There was the airfield.
Better yet, there was an aircraft, several hundred yards away, its engines off but glowing on the infrared image generated by the goggles.
“Looks like we be in business, Cap’n,” Ding noted in a whisper.
Ramirez and Chavez moved left and right, well inside the treeline, to search for security forces. But there were none. The objective, RENO, was agreeably identical to what they’d been told to expect. They took their time making sure, of course, then Ramirez went back to the rally point, leaving Chavez to keep an eye on things. Twenty minutes later the squad was in place on a small hill just northwest of the airfield, covering a front of two hundred yards. This had probably once been some peasant’s farm, with the burned-off fields merely extended into the strip. They all had a clear view of the airstrip. Chavez was on the extreme right with Vega, Guerra on the far left with the other SAW gunner, and Ramirez stayed in the center, with his radio operator, Sergeant Ingeles.
12. The Curtain on SHOWBOAT
“VARIABLE, THIS is KNIFE. Stand by to copy, over.’
The signal off the satellite channel was as clear as a commercial FM station. The communications technician stubbed out his cigarette and keyed his headset.
“KNIFE, this is VARIABLE, your signal is five by five. We are ready to copy, over.” Behind him, Clark turned in his swivel chair to look at the map.
“We are at Objective RENO, and guess what – there’s a twin-engine aircraft in view with some people loading cardboard boxes into it. Over.”
Clark turned to look in surprise at the radio rack. Was their operational intel that good?
“Can you read the tail number, over.”
“Negative, the angle’s wrong. But he’s going to take off right past us. We are right in the planned position. No security assets are evident at this time.”
“Damn,” observed one of the Operations people. He lifted a handset. “This is VARIABLE. RENO reports bird in the nest, time zero-three-one-six Zulu… Roger. Will advise. Out.” He turned to his companion. “The stateside assets are at plus-one hour.”
“That’ll do just fine,” the other man thought.
As Ramirez and Chavez watched through their binoculars, two men finished loading their boxes into the aircraft. It was a Piper Cheyenne, both men determined, a midsize corporate aircraft with reasonably long range, depending on load weights and flight profile. Local shops could fit it with ferry tanks, extending the range designed into the aircraft. The cargo flown into America by drug smugglers had little to do with weight or – except in the case of marijuana – bulk. The limiting factor was money. A single aircraft could carry enough refined cocaine, even at wholesale value, to wipe out the cash holdings of most federal reserve banks.
The pilots boarded the aircraft after shaking hands with the ground crews – that part seemed to their covert observers just as routine as any aircraft departure. The engines began turning, and their roar swept across the open land toward the light-fighters.
“Jesus,” Sergeant Vega noted with bemusement. “I could smoke the bird right here and now. Damn.” His gun was on “safe,” of course.
“Might make our life a little too exciting,” Chavez noted. “Yeah, that makes sense, Oso. The security guys were all around the airplane. They’re spreading out now.” He grabbed his radio. “Captain -”
“I see it. Heads up in case we have to move out.”
The Piper taxied to the end of the runway, moving like a crippled bird, bouncing and bobbing on the landing-gear shocks. The airstrip was illuminated by a mere handful of small flares, far fewer lights than were normally used to outline a real runway. It struck all who looked as dangerous, and suddenly Chavez realized that if the aircraft crashed on takeoff, some squad members would end up eating the thing…
The aircraft’s nose dropped as the pilot pushed the engines to full throttle preparatory to takeoff, then reduced power to make sure the motors wouldn’t quit when he did so. Satisfied, they ran up again, and the aircraft slipped its brakes and started moving. Chavez set his binoculars down to watch. Heavily loaded with fuel, it cleared the trees to his right by a mere twenty yards. Whoever the pilot was, he was a daredevil. The term that sprang into the sergeant’s mind seemed appropriate enough.
