The Independents (3 page)

In his
deepest
growl,
Bisho
p
repeated the Colonel
’s briefing that day.
“If you ladies have had your fill of the free coffee and doughnuts, take a seat and listen up. We
’ve
been given a new assignment
,
and I want to make this perfectly clear – this is a
deluxe shit sandwich on toast.
M
anagement has contracted with the government
of
Paraguay
to explore a remote region for natural gas. This job might as well be on the moon as far as we are concerned. The site is so isolated from any civilization or infrastructure we
’re
going to have to build everything up from scratch. In addition, my sources at the Department of State tell me this region is hot
,
very hot
.
”
 

Bishop scowled
and lowered the volume of his voice, barely keeping a straight face as Terri squared her shoulders and tried to look like a soldier.
He somehow managed to continue.
“
The borders have been in dispute for over 200 years. There is practically no government presence
,
and tribal conflicts have raged back and forth
for decades
. Due to the remote nature
of the area, DEA
informs us
that sever
al well-established Columbian based cartels
use th
is
strip of land both for
recruiting
additional
‘
entrepreneurs
’
as well as
the
movement
of certain cash crops.
They
are actually some of the
nicer of the region’s business
men.
HBR is going to have to build a small city on the site, and our job is to be the new sheriff in town.
There will eve
ntually be over 200 HBR personnel
on location along with tens of millions of dollars of equipment.
Let
me
make this perfectly clear to all of you. The criminal element operating in th
e
a
rea has already sent numerous messages to HBR’s executives. We, gentlemen, are going to be like a rash in a whorehouse – unwelcome and bad for business.
”

Terri snapped to full attention and barked, “Sir
,
I
am
a rash.
Sir!”

Both Bishop and Terri
laughed out loud
,
and then he continued.
“
And so the briefing continued for another two hours.
Satellite images, topographical maps
,
and every possible piece of intelligence was distributed and covered.
I was scared shitless.”

Terri moved
to an old chair next to the wall and sat down
to improve her view of Bishop’s work. She propped
her chin on her hand
, making it
clear she wanted to hear the rest of the story.

Bishop started to wave he
r off, but she wouldn’t have it.
“Bishop, you’ve never
told me
much about your work.
I still haven’t heard about this Moss-whoever-he-was guy.
G
o ahead…please.”

Terri’s tone indicated she would not be easily dismissed today.
Bishop cleared his throat and resumed working on
his gear. He had that “far off look” in his eyes that let Terri know his mind was wrapped up tight in the vivid memory of long ago. Bishop was silent for a minute more a
s he gathered his thoughts
.
“
In less than a week,
we
were
on a helicopter flying over dense jungle
.
Pressure was high to
get down there
quickly.
Those
first
few days
are
a blur to me now. Packing gear, requisitioning
supplies
, arranging transport…god…it all flew by so quickly. I didn’t get any sleep at all. Anyway, we were on our way to the
site
-
Pe
g
One
was what someone had named it.
I’ll never forget
that cool
wind from the open side
of that
old H1 Huey bl
owing
through the cabin
.
We
arrived at the hottest time of the year
,
and that breeze blowing through was more than welcome
.
There were
five
of us in the lead chopper:
Elvis, Reaper,
Carlos,
myself and Mr. Franklin P. Mossback.”

Terri interrupted him.
“Elvis? Reaper?
Carlos?
Sounds like a rock n’ roll
band
reunion
.
”

Bishop laug
hed again and shook his head.
“All of the security guys use
d
code names. Kidnapping was big business in a lot of the places we operated.
We assumed
t
he bad guys had radios
and
could listen in on us at any time.
We were cautioned against using our given names. The fear was that if the local criminal element knew our identities, they might
leverage
that information
against us somehow
,
I guess. In reality, using code names
made things
simpler
.
You see, w
e didn’t have permanent teams;
everyone switched around
on
different assignments. It was hard enough to memorize everyone’s
specialties
, let alone their
real
names.
Besides, being called Reaper sounded way more macho than Franklin.
”

Terri thought about that for a minu
te while Bishop critically examined
his rifle rack
. He seemed to be having trouble picking the right gun to take with him
. He finally selected
one
and immediate
ly checked to see if it were
loaded.
He
moved
quickly
back
to the bench, picked up a small pouch of tools and began cleaning
the
weapon
.

