She of the Jade Skirt

** Part V **

Melody paused for a few seconds, deep in thought. {“Ya know, now that I think about it, I don’t really know.}  She mentally shrugged her shoulders. {“Oh well, must be the Goddess or something.  Hey! We need some tunes; can you turn the radio on?”}

{“Umm, sure...”} I hesitated because I was worried about her; us and she appeared to be dodging the issue.  I absently turned on the satellite radio and it immediately began blaring some Mexican pop song. So, after flipping through 50+ different channels of crap, I finally found a channel labeled “60-70’s Rock”. Ahh, the Rolling Stones and “Paint it Black”.  How did the DJ’s know how I was feeling at this very moment?

Melody seemed to kind of like the first song, but when “A Horse With No Name” started playing, she reminded me of my age. {“OMG, can we find something that is a little more current? Like maybe something that is not from the previous century?”}

I would protest, but she was helping to keep me awake. {“Okay...what would you suggest young whippersnapper?”}

{“Umm, some Justin, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, you know the good stuff, Grandma...”} Melody had the nerve to giggle as I reluctantly acquiesced to her request.

Some song, intelligently titled “Starships” started to play and it took all of my willpower not to groan as Melody started to joyfully sing along. {“Starships are meant to fly? Really Melody, you like this cra-stuff?”}  I hated the stuff kids these days are calling music.

There is only so much sugar-pop music that a ma-girl can take before it all started to sound the same and lull me to sleep.  {“Dani! Wake up!”}

“Ahh! I’m awake, I’m awake....Melody, I’m sorry, but this isn’t going to work. We need to stop. I need some downtime.”

{“But...we can’t stop...”} Melody sounded desperate and I could not blame her. {“Umm, remember what you said about maybe letting me drive?”}

I knew what I told her and I knew that, logically, Melody driving while I slept would be a good plan, but I did not see how I could teach a 12 year old, who has never driven anything larger than a go-kart,  how to drive a 525 HP Supercar. I mean, I was pretty sure I could, but not in just a few minutes.  Yes, the Audi has a cruise control, but what if she had to stop? How would she start again? It takes a lot of practice just to learn how to shift. Shifting is more of a learned feel thing because every car is different. Hmm, we are sharing the same body...

{“Okay, Melody, let me see if I can teach you how to drive this thing...”}

{“Really!?!?”}  Melody bounced around performing imaginary cartwheels inside our head.

Yep, she was wide awake.  {“Okay, here is what we are going to try...”}  I outlined my plan to start out with her in partial control of our body. Just enough for her to feel what I felt as I shifted the transmission while working the clutch in parallel with the throttle. I downshifted and upshifted a few times before giving her more and more control until she was in charge just enough to direct our body.

{“Now, you do it...”}

Melody tensed up and I could feel the blood rushing through our veins as her adrenaline hit our system. “Are you sure?”

{“Yep, and I am right here. Just imagine me with my hands over your hands, helping guide you as you do it and don’t forget I am here in case something goes wrong...”}

Nothing went wrong and Melody gained more confidence while I gave her more and more control until she was doing it all by herself.  I repeated the lesson with stopping the car. Especially with trusting the ABS, that lesson leads to starting from a dead stop.  We only lost 15 minutes total and while Melody was super excited about driving, she did everything right and paid attention to the things she needed to pay attention too. She expertly divided her attention between the road, the mirrors and the instruments.

{“Doing good Melody...”} We entered a long sweeping corner and she started get nervous and drift a little inside our lane. {“Remember, look through the turn.”}

Melody lifted her eyes up, relaxed and the Audi practically carved the corner in half.  {“Oh, wow, that was fun...”}

I watched over her for a few more miles and I could not help it. I felt proud of her. She was doing great. {“Wake me up in 20 minutes...”}
 

~o~O~o~

I felt Dani’s presence fade from my mind and that worried me. What if she fell asleep and never came back?  I concentrated on Dani and phew, I could feel her. It was kind of hard to describe, but she kind of felt like a warm fuzzy little kitten in the back of my head. I would not tell her that I thought of her as a kitten. She was totally ‘not’ a kitten. More like a giant saber toothed tiger or something, but she was my saber toothed tiger.  Rawwrr!

I could not believe that I was driving!  OMG, all my friends back home where going to be so jealous when I told them. Now, I know why Dani felt so excited about this car. I never really thought of a car as anything other than transportation and a way to get to the mall, but this car is so freaking awesome, no, it is be-awesome!

I dropped it down a gear like Dani showed me and hit the accelerator.  

“Yippie kiaaay, mother...” Oops, I better not finish that, but wow, just wow.  I glanced down and we were doing 140 mph.  

“Holy crap!” I let off the gas and gingerly applied the brakes to get us down to 75 mph. Once slowed, I upshifted to drop the RPMs and my heart hammered in my chest, but wow, what a rush!  The car felt really stable.  

“Hmmm...”  I glanced at the GPS and it appeared like we had a decent straight section coming up.  As soon as the road straightened up, I dropped it down a gear again and I was about to accelerate again when I got the feeling that I shouldn’t.  The speed limit was 110 mph?!?  Holy crap! Oh, wait, metric system. Kilometers Per Hour, not Miles Per Hour.

“Doh!”

According the kph part of the gauge, I was doing 120 kph and I was not used to using the metric system for speed limits, but I was also not used to using speed limits. Hehe. The bad feeling was still there and getting worse. So, I dropped down to 110 kph and a few seconds later I passed a Policia car hiding behind some bushes.  I did not want to stare and attract the officer’s attention, but I could not help it. I snuck a glance.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The dude was taking a nap with his radar gun pointing out the window.  I passed the sneaky devil without him stirring and a few seconds later, I felt totally relaxed and eager to go faster.  So, I did. A lot.  

I sort of became numb to the speed. I saw 200 kph pretty much constantly with a smattering of 300 kph thrown in for the super long straight sections.  Every time I had that ‘feeling’, I slowed down and I quickly learned to trust my ‘danger sense’. I whispered my thanks to Chalchiuhtlicue every time I safely passed the danger zones. My ‘danger sense’ mostly warned me of speed traps, but it also warned me of animals, big pot holes and tricky turns.

