KILLER DATE (SCANDALS) (18 page)

Dallas shot me a dirty look.  Clearly, he was not a piss-behind-the-dumpster kind of dude.  “Seriously, Nick.  What are we doing out here?”

“See that guy
over there in the khaki work shirt and jeans?”  Nick jerked his head toward a man standing next to a dusty late model pickup truck.

“
The one with a gut hanging over his belt?” I asked.

“Yeah…
more importantly, he’s got a gun in a back holster and another one in his boot.”

“Hell, this is Texas.  Doesn’t everyone have a gun in their boot here?”  So far, I wasn’t too disturbed…but I was
wanting some Chicken McNuggets.

Nick gave me a frigid look that would have chilled a lesser man to his bones.
  “I can’t remember his name, but he’s one of them.”

“
One of Veracruz’s men?  Does he know you?” Okay, now I was a little more concerned.  Cartel members were like cockroaches…if you saw one, there were dozens out of sight under the refrigerator.

“Maybe…I think they can smell us sometimes.  Let’s give it another minute
and see if they leave.  It would sort of ruin our surprise if they knew we were in town.”

We slumped down in the Land Rover, not trusting the dark tinted windows to hide us as we watched vehicles circle through the drive-
through.  I stopped counting at fifty.  My stomach rumbled a protest, and Jenny glanced over at me with a grin.  She had been in a great mood all day.  Every mile brought her closer to her sister…and, unfortunately, closer to ending her relationship with Scandals…and me.

The fat
Mexican finally got into his truck and another half dozen men, each carrying a large bag of food and a drink, climbed into the open bed.  One of them handed the driver a bag and a drink, and they roared out of the parking lot and headed south.  We waited five more minutes while the crowd cleared.  Finally, when we were very close to a mutiny in the Rover, Nick announced, “Use the bathroom grab your food and get back here as soon as you can.  We eat once we get out of town, then we’ll find a place to park behind the hill above the compound.”

We parked deep in
a stand of twisted mesquite trees and purple sage bushes just off the main road along what used to be a roadside break area.  An historical marker stood about fifty feet in front of us but a pile of drifted tumbleweeds nearly hid it from sight.  A rusted sign that was pocked with buckshot dents warned of rattlesnakes.  It hung by a single rusted screw and every gust of wind banged it against the wooden post like an Old West-style gong.

“
Must not have been a very important event,” I commented.

“W
hat are you talking about?” Nick asked.

“That
marker in front of us.  Doesn’t look like many people stop by for a history lesson.”

Nick rubbed his eyes.
  “I didn’t even notice it.”

“That’s comforting,” Dallas muttered.  “You’re supposed to be the observant one.”

“I haven’t slept much in the past few days.”  Nick yawned as if the very thought of his lost sleep made him even more tired. 

Dallas peered into the bags to see what was left.
“Hey guys…we have a couple more Big Macs, French fries and apple pies here. Better fill up.  This could be our last meal today.” 

“I’ll take another
burger and some fries.”  Jenny held out her hand and Dallas gave her the requested items.  “Thanks.”

“Where the hell are you putting all that food?”  I
asked her, staring at her slender figure.

She flashed me a
rare smile, took a big bite out of the Big Mac and pretty much ignored my question.  It was rhetorical anyway.  I was just amazed at the change in her personality.  Now that we were literally only a few miles from the compound, she was calm and relaxed.  She either had a lot more faith in us making this mission successful than I did, or she was delusional.  Yes, we had a good plan, but there were so many unknowns between us and the rescue that I would hardly call it a done deal.  Not to mention that there were some very well-armed nut jobs inside the compound that wouldn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for us.

“Got all you need Reno?”
Dallas asked.

“I’m good.”

“We’re about a half mile from where we’ll leave the car.  We can run the drone from there.” Nick was pointing down a rocky dirt road that was barely more than a wide cattle trail.

“Where’s th
at ranch Ricardo was talking about?”  Dallas looked around.  “I just can’t get my bearings.”

“Off to our right
somewhere…maybe a mile over those rocks.”  Nick pointed toward a tumble of big boulders that made an impressive mountain.  Okay, not even close to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, but much taller and more rugged than I would ever want to challenge.

“
Dallas, you’ll stay with the car.  I’ll leave you the sheriff’s phone number just in case...”

“In case of…?”  I didn’t really want to hear the answer, but I had to ask.

“In case we’re not back here by noon tomorrow.”

That gave us a little
more than twenty-four hours to get in and out of there before the cavalry arrived.  I sincerely hoped that we’d be back in the Land Rover and eating cold leftover French fries well before then.

It was getting pretty hot inside the car even with all our windows down and the doors open.  Nick got out and opened the
hatchback.  We all followed, glad to be able to stretch our legs after the long drive.

“Tell me about this drone
, Dallas.” 

“We can
go up five hundred feet and the picture zooms in so it looks like we’re only about fifty feet above the compound.  It’ll fly at fifteen miles per hour and stay up for two hours.  It has a range of over two miles and blinks when the signal is getting weak so I’ll know to turn it back before I lose it.”

“Cool. 
Night vision?”

“Yeah…not full military quality
, but you can see people, dogs, rabbits, whatever puts out a heat signature.  It has four blades for stability, and it can hold its position within inches even against high winds.” 

