Santo Diablo Pt. 06

During this time, we undertook more missions with the government. A few were in Europe and the U.S., but the majority were Central and South America. Our reputations preceded us, and they formed a sort of myth around our teams. The name "Santo Diablo," or "Holy Devil," entered the vocabulary of locals throughout the region. Stories were told of the women and men in black who attacked and killed the men who enslaved women, always arriving out of fire. This must have been our habit of using explosions and flash bangs to disorient hostiles.

While on missions, our widows wore the red devil patch, and before long, it became a symbol of resistance in small villages where young women were taken. Even a rumor that Santo Diablo was near would cause organizations to double and triple security. This was making it difficult to extract women, and many organizations built secure compounds to protect their assets. As our reputation grew, so did our targets. No longer content with smaller raids, the government put their sights on ever larger organizations. These were the groups that had enough power to control the leaders of small countries.

We started noticing a trend. Some women who we rescued didn't want to go home; they wanted to leave with us. Some believed they would only be safe with us, but a handful wanted to become just like the women who helped rescue them. I didn't see the need to recruit more widows, but that would quickly change.

The government had their sights set on a cartel that was causing trouble for the Mexican government. Their operations were destabilizing the region, and they handled large amounts of weapons and narcotics entering the U.S. This cartel also ran families across the border, often shaking them down for more money and enslaving the women who couldn't pay. Most of their women they just took from small villages with promises of work in the U.S., only to force them into prostitution or sell them off to the highest bidder.

It took us a few weeks to put a plan together, then another month to arrange all the equipment and personnel. Once everything was complete, we were ready to proceed. Penny, Julie, and Susan would accompany the security teams to Mexico. They flew into a neighboring country to a private airstrip. A second transport followed them with the vehicles they would need. We split the teams into six different vehicles, with a seventh carrying the equipment. They all took different routes toward the target to ensure nothing raised suspicion.

I flew in with Isabella, Stephanie, Beth, Brian, and a few of his men. We were all under false passports and posing as tourists. We rented a couple of vehicles and even rented a hotel for the week to make it look good for anyone paying attention. With our cameras and tour books in hand, we proceeded to the rendezvous.

The vehicles started arriving throughout that night. The rendezvous was about a mile away from our target in the middle of nowhere. Everyone was on site by 0430 local, and the operation wasn't due to begin until 0800. Once everyone arrived, the teams unpacked and set up our command headquarters. Just like Estonia, we would monitor every team member from our HQ.

I sat inside the command truck with Brian, Beth, Isabella, and Stephanie. For this mission, the FBI was also on scene with us instead of monitoring us from FBI Headquarters. This meant Stephanie could sit back and relax, not having to worry about running interference. We sent up our drones to scout the compound we were attacking. It was large, with multiple buildings surrounded by a large concrete wall. There was one large gate that led into the compound, and it was the only entrance in and out. Once I gave the green light, everything proceeded.

The monitors in the truck centered on a car with Susan, Penny, and Julie. Susan was driving, and she was proceeding straight toward the compound. The car had cameras hidden inside and out, covering 360 degrees. As she approached, we could see two guards out front with automatic weapons. Susan drove right up, rolled down her window and asked one of them the directions to the Chichen Itza ruins. I had to stifle a laugh; she was really playing a tourist well.

The guard spoke up in Spanish, "Lady, you're nowhere near there. You are really lost."

"I'm sorry, we don't speak Spanish." Susan replied in English. "We're from the U.S. and only speak English. We've been driving all night, and this is the first place we've seen that we can get directions."

The compound really was in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town, if you want to call the five houses and a gas station a town, was 25 miles away. The nearest city was over one hundred miles away. Anyone in the area would have only two reasons for being there; they were working for the cartel, or they were lost.

