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  After Estefan complied, Nathan continued, “Let’s go over the plan one more time. After you drop us off, find a place to park no more than a hundred yards beyond the bridge. Follow the river like we talked about. You can use the tree line and undergrowth along its bank for cover. Give us a ten-minute head start before you head over to Mateo’s. We’ll be sure to pick a location where we can see Mateo’s house and your approach from the river, and we’ll radio you when we’re in position. Now Mateo should be expecting you, but that could be a good or bad thing. We don’t know this guy from Adam. Just because your father liked him doesn’t mean he’s not an informer for Macanas. Let us know if you see anyone, or if anyone sees you, on your way to meet him. Use your NV. If we lose radio communication for any reason, we’ll meet near the south end of the bridge in exactly one hour. If things go completely to hell and we all get separated, we’ll meet a half mile south of the bridge at the stream crossing.

  “No problem,” Estefan said.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m still pissed, but I’m okay.”

  “Well, just be sure to keep your head in the game. Remember, we don’t know Mateo. We don’t know anyone here. Never let your guard down, not even for a few seconds. Stay sharp.”

  “You can count on it.”

  “I want regular updates no more than ten minutes apart. We showed you where the radio’s emergency transmitter button is. If you activate it, stay put. We’ll come and find you.”

  “Let’s hope I won’t need it,” Estefan said.

  “Unless something requires a verbal response, we’ll give each other acknowledgment clicks only. When you get close to Mateo’s house, remove your NV and radio and secure them in your backpack. We want him to think you’re alone. Keep your radio turned on, but pull the earpiece and microphone wires. We’ll transmit only if there’s any kind of trouble. The radio’s speaker will be active without the earpiece connected, so turn its volume down to a whisper. Once you leave Mateo’s place, your dad’s office is next. Leave your NV and radio in your pack until you reach the church. Leave the lights off and use your NV to take a look around inside. Then, from the church, hike south along the trail until you reach the dam and rewire your radio inside the cover of the trees. Head up to your dad’s house and conduct a quick search. We won’t initiate contact, so make sure you make your update calls. We won’t be able to see you once you’re south of the pond.”

  “Sounds good,” Estefan said. “How hard do you want me to press if Mateo isn’t forthcoming?”

  “Use your best judgment. Be sure to reinforce that anything he tells you will be kept confidential, okay? Tell him about the letters from your dad, and use something personal he shared with your father, like his favorite fishing spot on the river.”

  “Estefan should give him some cash,” Harv said. “Tobias said Mateo needs money for his wife’s opium, and you’ve already hinted we’d do that.”

  Nathan nodded agreement. “Estefan, grab twenty thousand córdobas from the pack. It’s only eight hundred dollars, but I’m sure it will be a small fortune to Mateo.”

  Estefan said, “Thanks for the money. I’m sure Mateo will appreciate the cash.”

  “It should go a long way to earning his trust.”

  Nathan had them all perform a final wiring and radio check. Not only did their radios need to function properly, but their wiring also had to be tucked away securely. It was all too easy to snag a cord in a jungle environment. A loss of communication at a critical time could cost someone his life.

  As planned, Nathan and Harv got out just before the bridge at the south end of the valley. They waited for Estefan to park before starting up the west-facing slope of the mountain. About halfway to the summit, they’d turn 90 degrees, head north, and start scouting for a good location overlooking the center of town. Judging from the tree density, Nathan gave it short odds of finding a single place that would work. Santavilla was fairly spread out. The lumber mill, ore-processing plant, and helipad were about a mile from their current position on the far end of the valley.

