by Glen Robins
Now he was worried about the timing. It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. The GPS said he was still over sixteen miles from his destination. He needed to check in with Lukas, so he stopped for a rest in a patch of six-foot-high bushes that gave him clear sky above to use the satellite phone.
When Lukas answered, he asked, “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I switched the phone off to save battery. Plus, I was afraid Penh was tracking me.”
“Good point. He probably would have. But I wish I could have reached you sooner.”
“Why?”
“Because things are accelerating, my friend. Penh landed in Mexico about an hour ago and was expecting you to be there. He’s pissed at Torres, the crooked senator he’s working with. Torres told him they were looking for you in the mountains, so beware.”
“I’ve been dodging a helicopter for quite a while. It’s really slowing me down.”
“You’ve done well to keep moving and avoid capture, because that gives us time. Are you still heading for the same rendezvous point?”
“Yeah,” said Collin.
“Good. Keep doing what you’re doing. Try to keep up your pace, but if Penh calls you, you’ve got to buy yourself some time, as much as possible. We need to get our guys in place before that helicopter lands.”
“How do I do that? If I keep this phone on, and he can track me, he’ll send that helicopter to my location. Game over.”
“Not necessarily,” Lukas said evenly. “It’s late enough in the day that he’ll know there’s no way to get you to the bank in Panama before it closes. That’s a three-hour flight, at least. So he knows at this point that he’s got to wait until morning to go get the money. He has pushed forward the timeline, despite not delivering the money. According to our source inside Torres’s advisory group, Penh wants to launch the first wave of his attack at midnight tonight. Torres is demanding payment before the launch, but Penh is pushing back because Torres didn’t bring you as he had promised. It’s a see-saw battle for supremacy between the two of them. Anything could happen at this point.”
“What do I do?” asked Collin.
“You should expect Penh to call. He’s anxious and impatient, but knows he can’t finish you off tonight, so you have the upper hand.”
“Why do I not feel like I do?”
“Probably because he will continue to threaten your life and Rob’s. But listen, he’s going to make some demands of you. It’s OK to play along, with some resistance, of course. You give him a little, but ask for something in return each time. If you agree to one of his demands under the condition that Rob doesn’t get hurt, then you maintain some leverage against him. If he doesn’t agree, tell him you can survive out in that wilderness as long as it takes. By the time his forces find you, his deadline will be long since passed.”
“You think he’ll go for that? I mean, does he need my money that bad?”
“I think it’s more than just the money at this point. It’s saving face. I also think he has high hopes for getting into that laptop his men took.”
“That makes sense, but how do I know he won’t hurt Rob?”
“We don’t. He’s likely to hurt him one way or the other. You just have to negotiate the best deal you can to keep him and yourself as safe as possible for as long as possible. Time is our most valuable commodity at this point and Penh knows it. That’s why he’s stepping up the first attack tonight. He wants to catch us off guard before we can assemble the forces we need to deal with the forces he already has. Our inside source is risking his life to discreetly get the word out to several Special Forces groups, asking for help. Every hour gives him the ability to marshal more troops and for them to get in position. Understood?”
“Yes, I totally understand. That’s the easy part. The hard part is going to be figuring out how to stall.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Lukas. “But keep in mind the advantages you have. He wants and needs money, but he can’t access it without you. He wants to use that laptop to infiltrate our systems. We have it set up to recognize and respond to you and only you. He has figured that out, so he knows he needs you to get what he wants off it.”
“I wish that made me feel better, but it doesn’t.”
“I know. Sorry. That’s all I can tell you right now. Now, stay positive and stay strong. I’ll talk to you again soon.”
The call ended and Collin saw a chance to make another dash for the next hiding place a little way down the mountain. While he was running, the phone began to ring again. This time, it was Penh. He made it to the shelter of another clump of bushes while the helicopter was searching an area farther up the mountain. He was reluctant to answer for several reasons, one of which was the location of the helicopter and the ability to put in some distance while it was circling miles away in vain. Another was fear of Penh carrying out one of his violent threats on Rob.
****
Mt. Tlaloc, Mexico
June 18,3:49 p.m. Local Time
Collin kept the conversation with Penh short and to the point, as he was fairly sure that the longer he transmitted, the better the chances Penh and his men could locate him, especially if the helicopter had the right equipment on it.
After Penh made a blustery promise to slowly cut Rob to pieces, Collin called his bluff. “Problem is, you still need me and you don’t know where I am. If you did, your goons would have caught me by now. So let’s stop playing games. You want my money. I get that. You must be running low on funds and your little army of hackers must be getting pretty expensive to support. You’re coming after me because you think—or, at least, thought at one point—that I’m an easy target. I think I’ve proved you wrong. And because of the security measures I’ve taken, the only way to get that money out of the bank is in person. Mine is the only face they’ll recognize and accept for withdrawal requests. If that wasn’t enough, now you feel the need to hack my laptop, which you can’t do because of the advanced biometric protocol installed on it. So you’re kind of screwed without me.”