Once, my danger sense flared and I came across a farmer with a huge herd of goats walking down the middle of the road.  That would have been, messy, but to my amazement and I think, the farmer’s, his entire herd parted for me as I cautiously approached the herd at the grandma speed of 40 kph. The farmer dude stood beside the road with a confused expression. I watched with some amusement as he scratched his head and swiftly shifted his eyes between the Audi and his herd.  The herd closed back up as soon as I passed them.  I never realized that goats were that smart and polite.

There was one bad thing about going so fast.  The Audi guzzled gas and I had to stop twice to fill up.  Initially, I was a little worried about pulling into some strange gas station without Dani to protect me, but cold hard cash fixes everything.  When I pulled into the station, the attendants initially looked lazy.  Well, until I rolled the window down and held out a 1,000 Peso note.  I know, I know, 1,000 Pesos is really only $70’ish dollars, but it only cost $40 to fill the tank. So, they would get about a $30 dollar tip out of the deal.

“Fill it up, clean the windshield and this is yours!” I yelled in Spanish.  “An extra one for you all to split if I am out of here in less than five minutes.”  I showed the amazed attendants a second 1,000 Peso note.

They wasted a few seconds trying to figure out if I was for real, but once they got their act together; they moved like a trained pit crew and managed to earn the extra 1,000 Pesos with a four and a half minute pit stop.

“Muchas Gracias!” I gratefully blew them all a kiss as I burned some rubber leaving their station.  Geez!  I loved that car!

The second pit stop was even easier. I think the previous gas station dudes called their buddies because as soon as I pulled in, my car was swarmed with attention.  Filled, windshield cleaned and even the tires checked in less than four minutes. They earned themselves the 1,000 Peso bonus plus I gave them each an extra 300 Pesos.  They seemed pretty darn happy and even shouted encouragements as I pulled out.

The third and final pit stop is when I decided to try and wake up Dani.  I had to pee and it was only 25 km or so to Acapulco. I figured that my sis had plenty of beauty sleep and I bet she was going to be a bit cranky about being woken up three hours past her wakeup time.  I hoped that she would let me drive the rest of the way because this driving stuff was kind of fun.

Yep, the gas station people are networked because the attendants were all over the car before I could roll to a complete stop next to the pumps.  They swore a lot.  Things like, “Madre de Dios! Can you believe that this chick made it from Pinotepa in only one hour?!?!”, “Hot chick driving a hot car...I think I am in love!” and “That’s like an f’ing record!”
 

~o~O~o~

{“Dani?”} It felt so good to sleep. I could not remember the last time I slept so well and woke up feeling so pain free and alive.  {“Dani? Dani, wake up, We are almost there and I need to pee...”}

I was awake, but I was sort of lurking in the background and not letting the girl in my room know that I was awake. It was a habit of mine that saved my life a few times in the jungle.  The VC were pretty damn sneaky, but if they thought you were still an easy target during an ambush; you could return the favor and surprise them when they attacked.  

Someone must have elevated my bed because I seemed to be sitting upright, but the scent of fine grain leather confused me. What was going on here? Did someone spray some ‘New car scent’ in my room? The girl sounded young and slightly scared, and I don’t want to scare her even more by pulling out my trusty M1911 .45 cal like I would have for an intruder.  I swear to god that one of the more mobile patients here were pilfering my supplies and if I caught the bastard I would make him regret fucking with my shit.

Who was this girl and why was she asking for my daughter to wake up? Did Danielle fall asleep in my room?  Why is the girl telling me that she needs to pee?

{“Dani, I could really use your help. Please wake up...”} the girl was starting to sound a little scared and desperate. She had to be lost. I guess I could open my eyes and try to help her.  

Holy fucking crap! I was sitting in a car that was in the process of being serviced by Mexicans.  I tried to reach for my weapon, but my hand hit a leather wrapped head rest instead of a soft fluffy pillow. What in the fucking hell?

I was sitting in an Audi. Oh...I knew the girl.  Everything came back to me in a flash.  {“Holy fucking shit! This really isn’t a dream!”}

{“Dani, what’s going on? You’re starting to freak me out here sis...”}

Sis, that made me feel good. Wait, did Melody say that we were almost there? Fu-crap, she was not supposed to let me sleep that long.  No wonder why I was so out of it and wow, we really needed to pee. “How long did you let me sleep?”

{“Dani, what’s wrong?”} Melody sounded a little relieved.

{“Sorry Melody. I got a little lost there, thought I was back in my room and all this was just a dream. So, how long?”}

{“Umm, well, kinda 4 hours?”} She cringed, expecting me to yell at her.

{“Oh, I thought I asked you to wake me in 20?”}  I know I did, but I was trying to be nice.

{“Yeah, I know, but you obviously needed your sleep and I was having fun...”} Melody trails off as I catch a fleeting impression of her driving the Audi as if she was in a race.

I elected to ignore my impression, for now. We should be just over 50% of the way there and we probably need to fill up. I can drive the rest of the way. Maybe we can make up some time.  “So, where are we?”

{“Well, San Marcos...”} Melody slowly grinds to a stop as if she is guilty of something.

I glance over at the GPS and then, the clock. “Holy fucking shit!”

Oh crap, I totally lost my bearing there with Melody, but that can’t be right.  There is no way that we can be this close to Acapulco after only four hours.  I performed a quick mental calculation and the numbers I arrived for average speed seemed impossible. Well, impossible if the driver was not a World Rally Car driver, or something.  {“Sorry about that Melody, but is our GPS right?”}

Melody giggled at my reaction. {“Yes, I was, umm, in the zone and kinda drove a little fast, but...can we talk about this on the way to the bathroom?”}

I glanced out at men happily and speedily working to fully service our car. I casually double checked my purse to confirm that the USP was still in there. {“Why are they working like a pit crew on our car?”}

{“Well, because at the first pit stop I offered them 2,000 Pesos if they got everything done in less than five minutes. Apparently, these gas station guys talk to each other because the second stop was even faster.”}

Melody continued to amaze me, but she raised too much attention to us. Now, everyone was going to know about us.  On the other hand, we did make very good time and are now ahead of schedule, by a lot.  It will probably take another day or two for our legend to make its way into the official government gossip line and draw attention to us. We should be done by then.

{“Okay...”} I reached down and slipped on our heels because driving with heels is not good. Shoes on our feet, I opened the door.

