Chapter XII

Cowgirl Meet Tom

Mike climbed out and shouted. Several men came running up. Mike and the men were saying something I couldn't understand. The men pulled Albert out of the helicopter and carried him into the house.

"He's going to be alright isn't he?" I should have offered to help.

"Yeah, he's tough as an old boot. He'll be good as new in a couple weeks. We carry a pretty good stock of veterinarian supplies. I'll pump him full of something to kill the infection." Mike started off toward the house.

"Veterinarian supplies? You're going to pump him full of something? You'll kill him if he isn't already dead." I was running to catch up with Mike's long strides.

"I don't think so. All of us use it when we need. It's good stuff. They don't sell you that junk so you can kill your cows or sheep. The idea is to make the critter healthy not kill it." He opened the front door and walked into the house.

I followed him in. It felt ten degrees cooler in the house then out in the yard. Mike walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of medicine along with a needle and hypo. He tossed the bottle over in my direction. "Here, what do you think?"

Rolling the bottle around in my hands I turned it so I could read the label. "Combiotic? Is Albert allergic to any of this stuff?"

He shook his head. "Not that I remember. He needs ten cc' s in him now and another ten in twelve hours."

I handed the bottle back to Mike. "I guess. I've used it before but only on animals."

Mike nodded. "That's us. Just animals."

He pointed down the hall. "Bathroom is down that way Jake. Don't use a whole lot of water as it's solar heated and it isn't that big of a tank. You use it all up and tomorrow night I take the first bath and you will get a cold one."

I started down the hall before I stopped and turned. Mike was filling the syringe. "Mike what do we do now? I mean, what if they catch us? Will they kill all of us?"

He held the hypo up and squirted the air out of the needle. "First things first. They won't catch you Jake. I don’t care if they send the whole army through that tunnel. It will take them a few days to make it and figure out you and Albert had a ride waiting on the other end. Those tunnels spread out all through that mountain. Chances are pretty good they won't ever find the right one even if they do believe you and Albert went through. Anyway, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. You'll be gone by then."

"Gone? Gone where?" What did Mike mean by gone?

"Go take a bath and relax. Towels are on the shelf above the toilet. You let me do the worrying now. Albert passed that responsibility to me when he brought you along." He turned and walked out of the room.

The bath made me fell like a new person. I did have a fresh perspective on life when I walked back into the front room. I searched the house until I found Albert. He was lying in bed and a woman was wiping his head with a washcloth now and then.

"How's he doing?"

She smiled and nodded.

I felt of his forehead. He had a temperature but it wasn't bad. I picked up his wrist and felt for a pulse. He had a good strong regular pulse. That was the limit of what I was capable of doing for him. "He seems to be resting alright."

Again she smiled and nodded.

"You speak English?" I was beginning to suspect she didn't understand me.

She smiled and nodded.

"No, I don't guess you do." I left to find Mike.

I found him out in the yard. He and several men had the helicopter up on a dolly and pushing it into the barn. I lent my shoulder to the task. "Need a horse."

Mike nodded as he steered the dolly and helicopter into the big barn. "That would work if you knew what you were doing."

They worked the helicopter back into a corner and the men covered it with a tarp. Mike stopped long enough to wipe sweat off his forehead. "How's your arm? You seem to be alright."

"It's better after the bath. I thought it was broken when we were in the air. I probably bruised it pretty bad. I bet I will be paying for it in the morning." I wind milled it around to show how good it was.

He looked at one of the men and said something I didn't understand. The guy walked over to a box on the barn wall and pulled down a bottle. He walked back over to me and started rolling up my sleeve.

"What's he doing?" I didn't know if I wanted my shirt sleeve rolled up or not.

"He's going to put some liniment on it so it won't hurt in the morning."

"Uh, that's okay. I'm sure it won't be that bad." I was trying to back away but the guy already had the top off the bottle and shaking something with a real strong odor on my arm and rubbing it in.

Mike walked out of the barn while I was getting liniment rubbed all over my arm. I chased him down after I got away from the guy who wanted to rub whatever it was all over my arm. "I stink. Now I need another bath."

"Won't do any good. The liniment has soaked into the skin. It won't hurt you Jake. What it will do is keep your arm from swelling up and hurting by morning."

"What is it?" I leaned over to take a smell. It wasn't anything I had ever run across before.

"Bark extract, seed pits, and a lot of other things mixed in alcohol. It will heal a sprained ankle in a day."

He walked up to the corral, put his right foot up on the bottom rail, and leaned over the top rail. "I built this place. Came here after Vietnam, Lebanon, and a few other places I don't care to remember. Albert and I were buddies in special ops. I took care of him, he took care of me. After we retired from killing everyone Uncle Sam pointed us at, he became a reporter for a lot of magazines and some of those big television networks back in the States. I wanted away from it all. I had enough of people and what they did to one another in the name of some bullshit cause or another. Everyone's cause is a good cause so we kill each other to make the other guy believe it. I killed in the name of democracy to make the rest of the world safe. Bullshit! I killed because someone in my government pointed another man out to me and said he didn't think the way we did."

