Chapter 54

Moments later there was a loud roar of an engine and the screeching sound of metal scraping against rock. From the appearance of headlights coming down the path Mike could tell someone was sacrificing their pickup truck to try to save Longbow’s life. The truck had barely come to a stop when all the men it could carry jumped out of the back, each carrying a hastily grabbed tool. The first men to arrive at the entrance to the mine immediately began moving the larger rocks out of the way, giving room for those with shovels to begin to work at removing the loose dirt and debris from beneath Jason’s leg. Unfortunately, their efforts were for naught, as a large rock had at least one leg pinned.

Soon, another wave of men arrived, running down the path. One of the last to arrive was carrying a ‘spud bar.’

Note: A spud bar is a six-foot piece of rounded forged steel, one inch in diameter, with a spike or a small, chisel shaped blade at one end, and a round or mushroom shaped area on the other end. The bar is primarily used in setting fence posts.

With fierce determination the guy said, “Let me get in there.”

Mike replied, “Ox, you can’t use that to dig out his leg. It would rip it to shreds.”

The one called ‘Ox’ said, “I’m not going to dig him out; I’m going to use this to get some of the weight off his leg.”

As the men moved aside ‘Ox’ came closer and shone a large Maglite into the area. He studied the situation for a moment and then handed the light to one of the men standing there. “How much time do we have?” he asked.

Mike replied, “I don’t know what Longbow used as a timer, but I’m guessing we have ten minutes ... fifteen at the most.”

“Then guys, we’ve got one shot. Ben, you keep the light on that spot. Mike, I’ll need you to get ready to place a large rock under this spike, as close to Longbow’s leg as possible. Aaron, find me something to use like a big hammer to pound this thing. When I start pushing on this I need one man with a shovel to help clear underneath the leg, and I need two to try to pull him free. Any questions?”

Mike responded, “Ox, you’re the man with the plan. Let’s just get this done, or we’ll all be buried here. Also, some of you who aren’t helping, get your weapons and stand guard while the rest of you head back to the pickups. When we get him free we’re going to have to scram in a hurry.”

At the top of the cliff a sleepy Eduardo Vasquez looked out of his bedroom, trying to discover the source of the noise that woke him up. He first looked at the young woman lying in his bed, but she was too doped up to have made the noise, much less to have even heard anything. As he slowly walked around the room he glanced out the window and saw lights at the base of the cliff base.

Sensing danger, the drug lord ran for his bedroom door, flung it open, and ran into the hall yelling, “Lopez! Lopez!”

A sleepy looking man came out of a room down the hall, and answered, “Si, Patrón?”

“There’s something going on at the base of the cliff. Grab some men and check it out!”

A suddenly much more alert Lopez answered, “Si, Patrón!” With that done, Vazquez’s curiosity got to him, and he returned to his bedroom to observe the activity below.

‘Ox’ carefully moved the chisel end of the spud bar into the hole and tried to find a place where he could work the wedge under the rock without destroying Longbow’s leg. He owed this man a lot, and he knew if this attempt didn’t work he’d still be trying until the end. At first he hit nothing but the rock, but suddenly he hit a spot of dirt and small pebbles. He said, “Aaron! Start to slowly drive the spike into this loose stuff.”

Taking a six-pound sledge someone had been carrying, Aaron tapped the spike. It moved two inches further under the large rock. A second tap moved it even deeper. Mike was encouraged, as it was now obvious the tool wasn’t mangling Jason’s leg. A third tap and the spud bar was a good eight to ten inches under the rock, though it was to one side of the rock and not in the middle.

“Mike, I’m ready for that rock. Set it under the bar. I once heard in school a man somewhere said, ‘give me a fulcrum and a place to set it, and I can move the world.’ Right now I’m going to test that statement.” As soon as the rock from Mike was in position to give Ox leverage the big man slowly began to push downward. The muscles in his arms began to bulge and soon his veins began to protrude in his arms, neck, and forehead. Suddenly there was a groan coming from the rocks and the men holding Jason began to exert more effort to pull him from the trap. The pain must have been excruciating because it brought Jason temporarily back to consciousness with a loud scream. Then, in the middle of the scream, the rock slid to the side and the men pulling on Jason fell backwards as his leg was suddenly freed.

