Authors: Leonard B Scott
Parker then hissed, "This is for Gus, and everybody else you sold out. Burn in hell." He shut the car door and joined Faraday. The two men exchanged nods and began walking toward the distant trailer.
Parker slowed his steps after ten paces. "You think he knows we disarmed it?"
Faraday shook his head as he kept walking. "Uh-uh .. . he pissed his pants while I was tying him to the mount. I figure he'll be Jell-O in another few minutes."
"You goin' to tell me how you found out he was dirty?"
Parker asked.
"I told ya."
"No way you just had a hunch and checked the morgue for that body . . . it was something else. Come on, who told you he was dirty?"
"I told ya, Howie. It was a hunch."
"Well, how about using your hunching ability and telling me where to find Starr and Tanner."
"I told ya Agent Sutton was working it--but hers ain't a hunch . . . she calls it intuition. She'll call if her intuition checks out."
Parker halted and took hold of Faraday's arm. "You two are hiding somethin' from me. What is it?"
"Ah, now, Howie, we wouldn't do that. You'd better get goin' and get his DEA bunch stood down before they really screw things up by shootin' up the wrong people. I'm gonna borrow your car and see if I can help Sutton with her intuition."
Parker released his grip. "If I find out you two were holding out on me, I'll . . . I'll kick your ass, Detective."
Faraday held out his hand. "Give me your keys, and pray her intuition is right."
U. S Department of Agriculture, Miami office In the driveway behind the building, Ashley handed Eli his ID wallet. "I forgot to give you this when I saw you last. It's a reminder, Tanner, of who you are and who you represent."
Eli took the thin wallet. "I told you there was no other way to do this, Sutton. Stacy was my responsibility . . . it's my duty to get her out of there."
She held his gaze for a moment before motioning to the lighted loading dock behind her. "I've got it all set up. The inspector thinks we're working a drug case. Once the Tropic Zone people sign the paperwork, pay their fees, and load the plant, I'll do my act. You and that bunch behind you stay out of sight until I have the inspector ask the driver and his helper into the back room for my questioning. If they're wearing some kind of special company clothing, I'll bring their clothes out to you along with the plant's papers."
Ted stepped up behind Eli. "Thanks for helping us, Agent Su--"
"Shut up and step back," Ashley snapped. "Your deal is with Tanner, not me. I don't want to see your face or hear your voice. Get the others away from the light, too." She gave Eli a one-eyed glare. "I just hope you know what you're doing. Ed called just a while ago and said it was Ortiz, just like you thought. Parker is taking care of him and has the DEA operation on hold. Ed is on his way here. I'm going inside again and talk to the inspector before the delivery people get here. I'll signal you when you can come in." Ashley softened her stare. "Damn you, Eli Tanner-- make sure you don't get yourself killed." Turning, she strode toward the loading dock steps.
"She always that bitchy?" Ted asked as he stepped up beside Eli.
"She's not a morning person. Come on, we'd better get the vehicles out of sight and get ready."
Five minutes later, after moving the vehicles, the team sat leaning up against the outside back wall of the Department of Agriculture building.
Virgil leaned forward, looking at Eli in the darkness.
"You a vet, aren't ya? I saw that scar a' yours on your chest--ya get that in Grenada or Panama?"
"Vietnam," Eli said. "I was with the 101st Airborne in seventy-two."
"I knew it," Virgil said with a smile. "I knew you'd been in the machine. I'm ex-Army, too, SF."
Ramon slapped at Virgil's shoulder. "Why don't ya jus' give him your Social Security number while you're at it.
He's a fed, man."
Virgil slapped Ramon's shoulder in retaliation. "He's a vet first--he's a brother."
"You two sophisticated guys cool it," Ted snapped. "Keep focused on the op. Let's go over it again. Virgil, tell us your part one more time. Picture the sketch Bonita made for us and talk us through it so I know you've got it down."
Virgil closed his eyes, trying to remember the drawing.
