Chapter 22

Posted: May 06, 2007 - 09:07:57 am?

One of Pedro Nuñez's hirelings had a stroke of luck, and hooked up with one of the female ex-FARC soldiers on the second night after Nuñez's arrival in Prado. The woman wasn't divulging any secrets when she told Nuñez's man about Marta; she was only explaining why she could not go out the next night.

"We are having a small party for our old commander here tomorrow night. We want it to be a surprise for her, so someone is going to get her over here for a drink, and we'll all be here, too," the woman said.

Nunez was pleased as punch with that revelation. Tomorrow night would indeed be a surprise for the swaggering bitch! Nunez came up with a plan off the cuff that would let him extract his revenge on Zorra unmolested. He gave his compatriots their roles in his plan, refining it as he talked.

"Amigos, tomorrow night I will capture this Comendadora Zorra and we will take our pleasure from her before we deliver her to the DAS. We will wait near her hotel and I will follow her when she leaves. I have a suitable spot from where I will pounce. You will stay with me for a couple of blocks, then I will put you in a place that you can stop anyone from disturbing me, while I make the capture and extract a small token of personal satisfaction..."

Pete Ballard rented a car and drove to Bogotá to pick up his mother two days after Gabe had called her. Ironically, she was arriving on the same afternoon flight that had first brought his sisters to Colombia. Unlike with his sisters, though, Pete wasn't going to attempt the drive home that night. Instead, they would stay overnight in Bogotá and drive down to Prado the following morning. Lorena and Adriana were traveling with Pete at Marta's insistence. Both women were armed and alert for trouble, although they didn't really expect any. Lorena's arm was still in a sling, a sling that also held a small automatic pistol. Lorena was mending quickly, and the sling was as much a prop as anything. Pete had booked two rooms at the Radisson Hotel for the night, one for his mother and one for him and his beautiful bodyguards.

Pete was again sitting in a hard plastic chair near the airport exit, this time flanked by a pair of Colombian beauties, when Alexandra breezed in from customs. Pete was amazed at how young and vivacious she looked as she smiled and chatted with the Colombian Army major who was happily carrying her suitcase. Alexandra had that certain something that made men trip all over themselves to do things for her; yet, she was always a lady, and never led anyone on. As Pete stood up and moved towards her, he wondered how Darla and Stephanie could have grown up without inheriting that vivacity. Then he chuckled ruefully, as he realized that Katherine had seemingly been born with all three sisters' share.

Alexandra saw Pete cutting through the light crowd towards her and her smile widen. When Pete stopped in front of her, she gave him a fierce hug and a kiss on the cheek, before turning towards the man carrying her bag.

"Thank you very much for your help, Major. This is my son, he can take over from here."

The major looked shocked as he handed the bag to Pete.

"Surely you jest, Señora. You are much to young to have such a strapping son."

Alexandra laughed and patted the man affectionately on the cheek.

"Aren't you sweet! But it's true, I'm just an old woman, Major," she said teasingly.

The officer gallantly kissed her hand and strutted back towards the customs area, shaking his head in wonder. Pete led his mother over to where he'd been sitting and introduced her to Lorena and Adriana. He had debated on how much to tell his mother about his new lifestyle, and had resolved to keep her in the dark until he could sit down with all of his wives and tell her the truth. Of course, Pete was forgetting how smart and observant his mother was, as she picked up from the lovely young women's demeanor that they were more than just the friends he claimed them to be. She didn't say anything though, willing to wait until Peter was ready to talk. She also accepted without comment his explanation for why her daughters weren't there to meet her.

Pete was the envy of the Radisson's five star restaurant that evening, as he escorted the three beautiful women to dinner. Even though Alexandra only spoke a smattering of Spanish, and the girls even less English, the women got on famously. Alexandra was intrigued at how Anglo the two younger women appeared, with their fair complexions and brown hair. She had done a lot of reading on Colombia since this mess started, so she knew that their looks signified that they were of mostly Spanish descent. Since people with mostly Spanish blood were from Colombia's elite families, Alexandra was curious as to how they had both become guerilla fighters.

