Chapter 22
"I knew there was a reason I wanted to come along!" Kathryn said as the dirt bikes where unloaded from the plane.
"We go in, get a good look around, then get the hell outta there. Any questions?" Jenna asked her small group.
"These'll get us to within a couple of miles of our over-look position. The back trails we'll be using lead to a bunch of marijuana fields that haven't matured yet. This time of year, there shouldn't be anyone on those trails. Our helmets do have very low powered radios in them, so we can talk to each other, but the signal won't travel more than about a half mile in this jungle.
One trooper raised her hand. "How are we supposed to get a good look around when we'll never get closer than a couple of miles? In this canopy, we'll be lucky if we can even see The Fortress."
Jenna didn't even blink at the question. "Ben and Kathryn are carrying a new type of sensor rig that is supposed to give us very good, very clear, intel as long as we can get within a certain distance. This gadget is so classified, I didn't even know about it before this mission. Don't ask me how it works, because I have no clue; I don't want one and neither should you. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am," the trooper said. Ben read all the troops that had heard the brief exchange, and was surprised that not only did the people accept her explanation, some of them had actually told their minds to forget overhearing it.
"Just be thankful you don't have to carry the damn thing!" Ben joked.
The trooper raised an eyebrow and smiled softly; "Carry what sir? I don't know what you're talking about."
Ben smiled and went back to checking out his bike. "Jenna? Aren't these awfully loud? I don't mean to criticize, but when John told me about this part of the mission, he was pretty vague. Won't these draw a lot of attention?"
It was Jenna's turn to grin. "No sir. These things are so quiet that you actually have to remember if you started it or not. They're hydrogen powered, and the system is all but fully contained. What little exhaust there is is muffled so much that you have to strain to hear it even at full throttle."
"Cool, shouldn't we be going soon then?" Ben asked.
"Whenever you're ready sir," Jenna replied.
Very quietly, so only he and Jenna could hear it, he said. "One of these days, I'm going to paddle your butt for calling me sir all the time!"
Jenna's face lit up and she smiled broadly. "Yes sir, very good sir, right away sir. Just let me know when and where, sir!"
Kathryn: "You know she's not kidding don't you? She very much would like you to do exactly what you said. Especially in front of her mate, Wendy. Then she wants you to take her in every hole; pussy, ass and mouth, in that order."
Ben: "Ugh, how do I get myself into these situations? Hey, aren't we supposed to be on silent mode?"
Kathryn: "Yeah, we are. I just wanted to tell you I loved you before we broke the link. I thought it would be a good time to tell you that Jenna is very serious about getting some dick from you. It would give you something to look forward to when we get back."
Ben: "I already have plenty to look forward to when we get back. I have all of you."
Kathryn gave him a kiss that left no doubt in anyone's mind the two were deeply in love. "Let's get moving before we give these folks more of a show. You give me one more kiss like that, and these clothes are history."
Diane had come along, as had Melissa and Chris, but she would be staying with the rescue team while her four lovers went on the mission. She wasn't happy about it, but understood that if a rescue was to be attempted, they might need her abilities until Amanda and John arrived from Mexico City with Beta team.
Cori and Michelle were on the yachts with Charlie, while Carol stayed back at the ranch with Lizzy and Amanda's little twin, Megan. Ben was uncomfortable having his family so spread out, but they would be harder for Solms to kill like this.
Kathryn broke him out of his depressing mood. "When we finish this, I'm going to make sure I'm fertile when we get home. Amanda will be too. We want you to make us pregnant during the welcome home orgy with all of us present."
Ben stopped and looked at her. Their love was so strong that he had a hard time remembering when they were just brother and sister. "I love you, squirt."
"I love you too. Now you really have something to look forward to when we get home. Let's get this over with," she said as she pulled her helmet on over her red hair.
During the trip to the ridge, Ben and Kathryn both had extended their senses just in case the path was not as deserted as they had hoped. It turned out to be a wise precaution.
Ben felt something moving down the trail toward them and warned the others to get off the trail. They all sat in silent confusion as an unloaded semi slowly made its way past them.
"What the hell is a truck like that doing way the hell out in the bush like this?" Melissa asked. Other than Jenna and his girls, all the members of the small force were in guard positions too far away to overhear the soft conversation.
"The next question is, should we continue? That truck wasn't loaded, so that begs the question, was it loaded when it came out here? If it was loaded, who unloaded it, and where?" Chris asked.
