Chapter 22

Zeus

"Well, you've really bought yourself a boat load of trouble, this time," Master Chief Martinez said in my head.

I think she'll be fine. You know, I did it on purpose. I think she'll be more effective as a decoy if she's got something to prove.

"Maybe. But you might wind up paying more of a price than one little decoy-mission is worth."

Done is done. We'll have to see how it works out, I answered back.

I easily caught up with Arti, but neither of us said anything. So we marched the mile to a grove of stunted, desert trees that had a view of the building. It was a low adobe cabin, one window on the left side of the door, a tin roof that was extended to give a bit of shade to a front porch area. There was a beat up looking SUV-type vehicle on the right. No sign of a tomato delivery truck anywhere.

We settled in, two clumps of desert soil in the mottled shade of a tree.

I clicked on the satellite link that would enable our ITEs to talk to Io, and then activated the ITE.

"Io, are you there?"

There was a brief delay as the signal bounced off the satellite. "I am here, Zeus," she replied.

"We're at the GPS coordinates, but there's no sign of any tomato truck."

"That is right. The truck unloaded three bodies last night and then turned back. There were two men who stayed behind."

"Bodies?" I asked, before Martinez could scream it into my head.

"Yes, they were unconscious. There were IV bottles attached to each of them."

"Thanks, Io."

I was about to cut the satellite connection, when Arti spoke up.

"Io, I'm having a little trouble with my memory. Who was it who got the drop on the assassin from 5225, and then dragged Zeus back to the car? Was that me or Sonny?" she asked, icicles in her voice.

"Surely you remember that was you, Arti? Why?" answered our computer friend.

"Okay. Thanks partner. You make a good team member, Io," she said.

I waited another thirty seconds and then clicked off the satellite connection.

"You better fix this. I like Arti," said Martinez.

So do I, Master Chief, so do I, I thought back at him.

"You got a damn queer way of showing it. You wouldn't pull that shit on me."

"Listen, Arti, I'm sorry. I just..." I began, aloud.

"Voice travels far in the desert," she whispered in a harsh tone. "Shh."

"It ain't gonna be easy," said my MCPO.

Artemis

The sun sets quickly in the desert. One minute it's up and there's light all around. The next minute it's dark.

I gathered my spotting equipment and the infrared monocular and stood up.

"Where are you going?" whispered Zeus.

"The infrared only works at two hundred yards, maximum. I want to see who and how many are inside that building," I answered.

"Okay."

He gathered up his rifle and followed me down a little gully toward the cabin. I stopped every few yards and looked through the monocular. Who knew how far two hundred yards was to a building you could barely see in the starlight. The moon wasn't up yet.

Finally I could see forms inside through the walls. I moved a few dozen yards closer and picked out a good spot for Zeus to set up. I broke out the spotting equipment, flopped to the ground, and was still, waiting for him.

I sighted in on the front door and read him the parameters just as he was almost dug in.

"Did you say 175 to the front door?" he said, turning some dials.

I turned my head to look at him. "Do you want them all again? ... No wind, distance to the front door is 175, lat is..."

"No, I got 'em ... thanks. And I'm sorry about before," he whispered.

"Not now," I cut him off again. "It's mission time."

I began to take off my ghillie suit, and got out my knife to cut up my regular clothes. I'd be better 'honey' for the flies if I was wearing something besides combat gear. Zeus had reached into one of the cargo pockets of his pants and threw me some of my own clothes.

They were a pair of my shortest cutoff shorts – real Daisy Duke style – and one of my new yellow cropped t-shirts.

I looked at them and considered the forethought that must have gone into getting them. "You're a real asshole, you know that?" I snarled at him.

"Yes. I'm beginning to get that message."

"Beginning? I guess I haven't been clear enough," I nearly snarled at him.

"I said I was sor..."

"Shh!"

I stripped down to my panties, put on the Daisy Dukes, and then realized that the French-cut panties I had on would show above the jean shorts. I reversed course and stripped all the way. I shucked the long sleeved shirt, and then put on the shorts and the t-shirt.

Starting to smear dirt on myself, I whispered to Zeus, quiet and machine-gun fast, "Did I always do what was needed? Didn't I do that even though I was scared shitless? Did I even complain about it? Didn't I tell you back in Austin that I'd do whatever it took, even if I wound up getting killed?" I paused, and looked at him in the gloom. "Well?" I hissed.

"Yes, you always did. I fucked up ... Now we have this mission to take care of," he answered.

He began to toss water on me from his canteen, and then fistfuls of dirt. "The dirt'll stick better."

I got up, now dirty and dusty, and went to put my Glock in the waistband of my shorts, in the back. "Use this," he said. He tossed me his backup gun ... somewhat smaller than mine, with a suppressor it was somewhat longer. "Tuck this in your pocket." He tossed me an extra clip.

"I'll take the guy nearest the door, then come back for the other one – if there are two," he said.

"There will be two. I'll get both of them outside. That's got to be easier than trying to get one at a time," I replied.

"I figure you go..."

"I got it," I cut him off again, while I was unlacing my boots and taking off my socks. A little water and some dirt and I figured the 'honey' was dirty and bedraggled enough.

One last look through the monocular and I set off toward the front door. I hoped the asshole remembered to turn on the night vision in his scope.

Twenty yards from the front door, I made a right turn and moved well out of Zeus' line of fire. My heel didn't make much of a dent in the hard pack of the desert floor, but I'd scraped enough to make a little hidey spot for the Glock. Two handfuls of dirt covered it up enough. Not that they'd be looking at that, I hoped. They'd never see it.