  Estefan parked on the shoulder just past the bridge. He locked his truck and set out on foot, following the contour of the river. Off to his left he could see the dark outlines of a few small farmhouses beyond plowed fields, but all their windows were dark. Using the NVGs, he easily negotiated the dense foliage along the river’s bank. The half-moon didn’t concern him too much, because the trees lining the river created deep shadows. Every so often, beams of pale light penetrated down to the damp ground cover. The symphony of the forest was in full effect, with frogs the dominant instruments. Adding to the amphibian groans, thousands of crickets chirped in the background. An American banjo wouldn’t sound out of place here, he mused. The noise grew exponentially louder as he neared the pond. Just ahead, he could see the horizontal form of the dam. It looked to be about ten yards long. Upstream of the pond, the river’s black water moved silently. Every so often, he passed the rusting hulk of an abandoned vehicle. Burned trash piles dotted the area. Any plastic bags not yet burned had been ripped open by scavengers—presumably animals. It was a shame to see such a pristine environment treated so carelessly.

  He stopped, cleared his six, and pressed his transmit button. “I’m on the river’s southwest bank, past the dam. There’s no activity down here at all. I’ll check in just before I head across the open ground toward Mateo’s house. You should see me emerge due east of his house.”

  He received an acknowledgment click and kept going. In approximately six hundred fifty yards, he’d leave the tree line and head due west toward the work bus parked next to Mateo’s house. Finding Mateo’s house on the aerials hadn’t been difficult; it was the only structure in town with a yellow bus parked next to it.

  As he’d been taught, Estefan paused every hundred steps or so, held perfectly still, and scanned his immediate area. He also smelled for cigarette or dope smoke.

  Detecting nothing, he kept going.

  Halfway up the mountainside, Nathan and Harv intersected a footpath and followed it north where they found a good spot to watch the town through a horizontal window of open canopy. A few yards above the trail, their location wasn’t perfect, but it gave them an unobstructed view of the center of town where the majority of the buildings were. They’d opted to leave their ghillie suits behind. The woodland MARPATs offered ideal colors to blend them into the landscape. Nathan’s rifle, equipped with its powerful NV weapon scope, provided a great way to keep an eye on things. Harv broke out his NV binoculars. Unlike their visors, the binoculars magnified the image. Between the two of them, they’d be able to watch Estefan’s back while he paid Mateo a visit. Nathan checked for ants, then sat in a cross-legged position before powering on his scope. He rested his elbows on his knees, shouldered the M40, and swept the immediate area surrounding Mateo’s home. All quiet.

  “See any movement anywhere?” he whispered to Harv.

  “No. I think the town’s asleep.”

  Mateo should already be at the rendezvous point at the bus’s rear bumper, but Nathan saw no sign of him. Some sort of delivery van was parked between their position and the rear of the bus, and it blocked his view.

  Nathan saw an unmistakable flare of light. The NV made it look incredibly bright. The area between the delivery van and the bus lit up like a small sun had briefly emerged, then went dim.

  “We’ve got activity,” Nathan said. “Someone just lit a cigarette.”

  “Near the rear of the bus?” Harv asked.

  “Yes. I saw the flare.” Nathan pressed the transmit button. “Estefan, I just saw the glow of a cigarette being lit. It’s probably your man.”

  Nathan received a click.

  “This will probably go one of two ways,” Harv said. “A long meeting or else a quick one, meaning Mateo won’t talk to him.”

  “Yeah, I see it the same way. We’ll know soon enough.
”

  “We’ll make Mateo’s house our zero and vector from there,” Harv said. “I can’t use the range finder at the same time as my binoculars, so you’ll have to walk me onto Mateo’s house.”

  Nathan made a mental note to upgrade his scope to include a range-finder feature. He waited for Harv to activate the range finder’s laser, then said, “I’ve got you. Move slightly higher and to the right. A little higher . . . Good, now slightly back to the left . . . Keep going. A little more . . . Now down just a little. Right there.”

  “Six hundred seventy-two yards,” Harv said.

  “Copy at six seven two. Give me a correction from the rifle’s three-hundred-yard zero.”

  “We’ve got a drop in elevation, so I’ll factor that in.” Harv paused for a moment. “I thought we weren’t going to kill anyone.”

  “It’s just a precaution. Estefan could be walking into a trap. We have no way of knowing if Mateo contacted anyone from Macanas’s organization after we called him.”