“That is a very dangerous supposition, Mr. Cook, considering I have your best friend in my custody and care. If you want to see him in one piece, I would suggest you cooperate fully and immediately.”
Collin continued, seemingly unfazed. “You also need to show your men that I cannot beat you. I get that, too. It’s one of those macho ego things and, apparently, you have an enormous ego that must be fed raw meat regularly.” As he spoke, Collin could hear Penh’s breathing grow louder, even over the static-filled connection. “I have come to accept the fact that you are going to kill me and Rob no matter what I do. But your threats to hurt Rob are a disincentive for me to cooperate with you. See, if you are going to hurt him and kill us both anyway, what’s the point in cooperating?”
“Your choice is whether I kill you quickly and spare you and your friend the agony of a long, torturous death or whether you get to watch the world change right before we hand you over to the governors of the new world order and let them decide your punishment and fate.”
“Again, that’s not much of a choice. I’m ready to survive out here in the wilderness long enough to watch your whole diabolical scheme collapse on itself.”
“I’m afraid, Mr. Cook, you overestimate your bargaining position. Your friend will pay a heavy toll for your callousness.”
“Do I really? I don’t think so. You need me. You hate to admit it, but you need me. And because you need me, I can make a few demands. Yes, I realize you have my best friend and you want to maim him as a way to get to me. I completely understand all that,” Collin said with all the confidence he could muster. “I’ll call you in an hour to see if you have come up with a better scenario.” With that, Collin ended the call and shut off the satellite phone to avoid being traced.
****
Clutching the 9mm tightly in his hand, Collin barreled down the side of Mt. Tlaloc toward his rendezvous point. Around every corner, he half-expected an ambush f
rom a mountain lion or panther or whatever type of predator lived on this mountain. Hence, he held the gun firmly in hand as he moved swiftly past rocks, trees, and bends in the trail. The helicopter continued to sweep above the ridges and slopes to the east. He was under near-constant tree cover now that he had descended from the rocky upper climes, thus less worried about being spotted from above. Keeping an eye on his watch, he tried to cover as much distance as possible before he made the promised return phone call. The GPS indicated he had less than fourteen miles to go. Every muscle screamed under the exertion and the aftereffects of Montezuma’s Revenge, which had thankfully passed.
Although it hurt to run downhill, he knew it was less stress on his muscles than trying to go slow and control his downhill momentum. Instead of focusing on the pain, he focused on the end goal. Collin was operating purely on willpower and determination at this point. Events of the past few weeks awakened in him a competitive drive and desire to win he had never experienced. Maybe it was out of necessity. Never had he wanted so badly to beat someone.
Collin seethed at the idea that Penh now had Rob held captive somewhere that only he knew. Penh was a sick dude and Collin worried about his best friend. Questions swirled in his mind about whether his tactics would backfire, fearing that Penh would mangle and torture Rob.
Thoughts of Emily rolled through his mind, as well, remembering what Penh and his goons had done to her and what they had threatened to do. He cringed at the image of her tied to a table with one of Penh’s goons wielding a hunting knife. One of them had already cut her beautiful face by the time the last video was broadcast to him aboard the Admiral Risty. That image was seared into his mind and the savagery of it brought his blood to a boil, even now.
Then there was his mother. Penh had stooped as low as one can go when he kidnapped Collin’s ailing mother as a poker chip in his little game. Only the dregs of humanity could sink that low. Despite his fine apparel, his aristocratic accent, and his Oxford and MIT education, Pho Nam Penh was still a scumbag in Collin’s eyes. He deserved what he had coming and more.
Having found a seldom-used path, Collin had picked up the pace as it wound down through canyons and gullies on the forested western slopes of the mountain. Only the roughness and narrowness of the path prevented him from running faster. It took a great deal of effort to continually push thoughts of fatigue and his painfully abused feet to the background as he focused on saving Rob.
Half an hour after the last conversation with Penh, Collin paused long enough to pull out the phone and call Lukas’s secure mobile line.
“Did you hear the conversation with Penh?” Collin asked.
“Sure did. You did great. That’s just what we want, to plant the seeds of doubt in his mind. Let him know you’re not going to just bow to his demands.”
Collin had slowed down to talk, but continued moving along the edge of an open field for the sake of better reception. “I’m supposed to call him in half an hour. What do I say then? Do you think I give him a victory this time, just to keep him from getting too desperate and doing something cruel to Rob in retaliation?”
“I don’t think he’ll do that,” said Lukas.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because Rob has not arrived in Mexico City yet.”
“How do you know that?”
“We know he’s being transported there by car and, given the distance, there’s no way he could have arrived there yet.”
“So Penh is bluffing?”
“For now, yes. But in a few hours, when Rob arrives, he may not be. The best thing you could do right now is keeping buying yourself and my guys enough time to get set up. You need to get off that mountain, but if we time it right, your arrival could be enough of a distraction to keep Rob out of his focus.”
“OK. How do I manage that?”
