by Tom Ellis
Ron Kroll was able to slip off for an ATV ride around the Rocking H Bar. Deputy Willie Hillman returned to duty a couple of days before and was hanging around the ranch. As soon as Kroll saw bars on his phone, he sent a Vargas a text. A few minutes later Vargas read the message and called Havelee. She in turned called Desmond and M&M. Within a half an hour they were meeting.
“OK, Kroll has advised something is going to happen late tonight or tomorrow night. I believe it will most likely be in the early morning hours. So be prepared with water, snacks and for sleeping in the trucks. I’m going to call TR and tell him we are going to camp out on the ranch road. I will ask him not to tell his boss. I hope the big guy they call Butter Billy is still at his girlfriend’s place. Any questions?”
“Will TR go along with not telling Carson Bell. And more important is will he stay in the bunkhouse?” Ivalou asked pointedly.
“I’m going to impress on TR that we are not invading the ranch. And when I say it is FBI business he will stay away. He understands that. Any more questions?”
“What time are we moving out?” M&M asked.
“No later than five thirty. That will give us time to get through Patagonia and be in the valley by dark.”
All the agents shook their heads affirming their readiness for the task ahead.
Havelee called Tobias Rutledge.
“I’ve got a favor to ask, and it involves FBI business, comprende?” She said after the usual greetings.
“If I can help you I will.”
“We need to be close to the Rocking H Bar tonight and tomorrow night. We will park on the Double B Ranch Road near the entrance. We will be there all night both nights. And your boss doesn’t need to know about it.”
“Hav, he probably wouldn’t care about you guys being all the way out there. You’re over a mile from the headquarters house. But I won’t tell him.”
“I appreciate that, and I don’t need any midnight cowboys riding up the road either.”
“I understood the FBI business when you said it. Besides tomorrow is a work day for me. It will be daylight before I get out that far. Would you want me to wake you guys up or bring you coffee?”
“No smartass. We will be awake and gone before the sun gets up.”
“Hav, where are you going when you finish this job?”
“I don’t know. Probably back to DC where I’m assigned. I’m working a screwed up investigation out here. It is the type of thing that could leave me asking Carson Bell if he needed another hand. Why are you asking?”
“Well, I like you. And I don’t want this to go away.”
“TR, I don’t want it to go away either. There is a supervisory opening coming up in the Phoenix Field Office. I am going to apply for it. Provided this current case doesn’t put me in line for an early retirement.”
“Well, Phoenix is closer than Washington.”
“Listen to me sweetheart. I’ve been taken with you since you rode up to the house that day. I don’t want you thinking that I am using you. Because I am not. I want us together. That is why I’m looking into the Phoenix opening.”
“OK babe, that makes me happy.”
“Good, catch you later. Maybe I can come for a visit this weekend.”
Havelee hung up the phone.
Jolene was still mad at Andy. She came over to where Estella was putting dinner out for everyone and got a plate and took it back to the motorhome. Estella and Miguel would go back to the ranch house, and she would serve dinner for Carson Bell, TR and her husband, Miguel. Butter Billy and Bonita were going to camp out at the Casita in case things happened early.
Burns phone buzzed with a text from Jolene.
FBI in 2 vehicles car & truck parked Dbl B entrance rd.
Burns thought about this for a few minutes when his satellite phone buzzed. It was Reid.
“We have eyes on two females in a truck, two black males in a second truck. Parked inside the entrance road to the Double B Ranch. They appear to be law enforcement. Advise”
“We have them on camera. They are FBI. If this thing goes down, they don’t need to be on the scene until we get the women out. They are not the enemy. Can you slow them down?”
“Yes, we have a gadget for that sort of problem.”
“Elaborate unless it is classified.”
“When activated their cars, radios, and phones get fried. In short, they are walking and not calling.”
“Trade you a rifle for one of those gadgets.”
“No deal it’s seriously classified.”
The phone clicked off.
“Something up?” Russell asked.
“FBI has a stake out at the Double B Ranch entrance. Carson Bell likely doesn’t know they are there.”
