"Marsh, I have one favor to ask." The Admiral paused. "I'd like to have access to your sat com feeds for this op. I know you don't have any obligation, as the CEO of a private company, to provide me with anything related to this action. Marsh, I know I'm going way out on a limb here, and I'm willing to risk my career at this point to cover your ass. I will not bother you again if you ask me to drop out, but..." The Admiral paused. "I'd like your permission to have my pilot fly my Gulfstream from here in Hawaii, to Nueva Loja. I'd like to be there when you get out of Colombia, Marsh."
There was a long pause as Marsh looked around the passenger compartment of the Gulfstream.
Becca answered for everyone. "Admiral Sir! This is Becca, AKA Captain Rebecca Mitchel, U.S. Navy Reserve. I trust my Uncle Randy with my life. If Uncle Randy says that you can be trusted sir, I'll take him at his word. Let me assure you, with all due respect, Sir, that if anything goes wrong with this operation, and I find out you had anything to do with it Sir... I'll kill you."
There was dead silence in the Gulfstream and on the sat com.
The silence was broken by Mama Vicky. "Admiral Davis, you don't know me, but my name is Victoria Martinelli. My husband and his brothers saved your sorry ass in Viet Nam. Those three men are on this operation now to rescue my daughter, and I would like to assure you that my daughter-in-law will NOT have a chance to kill you if you fuck up this mission. Mama Vicky will bring down the wrath of a Sicilian Mama so hard that as you die you will wish your mother had cut your throat the day you were born."
After another long pause Mama Vicky asked, "Do you have any questions Admiral?"
Admiral Davis cleared his throat before he replied; "Mrs. Martinelli, you have made yourself crystal clear. I'd like to say that I think Marshall Mitchel was very well raised and I hope I NEVER have an occasion to cross his Mama."
"Marsh, I will be on my plane within half an hour. Remember that my Gulfstream is not nearly as fast as yours is. I don't know your mission time line, but if I am not there to see you off, go with God!" The sat com clicked and went quiet for a few seconds. Marsh did the math silently in his head. The Admiral was probably in one of the Navy's C-37As. The C-37A was the Navy's version of the Gulfstream G-550, and it would fly at somewhere between 550 and 570 MPH. It would take the Admiral about ten hours to fly from Hawaii to his base here in Nueva Loja.
Uncle Tony was the first to break the silence. "Victoria, do you realize you just threatened a four star, active duty, US Navy Admiral?"
Mama Vicky faced her brother-in-law. "Antonio Martinelli. Do you realize that I don't give a damn how much brass that old fart has on his uniform? This mission is being run by my son and his best people and includes my husband, my other son and my brothers-in-law. I don't care if I have to go through the God Damned president of the United States. They just better stay the hell out of the way and let my Marshall Edgar do what he has to do. My only daughter is going to come home at the end of this. Fuck the thumb riders in the capitol. They're the reason this mission is taking place to begin with."
Mama Vicky was in the seat next to Antonio and put her right forefinger on his chest. "Do you have any questions, brother?" Mama stood up and looked around the passenger area of the jet. "Does anybody else need to have Mama Vicky schplain anything?"
After another minute of silence, Becca stood up. "Mama, I mean no disrespect. I'd like to stay and chat, but we're getting close to Ecuador, and this plane needs a pilot in the cock-pit. I'm going to have to leave y'all now."
Mama smiled at Becca. "Smooth honey-child. That was smooth. You go up and take my Marshall Edgar with you. You have a job to do. Now get out of here."
The sat com radio crackled to life again, it was Suzie Blanchard. "Mama Vicky," she asked mildly. "Will you adopt me? My mother passed away a few years ago, and I'd really love to have a Mama like you watching out for me."
Just the way Suzie spoke to Mama Vicky broke the pall in the cabin of the Gulfstream. Several people began to chuckle as Mama Vicky replied. "Sweet child," Mama cooed. "You now have a new Mama. You need anything and Mama Vicky will make sure you get taken care of. I may have to rely on my Marshall Edgar to make the arrangements, 'cause I'm not located in the same zip code, but take this to the bank honey, you've got your very own Mama Vicky."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Becca took the pilot's seat and put on her headset. Marsh took the co-pilot's chair and was wired in at almost the same time.
