Reprisal!- The Eagle's Challenge

by Cliff Roberts

  They also had the added advantage of having a built-in a light sensor that caused the goggles to adjust to changing light with a blink of the eye, so even if the flames were bright and blazing in one direction, they could still turn the other way and see with minimal ambient light without having to remove or replace the goggles.

  During the two hours prior to the fire bomb’s explosive entrance, the team found their way through the neighborhood to points in and around the neighboring villas. When the firemen arrived, they could step out of their hiding places and blend in with them as they went about tackling the blaze.

  As the time dragged by, the team had no idea what was happening inside the villa. They knew that at nine o’clock Garza and his nudist girlfriend left the villa for dinner and dancing at the local nightclub called the Horny Bullfrog. They wouldn’t be back until at least two-thirty.

  What they had no way of knowing or controlling was one of the guards getting hungry around midnight. Instead of picking something out of the refrigerator, he went strolling through the pantry looking for something eat.

  He had a large variety of foods to choose from, since Garza’s chef stocked the villa with everything the grocery could offer, but the guard just had to have corn flakes. He grabbed the first box on the shelf and poured a large bowl full of the cereal, tossing the box back on the shelf without noticing the bottom half of the box was a bit stiffer than the top half had been. He also failed to notice that, even though he’d poured almost half the box into his bowl, it was still heavier than a normal full box. If he had been paying any attention or had even looked in the box, the bomb would have been discovered, but he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, despite looking tough enough to knock down brick walls with a single punch. Apparently, every man has his uses!

  The box sat undisturbed until its appointment with destruction at one a.m. when it burst into flames. The pantry quickly became completely involved and the fire spread to the kitchen before anyone knew there was even a fire. It then took the fire department ten minutes to respond and another ten to get their equipment unloaded and prepared to fight the fire.

  Tom and the team helped them hook up the hoses to the two tankers that arrived two minutes after the first fire engine arrived, and then they went into the villa, jogging right past the guards who normally would have refused them access. They went directly into the villa to make sure everyone was out of the building and to start their search.

  As the other firemen prepared and then began spraying water on the flames, the team split up and wandered throughout the villa, looking for anything that might provide more intelligence. Tom found the office of Garza’s numbers man, Primo, in the second door he opened on the first floor. He quickly called Pam over to download the hard drive onto a flash memory stick, while he shuffled through a pile of CDs on a shelf, only to decide to take them all, stuffing them into his pockets as Pam finished the download and left the room.

  Alex found another computer in a second floor bedroom that he downloaded to another flash memory stick, then grabbed two blue binders from the shelf that reminded him of the binder he had found in Cuba. He tucked them inside his coat without looking at them.

  Ron followed behind the other team members, squirting lighter fluid onto the desktops and the floors knowing that the heat of the flames would cause it to eventually ignite. Any evidence that they had been there would be destroyed along with the evidence that they had taken anything.

  As the team met up on the first floor by the glass wall that led to the beach, Ron slipped down the hallway to the office that Tom had found and squirted lighter fluid all over the room, which burst into flames almost the instant that the liquid touched the wall. He tossed the can of lighter fluid in the room for good measure and ran to join the other team members as they exited through the glass wall that led to the pool area and the beach.

  They kept moving towards the water as the flames intensified and began to consume the decking around the pool. At the far end of the pool deck, they quickly discarded their firefighting gear, slipping around the fencing that ended a few yards into the water. Then, just when the team thought they could relax, several gunshots echoed in the night. Mike felt the breeze from a bullet whiz by his ear, and everyone dove for the ground.

  Looking back, Ron and Tom could clearly see four of Garza’s security men running across the pool area. They were silhouetted against the flames of the burning villa and shooting at them as they advanced. Apparently, someone had been watching the firemen, after all, and they had seen the team exit out the back when every other firefighter was out front fighting the flames.

  Mike and Alex were the first to return fire, tearing up the deck railing and deck furniture with the fully automatic spray from their silenced MP5s. The team did their best to continue backing away from the men on the pool deck, only to be cut off by four men who suddenly appeared around the corner of the neighboring villa. Luckily for the team, the beach in that area was covered with small rocky outcroppings that they quickly dropped behind for cover as they began taking on the new threat.

  Mike went down quickly with a shoulder wound and Pam received a round to her left leg before Ron and Tom could spray the new foursome with their MP5s, taking out two of the four gunmen who decided to pop up to shoot just as Ron and Tom opened up.

  As the bullets whizzed all around them, Tom knew they had to find cover quickly and then they had to find a way to escape. The only advantage they had were the flames that were behind Garza’s men, which silhouetted them against the bright light, making them easy targets.

  Ron helped Pam limp along the beach, moving farther away from Garza’s men as Alex and Tom kept firing at them in the hope they could find more substantial cover before more of Garza’s men arrived. If they had called Garza at the club, he could be arriving at any minute with another twelve men, and that would not be a good thing.

  After sixty yards or so, Ron and Pam dropped behind a couple of large boulders and fired over them to provide cover for the rest of the team as they crab crawled to the boulders. Slipping behind them, Tom looked at Ron with a look of desperation that Ron uncharacteristically returned, making Tom feel even more desperate, but he rallied himself almost immediately, his training as a leader kicking in and taking control.

