Chapter 112

We were out of Bolivian air space in a matter of minutes, but we had to overfly Brazil. It was scary, even though we were not challenged. It was the middle of the night, so I counted on the duty pilots of the Brazilian air force being asleep. We landed at the Caracas airport shortly before dawn.

While the ground crew gassed the PBY, we had breakfast in the main terminal. When we finished, we climbed clumsily back into the plane and left. The no name pilot gave me a lesson on flying the clumsy bird, while we completed the flight home. I suppose not being challenged was proof that we had gotten away clean. We were less than a half hour from the Texas coast when the radio came to life.

The speaker of the on board radio advised us to land immediately. The no name pilot asked, if the tower had any preference where he landed. They spoke a lot of flight jargon, which went way too fast for me to follow. I did understand when they told us to land on the student pilot air strip at Laughlin Air Force base.

The fighter planes shadowed us all the way there. It wasn't a long flight from the point of contact to where they forced us down. We were over land at least half the time. We landed without incident. A pickup truck with the air police insignia led the way to a deserted taxi way.

"Looks like we been busted captain," I said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Get any weapons put away and get the flight log up to date while we wait," he said.

I did the best I could to clean up the plane and our flight record. "I hope they are looking for an excuse to pass us forward, and not a reason to detain us," I said.

We sat on that isolated parking area for a quarter of an hour. I spent the time wiping our finger prints off every surface in the plane, twice. If I had bleach I would have been wiping the plane down with that as well.

It was then that I realized what I had to do. "Captain you need to walk about 50 feet away from this plane. Do it now and do it quickly." I said.

"Are you out of your mind," he asked.

"If you stay where you are you are going to be toast." I used a pry bar from the tool kit to smash the radio, so he couldn't call for help. I walked ten feet from the plane, then fired an emergency signal flare into the plane's cargo hatch. Once the plane was burning pretty well, I stepped back a little farther and fired a second one into the general area of the fuel tanks.

I was probably a better shot with a real pistol than a flare gun, but it did work. The plane went up in flames, then it exploded. Just as soon as they took us into custody I asked for a lawyer and kept quiet. I was wondering if I would regret not having killed the no name pilot. He worked for the Colonel and Martin trusted him, so I had to trust him as well.

If he talked, I was fucked. I would probably be one of the richest women in the supermax prison. Then again there was probably a Helmsly type somewhere in the system. I wondered if I would finally get enough sleep, if I went inside.

My cell phone rang. "I'm watching you real time. You did exactly the right thing. That call came from the Air Forces Border Enforcement Command. They thought you were smuggling in aliens or dope." Colonel Martin suggested.

"Thanks for the info. I have to go we are about to have company," I replied.

"What the hell happened," a military policeman asked. Since I had once done his job, I knew how to twist it.

"That son of bitch caught fire," I said. I sure hoped the only cctv camera in sight was on a satellite. "You know you are going to have to pay to have this removed. The air force takes no responsibility for the fire."

"Well, you guys did force us down. It is my understanding your border enforcement group forced us down." I said.

"Yes you fit the profile for a smuggler. We will have to sift through the wreckage for evidence."

"Suit yourself," I said. "just show me your warrant and we will be good to go."

"You mean we need a warrant to sift through the wreckage?" The AP asked.

"Yep, I have played by the rules, and you should as well," I said.

"Let me call my commanding officer," he suggested.

I just nodded. He walked away to make his call. The pilot with no name just looked at me without any emotion.

"The CO said to help you arrange for a salvage," he said. "He also said not to bother with the search but for your information we don't need a warrant to search wreckage." I just nodded.

The pilot with no name and I spent the night in the guest house on base. It was very nice room just like a motel. The Air Force was nice enough to let us stay free. I slept all day. It was hard for me to remember what exactly had happened over the last three days. I was pretty worn out.

The salvage company arrived with a couple of trucks and some cutting torches. The guys made quick work of the jobs or so I was told. I didn't even wake up during that time. I wanted to go down and get the M4 out of the ashes but I couldn't go to the site without arousing suspicion.

The neat thing was the second day a big black SUV arrived to give us a ride home. The drive from Texas took almost twenty hours. I managed to sleep in the back seat while the pilot with no name shared the front seat with the driver. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me.