With Pete smoothing out the gaps that their lack of English created, the two young women told their stories. Alexandra was impressed with the women and told them as much. They were so young and had endured so much; yet they were mature and had sunny and bright dispositions. All through dinner, she observed how they doted on her handsome young son. Peter seemed to have grown up considerably since he'd been down here. Alexandra didn't ask Pete about his relationship with the two women, secure in the knowledge that Pete would explain things to her in due time.

After a very pleasant meal, Alexandra commented that she was tired from her long day of travel, so Pete, Lorena and Adriana walked her back to her room. Pete thought that the girls would like to sample the nightlife at the hotel's lounge, so he took them back downstairs. It was one of the most fun evenings he'd ever spent, as they sipped beer, danced and talked. The only discordance in their evening was when the lounge's manager thought Adriana and Lorena might have been call girls. He sidled up to the table and knelt next to Pete.

"Are you a registered guest in our hotel, Señor?" the man asked in English.

Pete was confused by the question, but guessed it had to do with running a tab at the bar or something. He answered affirmatively in Spanish and rattled off his room number.

The man smiled thinly.

"Ah, very good Señor, you speak our language. Are your lovely companions also registered guests here?"

Before Pete could answer the man's seemingly innocuous question, Adriana put her hand on his arm to shush him. When she spoke, it was in a haughty, imperious voice of pure upper class Castilian Spanish.

"Peter, Señor..." Adriana paused to glance down at the man's nametag, "... Mendoza is really trying to find out if my sister and I are ladies of the evening."

Adriana paused again and shifted her gaze onto Mendoza's face, as if he were a bug under a microscope.

"Señor Mendoza, my name is Adriana Maria de la Vega, my sister's name is Lorena. My father is Hector de la Vega. He is a chemistry professor at the National University, and Colombia's only Nobel Laureate. I can give you his phone number if you wish to call him and ask if his daughters are prostitutes."

Mendoza was bright red with embarrassment by the time Adriana finished lambasting him. He could not apologize or get away fast enough to suit himself. When Mendoza bowed and scraped his way toward the bar, Pete looked at Adriana in awe.

"Geez, Adriana, you should be an actress. How did you come up with such a story, anyway?"

Adriana gave him an impish grin.

"I'm hooked on the soap operas on Univision, and my father really was a professor at the university before he and my mother were murdered. What to say, and what character to play, just popped into my head."

Mendoza ended up sending Adriana a bottle of excellent champagne to atone for his gaucherie, so the three were in high spirits when they trundled up to their room an hour before midnight. Both women were hanging onto Pete as they walked. They were looking forward to making love in the room's king-sized bed. Lorena was especially ready, as she had been out of commission for over a week from her wound and she was hot to trot. Sí, trotting on Peter's pinga grande was the best treatment she could think of to make her truly feel better.

That same evening, Marta was all for the idea of going out for a few drinks when Pilar mentioned it. The idea beat the hell out of sitting alone in the hotel room, missing Peter. Yes, staying in Prado and not exposing herself in Bogotá was the right thing to do, still, it was their first night apart after falling in love, and she missed him terribly.

Pilar said they should dress up a little, so Marta wore one of the light cotton dresses she preferred. The dress was just above her shapely knees, with a full skirt and a relatively low cut neckline. Marta didn't dress up often, so when she did get the opportunity, she loved clothes that showed she was indeed, all woman.

Pilar had them headed for the cantina, where the others were secretly waiting at seven-thirty, right on time. She struggled to mask the excitement she felt about the idea of surprising Marta with a celebration in her honor. She and the rest of the column loved and respected Marta; tonight they would all get to show their former commander exactly how much.

Marta and Pilar were three blocks from the cantina, when Pedro Nuñez stepped out of an alley behind them with a baseball bat. Before either of them knew he was there, he drew the bat back and swung it in a short arc that connected against the side of Pilar's head. Marta spun around as the sound of the bat against Pilar's head made a sickening crunch. When she turned, Nuñez reversed the bat and drove the barrel of it into her solar plexus. When Marta doubled over as her breath left her in a gasping whoosh, Nunez clipped her behind the knees with the bat, and she fell backwards on her ass. Nunez grabbed both unmoving women by the hair and dragged them into the alley.

