“Why, thank you,” Rita said, hanging out of the open door by the straps, steadily raining death down on those below.
When the collision occurred, a van parked on the opposite side of the intersection disgorged a group of men with axes and sledgehammers. They immediately began breaking up barrels that had survived the crash, revealing the bladders of cocaine intact. The men from the SUVs saw this and began shooting at them, only to be hammered by Rita’s M-60.
Uncle Harold looked at his watch and then hit speed dial on his SAT phone. Colt answered on the first chirp, “Okay, Bucco, send in the cavalry; we’re about done here.”
“Roger that.” Colt quickly called Chief Gallegos, “You’re up, Chief; they’re all yours,” Colt said and hung up. He had given the Chief the intersection location an hour ago, and he and his men were staged two minutes away, awaiting his call. With sirens blaring and lights flashing, they headed to the intersection.
Uncle Harold said, “Okay, Rita, time to go.”
He started a steep climb, taking the Huey out of the intersection as Rita said, “I think we have sufficiently neutralized the enemy.”
She saw Rodrigo’s men with their hammers and axes, led by Muncho, piling back into the van and leaving the scene.
“We’re all clear,” Rita said as Harold banked and continued gaining altitude, headed away from the approaching police. Harold reached over and affectionately patted the dash of the chopper, where one of those magnetic spring hula girls jiggled next to the name “Rosalita” painted on the dash. He turned off the outside speakers as Rita joined him up front, smiling broadly. He turned, winked at her, and said, “I told you that you would have fun.”
When the police arrived, they found most of the cartel gunners dead or severely wounded. The barrels of wine with the cocaine in them were scattered everywhere and lying next to one of them was a piece of the truck box with the name Mendez Vineyards painted on it. They got to the remains of the cab of the dump truck that had caused the “accident,” and found the steering wheel had been tied in position with a piece of rope, and a concrete block was jammed against the accelerator. A nice piece of work, the chief thought as he surveyed the scene. His men began gathering the bodies and tending to the wounded cartel men. As the crowds started to form, he made a call on his cell phone. When it was answered, he said, “I have what I needed…thank you,” and hung up.
Colt smiled as he put the SAT phone back on the bench. He looked at the rest of the team and said, “We’re good.” Everyone smiled and let out a collective sigh of relief.
“Well, then, I guess we can head back to town now,” Doc said.
“Yep,” I replied, “all the excitement should be over by the time we get back.”
We said our good-byes to Tamara and the elders and were prepared to leave when Miguel approached us.
“Senor Burnett, what about me?” he asked.
“I think you should give it a couple of days and then head back to the city. I’m pretty sure you will find things have changed rather dramatically for the better. Any future threat to you or your family should be gone.”
“Si, Senor, thank you, thank you.”
With that, we left the village and headed down the jungle path.
We followed it for about an hour, putting us a reasonable distance from the village when I called a halt.
“Okay, guys, I think this is far enough.” Everyone stopped and looked at me expectantly as I slid up my sleeve, uncovering the bracelet Jeannie had given me.
“What’s that?” Dimitri asked.
“A present from our hostess,” I replied as I touched the stone, and the mist of a portal forming began appearing. I had envisioned the bend in the road about a quarter of a mile from Senor Mata’s farm.
“You got a portal device,” Joe blurted, “and didn’t tell us?”
“I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, and this has to remain a well-kept secret. It’s not something that will get used every day. Now, if you will please step into the mist, our journey to the Beast will be over.”
As I followed Reggie through and stepped out onto the road, the portal vanished behind us.
“Well, this should make traveling a little easier,” Doc said.
“This is to be used only when absolutely necessary and when no one can see us coming or going. Remember… magic.”
They all said they got it, and we headed to Senor Mata’s farm and our ride back into Cuenca.
Our drive back was uneventful and mostly spent in silent contemplation.
O’Reilly finally spoke up as we entered the outskirts of the city, “I think I’m going to miss all this, the excitement, mystery, discovery, and all.”
“I know what you mean,” Doc added, “our adrenaline has been ramped up at such a high level for so long, there may be a big crash ahead of us once we get back to the States and things return to normal.”
I looked at Doc and said, “Normal, Doc, do you really think anything is going to ever be normal in our lives ever again?”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he answered, “maybe we can just slide into it; hell, I don’t know,” he retorted, slightly exasperated.
“Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you what Fitz and Gus said when I checked in with them,” O’Reilly said.
“Oh, yeah, how did the calls go?”
“Well, you were right about Fitz; he wasn’t happy with the abbreviated report I gave him. He wanted more but said if he had to, he would wait for the full debrief on our return.”
“Good, and Gus?”
“Gus said there was a bit of a problem in the legal proceedings regarding the galleon haul that you would have to deal