“He doesn’t know you have cameras looking at him either does he?”
“No.”
“This could screw things up.”
“No, not really,” Burns said smiling, thinking how much he would like to see Havelee Harris and company walking to the Double B with hat in hand looking for a ride.
El Jefe’s well-planned extraction of the women might have embarrassed the FBI team, had the drug lord hired an intelligent nonalcoholic driver. The moron was drunk, driving an ancient school bus and came into the valley the wrong way. A narrow one hundred eighty-degree switch back turn doomed the old the vehicle. A rookie border patrol agent found the bus and the driver the next morning.
Sonora’s drug king was livid all day and threatening to fly to the Rocking H Bar and kill everyone involved. The Aerostat balloon languishing high above the Huachuca Mountains, it’s electronic eyes seeing everything that flew toward the USA, was the only thing that kept him from it.
M&M and Desmond were relieved to see daylight. They scrambled to recover M&M’s trousers from the truck bed via the sliding rear window over the back seat. Sometime during the night M&M correctly figured Havelee and Ivalou were sound asleep. He carefully stepped out of the cab to urinate. The moment his feet hit the ground, he heard an angry buzzing sound. Desmond already terrified of the wilderness night yelled snake. M&M pissed in his pants trying to get back in the truck. He spent the rest of the night bare ass in the back seat of the truck. His pants and underwear laid out to dry in the truck bed. Both men gripped their Glock pistols fearful of huge rattlesnakes breaking into the truck. Desmond peed in a cup, and M&M took careful aim at the window when Des lowered it to pour out the waste. The commando team videoed the whole incident.
It was a long hot day in the San Rafael. Jolene stayed cool in the RV and didn’t venture outside. Burns and the rest of the crew went over the plan until they knew every move the other person would make. Reid forwarded the video of the FBI agents to Burns encrypted laptop. Russell just shook his head. Cruz laughed until he hurt. The PI’s and Burns retreated to the cool darkness of the casita, and it’s evaporative cooler. They all took a long siesta, awakening in time for dinner.
Havelee Harris was amused at Desmond and M&M when they reported for duty that evening. Both men were wearing tall snake proof boots with their trouser legs stuffed into them. Both carried several plastic bags from Walmart.
“I don’t think the boots will create a new look in pimp fashions.” She said.
“Pimps don’t have to pee in the company of rattlesnakes either,” M&M responded.
“Hopefully, something will go down tonight. I will commit us to this on this stake out unless we hear something definite from Kroll. I know it is not comfortable out there. But at least it is not cold.”
“We’re good to go,” Desmond said.
Vargas gave an affirmative nod. She was unusually quiet. Havelee figured it was concern about Kroll. He had not communicated in over twenty-four hours.
They drove to the San Rafael mostly in silence. Harris texted TR and told him they would be back in place all night.
Jolene watched the FBI agents park their vehicles and settle in for the night. Burns raid as she was beginning to think of it was going to happen in
the wee hours of the morning. Conversations between them were civil and short. She was pleased that some serious backup support was close. She texted Burns that the agents were back in place. A few minutes later he knocked on the outside of the RV and then entered.
“We are going over there tonight and get those women out. Jo, you are our eyes over there. We are counting on you to tell us if anyone is moving.”
“I can do that. But what if this thing deteriorates into a shootout? This raid rescue or whatever you call it is nothing but vigilantism, and you are breaking the law. I know you think it is the right thing to do. I hope you have considered the consequences should this thing blow up in your face.”
“I have, and the means justify the end. We have covered every contingency, and if I didn’t think we could make it happen, I wouldn’t be doing it. By your count, there are sixty women imprisoned over there. They close the barn door and have an armed guard. Those women are captives; they are prisoners. If the FBI were planning to move on this, there would more than four agents sitting a few miles away. Kroll has alerted them, or they wouldn’t be there. If you see anything that indicates a full-scale FBI operation, let us know, and we will get the hell out of there. And they won’t be any wiser.”