{“Remember, knees together...”} Melody happily sang as I spun around in the driver’s seat.

I felt a little flustered with Melody laughing at me from the back of our head.  {“I know, I know...”}

We had been sitting for so long, that I felt a little uncoordinated, but I was saved by a polite attendant. “Permá­tame ayudarle seá±orita!” He said as he held out his hand for me to grab.

His hands were even mostly clean. “Gracias!” I smiled at him as he easily assisted me to my feet.

{“Ohh, he’s kinda cute...”}

{“Melody...not helping...”}

I tried to ignore the wolf whistles as I head toward the station. I failed, because my unconscious reaction to the whistle was to look over my shoulder with the intent to chew the man out for being so crude.

{“Oh, nice twist and hair flip...work it girl!”} Melody giggled at me.

{“I didn’t-”} Oh, crap, I did.

“Santa Madre de Dios...” One of the men whispered reverently as he hastily tried to make it look like he was busy with our car instead of staring at our ass.

All of the men grew still when I stopped, turned around and marched over to the most senior looking guy.  I accidently, on purpose, let the USP show to him as I pulled 2,000 Pesos out of our purse and made a production of handing him the cash. “I have to use the bathroom. Don’t fuck with my car...” I tip my sunglasses down and look up at him over the top of my shades.  The ‘or else’ is heavily implied by the display of my weapon.

His eyes widened with panic. “Si, Senora!”

I calmly slid my sunglasses back over my eyes and turned to find the restrooms. I tried not to feel satisfied by the whispered prayers by the men as I walked away. I failed because it felt so good to know that I had every man’s attention and respect without having to resort to violence to get it.

{“Oh. My. Goddess.  Dani, that was too freaking cool!”} Melody vibrated with barely contained excitement.

I was not surprised by the mess when I opened the door to the women’s restroom because it did not look a woman had used or cared for it in a very long time, if ever.

{“Oh, gross...”} Melody made her opinion known.

Yes, the women's restroom was a disaster, but I guess a station full of guys would have no need to keep the women’s restroom clean. I poked my head into the men’s room and it was in much better shape.  Still, it was nowhere near the levels found in most U.S. highway restrooms, but usable and I have seen worse.  

{“Hey, we can’t go in there!”} Melody recoiled with shock as I proceeded to do just that.

{“Sure we can, see?”} I glanced around the room and pointed to the door.

{“Hmmmphh!”} Melody pretended to be upset. {“I’ve never actually been in the men’s room before...well, not since I was like, five or six...don’t say it!”}

I giggled. {“Hey, I was not even thinking about how that must have been last year...”}

{“Grrrrr...”} Melody stuck her tongue out at me and managed to hold in the giggles for two or three seconds before losing it.

I felt extremely content and happy with Melody and I could tell she felt the same toward me. It took some mental exercises on my part, but I managed to keep myself from crying because I was really going to miss her when I finished my mission and went to hell or wherever Chalchiuhtlicue wanted to send my soul.

I felt Melody’s internal hug as I distracted myself by the task of cleaning off the toilet seat.  I used a large amount of toilet paper to thoroughly wipe down the toilet seat before I felt it was safe enough to sit down. It was not that bad. It did not have muddy boot prints on the seat like the women’s stall had and there was no piss on the seat from the guys not lifting the seat. I guess they did not like their buddy’s crappy aim either. Besides, I do not think it gets much worse than having to use a hand dug hole in the mud and having only wet leaves to wipe your ass. Okay, I lied, there is.

Try lying doggo in the mud for six days without being able to move from your position because some NVA asshole decided to camp his troops on top of your hidey hole. Never mind the smell because you kind of get used to the smell of your own crap mixed in with the swamp smell. Use your imagination at what kind of rash and how many bug bites you might end up with after that experience.  Trust me, it was not pleasant, at all, but ‘mission successful’ and my CO let me write off my odiferous uniform as a combat loss. HUAW!  

Yeah, the bathroom was not ‘that’ bad, but I still got us out of that restroom as fast as possible. As we approached our car, the man I handed our money to, rushed to open the driver’s door for us.  He even used a mostly clean rag on the door handle.  “All ready to go Senora!”  He beamed a slightly nervous smile at me as I bypassed him to walk around to inspect the other side of the Audi.

{“Dani? What are you doing?”}  Melody asked, exasperated by my caution.

It looked good. No flat tires or anything suspicious. {“I am keeping them honest...”}  Without a word, I stalked back around to the driver’s side where the nervous attendant stood waiting. I ignored him as I sat behind the wheel and he politely closed the door for me as I carefully buckled myself into the seat and kicked of my heels. After I started the motor and verified that the fuel gauge was full, I rolled down the window and handed him another 1,000 Peso note. “Gracias Senor. Well done!”

I spun the tires on the way out and it was a blast. “Wow, I really love this car...”

We both said that simultaneously as I rapidly accelerated the car to just above the legal speed limit.  I did not want to get pulled over.  The radio was still blasting the same sugar pop crap, but I decided to ignore it.  I felt too damn good to complain.  Fuck, it was nice being young again!

{“Hey, can I drive again?”} Melody asked a few kilometers later. {“You’re driving it like a grandma!”}  

{“No, we can’t risk being pulled over or getting into an accident.”}  I only gave her half of my reason why she should not drive.  I wanted to drive the car too.

{“Well, go faster! The Goddess is on our side, or I mean, ‘use the force’!”} Melody impatiently taunted me.

I stuck my tongue out at her. “Were ya even alive when that movie came out?”

{“Umm, no, duh...weren’t you 20 back then granny?”}

{“Don’t make me pull this car over!}”  We both laughed, but I did drop it down a gear and accelerate up to 20 over the limit.

{“Come on, this car can go waaaayyy faster than that!”} Melody was very impatient.

{“I know...”} Should I ask her how fast she drove to get us so far ahead of schedule?  Well, if she was able to drive that fast after just learning how to drive; I should be able to do it too.  We hit a straight section and I briefly punch it up to 200 kph before slowing down to more sane speeds for the curves.