“Just keep playing it like you did on the last call. And keep moving toward that pick-up zone.”
Collin switched off the phone again and practically galloped down a set of switchbacks. He was exposed on the side of a steep, rocky cliff. Each hairpin turn caused a new round of pain through his feet, but he had to get down to the cover of the trees below.
Most of the blisters on his feet had burst, soaking his socks with the ooze and blood from them. The flimsy athletic shoes were barely holding together, and that only because of the duct tape. Their tattered soles were missing chunks of the soft foamy material and the uppers had ripped in numerous places.
Hunger pangs stabbed at his gut. His lungs burned. Cramps knotted his midsection and thighs. This was like the first long-distance race he ran years ago. The middle section of that race, similar to the middle section of this trek, posed one trial after another, testing every ounce of his fortitude, grit, and commitment. None of this pain mattered. Only finishing the task at hand mattered. Getting to Penh in time to save Rob. As far as trying to halt Penh’s hack attack on the United States, that would be up to Lukas and his crew. Collin was spent and would be virtually useless once he got to the pick-up zone. But he knew the pain he felt now would go away. The pain Penh planned to inflict on the civilized world would not.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hotel room in the southeastern section of Mexico City
June 18, 4:45 p.m. Local Time
From his hotel room-turned-command-center, Butch coordinated the comings and goings of several teams. He watched Collin’s progress down the western side of Mt. Tlaloc using the transponders planted in the rucksack. And, with the latest input from the source within Torres’ organization, he had additional information that buoyed his flagging spirits. The last thing he did before going underground to save his life and the lives of those he had recruited, the source sent a second helicopter, filled with Mexican Special Forces troops, to aid in the search for Collin. Despite the setbacks of losing the services of six trained and combat-tested operatives, Butch felt a solid plan coming together.
Now it was time to listen in to the conversation Collin had scheduled with Penh. As he did so, an instant message popped up from the team in Washington. A private helicopter had just picked up Rob Howell and his two travel companions along Highway 15D, north of Guadalajara, and was rushing him to the meeting spot in Mexico City.
Butch listened as Penh confirmed that fact with Cook. He heard the tenor of Cook’s voice change, the bravado stolen. Penh urged him to make his location known immediately if he wanted his friend to remain intact. Wisely, Cook demanded to speak to his friend to verify that he was still whole and unharmed before he agreed to cooperate. Penh had ended the call in a huff, promising dire consequences, just to have Cook put it back in his face that Penh still needed him and if he wanted him to cooperate, Rob had better remain unharmed.
Cook promised to call back in one hour, thus giving Butch and his team more time to gather, organize, and get in position.
****
Mt. Tlaloc, Mexico
June 18, 7:48 p.m. Central Time
Though he couldn’t see it, he knew the sun was low on the western horizon because the shadows had grown long and the light had grown thin. Plus, the air began to chill. What he did see in the sky was just what Lukas had told him to expect, a second helicopter. It hovered above him, making tight circles, signaling his location. Soon, the first chopper made its way over and the two moved in tandem.
Following the agreement he made with Penh, Collin stepped cautiously into a clearing with his hands raised in the air. Of course, he had packed away the gun and left the rucksack under a tree several miles back. He had taken all the food and water he felt he would need and decided to go as light as possible in order to make up time on the trail. It had worked. Ignoring the pain, he had managed to jog or run for the better part of three hours to arrive at this flattened spot big enough for two helicopters to land.
The lactic acid had built up in his leg muscles, stiffening them. His feet were bruised, blistered, and bloodied. All of that combined with the cool air and caused him to tread gingerly
and robotically. No one could mistake him as a flight risk or as a combative threat.
A helmeted man stood in the open doorway of a large green helicopter and pointed ominously at Collin as he stopped in his tracks, feeling like hunted prey with nowhere to run. Collin watched the UH-1 Huey as it hovered a few feet above the grass, then promptly set down. The second one landed a hundred yards beyond it, so Collin’s view of it was obscured by the first chopper.
The road where he was to meet up with Butch’s team couldn’t be more than three miles away, according to his calculations. He just hoped he had stalled long enough. Perhaps, it was too long, because now he had to hurry. Penh would start chopping Rob into pieces in eighteen minutes, according to his watch, and there was no way he could let that happen to his best friend. He just wanted to get in the chopper and get in front of that computer like Penh demanded.
The soldier started yelling in Spanish and pointing the rifle at him while he swiveled his head behind him and back to Collin repeatedly.
Shots rang out. Lots of them. There were multiple bursts of gunfire. They seemed to be coming from all directions. Collin dropped to his knees immediately, covering his head, expecting to feel a flash of pain any moment. He checked himself and realized he had not been hit. Wanting to know why the Mexican soldiers were firing at him, he looked to the helicopter. That’s when he realized they weren’t looking at him. They had been thrown into total confusion. As the scene unfolded, Collin realized he hadn’t heard any ricochets of bullets near him, which made him wonder who they were shooting at.