Chapter 4: Los Diablos

I had a busy day planned with both the coffee harvest and filling the new contract for the company out of Miami, but I decided that when I finished for the day, I would go visit her at the hospital. I told my housekeeper to tell my yard man to cut some of the long stem roses from the garden and arrange them in a nice vase.

Let’s pause for a minute. Housekeeper, cook, yardman and a farm manager, you are asking yourselves? I am not rich by American standards, but I live like a king here in Panama. This 500 acre farm is my kingdom and supplies me with enough money that I am able to live very comfortably without having to do much physical labor at all. I love my life! Now back to the story.

At around 5pm I took the vase of flowers and drove down to the hospital in Rio Sereno. I parked near the front door and went inside. At the reception station in the lobby I asked the location of Captain Aguilar’s room. I was directed to go through the double doors on the left and to walk down a long hall, take a right at the end and her room was the one with the guard sitting at the door. It would be up to him if I was allowed to see her.

This hospital is all on one level and has been added on to so many times that it is like a maze. I made my way to where I thought I should be, but instead of a guard I found an empty chair. I decided not to waste time waiting on some guy to come back from supper and opened the door and went inside.

There on the bed was Maria. She had some type of drain tube in her nose and another in her side. Her arm had an IV in it that was connected to two different bags. She did not look good at all.

I startled two people when I went in. One was a Doctora (female doctor). She was bending over Maria, checking the catheter tube. She straightened up and looked at me. ‘Dra. Theresa Rivera’, was written on her white coat. The other person quickly moved to cover Maria with a sheet.

“I told the guard not to let anyone in until I was finished.”

“There was no guard. I apologize, I’ll wait...”

I had no more than gotten those words out of my mouth when we heard shouts from the front of the hospital, followed by two gunshots. I sat the vase of flowers on the table by the bed.

“That is the Diablos coming to finish the job. We need to get her out of here and fast.” The Doctora did not question me. She took charge. “Move that wheelchair over next to the bed. Now help me get her into it.”

With the help of this other woman, we sat a drugged Maria in the chair. I looked out the door. The hallway was empty, but I could hear people shouting, then another couple of gunshots. I pushed the wheelchair out into the hall with this other woman pushing a stand with the IV’s. the bag attached to the catheter was in Maria’s lap. The Doctora was leading the way through this maze until she pushed open doors that said, ‘Authorized Personnel Only’. We were in the Emergency Room!

I screamed, “Where the hell are we going?”

“We need to get away from this hospital and I plan on taking the ambulance! It’s parked out back.”

We made our way through an abandoned ER and out onto the porch where the ambulance was parked.

“The keys should be over the visor.”

After Maria was loaded into the ambulance, I started it up and drove out the back lot into the subdivision behind the hospital. Never having been back here, but figuring it was laid out in a rectangle shape I made a couple of turns and found myself on the main road out of town. Without using the red lights or the siren I hauled ass to my farm.

At the cutoff I slowed down and eased towards the bridge over the gorge. I told my gate guards to close the gate and follow me to the other side. There I slowly drove up to my house. Esmaralda, my housekeeper, met us on the front porch. After I helped carry the gurney that Maria was into the house, I introduce the Doctora to Esmaralda.

“Do whatever she tells you. Doctora, I need to go prepare for visitors...” She cut me off.

“Go do what you have to do. I’ll take care of Maria.”

I ran to Jose’s house and told him I needed all my gate guards to meet me on this side of the bridge. They all carry AK-47’s and are trained to use them. Then I went to my ‘magazine’.

There I picked up a roll of detcord, a couple of blasting caps and a C-4 brick. I had bought these items with the idea of blasting a stairway down to the river. There are some nice size trout in that river and I was thinking about trying my luck at fly fishing. But that would have to wait.

I put all my guards in positions on my side of the gorge, all the while hoping there would be no firefight. Then I went to work on setting the charges on the bridge cables.

Now all I had to do was wait.

We waited all night.

It was right after dawn that they came.

Permit me another pause.

Question: Do you know why General Santa Ana only brought 5,000 men to fight at the Alamo?

Answer: He only had 100 pick-up trucks!

Okay, maybe you need to live close to the southern border of the United States to appreciate that joke. Later you will understand. Back to the story.

Three vehicles approached the bridge. There was a black SUV with two guards standing on running boards on each side, all holding automatic weapons. It was followed by two Toyota pick-up trucks. Each truck had two men on each side standing on the running boards. All were armed like the men on the SUV. Through the windshields I could see two sitting next to the drivers. In the beds of the trucks stood armed men packed so tight they looked like sardines in a can. Their AK-47’s all pointed upward.

The passenger door of the SUV opened, and a man exited. He looked around then made big arm signals to the other trucks. One pulled ahead of the SUV onto the bridge and slowly started inching its way across. The man re-entered the SUV and it followed the first truck onto the bridge. They were about half-way across and the other truck had not started onto the bridge. The SUV stopped and the passenger side window was lowered, an arm appeared and angrily waved the last truck to come onto the bridge.