{“Well, that’s better, but you can go faster. Come on, we got bad guys to, umm, ya know...”}

{“Yes, but we can’t do that if we crash or hit a deer, a chupacabra or something...”}

{“A what? Oh, hey, just relax, like I said, ‘use the force’. You will know when you need to slow down.  That is how I was able to get us this far. I just knew, somehow.”}

I found it pretty hard to believe, but Melody did make excellent time.  Could the Goddess have really helped Melody with the drive or did she just get super lucky somehow?  I focus on my breathing, looking ahead and relaxing.  Before I realized it, we were doing at least double the posted limit, but I did not feel at all concerned.  I, or we, just seemed to know when we needed to slow down and when it was safe to speed back up again.  

The land flattened out and the traffic on the road began to get a little busier. As in, there was consistent traffic versus a random car here and there.  We slowed down to sub-orbital speeds before finally getting the danger signal too consistently for us to do more than cruise at the legal limit.  After going so fast, doing the 100 kph speed limit made it feel like I could have gotten out of the car and walked faster.

When we arrived at the target area, the harbor and warehouse district was fairly busy. I wanted to scout the target warehouse, but we had some business to take care of first. Mostly in order, we needed to:
 

• Launder the cash for Melody’s college fund.
• Change clothes.
• Scout the warehouse.
• Obtain some SCUBA gear.
• Rent a boat.
• Kiss the Audi goodbye.
• Wait/Pray for the Don to arrive where we expected him to.
• Rescue Melody’s parents.
• Terminate the evil drug lord. Yes, trite, I know, but it was true.
• Figure out an extradition plan to get Melody and her parents back to the U.S.

That last one could be a bit tricky, but if I made it to that step; it should also be fairly anticlimactic. Get Melody and her parents to the U.S. Embassy, suffer through the bureaucratic bullshit and win.

We needed to change our clothes because stomping around in a designer dress and shoes would not only attract attention; it would be uncomfortable. I also wanted to find a dive shop and get some gear.  I felt pretty certain that we would need to perform a covert, night time, underwater boarding operation because I doubted storming the dock or pulling up to the side of the Don’s yacht with weapons blazing would work.  Shit like that only works in the movies.

I also wanted to have the option of extracting Melody’s parents underwater as well because it pays to be invisible when you have made a ruckus. Convincing two panicked adults that their daughter was an expert diver and leading them through a nighttime dive operation would just have to be another ‘opportunity’ to figure out a solution for.

I found a bank less than a block away from the target warehouse, but I kind of doubted we would be very successful laundering the money.  We had no ID and I was pretty sure the Mexican authorities would be called to investigate such a large deposit. I knew Melody would want to keep the clothes, so I decided we could try mailing the designer clothes with a good amount of the cash tucked safely inside. Maybe we would get lucky and the U.S. Customs folks would not spot the cash.  If they did, I felt fairly certain that Melody would be able to convince them that she had no idea where the money came from.

Conveniently, there just happened to be a full service Mexican post office right around the corner from the bank. It was not busy and we found a quiet little, camera free corner in the post office to load a couple of boxes with our “dirty” laundry.  We utilized the office’s much cleaner restroom to change out of the dress and into a dark red, okay, maroon top with black legging pant things and the black and pink Puma sneakers. We kept the blond wig on since it would help if we broke Murphy’s Law by running into any of the Don’s men.

In addition to the blonde wig, we also kept the long red one, all of the cosmetics, our current shoes, the dark green dress to go with the red hair and all the under-garments. I thought we kept too much, but we still managed to fill two medium sized boxes with clothes.  Once the boxes were packed and sealed, Melody held onto them for a few seconds and chanted, “Please, please, please make it through customs...I really really really want the clothes...”  She repeated that a few times before finally letting me take the boxes up to the counter.  I was a little surprised that she was not more worried about the 500,000 dollars we had split between the two boxes. I debated shipping the scotch, but I did not want to risk it breaking and Melody, the heathen, did not appreciate it anyway.

Items one and two on the op plan were taken care of. {“Okay, Melody, now we need to scout the warehouse.”}

{“That’s awesome, but I kind of doubt these guys will just let us walk in.”} Melody sounded skeptical.

I laughed, but she was mostly right about our reconnaissance liabilities. {“Ye of so little faith. Let’s find a place to park and see what we can see...”}

At first glance, it did not look good.  On one hand, the target warehouse was easy to spot because the Don had a goon stationed outside to guard the entrance. On the other hand, the Don had a goon stationed outside which meant that ‘accidentally’ walking into the warehouse or pleading to use the bathroom was probably not going to work.  I spotted an old colonial fort that overlooked the harbor and conveniently, our target area.

{“Let’s run up to that fort over there...”} I gestured toward the walls built into the hillside. {“And take a look?”}

{“Sounds good to me. You’re the expert!”} Melody pictured herself snapping me a salute.

She had a good imagination because her salute looked almost perfect. In addition to the normal stuff in our purse, we took our binoculars and cell phone with us. Sadly, the binoculars did not fit in our purse, but we were tourists and tourists carry binoculars, right? With that in mind, we casually strolled across the tourist foot bridge and made our way into the old fort.

No one gave us any trouble or even looked at us funny.  The view of the harbor and our target warehouse was fantastic and I spotted a possible means to scout the warehouse interior without getting detected.  All of the warehouses had opaque sky lights that with a little work, may allow us to peek inside without being seen and the adjoining building had a ladder that dropped down to the warehouse roof.

{“Fu-crap!”} Too bad we did not buy a good camera because it would have been nice to get some good hi-res shots to send back to our friend Lieutenant Archer at SouthCom Command, just in case.

{“What’s wrong?”} Now that we were in the process of gathering intel that could help rescue her parents, Melody was a little worried.

{“Oh nothing. Don’t worry. It is just me being a dumbass because we should have got a good camera too...”}  I continued to scan the roof top.

{“Oh, well, we could use the cell phone’s camera. It’s an eight megapixel.”}

{“Hmmm, interesting...”} I processed Melody’s comment while surveying the warehouse’s roof.  In addition to some extra exhaust vents on the roof, they also had a satellite dish, but it was not the usual receiver dish.

{“Yeah, the phone is a good one.”}  Melody thought I was interested in the phone’s camera.