Ben was silent and was staring at the truck with his head cocked slightly to one side. "The driver doesn't know much, except that he was hauling a sealed container that was unloaded at a compound about five miles farther up the trail. I saw in his mind that the whole place was covered with a huge camouflage net. He accepted the load because part of the reward here was that one of the pretty fourteen year old 'guards' spent the night with him in his truck last night." Ben blinked a couple of times, shook his head, and looked at Jenna and Kathryn. "We abort, now! We could be discovered any second. He remembered seeing patrols as far out as the last intersection." He lowered his voice and looked at Kathryn. "Link with Melissa, and I'll link with Chris. We need to extend our scanning range and get our butts outta here now. This is a trap, but I don't think it was intended for us. However, it can catch us if we don't get moving."
The group got back on the road, and headed back toward the landing area. Ben was getting a bad feeling about this whole situation when Kathryn told everyone to stop.
"The truck is stopped about a half mile ahead of us. There is a group of men and two younger girls talking to the driver. Except for the driver, they are all armed," she explained handing a small PDA to Ben.
Diane: "Alert! LZ Alpha is under heavy attack! Where are you, Ben?"
Ben: "Trapped on the main trail up to the ridge. There is an enemy patrol blocking the road ahead of us, they haven't spotted us yet, but I think that's only a matter of time. How long can you hold position?"
Diane: "Not very much longer, we're taking casualties. Two dead and four more wounded. If they have anything heavier than assault rifles, we're going to be in big trouble."
Ben: "Okay, hold on as long as you can; we'll try to get around these fuckers and rejoin you. If it gets too hot, just get the fuck out of there; we'll head for the coast."
Kathryn: "Why don't we put the assholes ahead of us asleep like we did at the school to get past them and make a break for the plane? We should be able to do the same thing when we get close to the LZ. We ride the bikes right up the ramp and off we go."
Ben: "That sounds good to me, but we better start thinking of an explanation as to how those people went to sleep so fast."
Ben had included Jenna in the conversation as soon as he realized it was a distress call.
Jenna: "We don't put the ones here to sleep, we blow them up with our grenade and rocket launchers. Ben can ensure that none of them are conscious to shoot at us while we run past. Then Diane can toss out a bunch of smoke grenades when we get close. We put the ones we need to sleep, and we get on the plane."
Diane: "I heard her. Get moving or you'll be walking home. Let me know when you're close."
"Okay people listen-up; we just got a distress call from the plane; they're under attack. Roughly a half mile ahead of us, an enemy patrol has the truck pulled over blocking the road. We need to get to the plane before they need to leave. So, load up your grenade launchers, and make sure your rocket launchers are ready. Fire as soon as you get a target. This is a hit and run. We're blasting our way past them. Once past them, we'll need to head for the LZ as fast as we can but we need to stay in a group. When we get close, and can contact the plane, Diane is going to lob sleep gas into the bush so we can get past their attackers. Head right for the plane, and ride the bikes right into the plane. Any Questions?" Ben explained quickly. "Then let's do it. Good luck."
Ben's group moved down the trail until they could see the road block only a few hundred meters ahead of them. He took careful aim with his grenade launcher and fired. He didn't even wait for the round to hit before he was moving again. He'd heard the other grenade launchers fire at the same time, and as he started moving, saw the trails from the rockets. The two team members that had carried the rockets dropped the now useless launchers and took off after Ben and the rest of the team.
Everything considered, it was a poor place to block the road. It was actually in a small meadow where two of the dirt roads intersected. There was plenty of room for Ben's people to slip around the exploding chaos near the semi. Ben made sure whoever wasn't already dead wouldn't be able to shoot at the small team as they sped by. None of them looked back as they left the burning tangle of metal and human remains behind them.
Twenty minutes later, Ben called Diane on the radio to let her know they were getting close.
"It's about fucking time! They just brought in some heavier weapons. Another five minutes, and they'd be blowing off parts of the aircraft," Diane said.
"Well, gas the hell out of them, and make sure everyone is on board. We're coming in hot," Ben replied.
"Sleepy smoke away, be sure not to breath on your way in."
Ben gunned his bike and the rest of the team followed his lead. They tore around a corner and saw the heavy white cloud ahead of them. Ben and Kathryn both reached out and dampened all the minds in their area, except for their own team. The smoke was thick, but not so thick they couldn't mostly see. Ben made out the outline of the big plane ahead of him, and off to one side. He adjusted course, and made sure all the people on his small team did as well.
They rode up the ramp just as the plane started its vertical lift and began to pick up horizontal momentum. A group of troopers were at the back door with a large, crew served machine gun, firing at the surrounding woods randomly.
