Ready to Kill (15 page)

“So hurting my wife and torching my house down is just a statement that he owns the situation and can fuck with me anytime he wants?”

“Essentially, yes. But we won’t play by his rules. We have to do the unexpected. Right now, he expects you to visit your wife in the hospital. You’d be out in the open, an easy target. He could nail you from hundreds of places. Up close or from a distance. Take your pick. Now let’s turn around, head into Santavilla, and stick with the plan. Your wife’s in the best hands possible.”

“Has Nate always been like this, Harv? Calmly assertive?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I’ve learned to adapt.”

“Shit,” Estefan said. “All right. I hear you. So let’s do the world a favor and blow this asshole away.”

“Now that’s the Viper I remember.”

CHAPTER 19

They arrived on the outskirts of Santavilla at 2315 hours.

“Slow down to a crawl but don’t stop,” Nathan told Estefan. “We want to minimize your vehicle’s signature. Your father wrote that he could hear vehicles entering the valley, especially at night.”

After Estefan complied, Nathan continued, “Let’s go over the plan one more time. After you drop us off, find a place to park no more than a hundred yards beyond the bridge. Follow the river like we talked about. You can use the tree line and undergrowth along its bank for cover. Give us a ten-minute head start before you head over to Mateo’s. We’ll be sure to pick a location where we can see Mateo’s house and your approach from the river, and we’ll radio you when we’re in position. Now Mateo should be expecting you, but that could be a good or bad thing. We don’t know this guy from Adam. Just because your father liked him doesn’t mean he’s not an informer for Macanas. Let us know if you see anyone, or if anyone sees you, on your way to meet him. Use your NV. If we lose radio communication for any reason, we’ll meet near the south end of the bridge in exactly one hour. If things go completely to hell and we all get separated, we’ll meet a half mile south of the bridge at the stream crossing.

“No problem,” Estefan said.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m still pissed, but I’m okay.”

“Well, just be sure to keep your head in the game. Remember, we don’t know Mateo. We don’t know anyone here. Never let your guard down, not even for a few seconds. Stay sharp.”

“You can count on it.”

“I want regular updates no more than ten minutes apart. We showed you where the radio’s emergency transmitter button is. If you activate it, stay put. We’ll come and find you.”

“Let’s hope I won’t need it,” Estefan said.

“Unless something requires a verbal response, we’ll give each other acknowledgment clicks only. When you get close to Mateo’s house, remove your NV and radio and secure them in your backpack. We want him to think you’re alone. Keep your radio turned on, but pull the earpiece and microphone wires. We’ll transmit only if there’s any kind of trouble. The radio’s speaker will be active without the earpiece connected, so turn its volume down to a whisper. Once you leave Mateo’s place, your dad’s office is next. Leave your NV and radio in your pack until you reach the church. Leave the lights off and use your NV to take a look around inside. Then, from the church, hike south along the trail until you reach the dam and rewire your radio inside the cover of the trees. Head up to your dad’s house and conduct a quick search. We won’t initiate contact, so make sure you make your update calls. We won’t be able to see you once you’re south of the pond.”

“Sounds good,” Estefan said. “How hard do you want me to press if Mateo isn’t forthcoming?”

“Use your best judgment. Be sure to reinforce that anything he tells you will be kept confidential, okay? Tell him about the letters from your dad, and use something personal he shared with your father, like his favorite fishing spot on the river.”

“Estefan should give him some cash,” Harv said. “Tobias said Mateo needs money for his wife’s opium, and you’ve already hinted we’d do that.”

Nathan nodded agreement. “Estefan, grab twenty thousand córdobas from the pack. It’s only eight hundred dollars, but I’m sure it will be a small fortune to Mateo.”

Estefan said, “Thanks for the money. I’m sure Mateo will appreciate the cash.”

“It should go a long way to earning his trust.”

Nathan had them all perform a final wiring and radio check. Not only did their radios need to function properly, but their wiring also had to be tucked away securely. It was all too easy to snag a cord in a jungle environment. A loss of communication at a critical time could cost someone his life.

As planned, Nathan and Harv got out just before the bridge at the south end of the valley. They waited for Estefan to park before starting up the west-facing slope of the mountain. About halfway to the summit, they’d turn 90 degrees, head north, and start scouting for a good location overlooking the center of town. Judging from the tree density, Nathan gave it short odds of finding a single place that would work. Santavilla was fairly spread out. The lumber mill, ore-processing plant, and helipad were about a mile from their current position on the far end of the valley.

Estefan parked on the shoulder just past the bridge. He locked his truck and set out on foot, following the contour of the river. Off to his left he could see the dark outlines of a few small farmhouses beyond plowed fields, but all their windows were dark. Using the NVGs, he easily negotiated the dense foliage along the river’s bank. The half-moon didn’t concern him too much, because the trees lining the river created deep shadows. Every so often, beams of pale light penetrated down to the damp ground cover. The symphony of the forest was in full effect, with frogs the dominant instruments. Adding to the amphibian groans, thousands of crickets chirped in the background.
An American banjo wouldn’t sound out of place here
, he mused. The noise grew exponentially louder as he neared the pond. Just ahead, he could see the horizontal form of the dam. It looked to be about ten yards long. Upstream of the pond, the river’s black water moved silently. Every so often, he passed the rusting hulk of an abandoned vehicle. Burned trash piles dotted the area. Any plastic bags not yet burned had been ripped open by scavengers—presumably animals. It was a shame to see such a pristine environment treated so carelessly.

