by Hep Aldridge
“Oh, really?” she said. “Like what?”
“Well, how about keeping you out of jail, for one thing.”
“Well, you didn’t do a very good job of it because that’s where I wound up.”
“No, I mean keeping you out of jail for a really long time for like stealing a helicopter…”
Another mug appeared at the table, and when Tex had a full glass, I said, “Okay, we all know what happened on the mountain, but after that, things get a little sketchy, so would you guys mind explaining?”
For the next 20 minutes, I got an update from Doc, O’Reilly, and Tex of their escapades with the military helicopters, the hospital stop and then the airfield incident.
After taking a large swallow of beer, I looked at O’Reilly and said, “No wonder you wound up in jail.”
She laughed and said, “It could have been a lot worse.”
Tex said, “I’m real sorry to have run off like that, but I wanted to try to talk with Senor Mendez before he saw everything on the news.”
“And…?” O’Reilly queried.
“I got hold of him, and he was not happy! He was talking about pressing charges and having you thrown in prison; it was getting ugly.”
“So,” Dimitri said, “I guess we need to get you a really good lawyer.”
“Unnecessary,” Tex replied. “I talked him out of it.”
Now it was Doc who said, “How the hell did you do that?”
“Well, I appealed to his humanitarian nature, which is a hard thing to do, and explained he could have you thrown in prison, but the woman you saved was Friar Gonzales’s sister, Margarete Romero and the young girl was Lily, her daughter. I put a call into the hospital using Mendez’s name before I talked with him. I wanted to know their condition before I called him, and they gave me the names.”
“So, he knew this Friar Gonzales?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, he was very well known and liked in these parts. He had been recognized by the government and the church for his work with the indigenous tribes in the mountains. He was quite a public figure before he moved to the coast to take over a small parish there… kind of like retirement. So, I told Mendez his helicopter was the only thing that had saved these people, and, of course Ms. O’Reilly’s flying expertise.”
“But what sealed the deal was when I told him that Captain Montego had refused to help. I guess he and the captain have some history and, from what I gather, it’s all bad. I told him the press was all over the story and, if he said he had allowed us to use the helicopter instead of pressing charges, well, that would make him kind of a hero.”
We all sat there stunned. Tex went on, “He liked that, so he will contact the police with his permission story, and we need to make sure we use his name and thank him for giving us permission to use his chopper in any statements we make.”
I looked around the table and said, “That sounds good to me. Doc, O’Reilly?”
“No problem, Boss!” they chimed.
“Oh, one more thing, he said if there was any damage to the chopper, you guys would have to pay for it.”
“O’Reilly,” I said, “you didn’t break his helicopter, did you?”
Finishing her beer, she said, “Naw, I just gave her a chance to run wild for a bit, but we will need to cover a full maintenance check and clean up, plus refueling, of course!”
I asked, “Tex can you see to that?”
“Yep, sure can.”
“Then just send the bill to me at the hotel.”
“Will do,” he replied.
With that settled, we all seemed to relax a little more, and a pitcher of margaritas was ordered. That’s when the reporter saw and recognized us. I saw Eduardo standing next to him, pointing in our direction. You little shit, I thought as I saw his ear-to-ear grin, so much for a relaxing evening as the guy headed in our direction.
The next morning, just after breakfast we got a call from the police requesting our return to the station as soon as possible. By the questions the media asked us on our way into the station, it was obvious they had interviewed some of the passengers, and more of the details of the events had been discovered in addition to some of Eduardo’s stories. Once inside, we were escorted to another conference room, larger than the last one and it had a podium, a microphone, and a video camera set up. I looked at everybody. Tex was there standing next to a very distinguished looking dark-haired man about 5’7” and impeccably dressed in a white linen suit. The chief was there along with several other well-dressed dignitaries whom I found out were the mayor and a representative of the provincial governor. The chief came over and shook my hand, “Dr. Burnett, I believe we have finally sorted things out and hope you don’t mind taking part in a small press conference to set the record straight. Senor Mendez has been gracious enough to fill us in on his part in the matter, so there will be no charges against your Senorita O’Reilly.”
I said that was good news and thanked him.
He said, “Let me introduce you to Senor Mendez; he is eager to meet you.” We walked over to where he and Tex were standing, and the chief made the introductions.
“Ah, Dr. Burnett,” Mendez said putting out his hand. “It is indeed a pleasure to meet the American adventurer and hero.”
I took his hand and returned his smile and said, loud enough for those around to hear, “I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to allow us access to your helicopter in our time of need. You are truly a lifesaver and humanitarian.”
His smile broadened as he shook my hand vigorously making sure to turn toward the cameras flashing away and saying that it was his pleasure to be of some small service in our harrowing rescue efforts. Smooth, I thought, this guy is really smooth and loves media attention.
“I also need to thank Mr. Dobson for his help in this endeavor, it was invaluable.”
