“You could have been killed,” she exclaimed.
Tom nodded solemnly. “I could have been,” he agreed, “if Captain Rodgers hadn’t come along.” He turned to the Ranger and asked, “How long have you been following me?”
“Ever since I took you to see Brady Keller the first time,” Rodgers admitted.
“I never spotted you.”
Rodgers smiled tiredly. “It’s nice to know I’m good at something. I don’t seem to be doing the rest of my job very well. If I was doing my duty, I’d put a stop to this crazy rescue plan you’re cooking up, Brannon.”
“You know you’ve got a higher duty than that. You’ve got a duty to see that those girls get home safely.”
“That doesn’t give you or me the right to break the law.”
“What law? The law that says Guerrero and his killers can invade our country and go on a rampage of murder and kidnapping, and we can’t do a thing about it because they go back on the other side of a piddling little river?” Tom shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like much of a law to me, Captain. It sounds like madness.”
Rodgers sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you. I just wish you’d give up the idea.”
Tom shook his head. “I wasn’t born with much backup in me, I guess. And now that I know where to find those girls, I’m sure as hell not going to abandon them. Especially when I know what’s going to happen to them in a couple more days.”
“What?” Bonnie asked quickly. “What is it, Tom?”
“Guerrero plans to auction them off to the highest bidders.”
“Good Lord,” Rodgers muttered. “Are you sure about that, Brannon?”
Tom nodded. “The man who told me about it used to be one of Guerrero’s Night Wolves. Obviously, he’s still got connections inside the gang.”
“Can you trust what he told you?”
“After what Guerrero did to him, I believe him when he says he wants revenge. One way of getting it is to ruin Guerrero’s plans. And I sort of promised him that if I got a chance to kill Guerrero ...”
“Oh, Tom, no,” Bonnie said.
“I’m not a murderer,” Tom declared. “I won’t kill Guerrero in cold blood. But it won’t ever come to that, because Guerrero and his men will fight when we come to take the girls.”
Rodgers said, “You and a bunch of middle-aged civilians.”
“They’re all Americans,” Tom said. “Don’t ever underestimate them. Hitler and Hirohito had professional armies, some of the best in the world, and we took them on with farmers and hardware store clerks and teachers and bowling alley managers. A bunch of men with something worth fighting for can do just about anything they set their minds and hearts to do.” He shrugged. “Besides, we’ve got some professional help, too.”
“Charles Long and his friends? I saw them go into that gun club tonight. They’re risking their careers, as well as their lives.”
“I guess they think the risk is worth it,” Tom said quietly.
The three of them sat silently for a few moments. Finally, Rodgers asked, “Where are the girls?”
Tom didn’t answer right away.
“Blast it, like you said, I’m already hip-deep in this. I’ve concealed evidence, I’ve ignored a criminal conspiracy, and I shot a man in Nuevo Laredo tonight when I wasn’t even supposed to be there. It’s a little late to stop trusting me now.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Rodgers glared at Tom. “You’ve got my word on it.”
“That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear,” Tom said. “The Night Wolves are using an old mission five miles south of Nuevo Laredo as their headquarters.”
Rodgers nodded. “I know of the place. It’s a fairly large compound, with the mission itself and several outbuildings. It’s been abandoned for years, though.”
“Not according to my source. He says Guerrero took it over several years ago and had it redone to suit himself. He probably fortified the place, too.”
“If he’s there, I’m sure he did,” Rodgers agreed. “And that’s where he has the girls?”
“According to the man I talked to.”
“Well, that’s a lot more solid information than we had before. Maybe we ought to get in touch with the Mexican government—”
“I trusted you, Ranger,” Tom broke in, his voice hardening. “Don’t give me cause to regret that.”
“You’re right,” Rodgers said with a sigh. “Old habits, I guess. The Mexican authorities wouldn’t do anything about it. They steer clear of Guerrero as much as they possibly can.”
“Exactly. That’s why it’s up to us.”
“I still don’t see how you can do it. You’ll be outnumbered, outgunned ... you’ll just get yourselves killed, along with all those girls.”
“No,” Bonnie said unexpectedly. “No, they won’t, Captain.”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t have any choice but to believe it, now do I?” she asked quietly.
Rodgers just sighed again. “You’re right, Mrs. Brannon.” His head came up, and Tom saw a resolute something in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Might as well go whole hog, I guess. What can I do to help?”
Thirty
The loneliness was the worst part of Laura’s captivity. Except for the cruel and surly Señora Garvas, she was alone all the time. Guards brought meals three times a day for both of them, but Señora Garvas met them at the door and took the trays of food, so Laura didn’t even get to see the gun-toting men. She hoped for a glimpse of Ricardo Benitez, because that would mean that he could see her, too, and the sight of her might increase his feelings of guilt.
But reluctantly, she admitted to herself that she couldn’t count on any help from Ricardo. That was too much of a long shot to be realistic.
She couldn’t help but wonder what was happening with the rest of the prisoners. The thought that some of them might have been raped or even killed by now tormented her. Even though her current existence was far from pleasant, at least it was better than being locked up in a cell, never knowing what was going to happen next.
