Mike woke Chico up and told him it was time to go. They packed their gear on each other and started out for the base. The sun went down and they put on their night vision goggles and continued on toward the base. They reached the base about ten o'clock at night and they took up positions in the jungle where they could watch for any activity in the base.
Jo heard a rustling behind her and she turned around and saw six men crouched down close behind her. Mike put his hand on her arm and shook his head. The leader of the men came up to Mike and whispered in his ear.
"We took out the guards," he pointed a few feet away at the two bodies laying under the vegetation, "They just changed shifts so I don't think that we'll have any company for awhile."
Mike motioned for them to move out and the men went almost silently into the jungle to take up positions where they could cover Mike and Chico. Jo noticed that all of their weapons had silencers on them. Within seconds the men were gone into the jungle and she couldn't see them.
Mike through a ghilly net over Jo and told her to stay down and don't fire her weapon unless it was absolutely necessary. He motioned for Chico to follow him and they moved toward the sub hanger. They darted from bush to building to bush and managed to reach the building without being seen. Mike peeked around the wall of the building and saw the sidewalk was clear. He nodded to Chico and Chico moved to the side of the submarine and stripped off his gear. He quietly slipped into the water and out of sight. A minute later he surfaced for air and then went under again. Several times he repeated this action. Mike watched the water intently. Chico surfaced again and pulled himself up on the sidewalk that ran along the wall and nodded to Mike. They spread out and started to place the charges to bring the roof down. Mike couldn't believe how poorly the building was built. It was obviously built fast and was meant to be a temporary structure. Chico slipped in the water again and set the charges on the columns holding the center of the roof again. Mike waited for Chico to come out of the water again and then they both went back to the end of the building where the barracks was. They placed the plastic around the window and door and set the charges. Chico had mixed stones and thorns that he had found in the jungle with the plastic. Mike knew that the plastic wouldn't kill all of the Iranians, but it would cause an awful lot of injuries.
Chico nodded and they backed out of the building with their guns trained on the barracks in case they were spotted. When they got to the end of the building both of them checked to see if the way was clear for them to move out of the area. Chico motioned that the way was clear and Mike nodded. They moved away from the building and Chico headed for the jungle where Jo was waiting for them with the remote controls for the charges. He looked in back of him and saw that Mike was not there. He quickly scanned the area and saw a shadow heading for the building that Guevara used as his quarters. Chico laid down next to Jo and took the remotes from her. She grabbed his arm and looked at him questioningly. He shook his head and got ready to blow the building. Jo stared at Chico with a look of terror on her face.
Mike made his way to the building without being seen. He looked into the building with his night scope and saw two people sleeping inside the building. He slowly made his way to the door, checking to make sure that he was not being observed. He eased the door open slowly, hoping that the hinges wouldn't squeak. When the door was open enough for him to squeeze his body in, he paused and checked to make sure that neither of the men had woke up. He slipped into the room and to up a position against the wall so that he could keep and eye on both of the men and waited for the charges to go off.
Chico pushed the first button and there was a muffled roar from the sub hanger and then a large puff of smoke and a small amount of fire. He knew that the subs would now be disabled. He had placed charges against the hulls and had put charges on the props in case the subs didn't sink, they still could not be moved.
He pushed the second button and although the charges went off, nothing happened for a second. Then he saw the walls bow out away from the roof and the roof started to collapse on the submarines. A cloud of dust obscured everything and he heard the Zodiac boats bringing in the Delta Force. He heard the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns coming from upriver and saw a boat coming into view with more men on it.
"Damn," he said, "They weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow."
As soon as the charges went off, the sleeping men jumped out of bed. Mike recognized Guevara and opened fire on the other man. The bullets exploded his head and the man dropped to the floor. Guevara pulled a pistol out from his clothes and fired a shot at Mike. Mike went back and it felt like a cement truck had run into his chest at a hundred miles an hour. As he was falling he fired a shot at Guevara and the drug dealer dropped the gun and fell on the bed. Mike fought off losing consciousness and crawled over to Guevara. He could see that Guevara wouldn't live. Mike put his gun into the man's crotch and fired several rounds into the man. He put the gun to Guevara's forehead and blew the top of his head off. Mike tried to make it out of the door. He heard the sound of gunfire outside and he knew that there was many more guns then there should be. The room started to spin and he tried to catch the wall to keep from falling. The wall seemed to move away from him and he fell on the floor, unable to make his legs work. He closed his eyes for a minute, listening to the sounds of the battle going on outside of the building.
He tried to concentrate on his legs so that he could help the Delta Force clean up the drug dealer's base. He slowly opened his eyes. As his vision cleared, he saw Eve kneeling next to him. She seemed more beautiful than ever. She brought her hand to his face and caressed his cheek. Mike reached for her and she took his hand and brought his hand to her face.