Senor Mendez acknowledged the comment as I shook Tex’s hand with a pat on his back, saying that he is an excellent crew chief and a valuable employee. I nodded in agreement when Mendez asked, “Could you introduce me to your pilot? I understand she did a magnificent job flying in perilous conditions and circumstances in order to affect the rescue.” I saw him eyeing O’Reilly, who was looking lovely as always, even in her faded jeans, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt, flight jacket, aviator sunglasses perched on her forehead, and combat boots.
“I would be delighted to,” and walked him over to her. He was in his late 50’s, I guessed, and had an eye for the ladies. As we approached, and I made the introduction, she took his extended hand, and he immediately kissed it, almost salivating.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Senorita; you are even more beautiful than Senor Dobson led me to believe.”
I glanced at Tex, who was now blushing, and then at O’Reilly, and saw a slight blush come to her cheeks. Time to break this up, I thought, as I saw the chief walking towards the podium and said, “I think we are about to start.”
“Ah, yes,” Mendez said, still holding O’Reilly’s hand “I hope we have a chance to talk more later. I would love to hear the details of your flight and the meeting with my good friend Captain Montego,” he said with a sly grin and a wink.
Obviously, a disingenuous comment if ever I heard one. She said, “I look forward to it,” and with that, he turned and approached the podium. Smooth, very, very smooth, I need to find out more about this guy I thought.
The conference lasted the better part of an hour. The captain spoke and then called Senor Mendez to the podium, where he gave an eloquent account of his involvement in the rescue and, of course, his permission to Tex to use his helicopter for such a harrowing emergency; he had to get a dig into the military and their inability to offer help. I got called to the podium, much to my chagrin, and as succinctly as possible recounted the story of the rescue and my team’s part in it, being sure to mention young Eduardo’s part and his heroic efforts. Then, before I could move away, the questions about our search for the lost Golden Library started coming fast and furio
us. Damn!
How long had we been looking? Were we going to follow leads that other explorers had used? Did we have new information? How long would we be in Ecuador? Those were just a few of the questions. I dodged and down-played as many as I could, trying hard to sound like a vacationer with a penchant for history, but had to answer some just to bring things to a close and turned the podium back over to the chief, who praised our heroism and daring in making the rescue.
As he finished, an aide handed him a gilded framed certificate of commendation signed by the regional governor, mayor, chief, and everybody that was anybody, which he then presented to me and my team. More group photos and questions for everyone… I made sure Eduardo was front and center. He was enjoying it much more than me; that’s for sure. Once we extricated ourselves from the event and made it back to the Beast, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. “You’re right, Dimitri; so much for the low profile,” I said as we drove away.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It had been a full week since the rescue, and the attention was dying down. We had gone to the hospital to check on the patients and found Senora Romero had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Doc had spoken with her and came out blushing. He reported that both were doing well. A top brain surgeon, paid for by Senor Mendez, was brought in from Quito and was treating her daughter. They had relieved the pressure and, from what they could tell, the swelling of the brain was going down. Her recovery would take a while, but they were optimistic that no permanent brain damage had occurred; time would tell.
Senora Romero had thanked Doc profusely for his help in saving her baby and daughter’s life and vowed eternal gratitude to all of us for what we did. We found out that Fernando, the bus driver, was making a slow recovery and wouldn’t be driving buses any-time soon, but his prognosis was good. Our spirits were much higher as we left the hospital. All’s well that ends well, I thought as we drove away.
Leaving the hospital, our dogged reporter accosted us again. Now, most of his questions were about our hunt for the library, and most follow-up television coverage included information about previous expeditions and their lack of success. I tried to convey the fact that we were just amateurs in the information- gathering stages and had nothing new to add. After researching it, we weren’t sure what was fact or fiction or where our investigations would take us. We were just adventure seekers on vacation! I was trying hard to divert attention away from our search.
It was about this time that I decided that a trip back to the States might be a good thing. It would let things continue to die down around here, plus we had been in country now for over four months, and I thought we could all use a break. I was eager to sit down with Nils, Lawrence, and Gus to get a full report on the status of our search for the galleon
I guess what sealed the deal on the trip home was Fitz’s call when he asked, “So, that low-key visit to Ecuador, Colt, how’s that working out for you?”
“Asshole,” I said.
After a snort on the other end of the SAT phone, he said, “You guys have been splashed all over the media up here. American hero’s in Ecuador and all that shit. You would never survive as a covert operative; hell, you’ve even turned O’Reilly into some kind of angel,” he said and laughed out loud.
“Hey, it wasn’t my fault. We were doing fine on the down-low, and then the fates intervened; what can I say?”
“Spoken like a true hero,” he said.
“Well, we’re coming home for a break; we need to regroup and review all the Intel we’ve gathered. We still don’t have a good handle on a starting point, but I have some ideas.”
He said, “Sounds good. I look forward to sitting down with you all and bringing you up to speed on our work here, although we haven’t learned much more in your absence. Still more questions than answers, but damn interesting.”
“Good,” I said. “I’ll let you know when we leave,” and with that, broke the connection. Geez, media in the states too; must have been a slow news day. The power of modern communication technology!!! Over the next few days we put our things in order and made arrangements to leave the Beast at Sean’s. He had a nice car-and-a-half locking interior garage at the back of his building where we could store the Beast and our gear. We gave Sean and Doug all our contact info stateside… phone and e-mail address, so they could contact us night or day.