The guard looked inside the car and noticed Penny and Julie. The three women dressed in what you would picture tourists wear. They wore nothing sexy, but these were three white women outside of a compound used by human traffickers, so you can guess what happened next. The guard stepped back and made a phone call, also in Spanish. Luckily, my marriage to Isabella has taught me how to speak the language. I'm still not fluent, but I can understand enough to get by. Susan is fluent in Spanish and a couple of other languages, with Julie and Penny knowing about as much Spanish as I do.

The guard, thinking the women didn't understand him, said, "Boss, we have three women out here looking for Chichen Itza. Yes, you heard me right, three women. Yes, two of them are young, and the third is older. Tell them what? Sure boss, right away."

Susan sat there, trying to look like she didn't understand him. The guard approached the car again, and in broken English, said, "You are a long way from the ruins. We have someone inside that can give you directions and get you ladies something to eat and drink. It's a long drive from here."

Susan thanked him, drove the car inside, and the gate closed behind them. From the cameras, we could see about ten men in the inner compound. There was a large building in front of them, with two smaller buildings off to the left. The right of the compound had various vehicles parked, along with a pen for about ten horses. The ten men approached the car while Susan put it into park and shut it off. When she did, the men raised their weapons and ordered the women out of the car.

Susan, Julie, and Penny put on a performance that would have made any professional actor proud. They all looked scared, climbed out of the car, then started crying, begging the men not to hurt them. I could see them from the cameras in the car. The men told them to shut up, which they did, but they were still crying to sell it. The men led them away from the car and into the building.

The cameras shifted to the ones on their clothes and necklaces. They entered a room that could have been someone's living room, walked through that and into a dining room. Seated at the table, eating, was a larger man, about 50 years old. We could still hear what was being said from the mics that were embedded with the cameras.

He spoke up in fluent English, "Good morning ladies, it appears you are lost. The bad news is you won't get to see your ruins. The good news is we will take care of you. For driving into my compound, you are now my property. Behave yourself and my men won't hurt you. Fight us and we'll toss you out back with the trash. Do you understand?"

All three women responded yes, but it was with shaky voices. The man then said in Spanish, "Do you understand me?"

He must have been satisfied that they couldn't understand him, because he turned to one guard and said in Spanish, "The young ones we can use. Take them downstairs to the others and get them set up. The older one I don't have a use for. Take her out back to the barracks and give her to the men as a gift. After they're done with her, kill her."

The guard answered the boss with an affirmative, then told the women to follow him. They walked back out to the living room. He then spoke to them, again in English, looking at Susan, "I will take the two younger ladies with me, and you will follow my friends outside."

He led Julie and Penny down a set of stairs, and some men led Susan outside to one of the smaller buildings. We split the monitors we were watching between Penny and Susan. We focused a third monitor on the compound from a camera on a drone. While the women were talking to the boss, our teams were getting into positions.

When Julie and Penny arrived at the bottom of the stairs, a man sitting behind a large table greeted them. He started talking in broken English, "Ladies, you will now remove your clothing. Please, give me a hard time; I enjoy beating women who don't listen."

They both starting undressing slowly. The camera had to switch to their necklace when they tossed their shirts on the floor. The man started talking again. "What is that? Is that a black corset? It looks sexy on you two. Keep that on for now. I like it. You, tall one, come here and sit on the table. I like to try out the new women."

From Julie's camera, Penny could be seen walking to the table and sitting on it. The man walked around in front of her, blocking Penny. He then pulled his pants down and started talking. "You look sexy. I love women with long legs, especially blondes."

From the camera angle, only his back was visible, but from the motion of his hips, anyone could understand what was going on. I was sure Julie was furious, but without laying their eyes on the women being held there, she had to hold back.

While this was happening, on another monitor, the men who walked Susan out of the house led her inside of the barracks. It was a small building that had twenty small rooms along a long hall, and an open room with some chairs and a table. The second building must be laid out the same, and that would mean around forty guards. The intel was correct. The men that brought her in called out to the other men and about 6 walked out of various rooms. He told the men that Susan was a gift from the boss and to do whatever they wanted with her. They threw Susan on the floor in front of the men and that's as far as they got.

