The Devil's Highway (14 page)

“They’re running!” I shouted, jubilantly. But that was when they hit us again.

Another explosion rocked the structure, this time from the back. I heard a muffled cry, and two bursts of gunfire. Then silence. Smoke started rolling in from the back room. I took a deep breath, and started to head to the back of the office, thinking of Andrea and Hughes, when out of the smoke stepped a figure.

Dressed like his friends who had been out front, in flak vest and black BDUs and combat boots, this man also wore a gas mask. The stuff rolling into the room was tear gas.

“Claire! Brad! Get out now!” I yelled. They immediately scrambled to their feet. But at the sound of Brad’s name, the masked figure’s head whipped around, and he uttered a muffled
“Stop were you are!”

I grabbed the muzzle of the gun and wrenched it upward. The masked man squeezed off a long burst that stitched a zig-zag of holes on the ceiling tile. He managed to clap me hard across the temple with the butt of the gun. I saw stars, but I didn’t let go, because that meant certain death. I am a big man, and he was as tall as me, but I had the weight and strength on him, and I used it now.

Driving him back, with all my weight, I kept him on his heels clear to the wall, keeping him off balance, using the weight of his gear against him. He grunted, probably hot and maybe a little tired inside that flak jacket and mask.Wisps of tear gas, though, were burning my eyes and making it hard to breathe.

I brought my knee up into his crotch, one, two, three times, and he started to buckle.

I finally managed to wrench the gun from his grasp and turn it on him. He put his hands up. I turned him around and gave him a quick frisk, which turned up a large hunting knife and a radio. Then I tore the gas mask off and turned him around. I recognized him immediately. It was Sergeant Palin, my red-headed escort from my first visit to the Compound.

I pointed towards the back room. “That way!” I needed to check on Hughes and Andrea, and taking Palin with me was the only way.

Hughes was in the corner, wheezing with his hands at his throat. Andrea had soaked a rag in water and was holding it up to his mouth. Palin’s partner lay on the floor, not moving. A pool of dark red soaking into the carpet around him said he probably wasn’t going to move any more.

“I shot him,” Andrea said quietly. “They lobbed one of those bang grenades and tear gas in through the window glass. There was a blast and then you couldn’t see anything. I got under the table and held my breath. When he came in he fired his gun, so I aimed at the muzzle flashes and fired. I—I got him in the throat.”

Hughes staggered to his feet and whipped out his handcuffs, and still wheezing, rammed Palin against the wall, and clamped them on him, tight. “You’re going to pay for this, you son of a bitch!” he hissed in Palin’s ear.

Palin sneered. “You think this is over, Hughes? Well, you’d better think again. This has just started! Give me Caldwell and let me walk out of here. No one has to die!”

“People have already died,” Andrea replied. “You people have a lot to answer for. And now we all know what Brad knows. What Fernando Mendoza knew. And now the whole world will know.”

“Then none of you will leave here alive! There’s a plan . . . this was just a smash and grab. The real assault is something you can’t even dream of!” Palin spat.

Garrett, Ira, Claire and Brad chose that moment to filter back inside through the shattered doorway.

“Longville bagged one alive, Sheriff,” Hughes announced.

“Good job, Deputy Longville,” Garrett commented with his usual steely cool.

“Andrea got one, too, Sheriff,” I said. “One dead, back there.”

Garrett let out a long low whistle. “Hughes, take this rat to his cage, please.”
 

Hughes shuffled Palin off towards a cell.
 

Garrett put a hand on Andrea’s shoulder. “You okay?”

She smiled her tough smile. “I’m just sorry that it wasn’t Cushman.”

“You’ll get your chance, if what Palin says is true,” I commented.

Garrett turned to face me. “What’s that?”

“As you were coming in, he mentioned some kind of assault plan.”

Garrett made a sour expression. “I’ve long suspected that they had some kind of plan in place. If I ever arrested Cushman, I knew that they’d be out here in force to get him back.”

