It Ain't Paranoia if... Pt. 02 Ch. 02

With a furrowed brow Claude replied, "There will be no survivors here, but you're correct; there are other gang members that are not here. We have room on the helicopter and we'll take you with us.

"Now, show me the laptops, the records, and the money."

"No, first I will help Kaitlyn, Grace, and Dos get cleaned up and in decent clothing; then I will help you. Everything is in Morales' office; getting it will be quick and easy."

****

Justice was meted out meticulously and mercilessly. Every tribesman had lost family and friends to the cartels, and they considered these to be cartelistas, even if not the particular ones that wreaked havoc.

If they continued to receive support for their weapons, fought as well and as fearlessly as they had here, and were as merciless with the survivors of the upcoming battles for their homelands, the cartels would have to either come after them in force, or reach an accord.

I suspected they would fight even more fiercely when the cartel soldados pursued them into their lands and villages in the mountains, and reaching an accord might become the better choice.

Kaitlyn reemerged with assistance from Arnulfo, accompanied by Eva, and they went directly to the quivering remains of El Asaltante and Popović. The four children were nowhere in sight.

A huge helicopter appeared just as Kaitlyn was wiping the blood off Abel's knife with the remains of The Assailant's shirt.

I've always heard that 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', and that all women are lionesses when their children are in danger or harmed, but I'm not sure either adage is sufficiently descriptive of what we witnessed. Even some very tough men had looked away more than once.

With Eva, whose wrath and knife work extended to Soldados beyond El Asaltante and Popović, I could attribute her ferocity to being one in blood with the many natives wronged by such men, and to her long mistreatment in captivity.

With Kaitlyn, though... I had no idea she possessed that demon within her! She didn't use the burning branch, but she did make them wish they'd never seen, much less touched, her or her children.

That the ponderous helicopter set down without problems on a designated pad about 50 yards down the valley speaks volumes about the goings-on around the fledgling cartel and their future plans. They were planning a great criminal enterprise, to rival those on either side of them. What we had done today saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives.

Paul Peveto jumped out and ran to us as soon as the monstrosity settled.

We met him in front of the porch; he clasped my hand, looked at those encircling me, and stated, "We can carry up to 30, but we need to get our asses airborne. We stayed as close to the ground as possible and juked and jived around the mountains in that bus, but we were seen by plenty of people on the ground and we can't fight off jet fighters or SAMs!

"We need to get back to American airspace as soon as possible!"

Those of us hoping to return to Texas gathered up and walked toward the idling helo with Paul; the closer we got, the more awesome it looked. "What is that monstrosity and where did you get it?" I screamed over the noise.

"It's a MI-38, made in the Moscow Helicopter Plant and sold commercially," he screamed back. "The owner uses it in construction and in transport. I'm one of not too many Americans certified to fly it, and I've flown several missions for him. He knows you; he heard about your situation, and called me to volunteer its use, but insists he remain anonymous. He doesn't want to make your enemies his."

"Thanks. I'll respect his wishes, but I know who he is. Keeps it north of Van Horn about half way to El Capitan..."

"I can neither confirm nor deny," he replied with a grin. "Well, thank him profusely, and I guarantee you he's going to get some profitable contracts in the years ahead."

I turned back; he continued on and waited with another man in flight gear.

Even with Eva and her two children, we only had nineteen. Our indigenous allies were creative, and their righteous anger at their oppressors spurred them mete out justice in ways those who found the bodies would understand.

The battle won, their righteous anger temporarily placated, they were disappearing into the mountains. Eva had patched up a couple of those with relatively minor wounds, and two were dead. One was a young leader of the Guarijío tribe, the other an older Rarámuri. Their bodies left on a travois pulled by the hale, who also assisted the wounded.

Miroslav and Morales were still alive, but they had long since begun begging for death.

We wrapped their bloody, broken bodies in canvas tarps and put them in the back of the gigantic helicopter.

Because the helicopter was so loud, the co-pilot required the kids to don noise-deadening helmets before they were helped inside, which proved prophetic; they didn't need to be deafened by the noise of engine and props, and they didn't need to hear the conversations behind them.

We lifted off with a roar. It was wildly exhilarating at first: after all, we didn't have to walk back through the desert for three days, avoiding ambush, with an injured woman and four kids!

But by the time they dropped us off I swore I'd never get in another helicopter!

Flying along at a few thousand feet in a rotary aircraft is one thing -- I've done that quite a lot - but skimming the brush, maneuvering through passes, and buzzing houses in a monster like this is quite another!

Paul followed a course that took us over the least populated areas possible while still getting us to safety as quickly as possible. We didn't experience a visual sighting of other aircraft, or of SAMs on the ground, but we cheered when we crossed the Rio Grande.

I'm not sure what the rafters thought when we skimmed over them at the entrance to Santa Elena Canyon and then started climbing, or what people around Study Butte, Terlingua, and Lajitas thought when a big dot of a helicopter flew above at about 10,000 feet.

I also didn't know how Chaparral knew to have vehicles parked on a flat ridge in the midst of the dessert well northwest of the Desert Lair, but I assume the revised planning covered all contingencies.

Kaitlyn had retained her clenched-teeth composure; I could tell she was hurting, but her anger was still greater than her pain, and she periodically glared at the simpering remains of her rapists.

Miroslav and El Asaltante each made a final plea for mercy when we began descending, but Eva joined Kaitlyn in loudly detailing the reasons they should receive the same amount of mercy they had been given, and the women, men, and children who had previously been mistreated, tortured, and/or killed by Morales in the three years since he kidnapped Eva and her children.

