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  He replied to Manny, “Allow the Americans to escape. Stay close, but don’t let them know you are following them until I arrive. I am also going to personally take care of your pilot; he will never foul up anything else in the future.”

  He then ordered his personal pilot, Maria and his three bodyguards to load up his plane for a two-day hunting trip. He told one to bring along a good hunting rifle and plenty of ammo. He then went to his luggage and gathered clothes and his shaving kit just in case. Even though he would come back to the outpost at night, he always thought it was best to be prepared. He searched his suitcase, found his little black leather case of his special tools, then smiled, and thought of Roger.

  Manny’s plane landed and taxied to the end of the lake where the crash had occurred. The water was still muddy and there was an oil slick. He had one of his men dive down to the plane and search for survivors. The man surfaced and told Manny that no one was left in the plane. Manny quickly got on the radio and told Karl that the Americans had survived, but that he could not determine the extent of their injuries.

  Karl received the message and ordered his crew to prepare to leave. They taxied to the far end of the lake and then took off.

  Karl enjoyed the beautiful landscape and thought how these Americans took this wonderful country for granted. He would remember to teach his children to never spoil the land, God would not like it and Karl was a very religious fellow.

  Karl passed away the time until landing by reading. Karl’s plane landed and taxied alongside of the other plane, which had been nosed into the shore. Manny greeted them, shook Karl’s hand and began telling him that from what he could tell all of the Americans and Roger had survived the crash.

  Karl asked, “Are they armed?”

  Manny replied, “We cannot tell for sure, but they only brought black powder muzzle loaders with them. The guns were loaded in the planes’ cargo hold and the door is jammed in the mud. “

  Karl thought that perhaps a few old weapons in the hands of a couple of businessmen “want to be hunters” would only add excitement to a dull hunt.

  Karl turned to Red and said, “Red, are you still able to track man or beast without them leaving bread crumbs to mark their trail?”

  Red laughed and said, “Karl, you know that I can track anything that leaves tracks. I can track a fish if you want me to.”

  Karl joined in the laughter and said to all, “Let’s start this hunt so we can be done before dark.”

  It was about 1:00 p.m. and there were about six more good hours of day light. Manny reminded Karl that the Americans had at least an hour and a half lead on them and that Roger may have a pistol. Karl was not concerned, if it takes a couple of days, so be it. This was to be the highlight of his visit to the states.

  • • •

  John backtracked and came out of the woods about one hundred yards from the crash site. He kept low and spied through the field glasses on the people as they were apparently searching the crash site. One dove down to the wrecked plane several times and then swam to the shore. Another came out of the woods and looked familiar, he was Manny from GAO! Manny appeared to be directing the others. He had a tall red haired guy searching up and down the shore and a small Latino checking out the spot where they had regrouped before hiking into the woods.

  He thought Scott and Jim were correct; the bastards from GAO were the ones that tried to kill us. John thought that he had better get his ass back to join the others when he heard a noise a few yards away. He crawled under a brush pile and tried to disappear as best as he could. While John could not see much, he could catch a glimpse of the one with the red hair standing behind the brush and the Latino was walking up towards the pile from the direction of the plane.

  That saved his ass because he walked over John’s tracks and Red did not notice his trail. Red and the Latino were discussing what they thought that someone called Karl would do to us when they caught them.

  The red-haired thug said, “Jesus, what has made Manny so mad at Roger, he seemed to be a fair pilot?”

  Jesus answered, “I don’t really know, but the fool dropped a box of cash and drugs and the gringos had to have seen them. You know how Manny and the GAO are about keeping this operation secret. Karl will cut his tongue out and gut him.”

  Red laughed and said, “I guess it is just lucky for us, we get to have some fun and hunt the hunters.”

  John thought that no doubt Roger was a dead man and would die a slow death; the rest of them would be hunted down for sport.

  They sat down on a log and shot the shit about the good old times down in South America, apparently they had been mercenaries for several countries. They talked a good story about warfare, rape and murder during several of their campaigns. Both then talked about their leader Karl who apparently was the number two guy in a very large South American drug operation based in Paraguay.

  Jesus mentioned that they were a year ahead of plan in taking over the West Coast operations in the US. Apparently, the Colombian Cartel was not well established in the northwestern half of the US and fought some battles for control of the drug trade. They both agreed that they would earn their money as they pushed into the eastern half of the US.

  “It will be a bloody battle all the way,” exclaimed Jesus.

  Red answered with, “The bloodier the better, I hate Colombians more than Americans.”

  He pulled a 9mm auto out of his holster and aimed it right at John. John held his breath and nothing happened. Red re-holstered the gun. John noted that Jesus appeared to have a similar weapon.

  Jesus told Red that their most daunting task was to hire competent Gringos to help run their operations on the east coast; they had Latino’s for Florida, but were still in the planning stage for all parts north.

  Red thought that he could recruit some of the Russian mob, but Jesus warned him that Karl and his boss would not take kindly to this at all.

  Red groaned and said, “I am not into politics, I like the adventure, wine, women and a good fight, but this drug running is not a good thing for a soldier."

