reformulating my plan. Finally I addressed the group.
"Here are the forms I need signed by everyone, stating we are doing a week long protection gig in Palmsdale and pay is half a mil." I walked around collecting up the forms that were already signed and passing out the blank forms Hector had left stashed on my seat. Once they were all signed and retrieved I continued.
"I need pictures of everyone in a nice suit emailed or texted to me. Now let's get down to business. We are starting tonight with a video." I waved the DVD to Hector and he retrieved it and disappeared into the back of the plane. A few minutes later he came back and said. "Cinco"
"Everyone turn your monitors to channel five." I ordered and they sluggishly complied. Hector came back with a handful of earbuds, held them up and began passing them to out stretched hands.
I sat down as I let the DVD start to play. Twenty minutes later the captain interrupted to say that they had been granted a spot in the line up to take off and we would be leaving momentarily. For everyone to have their seatbelts on and stay seated till we were at cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign was turned off. But at that point the video was in the middle of the raping session and no one was paying any attention.
By the time the video finished I was standing again and I nodded to Hector to go shut it down. "A Colombian coffee, cocaine and shipping magnate decided that I pissed him off with something I did for the government years ago when I was a commander in the Rangers. He has ordered several hits on me through the years but none were successful. Now he decided to get more playful and target my women before coming after me."
"The men he hired dropped this video off after shooting up my front door, signaling the start of his game. We did get that woman safely off the side of the building, but all the women in my family are in danger until he is dead and after getting all the answers I need out of him I would like to pay him back in kind. I have an actual whip and am looking for volunteers to make a playground out of his ass."
"He is currently at his compound in Venezuela. Before we go see him, tonight we are going to burn down all his coffee/cocaine fields and blow up all of his warehouses. Tomorrow night I go visit him while you will be blowing up his houses."
"Why tomorrow night? Why aren't we going after him first then burning everything down?" Rascal asked.
"I want him to see me coming and be afraid of what I'm going to do to him."
"Dude he threatened your women, he knows you are going to be after him." Jack-knife said.
"The smart thing to do would be to hit him first. Take him down before he knows you're in the country after him." Dago inputted.
"I want him to see me burn down his businesses and kill his family before I torture and kill him." I explained.
"That will just give him time to put more hits out on you and your family so even after you kill him they will keep coming after you and with his kind of money it could last forever." Hangman explained. I had to think about this good point for a minute. In my imagination he hears about all the destruction and is hurt and afraid, knowing I am destroying all he has worked to build. Killing all of his family while he is out of town and helpless, with his mistress, just seemed appropriate. But he might use it as incentive to use all his money to send endless numbers of killers after us. Instantly I knew what I had to do.
"He is currently at his heavily guarded compound in Venezuela. There is no good way in, you can only attack from the front. It would mean massive firepower, taking down about twenty guards and forcing our way in." Even as I said it I didn't know why I was asking. These men had all done things like this before. As I looked around the plane all I saw was eager acceptance.
"I'll go give the pilots the new coordinates." I told them, grabbed my folder and walked up to the cockpit. Using the phone right outside the cockpit I told the pilots, that we needed to change direction and go to El Pinal, Venezuela and the coordinates for the new airport.
Ten minutes later in the middle of our planning the pilot called me back to the cockpit.
"De airport has no towver and ve cannot determin the length of de runvay. Records sho' it iz only a mile long an' isn't long enovgh to land on an' take off again. De next neares' airport iz not far avay but it will hav security issues for all your men."
"What other private airports are in the area with runways long enough that you can land?"
"There is another private strip south of San Cristobal about an hour away." The co-pilot told me.
"Do it." I encouraged. I walked back out to my men. I realized that though I had hired these guys I didn't trust them as much or think of them as my men like I do the men from RangeMan.
I pulled out the map, the aerial photographs, and the frontal photographs I had of the property and gate and passed them around.