He stopped, cleared his six, and pressed his transmit button. “I’m on the river’s southwest bank, past the dam. There’s no activity down here at all. I’ll check in just before I head across the open ground toward Mateo’s house. You should see me emerge due east of his house.”

He received an acknowledgment click and kept going. In approximately six hundred fifty yards, he’d leave the tree line and head due west toward the work bus parked next to Mateo’s house. Finding Mateo’s house on the aerials hadn’t been difficult; it was the only structure in town with a yellow bus parked next to it.

As he’d been taught, Estefan paused every hundred steps or so, held perfectly still, and scanned his immediate area. He also smelled for cigarette or dope smoke.

Detecting nothing, he kept going.

Halfway up the mountainside, Nathan and Harv intersected a footpath and followed it north where they found a good spot to watch the town through a horizontal window of open canopy. A few yards above the trail, their location wasn’t perfect, but it gave them an unobstructed view of the center of town where the majority of the buildings were. They’d opted to leave their ghillie suits behind. The woodland MARPATs offered ideal colors to blend them into the landscape. Nathan’s rifle, equipped with its powerful NV weapon scope, provided a great way to keep an eye on things. Harv broke out his NV binoculars. Unlike their visors, the binoculars magnified the image. Between the two of them, they’d be able to watch Estefan’s back while he paid Mateo a visit. Nathan checked for ants, then sat in a cross-legged position before powering on his scope. He rested his elbows on his knees, shouldered the M40, and swept the immediate area surrounding Mateo’s home. All quiet.

“See any movement anywhere?” he whispered to Harv.

“No. I think the town’s asleep.”

Mateo should already be at the rendezvous point at the bus’s rear bumper, but Nathan saw no sign of him. Some sort of delivery van was parked between their position and the rear of the bus, and it blocked his view.

Nathan saw an unmistakable flare of light. The NV made it look incredibly bright. The area between the delivery van and the bus lit up like a small sun had briefly emerged, then went dim.

“We’ve got activity,” Nathan said. “Someone just lit a cigarette.”

“Near the rear of the bus?” Harv asked.

“Yes. I saw the flare.” Nathan pressed the transmit button. “Estefan, I just saw the glow of a cigarette being lit. It’s probably your man.”

Nathan received a click.

“This will probably go one of two ways,” Harv said. “A long meeting or else a quick one, meaning Mateo won’t talk to him.”

“Yeah, I see it the same way. We’ll know soon enough.”

“We’ll make Mateo’s house our zero and vector from there,” Harv said. “I can’t use the range finder at the same time as my binoculars, so you’ll have to walk me onto Mateo’s house.”

Nathan made a mental note to upgrade his scope to include a range-finder feature. He waited for Harv to activate the range finder’s laser, then said, “I’ve got you. Move slightly higher and to the right. A little higher
. . .
Good, now slightly back to the left
. . .
Keep going. A little more
. . .
Now down just a little. Right there.”

“Six hundred seventy-two yards,” Harv said.

“Copy at six seven two. Give me a correction from the rifle’s three-hundred-yard zero.”

“We’ve got a drop in elevation, so I’ll factor that in.” Harv paused for a moment. “I thought we weren’t going to kill anyone.”

“It’s just a precaution. Estefan could be walking into a trap. We have no way of knowing if Mateo contacted anyone from Macanas’s organization after we called him.”

Harv gave him the elevation correction, and Nathan clicked it into the scope.

“Wind is calm,” Harv said. “Less than three miles per hour from ten o’clock. Hold left two inches.”

“Copy. Two inches left. We aren’t letting anyone take Estefan into custody.”

“Does that include police?”

“Yes.”

“In for a dime, in for a dollar.”

“No one’s down there but Estefan and Mateo.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Estefan reached the point along the river where he could see the yellow bus directly to the west. “Okay, I’m going to step out from the trees for a second. Before I leave the river, I’d like to know exactly where you guys are. I’ve got my NV on max gain. Paint the canopy directly above your position with a laser.”

Estefan’s earpiece sounded off with Nathan’s voice.
“Stand by.”

Estefan looked about halfway up the north-facing slope of the mountain. Two seconds later, the interior of a tree glowed brightly for an instant, then went dark. Contrasted with the dark mountainside, it stood out like a camera flash, although one that would be invisible to the naked eye.

“Okay, I’ve got you. You’re about a third of the way up the slope.”

Estefan received a click in response.

“I’m about to go radio silent. Removing NV now.”

“Let me know when you’re ready to do a speaker check.”

“Stand by, ten seconds
. . .
Okay.” Estefan heard Nathan repeating the word “check” over and over. He adjusted the volume to where he could barely hear Nathan’s voice coming from the radio’s speaker. He pressed the transmit button and held the radio to his mouth. Without the lapel mike or earpiece attached, the radio worked like a regular handheld.

“Good to go. Leaving the tree line now.”

A few seconds later, his radio crackled to life.
“We’ve got you.”

“I’m stashing the radio in my thigh pocket; it will be quicker to access there. Going silent.”