  He added, “I will kill anyone needing killing, but the drugs make me feel dirty.”

  Jesus smiled and replied. “It’s all about money my friend; we have to have lots of American dollars to fund our cause. I, also, have worries about smuggling in those Arabs, even though Karl wants bombs going off to keep the Feds busy, I just don’t like it.”

  “The Americans like the white powder and we need their cash; a marriage made in heaven. We must be taking tens of millions of dollars out of the western half of the US. Wait until we get the east coast operation up to speed,” Jesus told Red.

  John had been thinking their cause was selling drugs, however, that comment made him start wondering what they were really up to and what were the Arabs up to and what bombs?

  This was much worse than John thought; these guys weren’t just some local bad guys and they had stumbled into a hornet's nest. Even if they escaped, they have their home addresses and John’s credit card info. Whatever they did to save themselves it must be well planned and go much beyond just saving their sorry asses; their family’s lives were at stake. John had to get back to the others to warn them, he could not be caught, not now!

  They talked for over 10 minutes when John heard another plane landing. John thought that this must have Karl and crew aboard. Red and Manny left him in the brush pile and rejoined their friends in welcoming the newly arrived Karl and his team. John silently watched as the new group unloaded weapons and supplies. One of them was the girl, Maria, from the GAO office back in Utah. Damn, Steve will be surprised to see this sweet young thing with the big gun strapped to her hip. All wore side arms and three had AK 47s. A big blonde man had a hunting rifle with a high-powered scope, the others acted as if he was the big boss. While they gathered around the tall blond haired man, John moved in closer in an attempt to find out their plans.

  The blond guy was Karl and there was no doubt that he was in charge.
He spoke very softly, but they hung on every word. His plan was simple. Red was to track them down and Karl got to shoot them like the wild pigs they were. John’s thoughts kept turning to his son and the others; they must survive and warn the authorities. These people must be stopped. John then slipped into the woods and headed back to his friends as quickly as possible so that they could get prepared for the eventual conflict.

  As he slinked away, John couldn’t help wondering if Mac Norman would write a book about this or should John Harris write it as a true story; He finally decided it would be a good yarn regardless of who wrote it.

  ✼

  Chapter 10

  Beth

  The Iowa/Montana Woods

  May 17, 2020

  John saw something ahead in the bushes. Someone was squatting down in the bushes trying to hide or something. Damn! It came to John. She had just peed and was pulling her shorts up. Damn, he was only about twenty feet away when he first spotted her. He could only see her backside, but noticed that she was blond, had great legs, a slim waist and a great tan. He realized that he was misbehaving and was silently embarrassed however, he kept watching. He could not take his eyes off the gorgeous vision.

  He had been in a hurry and just ahead of the GAO thugs as they headed north when he came upon this wondrous vision. She was about 35 and about 5’5" and built like a brick shit house.

  He was deep in thought about this gorgeous woman, when a twig snapped and brought him back to the real world. He surveyed his surroundings and heard one of the GAO coming up to him from the other side of his newly found beauty. He will see her in a minute, he thought! She had turned, now facing to his right; he sprang to his feet and lunged towards her.

  She was in a world of her own and did not react until he grabbed her around the waist and closed his hand over her mouth. She struggled, but he quickly overpowered her and dragged her to the ground. She was laying half in his lap with her head beside his, cheek to cheek. He thought that she must think that she was about to be raped. She was horrified and struggled quite a bit; she even managed to elbow him in the ribs as he overpowered her. The more she struggled the tighter he held her. He held her firmly and prayed for her to be quiet until they passed.

  He finally whispered for her to listen.

  He said, “I’m not going to hurt you, look, see those guys?”

  The main body of the group was about twenty yards behind the point man.

  “They are killers. See the guns! We can’t let them find us.”

  She stopped struggling.

  He told her, “I’m John Harris and these guys are trying to kill me and my friends. I am not going to hurt you. If I take my hand off your mouth, will you be quiet?”

  He could tell she was watching the thugs and could easily see the assault rifles. She nodded and he took his hand from her mouth.

  He asked, “What’s your name?”.

  “Beth,” she replied.

  He asked, “Are you okay? I am sorry that I had to pull you down so hard.”

  He was still holding her with one hand on her bare stomach and the other on her shoulder. They watched as the last guy, who was trailing the main group by another twenty yards, faded from sight. She slowly moved his hand off her stomach and moved away from him.

  Red faced, she asked, “how long were you watching me?”

  He replied, “Oh, only a second before I knocked you down."

  His grin probably gave him away because his face was also bright red.

  She looked at him and gave him the once over, she frowned and said, “I think that you are a pervert and were watching all along.”

  He told her, “You name a man that would not have watched such a beautiful woman standing in the woods.”

  He added, “If I had not been there, the killers would have found you and done horrible things to you.”

  She blushed and said, “A true gentleman would have covered his eyes.

  He replied, “Look, I truly apologize and would never have looked if I hadn’t been keeping an eye out for the bad guys.”

