by Hep Aldridge
"Oh, now you want to talk to them…" he said.
She smiled and said, "Naw… I’ll let you do the talking."
As she headed to the airport, the military choppers had caught up, and there was a barrage of verbal communications, orders, threats, and a few obscenities being thrown their way.
Tex looked at his pilot with a grin from ear to ear, "Guess you pissed those boys off pretty good."
"Yep, pretty sure you’re right," was all she said. They were approaching the airport as the UH-1’s finally caught up and fell into formation around the Gazelle. As they came over the flight line, she saw a crowd out in front of the Ops building. Once again, some media types, law enforcement, and military all mixed together. As they got closer, she spotted her old buddy, Captain Montego standing in front of the crowd. They were still coming in at about 80 feet altitude and 50 yards from the Ops crowd when she dropped the Gazelle straight down out of formation and stopped in a hover, two feet off the ground. The crowd was going crazy, running all around except for the captain who stood his ground. All cameras were on the Helo. O’Reilly slowly moved the bird toward the officer now in a one-foot hover till they were face to face no more than 60 feet separating them.
As the rotor wash created havoc with the crowd she looked at Tex and said, "this thing have a PA?"
He nodded and flipped a switch on the dash. O’Reilly grinned as she keyed her mic, "Hey El Capi-tano, remember that Shit Storm I said was Coming…? Just wanted to let you know, it’s here!" With that she rotated the helicopter and slowly glided the Gazelle to the exact spot it had been originally parked and set it down. The crowd was now running toward them as she shut down the turbine and pulled off her head-set.
Tex had his off and said, “Well, I guess that’s that!"
She turned to him and said, "Not quite," as she leaned over took, his head in her hands, and gave him a really great kiss right on the lips. After a few long seconds, she slowly pulled away and said, "Tex, you’re one hell of a crew chief, and I’m proud to have flown with you."
All he could do was stare as the crowd engulfed the bird.
"NOW… that’s that," she said with a smile, opened the cockpit door, and climbed out.
The rescue teams arrived at our mountain location about an hour and a half later. An official police officer and a military lieutenant walked up as the vehicles squeezed past the Beast and moved forward as Joe directed them to the place where they could turn around. The medical team had spread out and was assisting the injured. When the two “officials” got to me, they addressed me by name, “Dr. Burnett,” they said in English.
“Yep, that’s me,” I replied, still leaning against the rock wall, exhausted, as the adrenaline was finally getting back to normal levels.
The policeman spoke, “I am Captain Guerrero, and this is Lieutenant Sanchez.” I extended my hand and said, “Pleased to meet you and glad you’re here.”
The policeman ignored my outstretched hand, but the lieutenant took it and shook it firmly, saying, “It is a pleasure, Sir. I have heard much about you from my sister.”
I thought for a moment, Sanchez, that was Doug’s girlfriend’s name, “You’re Theresa’s brother?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Wonderful lady,” I said and returned the firm grip. This interchange made the police captain uncomfortable as he fidgeted and said, “When we get our vehicles turned around, you will accompany us back to police headquarters. We have several questions that need answering.”
“Fine,” I said, “I’ll gladly help in any way I can.” The police captain seemed a little surprised at that response. “We will follow you back to the city.”
“You will ride with us,” the captain said.
“Is that so?” I responded as I looked at them both… there was a pause, “Am I under arrest?”
“No, not, yet,” the captain replied. Not yet I thought. There’s something I don’t know about here.
“Well, then, I will ride back with my team, and we will be happy to follow you,” I said rather sternly.
The captain stiffened more when I called to Dimitri and told him to have everyone saddle up; we were leaving as soon as the police vehicles got turned around.
“Gentlemen,” I said with a nod and walked toward the Beast. The lieutenant covered up the slightest grin while the captain’s frown was its counterpoint.