Thoughts of the future ate at her mind, as well. She was destined to be sold to that English pervert Willingham, and there was no telling what he might do to her. It wouldn’t be anything good, though, she was sure of that. She tried to keep her spirits up by telling herself that there would be people looking for her and the other girls, people who wanted to help them. But in her darker moments she had to admit that their predicament seemed almost hopeless. They were locked up in this fortresslike old mission, guarded by dozens of hardened criminals, and there was no way anybody could even reach them, let alone free them from the Night Wolves.
And all because Colonel Guerrero had wanted to reclaim his daughter. His desire to take Angelina away from her mother was behind the invasion of the United States and the kidnapping, Laura knew. She had thought about it a lot. Guerrero wanted Angelina back, and he had decided to combine that goal with a chance to make millions of dollars by kidnapping a bunch of schoolgirls and selling them off to the highest bidders.
What a scumbag.
Another bad part of being locked up was that it was hard to keep track of time. Laura wasn’t sure how much of it had passed since she was taken from the cell, forced to strip in Guerrero’s office, and then brought to this room in the old granary. She thought she had been here a couple of days, but she couldn’t be certain of that.
She learned more about what had been going on when, unexpectedly, a fist pounded on the door. Señora Garvas shot a warning glance in Laura’s direction. “It is not time for a meal,” she muttered. “Stay back, you.”
She strode to the door and jerked it open. Major Cortez stood there, a pistol holstered on his hip. Behind him were two guards with rifles. Laura craned her neck to get a look at them and saw that one of the men was Ricardo. He turned his head so that he wouldn’t have to meet her gaze.
“We have come for the girl,” Cortez said.
<
br /> “It is not time yet,” Señora Garvas said with an angry frown. “Not until tomorrow night.”
Cortez shrugged. “There is no need to keep her separated from the others anymore. These are the colonel’s orders.” He crooked a finger at Laura. “Come with me, girl.”
Laura stood up tentatively from the chair where she had been sitting. As she started toward the door, Señora Garvas said angrily, “He promised me time with her.”
“You’ve had your time,” Cortez replied curtly. “If you did not take advantage of it, that is no fault of mine.”
Señora Garvas hissed a curse at him, then turned sharply toward Laura, who stopped short in fear and uncertainty.
“You would have come to understand soon enough,” the woman said, and then to Laura’s shock, Señora Garvas reached out, grabbed her arms, jerked her close, and planted a kiss on her mouth.
“Enough, woman!” Cortez exclaimed. He drew the pistol. “Let go of her.”
Señora Garvas broke the kiss and shoved Laura away. “You never had anything to fear from me, little one,” she said. “Not really. I would not have hurt you.”
She could have fooled Laura. She had fooled Laura. During the time they had spent together, Laura had been convinced that Señora Garvas hated her and would have gladly tortured her. Now it was clear that had been an act.
Laura was pretty sure that she would have preferred not knowing that.
Major Cortez took hold of her arm and pulled her out of the room. He slammed the door, cutting off the sight of Señora Garvas. He muttered something under his breath about perversions and steered Laura toward the big mission building again.
She scrubbed the back of her free hand across her mouth as they crossed the courtyard.
Although she couldn’t see outside the walls of the compound, she could see the sky overhead, and from the looks of it the time was late afternoon. As before, the fresh air and being in the open felt good. Laura didn’t expect it to last very long, though, and she was right. It didn’t. Major Cortez, Ricardo, and the other guard took her back through the mission. The hallway began to look familiar, and sure enough, a moment later they went through a door and found themselves in the long wing of the building where the cells were located.
Ricardo unlocked the cell where Laura had been held before, and Major Cortez pushed her inside. The barred door clanged shut behind her. Shannon and Aubrey were gone, but Carmen and Stacy were still there, along with three other girls from the school. Laura knew them, but not well.
Being returned to the cell like this was surprising. Laura wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. It was good to see her friends and not to be alone anymore, but she knew she wouldn’t have been brought back here unless their time at the mission was drawing short.
Cortez, Ricardo, and the other man left. Laura clung to the bars and tried to catch Ricardo’s eye as he walked out, but he looked resolutely elsewhere, determined not to meet her gaze. When they were gone, Laura sighed and slumped against the door.
Carmen and Stacy came to her and each of them put a hand on one of her shoulders. “Thank God you’re all right,” Carmen said. “We didn’t think we would ever see you again, Laura. We didn’t know what had happened to you. Nobody would tell us anything.”
“Where are Shannon and Aubrey?” Laura asked dully.
“They came and took them away yesterday,” Stacy said. “After the ... examinations.”
Laura frowned and turned to look at her. “Examinations?” A dark inkling of what the other girl might be talking about stirred in her mind.
“They took us out, one by one,” Carmen said in a stony voice. “There was a doctor and a nurse. They ... they examined us to see if we were ... you know ... intact.”
“Virgins,” Stacy whispered.
Laura nodded, not that surprised by what the girls were telling her. The incident with Willingham had proven to Colonel Guerrero just how much more valuable the virgins among the captives were, so he had taken steps to make sure that none of them lost that added value before the auction took place. To that end he had separated them, the virgins from the nonvirgins, and no doubt had given strict orders that the untouched girls were to remain that way.