I was very quiet as I listened to Mike tell his story. I was almost positive I was the first person to hear this. He turned to look at me. "I was better than good Jake. Albert was better than good. That's the only reason we survived. I won't let anyone hurt you. No matter what, they won't get to you. I might be older now but I'm also a lot smarter. I have lost some of my edge but I make up for it in brains. I'm better than any man you have ever met. I'm even better than Albert which makes him the second best."

He turned and looked me in the eyes, winked, and walked away. I didn't believe for a second he had been telling me a whopper. I believed every single word. I tossed and turned in my bed that night. It wasn't my shoulder or arm causing me torment. I was lost in a world I didn't understand. Men killing men because they could and for no apparent reason.

Before sunup I was sitting on the corral rail watching the horses in the pasture and the jet black one in the corral. That horse was as interested in me as I was in him. I felt someone walk up behind me. "Hello, Mike. Sure is a beautiful horse. I checked on Albert a few minutes ago and he seems to be better. His fever has broke and he's breathing regularly."

He climbed up on the rail and sit down beside me. "How did you know it was me?"

"I could smell you."

"You smelled me? There are other men around here." He was studying me.

"Yes, but they smell different than you. Most everyone has their own peculiar body smell. Bill Randall smells like old leather, sun, and horse sweat."

"Who's Bill Randall?"

"He's a man back home. He is the National Calf Roping Champion. Lives down the road from us." I wished with all my heart I was back there now.

"Jake, I arraigned for a ride out for you. They will be checking all the commercial airports so it isn't going to be quick but it will get you out of the country. Six nights from now, at midnight, a plane will come in and pick you up. He will fly you out to the ocean and kick you out. A trawler will be waiting to pick you up. You ever do any parachuting before?"

I blinked as I tried to imagine what he was telling me. "No."

"That's okay. The parachute will open as soon as you clear the plane. When you feel your feet hit the water trip the release hooks. A rescue team will be there as soon as you splash in. Just in case something goes wrong, you will have a life raft tied to your belt. It will automatically inflate when you hit the water. If the rescue team isn't there when you surface then climb into the raft and they will be there shortly." He threw a stick out into the corral and waited.

I finally found my voice. "I need to call home and tell them I'm okay."

He nodded. "You can't call directly. They may be monitoring everyone's phone in that part of the world. I would if I were them. You can call a relay station in Belgium and it will delay and then relay your message to where ever you want it to go."

Mike dropped down inside the corral, turned around, and was studying me. "You're quite an unusual person. What is America's All Around Cowboy doing down in this neck of the woods? You know this whole country is going ape over your disappearance. The US Embassy is demanding to know what happened to you. The Brazilian government wants you. I'm curious as hell as to what is going on? In the helicopter, that Mr. Pladure fellow you mentioned being a guest of? That wouldn't happen to be Simone Pladure would it?"

"Yes."

"Boy, you don't mess around do you? You walked out on the most powerful man in Brazil? You don't just up and walk out on Simone Pladure. If he wants you to stay and be his guest then you stay and be his guest. How did you manage that little trick?" Mike was smiling as he asked the question.

"I had the cook call me a cab and a ride back to the airport. It wasn't complicated." I had no idea why I couldn't leave Mr. Pladure's house when I wanted. After all, I never asked to be his guest.

His eyes closed to squints. "My god! So simple it worked. Simone's house is guarded twenty four hours a day by the military. It would take a commando team of twelve men to penetrate that place. No one walks in or out without an authorization from Simon himself."

Mike was laughing. "You call a cab and ride out. I can't believe it. I bet heads are rolling right now."

He reached up, pulled me off the rail, and helped steady me as I dropped to the ground. He opened the corral gate. "Let's go see if Consuelo has breakfast fixed yet. We don't find our place at the table when it's ready those hands of mine won't leave us anything."

Back in the house, I washed my hands and then went to check on Albert. He was awake. "How you doing? You ought to be up and running the races as much stuff as Mike pumped in you."

A smile crossed his face. "Yeah, I bet he did too. I'm sorry for getting you into this mess Miss McDonald."

"Think nothing of it Albert. I don't seem to be the any worse for the wear and tear. Certainly not like you are. I think I came out of this in pretty good shape. Speaking of which. How do you feel?" I reached down and laid my hand on his forehead to see if he was still running a temperature.

"I'll live. Remember this Miss McDonald, even though the bullet went clear through it carried a lot of stuff with it. Parts of the car seat, my shirt, anything that was on my skin was pushed in. It all might have been microscopic but it carried a lot of bugs and they can build up a family in a hurry. So you remember to pump in plenty of bug killer if you ever get a hole." He was eyeing me to see if I had absorbed any of his wisdom or not.

I nodded. "I was born and raised on a farm. You don't have to tell me about wounds, germs, and things. I know all about them. I hadn't ever thought about a bullet carrying so much trash along with it but I guess it's probably true. Thanks for the advice. I'll leave the guns and bullets up to you and Mike."