"We go down the drive and come to the first gate. There's a speaker box there and a security camera. I say we're there for the delivery of the plant. The gate slides back and we drive about forty feet to the next gate. Two guards will come out of a small side gate. They'll be carrying poles with mirrors attached and will check under the truck for bombs and shit like that. They'll check me and Ramon out and will want to see what's in the back of the truck. I get out and walk back to the rear of the truck and unlock the back door.
Soon as I open it, Ted and Glenn take the two guards out. As they're doin' that, Ramon goes in the side gate and goes into the gatehouse; the panel is on the left. He hits the green button to open the gate, then walks into the security room and takes out the guy monitoring the compound's security cameras. Ramon gets back in the truck with me and we drive through the gate into the compound.
"The main house is on our left; guards' quarters are on the right. The chopper pad is just beyond it. We watch for the three pairs of roving guards Bonita says are always walking the grounds. We drive around to the far side of the main house, the west wing. The greenhouse sits alongside the wing. I back up to the greenhouse, stop, and Ramon and me get out. Mendez should be there and probably all four of his bodyguards. I give the paperwork to Mendez while Ramon is opening the back. He opens it and Ted, Glenn, and Agent Tanner are standin' there holdin' Macs with a drop on everybody. I grab Mendez. Ramon grabs me a Mac from the back of the truck, and he grabs the sniper rifle. He gives me the Mac and then he goes straight to the rear gate that leads to the dock. His job is to hold the gate for us. If the news lady isn't with Mendez, the rest of us move everybody inside the greenhouse and get Mendez to tell us where she is. The agent goes and gets her. Once he has her, we take her and Mendez out through the back gate and radio Bonita. She brings in the cruiser and picks us up and we take off."
Ted nodded. "Good, you've got it. Glenn, tell us what happens if we get in a firefight."
Glenn looked up at the stars. "If it turns to shit, we toss smoke grenades to hide us while we make for the rear gate.
Ted and I will stay to cover the rest of you. Once you're through the rear gate, we'll take up position just outside the gate and cover while everybody runs down to the dock, where Bonita will come in with the cruiser. Virg shoots up the cigarettes at the docks to make sure none of them can be used to follow us. Ramon uses the sniper rifle to cover Ted and me while we head for the docks."
Eli leaned forward. "Remember, if it turns bad before I find Stacy, I'm staying. I'll take my chances on Agent Sutton getting the cops to the compound."
"You won't have much of a chance," Ted said.
"And Stacy won't have any chance at all," Eli responded.
Ted shrugged. "Your funeral. Okay, I think everybody's got it. Remember, we plan on something going wrong, so Glenn and I will be wearing packs full of claymores and grenades. While we have everybody in the greenhouse, Glenn sets up the mines just in case. And remember, too, once we have the drop on them, everybody puts on their radio headsets. Bonita will have hers on in the cruiser, and I'll tell her when to head in for the docks."
Ramon leaned forward. "Any chance there's guards on the docks?"
"Bonita said they monitor the docks with a security camera, remember? With Mendez bein' at the estate, nobody should be in the cigarettes, either. But just in case, if Bo says she sees people, she'll tell us on the radio. Ramon, you'll take them out with the sniper rifle."
Ramon nodded. "Piece of cake, man."
Glenn motioned at the approaching headlights of a white panel truck. "Show time."
Chapter 22.
6:30 A. M., Mendez estate, Key Biscayne.
Holding a cup of coffee in one hand, Raul knocked lightly on the bedroom door with his other hand. He knocked again, opened the door, and entered the huge room.
Mendez sat in a wing-back chair putting on his socks.
"Good morning, Raul. I trust you slept well?"
Raul set the coffee cup on the table beside his boss. "It's early for me, Colonel. The delivery company called a few minutes ago and said they will be here at seven as promised.
I also checked in' on Miss Starr. I'm afraid her lip wound opened again during the night and is quite swollen. She is very distraught."
Mendez stood and slipped his feet into tasseled loafers.