{“Not that...”} I focused the binoculars on the dish. {“See that dish?”}

{“Yeah...”}

{“That is an uplink dish.”}  I could tell Melody was unimpressed. {“It can be used to securely send and receive data from a satellite in geosync orbit.  Very handy if you are a drug lord and need to coordinate your shipments without using the public networks.”}

{“Oh, okay. Should we get a picture of it?”}

I gave Melody control. {“Yeah, go ahead. Get some good shots of the harbor too.  I am not sure where our buddy will anchor tonight. He probably has a slip here at a marina, but he may just set up shop in the harbor like some of the other boats out there.”}

Melody took some good shots and the camera was actually not too bad. I was surprised by how good  a camera they are putting into cell phones these days, but a good telephoto lens would have been better for the detail shots.

We headed back to the car to drop off the binoculars and to gather some additional supplies.  The skylights on top of the warehouse gave me an idea or two for the extra cell phone and half a kilo of C-4.  Being able to call in a little diversion might come in handy.  The block of C-4, a detonator and the cheapo cell phone fit easily in our purse.  

In the time it took us to walk down from the fort, a fuel truck had backed into our target’s loading dock and the driver was hooking up fuel hoses to some external fittings.  Printed on the side of the tank was “gasá³leo” or diesel fuel.  {“Interesting...It looks like they have a generator in there.”}

Instead of trying to stroll down the raised loading dock shared by all of the warehouses to reach the larger building with the roof access point, we used the street’s pedestrian sidewalk. We might have been able to get a closer look at the target, but I did not want to take a chance that the goon would recognize us. However; as we casually strolled past the target warehouse, I had Melody play the tourist and snap a few more pics.

The sun was just starting to get low on the horizon, it would probably be another 45-60 minutes before the sky started to become noticeably darker.  We had some daylight left and I was a little worried about that.  Based upon what I was able to see from the fort, we would be very visible to direct observation while on the roof.  Well, from anyone using the elevated footbridge or watching from the fort’s walls.  My other time concern was the fact that the Don was also due to arrive in another hour or two.
 

~o~O~o~

Doctor Thomas Lynch snorted with derision as he anxiously paced inside the confines of the luxury cabin aboard Senor Rodriguez’s yacht. It had been three hours since he, Michelle and their suitcases had been unceremoniously dumped in the room. In that time, no one had bothered to check on them and he was too afraid to even test the door to see if it was locked.

Not that it being unlocked would do a hell of a lot of good because they were now miles away from the nearest shore with nowhere to escape too. Their kidnappers had not even bothered checking their suitcases for weapons. That was how little of a threat he represented to them and he had to agree with them because thanks to the TSA, he did not even have a pocket knife hidden in their luggage.

He paused as Michelle briefly stirred in her sleep before settling down again. She had finally succumbed to exhaustion less than 30 minutes ago and he was afraid to wake her. One of them needed their sleep since in the last 24 hours since Melody had been kidnapped; Tom had only managed to get three hours of fitful rest. He wished that he could rest as easily as Michelle, but he felt as if the entire world now rested entirely on his shoulders. If he failed to make the drug for Senor Rodriguez, his family would die.  Hell, even if he succeeded, his family might still die.  

Their cabin could be used in a glossy brochure to provide the definition of luxury. Tom was forced to admit that Senor Rodriguez’s yacht was a marvel of high tech tastefully blended with rich leather, soft fabrics, wood and carbon fiber.  In any other circumstance, the view of the distant coast of Mexico out of the large cabin window would be inspiring, but none of that mattered to him.

Once again, he glanced down at Michelle and his heart skipped a beat. She looked so beautiful and Melody looked so much like her mother that he felt his fists begin to clench with rage. How dare the bastard use his family like this? He pictured Melody’s bright and cheerful smile and briefly wondered if she was still alive.  No, he could not think like that. She had to be alive! He wanted to punch the smug bastard in his face, but he knew that would be pointless and only make things worse. Fuck, it might even break his hand.  

Maybe he could make a garrote out of a belt or something?  That idea reminded him that he was a science geek and not a trained killer, no matter what his instincts were trying to tell him.  God, how he wished he had taken that Karate class in college now.  Maybe if he had, he would not feel so utterly helpless right now.  His only option was to do what Senor Rodriguez requested and pray that he would honor his word and let his family go free.

It was the only thing he had because he felt very little hope of being rescued.  The bastard owned the fucking police and despite what the Hollywood movies might portray, there was no SEAL team or Delta Force standing by to rescue his family. A Doctor he may be, but he was not a Nobel physicist able to make an atomic bomb with duct tape and dynamite. No, he was a Chemical Engineer and as such, hardly a threat to National Security that would warrant a Hollywood style rescue attempt.

A polite knock sounded from their cabin door, surprising him because why would they knock?  Confused, Tom carefully opened the door to find a crewman standing politely in the hall.

“Hola Senor Lynch, The Don has requested yourself and Senora Lynch’s presence in the aft lounge for lunch and cocktails.” The man spoke in lightly Spanish accented English.

Tom glanced back at his wife, torn about waking her. “Can my wife stay here and sleep?”

The crewmen helplessly shrugged his shoulders.

“Now?” Tom glanced back at Michelle.

“Si, Senor...” The crewman appeared sympathetic. “Perhaps if the Don needs her, I can come back and get her for you?”

Tom quickly debated the proper course of action and decided that it was more important for Michelle to get some rest.  He quickly scribbled a note for her before leaving with the crewman.  As the unnamed crewman led him, Tom was forced to marvel at his surroundings.  He had to admit that despite all of the bastard’s other shortcomings, he did not lack taste.  He was forcefully reminded of his situation with his arrival on the upper deck and the presence of the bastard’s armed thugs lounging around with their guns openly displayed.  

As he approached the Don’s table, his thug’s dismissive glances were all it took to tell him that they did not consider him a threat to the bastard’s safety or their continued employment.

Senor Rodriguez looked up and smiled ear to ear. “Ahh! Doctor Lynch, I am so delighted you could make it, but where is your lovely wife?”

Tom wanted to strangle the bastard, but he controlled his temper. “Sorry, she’s sleeping...”

Senor Rodriguez looked momentarily upset before his expansive smile returned. “Oh, that is too bad; I hope that my little invitation did not wake her.” He turned to the crewman who escorted Tom up and snapped his fingers impatiently. “Julio, instruct the chef to deliver some sandwiches and beverages for Senora Lynch when she wakes.”