Ben was on the satellite link to John and Amanda seconds after take off.
"I don't think it was a trap specifically for us. I mean, it was for us, but it was like they didn't know when we would be coming, just that we would. There's also a lot more going on in those mountains than the growing of cannabis," Ben said.
"That's all that shows up on the satellite images, even thermally. Everything is consistent with a typical dope field. If there was anything else, it should have shown up," John answered. "Did we take any casualties?"
"Yeah, we did. Six dead, eight more wounded, two critically. Kathryn's with the wounded now. We're headed back to base," Ben replied, sounding depressed.
"We'll be delayed getting back. The airport just grounded all non-military aircraft. There seems to be a large number of Mexican army troops getting ready to deploy someplace. The controller here says that this is a planned readiness exercise. They're not searching any planes; they just want everyone else out of the way so they can get their troops airborne. I'd get the hell out of Mexican airspace if I were you," John said.
"I'll have the pilot turn and head for the gulf. With any luck, they'll assume we headed out over the pacific. What about Charlie?" Ben asked.
"I'll be calling them as soon as we get off the phone. Go talk to your pilot, I'll get Charlie team heading for the barn too."
Ben agreed, and signed off. He got up, walked past the curtained off area that was set up for the wounded, and climbed the steps up to the flight deck. He knocked on the door, and heard a muffled 'come in'.
"Captain Sharone, John recommends we get the hell out of Mexican airspace ASAMFP," Ben said to the older man at the controls.
"Commander! I was about to send for you anyway. We've been ordered to land for a 'customs inspection' by the Mexican authorities. Those fuckers know exactly who we are, but are choosing to treat us like we're drug runners. It looks like John was right again. Do you have a plan?"
"Can we make it out over the gulf if we drop off their radar, and run like hell?" Ben asked.
Sharone pulled up some maps on his console, and did some quick calculations. "Yeah, as long as they don't launch interceptors within the next ten minutes, we can be over international waters in twenty minutes, US waters in thirty. If they think we turned for the Pacific, we'll make it to US airspace. However, if we trip a coastal DEA sensor, that might not be of much help. The Mexicans monitor those too."
"I think it might be the only chance we have outside of dumping the plane and running for it on our own. I really don't want to do that," Ben said.
"I think you might be right sir. Foster, warm up those boosters, and put us on the deck. Commander, I'd grab on to something; we're going negative G in about ten seconds," Sharone said.
Ben grabbed the stanchion beside the door to the cabin and held on. He heard the old pilot warn the rest of the plane about the maneuvers before he executed them. What he did was basically stop the plane in mid-air, and drop fifteen thousand feet straight down. Once they were almost on top of the jungle, he flipped some switches, and grabbed the control yoke for the plane. The big craft lunged ahead like it was a rocket. Sharone slowly turned the craft to the west, finally leveling out, and pushing the throttle levers all the way to their stops. He flipped two more switches and a loud whine was heard as the plane's wings folded back for supersonic flight.
"This is where it gets fun. Just pray that we don't overfly any small villages. The bad side of all this is that they'll be able to see exactly where we were," Sharone said and Foster laughed as he pulled up a rear view of the plane.
Ben was amazed at the amount of damage they were doing. The forest behind them was flat, like some giant had pushed a rolling pin over it. "Won't that tell them we didn't head for the Pacific like we want them to believe?"
"Not exactly. You see, just before we did this little trick," Sharone was talking slowly since he was still guiding the plane manually. "I switched our transponder to that of a Mexican Airforce LB-191 Attack Bomber. The Mexicans like to pull Escape and Evade maneuvers for their pilots in this area. In fact, we've already crossed a trail much like the one we're leaving. When they see this, they'll think it's one of their own. Also, this plane isn't supposed to be able to move this fast."
Ben was amazed. "Exactly how fast are we going?"
"Damned if I know; we pegged out at mach 1.96, however, I know we haven't reached mach 2.5 yet."
"How do you know that?" Ben asked.
"Two things, first, I've only felt us break the barrier once, and two, the fuselage will disintegrate at about mach 2.4. They told me she wouldn't make it past 2.0, but I don't believe them," Sharone said. "We should be crossing the coast in about twenty seconds, sir. We can slow down a little then." The old man was grinning like it was Christmas. "I knew those bastards where full of shit!"
An alarm started beeping urgently on the navigator's control board, followed closely by a second. "We're being painted, Captain. The IFF was just queried by the coastal sensors."