  He then told her about the events so far. She said that they had heard some noise in the distance and heard the plane, but did not think anything of it.

  She thanked him for saving her from the bad guys and slapped the shit out of him while saying, “I’ll bet you think twice about stalking a strange woman in the future.”

  He backed away, rubbed his jaw and said, “I will behave myself in the future.”

  He reintroduced himself and asked for her full name. She said that her name was Elizabeth Fox and that she was a high school teacher from Smyrna, TN. She was 38, divorced and had two kids, Kristie who is 16 and Randy who is 14. She had a small home in Smyrna and taught at the local high school. She liked country music, hiking, kayaking and anything to do with the outdoors. While she talked, he took in the beauty that she radiated as effortlessly as a diamond or a sunset over Mobile Bay.

  She had shoulder length honey blond hair, weighed about 135 pounds and was about 5’6” tall. Her smile warmed him down to his toes; he was lost in her gaze.

  Then he heard her say, “Look, pervert, I can see that you aren’t listening to me, you probably were fantasizing about me with my panties down.”

  He quickly said, “No ma’am, I was just amazed at how pretty you are.”

  She smiled and said she did not believe him. “You are a dirty old man and you can’t change my mind,” she exclaimed.

  He asked her how many were in her party and how did they get here. She said that there were four others in their party, Bill James and his wife Janet, Fred Allen and his girlfriend Alice Myers. They were all from the Nashville area and Alice Myers taught History at the high school with Beth. All but Fred taught at the same high school. Fred was the assistant football coach at the middle school in Murfreesboro. They were all outdoors buffs and had planned this trip for over a year.

  They had driven from Nashville to Dillon, Montana in Bill’s rented RV. Their plan was to hike from the south end of the Beaverhead National Forrest in Southeast Montana to the Yellowstone Park in the Northeast corner of Wyoming. The trip was about 70 miles over some pretty rough country. They planned on 10 miles a day through the forest, camping and fishing along the way. Then they would camp in Yellowstone for an additional week before getting a ride back to Dillon.

  John asked, “Where the fuck, are we? I thought we were in Idaho?"

  Beth gave him an icy stare and then told him that they were in Montana, about 45 miles from the tristate corner of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

  He then asked her where their camp was.

  She pointed in the direction that the GAO group had gone, turned white and yelled, “They are headed right to our camp.”

  He told her to keep her voice down and to follow him. They followed a trail that a blind man could have followed. It was apparent that these people were not concerned about covering their tracks or being attacked. The forest was dense and traveling was slow at best. John told Beth that he did not want to go too fast or they could run right into the GAO people. After about 25 minutes, they heard a scream and loud talking.

  John said, “Beth, when we get to the camp it may be a bad scene; we may not be able to help your friends and they may be killed.”

  She was visibly upset, but said, “Let’s go and try to help them if we can.”

  He told her that he only had the Hawking and a .380. While the thugs each had side arms and automatic rifles, they would not stand a chance in a head-to-head fight.

  She replied, “Then let’s be careful when we kick their asses.”

  He liked the girl’s spunk.

  They quietly moved closer to the camp and observed from about 25 yards out. One man, John later found out to be Fred, was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. His girlfriend, Alice, was at his side crying and sobbing.

  The tall red haired one was wiping his hunting knife on the grass and laughing. He then grabbed the grieving woman and began to grope her. Mar
ia came out of one of the tents and kicked Red in the ass. He turned and fronted Maria and raised his hand as if to strike her; Manny stepped between them and pushed Red away. The woman, Alice, fell to the ground. While they could not hear everything that was said, it was apparent that Karl was not pleased that Maria had stepped in between Red and Alice.

  Karl called for Manny, “Get your bitch under control or I will take care of her myself.”

  Maria yelled back to Karl, “I don’t need anyone to watch over me; Red is a pig and what he was about to do will not move our cause forward.”

  Karl only laughed and replied, “Jesus, take her to one of the tents and tell her to stay inside; Red needs to have a little fun with this American woman.”

  Jesus grabbed Maria’s arm and pushed her into the farthest tent from Red. Karl then told Red to have fun with the girl. Red knew what he wanted to do, after all, it had been over a month since he had a woman and this one’s last name was Myers, so Karl would watch with pleasure.

  Red ripped Alice’s clothes off and then stripped her of her underwear. She fought, but Red was twice her size and he slapped her around until she complied. He grabbed her and she kicked him. He then shot into the ground yelling, “Bitch, do as I say or the next one is in your head.”

  She stopped struggling and submitted to the bastard. He savagely raped her.

  Beth heard the shot and Karl yelling and reacted violently. John had to grab her and hold a hand over her mouth again. She kicked and tried to scream. John covered her eyes with his chest and told her that there was nothing that they could do since these guys out numbered them and were heavily armed. John then swore to her that they would make them pay for this atrocity.

  John continued to hold Beth while Red, Manny and Jesus took turns raping Alice. This was the worst thing that he had ever had to witness. The feeling of being helpless while someone was being tortured was more than John could endure. John steeled himself and tried to console Beth to keep her calm.