Adopting the tiredest pose I could think of, I shouted feebly at the door. "O-la, O-LA inside the hacy-en-da." Fortunately, I could remember the pigeon Mexican that most Texas red-necks sounded like. I was perfectly fluent in Mexi-Spanish, but this wasn't the time. "O-LA!"

The door opened and one bad guy stepped out. "Do you ... avay vou agua? My boyfriend broke his leg..." I pointed to my leg and mimed a limp. "Do you have ... habes telephono?"

He turned his head a little, and spoke over his shoulder to bad guy #2, in fast Spanish, "Hey Pepe. We got us a little white whore. Now we can have her for desert, and not bother the little girls. She wants to know if we have any water."

"Yes. Si, si," I said. "Agua! Please."

He was beginning to walk toward me, to see me better in the starlight. One small sideways step put my bare foot on top of the Glock. I started another step and seemed to crumple to the ground as I feigned a twisted ankle. The ITE that was hidden by my hair had been on the whole time, and was relayed up to the satellite and down to Zeus. "Now," I said softly. "OW!" I said loudly.

<Pop><Pop><Pop>

I heard the three shot cluster from Zeus' rifle, but I didn't look. I was busy with the Glock I recovered from the ground. I fired twice myself, the suppressed sound making a discrete pair of coughs.

<Pfft> <Pfft>

The first round hit him in the belly, and as the gun kicked up from the shot, the second went into his neck.

Zeus' fourth round spun him around and he fell face down in the dust.

"Anything moving inside?" I asked Zeus quietly.

"Just a lump where the three girls are, probably," he answered.

With my Glock still in my hand, I went over to the guy on the ground, and turned him over. He'd have been good looking, except for the large exit hole in the back of his head, near the bottom. The guy near the door had two nice holes, one on the bridge of his nose and one in the middle of his chest. There seemed to be three holes lodged in the splintered door frame.

I looked inside the cabin and saw three naked little girls lined up like cordwood.

Zeus said, over the ITE headset, "You did good, Arti. It was your first time killing anybody, and you'll probably feel some adrenaline let down. But you did real good."

I began to crumple to the ground – this time for real. My head hung between my knees and I said, in a suddenly very tired voice. "Hey, asshole. I think you missed with one of your shots."

Then I shut my eyes and began to cry.

Zeus seemed to take a long time coming in, and I could hear him dragging the bodies off to the side of the cabin. I stopped crying after a while, but my chest hurt even more than before.

The front room had a cooking area, a dry sink, and a table barely big enough for two. Right now, it held a radio, which crackled to life.

In poor Spanish, heavily accented, it said, "Hello. This is Night Bird. We should be at your location in fifteen minutes. Will make a pass to make sure everything is all right."

"ZEUS!" I shouted through the open door.

"I heard it," he answered from just outside. "Looks like we got some more hunting to do tonight. You got ten minutes to get your ghillie suit back on."

Ignoring the pain that made every movement of my upper body scream, I went outside and just put the suit on, on top of my 'honey' getup. Zeus went inside, grabbed the mic and held the transmit button.

"Si," was all he said into the mic.

He went over and checked the girls. They were stripped bare, as if they were going on display. Hell. They were going on display, for Señior Puerco. He covered them with a coarse blanket.

Clicking on the satellite link, he said, "Io. We're going to have incoming traffic. Please advise what you see."

Io came online with the expected satellite delay, "Single plane about ten miles out from your position. It's south-southeast of you..." There was a pause of about five seconds. "Judging from its speed, I'd say it was a jet."

"Crap," said Zeus. "I can't fly a jet."

I thought you said it was going to be a Beechcraft prop job, I thought to Martinez.

That's what I saw, he answered.

"Wait until we have it under control," said Arti. "Then you can call in whatever Pete has arranged."

"Yeah," said Zeus. "Io, I can't see topography for shit. Can you pick out a little hill near here for me?"

"They will probably land from the south, using a flat area to your west. There is a small hill a little north of you; it's only five feet or so. To your east is a canyon. They'll want to stay away from that," she answered.

"I'm going to leave the sat. link on, so I can talk to Arti ... Arti, you're going to drive the SUV. Pull it over to the landing spot Io suggested. Leave the lights on, but get out of the car. Become a dark spot in the desert," he said.

"Just leave the car?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yup. Leave on the headlights. That'll focus their attention on the car. You should get away from the car."

"Okay," I said as I headed for the SUV.

I got to the proposed landing spot, just a few minutes before the jet screamed over head. I flashed the lights off and on, 'cause I remembered that they were looking for some signal. Or did I make that up, and just did what I saw TV guys do for a signal. Anyway, I did it.

Killing the dome light, but leaving the headlights on high, I exited the car, when the jet was headed away from me, and beginning its turn. I crouched and ran. When the plane lined up to land, and hit its landing lights, I dropped and crawled. I got about fifty or seventy yards from the car, faster than you can clench your ass. Mine was already clenched. You can get pretty motivated at moving fast, when you know the bad guys are going to target what you left behind.

I ceased movement as the plane came to a stop, and took out my Glock. Err ... Zeus' Glock. I put mine on the sand, nearby. I hoped I didn't need them, because I doubted I'd hit anything at this range at night, especially with my hands shaking like they were.

The bruise in the middle of my chest was singing to me again. It hurt like a son of a bitch. I knew just where the Arnica tube was, in my pocket, and just left it to my imagination. I wasn't going to reach for it now.