  “How much ammo do we have?” Tom called out in his best ‘I’m in charge’ voice.

  Alex did a quick count as the other team members held up their clips. “We’ve got twelve clips, boss!” he called out as he fired at one of Garza’s men who got careless and tried to sprint around the fence. He didn’t make the turn at the fence’s end, but instead did a header into the water and remained face down. Just another overly courageous dead man.

  “Okay, switch to single shot and take aim before you fire. We’re going to need every shot to count. I expect Garza to send in reinforcements at any minute. Pam, can you watch the far end the villa next to us for anyone trying to get behind us?” Tom asked.

  “Yeah, sure thing,” Pam replied through a grimace.

  “Mike, how bad are you?” Tom asked, seeing the blood running down his arm.

  “I won’t be doing any one-handed curls for a while, but I’m okay for now,” Mike replied, doing his best to be macho.

  “Okay, help Alex keep those sons of bitches pinned down. Ron and I are going swimming,” Tom stated flatly and started backing out into the water.

  “Swimming? What about sharks? You can’t see them at night, you know! And there’s jellyfish that come in on the tide, too,” Ron complained but followed Tom into the water. “Plus, the water gets awfully cold this time of night.” Ron continued to complain playfully, which was his way of breaking the tension. Garza’s men on the deck by the pool didn’t see them slip into the darkness thanks to the covering fire that Alex laid down, forcing them to keep their heads down.

  The water was bathwater warm despite Ron’s complaints to the contrary, and there was just enough of a wave action to hide the disturbance their pa
ssing caused. That allowed them to slip into the darkness and begin swimming towards Garza’s villa, undetected. They first swam straight out into the darkness about fifty yards and then turned towards the Garza villa. Once they had drawn even with the villa, they silently creeped nearer to within twenty-five feet of shore, where they could kneel easily. They quickly eliminated the men hiding behind the deck rails thus lessening the pressure on the team on the beach.

  They then moved off towards the dock, where Garza kept his cabin cruiser. It was located on the far side of the property. They made sure they kept far enough out from the beach to remain in the shadows and out of the light cast by the burning villa. As they swam in, they could see and hear the team was now fully engaged with Garza’s men who had tried to slip behind them. Having been repelled, Garza’s men were regrouping for a frontal assault, which told Tom and Ron that time was running out and fast.

  Ron slipped over the cruiser’s gunnels first by climbing up the side of the boat away from the villa, but once he cleared the rail, he froze. There was movement! He’d seen it out of the corner of his eye. Someone was in the darkened cabin space down the steps to his right. Several moments passed with Ron trying to find the moving shadow again. He crouched perfectly still, straining his hearing in an effort to hear anything moving, but he heard nothing. The longer he crouched in the darkness behind a large bench seat, the stronger his gut feeling grew that there was someone waiting in the dark to ambush them.

  Tom began to climb the swim platform and Ron clicked his comlink mic, hoping Tom was paying attention and would understand and stop, but the sound of Tom’s foot slipping on the side of the boat, followed by a loud thump on the deck, told Ron that he hadn’t heard the click and he had climbed on board. Ron slowly, and as quietly as he could, slipped to the right side, moving forward until he was behind the pilot’s chair to the right of the hatch leading to the cabin. There he waited.

  Tom had slipped over the transit from the swim platform as quietly as possible, though he managed to slip and fall loudly before gaining his bearings again. Tom slowly moved up close to the large bench seat in the middle of the deck straight back from the hatch leading to the cabin space.

  “Ron!” Tom whispered loudly. When Ron didn’t reply or signal him, he whispered loudly again. “Ron!” After waiting for what seemed like eternity but was only a few seconds, Tom started to crab walk forward towards the darkened cabin just as a person stepped through the hatchway and pointed a handgun at him, yelling at him in Spanish, “Quieto, señor! No se mueva!” He’d said, “Freeze, mister! Don’t move!” which Tom did as Ron fired one time, almost point blank, striking the man in the head and dropping him like a stone.

  “Thanks! I owe you one,” Tom whispered.

  “Just one?” Ron shot back with a big grin on his face.

  “Help me slide this guy over the side,” Tom ordered, and the two of them dumped the guy over the side with only a minor splash.

  “Where’s the keys?” Tom then asked.

  “For all I know, that guy had them in his pocket,” Ron shot back sarcastically.

  “Check the cabin. I’ll check the console and the side pockets,” Tom shot back curtly, not enjoying Ron’s idea of witty banter.

  “I got them!” Ron called out in a loud whisper as he stepped back up the stairs from the cabin. “They were in the first cabinet over the sink. Garza had them hanging on a hook right there!” Ron smirked.

  Tom turned to look over the villa’s deck and down the beach to be sure no one had spotted them while Ron got the boat started. Down the beach, the team was still pinned down and firing only occasionally, trying to make every shot count. Garza’s men had spread out and were content to take sporadic shots at the team as if they were waiting for something—or someone—to arrive.