“It might pay to know the details of such a plan,” I suggested.

Garrett nodded. “Well, we’ve crossed the Rubicon, now, for sure. Time’s wasting. Let’s talk to your playmate in there, and see what he knows about this so-called plan.”

Chapter 20

“Tell us about this invasion plan of yours, Palin.” Sheriff Garrett was sitting across from Palin, emotionless, looking sort of disinterested, like a man who had all the time in the world.
 

Palin shrugged. “Just wait a while, I’m sure you’ll see what it’s all about.” He tried to smile and act confident, but a fine layer of sweat had broken out on his forehead.

“You’re in deep shit,” Hughes said. I circled around behind Palin. That made him more nervous. He turned to look at me.

“You need to look at me, Palin,” Garrett said calmly.

“I’ve got five women over in the Fermosa, they say you’re part of a human trafficking set up.”

“You can’t hang that on me, Garrett. I had nothing to do with any of that.”

“Got to lay it on somebody,” Hughes said, looking at his fingertips. “Looks like Cushman wants that somebody to be
you
.”

“You guys know that was Kiker and his crew, not me.”

Garrett leaned back, looking like a reasonable type of guy. “I don’t know any such of a thing. But if you have some information, maybe you better fill us in on that, along with this invasion plan.”

Palin grimaced like his next words hurt him. “Okay, you sons of bitches. I know about the plan. I can fill you in on what’s coming. But what do I get if I tell you about it?”

“If you’re information’s good enough, I’ll make sure that you don’t get burned for what Cushman and Kiker had going. But for coming into my town and shooting up the place, there’s no bargaining. You better sing it fast, too, Palin. My time’s pretty short.”

Palin nodded morosely.
 

“Get him a pen and paper,” Garrett told Hughes.

In a few minutes, Palin had outlined what was coming. The plan was called Operation Jackknife and it was originally conceived as a plan to rescue for any important members of their group taken by Law Enforcement.

Once Palin started talking, the words poured out of him. He told us that Cushman had made the decision to put Jackknife into action after we rescued Brad. Not everyone had known about the human trafficking going on in the desert. Just a hand-picked few. All that had started after Tolbert’s death, after Cushman brought Kiker in.

The Redemption Army had been hurting for money in those days. Kiker had worn Cushman down to getting his feet wet in the darkest of trades. Kiker had argued that the compound’s location and secrecy made it the perfect cover for such activities. Cushman had finally given his go ahead for a one-time operation, bringing young women north from Sinaloa, and moving them on to Russian mobsters who came down from Los Angeles. The money had been enough that he’d plunged right in after that.

Kiker’s team kept the whole thing quiet, never letting word leak out to the faithful at the Compound. The web of secrecy began to unravel when Brad arrived. Cushman saw him as the heir apparent, and so, after a time, had decided to entrust him with his darkest secret. Conflicted, Brad had heard that Fernando Mendoza was in the area, digging for information of the Redemption Army. He had contacted the man, but somehow, Kiker had learned of the meeting. When Mendoza had learned too much, Kiker had taken him out.

Now, Cushman and Kiker were desperate to contain the truth about their human trafficking and the murders they had committed, even if that meant taking out the town of Delgado.

* * *

Half an hour later, Garrett had most of the townspeople of Delgado, along with the women we had freed from the Trafficker’s van, gathered in the street outside the battered Sheriff’s Office. Mayor Ferguson and several older people—probably the town counsel, I reasoned—stood at the front of the crowd, eager for news.

Mayor Ferguson stepped up to Brad. “Everyone in town knows what you did out there in the desert. You saved these women, and you’ve prevented Colonel Cushman and those animals that follow him from repeating this crime in the future. The people of Delgado are very grateful to you, Mr. Caldwell.”

