The Escalade pulled into La Posada's parking lot and stopped. The lot was over half empty, which wasn't necessarily surprising for a Tuesday afternoon. As the group climbed out of their car they felt the heat like a slap in the face.
"Wow it's hot, must be close to 90." Gen ducked back in the back seat, grabbed a baseball cap and put it on.
Neither Root nor Shaw paid any attention to their surroundings. They checked in, dropped their stuff and headed across the hall to Gen and Bear's room. After situating them they headed back out to the Escalade and plugged the coordinates into the SUV's NAV system. They drove south and in fifteen minutes were at their turnoff.
Shaw pulled the SUV into a secluded spot and turned off the engine. Moving quickly and economically, they retrieved several items from a locked storage compartment in the back of the Escalade. Several weapons, grenades and a compact RPG made up their arsenal, all but the RPG concealed in their utility vests.
Returning to the front seat, they headed the last 3/4 of a mile at a crawl. Rounding a large outcropping of rocks, the Escalade came to a deserted clearing. The area showed signs of recent activity. Less than one hundred yards further south they could see an area of dense rocks and bushes. Something glinted in the sunlight.
Shaw glanced at Root, who nodded and indicated they should head for clearing. They drove past an eight to ten foot deep gulley which ran about 30 feet before it trailed off. It appeared as though the gulley had gone on another 50-75 feet but had been filled with dirt and rocks, either with a front end loader or a lot of hard labor.
Shaw glance over at the hole and shuddered.
"I saw something like this in Syria. Right before I left the ISA I went to the middle east. ISIS was just getting started and they'd dig these long trenches for mass graves. I'm afraid if we did a little digging where the fill is we'd find bodies."
Root shook her head and indicated the area where sunlight had reflected off…. something.
"Let's not, let's see what's sparkling over there."
When they got to the dense area of bush and rock, they discovered a front-end loader carelessly camouflaged. Next to it was a small path wide enough for the machine to be driven further back. Shaw drove the Escalade down the path at a snail's pace. Less than 50 feet beyond the front-end loader was an opening big enough to comfortably hide it and a couple vehicles.
Root smirked, "Someone got lazy. We should park the Escalade here then head back to the trench. We can hide behind the rocks until we see who shows."
Nodding, Shaw backed into the opening, made sure the SUV was out of sight, then shut off the engine. Glancing at Root she scowled.
"I don't like this. We'll do it but I don't like it."
"I don't either, Sam, but this is what we do. Do you want to dig around in that trench to see how many are already there? Would that make you feel better about this?"
"Nothing will make me feel better about this- but it's going to get done. Hey machine, how long until it's show time?"
You have less than ten minutes until the lead vehicle arrives.
"Come on Sam, time to get moving."
The pair quickly retraced their path and split up at the trench. Root went behind several rocks that sloped up to a small landing. It provided cover and gave her the high ground. Shaw secreted herself across from the rocks in dense foliage. They went over last minute prep.
"Root I want to wait and let this play out except if they start marching people toward the trench. We can't let any of the perps use whoever their victims are as shields. We also can't let them get an advantage by getting any captives near the trench. Agreed?"
"Absolutely Sam, if they threaten any captives we should act but I'd like to see if play out as well. I think there's a good chance we're either dealing with the drug cartel or illegals. There's a good chance everyone will be speaking Spanish and, while we each can muddle through and understand it mostly it will slow us down.
"She can help us by translating so our focus can be on the action."
"Agreed."
"Can you hear me?"
Yes and I will translate any and all conversation you need to know.
"Sam, I hear something, sounds like a motorcycle…. more than one."
"I hear it too, it's showtime."
The sound in the distance gradually became a dull roar increasing in volume until reminiscent of Daytona during Speed Week. Finally the lead bike came around where the rocks began. Driven by a nondescript dark haired man in his 30's. Wearing tanned vest over camo, he was followed by five bikers (dressed identically), a 30 foot box truck and finally a green Hummer. The truck had to be 25 years old and it's original white color had long since gone to gray.
The bikers slowed just shy of where the trench began and looked back to the Hummer as if awaiting instructions. The SUV stayed a good 50 feet back of the rear of the truck and parked at an odd angle to the rest of the convoy. The Hummer's four doors flew open and three men dressed like the bikers exited. They all were armed with AR's.
