Chapter 42: The Five Make a Choice

Sunday August 17, 2008

Outside of Troma, Peru

When our chartered jet arrived in Peru from LA we transferred to a pair of the Patron’s Cessnas. (He used Cessna 208s, a popular single engine, high wing aircraft.) The charter jet could not land at Troma in the dark, but the Cessna pilot had been there and my troops set up some landing lights for a pre-dawn landing. An hour later we were on the ground at the Troma airstrip, parking next to the Hercules. Irene, Qwit, Chin and I had changed clothes in-flight. As soon as the plane was stopped all but Chin jumped into the waiting Hummer and drove to the house where things were well under way. We were briefed during the drive.

It was a short briefing, everything was on track. As expected, Saturday the Five’s girlfriends had left the house in a SUVs, leaving in mid-afternoon. The unidentified couple was with the Five in the house. Ten of their 12 guards were on site. Our spotters reported the other two guards spent the night in the Five’s cheap whorehouse in Salaverry, loudly claiming the best whores.

After their girlfriends left, the Five plus the unknown woman got out guitars, drums etc., making terrible a 6-piece band. They recorded the stupid “Pizarro” song they had written, tinkering with the arrangement and drinking heavily until about 2 in the morning. The guards were an enthusiastic audience, which proved they also had terminally terrible taste in music. At 2 they all went to bed. Two guards were posted like sentries.

Real sentries are not drunk and do not sleep. These did.

At 5 in the morning my Tribal scouts severed the phone line, the sat-phone jammer was turned on, the escape tunnel “bombs” were activated and the M-113 rumbled off the Hercules. In the dark about two dozen Colony troops rode to the house on the M-113 and the Hummer, which was carrying two recoilless rifles. Most were dressed as Peruvian elite military, any regular unit encountered would give way with no questions asked. A few wore windbreakers.

Also at 5, the two dozing sentries got a shot of curare. One was sleeping and the other was stroking one out with a Chinese porno mag when the needles went in. Sorry, we could not hold up the timeline for him to finish what he was doing while looking at a blond named Chin So Bin Bad.

Next, the Tribal advance troops flooded the barracks with military-grade sleeping gas from Panama, went in wearing gas masks, and gave the remaining guards some free drugs. For their own safety they were fitted with chains in their bunks.

My Colonial troops deployed on arrival, setting the scene with the M-113 on one side and the 2 recoilless rifles pointed at corners of the building. When the Hummer was unloaded it returned to the airstrip to wait for me (windbreaker), Irene (windbreaker) and Kwit (windbreaker). We now had control, but we wanted to announce our presence after sunrise, when it was easier to shoot anybody with less brains and anxious feet.

I arrived in the Hummer just before sunrise.

The house was brick and had no first floor window. Thomas had IR cameras mounted in trees around the house and had the combined feeds fed to a screen. It showed the 7 people sleeping in the house. Each was alone in a room except for the couple (the girl and one of the Five) on the third floor who shared a bed.

As the sun rose, two groups were in their staging positions in front of the house, looking very impressive.

On one side was the menacing armored box of the M-113, painted light blue with the letters “FBI,” surrounded by a half dozen men in blue windbreakers that said “FBI.” Most carried M4s. Irene looked like she was in charge.

On the other side men in Peruvian military uniforms, armed with P90s and Dragunovs (an obvious and nasty-looking sniper rifle), were behind cover with the pair of recoilless rifles (bunker busters) aimed at two corners of the house. The military uniforms indicated an elite (impossible to bribe) unit, the Presidential Guard. Captain Thomas wore the uniform of a Major and appeared to be in charge. They had a loudspeaker system mounted on the Hummer.

As the sun cleared the horizon, Thomas used the loudspeaker to play “Reveille,” then called to the house, saying he had a warrant to search the house and ordering all occupants outside.

On the IR screens we saw all the people in the house moved out of beds and took quick looks out the windows. They saw death. When they were close to the windows Thomas announced that the escape tunnels were rigged with explosives, and he had a warrant to search the house for “a terrorist bomber, a Chinese national, wanted for murder of a US Judge.”

The people inside scattered to their rooms, then gathered in a second floor room as Thomas repeated his order to exit the house. IR is fuzzy, perhaps one person went into the escape tunnel, saw the “bomb” and returned to the group like his pants were on fire. After 5 minutes Thomas upped the ante by saying they must all exit the house, or his men had orders “from the highest level” to bring the house down and try to ID the bodies after. “Please, if you do not come out, have your ID on your person for identification and disposal of the bodies. Your men have already been detained for their own safety.”

After a few minutes one person came out. It was the unidentified male, he was holding up a white handkerchief as a flag, and was wearing a suit coat over his pajamas. He looked the troops over as he walked toward Thomas. This was the first time he was aware of the helicopters overhead, the Huey could be private but the two-rotor Chinook was strictly military (he thought) and it said this was serious business.

Thomas told him to stop and identify himself.

“I am Iker Gold of the law firm of Chavez and Gold in Lima and Moyobamba. As the lawyer for some of the people in the house I would like to see your warrant.”

Well, that explained who tried to call my office some time ago, after Grisha gave the Five my card.

Thomas gave him a copy of the warrant. It stated that the FBI was to search the house “for the known terrorist and explosive expert ... after it was rendered safe for their entry” by the military. A picture of an Oriental male was attached. If the house was not vacated and rendered safe for the FBI, “it was to be destroyed.” The signature was an extremely good facsimile of a Peruvian supreme court justice.