He waved his hand and dismissed me. "I smell breakfast. I know this crew. You better go find your share before they eat it all up."

I helped Quinswala wash the dishes and clean up after breakfast. The men had disappeared right after eating. I never asked where they were headed. I figured they had to work livestock. I also figured they considered me a guest and I wasn't invited along. An hour later I finished sweeping floors and helping with the housework. I was glad when we were though. There was a black horse in the corral I needed to go inspect.

He was at the far side of the corral when I walked outside. His head came up when I stepped out on the porch. It showed me he was alert. Walking down to the corral, I climbed up on the fence and watched him for a few minutes as he watched me. He certainly was a beauty. Jet black, his hair glistened in the sun like it had been oiled.

"Here boy. I want to pet you. Come here." Didn't get any reaction.

"Okay, we'll do it the hard way." I stepped down off the rail and headed for the barn. In a few minutes I found what I wanted and was back at the corral. That corral had a snubbing post in the middle and it showed lots of use. I was betting black beauty was the one who was putting the wear on it.

He held real still until I swung the lariat over my head and then he took off. Around and around the edge of the corral he ran. I let him run for fifteen or twenty minutes before I dropped a loop over his head. Instead of wrapping the rope around the snubbing post I let him run some more. I was walking around the post as the black stallion ran the edges of the fence.

He must have run for more than a half hour before he decided I wasn't going to yank him up to the snubbing post. Slowly he dropped down into a trot, then a walk, and finally he stopped as he eyed me suspiciously.

Ever so slowly I eased toward him as I talked. "Easy old boy. I only want to pet you. How you been? You and I should get to know one another. You might make it up to the states some day and you can look me up. You know where the states are don't you? That's way up north of here."

I droned on and on in a monotone voice as I eased up closer and closer. Finally I was close enough to ease a hand out for him to smell me. He gave me a good inspection as I stood there quietly admiring his form. He was a magnificent horse. He had strong withers, excellent muscle mass in the front chest, and obviously good stamina. He wasn't breathing heavy after running for a half hour. He didn't quit because he was tired. He quit because I wasn't pulling him into the post in the middle. This horse was like Gunshy, he could never be broke, never be owned, and would never quit. Someone might ride him but it would never be a mutual agreement until they made friends with him.

I pulled the brush out of my back pocket I had found in the barn when I picked up the lariat. I let him inspect it before I began brushing his neck and shoulders. "You're such a pretty thing. You born and raised around here or did Mike buy you from someone else? You should have told him you weren't for sale."

We talked for an hour or more. I was finally able to move around him as I brushed him. I stayed away from those back legs. One little quick movement and I would have been dead. He might have been allowing me to brush him, we were a long ways from being friends. I brushed around his forehead and around his ears. It didn't send him to horse heaven but that was okay. Sometimes it's a learned trait. Over time he would learn to love it.

I felt his skin shiver. I could smell them too. "Hello Mike, where you been?"

The answer came from across the corral behind me. "How do you do that?"

I dropped the lariat off, letting it fall down to the ground as I turned my back to the horse. Mike was leaning on the rail along with another man. "I asked if he wanted to be friends and he said it would be okay."

A smile crossed Mike's face and I thought he was going to laugh. "That too, but I wanted to know how you knew it was me? You were busy when we rode up and you never looked."

"I could smell you. I also smelled the other man who is with you. He sit across the table from me at breakfast this morning." I could feel the black horse breathing on my hair and down the neck of my shirt.

"Is that what Tom is doing to you?" Both men were looking behind me.

"Tom? Is that his name? Kind of a plain name for such a beautiful horse. Yeah, you might say that. He's cataloging my scent. We aren't friends but we aren't enemies either. I'll make a wager with you. I'll bet every time you come out here to work with him you throw a rope on him and snub him up to the post. When you get where you have him pulled in so close he can't move you put a saddle on him."

Mike's eyes were closing to narrow slits as I talked. "When you get him saddled and a bridle on him, you try and ride him. That probably lasts until someone is thrown or he gets so tired he can hardly stand. Either way it doesn't make much difference. The next day is going to be the same thing. You start all over from scratch. He's not going to give in and you aren't going to give up. You might eventually ride him out of here but when you least expect it he will throw you. You'll never break his spirit."

Mike shook his head. "I might as well sell him for dog food then because I can't keep a horse that won't be rode."

"I didn't say he couldn't be rode. I said you will never break his spirit."

Taking a step back I was scratching under his chin. "Be friends with him. He will accept a friend. He won't accept a master."

Mike shook his head. "Jake, if that was me standing there in your place right now that horse would stomp me to death. I swear you have him under a spell."

"No, I let him know I wasn't going to fight with him. When we sit down to have a talk it isn't going to be with him pulled into the snubbing post. He's free to walk away if he wants. He knows that." I ran my hands down his chest.

"Jake, I need you to stay…," Mike hesitated and was looking off in the distance. “GET THE MEN!”