For the next two minutes, we couldn't tell exactly what was happening. The video from Susan's necklace jumped around, one moment capturing a man being kicked in the face, another showing someone laying on the floor, and another being punched in the neck. When everything settled down, all six of the men were on the floor, along with the guards.

Back to Julie's camera and the man was finishing up. He pulled his pants up and walked around the desk. We could see Penny with her legs spread and a few tears in her eyes. I'm sure they were more out of anger and frustration from having to hold back and endure the assault than the humiliation. She slowly gathered herself and stood back up. She walked out of frame to stand next to Julie. The man behind the desk told the guard to take them in and lock them up. As they turned to the left, we could see a door with a large lock on it. The guard unlocked the door, and when they walked inside, we could see cells along each wall holding many women.

That's all Julie and Penny needed to see. Again, their videos went haywire; Julie's camera spun around, finally stabilizing and showing the guard on the floor. Penny's camera, when Julie's spun, showed Penny run back out the door they just walked in and dive over the desk to the man that just abused her. I couldn't see exactly what happened, but the next shot was of him face down on the ground.

That's what we were waiting for. Immediately, our sniper drones dropped the guards outside the front gate. The camera shifted to our armored truck. It was driving straight toward the compound's gate. One second later, the cameras in the car went white. We rigged the car with explosives, and when it blew, it took many of the men in the compound with it. On the front of the armored truck was a battering ram, and when it hit, the gates flew in, knocked off their hinges, and the truck ran over the remnants of the car.

Out of the armored car jumped ten of our troops, all in full body armor and armed with automatic weapons. A few moments later, more vehicles came through the gate. The compound was clouded in smoke and dust from the explosion, and it was chaos. As more guards flooded out of the second barracks, our sniper drones dropped a few while our teams handled the rest.

Afterwards, our guys told me they saw Susan through the smoke, appearing behind one guard, then another. She left a string of incapacitated guards in her wake. They said it was like watching a ghost. Meanwhile, Penny and Julie took up a position inside the room with the women to protect them. Every once in a while, a few men would come down the stairs and into the room with the cells, and after a few steps into the room, they ended up on the floor.

After ten minutes, everything quieted down. The last person who came down the stairs was the boss, and the women quickly subdued him, securing him so he couldn't get away. Our teams secured the compound and mopped up any guards that were missed.

Brian picked up his phone and called his contacts in the Mexican Armed Forces. He told me it would be thirty minutes before they arrived, and we just had to hold out. He expected cartel forces attempt to retake the compound. Most of the time went by uneventfully, but a few cartel vehicles tried to get into the compound. Those vehicles and their occupants were quickly dispatched.

After forty minutes, we could see a convoy of military trucks heading toward us. By this time, Brian, Isabella, and I had driven to the compound and taken up positions in the house. Beth and Stephanie stayed back at the HQ vehicle. When the trucks pulled in, an officer stepped out and was greeted by Brian. The officer spoke up, "Well, it looks like you made a mess here. Do you know how much this is going to cost us to clean up?"

"Just bill the cartel, this is their mess." Brian answered.

Both men laughed. Our team brought out the cartel boss and threw him on the ground in front of the military troops.

The Mexican officer spoke. "So, you don't look so tough, you bastard." The officer continued speaking, addressing no one in particular. "This man had been responsible for many of my troops' deaths and local police. We will take him in, but I don't think he will ever make it to court."

Brian introduced us. "General, this is Rich Burkhart. He's the man behind this operation. Rich, this is General Santiago of the Mexican Armed Forces."

I shook the General's hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you General."

Santiago shook my hand back and replied, "As it is for me. I've spoken with Brian and your congressional contacts and I look forward to working with you. To get anything done, one often has to operate outside of our government. I hope one day to help eliminate the corruption that infests every part of our country."