The ride back was uneventful, but I was worried about what I didn’t know. We had followed the Helo radio chatter up to the point O’Reilly landed at the hospital. We had gone off our encrypted personal Coms when we felt things were under control. I got back on our system and tried to raise Doc to no avail, then O’Reilly, no response. I had Joe squawk the Gazelle’s radio, nothing. Well, this is a fine kettle of fish, I thought. I wondered what we were riding into as we bumped along the mountain road.
Almost three hours later, I got my answer as we pulled up to the police station to waiting reporters, two TV cameras, and some local onlookers. As we exited our vehicle, the reporters, who were being held back by police barricades, bombarded us with questions. We were taken to a medium-sized conference room and were told to be seated.
“Well, it doesn’t look like an interrogation room,” I said under my breath.
Joe replied, "Don’t count on that, Colt" as the door closed and they left us with an armed guard standing by it. Within minutes the door opened and a large man in police uniform, followed by an entourage of officers and two secretaries, came in and stood at the end of the table, surveying us. He pulled out the chair at the end of the table and sat down; that seemed to be the signal for everyone else to take a seat.
“I am Chief Gallegos, District Chief of State Police for the Cuenca region of Ecuador; which one of you is Colten Burnett?
Leaning forward, elbows on the table, I said, “I am Dr. Colten Burnett, and these are members of my team.” I introduced Dimitri and Joe, then seeing Eduardo sitting with his head down, said, “and this is Eduardo, our guide, my personal translator, and assistant to Mr. Sebastiani.” Eduardo’s head whipped up, his eyes turned as big as saucers, and he grinned. I noticed his posture change as he sat up straighter and made eye contact with those in the room. I continued, “I have two additional team members that are not here. Dr. Ryan Greene is our chief medical officer and accompanied the injured being flown to the hospital. Ms. Shannon O’Reilly, my pilot, flew them there.” A rustle went around the room at the mention of O’Reilly’s name. Before the chief could respond, I said, “Do you have a report on the condition of the injured individuals taken to the hospital?” The chief was getting a little ruffled at my tone and pointed question.
“That is not of any concern to you, Mr. Burnett.”
“Dr. Burnett,” I said, getting a little pissed myself, and I guess my voice showed it. “I beg to differ with you, chief since we were first on the scene of the accident and able to get everyone off the bus and to safety. My medical personnel administered emergency medical attention to the injured, oversaw their care while in transit, and my pilot flew them to the hospital while your military were being less than cooperative.” I realized my 6’5” frame was sitting ramrod straight in my chair, fists clenched on the table, leaning so far forward I was almost standing, and hadn’t taken a breath during that whole outburst. The chief was staring at me intently, as was everyone else. I slowly relaxed my posture and unclenched my fists.
When the chief spoke, I was taken by surprise when, instead of a verbal tirade, he spoke evenly, and his face softened ever so slightly. “My apologies, Dr. Burnett, I was not considering the facts of the situation in my last comments.” He held up a hand, and a sergeant handed him a sheet of paper. “Senora Romero and unborn child are stable and, while in guarded condition seem to be doing well. They rushed her daughter, Lily, into surgery and she is still there, as is the driver. We will provide you with more information as it becomes available. Your Dr. Greene is on his way here now and, as for Senorita O’Reilly, she has been our guest
for a while.” With that, he nodded to one of his officers, who left the room and returned with another officer and O’Reilly in handcuffs!
I noticed the second officer coming in was developing one hell of a black eye. O’Reilly was just smiling. Dimitri leaned over and whispered, “That’s our gal,” and sat back in his chair, looking at Joe, both trying to hold back the grins spreading over their faces. Oh, shit, I thought, did you have to hit the cop, O’Reilly?
“Hi, Boss,” O’Reilly quipped when she saw me and walked to the table. I looked at the chief and back at O’Reilly and said, “Are the cuffs necessary, chief?”
He considered the question for a moment then said, “As long as you keep the Senorita under control, I think we can remove them.”