“I wish I could let Havelee in on what we are going to do. But I agree with you about trusting her not to interfere and not to arrest us.”
“Just let us know if she comes charging in with the cavalry.”
“I will. And Burns, be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Two hundred yards southeast of the hillside overlooking the Rocking H Bar. Burns checked in with Jolene via radio. She gave an all clear. The half-moon lit the high prairie; the night visions goggles functioned perfectly, giving Burns team a green-tinted view of the landscape. Andy switched his radio to Reid’s frequency. The commandos were positioned north to south in an L shape around the Rocking H Bar compound. Their team on the service road reported no activity. Reid’s people had eyes on Burns group and the ranch compound. Andy transmitted a single word message to both units.
“Showtime.”
Andy rode Don Cameron south of the compound. He dismounted and tied the horse to the trunk of a cottonwood tree. Jazz stood guard on his equine partner. Burns slung is rifle across his back and rechecked the rest of his gear. Burrito Cruz drove up in an ATV. Andy unloaded two large dyed black pillow cases with the open ends securely closed with wire ties. He heard Jolene’s voice in his earpiece.
“The perverted dude came out of the front of the house. He peed and is now walking toward the barn.”
Burns clicked his mic in acknowledgment. Burns began the two-hundred-yard hike to the compound carrying the pillow cases. Another message came through his earpiece.
“Trailer ready.”
Ron Kroll found keeping Porn Dude away from the women was a full-time job. Ass Bradford threatened the oversexed mutant with a painful death if he molested any of the females. Kroll dozed off fully clothed in his bed. Numb Nut’s snores subsided, and the ranch house was quiet. The creaking sound of someone walking on the wood floor awoke Ron. He rolled out of bed and went to check Pauli Dumas’s room. Porn Dude wasn’t there.
Burns was half way to the barn when Jolene called again.
“The pervert took a woman out of the barn. The guard is with him. They are heading toward the building diagonally across from the bunkhouse.”
Burns acknowledged with a mic click and continued his trek toward the compound. No plan completely survived once it started. Securing the bunk house was his first objective. The news that a second person was out and about wasn’t good, being forewarned would allow him to deal with it. Bless you, Jolene he thought.
“Technical is going down,” Reid reported. Burns acknowledged. He knew a three-man team would assault the truck with silenced submachine guns. One commando would steer while the other two pushed the truck down the ranch driveway until they could safely start it up and drive off. The jihadists guarding the vehicle would not survive.
Andy Burns was creeping along the opposite side of the barn toward the bunkhouse when he heard Jolene’s voice.
“Burns! Two little girls just ran out of the barn. The smaller one tried to go toward the bunk house. The larger one grabbed her and pulled her up the hill toward the horse apple camera. They must have stepped on it because I lost the picture. Ron Kroll came out of the house and is walking toward the barn.”
Andy acknowledged and paused at the northwest corner of the barn. He could see the south side of the bunk house and only part of the south wall of the shop. He carefully walked up the side of the barn and looked around the front. No guard. He gave his mic three clicks. Burns quickly moved to the bunkhouse as he watched Kroll walk into the open door of the shop.
Burns froze by the side of the bunkhouse waiting to see if his quick sprint attracted any attention. He stepped to the front door pulled spray can of oil from his pocket and doused the door hinges. Burns eased the door open. He cut the ties on the two large pillowcases he carried and threw them inside. Burns closed the door and placed the two by four across the brackets on the door frame, effectively locking everyone inside. A commotion in the workshop drew his attention.
Kroll went outside and started toward the barn. He didn’t see the guard near the barn. Ron found the man standing in the workshop doorway fondling his self while he watched something inside. A single light was on in the shop, and Kroll saw what was happening. For an instant, he thought it was Ivalou Porn Dude was raping. The woman was a doppelganger for the female Special Agent. Ron spotted a tattoo on the victim’s limp arm. Ivalou didn’t have body ink.
Kroll smashed the guard's skull with his brass knuckles. The man dropped his M16 and collapsed. The clatter did not phase Porn Dude. He was busy raping and choking his victim. Ron Kroll picked up the cattle prod he’d seen on an earlier visit. He was too keyed in on Pauli Dumas to notice Burns slipping into the building behind him.