I was glad the kids were wearing the helmets, although they -- especially Eva's - had experienced too much of it firsthand.

Their pleas for mercy ignored, each received a unanimous guilty verdict and a death sentence. Their crying and begging gained them no leniency.

Twenty minutes after we disembarked, what was left of El Asaltante and Miroslav the Serb would dive out of the copter from a thousand-foot height, landing near a vacant school bus stop not far outside the Fort Davis city limit.

Surely the symbolism would be understood! I was certain Sheriff Goodson would get it, but I wanted the larger audience -- those behind this -- to get the message. I'd make sure the good sheriff got information and time on the national news to deliver it.

The helo continued on to a destination well past Van Horn, where it was returned to its hanger... which sports crossed lightning bolts above the doors that are identical to those on my gate.

Clay drove our Suburban, with Claude, me and my family, and Eva and her two children, directly to the Terlingua Ranch airfield where the plane was waiting. I sat in the middle of the second row, beside Kaitlyn, with Dos on my lap. Kaitlyn's adrenaline and fury were diminishing, and I could see her lip quiver from time to time.

I held her shoulder against me, kissed her forehead, and turned to Claude, sitting in the front passenger seat. He had his tablet ready, and we planned our next steps.

"Who do we have in San Antonio?" I asked.

"Esteban and his crew; they're elite, so protection isn't an issue. They'll meet you at the airport; I assume SAI?"

"No, the flight plan will say SAI, but we'll divert to Boerne and meet Ramos there. We have no way of knowing whether we're temporarily safe or they are about to fire the second barrage.

"Now, let's cut to the chase - they declared this war with a blow below the belt! Cut the dogs loose! And I mean every single junkyard dog in our kennel! Buy more if you need them!"

He nodded, and a tight grin twisted his mouth at the corners. The Edwards brothers were quite capable of righteous retribution.

"Confirm what Eva told us if you feel the need, and move on it," I told him. "Post the bounties in the same place and manner ours were posted -- make it obvious. We won't blatantly include their families like they did mine, but they need to worry about that too, so find a way. I doubt the Russian will care, but some of his henchmen might, and I know the Mexicans and Americans will.

"This is one of the few times I've wished I was a billionaire, but I do know a few who owe me, so expense isn't our first consideration. We need to take some of these thugs down right away to scare the more easily frightened, and I say we go for the top prizes first, before they know we're coming. Think we can do it?"

"Our odds of pulling that off are better than I thought they would be for this little exploit. We've been watching since this started. He's got plenty of troops, but he's vulnerable numerous times a day because of his arrogance.

"Best-case scenario, we get him and his top lieutenants, but decapitation may work well enough if we can't. After all, our goal is modest -- they stop coming after you and yourn.

"Clay will take the lead, and I'll provide intelligence and support. He has contacts and contractors, and he's the expert in urban warfare. He's mightily pissed, so expect headlines in the next few days."

It was a quick trip to the airfield. We loaded Kaitlyn, Eva, and the four kids on the plane, stepped away, and talked privately for a moment. "Clay, if Robert's name comes up at any point..."

"I understand, Rob. I'll let Reynaldo know; he has guys inside that he has restrained, but if he gives the word..."

"If he played even the slightest role, I want him to enjoy what Miroslav and Morales got before they went skydiving. But if he played any major role in this... he's had his three strikes."

"Say no more! Consider it done!

"Now, here's an unregistered phone with plenty of minutes; Clay, Carlos, and I each have one, and our numbers are in yours. We won't use them unless it's an emergency, but we'll have them.

"Esteban's telecommunications gear is top-of-the-line and very secure; use it when you can, especially for our daily briefings. We'll be in the communications center at the Mountain Lair, and the Militia is handling security in the desert, just in case. We are all in 'Hair Trigger' status, so make sure you let us know if you sent anyone out.

"We'll talk tonight, after you get them all to the doctor. They've been running on adrenaline and angst, so there may be injuries -- be they physical, mental, and emotional - that will manifest when they come down."

****

Dos had taken the seat by his mother; he was holding her hand and talking to her. They looked distraught and on the edge. I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him to move beside Benito so I could talk to mommy.

He stood, beckoned me to bend down, and quietly said, "Daddy, those men hurt mommy bad! She cried and cried when they brought her back, and she could barely stand up or sit down!

"Once, they drug me and Grace to a room where mommy was tied to a bed and they started slapping and hitting us with fists! They told her if she didn't cooperate they would beat us to death. She screamed at them, and they drug us away.

"We tried to fight back and get away, but they hit me in the head so hard I saw stars. They drug us back to the jail, stripped all our clothes off, and took them. Later they brought us the short pants we were wearing, but they wouldn't give us a shirt. We got really cold and shivered all night!

"When mommy came back she was wearing that little dress you saw; she held us and we all cried. They did stuff to her several times every day until yesterday, then they left her alone.

"You have to help her!"

"I'm going to, son. We're flying to see some of the best doctors in Texas, but right now we need to let the pilot take off so we can get going in that direction, okay?"

He looked and acted far older than he did a week ago before this began, and my heart hardened even more toward those responsible.

He quickly took his seat; I wrapped Kaitlyn in my arms as soon as I sat down. She was stiff and unresponsive, but didn't resist. Her lip was quivering, and her right eye had a twitch. Claude was right -- she was very near collapse, physically, mentally, and emotionally. This was going to be a long plane ride, and the next several months would be worse.

When we were in the air, I looked at Grace and Dos, who were turned in their seats watching me and their mom; they were somber, but unwavering. I smiled at them to provide some assurance things would be okay, and wondered if we won the battle and lost the war.

The damages were still to be determined.