Page 23 of Her Steadfast Hero

David had gone with one of the teams into the Las Flores countryside. They had passed a cluster of homes, knocked on each door, and came up empty. An old man at the last house had told them where some other outlying homes were, so the team split up to check them out. David took a young man named Manuel to go with him. Hell, he couldn’t be more than eighteen.

Talk about off the beaten path. It seemed like these people wanted to hide from everyone.

“They probably grow marijuana,” Manuel said to David’s unasked question. It made sense. Even if there weren’t prisoners lurking about, chances were the owners of the little homestead weren’t going to be happy to have them knocking on their door.

“Let me go first,” David said. “You stay back.” Smoke curled out of the chimney, and chickens pecked in the front yard, but there were no other signs of activity.

He knocked on the door and waited. Finally, a woman answered. She only opened the door a fraction before demanding to know what he wanted. He explained about the escaped prisoners and asked if she had seen anything. She looked like she was in pain, but she said in a loud voice, that she hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary.

He didn’t believe her for even a second. Fear practically seeped from her pores.

“Lady, can I have some water?”

“No. Go away.” Her eyes pleaded with him. His neck crawled. He was being watched, and it wasn’t Manuel.

“Do you have a cell phone?”

She nodded. He’d been astounded to find out how many people in the rural areas had cell phones, but Bernardo had assured him it was normal. They might not have indoor toilets, but they had cell phones.

“Good. If you see something. Anything. Call the police.” She slammed the door. David walked back to Manuel. “This was a waste of our time. Let’s go,” he said loudly enough for anyone in the house to hear.

He waited until they walked over the rise before taking out his phone and calling the others on the team. He told them where to meet. He also called the other four man team that was positioned in the countryside and asked for their location. Four miles, but they could get their hands on a truck.

“Do it,” David ordered. He handed the phone off to Manuel so he could provide directions. They were going to need all the back-up they could get.

Then he told Manuel to wait for them, while he circled back through the trees to get another look with his binoculars at the little farmhouse.

There was a small stable, and he saw a horse and a mule. Then he saw something yellow near the foot of the mule. He adjusted the lens. It was a yellow shirt. Dammit, it was a body. Adjusting the lens again, he could make out bloating. The man had been dead for at least two days.

He looked around the backyard, and saw more chickens, then he lifted the glasses so that he could look into the small house. Good, it was a clear view into the kitchen. The woman was not in sight, but he could see a toddler on the floor. The three men seated at the table had on prison uniforms. He swung the binoculars back to the baby and sucked down bile. There was no way one of the men was related to that little boy, not with how scared that woman had been. No, this was a hostage situation.

The woman came into view. She was carrying something, and she put it on the table. One of the men grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap. She struggled.

Don’t lady. Just do what they want. Help is on the way.

Another man pulled out a knife and laughed. He pierced the tabletop with it. The woman stopped struggling. They all laughed.

David double checked that his phone was on vibrate, and called the team leader.

“What’s the ETA on the other team, Raul?”

“Twenty minutes,” the man answered.

“Okay. Follow the GPS to my phone. Do not make any noise. A woman and baby depend on us.” He hung up. Damn, he needed a plan. Where he was situated was about one hundred yards from the kitchen window. Could he make the head shots? If he got closer, sure. But not before one of them grabbed the knife and a hostage. They needed a diversion.

His team arrived. He gave them credit, for four men, they were incredibly quiet.

“I’m a sharpshooter,” an older man said quietly as he stepped forward. He was holding a well-cared for rifle. He had binoculars hanging around his neck, and it was clear that he had already assessed the situation. David liked him.

He motioned for all the men to huddle in close.

“I see three men in the kitchen, but for all we know, there could be more. There’s a dead civilian in the stables and a woman and child in the kitchen. We need a diversion.”

“Drugs,” Manuel said flatly. The team leader nodded.

“Explain,” David demanded.

“I saw marijuana plants as we came over here. It’s clear that’s what they grow here. Someone pretends to come to the house as a buyer with money. All of their attention will definitely be on the supposed money, not on the woman or the kid.”