"We will be landing at a private strip over an hour away from the property. We have twenty five men and a lot of equipment. I need at least six men to go get large SUVs or vans or whatever kind of large vehicles you can find." Jack-knife, Frizz, Grenade, Dago, Lover Boy, Rascal and Negro all volunteered. I knew at least one of the three amigos would go, they are thick as thieves, always stick together and always watch out for each other.
I had a printed out aerial map of the area that showed other local structures and a lot of woods. The wall ran around to the back of the property but stopped at the river that ran behind the house. A plan was hatched and we all anxiously awaited our arrival.
I went back into the kitchen and got myself a water. Realizing we had over three more hours of this flight to go and we left at dinner time I was guessing that probably half the men hadn't eaten dinner.
"Lover Boy, Rascal, Dago, Afable" I called to the four of them. When I had their attention, I gave them orders. "The kitchen is fully stocked. Investigate what foods and drinks there are for meals and snacks. Load them on the food cart and pass them out to everyone."
Rascal and Dago may not have wanted to serve anyone but they were glad to be the first in the kitchen. Lover Boy was less enthusiastic and I knew that Afable was most likely going to only serve him and his pals but I didn't want to leave the trio out. Sure enough Afable was out two minutes later with drinks for the other two and just as quickly disappeared back inside the kitchen. Minutes later he was back out with wrapped sub sandwiches, took his seat, passed out subs to the other two and all began eating.
Ten more minutes went by as I stood discussing a plan to take the front of the compound with Eagle, Basher, Tank, Starr, Bullet, Bomber and Jack-knife. Starr and Tank were for stealth. Eagle and Bullet first wanted to take out any men outside the gate and, if they could get high enough, men on the other side of the wall while we climbed the wall in several locations and silently worked our way through the building. Basher and Bomber wanted to blow the gate up and go in guns blazing. Jack-knife of course wanted to ram the gate with a vehicle loaded with men and weapons and drive up to the front of the house taking out any guards along the way. Unload at the front door and then we wouldn't be picked off filing in, one at a time, through the front gate.
My plan had been to work my way through the woods and come over the wall where there was cover. Stealthily make my way to his back bedroom, use the grappling gun to reach a third-floor window and go in the bedroom next to his. Make my way to his bedroom and if empty wait for him there. But that plan wasn't feasible with twenty four other guys.
After another moment to process everyone's ideas I began, pointing at the map. "We know he is expecting me, but not this much fire power. I would like to be in his bedroom before he can hide behind a wall of armed men. So the first group will work their way through the woods, come over the wall in the back here where there are buildings to hide behind and take out any guards patrolling in the back. While we get in position Eagle takes out any guards in the front. Once we go over the wall and clear the rear buildings Basher takes out the gate, Jack-knife drives in with the biggest vehicle we have, loaded with shooters who take out the front guards and prepares for anyone exiting the house. Everyone else comes through the gate or over the wall. Then we simultaneously storm the house. The last, probably hardest, part will be getting into his bedroom without getting shot. Surely there will be at least one guard in there and Sergio will be armed."
That last comment brought a round of discussions and I went over to the three amigos and spoke with them in Spanish.
"Sergio tiene una niña muy pequeña que compró y que ha estado secuestrando en esta propiedad. Si podemos sacarla y traerla de regreso, ¿puedes encontrar un lugar para ella? Le han quitado todas sus opciones y básicamente es una esclava sexual. Me gustaría verla tener la oportunidad de una vida y una educación." I told Muerte. (Sergio has a very young girl that he bought and has been holding hostage on this property. If we can get her out and bring her back can you find a place for her? She's had all her choices taken from her and is basically a sex slave. I'd like to see her have a chance at a life and an education.)
"Si puedo encontrar una familia para ella, donde pueda volver a ser una niña." He nodded at me and I nodded back. (Yes I can find a family for her, where she can be a kid again.)
Finally, Lover Boy emerged from the kitchen. "Who wants a Coke?" He asked, one arm holding at least eight of them. Hands went up. Men replied in the affirmative and he started chucking them through the air. When he was empty he asked. "Who else wants a Coke?"