Nick was clearly impressed by the little creature that looked like a cross between a helicopter and a spider.  “And you just went to drone.com and bought it?” 

“Sort of.  I have a buddy who builds these in his garage. I worked for him last summer between semesters at UT.  All his suppliers have Chinese components, so there are no model or serial numbers…totally untraceable.”

“
By the DEA?”

“Or Homeland
, FBI, NSA…”

“Figures.
  Rather than go through DC, I’ll come to you next time,” Nick muttered.

Dallas smiled and nodded. 
“I’m sure Jared has a price.  He’s a free-enterprise kind of guy.”

“Well, let’s get this show on the road.” 
Nick shut the hatchback and climbed into the driver’s seat.  He barely waited for us all to be seated before he started the motor and shifted into drive.

Even though we were barely crawling along, t
he vehicle jolted and bucked over the rocky road.  After the first big bounce when our heads found out just how hard the ceiling was, we scrambled to put on our seatbelts, something we hadn’t thought we’d need on this deserted back road.  The front wheels thumped over a rocky ledge and when the rear wheels followed, the bumper hit with a scraping sound like the trailer hitch was etching a notch into the road’s surface.  Another rise, then a drop of several inches and the rear wheels kicked up gravel and dirt.  Thorny mesquite branches scraped down both sides with a screech like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I knew there would be fireworks when Christopher assessed the damage on the expensive vehicle.

Jenny and I exchanged a gritted-teeth smile and hung on to anything that would steady our ride.  Shock absorbers hadn’t been made that would make this ride comfortable. 
 

“I’m thinking those guys
on horses back in the day had it easier,” I managed to say between bumps.  I imagined how the cowboys, soldiers and banditos must have felt as I watched the tops of the hills for any evidence of anyone observing us.  When I looked back at Jenny, I noticed all the color had drained out of her face.  “What’s the matter?”

“
I shouldn’t have gone for that extra Big Mac.”  She took several deep breaths, then inflated her cheeks and slowly let the air escape.

“Do you want to stop?”
  I looked around for a bag…just in case.

“No…we need to get there as soon as we can.  I’ll be alright…really.”
  She held her face closer to the vent and let the cold air-conditioned breeze blown on her.

A few minutes later w
e pulled up against the side of the hill that was to serve as our hiding place.  Nick jerked the wheel to the right and then made a hard left.  We stopped when he shifted abruptly into neutral, facing the way we had driven in.

“We nearly tipped over!”
Dallas exclaimed, wiping a row of sweat off his forehead.

“
We want to be able to make a quick getaway.”

“
That makes sense,” Dallas agreed.

“
Let’s get this drone up, guys…got it?  Pull those ceiling light covers off and take the bulbs out back there.  I don’t want them to notice you out here after dark,” Nick told Dallas.

I took care of
the one above the middle seat and then crawled over the back of the seat and removed the one in the back.

“Here’s a knife
, Dallas.  Kill the one on your door, too.  Then push the floor mat up against the light on your floor…fuck we should have done this before we left!”

“Back ceiling lights are o
ut, but there are side lights near the rear door,” I told him.

We exited the vehicle and walked around the back.  As soon as the door opened, Nick punched out the covers with shards of plastic flying everywhere,
then twisted the bulbs out.

Another reason
Christopher was going to be pissed.  I hoped I lived long enough to see it.

Nick looked around inside until he was satisfied that there would be no illumination to give away Dallas’ location during the night.
“You should be well away from the action,” he assured Dallas.  “Just stay alert and don’t wander too far from the vehicle.”

“Rattlesnakes?
” Dallas looked around uncomfortably.

“Among other things.
  You’re kind of at the bottom of the food chain out here.”

“Great.  Wish I’d brought a gun.  Even if I don’t know how to use it, it would make me feel better.”  Dallas carefully removed the drone from
its well-cushioned Styrofoam nest.

I opened the laptop and turned it on.  While it booted up, Dallas did a pre-flight check
, making sure all the wires were properly attached and nothing had jarred loose on the rough road.  He plugged in the power supply for the remote control and the laptop, then checked out the connection with the on-board camera.  “Help me carry the drone over to a flat spot,” he told me.

It wasn’t heavy, weighing less than twenty pounds, but it was bulky and awkward. 
Carefully, with me on one side and Dallas on the other, we carried the three-foot-wide snow white drone about ten feet from the vehicle before we could find a semi-flat rock that wasn’t completely obstructed by underbrush. 

“I’ll switch the batteries on
, and we’ll be good to go,” he told us as he squatted next to the odd-looking piece of equipment that looked more like an alien than a plane.  He stood and returned to the laptop.  He typed in some code and a grainy, extremely close-up picture of the rock came into view. 

“Is the
lens dirty? It sure is fuzzy,” Jenny commented.

“It’ll be great w
hen we’re up a few hundred feet,” Dallas answered.  He picked up the remote and turned it on.  A green light blinked to show it was ready.  He extended the antenna to its full length.  “Here we go.” Dallas slowly pushed the throttle lever forward and the motor speed increased.  With a whir, the drone lifted straight up and rose slowly above the top of the hill.  Just as promised, the picture cleared as the focus adjusted.  The tiny GoPro camera had amazing clarity.  The colors were vivid, and as Dallas tested the zoom, the lens reacted quickly, rendering a sharp picture of the ground below.