“Just took off now. It’s a Piper Cheyenne,” Ramirez’s voice read off the tail number. It had American registration. “Course about three-three-zero.” Which headed for the Yucatan Channel, between Cuba and Mexico. The communicator took the proper notes. “What can you tell me about RENO?”
“I count six people. Four carry rifles, can’t tell about the rest. One pickup truck and a shack, like on the satellite overheads. Truck’s moving now, and I think – yeah, they’re putting out the runway lights. They’re using flares, just putting dirt over on top of them. Stand by, we have a truck heading this way.”
Off to Ramirez’s left, Vega had his machine gun up on its bipod, the sight tracking the pickup as it moved down the east side of the runway. Every few hundred meters, it stopped, and the passenger jumped out and shoveled dirt on one of the sputtering flares.
“Reach out, reach out and touch someone…” Julio murmured.
“Be cool, Oso,” Ding cautioned.
“No problem.” Vega’s thumb was on the selector switch – still set on “safe” – and his finger was on the trigger guard, not the trigger itself.
The flares went out one by one. The truck was briefly within one hundred fifty meters of the two soldiers, but never approached them directly. They merely happened to be in a place the truck had to pass by. Vega’s gun stayed on the truck until well after it turned away. As he set the buttstock back down on the dirt, he turned to his comrade.
“Aw, shit!” he whispered in feigned disappointment.
Chavez had to stifle a giggle. Wasn’t this odd, he thought. Here they were in enemy territory, loaded for fucking bear, and they were playing a game no different from what children did on Christmas Eve, peeking around corners. The game was serious as hell, they all knew, but the form it took was almost laughable. They also knew that could change in an instant. There wasn’t anything funny about training a machine gun on two men in a truck. Was there?
Chavez reactivated his night goggles. At the far end of the runway, people were lighting cigarettes. The faint images on his display flared white with the heat energy. That would kill their night vision, Ding knew. He could tell from the way they moved that they were just bullshitting around now. Their day’s – night’s – work was complete. The truck drove off, leaving two men behind. These, it would seem, were the security troops for this airstrip. Only two, and they smoked at night. Armed or not – they seemed to be carrying AK-47s or a close copy thereof – they were not serious opposition.
“What do you suppose they’re smoking?” Vega asked.
“I didn’t think about that,” Chavez admitted with a grunt. “You don’t suppose they’re that dumb, do you?”
“We ain’t dealing with soldiers, man. We coulda moved in and snuffed those fuckers no sweat. Maybe ten seconds’ worth of firefight.”
“Still gotta be careful,” Chavez whispered in reply.
“Roge-o,” Vega agreed. “That’s where you get the edge.”
“KNIFE, this is Six,” Ramirez called on the radio net. “Fall back to the rally point.”
“Move, I’ll cover,” Chavez told Vega.
Julio stood and shouldered his weapon. There was a slight but annoying tinkle from the metal parts as he did so – the ammo belt, Ding thought. Have to keep that in mind. He waited in place for several minutes before moving out.
The rally point was a particularly tall tree close to the stream. Again, people replenished their canteens at Olivero’s persistent urging. It turned out that one man had had his face slashed by a low branch, requiring attention from the medic, but otherwise the squad was fully intact. They’d camp five hundred meters from the airfield, leaving two men at an observation point – the one Chavez had staked out for himself – around the clock. Ding took the first watch, again with Vega, and would be relieved at dawn by Guerra and another man armed with a silenced MP-5. Either a SAW or a soldier armed with a grenade launcher would always be at the OP in case the opposition got rambunctious. If there was to be a firefight, the idea was to end it as quickly as possible. Light-fighters weren’t especially big on tanks and heavy guns, but American soldiers think in terms of firepower, which, after all, had been largely an American invention in the first place.
It amazed Chavez how easily one could slip into a routine. An hour before dawn, he and Vega surveyed the landing strip from their little knoll. Of the two men in the permanent security team, only one was moving around. The other was sitting with his back against the shack, still smoking something or other. The one up and moving didn’t stray far.