  Harv gave him the elevation correction, and Nathan clicked it into the scope.

  “Wind is calm,” Harv said. “Less than three miles per hour from ten o’clock. Hold left two inches.”

  “Copy. Two inches left. We aren’t letting anyone take Estefan into custody.”

  “Does that include police?”

  “Yes.”

  “In for a dime, in for a dollar.”

  “No one’s down there but Estefan and Mateo.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  Estefan reached the point along the river where he could see the yellow bus directly to the west. “Okay, I’m going to step out from the trees for a second. Before I leave the river, I’d like to know exactly where you guys are. I’ve got my NV on max gain. Paint the canopy directly above your position with a laser.”

  Estefan’s earpiece sounded off with Nathan’s voice. “Stand by.”

  Estefan looked about halfway up the north-facing slope of the mountain. Two seconds later, the interior of a tree glowed brightly for an instant, then went dark. Contrasted with the dark mountainside, it stood out like a camera flash, although one that would be invisible to the naked eye.

  “Okay, I’ve got you. You’re about a third of the way up the slope.”

  Estefan received a click in response.

  “I’m about to go radio silent. Removing NV now.”

  “Let me know when you’re ready to do a speaker check.”

  “Stand by, ten seconds . . . Okay.” Estefan heard Nathan repeating the word “check” over and over. He adjusted the volume to where he could barely hear Nathan’s voice coming from the radio’s speaker. He pressed the transmit button and held the radio to his mouth. Without the lapel mike or earpiece attached, the radio worked like a regular handheld.

  “Good to go. Leaving the tree line now.”

  A few seconds later, his radio crackled to life. “We’ve got you.”

  “I’m stashing the radio in my thigh pocket; it will be quicker to access there. Going silent.”

  Estefan received a click, turned his NVGs off, and capped their apertures. He tucked the device into his pack. A deep breath later and he was walking across open ground. He could see the black outlines of houses to his left and right, none of them closer than one hundred yards. The town wasn’t completely dark. A few windows glowed with yellow light, probably from candles. Most people couldn’t afford much of an electric bill.

  Estefan felt naked out in the open but maintained a casual yet quick pace. If anyone happened to see him, he wanted to look like an insomniac out for a midnight stroll. He’d considered jogging the four hundred yards, but dismissed the notion. No one jogged in the middle of the night around here.

  Nathan followed Estefan’s progress across the field, alternately looking toward Mateo’s house every few seconds. He still couldn’t see anyone, but the incredibly sensitive NV weapon scope detected the periodic waning and ebbing of the cigarette’s glow.

  He swept back toward Estefan. “Shit! He just went down.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Harv said. “Was it a suppressed shot?”

  “Hang on . . . He’s back up.”

  “I see him.” They watched Estefan issue a wave before making a more elaborate hand gesture.

  Nathan half laughed.

  “Did we really just see that?” Harv asked.

  “Yep. Apparently our boy’s a hockey fan. He just gave us the tripping penalty signal that referees use.”

  “Well, isn’t old Viper just full of surprises. A Nicaraguan who follows ice hockey.”

  After dusting himself off from the embarrassing fall, Estefan had made it halfway across the field when a rustling sound startled him. He’d barely heard it over the crickets’ noise.

  Slowly pivoting, he focused his eyes just to the right of the sound. Peripheral vision worked better in near darkness.

  There it was again! Quick measured footsteps, like someone hurrying toward him.

  Damn, he really wished he had a suppressed weapon.

  He pulled his Sig, took a knee, and waited for the intruder to arrive.

  CHAPTER 20

  Estefan held perfectly still and kept his Sig leveled at the source of the sound.

  There! A waist-high plant shuddered from being bumped.

  Some kind of animal was weaving its way over here, coming straight toward him.