"That's a noble goal, General." I answered, "I'm sure we will find our relationship can be mutually beneficial."

The General looked around at the ever-growing number of people in the compound. The Mexican Armed Forces soldiers were mingling with our team members. Some troops were loading the women into trucks for transport out to processing before sending them home. The General spoke up, "I'll need to see to this mess. If you'll excuse me, I have work to do. I hope you all have a safe trip back home."

With that, the General stepped away and started talking to his men. By this time, Penny and Susan were by my side with Isabella and Brian. I inquired about Julie and was told she stayed behind to help get the women out of the cells. I walked back into the house and down the stairs past troops leading women up and out of the house. When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, I saw Julie leaning on the desk, almost doubled over. Penny was right behind me, and when she saw Julie, she pushed past me and helped Julie sit down in the guard's chair.

Julie explained that when she was fighting the guards, she felt a few pops inside of her. They caused her sharp pain, and she was having difficulty breathing. We had Julie loaded on a stretcher and carried out to one of our trucks for transport back to HQ. Penny didn't want Julie taken to the hospital, but wanted her flown back to California.

Penny departed, with Julie and I stayed behind to oversee everything. Susan informed me that several women refused to leave with the Mexican troops and wanted to go with us. As I've mentioned, we've seen this before. I counted six women who refused to leave. After seeing Julie carried out on a stretcher, I gave in.

This began our recruitment of women for our black widow and security teams. We put them through the program of indoctrination, all except the loyalty test. That was done away with, as I didn't see a need to traumatize them. Only half of one percent of the women made it through testing and indoctrination to enter training. Out of the women that failed, half became members of our security teams, the other half sent home.

All women sent home were paid for their time, and many we paid to remain our eyes and ears within their countries, all in secret. They would let us know of gang or cartel activity, and we could monitor corrupt local governments. I like to know everything before I sent my teams anywhere, and these women provided intel that saved many lives over the years, include ours.

Julie underwent multiple surgeries. She finally admitted to the pain she was living under and her secret prescriptions of narcotics to deal with it. She was under my sight almost constantly, so she did an excellent job of hiding it. Her old injuries from Eastern Europe came back to haunt her. Her sutures and mesh that held her lower abdomen together tore loose, causing more problems. Penny told me Julie was done as a Black Widow. Julie could still be my private security since that wasn't as demanding, but would need to know her limitations. No prolonged combat and no heavy lifting.

Susan talked to me after the mission and informed me she, too, was done as a Black Widow. Her body wasn't responding well enough for her to continue. She admitted the last few missions took a toll on her, and she took too much time to recover. She would now be our resident psychologist and oversee our security division, running our operations remotely.

Without Julie, Penny also stepped back from missions, at least the combat. Penny would always accompany me with my other women, but she was strictly my security and would handle any medical issues that arose. That closed the Black Widow careers of Julie, Penny, and Susan, but their stories were far from over. I still had Deborah as a Black Widow, and until we trained new women, she was the only widow left standing. We managed with just her for the year it took to train our new recruits.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scene shifts to Rich's solarium in his mansion in New York. He is seated with his wife, Isabella, finishing up the day's deposition.

Rich addressed the FBI agents. "We still continued missions, but our focus shifted from saving women to eradicating enemy organizations. I put more of my focus on the illegal parts of my business, namely black market goods and human trafficking. I liked to be onsite during large operations, but left the smaller ops to Susan and our security teams."

"It wasn't long before we had a full team of black widows and I could pull Deborah back from that." Rich continued. "I didn't like any of my women anywhere that I couldn't protect them. I don't know if Susan, Julie, Penny, and Deborah were just that good, or we were just lucky. In the years they spent as Black Widows, we didn't lose any of them. Each had their injuries, and none came out unscathed, but never lost their lives. Our new widows were not so lucky."