The crewman snapped to attention and gave Senor Rodriguez a slight bow. “Si, Don Rodriguez.”  He said, before he turned to head back into the interior of the yacht.

Tom felt torn between feeling grateful for the asshole’s courtesy and still wanting to strangle him.  Maybe he could use the bastard’s own lab to create a nerve agent that would slowly and painfully kill the asshole. It would not be that hard. Common household pesticides are very close in chemical composition to military nerve gas.  A few tweaks and he could easily come up with a chemical that would, if not kill a man, make that man very very sick.

“Come, sit, Doctor Lynch.” Senor Rodriguez gestured to the open chair across from him. “You look exhausted and that makes me feel inadequate as a host because you will not be at your peak when you perform the little favor that I am asking in return for finding your missing daughter.”

“You fucking bastard!” Tom banged his fist on the table and stood. The thugs noticed Tom now.  The two nearest him moved toward him, but Senor Rodriguez waved them off and relaxed into his chair, smug smile infuriating Tom even more. Tom forced himself to calm down. “You have her! You can stop this fucking charade right now. Just let my wife and daughter go and I will gladly make your fucking drug!”

Exhausted by the heat of his anger, Tom bonelessly sat back down while Senor Rodriguez silently considered him. “I see...tsk, it is useless to continue this, charade as you called it, plus it was rather tiring anyway.” He took an appreciative sip from his martini. “Despite what you must think of me, I am not an evil man Senor Lynch.  Harming women and children is for lesser men, desperate men, and as a businessman, I cannot afford to sink to those levels.”

Tom looked up, feeling a small measure of hope return even as he knew Senor Rodriguez was delusional about his claim of being just a businessman.

“Yes, my men have found your daughter. She is safe and if you hold up your side of the deal, she will be returned to you. Then, you all will be allowed to resume your vacation and as a sign of my generosity, I will even throw in 20,000 dollars US to help your family with expenses.”

Tom did not bother trying to form a coherent reply to the bastard’s offer because all he wanted to do was tell him to stuff it up his ass.  He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look.  A Caucasian man with short cropped dark hair and wearing loose fitting military style khaki pants, military boots, a tight grey t-shirt under a military style black mesh vest with lots of pockets and a gun sticking out approached the table carrying a cordless phone.  Senor Rodriguez looked happy to see the man.

“Sir, a call for you...” The man said with Russian accented English as his eyes swiveled to glance at Tom.

The man looked military and Tom found his dispassionate stare unnerving.  Tom felt like the man was cataloging everything about Tom, but unlike the thugs, this man did not seem to entirely dismiss Tom as a threat.

“I suggest you take it in your office.” The man turned back to politely gaze at his boss.

Senor Rodriguez pleased smile faded with the man’s recommendation. He rose from his chair and took the offered phone. “Rodriguez...Capitá¡n Saludos.  ¿Qué ha encontrado?”  

Tom managed to understand just enough to know that the bastard was speaking with his puppet police captain, but the rest was too fast for him to even hope to understand.  

“ ¿ ¡Qué!” The bastard angrily yelled before he stormed off and launched into a rapid fire stream of what had to be profanities as he addressed the person on the other end of the phone.

Tom was not sure what to do or how to take the bastard’s reaction to receiving a call from his police lackey.  Should he be happy that something was not going according to plan for the bastard or worried?  

“Miguel, Garcia.”

Tom looked up as the Russian man spoke to the two goons nearest him.

“Take the Doctor back to his cabin.”

“Si, Senor Bogomolov!” One of the men said as he jumped to obey the Russian.

As the two goons reached for Tom, Bogomolov grinned down at him, his smile never reached his eyes. “Enjoy your stay Doctor Lynch.” He said before turning back to follow his boss into the interior of the yacht.

The goons were less than polite in their guidance back to his cabin, but Tom could not stop thinking about the bastard’s reaction to the phone call.  Michelle woke as he was unceremoniously shoved through the door.  She flew to his side, her face full of concern. “Tom! Where did you go? What happened?”

Tom hugged his wife tightly to his chest and took a deep breath.  The press of her body against his along with the slight, fresh peach scent of her hair helped calm him.  He kissed her fondly on her ear. “Oh god Michelle, I love you so much! I am so sorry...”

Michelle abruptly pushed him away.  “Thomas Lynch!  This,” She glanced around their cabin. “Is not your fault and I refuse to allow you to take the blame for that fucking bastard’s actions. Do you understand me?!”

Tom could only nod with agreement as his emotions overwhelmed him.  God, she was so beautiful and strong. “What would I do without you?” He asked as she let him pull her to him once again.

Michelle answered by hugging him back and resting her head on his shoulder.  The moment only lasted for a minute, but Michelle’s unconditional support for him buoyed his spirits.  

“So, what happened? Where did you go and why didn’t you wake me?” Michelle asked, pulling back to study his tired eyes.

Tom sighed. “Senor Rodriguez wanted me, no, us to eat lunch with him, but I wanted to let you sleep. You looked so peaceful and you needed it, but it was cut short when he got a call from the police captain.”

“Oh?” Michelle raised a questioning eyebrow as she moved over, sat down on the bed and patted it as a signal for him to sit.

“Yeah, but I am not sure how to take it. I couldn’t understand what was said, but whatever it was, he was not happy. Pissed is more like it. He also has some scary Russian dude. Not sure what he does, but it looks like he might be his security chief or something...”

“Do you think he was pissed because Melody escaped?” Michelle clutched Tom’s arm and gazed up at him with hope filled eyes.

Once again, he hugged her tight. “I don’t know hon, but I hope so...”
 

~o~O~o~

Viktor Bogomolov, formally a Spetznaz Captain in the Soviet Union, listened impassively as his current boss berated him over the deaths of the men who had been charged with the simple task of holding the young American girl.  It was not his fault she escaped from the incompetent idiots the Don left in charge of the girl.  Viktor knew they were not up to the task and did not take the job seriously enough, but what could he do about it? Yes, he was The Don’s Chief of Security, but he was not the one who hired the idiots and to make matters worse, the chief idiot of the bunch was related to The Don.