The three took up positions in a semi-circle ten feet behind the rear of the truck. The bikers dismounted, pulled AR's similar to the first three and took up positions on the first three's flank. The truck was shut off then the two occupants, similarly armed, exited the cab and joined the group. All held their weapons loosely at their sides.
From the rear passenger side of the Hummer the leader finally emerged. Besides his obvious demeanor, his rank was obvious from the black vest over camo instead of tan and lack of semi-automatic rifle. Armed with only a military grade .45, he approached the group and nodded. The others raised their weapons to the ready and the leader approached the rear of the truck, pulled the locking lever and opened the rear.
Neither Root nor Shaw could see inside the truck's rear compartment, but were not surprised when the first occupant stumbled out.
"Illegals." Root's whisper got a muffled assent from Shaw. "The coyotes bring them over and are killing them. It must be easier than leaving potential witnesses."
"Well not this time" Shaw growled, "maybe we should give them a taste of their own medicine."
"Kneecaps, Sameen, unless absolutely necessary. Let the system have them. We just want to prevent the murders."
Both raised their Uzi's and attached the noise suppressors. As the rear of the truck emptied the leader commanded them in Spanish to walk two by two toward the trench. Root had slightly better sight lines and quickly tallied the victims.
"32 Sam."
"Shit. I want to kill these bastards Root."
"So do I Sam, but they're only the foot-soldiers. With the possible exception of Mr. Black Vest."
"I noticed, and if anything goes pear-shaped, he will be getting one in the head." Her tone told Root any argument would be senseless and, quite frankly, she didn't think differently.
"Sam, they'll clear the bikes about 20 feet from the start of the trench I'm guessing they'll herd the group toward my side but all the soldiers should be clear of the bikes before the beginning reaches the kill zone. On my mark we go front to back."
"Roger that."
The procession proceeded much like Root guessed, with the group queueing up closer to the rocks than the foliage. As the death march approached the beginning of the trench, Root waited briefly, then-
"Now."
Sounds like slightly loud coughs punctuated the sounds of the coyotes dropping as their knees were shot out from under them. The moans began immediately and the intended victims slowed in confusion at the carnage happening around them. As Root reached the fifth of her targets and squeezed off the two rounds that kneecapped him, the leader in the black vest turned and saw the glint of sunlight off an earring. It was just enough to allow him to locate the shadowy figure up in the rocks, raise his .45 and…
The gun flew from his hand as his head partially exploded. Root, surprised, looked behind him as Shaw walked up on the body from behind. Stopping over the obviously dead leader, Shaw shook her head, then emptied the clip into what remained of his head. Fortunately, she was down to four rounds in her clip.
She slammed a fresh clip in the Uzi and pocketed the spent one as Root cleared the rocks and came up to her. Before they turned to the Illegals, Shaw wrapped her left arm around Root's waist, pulled her in and kissed her. Violently and passionately.
"No one hurts my girl… except me of course…"
Root reached for Sameen, ran her fingers through her hair as she pulled her girl back in for one more brief kiss.
"My hero." Root smiled and nodded at the chaos they had just wrought. "We need to clean this up, call the authorities and get out of here."
"Roger that."
The two predators walked among the coyotes, zip tying each as tightly and painfully as they could. Once all eleven surviving outlaws were secured, they approached the confused and panicked group that had been herded off the truck. Finding several men and two women who didn't look hysterical, they explained in broken Spanish that they were on their own but that Root and Shaw were alerting the authorities.
"You can stay or try to escape- but if anyone asks, just tell them they started arguing and shot each other." Shaw knew there was no way that story would hold, but it would throw anyone off track long enough for the two of them to be long gone.
As they headed back to the Escalade, Shaw noticed the rear hatch of the Hummer was open. I don't remember anyone going back and opening that. She looked around, certain all the hostiles were accounted for, shook her head and continued with Root to their SUV. Climbing in, they looked at each other and smiled, both relief and excitement in each's eyes. The Escalade slowly made it's way past the Illegals and headed back toward Winslow.
Neither noticed the drone hovering about 50 feet over their heads as they returned to the vehicle and began the trip back. Nor did they notice the tiny black tracking device that was secured to the roof of the Escalade. The drone headed off in pursuit of the Escalade, only to fall quickly behind as Shaw hurried to get back to Gen, Bear and their life.