Mike yelled, “Get him in the truck bed, and let’s get the hell out of here.” Moments later the truck and the remainder of the men began the difficult process of negotiating the cart path in reverse. This process became even more difficult when the truck’s headlights picked up the approaching ATV’s carrying some of Vasquez’s men.

Eduardo looked down and saw his men weren’t going to arrive before the men who disturbed his sleep would escape. Well, there were other ways to find out what was going on. He threw on his pants, grabbed an AK47 from his armory, and headed out the door. That cart path only led to one place, the quarry, and the only exit from the quarry led right past the entrance of his driveway. Running to his ‘monster’ pickup he yelled for some of his guards to jump into the back.

Luckily, the owner of the pickup truck carrying Jason had installed a big roll bar, and in addition to the usual set of halogen lights lighting the area in front of the truck he’d added two smaller lights facing the rear. Thus, the driver had almost daylight vision in that narrow area, and typical of most people who live in the country he was pretty good at driving in reverse. As a result the truck actually did better getting out, than it had getting to the mine the first time.

As soon as the truck cleared the opening to the cart path the driver did a ‘bootlegger’s turn’ in reverse. Now moving forward they merged with the other pickups and headed down back to the waiting container trucks. They were approaching a road to the right when all hell broke loose. Knowing the powder had just exploded the lead driver floored it, and the other trucks followed his example. It was a rough ride for a few moments, but they made it out and soon joined up with the container trucks.

Eduardo and six of his men started down the winding drive to the road below. About a hundred yards from the house there was a deep roar. Suddenly the road became a wild bronc tossing the pickup all over the place. Still moving forward the right front wheel left the road, causing the truck to jerk to the right and start its fatal journey down the steep bank.

Twenty yards down the bank the truck began to flip end over end, and it continued tumbling in this manner the rest of the way down the hill. The men in the back were all crushed to death by the initial flip. A barely alive but unconscious Eduardo was pinned inside the flattened cab. His body was badly broken and his face was a bloody pulp. The only reasons he survived were his seat belt, the air bag, and the fact it was a diesel truck, which was why the fuel didn’t immediately start a fire.

At the container trucks Mike quickly got things organized and had Longbow carefully transferred to Mike’s personal truck. The men who moved Jason were careful and tried to make their boss as comfortable as possible. Unsure what to do next Mike called Brian Two Feathers. “Two,” Brian answered.

“This is Mike. Team One’s mission is complete, but Longbow’s hurt and needs immediate medical attention.”

“Mike, we’ve freed the women and are taking them to a chartered aircraft at the Ensenada Airport. Longbow advised me an emergency medical team would be on-board. I’ve also got several trucks we need to add to those you have.”

“How do you know what I have?” asked Mike.

“Mike, we helped load some of your shipment, and we’re not stupid. What we don’t know is the destination of your trucks.”

Suspicious of Brian’s request, Mike responded, “Let’s get closer to Ensenada and work this out. I’ll try to find a place for us to meet.”

“Good, call me as soon as you can, as we’re pulling out as we speak, and Ensenada is only about forty minutes from our present location.”

Mike gave instructions to Larry, Team One’s leader, and accelerated down the highway. The container trucks and other pickups would follow, but at a slower speed. Two miles down the road he pulled onto Highway 10 just north of Rosarito and headed south.

A little past Rosarito he was able to enter the much smoother and faster Highway 1D. He paid his toll at the tollbooth and headed south. A short distance past the tollbooth he accelerated. He was careful for the sake of the men in the back of the truck, but he was still doing about 80 mph until he saw the signs pointing to El Sauzai. He slowed down to normal speed, passed though the final tollbooth, and then merged back onto Highway 10. He could see he was already entering the outskirts of Ensenada.

