Chapter 1
Chapter 1There was an uneasy stillness to the night. Shamus always hated these missions in the tropics. As if the bugs weren’t bad enough, the few sounds that did come out of the darkness were unfamiliar. No chirping crickets. No hoot of an owl. No howl of a coyote. No, here there was almost nothing. And when he did hear something, he had no idea what it was, how far away it was, how close it was. No familiarity with the night, like at home. It was unnerving.
“How much longer do you think before that Columbian drug lord comes out of his house?” he asked his partner Mack. “The mosquitoes are eating me alive.”
“They’ve been in there quite a while. It’s almost midnight. It shouldn’t be much longer.”
They kept up their surveillance on the house at the bottom of the hill, the house they had been watching since five P.M. when the limo had pulled in the driveway with its bodyguards in Humvees. All the lights were still on. The occupants hadn’t retired for the night. And the intelligence Mack and Shamus had been given was that the drug lord had to be back in the city for a meeting first thing in the morning. That would make an overnight stay here unlikely.
“We’ve got movement!” Mack whispered. Two men carrying assault rifles emerged, followed by a man in a white suit with a Panama hat.
“Okay, everyone,” Mack said quietly into his radio. “Time to move in!”
Simultaneously the two men and the other eight pairs of their counterparts charged down the hill. Gunfire erupted as they were spotted by the bodyguards, but the two were no match for the bullets coming from all directions, and they quickly fell to the ground.
Just then, a dozen more men emerged from the house, all of them armed. They were quickly followed by eight more.
“Geez,” shouted Shamus. “We were told there would only be a half dozen in the house!”
Bullets flew in all directions, hitting trees, rocks, even the ground in front of them. It was impossible to sight all the targets, as some of the men from the house had already run into the tall foliage. And there were just too many of them.
“Get down!” Mack yelled, pushing his partner to the ground.
As Shamus tasted the tropical soil, he heard two bullets fly past his helmet, missing him by inches. But at the same moment, three hit Mack, and he fell backwards, lifeless.
