Chapter 36

The fact that Tiago ‘Teeny’ Delgado hadn’t tried to retaliate when he lost eight more of his men, was not a good sign. He had avoided overreacting. He showed surprising maturity by being so patient. Claire wondered if his monstrous size factored into it. He was so huge, so ungainly, that he moved slowly, ponderously.

Martin told the Stillmans, “I don’t like it, not at all. We’ve been ready for a firefight — he’s planning something else.”

Delgado’s problems were twofold. Four Corners was over 12,000 acres and the commercial corridor was populated by over a thousand people at any one time. Second, he had no way of knowing what kind of forces Claire had to back her. Obviously, her regular security team hadn’t had the capability to take out his own guards.

Martin’s Army buddies couldn’t stay at Four Corners indefinitely, so they worked out a rotation. Four of them at a time would go back to their normal lives for two weeks at a time. It wasn’t ideal, but was simply the best that could be worked out.

At the same time, Martin and Luke were working the phones, contacting additional men that they had served with in the Middle East. The more that would agree to a Four Corners tour of duty, the better.

Martin still had eyes on Delgado’s compound. Teeny’s two-man teams had been replaced with threes. And they would be more alert than ever to another snatch-and-grab operation. In fact, Martin told Luke, “It’s probably a trap; he’s planning to ambush us if we raid again.”

Martin’s teams could do four drive-by shooting simultaneously, but he and Luke didn’t want to gun down 12 men. Too splashy, too much attention.

So, the waiting game.