"Be quiet Mike," she said, "It's all over now. Let it go Mike."
She leaned over him and took his face in her hands and kissed him softly. She looked into his eyes and smiled sweetly.
"I've always loved you," Mike said.
"I know. I've always loved you too."
She stood up and Mike tried to reach for her to keep her next to him, but he couldn't move his arms. The room started to get very black and he watched her until the darkness became a part of him.
The darkness started to give way to light and Mike opened his eyes slowly. He saw that he was lying in a bed and he had tubes running liquids into him and he felt like someone had taken all of the bones out of his body so that he wouldn't be able to move.
He tried to move and a sharp pain went through his chest and his breath started to come out in gasps. He rested for a minute and then looked around the room. He saw a figure in a chair on the opposite side of the room. He tried to make his vision clear so that he could tell who was in the room with him. He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them.
Jo was asleep in the chair and he saw that she was dressed in a nurses uniform. He watched her sleep for several minutes before she opened her eyes and smiled at him.
"Well, I see that you've decided to come back with the living."
He tried to move and she put her hand on his arm, "Don't move. You've been seriously hurt. I'm your nurse for a while. Just relax and don't try to talk. We'll see if you're up to talking tomorrow."
He tried to ask her about the mission, but couldn't get it out. He closed his eyes and the darkness came back.
When he opened his eyes again, Jo was sitting in the chair reading a book. He saw that she had a nurses uniform on but it was white pants and a white blouse. He watched her for a long time. She looked up from her book and saw that he was awake and came over to the bed and caressed his cheek.
"Are you going to stay awake for a while?"
"How long have I been here?" he asked, his voice coming out like a squeaking cartoon character.
"Four days. Now just lie there and don't try to talk. In a while I'm try to get some broth into you and clean you up a bit."
For the next two days he slept most of the time and he sometimes woke up to find Jo bathing him or cleaning him up where he had fouled himself. On the third day he awoke to find Jake Tyler standing next to the bed with Jo.
"Mike, I guess we're going to be stuck with you for a while. Jo says that you're going to be alright with some time to recuperate."
"Did we put them out of business?" Mike asked. Each word hurt like a knife.
"Yes, it got a bit dicey for a while. The ones that were out gathering the drugs for the next shipment came back a day early. We had two Delta casualties and you."
"Chico?"
"He's in the States. He took a leg wound. I'm afraid that will be the end of his military career. He'll make a reasonable recovery though. I'm going to go. Jo said she'll kill me if I stay for more than two minutes. You're lucky she agreed to take care of you. No one else would put up with you."
Mike gave him a weak grin and Jake patted him on the arm and walked out. Jo stood by him until he fell asleep again.
He was sleeping less each day and Jo had insisted on feeding him, gradually including solid foods into his diet. After he had been in the bed for almost two weeks she had him walking around the room for a bit. He began to get stronger and more feisty. She refused to talk about the mission and Jake hadn't come back since that first time.
He woke up one morning to find Jake and Jo watching him sleep. Jake smiled and told Jo that it seemed that he was to ornery to die and that they would have to put up with him.
"How's Chico doing?" he asked.
"That's just like you Mike. Chico was out of the hospital last week. He's home and doing well. He keeps asking about you."
"How did the mission go?"
"Everything that we set out to do was done. The Iranians were all killed and their bodies have been taken care of. No one knows what happened there except the people involved in the mission. We wiped out all traces of the battle and our people are working to make the subs disappear."
Mike glanced at Jo and then back at Jake, "She's been briefed. She knows enough to keep quiet about everything that happened down there."
"None of the bad guys lived?"
"No. There's no one to tell what happened."
"When am I going to get out of here? By the way, where am I?"
Jake laughed, "You're in the Embassy compound. You can leave in a couple of days. It's going to take some time before you can take care of yourself though."
Jake stood up and told Mike that he had to go. He shook Mike's hand and turned and left.
"I guess I'm going to have to find someone to help me after I get out of here," he said.
"I know a real good nurse that knows your case pretty well that would work cheap," she smiled.
"What about your USAID job?"
"After what I've seen and experienced in the past few weeks, I have a little different perspective on the world. I saw things that I didn't know happened in the world. If you're willing, I'll take care of you. I understand that you live on a boat."
He laughed, "There's not much privacy on a boat."
"Do you think there's any part of you that I haven't seen or touched in the past two weeks?"
He smiled and shook his head. She moved to the side of the bed and
took his hand. He closed his eye and started to fall asleep again. He
felt her lips on his before he slept.