“I’m sorry for all of this,” Brad said to the mayor. “The Redemption Army will come to Delgado in force now. They want me and these women back. I’m sure Cushman will do anything to make sure the truth doesn’t get out. Believe me, he is totally ruthless, and he has men who will obey any order he gives them, without question.”

“We’ll have to get ready for them. They’ll be coming back pretty quick with everything they’ve got,” Garrett said, and for the first time since I’d known him, I detected a note of worry in his voice. “That means that we’ll have to move most of the people out of town, so we’re asking you folks to move out of the city limits until this thing is over, or help arrives.”

“Why can’t we all just go to Van Horn?” Mayor Ferguson asked.

“Cushman will have the highway blocked, and anybody who goes up that road risks being taken prisoner or shot,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “What we do not have is a lot of time to talk about it.”

“But we can’t all just go sit in the desert. We would have to have some place to shelter, and there’s no place we can go!” a heavyset woman to the mayor’s right stated indignantly.
 

Ira Greywolf spoke up. “I know a place.”

The Mayor looked at him. “What do you know, Ira?”

“There’s an old mining station, but it’s way off the highway. No one goes out there. I got it fixed up, some. It’s where I go when I want to be alone. There’s shelter, and a spring out there. I can take you all there. Bring whatever you can carry, and make it quick.”

“Get them moving, Ira,” Garrett said. “Time’s wasting.”

A few minutes later, the main street of Delgado was the scene of a mass exodus.

Several school busses were lined up along the main drag. People of every age who didn’t want to be around when the shooting started queued up and boarded. It was obvious that for being a man regarded as the town drunk, Ira’s word carried a lot of weight. In thirty minutes, most of the population of the tiny town of Delgado was loaded and packed off towards Ira’s old mining camp.

That left Garrett, Hughes, Andrea, Brad, and me. It was a dedicated crew, people who knew what they were doing and believed in the fight they were about to engage in. For all that, though, we were precious few.

After a minute, Andrea looked up at Garrett. “So, do you have a plan for this, too? Your first one worked well enough.”

Garrett just shook his head. “Sorry to say, I don’t. I’m open to suggestions.”

“Cushman will come with plenty of weapons. What have you got here in town, Sheriff?”

“This way,” Garrett said quietly. He led us into the SO and opened a door. Then he ushered us into a room adjacent to the lobby. A large metal gun safe took up most of one wall. He produced a ring of keys and unlocked the safe, and nodded at the contents.

“Here’s what we have,” he announced. “Two law enforcement issue M-16A2s, two twelve gauge pump shotguns, and a few extra sidearms. We also have the three submachine guns we collected from Cushman’s people, but we don’t have ammunition for them. We should be able to arm everybody, some way. Also, we have enough radios for everybody. We can stay in contact through this thing.” He looked at me. “Do you have any ideas, Roland?”

 
“We know Cushman and his people have done lots of ‘Operations.’ We know that they’ve planned, and probably even simulated an attack on Delgado, so they have that advantage.” I pointed out. “They also have better weapons and more resources. We know they’ve had this planned for a very long time. So we’ve got to make this town ready for them. We don’t have much time, and everybody’s going to have to pitch in.”

Andrea winked at me and smiled. “Okay, Mr. Private Eye. Tell us what to do.”

Chapter 21

We crouched in a huddle like football players, and I quickly sketched out the best defense that I could put together in what little time I figured we had. With every second, I knew the Redemption Army, and potential death, was rushing ever closer, so I talked fast.

I referred to a map of Delgado I’d taken from the wall in the Sheriff’s Office as I spoke.

“Andrea will stay here in this warehouse with Brad. Sheriff Garrett will defend the main street, utilizing his previous route on the rooftops. Hughes, you’ll be here at the far end of town, I’ll be at the other end. We’ll keep in touch by radio, and use that as little as possible.”

“We should have code names for ourselves and the spots we’re in, so if Cushman’s people are listening in, they can’t tell our positions,” Ira suggested.

“Good idea,” Garrett agreed. “Any ideas?”