  “Let’s go! Move it!” Tom whispered loudly and curtly at Ron as he adjusted the choke, trying to get the boat to turn over. “Does it have gas?” Tom finally asked.

  “Yes, it’s got gas!” Ron shot back with irritation, just as the engine finally caught and rumbled to life. The sound of the engine on the boat caused Garza’s men to turn and look in the boat’s direction, where they saw Tom cutting the tie lines. They quickly turned and began firing across the hundred yards between them and the boat, causing Tom to jump into the boat while Ron slowly edged it away from the dock, revving the engine a few times to get it warmed up and to keep it from stalling.

  Suddenly, four more of Garza’s men sprung around the corner of the Garza’s burning villa, shoving two legitimate firefighters out of the way in order to get a clear shot at the boat. Several bullets whizzed past Tom and Ron as the boat dug into the water and started pulling away. Several rounds tore up the teak wood railings and trim, as still more rounds punched holes through the hull itself and tore up the expensive seat cushions and upholstery.

  Tom ducked down behind the gunnels, and Ron tried his best to mesh with the console and still see where he was steering the craft. Just off shore, several small outboards were anchored for the night and that required Ron to weave his way through them. Tom began returning fire one shot at a time and picking his targets for maximum effect as Ron swung the boat first one way and then another. He’d shot two of the four men before the last two dove for cover behind the large bar in the left corner up close to the villa. Tom kept firing on them, hoping the flames would trap them, but just before that happened, they jumped away into the shadows. Either way, they became ineffective after that.

  After five minutes of weaving and bobbing, they had drawn even with the boulder pile and began providing supporting fire for the team who were still pinned down behind them. Tom continued to take measured shots from the darkness and succeeded in eliminating three more of Garza’s men and increasing the odds for a successful escape.

  Ron pulled the boat in as close to the beach as he dared, only twenty yards off the sand, and Tom slipped over the side of the boat into the darkness and swam toward the beach. As the water level dropped, Tom began crawling slowly up the beach until he was shielded by the large boulders, and he began laying down covering fire for the team to start swimming for the boat. Ron was now in the bow of the open-bowed cruiser, also laying down covering fire as the team slowly swam towards the boat.

  Pam was the most injured and the most difficult to get into the boat. Fortunately, she was the also the smallest and lightest, which allowed Alex to almost toss her over the gunnels onto the boat, even though he was treading water. Mike was smarter and went to the rear of the boat and climbed the swim ladder with his one good arm and then lay flat on the deck, trying to avoid the rain of lead that was now directed towards the boat. Garza’s men had finally realized that someone was taking pot shots from the bow of the boat. This distraction allowed Tom to slip away, back into the water, unnoticed.

  When everyone finally was on board, Ron reversed the engines and backed away from the beach as quickly as he could, while Tom and Alex kept shooting at Garza’s men, keeping them from rushing to the water’s edge and getting that much closer to the boat. However, one of Garza’s men was an enterprising soul. He grabbed an RPG from the tool shed and raced to the edge of the villa where he squatted to fire. It was a good plan, and it probably would have worked if the firemen hadn’t chosen that exact moment to turn on two high pressure hoses which blasted the front corner of the villa to stop the fire from consuming the entire place. The man with the RPG was knocked over just as he pressed the trigger, and the RPG raced skyward, almost straight up but not in the direction of the boat. When it had reached the peak of its assent, it suddenly turned over and fell straight down into the water in front of the villa where it exploded harmlessly.

  “Go, go, go!” Tom yelled as Ron turned the boat away from the villa, just as four more of Garza’s men came around the corner. The cruiser proved to have quite a bit of power and quickly roared off into the darkness, leaving Garza’s men standing in the water up to their knees, firing at the shadow of the boat.

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p; Garza’s number two man began screaming orders at his men, and two vehicles quickly sped away from the villa. One went north and the other went south, keeping close to the shore and looking for the cruiser.

  When Garza arrived from the nightclub moments later, he began demanding to know what had happened, only to find that the men that were here when the fire started had been killed by the intruders. Garza was infuriated, and he slapped one of his men hard across the face, knocking him down to his knees. Then Garza pulled his gun and pointed it at the man. Primo stepped in front of Garza and asked him not shoot the man because it wasn’t his fault.

  Garza glared at both the man and Primo for a moment before he lowered his gun. Primo thought he had diffused the situation only to have Garza, the moment Primo began to turn around, swing the gun up into the man’s face and fire, killing him instantly.

  “Why?!” Primo screamed.

  “The man’s brother was in charge of the villa’s security. Since he was dead, his brother had to pay the price for his brother’s incompetence. Stupidity runs in families,” Garza responded as he stuffed the gun in his belt. “Get me a hotel suite and make sure the whole floor is mine.”

  “Yes, patrón.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Ron took the boat out over a mile and killed the engine. Then he, Tom and Alex did their best to help Pam and Mike dress their wounds using the first aid kit from the boat, which Ron was surprised to find was quite well stocked with bandages and painkillers. Once the two of them had been patched up, Tom looked at Ron and asked a very simple question.