There were several more "Yeses" and he disappeared back into the kitchen returning moments later with another arm full. Then he repeated the throwing and all but one was snatched out of the air. Minutes later he was back with bottles of water, again repeating the asking and the throwing. I got another one from him.
"Who still needs something to drink?" He asked and several hands went up.
"There's Sprite, apple juice, orange juice, lemonade, root beer and Dr. Pepper. What do you want?" More cries went up around the cabin and he returned several times with more drinks and once again with more waters. Finally, he asked "Anyone else?" and when there was no answer he got a drink for himself and retook his seat. Before I could ask what else was happening in the kitchen Rascal and Dago pushed the cart, piled high with food, up the aisle.
"There are four different types of sandwiches. Turkey, ham, roast beef and club. What do you want?" Dago asked.
Again the men started yelling out and he began chucking sandwiches around the airplane. When Basher reached out and took a sandwich meant for Bomber behind him it almost came to blows for a minute before Rascal chucked another one his way. I got a turkey and made my way back to my seat. Tank got a club and came to sit beside me. Even on this mission, unspoken, he still knew he was my number two. Once everyone had a sandwich they parked the cart upfront.
"There are three types of chips and all different kinds of snack foods, crackers, candy bars and more. Ranger there is even fruit. They're all on this cart, come up and help yourselves." Dago said. He and Rascal took their own food and made their way back to their seats against the small tide of guys headed to the front. I laughed at their display, reminding myself that these were mercenaries not flight attendants. As long as everyone got food I was happy, realizing it was probably going to be me and Tank going back down the aisle with plastic bags to collect the garbage otherwise the plane would be a pig sty by the time we got back.
Three hours later, the plans had been made. Watches synced. Of course when you have a bunch of military men with military watches it is more a matter of getting them all in the same time zone.
Fortunately this was an unmanned airport that had twenty-four hour lights on the runways. The pilots circled four times before landing getting lower and lower and making sure it was long enough to land, turn around and take off again. Landing was smooth if not a bit abrupt and I told the pilots to stay with the plane, that we would be gone most of the night but should be back by morning.
Saturday May 22 20:30
Jack-knife, Frizz, Grenade, Dago, Lover Boy, Rascal and Negro returned within thirty minutes with vehicles as the nearest neighborhoods to steal them from were a few miles away. By now it was nearing 21:15 and we were all "dressed" in bulletproof vests, LSATs with two full magazines each, night vision goggles, radios, and various knifes and smaller guns. Except for Basher who was proudly holding a loaded RPG. Several of us had go bags slung crosswise over our bodies and I knew that Hector was staying out of the initial action because he was bringing in sensitive equipment along with his computer. At 22:10 we drove past the compound on our first pass and saw no guards outside the gate. I took half of the men through the woods and over the backwall. Half of us had climbed the wall when Wolf found an unlocked side gate and everybody else went through it.
We started clearing the out buildings that turned out to be small shacks for the guards. By the third shack we had men coming out of the house toward us and the guards in the shacks were awake and armed so I called the front team to go. Seconds later there was a loud explosion and a large fireball that you could see light up the front yard, followed closely by gunfire.
The men worked methodically through the backyard killing everyone coming out of the last two shacks and out of the house before they had taken three steps. As quickly as it started it was quiet again. I cleared the path to the open back door and led the way through the three story house. On the second landing there were three dead unarmed bodies, probably a maid, cook and butler or some shit. Sorry they were caught in the cross fire, but if we had just blown up the house they would have all been dead anyway.
Most of the men that had come in the front of the house, already lined the hallway on either side of the door I had identified as Sergio's bedroom. We all crowded around the door certain that whomever was on the other side of it was armed. I signaled silence to all of my men, leaned my assault rifle against the door jam and crouched down in front of the door as I pulled out an unregistered .40 Glock. I slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open a hair's width so the doorknob was no longer engaged. There was no sound from the other side of the door as I slowly began to creak it open.
To be continued….
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! I appreciate them all. We are heading into the action and next posting Friday. Enjoy! Please read and review.
As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint for all your encouragement!
Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.