Terri
prompted him to continue the mission’s account.
“Bishop, what was your code
name?”

He
showed
her
a completely deadpan face
and responded
, “
Why,
Studly Hungwell
,
of course
.”

His unexpected interjection of humor caught her off guard.
Terri started laughing immediately and
finally
covered
her mouth in an atte
mpt to stifle the urge to giggle some more
.
She might have been able to gain co
ntrol of herself more quickly, but
Bishop faked
an injured look before asking
,
“Is that
really
so hard to bel
ieve? I don’t get it. What’s so funny
?”

She shook her head
,
trying to regain her composure
,
a snicker
breaking
out
again
every time she tried to talk.
Tiny
tears had collected in the corners of her eyes, threatening to stream down her cheeks, when she managed to clear her throat
and
weakly
reply
, “Sorry,
baby. A
nd no, that’s not why I was laughing.”

Bishop
had
turned away from
her,
pretending to be
busy, but she could see his shoulders
moving
up and down
as he tried to keep a straight face
.
When he finally turned back to her, his
own
eyes were watering
. As
he rubbed them, he
sniffed
.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
To answer your question,
I didn’t use a code name
.
I just went by Bishop.”

Terri pursued
the subject
a bit
and asked, “What was Franklin’s code name?”

Bishop motioned for Terri to come closer as if he were going to whisper a state secret. His eyes narrowed
,
and his voice was serious.
“I told him he had to go as Studl
y’s brother – Hardly Hungwell.”

As soon as Bishop’s words registered, Terri realized she had been taken in
again
. She gave him a good-natured jab in the arm
,
and soon they were both
laughing so hard they couldn’t talk for several minutes. Bishop
couldn’t remember the last time he
had a good laugh
.
He decided it was a good thing he had the workbench to lean on. His side was beginning to ache, and Terri was glad she was already seated
.
Bishop finally got his
land legs,
moved
close
r
to
his bride,
and took a knee. They exchanged a
quick
kiss and Bishop
said, “I needed a good laugh. Thanks for listening
,
babe.”

“Oh, no you don’t
,
Bishop!
You
’re
going to finish this
story,” she playfully demanded, pointing her finger at him. “
You are
not
going to leave a girl hanging
,
Mr. Hungwell
.”

Bishop returned to c
leaning his rifle and resumed his story
.
“Elvis and Rea
p
er were part of my security team.
Both
were veterans of Iraq
and
Afghanistan
. I kne
w they had a lot more experience than I did
,
and
it showed.
T
hey
always seem
ed
to walk around with
that odd mix of
boredom
and pent up anticipation.
I think
the Colonel
assigned them to the job just in case I messed up badly.
Now
Carlos
,
I had just met. He
was
our
translator
.”

Bishop paused, but Terri
made a rolling motion with her hand –
go on
.

“
The fifth passenger that day was
my biggest worry. Mr. Mossback was a
company geologist
and
clearly not cut out for
th
e
assignment
. Business
at HBR was good
at the time,
and that
meant
human
resources were stretched
pretty
thin.
Apparently, all of the geologists with field experience were on other assignments.
While
no one
ever
briefed
me
on Mr. Mossback’s history,
I think it’s a pretty good guess
this was
his
first
time away from his corner office.
”

Bishop stopped talking as he snapped the final component of the rifle back together and worked the action several times
.

Terri watched him and then
tilted
her head
to one side.
“Bishop, don’t you always clean you
r
rifles
before
you put them in the rack?”

“
Yup
.”

“Well,
then
why did you just clean that one again?
Are you
o
kay?”
Even though she tried to hide it, the genuine concern in her words
betrayed her uneasiness.