Infiltrator

there.

The Jeep bounced and he almost fell off the seat.

'Yo! Mom, watch the rocks, okay?'

'You want to drive?' she snarled.

'Yeah!' John thrust his head into the front seat, grinning eagerly.

'Well, forget it,' Sarah snapped.

Dieter laughed and Sarah frowned at him.

'Give the kid a chance, Sarah. He has to learn sometime,' von Rossbach said.

Sarah narrowed her eyes. This part of the desert was beginning to look familiar.

'Well, not right now,' she said. 'I'd prefer to have a vehicle I can trust for one thing. Besides, we're here.'

Von Rossbach stared at the clutter of stripped helicopter carcasses, Jeeps, and an old bus. Tumbleweeds rocked in a breeze too mild to move them. Everything else was deathly still and silent. 'Nobody could possibly be living in this hole,'

he muttered.

'They're here,' John said confidently.

Sarah drove on, saying nothing. She pulled up at the edge of the compound and got out of the Jeep slowly. She drew her pistol and looked around. Dust, weeds, and rusting wrecks. 'Enrique?' she shouted.

They waited in the desert heat and silence.

'Hey!' John shouted, jumping out of the Jeep and running a few paces into the compound. 'Anybody here?'

' John?' a disbelieving and familiar voice said. 'Is that you, Big John?'

Enrique appeared from behind one of the helicopter bodies, rifle in hand. His hat was off, so they could see that his hair had receded and gone gray.

'Hey!' John said, smiling. He held out his hand and Enrique shook it. 'We weren't sure you guys would'be here anymore.'

'Some aren't,' Enrique said. 'My cousin's moved to Austin. He plays a little guitar and I think he wants to be a rock star or something.'

John grinned at that; he'd heard Carlos play. 'Where's Yolanda?' he asked.

'Right behind you!' she said. She gave John an enthusiastic hug. As Sarah walked up she released him and reached for her. 'So good to see you!' she said.

Yolanda hadn't changed at all; even her hair was the same length.

'Hey, Connor, you look like a schoolteacher,' Enrique said.

'You look like a grapefruit farmer,' she countered. They shook hands, laughing.

Sarah's eye fell on a solid-looking little boy of about seven. 'Paulo?' she asked, raising her eyebrows.

'Si,' Yolanda said with motherly pride. 'The last time you saw him he was just a tiny nino.' She ruffled his straight black hair.

Paulo ducked his head in embarrassment and cast an eye at Dieter, who stood at least a head taller than his father. Sarah took notice.

'This is Dieter von Rossbach,' she said. 'Dieter—Enrique, Yolanda, and Paulo.'

Dieter held out his hand to Enrique, who seemed surprised and took a moment to respond. He glanced at Sarah and raised a brow.

'Later,' she muttered.

'We heard a lot about you for a while,' Enrique said. 'Then nothing. Well, not nothing. Did you know there's a Web site with your name?'

'You're wired?' John said, surprised and delighted.

'Hey, everything up-to-the-minute with us! You know that!' Enrique said with a grin. 'Don't let appearances deceive you, senor,' he said to Dieter. 'What you want, we got, can get, or can make.' He looked at Sarah. ' Si?'

' Si,' she confirmed. 'I hate to break up our reunion with business…' she began.

'Oh, don't worry,' he said. 'Business is as welcome as company, always! What can I do for you?'

'Well, my computer needs its battery charged,' John said.

'And this piece-of-shit Jeep Lupe sold me is ready to die,' Sarah finished.

'Lupe, eh?' Enrique moved toward the Jeep and he started to grin. ' Ai, caramba!' he said. 'What are you doing dealing with that one, eh? You know Lupe is a capitalist at heart.'

'Oh, he's got a heart now, does he?' Sarah said. 'I'd never have guessed from the way he robbed me.'

Enrique opened the hood and immediately started to dicker.

'Come with me, John,' Yolanda said, slipping her arm through his. 'I'll show you that Web site and we'll let these two hard bargainers go at it.'

'Where's the tequila?' John asked.

'Ts ts ts,' she shushed him. 'We don't drink that anymore. I have Classic Coke, though, and Mountain Dew.'

Sarah leaned over the engine, pretending she hadn't overheard. Enrique gave her a glance.

'I have a pacemaker now,' he said. 'So I watch what I eat and drink. Eh, we grow more stupid as we get older,' he said. 'Depriving ourselves of pleasure so that we can stay old longer.'

Sarah laughed with him at that. She looked up at Dieter, who stood beside the

jeep looking awkward.

'Would you mind taking a look at that Web site for me?' she asked him. 'I'd like your opinion.'

He gave her an ironic smile and followed Yolanda and John into the dilapidated school bus.

Enrique watched him go, then turned back to the engine. After a moment he glanced at Sarah. 'He's different. Not so stiff like before.'

Sarah's laugh was more a squawk. 'You've no idea,' she said fervently.

'So, how come he's 'Dieter' now and not 'Uncle Bob'?' He reached in and squeezed a hose, then gave her a significant look.

' 'Cause he's not Uncle Bob,' Sarah said. The longer she looked at this engine the more discouraged she became. 'But the resemblance is amazing, isn't it?'

He straightened up and wiping his hands on a rag looked at her askance.

'He's not the same hombre?'

Sarah shook her head. 'They say everybody on earth has a double somewhere,'

she said.

Enrique shrugged. 'They say bullshit a lot, too. What can you do, eh?'

Sarah laughed. 'It's when I tell the truth that no one believes me.'

'Maybe that's because for you the truth is always very strange.' He held up his hand to forestall any protest. 'About this Jeep,' he said, 'if it was a horse I'd put it out of its misery.'

'Can you fix it?' she asked.

He looked off into the distance, then grimaced.

'You ask me can I fix it? Si, I can fix anything. But with a car like this, you have to fix it every time you stop. You know?' He screwed his face up. 'I got something better I can trade you for a few hundred. It's not pretty, but it will get you there and back again.'

'Better let me see it,' Sarah said.

He led her out into the desert and tugged a sand-colored tarpaulin off a diseased-looking Marquis. Sarah pursed her lips and walked slowly around it. The white paint had turned to chalk in places, exposing the underpainting, and the paint under that. It had a leprous look to it and rubber was dangling from the windows.

'That is one ugly car,' she said.