Nuñez smiled cruelly at the sight of his nemesis lying on the ground, laboring to regain her breath. His deft touch with the riot baton, and his willingness to crack some heads were what brought him to the DAS's attention when he was a young captain in the Military Police. With speed and agility surprising for someone of his bulk, Nuñez tossed the bat aside and fell on top of Marta. He wrapped one of his large meaty hands around her throat, and applied pressure as he used the other to tear open the top of her dress. He ripped her bra off next as Marta struggled beneath him.

"Yes, Puta, struggle beneath me, El Tigre likes it better that way," Nuñez hissed, as he painfully squeezed her breast.

Pedro Nuñez was delighted with the size and pliancy of her firm breasts, the picture Guzman showed him didn't do justice to the fine specimen she really was. He released some of the pressure on her windpipe so she could draw a shuddered breath before clamping down again. He wanted her conscious while he plundered her, wanted her to feel his strength and power as he abused her.

Marta Cardenas's hatred for the beast mauling her overcame the fear she felt as he choked her. Although he had her hands trapped between his knees and her sides, she could move her right one enough to reach the thin knife strapped to her upper thigh. She inched her fingers down under her rucked up skirt, until she felt the handle of the flat black, Gerber Stiletto. She eased the six-inch double-sided blade out of its sheath and gripped it tightly. She let her body go limp and waited for her opportunity to give the pig above her a taste of steel.

Unfortunately for her, Nuñez was a master at what he was doing, as he kept her pinned and on the edge of passing out. He paid much attention to her large breasts, squeezing the firm orbs brutally. Marta tried to suffer the pain silently, determined not to give Nuñez the pleasure of hearing her whimper, but she couldn't help but cry out as he twisted her nipple savagely. Her strangled cry of pain was music to Nuñez's ears. It was also the signal he'd waited for before proceeding with her defilement. He tightened his grip on her throat and started sliding back down her body, ripping open her dress as he went.

Marta swam on the edge of consciousness as the large man moved into position to finish her violation. As his knees moved down the outside of her body, she slipped her hand with the knife in it under her thigh. When Nuñez shifted slightly to unzip his fly and release his turgid manhood to complete her rape, Marta pulled her hand from beneath her thigh and struck. With a strength born of desperation, hatred, and an overarching will to live, Marta drove the razor-shaped double-edged blade into Nuñez's throat, and yanked it forward. Nuñez's eyes grew big and round, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly in shock as the blade severed his windpipe and carotid artery. As the big man slumped over her, his blood gouting out of his neck in a huge stream, Marta rolled to her side from under him, coughing and gasping to regain her breath. Marta wanted to emasculate Nunez before he died, but the need to see how badly Pilar was hurt took precedence. Marta staggered to her feet and spit on the dying man.

"That was for Carlos Sanchez, maricon, may you rot in hell for all eternity," she snarled.

Gabe was teasing Selena about making them late as they walked towards the cantina, when they heard Marta yell for help. They were running towards her voice, when Nuñez's accomplices, armed with wicked looking knives blocked their way. Gabe stepped in front of Selena and assumed a defensive stance, more worried about getting to Marta than he was about the two thugs. Selena was of a different opinion, however, as she saw her husband once again in danger. She quickly opened her shoulder bag, whipped out her little .380 automatic, and shot one of the knife wielders in the knee.

The second assailant threw down his knife and started running. Gabe quickly snatched the knife off the ground, gripped it by the point of its blade and flung it at the retreating man. The man took a couple of steps then fell to the ground, the knife buried to the hilt between his shoulder blades.

By the time Gabe and Selena reached Marta, she had already called Serafin Morales on her cell phone, and was trying to revive Pilar. Gabe knelt down by Pilar as Selena gently pulled Marta away and started cleaning her up. Marta was covered with blood and Selena was trying to see if she was injured. Gabe checked Pilar's pulse and found that it was weak but steady. Gabe muttered to himself as he saw the severity of the wound on the side of her head. As he touched it, he could feel the spongy softness that indicated her skull was fractured. It was one of the worst blunt force head injuries he'd ever seen, for sure the woman was going to need a lot more help than he could ever provide.