“Oh, I promise; I’ll be a good girl, Chief,” O’Reilly replied, as the officer with the black eye unlocked the cuffs. “In fact, Ricardo and I have already made up, haven’t we?” she said to the officer as she rubbed her wrists and unexpectedly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Taken by surprise, he jumped back and bumped into his comrades as he left the room to subdued chuckles. I think the chief even cracked a small smile that quickly vanished as O’Reilly came over and sat down.
“Hi, guys, good to see you made it off the mountain.”
I said, “Chief, I think I’m at somewhat of a disadvantage here. Could you explain what’s going on?”
“First,” he said, “Dr. Burnett, I would like to hear your version of what happened on the mountain.” So, I filled him in on all the details of us arriving at the scene of the wreck and the removal of the individuals from the bus. As I spoke, I saw him consulting several sheets of paper, nodding his head. I told him of my call to O’Reilly, requesting emergency medical help ASAP. I specifically asked for Medevac due to the severity of the injuries. More papers, more nods. O’Reilly arrived with the helicopter and took the injured to the hospital, along with Dr. Greene, and then some hours later your men showed up and escorted us here.
I leaned back in my chair and said, “That’s what I know,” which wasn’t entirely true, but true enough for the moment.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“So, you know nothing of Senorita O’Reilly’s run-in with the military or her theft of Senor Mendez’s helicopter?”
I turned and looked at O’Reilly, trying hard not to smile and said in my sternest voice, “O’Reilly, you didn’t.”
As straight-faced as ever, she said, “Of course not, Boss you know I would never do anything like that. It’s all a mistake.”
I turned back to the chief and said, “There must be some misunderstanding.”
He was shuffling through more papers and said, “We are still looking into the entire matter. These are just some of the accusations being made. We are trying to locate Senor Dobson, Senor Mendez’s crew chief, who we know was also on this flight, we believe under duress. However, we have not been able to locate him since Senorita O’Reilly brought the helicopter back.”
I put a thoughtful look on my face and said, “So, the helicopter that allegedly was stolen was returned to its original location, without the involvement of law enforcement until after the fact. Therefore, by definition, saying someone had stolen it would probably not hold up in a court of law, and since Mr. Dobson cannot be found, there can be no verification of his being held under duress. There seems to be a lot of circumstantial and unsubstantiated accusations being introduced into this situation.”
The chief was not rushing to judgement, which I thought was good. He said, “We are still investigating all aspects of this incident and, until we clear this up, I must ask Senorita O’Reilly not to leave the city until this is resolved. I am inclined to release her into your custody on the condition you make sure she adheres to my request.”
“I agree to that completely and will help resolve this in any way I can,” I said. “I’ll give you our hotel contact information, and we are at your disposal.”
“Thank you, Dr. Burnett.” With that he and his crew stood and left the room. I looked around at the smiling faces and said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink.” We all stood and walked out just as Doc was coming into the building.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
I said, “Come on; we’ll fill you in over margaritas.”
An hour later, we finally pulled away from the police station, heading for Diego’s Place. We were photographed, questioned, interviewed, and videoed by the local TV stations and local newspaper reporters, who were itching to get their story.
Dimitri was driving and said, “Well, so much for that low profile, Colt.”
“No shit,” I said. “Now, not only does everyone know our names and, what we look like, but they’ve found out we’re here searching for the Golden Library.” That we had saved someone of importance on the bus had made us local heroes. “Doc, who is the important person they were talking about? I never got a name or could make out what was being said, really.”
“Well, Colt, it seems the pregnant lady, Senora Romero, was the sister of a priest who used to be in this area, a very well-liked priest, high visibility and all, not by his choice, of course. Still not sure on all the details, but it seems like everyone in this city and region knew him or knew of him, and they all loved him.”
“Great” I said.
“Hey, that’s not all. The little girl with the head injury was the pregnant lady’s oldest daughter.”
“Are you kidding me?” I said.
“Nope,” he went on, “I heard you being called a hero and, O’Reilly was Los Angel Rojo!”