But as for the girls who were sexually experienced ... as she stood there at the barred door, Laura listened hard and heard sobbing and whimpering coming from some of the other cells. She said, “Shannon and Aubrey and the others ... ?”
“The guards have been taking turns with them,” Carmen said, her voice still as hard as flint as she tried to control her emotions. “We can hear the screaming and the crying, but there’s nothing we can do to help them.”
Laura closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her forehead against the cool iron bars of the cell door. Shannon and the other girls like her were destined for short, brutal lives in some brothel, so being gang-raped now wouldn’t really have any effect on their value to Guerrero and the Night Wolves. Laura had never gotten along very well with Shannon, but the thought of what the girl was going through was enough to make a horrified shudder go through Laura’s body.
She was lucky, she supposed. The colonel had accepted her word for it that she was a virgin, so she hadn’t been forced to undergo the humiliation of a medical examination like the others. Things were so bad, that was what passed for good luck these days.
“Where have you been, Laura?” Stacy asked. “Do you know what they’re going to do with us? Are they still trying to get ransom from our families?”
Laura turned away from the door and looked at her friends. They deserved to hear the truth, as bad as it might be.
“They never planned on ransoming us,” she said. “They’re going to sell us.”
Carmen frowned. “Sell us? What the hell do you mean? Like an auction?”
“Exactly like an auction,” Laura said. “I’ve already been promised to some guy named Willingham. He ... he’s paying Colonel Guerrero five million dollars for me.”
The other girls gawked at her. “Five million?” Stacy finally said.
“Yes. I had to ... take my clothes off and stand in front of a camera while this perv Willingham looked at me over a computer linkup. When he found out I was, you know, a virgin, he said he’d pay five million for me.”
“Holy Mother of God,” Carmen breathed.
“That’s what they’re going to do with the rest of us?” Stacy asked, an edge of hysteria creeping into her voice. “They’re going to sell us to a bunch of horny old guys so they can ... can ...”
“Yeah, deflower us,” Laura said wryly. “So to speak.”
Carmen began cursing bitterly in Spanish. Stacy said, “What about the others, the ones like Shannon?”
“They’ll be sold to guys who own whorehouses and put to work,” Laura explained. “They’ll probably bring pretty good money, since they’re young. But that’s just a guess; I don’t really know much about things like that.”
“When is this auction supposed to be?” Carmen asked.
“It’s got to be soon. After I found out what was going on, Guerrero had me locked up by myself so I wouldn’t tell the rest of you. That’s where I’ve been, in another building. But I guess the auction is coming up so fast now, he figures it doesn’t matter anymore if you know.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Stacy asked shakily.
“We can hope and pray that somebody comes to get us out of this place,” Laura said. “That’s about all.”
“No, that’s not all,” Carmen said.
The others all looked at her.
“We’ve got our clothes,” she went on. “We can rig up ropes from them and hang ourselves from the bars on the door. It’s a bad way to go, but maybe not as bad as what we’ve got facing us.”
Stacy gaped at her for a second and then made the sign of the cross. “Carmen, no!” she said. “We can’t do that! It would be a mortal sin. We just can’t.”
“You want to be turned over to some guy who’ll rape you every day unti
l he’s tired of you and then probably pass you along to his friends, or even kill you? You’d rather be murdered?”
“It’s not a sin to be murdered,” Stacy insisted. “A tragedy, but not a sin.”
“Well, I say if we just sit back and let them do whatever they want to with us, we’re committing suicide in slow motion. Better to get it over with in a hurry.”
Laura figured she had better put a stop to this talk. “Nobody’s committing suicide, slow or fast,” she said firmly. “We can’t give up hope. There could be help on the way. And I’ve talked to that guard, Ricardo. He doesn’t like what they’ve got planned for us. I’m sure he wants to stop it... . He just hasn’t figured out how yet.”
“What can one man do?” Stacy asked.
“Everything has to start with one person,” Laura said. “One person who wants to do what’s right. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”
She prayed that this was one of those times ... and that that one special person was really out there somewhere.
Thirty-one
Tom brought the rental car to a stop in front of the large barn on the ranch outside of Laredo. Quite a few other cars were parked there already, and a group of people stood in the barn’s open doorway. A stocky figure broke away from them and came toward Tom.
“Glad to see you found the place all right, Brannon,” Joe Delgado said. “This was my parents’ spread, where I was raised. Nobody’s been working it since they passed away, so I thought it would be the perfect spot for us to get together and figure out our plan, and maybe get in some target practice.”
Tom nodded. “That was good thinking, Joe. Folks were liable to get suspicious with so many people showing up at the gun club all the time.”
Delgado grinned. “Come on in the barn and look at the guns Long and his bunch brought with them.”
Tom nodded a greeting to the people he recognized as he and Delgado walked into the barn. Charles Long and the other law-enforcement personnel who were joining the mission were inside, standing around a large tarp spread out on the ground. Tom saw numerous high-powered pistols and assault rifles lying on the tarp.
Invasion Usa: Border War Page 20