Becca had programmed the radios ahead of time, and she now just pushed the mic button to speak with the Ecuatorian air space controllers. She spoke to them in Spanish, even though she knew they spoke very good English. It was a respect thing.
Control aéreo de Ecuador aquí Turner Air One, nos estamos acercando a la zona de control del noreste, nivel cinco uno cero. Solicito autorización para entrar al espacio aéreo y cruzar hacia Nueva Loja.
("Ecuador air traffic control, this is Turner Air One, approaching your northern control zone at flight level five one zero. I'm requesting clearance to enter Ecuatorian airspace and over-flight clearance to Nueva Loja.")
The immediate response was spoken by a female voice, in perfect English. "Welcome, Turner Air One. This is Ecuador flight control center in Quito. You are cleared to your destination of choice, Miss Rebecca. We've been expecting you. You must be planning a big party, girlfriend. There have been a lot of your friends flying in to your Nueva Loja base. I hope you have enough places to park all those airplanes."
Becca laughed along with the controller, and then replied,
Centro de control de Quito, la compañía tiene una excavadora. Les podemos crear espacio en la jungla si nos quedamos cortos de rampas.
("Quito control center, you know the oil company has a bull dozer out there. We can just have them make more parking places in the jungle if we run out of room.")
"For you Miss Rebecca those oil company boys will probably do most anything, eh?"
Centro, es posible que los chicos lo hicieran antes pero posiblemente, ahora no. Parece que no te has enterado que me casé. Mi esposo es mi copiloto así que los chicos deben ser muy buenos conmigo y estoy segura que mi esposo hará que se controlen.
("Quito control center, the oil boys probably would have, but maybe not now. I guess you didn't hear the news. I got married. My husband is my co-pilot today. The oil company boys have to be good now. My husband will make them keep their playing restricted to just the bull dozers.")
"This is a good thing, Miss Rebecca. Congratulations! I'm happy for you. Please enjoy your stay in our country. Quito control out.
Gracias Control, Tuner Air One fuera.
("Thank you Quito control. Turner Air One out")
While Becca was having her conversation with the radar control center, Marsh was slowing the Gulfstream to a lazy seven hundred fifty miles per hour and had let the computer start to bleed off some altitude.
The field elevation was only a thousand feet above sea level, so the Gulfstream needed to lose a full fifty thousand feet. This would not be a problem, and by the time they were lining up on the runway at the Turner Nueva Loja base, Marsh was flying the jet at a pattern altitude of eight hundred feet above ground level, and had slowed the sleek airplane down to just a little under one hundred fifty miles per hour.
Becca took over about two miles from touchdown, and greased the jet onto the base's twelve thousand foot runway. She was stopped in less than half of the usable length. The runway was built to handle the large loads that the oil companies used when they were moving heavy equipment in large transports, so stopping the lightly loaded G650 was a quick and easy task.
There was a short taxiway from the runway to a large hangar where a Turner L-1011 was parked just at the front of the hanger. This particular plane had been customized for transporting Turner security personnel, and it was the airplane that Mike Taylor had brought his teams down to Nueva Loja in.
As Becca taxied up to the hangar Marsh noticed that Mike and his teams were just exiting the aircraft. There were handlers removing the teams gear from the luggage compartments and Mike's team members were all sorting through the gear, and making sure that everything was in order.
"Marsh," Trish had walked up to the cockpit. "I think you said you want to talk to everyone, right?"
"I did, sweetheart." Why?" Marsh had almost forgotten he had said something to the family while he was back in the passenger cabin.
"I just thought I'd gather the troops while you and Becca finish the stuff you need to get done before you leave the cockpit." Trish responded with a smile as she turned and headed for the door of the plane.
Papa Victor had unlocked the door, opened it and was extending the stairway. As Trish got to where he was working she put her hand on his arm and asked, "Papa, do you mind if I step out on the stairway first?"
"Not at all, Trish." Papa Victor replied, you need to get out of here in a hurry, huh?"
"Ahhh, not really Papa." Trish told him. "I just want to see if I can get everybody's attention for Marsh. He said he needs to talk to his team, and I figured this would be the best time. They're all right here. I just need to get their attention."
With that Trish put her two index fingers between her lips and let out a whistle that may well have been heard up on the Panama Canal. "I'm pretty sure you got their attention, sweetheart." Papa was shaking his head and smiling. "Wow! You sure had me surprised."