"Fuck!" Sharone said. "Since when did they put active defenses out here?"
"Sir, the computer reports the simulated launch of three 'rapier' SAMs!" the navigator reported. "Heading three-eight point two; distance one-one-zero. Missiles are in acquisition!"
"Very cool! Foster, drop a squawker! Adjusting course, three-eight degrees south," Sharone said.
"If they are simulated missiles, why are we treating them as real?" Ben asked.
"If we don't, the next missiles fired won't be simulated. Rapiers are really difficult to break loose of once they get a lock. By altering course, we'll overfly the launcher and our shockwave should disable it," Sharone said. "At least that's the theory. No one's ever done this before."
"Missiles have locked on the squawker. The computer still reports them as simulations. Odds are we triggered an automated training system. Five seconds to the coast!" reported the navigator.
Ben watched the rear view screen as the plane shot out over the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion in the tree line on the shore caught his attention and the alarm that was screaming for attention went silent.
Sharone grinned at his copilot and once again turned the big plane to get back on course. "We'll be over international waters in a few moments, sir. Once there, we can slow down to our normal speed and switch our transponder back. Then I'll climb back up to our regular cruising altitude and head for US Airspace. This little jaunt added a few hours to our flight time back to Colorado. We should be in the clear now... as long as they don't send fighters after us."
"Well, I'm going back down with the troops; let me know something comes up. Good work," Ben said.
"Thank you sir," Sharone said and grinned at Foster.
"Sir?"
"What's up, Wills?" John asked.
"There will be a 'customs inspector' here shortly. We were just told that every plane is being inspected. They still haven't given us a reason and the airport is still closed," the man said.
"Damn! Do you know if they are letting the inspected flights go?" John asked.
"That's how other planes are getting clearance, sir. Once they are checked out they are released. I get the impression that they are told to leave by the inspector. This is all very strange; it's almost like they know we're here," Wills said. "Why else would they be searching every aircraft?"
"This your first time through here, Wills?" John asked.
"Yes sir, for this airport anyway. I've been on other overseas flights before and never saw anything like this."
"The Mexican authorities do this at least once a month. It usually doesn't take very long, and the passenger planes hardly even get slowed down. Don't worry, I'll make sure we get our departure clearance," John said.
"I don't know how you are going to hide all the weapons and personnel, but I'll pass the word on to the Captain, sir," Wills replied.
John nodded to the man. "Thank you, Wills. You might want to ask the Captain how we get out of these inspections." John grinned. Wills retreated, nodding his head in acknowledgement.
"So, how do you get past the customs folks?" Amanda asked.
John grinned as he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. It must have been a local call, because he spoke Spanish when the other person answered. "Jesus! How are you?" He paused for the other person to speak. "Really? Congratulations! Say, that's actually why I called; I have a plane at Benito Juárez International. Do you think you can do that thing you do?" He paused again. "That is odd, Jesus. Are you still safe?" He had a concerned look on his face as he listened. "Get the family packed up, and I'll send another plane down here to get you. I'd wait for you tonight, but our time is short." He listened again. "That we can do, if you can pull it off. I'll send someone to guide them in, then send a text message to your cell once they're here. Good luck, and I hope to see you soon," John said as he hung up.
"What's up?" Amanda asked.
"Victor Cortez and his revolutionaries are poised to overthrow the government. So far, it's been a peaceful rebellion, but Jesus doesn't think that's going to last much longer. Cortez made his money growing dope down south, and is one of the folks we suspect of being in Solms' pocket. He's taking the office of El Presidente tonight. This whole circus tonight was ordered by him, and security is extremely tight. Jesus asked us to get his family and himself out of here. His wife and son will be here shortly, and Jesus himself will show up to do our inspection. He'll tell the tower we passed, and simply remain on board as we fly out of here." He turned to a couple of women sitting a little ways away. "Martinez, Kopple, I need you in civies, and at the cargo gate to meet a woman and her son. Guide them back here. Take weapons, but don't be obvious about it. Questions?" The women shook their heads as they began to hurriedly remove their combat gear. John turned back to Amanda. "I'm starting to get a feeling that this little bit of drama tonight has been staged solely for our benefit. Let's just hope that everyone got out before the bad guys slammed the door."
Amanda closed her eyes and felt for her mates. "Kathryn, Diane,
Melissa and Chris are sad, but safe. Cori and Michelle are relaxed, and
Ben..." She looked concerned briefly, then grinned. "Ben needs a
valium!"