"She is a disappointment to me. I would have thought a woman in her profession would have been more accommodating. No matter, I'll not let her spoil my morning. Have Arturo stay with her in her room. Once the delivery is made, tell Arturo to take her fishing. . . . He'll also need to collect the FBI agent from beneath the Princess. Drop both their bodies into the Atlantic for the stone crabs. Come, I have time for breakfast before my new child arrives."
Raul smiled as he walked alongside his boss toward the door. "The DEA is in position to assault the Colombians. It won't be long, and they will no longer be a problem for us."
Mendez clapped his hands. "Excellent, it is a fine morning indeed."
Holding her breath, Ashley drove past the stucco-walled estate as Faraday shook his head. "It's a damn fortress.
How's Tanner gettin' in there and out alive?"
Ashley continued down the road. "He says they have a plan. He wouldn't give me any details except for needing the truck." Slowing, she made a turn, stopped, backed up into a driveway, and pulled forward again. In seconds she was back on the road, heading toward the estate again. A quarter mile from the compound she pulled to the side of the road and rolled down her window. "Now we're supposed to wait. Once the delivery truck gets in--and that's a big if in my book--we're supposed to listen for gunfire. If we hear shooting, we're to call the local police and tell them we hear shots being fired inside the Mendez estate, then hang up. That's all he wants us to do."
Faraday rolled down his window and let out a sigh. "He's in way over his head on this. He say why he's doin' it?"
"Yeah, I asked him. He said it was his duty. Starr was his responsibility, he says, so he has to get her out of there."
"She might already be dead. He'd be puttin' his life on the line for nothing."
"He thinks she's alive, Ed. You know him; it's like talking to a rock when his mind is made up."
"What about the others who are with him? What's their reason?"
"I don't know, and I didn't ask, but I think they want to take Mendez out for personal reasons . . . it's a vendetta of some kind."
"How many of them are there?"
"Four plus Eli are going in."
"Four? Look at the damn place! It's huge! Mendez must have guards and dogs and no tellin' what else in there for security. Tanner must not have seen what he was up against.
Four people and him . . . uh-uh, no way."
"He said they had a plan."
"Yeah, they got a plan, all right. A plan to get themselves all killed. Come on, Sutton, you think they have a chance?"
Ashley looked at her passenger. "They have Tanner."
"Yeah, and he's eaten up with the duty-and-honor thing.
It's going to get him killed. The hell with waiting for the sound of gunfire. If the truck makes it through the gate, we're callin' right then and tellin' the cops all hell is breakin' loose over there. It's goin' to take some time for the cops to react, but at least they'll get here sooner and give whoever's inside a reason to worry. You agree? We call as soon as the truck makes it in?"
Ashley motioned up the road. "We're going to know if it makes it in real soon. Here it comes. Get ready to make that call."
Seated behind the steering wheel, Virgil glanced at his passenger. "That's it just ahead."
"I see it, man. Be cool."
"I'm scared shitless, Ray-sorry, but I am."
"No sweat, man. I ain't goin' to let nothin' happen to you.
We're sophisticated rich guys now. . . . Think of all them ladies we're goin' to score, man."
"Yeah, the ladies." Virgil turned into the short drive and came to a stop in front of the gate. He rolled down his window and looked into the security-camera lens as he pushed the button on the speaker box. Immediately a voice said, "We been expectin' you. Drive in."
The gate began sliding back and Ramon smiled. "A piece of cake, man."
Virgil shifted into first and rolled through the gate.
In the back of the truck Ted brushed the leaves of the plant away from his face and stepped toward the back door.
Holding a silenced Mac-10 in his hand, he glanced at Glenn beside him. "Team Two-two is back, Glenn. This is for them."
Glenn nodded as he raised his Mac. "For them."
Holding the Beretta Ted had given him, Eli stepped up beside the two men and said to himself, This is for you, Gus.
Virgil slowed as they approached the second gate and brought the vehicle to a gentle stop. Two men dressed in khaki uniforms opened a side gate and walked toward the truck.