As Gabe was finishing checking Pilar, a swarm of former soldiers came pounding down the street, Morales in the lead. Almost simultaneously, a police car came careening around the corner, siren wailing. The police car was responding to a call of shots being fired from when Selena had shot Nuñez's goon. The police car skidded to a stop and two police men jumped out with their weapons drawn. Gabe walked towards the policemen with his hands above his head and quickly filled them in, after asking them to call an ambulance for Pilar.

Pete Ballard returned to Prado with his mother, only to face a gigantic mess. Marta and Pilar were both in the hospital, Marta for observation, but Pilar in critical condition with a massive head injury. His father and Selena were at the police station, explaining to the Chief Constable about the two men they'd shot and stabbed, while the two men were in the hospital, telling a story that was just the opposite. The whole thing was enough to deal with on its own, let alone trying to explain things to his mother. As soon as Katherine and Stephanie filled Pete in, he left Alexandra in her hotel room and hauled ass to the hospital.

Stephanie and Katherine kept their lips zipped until Gabe and Selena returned from the constable's office. They were much relieved when Gabe took their mother aside to talk to her. Gabe was the only person they knew who could calm their mother down. Selena stayed and filled the sisters in on their visit to the police station, while Gabe took Alexandra down to the hotel's small lounge to talk. Gabe knew he had a tough row to hoe to convince his ex that there children would be safe here after what had happened last night. Alexandra had always been fiercely protective of her children; they didn't call her "Mama Pitbull" for nothing. She jumped on her high horse as soon as Gabe ordered them a drink.

"What in the hell is going on down here, Gabriel? It's like the wild west or something."

Gabe laughed at her analogy, then calmly and patiently, he made his case that the truth of the matter was just the opposite. Alexandra was skeptical at first, but what swayed her was her knowledge of the man to whom she was once married. Alexandra Stovall knew without a shadow of a doubt that Gabriel would never lie to her or knowingly put her children in danger. Gabe ended the discussion on a note that piqued her interest.

"Lexie, the kids have a lot to discuss with you. You'll understand things better after you all talk. They have run all this by me and I am okay with it, although some of it makes me uncomfortable. Just remember you raised them well, and they are fine young men and women."

When Peter returned from the hospital, he had Darla with him. Regardless of all else that was happening, he was determined to straighten things out with his mother. Darla and her sisters felt the same way; the sooner everything was in the open, the better.

The discussion was long and stressful, as Alexandra reacted to each new revelation. Darla was the easiest to deal with, her obvious adoration for her young doctor etched on her face. She even understood Stephanie's desire to come back to Colombia and be with her brother, given what had happened. Peter was the problem; she just couldn't find it in her heart to accept for a minute what he was involved in, and what he had done.

Peter was sad that his mother felt the way she did, but he was an adult now, and had a ton of new responsibilities. Her being upset with him didn't change a thing. After an hour of fruitless argument, Pete left the room and headed back to the hospital to be with Marta and Pilar. The rift between his mother and him would take a long time to heal. Alexandra's daughters stayed with her for another hour. They understood her hurt, but were unable to convince her that Pete had done nothing that he hadn't been forced or seduced into.

The person who contributed the least to the proceedings was Katherine. Her normal effervescent personality subdued by worry about Pilar. Because of her concerns for her friend and lover, Katherine did not make her case for wanting to move back here when she finished high school. That was probably a good thing, as it spared her mother one more shock.

Marta was released from the hospital the following day and even though she was bruised and battered, she insisted on seeing Alexandra first thing. It was not a pleasant meeting. No matter how much Alexandra Stovall admired the young woman's resolve and bravery, she could not get past the fact that Marta had much to do with what she considered the corruption of her children.

Marta listened quietly as her true love's mother bitterly denounced her, then stood up and started out of the room. She stopped at the door and turned around and spoke, her carriage erect, her voice steeped with dignity and respect.

"I hope that God grants you peace over this Mrs. Stovall, and that you come to accept us as we are. Not for me, but for your children, and more importantly, your grandchildren."