Jimmy was the first to arrive at the bottom of the Gulfstream steps. "You wanted something, young lady?" he asked. I haven't heard you use that call in...Awe hell," Jimmy stammered. I haven't heard you whistle like that since you were about eight years old. As I recall you wanted someone to pay attention to your mother, right sweetie?"
"That's right, daddy." Trish smiled down at her father. "And this time I'd like everybody to gather around to hear some words of wisdom from my gorgeous and very intelligent husband."
By now everyone that had flown to Ecuador in the L1011 was gathered at the bottom of the stairs from the Gulfstream. There was a small crowd just inside the front door of the Gulfstream as well. Becca and Marsh finished their paperwork for the flight, and walked out towards the door.
Papa Victor addressed Marsh; "Son, I think there is a passel of your fans at the bottom of the stairway that are expecting you to address them." Victor extended his arm and stepped back, making room for Marsh and Becca to step out of the plane.
When Trish felt Marsh walk up behind her she too stepped aside. "They're all yours, my love." She told him.
Marsh looked down at the group of people scattered around the stairway of the Gulfstream. He turned to Papa Victor first and asked him to have everyone from inside come out on the steps, before he could speak to everyone. Then Marsh walked down to the first step at the bottom of the stairway.
When the stairway was propagated with his family Marsh began to speak. "First I would like to thank all of you for being in this location right here and now. Almost all of you began your career with Jimmy Turner, long before I had anything to do with this company. Jimmy hired you and now he has turned over most of the operations, and all of the responsibility for what goes wrong, to me. It makes me really glad he has chosen such good people."
"Most of you know me and my executive VP Becca. Some of you only know of my reputation and I'm hoping I can outlive that. At this time, I would like to introduce the members of my family that have joined us for this mission."
"A few of you have met my wife and vice president of the hospitality division of Turner Global and my chief whistler, Patricia Mitchel." Marsh turned and put his hand out to Trish, then turned back to the crowd on the floor.
The next person on the steps is the beautiful lady that has known me longer than anyone else, my aunt and the first mother, Marguarita Rosario." Marsh took Mita's hand and kissed it.
"Next and just above Mita on the steps is my other mother, Victoria Martinelli. Please don't mess with my Mama Vicky. I refuse to protect you from the wrath of this Sicilian Mama if you piss her off, as someone just across the border already has. Mama is here to supervise this rescue operation. We're going to Colombia to bring her only daughter back. If we don't accomplish that, the Turner Companies will need a new CEO. Read into that whatever you wish, but I will not come back and face Mama Vicky without my sister Lizzy."
"Next to Victoria stands her husband, Victor. Papa Victor will be one of our pilots. I plan on riding in the CH-53 he pilots. Papa Victor is a Viet Nam combat veteran. He flew Hueys through curtains of machine gun fire in those jungles, and there are a host of veterans of that hell hole that are alive today, only because he and his brothers brought them out alive."
Above Papa Victor is my little brother Mario Martinelli. Mario is also Lizzy's little brother. He and I were raised by Marguarita and Mama Vicky. We spent eight summers in South Viet Nam learning from some of the wisest old warriors that Southeast Asia has ever known. There is only one person I'd trust more with my life and she is standing right next to me. Mario and Becca are second to none."
Above Mario is our uncle Antonio Martinelli. Uncle Tony will be flying one of our Super Hueys during this mission. He's another veteran pilot of the Viet Nam war, and he will fearlessly fly into a combat zone and then fly back out of it with his men."
"Above Uncle Tony is the youngest Martinelli brother, Giuseppe. He's known to me as Uncle Joey, and to a shitload of living veterans as "Loco Joe". Uncle Joey was the door gunner aboard Uncle Tony's Huey. Uncle Joey was hugely lethal with his M60. Not just from the door of the Huey, but he was rather famous for picking up that gun and several belts of ammunition which he then carried out into the jungle to eliminate nests of VC that he couldn't get from the inside of the Huey. Uncle Joey is looking forward to playing with our newer toys, such as the GAU/17 or the M240."
"I know most of you have seen combat in some form. The Martinelli brothers have seen it in its worst. They are here as volunteers today to go with us to rescue their daughter/niece. I couldn't ask for men that were more motivated to help us be successful."