After he heard about the girl escaping and then, being raped, stabbed and possibly killed by the idiots that were supposed to be guarding her;  he personally shot the one least likely to be connected to one of The Don’s relatives, before he sent the rest back into the jungle to find and bring the girl back. Just in case she had help, he also decided to send some re-enforcements, but apparently, his reinforcements were too late and not up to the task either.

He did know one thing for sure; who ever took out The Don’s men was a professional. However; the ritualistic sacrifice of the remaining men directly responsible for the girl’s rape confused him. A professional would not take the time or the risk to tie someone down and cut out their heart. A professional would simply kill the man, preferably with a single bullet to the back of the head.  If he was trying to punish the man, a professional may shoot their target in the knees, groin or gut before taking their time about finishing them off, but cutting out their hearts?  That made no sense at all.

It did spook The Don, a lot, and Viktor did not know why, but when The Don’s face turned deathly pale from looking at one of the pictures; Viktor got worried.  The Don had seen much more gruesome deaths, but something about these had driven the man to a near panic.

“I want whoever did this found and killed like the dog that they are!  No one does this to me! No one!” The Don said, pure panic in his eyes that he tried to hide behind a mask of rage.

“Yes sir, and, I will make some calls, see if any of my contacts know of anyone operating in the area.” Viktor said, forcing himself to remain calm and impassive under The Don’s maniacal gaze.  He had never witnessed The Don losing it this badly before, but Viktor’s battle hardened, calm assurance under fire seemed to help The Don regain some control over his emotions.

The Don sat down heavily in his chair and reached, with shaking hands, for his cocktail. He downed it in one hurried gulp.

“Sir, I will also beef up our security here on the ship and I recommend doing the same at the warehouse.”

“Yeah, okay...” The Don looked at his empty glass with confusion and longing. “Damn it! Bring me another martini!” He bellowed.

Viktor remained silent until after the visibly nervous steward left after delivering the Don’s drink. “I will have to pull in some men from other locations. So, our security won’t be up to where I would like it to be until tomorrow, but for tonight, instead of the marina, I recommend that we moor the Conquistador in the harbor, well away from any other craft.”

The Don looked up from his already half empty glass with surprise mixed with suspicion. “Why? What are you not telling me?”

Viktor sighed. It was so much harder to do his job when the person he was responsible for questioned his reasons. “A) Whoever attacked your mansion was a professional and that concerns me. B) Attacking a docked vessel is much easier than one protected by water.  It will be far easier for my team to spot any potential threat and C) It makes it harder for our ‘guests’ to escape or draw attention to themselves.  We know that the Americans called their embassy. So, there might be someone looking for them right now. Finally, D) It will be far easier for you to retreat to the relative safety of international waters if the worst happens.  It would give you time to organize your friends...”

The Don nodded his head with reluctant acceptance. Viktor was grateful because he did not want to bring up the additional risk to the sub base The Don had hidden under the warehouse. No amount of The Don’s political connections would be able to save his sorry ass if the Americans found out about those little beauties.  No, the Americans would not be happy to learn that a Mexican drug lord possessed state of the art, silent diesel electric mini-subs capable of penetrating their territorial waters and delivering drugs, guns or terrorists onto American soil undetected. Instead of mentioning that, Viktor decided to bring up his next concern. “We need to ‘ask’ our ‘guests’ who else they may have called...”
 

~o~O~o~

{“This is so cool!”} I am sorry, I could not help it, but all this spy stuff that Dani was doing was cool.  I liked it when she decided to ship all the dresses home and I guess the money would not be a bad thing, but now that we were actually on the roof and ‘scouting’ our ‘target AO’, as Dani likes to call it; things were getting even more fun.

{“Ain’t over yet, keep your eyes open...”} Dani could be such a wet blanket at times.

{“Hey, your eyes are my eyes.”} I imagined me sticking my tongue out at her.  She needed to be reminded whose body we belonged to.  Ouch, that is kind of confusing to think about.

I was in charge of taking pictures and Dani was going to let me sneak into the office building, but the closer we got, the more nervous I became.  I did not think my nervousness was a sign from the Goddess of anything bad. It was just the fact that we were so close to the real bad guys and I was worried about messing up something fierce.  What if the office workers would not let us use their roof access? What if the door was locked? What if someone spotted us on the roof?  

Dani made getting on the roof look easy. She simply opened the door to the tourist office, waved at the woman behind the counter and calmly walked up the flight of stairs that lead to the second floor.  There were no shouts to ask what we were doing there, nothing.  Once on the second floor, Dani took a second to orientate herself and spot the door leading to a small maintenance closet. Again, no one came rushing out of their office wondering what she was doing there or if she belonged.  

{“Oh, heck, I coulda done that!”} I could not believe I had been such a nervous wreck.

The closet did not look like much on the outside, but inside, it contained some old, beat up tools, half empty paint cans, some mops and more importantly, a ladder that lead up to the building’s roof. From there, we climbed onto the roof and made our way over to the ladder that lead down to the warehouse roof.  

Dani stopped to study the target roof, it’s skylights, the dish, extra exhaust pipes and after what seemed like forever to me, I started to worry again. {“Dani, is something wrong?”}

“Hmmm? Sorry, no, but I think we might need some tools and we should have bought a backpack...”  Dani retreated back to the maintenance room and quickly stuffed a few small hand tools into our purse.  Two different kinds of screwdrivers, a pry bar, a half used roll of duct tape, an almost new roll of black electrical tape and a small hand drill with a broken bit.  After some digging, she found a new bit and used it to replace the drill’s broken bit. Satisfied with her finds and after a little creative stuffing of our purse, she climbed back up to the roof. After a small pause at the warehouse ladder to confirm that no one appeared to be watching them, she scared the crap outta me when grabbed onto the sides of the ladder with her hands and the insides of her feet and rapidly slid the 15 feet down to the next roof.

{“Whoa! Where did ya learn how to go down a ladder like that?”}

{“Hehe, the Navy. Lot of ladders in a ship...”} Keeping low, Dani crept over to take a peek from the rear, harbor side of our current warehouse.

{“Hey! Aren’t ya a little close to the edge there?”} I did not want to think about what it appeared Dani was thinking about because it was a long way down and even further down to the water.

“Hmmm, looks like we might be able to clear the docks down there and land in the harbor, if we had to.” Dani ignored my observations as she, for real, planned how to jump off the roof and land in the harbor.