Gabe and Selena drove Alexandra, Stephanie and Katherine back to Bogotá the next morning. It was an extremely quiet ride. Selena sat close to Gabe, her head on his shoulder as he drove the Explorer that had belonged to Nuñez a few days before. Gabe bought the car from the city of Prado after it was confiscated to pay the hospital bills of the two henchmen. Alexandra and her daughters sat in the back seat in stony silence.

Gabe and Selena had talked to Alexandra at length the evening before. It was the first occasion that Gabe's present and former wives had spent any time together. Alexandra did not hold any ill feelings towards Gabriel about what had happened. She knew he had nothing to do with it. She also knew that it was pointless to think that Gabriel could change Peter's mind about what he was doing.

Alexandra was surprised that she took an immediate liking to Selena. It didn't take long to realize that the woman was totally in love with and devoted to Gabriel. Of course, liking the woman didn't stop Alex from feeling a few pangs of jealousy when she saw how the two of them interacted. Her jealousy quickly faded, when she realized that she had done the right thing at the time she had left Gabriel, and all things being equal, she'd do it again, regardless of how much she had missed him. She had a wonderful caring husband and two beautiful daughters as a result of that decision.

Alexandra and her daughters flew back to Orlando and eventually hashed things out. One thing they never did though, was tell Charles Stovall anything, beyond that Stephanie wanted to go back to Colombia and live with her brother for a while. Charles wasn't thrilled about the idea, but he couldn't very well refuse to let her. After all, she was nineteen now, and more than fully grown. Katherine continued to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself, although she often asked her mother about her life with Gabe.

The doctors at the Prado hospital kept Pilar in an induced coma to keep her inactive, as the swelling in her brain slowly shrank. In the interim, they drilled a couple of holes in her cranium and inserted drains to keep fluids from building up. No one had a clue as what to expect when she recovered consciousness. Sure, they ran electro-encephalograms and tracked her brainwave activity, but that only showed her brain was functioning, it did not show what areas might be functioning incorrectly as a result of the blow. Since there wasn't a CT scanning machine within a hundred miles of Prado, they were going to have to wait for her to wake up and see how she responded.

While Pilar slept peacefully in her hospital bed, things moved along swiftly for the rest of the former column members. With the full backing of the Province's powerful Archbishop, the Governor of Ibague granted the former members of the Columna Carlos Sanchez a full pardon, and sent the request on up to the administration of President Uribe. Don Diego Cardenas had already greased the skids with his friends in the upper echelons of the government. President Uribe didn't really need much encouragement anyway, because the voluntary disarming of a major FARC unit played well with the voters. Uribe made a very public announcement, granting Comendadora Zorra and her soldiers full pardons, the only condition to them being that they never take up arms against their country again.

The pardons were a nice bit of news for the members of the column that had decided to stay on in Prado as part of Marta's new venture. It was also a bonus that most of them found immediate work, either building the ore processing facility that Pete had designed, or driving for Delgado's trucking company. Sean O'Malley was as good as his word about getting the processing plant completed, because Tim Arronson had a construction company hired and on site within a week of getting the word.

The plant wasn't all that complicated anyway, it consisted of a metal building one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, with large roll-up doors at each end. The large rock crusher Arronson had disassembled at another site, transported to Prado on three large tractor-trailers, and reassembled at one end of the building. Likewise, the conveyor system was taken from a mine that was being deactivated. The distillation tanks were bought from the stock of a company that specialized in underground gasoline storage tanks and modified on site.

Pilar was brought out of her coma over a two-day period about two weeks after the attack. When she was fully awake, everyone was relieved when her first question was "is my baby okay." Her baby was fine but Pilar herself had some residual problems, mostly motor skill troubles with her left side and blurry vision in her left eye. Both her attending physician and Eduardo Garza were sure that her brain would compensate for the damaged nerve paths, and she'd regain a normal gait and vision in a few weeks.

Pilar was released from the hospital on the same day that Stephanie arrived back in Prado. It was a joyous occasion when both of the missing women rejoined their sister wives and husband back in the caverns. Yes, most of the former column members were still living in the caverns for the time being. It was mainly a financial decision, as money was tight even with Pete's back pay and the money from Gabe. Everyone was comfortable in the caverns, so it wasn't really that much of a hardship.
Joe J & Wet Dream-Girl
Chapter 23