"My last introduction is my partner of four years; please enjoy the company of Wolf, my K-9. Wolf has saved my ass a few times. He helped me a few weeks ago to save the life of one of my favorite wives. He and I took on three of The Butcher's gang. Wolf killed one of the three, and assisted with the third kill. I would hate to think where I'd be if he had not been at my side for the last four years."
Wolf had wound his way between the family that was still on the stairway of the Gulfstream and was now on the ground floor just in front of Marsh. "Wolf," Marsh spoke to the K-9, "Wave to the nice people." Wolf sat up on his hind legs and pawed the air with his right front foot.
"For those of you who may not have seen the video feed that some of us saw while we were flying down here my sister made a plea for us to get her out, along with ten additional Americans that are being held. I have no idea who those additional hostages are, but we are going in there and not stopping until they are all free."
"The reason I am telling you all this is because I've made an executive decision to push up our departure time. I want the ground teams to be at the edge of the coffee plantation just a little before the sunrise. I realize that means we will have to get organized and get a little rest between now and then."
"I am hoping that Ron will be able to get Lucy and Suzie airborne in time to hide in the bright light of the sunrise and clear us a wide path. If my intel is as good as I believe it to be, Lucy and Suzie will do most of the work for us and we will just sweep in and collect all the glory."
"If any of you needs anything, please let me know. Becca and I packed enough weapons to arm ourselves and several of you as well.
I think I've covered everything I wanted to. If any of you have any questions I'll try to answer them or you can ask someone else if you think they might be able to answer you better than I can."
"Oh yeah, one more thing. I asked Jimmy to bring his mobile hospital down here so that we wouldn't need it. If Lizzy's information was correct, and I have no reason not to believe her, we may be bringing someone back with us who will need that service. I don't want any of you to need to go in there for repairs."
Marsh stepped down and took a couple of steps to the side of the stairway so that the rest of his family could finish exiting the Gulfstream. Jimmy walked over from where he had been and put his arm around Marsh's shoulders. "Good introduction, son. These people are the best of the best and they will march into hell with you. They all know your reputation and hold you in very high respect."
"Dad?" Marsh queried. "Is there a place, here at Nueva Loja, where I can take Becca and Trish to get a few hours of sleep tonight? I really would like to get at least four hours of sleep, six would be even better. Tomorrow is gonna be a killer day. And I mean that in any and all ways you could take it."
Jimmy smiled at Marsh as he answered. "Marsh, when I got here I called Rick and asked him to send some food and some cooks down with the 747. You'll have a place to sleep and you will have some great food ready here when you get back from the mission. Jack Davis and Teresa González are flying down on the big bird, to feed everyone. This base has OK food service, but we definitely have the best up at the hole or at the Lava Pit, It's kind of a toss-up."
"Oooh dad!" Marsh sighed. "I can't tell you how much that means to me. Having good food for everybody will be a very good treat. Especially for the Americans that have been held for God only knows how long in horrible conditions. Can you imagine Dad? They have no idea when or if they will ever get to go home."
"Did Rick give you any idea when the 747 will be here? I'm pretty sure I'm going to have an hour or so before I can bed down, but I hope it will be here soon."
Just then Becca walked over to Jimmy and Marsh. "Marsh," she began. "I guess you have your comm set turned off. Rick just said to tell you it'll be about another half hour. I hope you know what that means, 'cause I don't have a clue."
Marsh reached up to his ear and twisted the tiny dial on his ear bud. Then he threw his arms around Becca and hugged her and placed a warm kiss one her lips. "Sweet!" he exclaimed. "Teresa," Marsh said. "I hope you can hear me and I hope you have some strawberry rhubarb pie in the oven. And Rick if she can't hear me you better tell her I want comfort food when she gets here."
The sweet soft voice of Marsh's favorite Hole in the Wall chef rang in his ear. "Yes Marsh," Teresa González's voice replied. "I hear you and yes there is pie in the oven as we speak. You know this mama takes care of you sweetie. You can have fresh hot, strawberry-rhubarb pie as soon as we touch down."
"God I love this outfit!" Marsh blurted out. "I couldn't even have prayed to God for a better job and support staff. Jimmy you are the best!"
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