  Estefan put three pounds of pressure on the trigger, hoping it was just a dog. A two-hundred-pound wild boar with razor-sharp teeth and a bad attitude would try to ruin his evening. Whatever the threat, Estefan didn’t want to blow his stealth by discharging his weapon. A gunshot would reverberate through this valley like a fireworks explosion. He should’ve switched pistols with Nathan or Harv. It was a careless mistake—perhaps a costly one.

  He sighed with relief when a short-haired dog appeared. It stopped about fifteen yards away, lowered its head, and held still. Estefan had plenty of experience with dogs and knew what to do. Now wasn’t the time to make friends. He issued a low growl and took an aggressive step forward. The animal jumped back and ran back the way it had come. Alone again, he resumed his trek across the field. He liked having his former instructors watching his back. He could almost feel Nathan’s rifle scope track his progress. Night shooting was a fine art, much more so than daylight shots. It was far more difficult to gauge distances and make wind corrections.

  He smelled it then, the cigarette Nathan had seen near Mateo’s house, but it wasn’t tobacco. It had the distinctive odor of marijuana. It would seem that Mateo wanted to be in a good mood for their meeting.

  “I’ve got movement at the bus,” Nathan said to Harv. “Looks like our man. He’s looking toward Estefan . . . Okay, they see each other. Estefan waved. Keep eyes on the lumber mill area. I’ll cover Mateo and Estefan.”

  “No problem.”

  “They’re shaking hands. So far, so good. They’re walking out toward the river. Someone else stepped outside. It’s a woman. Mateo’s saying something to her . . . She’s going back inside. Looks fairly young. Late teens or early twenties.”

  “Probably Mateo’s daughter, Antonia,” Harv said.

  Nathan remembered her name from Tobias’s letters. He tracked Estefan and Mateo out to the tree line, making sure they weren’t followed. “I just lost sight of them at the river.”

  “We’re all quiet at the lumber mill. No movement.”

  “As long as Estefan’s with Mateo, he won’t be able to check in. Let’s hope he doesn’t keep us waiting too long.”

  “Nate, you should take a scope break. I’ll watch for a spell.”

  “Sounds good.” He powered off the scope before pulling its rubber boot away from his eye. He rubbed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. This whole operation, if it could even be called that, still seemed surreal. He thought back to Cantr
ell’s comment. She was right: even if they had created a hardened killer, they shouldn’t be held accountable for Raven’s actions beyond his kilo missions. Still, there’d been signs of instability. Raven’s demeanor hadn’t been extremely unusual, but he’d been overzealous about his sniper training. As much as Nathan hated to admit it, Harv was right. Raven enjoyed his work a little too much. Cantrell’s difficult question about why he hadn’t washed Raven out had been valid, but the answer was moot now.

  The next ten minutes passed without incident. Harv’s voice broke the silence.

  “Mateo’s walking back to his house,” Harv said.

  Nathan shouldered his rifle and turned the scope back on. “We’ll let Mateo get fifty yards away from Estefan before we make radio contact. I’d like to know how the meeting went.”

  A few seconds later, Estefan broke the radio silence.

  “You guys copy?”

  “Affirm. What spooked you earlier?”

  “Just a stray dog.”

  “How did it go with Mateo?”

  “He didn’t know a whole lot about Macanas’s day-to-day operations, but I learned a few things that might be useful.”

  “Do you think he was being truthful?”

  “It’s hard to say. He didn’t want to accept it at first, but he was super grateful for the cash. We definitely scored some major points.”

  “We’ll talk about your meeting later. Since you’re in tree cover, go ahead and wire your radio back up. Follow the creek until you’re abeam the church and head over there.”

  “Do you want me to break in if it’s locked?”

  Nathan looked at Harv. He hadn’t considered that. “This isn’t a big-city church with valuables inside. Aside from Bibles, there’s probably nothing worth stealing in there. Besides, anyone who steals the most-printed book in all of mankind’s history definitely needs to read it. If it’s locked, look for a key in some obvious places near the door. But don’t break in, okay? I don’t like the idea of vandalizing God’s house.”