A couple of miles further he saw a large open paved area. It appeared to be an overflow parking lot for the warehouses next door. There were no signs of anyone in the area. Deciding this would be a perfect meeting place Mike called Brian. “Two,” Brian answered.

“This is Mike. I’ve a spot, but I need to know what’s going on?”

“Mike, are you sure it’s safe to discuss this with cell phones?”

“Brian, these are fully encrypted satellite phones. No one should be able to intercept the calls, and they’d only hear ‘gobbledy-goop’ if they did. Now, I need to make some decisions regarding Longbow, and I need to make them quick!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that, as I was hoping to share the news with him. I guess with him down you’re now in charge.”

“At least for the moment,” Mike responded. “Right now, I just want to get him to a place of safety, and where he can be treated. I know he’s a tough ol’ bird, but he’s still close to sixty.”

A contrite Brian responded, “I guess he is, though it’s hard to realize that fact when he’s throwing you to the ground or teaching you how to rappel walls. Anyway, in addition to two large containers of women, we’ve four of the smaller containers full of bales of money.”

Mike’s first concern was the women, so he asked, “How are the women doing? Are they getting air?”

“Yes, we wedged the doors partially open to allow them to have plenty of air, and we’ve tried to drive slow enough to prevent them from being tossed around back there. I also saw each one had a bottle of water before she entered the container.”

Pleased at Brian’s thoughts Mike replied, “Good Job! Now, what was the other thing you were trying to tell me? It almost sounded like you said something about bales of money.”

“That’s what I did say. I’ve bundles of twenty, fifty and hundred dollar bills that are the size of a bale of cotton, and there are enough bales to fill four of the smaller containers. The total has to run into the tens of millions.”

“Damn! I agree you couldn’t leave the money. Unfortunately, the group at the farm will pursue us a lot more for that, than they would for the women.”

“Don’t worry about the men at the farm. They were partying when we left, though I seriously doubt if any of them will survive the party.”

“Why’s that?”

“While they were all asleep we dumped four kilos of uncut cocaine into the farm’s air-conditioning system. I seriously doubt anyone in the building will ever wake up. As for the guards, they’re all now fertilizing a newly plowed field.”

“And the cocaine?” asked Mike.

“The remaining bags were all cut and the ‘shit’ was poured into mud holes. Someone might be able to salvage the drugs, but I doubt it. I thought about just burying it, but I wanted the authorities to find enough evidence to give Vasquez a hard time.”

“Excellent job, Brian. Now, about two miles past the final tollbooth and a half-mile past the merger back into Highway Ten there’s a large paved area on the right. The area is behind a freight terminal, but there are no signs of any recent activity. Have the trucks with the bales of money meet the other trucks there and send the ones with the women, to the airport. I’m heading there now with Longbow. After you meet up with Reid assist him until the containers are all loaded on the ship, and then start making your way back into the states. Remember, make sure all weapons and ammunition are eliminated as soon as the containers are loaded.”

“How are we going to handle the fact we’ve four more containers than we were scheduled to have?”

Mike responded, “I’ll make a call and pass that problem onto someone else. Oh, and I’m leaving Reid in charge, as I’m going to travel back to the states with Longbow.”

“That makes sense. By the way, we’re already on the toll road, so hopefully it won’t be long before we get to Ensenada.”

“Great, I’ll advise Reid of your situation. I’ll call him and my contact regarding the shipping changes while I’m on the way to the airport.”

Mike terminated the call and dialed Larry Reid, the leader of Team One. “One,” Larry answered.

“Larry, this is Mike. What’s your ‘twenty’?”

“We’re approaching the tollbooth at El Sauzal.”

“Great, you’re only a couple of miles behind me. After you merge with Highway Ten go about a half-mile and you’ll see a large paved area on your right. I’ll wait here until you see me. Pull in here and wait for Team Two and those helping them. They’ll have two trucks to take with you to the docks, and the rest of their trucks will meet me at the airport.”

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Mike Lowe aka The Scot

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