"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LV)
Chapter LV “You’re sure that the men in the back of the plane are terrorists, not the paramedics of the ambulance?” the pilot, Dennis Martínez, asked the Governor in a calm, composed tone, while his copilot, Emmanuel Alvarez, stared at both of them with wild-eyed fright. “Yes,” Pietrantoni answered. “I will bet my life on the accuracy of that information.” It was true. Pietrantoni had come to trust blindly any news that originated from Lucas Alfaro. His friend had demonstrat
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LIV)
Chapter LIV Lucas and his group quietly moved from the large garage to the lateral perimeter of the mansion, covering the left entrance to the first floor and to the second floor outside stairs. As they did so, Lucas, Doel and Ojeda took cover behind a brown pickup truck parked twenty yards away from the side of the house, while Michael took cover behind a corner of the smaller of the two garage structures. No one from the house fired at them. The three rescued paramedics re
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LIII)
Chapter LIII Governor Pietrantoni looked at Francisco in his stretcher, and wondered what he was feeling. Trying to see him through the plastic cover visor of his hazmat suit headgear and through the plastic covering that encased Francisco was hard. The ten year old was deeply asleep. Knocked out by some sort of sedative, he had not opened his eyes during the entire time since he had been wheeled out of the ambulance; not during the wait for the jet’s maintenance t
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LII)
Chapter LII Lucas’ group had moved into the two garages of the compound, but found nobody inside. The lights in the larger of the two structures were turned on, and to their surprise, an ambulance was parked inside. Doel approached it with cautious curiosity. “Now what would these people be doing with an ambulance?” he wondered. “With a second ambulance,” Lucas interjected. “Remember El Chino is following another ambulance that escaped from this place a while ago. Let’s take
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter LI)
Chapter LI Abandoned by their superiors, with over two dozen of their comrades dead or missing, and on the verge of panic, the remaining gunmen in the compound had holed up in the main house, figuring it would be easier to defend. They had been wrong. Retrieving their sniper rifles, Gomez and Tavarez had returned to their original position on the mound behind the compound's fence, and from there focused on any movement within the mansion. In less than a minute, they had mana
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter L)
Chapter L El Chino waited inside his car, a champagne colored Lincoln Continental SUV. It was not the most unnoticeable vehicle in the world, but it would have to do. The other alternative was to have Aarón follow the ambulance in the shuttle, which was even more noticeable. Besides, if the shuttle followed the ambulance, who would pick up the people in the terrorist compound? After receiving Archie’s call, the corpulent bolita boss had left his soft spoken subordinate in ch
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter XLIX)
Chapter XLIX Exchanging fire for several minutes, Gomez and Tavarez withdrew from their mound, taking advantage of the tropical forest’s deep darkness. As they ran downhill, a bullet struck a glancing blow at Tavarez’s back, sending him pitching headfirst into a clump of ferns. Fortunately, the shot was deflected by the SWAT youngster’s bulletproof vest, but the noise of his fall drew a barrage of bullets that forced him and Gomez to crawl behind a large, fallen tree trunk.
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter XLVIII)
Chapter XLVIII Nabil and his explosives expert Javid, had nearly finished rigging the fake ambulance with explosives when the prolonged sound of gunfire drew their attention. “Keep working,” Nabil told his associate. “I’ll find out what is happening.” The Palestinian walked to the side door of the main garage, and called out to the guard standing outside. “Zapata… Zapata!” When Zapata failed to answer, he wandered outside and hurried to the garage’s main door. He found Zapat
"And Then They Came..." (Chapter XLVII)
Chapter XLVII Gomez checked one more time to see if any patrols were approaching the perimeter, looking through the telescopic sight of his Browning rifle, while his younger counterpart did the same through his Remington rifle’s telescopic sight. Both men had installed noise suppressors—silencers—on their rifles. “I’ll take the guard on the balcony to the left,” the SWAT captain told Tavarez. “You take the other one, on the right. Then we shoot the guys in the garage, same o