Porn Dude’s bare ass was elevated as he stood on his tip toes humping and choking his victim. Kroll pressed the switch on the cattle prod and rammed the shock stick into Porn Dude’s balls.
A bull with its testicles hung on a barbed wire fence couldn’t have made the sound Porn Dude emitted during this violent colitis interruption. He fell to the floor grasping at his privates as Kroll pinned them to the floor while applying the current.
Burns accessed he woman and saw her pupils were fixed and dilated. Her facial expression showed the horror of her last moments alive. Porn Dudes bellows were waking those in the bunkhouse. Andy removed Lyle Thigman’s blackjack from his pocket and choked up on the spring handle. Burns touched Kroll on the shoulder. The undercover agent spun around, and Andy smacked him on the forehead with the leather covered lead end of the blackjack. It was lights out for Ron Kroll.
Dumas was still conscious and holding his injured package as he squirmed around the concrete floor. He was in no shape to see the blow coming. Andy pocketed the blackjack, and the first scream came from the bunkhouse. Seeing the door was still secure Burns jogged to barn and removed a spray can of paint from the side pocket of his trousers. Andy tagged the barn doors.
NO PUTA EL JEFE MUERTE 556
Buddy Russell, Burrito Cruz and Bonita, all fluent Spanish speakers were quietly herding the women out of the barn and up the hill, where Butter Billy Three waited with the Double B Ranch truck and cattle trailer. He would follow Cruz’s ATV’s driving with the help of night vision goggles navigating the rough ranch roads using night vision goggles. Buddy would follow on his ATV and Bonita would ride in the trailer, as they hauled their precious cargo to safety.
Burns turned and jogged into the night. The first shots rang out inside the bunkhouse followed by more screams and curses. Whoever built the building put the electrical box with a cut off lever on the outside. Andy switched off the electricity moments before he’d opened the door and pitched in the open pillow cases. The li
ghts would not come on. And six very angry rattlesnakes crawled out of the pillow cases.
“Egressing now, negative contact with juveniles.” Reid’s voice said in Andy’s earpiece. Burns clicked the mic as he spotted the Cottonwood where left Don Cameron and Jazz. Burns heard Jazz whine. Burns checked the dog, and he heard another sound.
Andy pulled down his night vision goggles and spotted a little girl maybe thirty feet away sitting on the ground, crying. Mindful of scaring the child more he removed the goggles and the face mask before he reached her. She said, “ido madre.” Burns recognized the words, Spanish for mother gone. A burst of full auto M16 fire rang out, the child screamed leaping into Andy’s arms.
Mounted on Don Cameron with the crying child in his arms Burns cantered into the night. She paid no attention to the goggles he put back on. The Jazz growled and ran forward. Andy heard another girl’s voice, this time, a mixture of Spanish-English and something else he didn’t recognize. He saw the images of a child fending off a coyote who was trying to get something she held. Burns shot the coyote with his silenced 1911 before Jazz could attack.
He reined in Don Cameron next to a girl perhaps nine or ten years old. The child he held continued to cry. The older girl held a small animal in her arms. The coyote was trying to make it a meal. Burns took off the night goggles once more and looked at this child. She handed him a small kitten. Andy managed to hold on to it, and the smaller child as the girl jumped up grabbed his leather chaps and swung herself onto Don Cameron behind Andy. Once seated she reached around for the cat. Andy noticed the fur ball had a very long tail.
Kids night and a mountain lion cub, He thought. The girl behind him wrapped an arm around him and held on. “Vamonos!” She said.
Burns shook his head and urged Don Cameron into a canter. He would follow the ranch road the others had taken. There was still a long way to go in the dark before he would turn Don Cameron north and follow a trail of IR markers. Burns clicked his transmit button three times to let the others know he was on his way out. Even with all that was happening he heard the click code from the trailer crew in his ear piece. They were safely ahead of him.