We also included the special hotline international number and e-mail that Fitz had set up, which was manned 24/7; in case our personal contacts didn’t work, they would still be able to contact us. The Hotel Condor had been more than happy to hold our three rooms for us for $300 U.S. dollars a week until we returned. We paid a month in advance, and everyone was happy.
Out of courtesy we notified Chief Gallegos that we were leaving but said we would return soon. He thanked us for the consideration and bid us safe travels, and so we found ourselves at Diego’s for dinner the night before our morning departure. We were all a little subdued in our conversations, excited about going home, but somewhat sad at the prospect of leaving.
We were halfway through dinner when Tex came in, sauntered over to our table, and asked if he could join us. “Of course,” we said, all thinking of him as part of our “new Ecuadorian” family.
"So, how long you all going to be gone?" he asked.
“Not sure,” I responded, “a few weeks maybe a month.” He knew about our other treasure hunting venture for the galleon and our need to check in on that.
“Well, it will be pretty dull around here with y’all gone,” he said with a smile. I had noticed he had been staying in touch with O’Reilly since their historic flight together; she didn’t look up from her plate, but I saw her smile.
Doc said, “Sometimes, a little dull is okay.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Tex agreed, and then asked if there was a way he could stay in touch with us in the States, just in case, so we provided him with the contact info we had given Doug and Sean.
He then added, “Oh, Mr. Mendez was disappointed to hear you were leaving and asked me to convey an invitation to dinner at his place to you all when you get back to Ecuador.”
I said, “Please thank him for us and let him know we accept and look forward to it.”
He smiled, stood up, and said, “Will do. When you get back, just let me know, and I’ll get word to him. Have a safe trip.”
Before I could ask for his contact info, he said, “O’Reilly knows how to find me.” With that, she looked up and gave him a mischievous grin.
“Great,” I said, “we’ll be in touch,” and he turned and walked out. “I think someone is smitten,” I said as I looked at O’Reilly; this time she did blush.
The next morning came early, and we took a puddle jumper flight from Cuenca to Guayaquil and got our non-stop flight there. Our flight back to the States was uneventful. I was getting real used to flying first class, I realized, and dozed off for most of the trip home. Fitz had a vehicle waiting to pick us up at the Orlando International Airport, and we went to his place before heading to the coast.
He brought us up to date on their progress, which as he indicated earlier, was not much further along than before we left. We were all bone-tired and glad to load up and head home. O’Reilly opted to stay at Fitz’s for the time being, saying she would catch up with us in a few days. On our way, I sent Nils, Lawrence, Tony, and Gus a text letting them know we were back and would like to meet at the Lair as soon as they could arrange it. I wasn’t sure what they were up to and said for them to let me know.
In the meantime, we would all be home resting and regrouping. It was about 6 p.m. when we hit the Cocoa area. We had all parked our vehicles in the Lair’s parking lot, so Fitz’s driver dropped us off there. We grabbed our gear, and all went our separate ways. I was looking forward to a night in my bed for a change.
The next morning, I slept in, and didn’t get up till around ten, threw on my sweat pants and a T-shirt, made my coffee, and kicked back on my leather couch. I finished my first cup
of coffee and headed back for my second cup when the computer jangled with its Skype ring and I walked over and saw it was Tony calling. I punched the accept key, and his smiling face appeared.
“Hey, Colt, welcome home.”
“Thanks,” I said, “good to be back.” He said he had gotten the text and been in touch with the others. Gus was out at the search area but could be in tomorrow if that was good enough for a meeting. Everyone else was good to go then.
“Sure,” I said, “let’s shoot for one o’clock at the Lair.” He said he would let everyone know and was eager to hear about the trip.
“Okay, see you then,” I said and disconnected the call. Well, at least I had the rest of the day to relax a little and organize my thoughts, which meant taking another shower and hitting the bed again for another four hours. I woke up famished and, with nothing in the fridge, which I had cleaned out before I left, not wanting to come home to any science experiments gone bad, I figured I’d get dressed and find food.
The next day, we were all at the Lair by 1:00. We gathered in the conference room and, after welcome home by the galleon crew, we took seats at the table began our debrief, which turned out to be a cacophony of various questions, answers, and side discussions all going on at once. There were several… “Hero’s, Holy Shits, You guys did what? O’Reilly didn’t, did she? That can't be true, and do you guys know you have been on TV?”
I put my hand up and said “Okay, enough for now. Let’s get down to business. You will hear all the gory details of our “adventure” soon enough, but for now, what’s been going on here with the search?”
Nils said, “Well, we haven’t found any trace of the ship yet, but we’ve eliminated a lot of the sections on our chart and now have a much smaller area to work, still using Tony’s projections and computer model.”
Gus chimed in, “The boys on the boat are doing a great job and have come together as a tight-knit team, and we’ve done a very thorough bottom search. I think we must be getting close; there’s just not much real estate left out there to cover, so we’ll either find it, or it’s not in the area we think it is.”