{“Dani! No way, that’s crazy!”} I looked back down at the harbor so far below us and shuddered just thinking about it.  We would have to run and jump pretty hard.  The roof of the warehouse was not a single flat expanse all the way across. No, each warehouse had a section of roof that rose four to five feet above the main roof line, then across another 20 or so feet before dropping back down to the main roof level again.  It kind of resembled one of those old castle walls with the slots in the wall to fire arrows or cannon through.  You know, up and down, up and down and a real pain in the butt to climb.

Hmm, we were on the low side of the roof, but maybe if we jumped from the upper roof?

Dani crawled back away from the edge and proceeded to climb onto the first warehouse’s upper roof by pulling up with our arms and jumping at the same time. I thought it was going to be hard, but she made it look easy.  

{“Damn...it’s so nice being young again!”}  Dani happily grinned as she crawled over the roof and without making a sound, smoothly dropped back down on the other side.  

It took three more roofs before we reached our target roof and I guess I was in better shape than I thought.  Dani inspected the satellite dish to confirm her suspicions. {“Yep, it’s an uplink dish. Take a picture, please.”}

Dani surprised me by her request. I know she can operate a cell phone camera. {“Umm, okay, but...oh nevermind.”}  I guess she wanted to make me feel useful.

The skylights were next on her agenda.  They were made of a thick white plastic and convex in shape to allow rain to roll off the surface. They appeared like they could be raised or opened from the inside to help cool the building, but they were currently closed.  Dani tried the pry bar, but it would not budge.

“Hmm, I don’t think forcing this would be a good idea...” Dani put the pry bar down and used the hand drill to bore a small hole off to the side of the convex surface while being very careful to not block the light and cause our shadow to show on the other side.  Once the hole was bored, she used our cell phone’s camera to look through the hole.

{“Hey! I thought that was my job?”}  I knew that she could work the camera, but I had to complain about something, right?

{“Oh, sorry, but I thought you wanted me to learn how to do this myself?”} Dani tried to act innocent, but I was not fooled.

{“Fine! You do it, but don’t come crying to me when you mess it up. Hmmmppphh!”} My statement may have worked better if I had not broken down and giggled immediately after I said it.

After she took a few pictures from that hole, she used a small piece of duct tape to seal it before moving to the other side of the skylight. She repeated the drill, camera and duct tape trick on the other side and then, did the same on the other edges until we had pictures from every angle.  The sun was too bright and the screen too small to really make out any details from our pictures, but from what I could see, they looked good with lots of stuff going on inside the warehouse.

{“Okay, all done with the pictures. I hope we got enough.”} Dani sounded a little concerned, but I knew it was because she hated not knowing exactly what she is up against.  {“Now to setup my lee-tle distraction...mu ha ha ha!”}

Seriously, Dani is so weird sometimes. {“Yer scaring me sis and do I really want to know?”}

{“Oh, nothing bad, but we have some C-4 that is just begging to go boom.”} Dani jumped down from the upper roof and using the duct tape, she shaped the clay-like stuff into a cone and then, using the duct tape, she secured it to the side of the roof with the pointy side facing out.  Next, she broke open the cheap cell phone and wired the ringer to the detonator thing.

I did not understand what she was trying to do or even how it would work. I thought you needed to set explosives off with one of those boxes that had the plunger thing like they used to blow up stuff in the westerns. {“Dani, what are you doing?”}

{“Oh, just shaping the charge so the force of the explosion will be directed through the wall here when I...”} She pointed to the cell phone. {“Wire this to the detonator. Then, if we need a good distraction, we can call the phone and detonate the C4. Simple, right?”}

It was kind of simple. {“Umm, I guess so, but what happens if someone else calls our phone?”}

{“Well, then it goes boom before we wanted it to go boom, but the odds are kind of slim because we just bought this phone, we have not given our number out to anyone and no one has called it yet.  So, I think we stand a good chance of it still being there when we need it, I hope.”}

I still thought she was crazy. The darn telemarketing folks called my cell phone all the time. {“Okay, but can we leave now, you know, just in case...”}

We made it into the office building and back down to the street in front of the warehouses without anyone appearing to notice us or calling our old cell phone.  Dani let me take over again. She claimed that I walked more naturally as a girl than she did, but I think she was just feeling lazy. The fuel truck was gone now, but the same guard was hanging out in front of the warehouse door.  I occasionally glanced back at him as I pretended to be a tourist and he never appeared to find us all that interesting. Well, no more than any other girl walking past his station. He did not try to chase us down or yell at us.

Once we made it back to the car, Dani had me copy the pictures off the phone and onto the laptop so she could view them on a bigger screen.  Except for one, the pictures turned out pretty darn good. I was still a little miffed about her doing my job, but I guess you can teach  an old dog new tricks.  

“Son of a fucking bitch...” Dani muttered softly under her breath, surprising me by her uncensored use of the f-bomb. She almost never does that and I think it is kind of funny when she tries to censor herself with me.

I tried to see what got her so upset in the current picture, but all I saw were some openings in the floor and maybe a boat or something in the water. Wait, the boat was under the warehouse. How would it get out? Oh, I know what the boat is now. {“Oh, aren’t those the subs we found the plans for?”}

Dani closed her eyes, pressed herself against the seat and gripped the steering wheel like she wanted to try breaking it off. “Grrrrr, I fu- oh, fuck it, I fucking knew it was going too well!”

{“Dani!”} Wow, she was pissed.

Dani ignored me for a few seconds, but I could feel our body start to slowly relax as she furiously thought about the subs.  I was about to ask her what she was thinking about, when she suddenly opened her eyes and intently returned to studying each of the pictures. I decided that interrupting her while she was ‘in the zone’ would be a bad idea. Some of the pictures, she merely glanced at, but other’s she zoomed in and panned back and forth between other pictures. After a bit more of that, she closed her eyes and relaxed back into the seat.  Now, I was almost beyond curious about what was going through her devious and violent little head, our head.

Finally, after another minute or two, she exhaled with purpose and opened her eyes. “Okay Melody, sorry about that, but I know what we are going to do today...”

I do not think she found it at all amusing when I broke down into uncontrollable giggles when she said that phrase, but after all the stress; I could not help myself.