“The Red Angel,” Joe interjected.
O’Reilly grinned, “Must be my red hair, and I WAS flying, after all; sounds kind of angelic to me.”
“Yeah? Ask Officer Rodriguez if he thinks you’re angelic!” I retorted.
“Hey, I kissed and made up with him...”
“Yeah, right,” I said just as we pulled up to Diego’s and piled out of the vehicle. When we entered, we saw the place was full, much more so than usual. We headed for the back, toward one of the few empty tables in the place. As any good bar in the U.S. would have, Doug had about five flat screen TV’s on the walls being fed by a satellite dish on the roof that also provided local channels. We were no sooner seated when, on two of them, from two different networks the coverage of us leaving the police station came on.
Dimitri said, “Hey, Colt, look; I’m on TV.”
I said, “No shit, we’re all on TV.” There was an animated monologue being given by a reporter with a video of us trying to get into the Beast. Then there were video clips of the helicopter landing at the hospital, the injured being unloaded, and finally a shot of the helicopter hovering in front of a crowd at the airport and O’Reilly flipping the bird to someone.
I turned and said, “O’Reilly…”
“Hey, Boss, he deserved it!”
I put my head down on top of my hands on the table and said, “Shit, shit, shit!” Doug had seen us come in and made his way to the table with a pitcher of beer and five mugs.
He raised the pitcher in a mock salute, “Hail the conquering heroes!” As he set the pitcher and mugs down, he said, “Boy, you guys really know how to make a news splash. I’ve had people coming by for the last hour looking for you guys. They found out somehow you all hang out here and, boom, the media types have been talking to everyone who might have met you.”
I said, “Please, just keep them away.”
“You may not want the publicity, but it’s great for business; drinks are on me.” Luckily, he was the only one who had noticed our entrance, and we were in a rather dark corner near the back, so that helped with our anonymity, at least for the time being. By the time the pitcher was gone, and that was pretty damn quick, two more appeared on the table. I poured myself another beer and asked Doc for an update on how the mother, daughter, and driver were doing.
“Well, mother and baby are good for now. I’m pretty sure she will deliver in the next 48 hour
s. She was almost due, and I think the crash will move things along pretty quickly. The daughter was still in surgery when they took me to the station. She had swelling, fluid building up in the cranial cavity, and it was dicey there for a while, but they were able to relieve the pressure, and her vital signs were good. The driver had broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a cracked sternum from hitting the steering wheel. He also had a head contusion from hitting the windshield, but I think he will be okay too. From what I saw, they have a very competent medical staff at the hospital. I talked to one of the emergency room doctors, who told me if we had been 15 minutes later, the young girl wouldn’t have made it…”
We all looked at O’Reilly, who hadn’t said a word, raised our glasses, and I said, “Nice flying, Red Angel.”
“Hear, hear,” the guys responded.
I think that may have been the first time I ever saw her blush. She raised her glass and said, “Thanks, guys.”
Our fourth and fifth pitchers had arrived, and, as we filled glasses all around, I looked to the front door and saw a lanky guy in jeans, an Air Cavalry T-shirt, and a cowboy hat come in and scan the room.
“Hey, O’Reilly, isn’t that your co-pilot?”
She looked toward the door and said, “Yep, sure is.” As his gaze got to our end of the room, I stuck my hand in the air and motioned him over. He hurried our way, grabbed a chair, turned it backward, and sat down at the table.
“Jesus,” he said, “I’ve been looking all over for you guys.”
“Yeah, you and everybody else. We haven't been formally introduced," I said, "Colten Burnett," and shook his hand.
"James Dobson, but my friends call me Tex.”
I introduced Dimitri and Joe and then said, “I believe you already know Doc and O’Reilly.”
He smiled and said, “Yes, I do.”
Then O’Reilly asked, “Where the hell did you go? I had no sooner landed and looked around, and you were gone!”
“I know; sorry about that, but I had to take care of something.”
