Hawke's Fury

by Reavis Z. Wortham

  I jerked the gas line free of its clamps, getting enough slack to direct as much as possible across the engine until it died and the pressure lessened.

  Then I lit it. The gasoline caught with a whoosh, startling me even though I’d been expecting it.

  That’ll give ’em something to think about. The Old Man’s lessons came back like the reruns of an old TV show. Now you’re using your noodle. They can’t get out and push a burning car out of the way, so if they keep chasing you, they’ll be on foot, too.

  I needed every edge I could get to make it out alive.

  Villarreal was standing when I backed away from the fire. “Thanks for armoring this monster. It’ll make it harder for them to get around.” I reached for her hair again and she stumbled back, almost falling. “Let’s go.”

  “All right. I’m coming.”

  She shoved past me and I put a hand on her shoulder, pressing her to move faster. “We’re jogging.”

  “Not in this heat.”

  “It’s not hot yet. Get going.” I glanced over my shoulder at the fire and boiling black smoke and pushed her again. She shifted into a stumbling jog and I followed.

  A gray, crumbling rock on the layer-cake cliff ten feet overhead vaporized. Then the dirt in front of us exploded in a line of mini detonations. I whirled at the same time the gunshots echoed down across the canyon and saw a man standing in the middle of the road fifty or sixty yards behind the burning SUV.

  They caught us faster than I expected. I shouldered Victim’s AR-15 and cut down on the guy, but at the last moment, I shifted my aim.

  It was Esteban.

  Chapter 48

  Esteban and two soldados rode in the back seat of the

  SUV driven by Incencio. Geronimo rode shotgun.

  Geronimo pointed. “There they are!”

  Incencio sped up, but they lost sight of the Devil Woman’s black Expedition as a curve took it from sight. “This road dead ends not far from here.”

  “Then we have them.” Geronimo unconsciously rubbed the machine pistol in his hand. “I will blow that man’s knees out.”

  “When we catch him.”

  The second SUV behind them stayed as close as possible. The air-conditioned atmosphere inside the Expedition thickened with tense anticipation. It had been an extraordinary night that elevated their bloodlust to an almost fanatical height.

  Esteban bit his lip. “It won’t be that easy.”

  Geronimo twisted to look over his shoulder. “Why not?”

  “Because this man is more dangerous than you give him credit for. He created a diversion with that team of mercenaries so that he could get in and kidnap La Jefa. Don’t you think he’s planning something for up ahead? He’s not simply running in fear.”

  The engine slowed as Incencio and Geronimo exchanged glances. Incencio looked into the rearview mirror to see Esteban. “What do you think he has in mind?”

  “We all know this road dead ends. It is where the Devil Woman’s cargo is unloaded to walk the rest of the way. He will plan a trap in which he ambushes us somehow.”

  Suddenly uncertain, Incencio slowed even more. “Where is Perez and those useless soldiers of his?”

  Geronimo picked up the walkie-talkie from the floor. “Captain Perez.”

  The man’s voice came back as soon as he took his finger off the button. “Yes.”

  “We have the camionita deportiva in sight. Where are you?”

  Perez described his location. He was ten miles behind. Geronimo gave them their position. “We have him trapped. Come join us and we will allow you to be the one to take this man’s life.”

  “I will be there in five minutes.”

  The Expedition slowed again, and Incencio pulled onto an open, flat area cut on the inside of the road and cradled by the steep mountain to their right. The other SUV pulled up beside them, and the passenger-side glass rolled down. A shave-headed cholo with the number 1518 tattooed across his forehead stuck his elbow out of the window. His entire face was a mass of tattooed words and art. “What are we doing?”

  Incencio pointed down the road. “They are close. We are waiting for Perez.”

  “We don’t need that pendejo.”

  “No, we don’t need him, but we want him. Let those fools take the lead. There may be an ambush. They can fight. I just want La Jefa.”

  The cholo relayed the information to those inside the vehicle with him. He nodded and turned back to Incencio’s Expedition. “We want to do the blood work. Let us go ahead.”

  Esteban had an idea. “Let them. I will ride up there and see what happens. You can come up with Perez.”

  “Bien.”

  Esteban opened his door and spoke through the open passenger window at Enrique Ybarra. “I will ride with you.”

  The two men in the back seat made room, pleased that he was joining them. One of the soldados, Alfredo Gutierrez, waved in excitement. “Venga! Vamonos!”

  Esteban slid inside. “Go.

  The driver, Enrique Ybarra punched the accelerator, and they sped down the road.

  Only a mile farther, they came around a curve to find the burning Expedition parked in the middle of a narrow choke point, effectively blocking the road. Expecting an ambush, they flinched as the SUV slid to a stop in a cloud of dust.

  Not wanting to be trapped inside the vehicle, despite the armor upgrades, their bloodlust took over and all five rolled out, guns raised. When no one fired at them, they relaxed and advanced.

  “I’m going to check ahead. Stay here and keep me covered.” Esteban jogged forward, feeling the heat from the burning vehicle as he squeezed past the open doors. His arms sizzled with the nauseating smell of burning hair. “Shit! Don’t try to follow me. Get this car out of the way.”

  Ybarra climbed back under the wheel while the others stepped back, ready for anyone to appear in front of the dead Expedition. Esteban hurried around the corner, his Scorpion shouldered and ready to fire.

  He had one hope, that Ranger Hawke would recognize him and not shoot.

  Sixty yards around the curve and out of sight from the others, he saw Hawke pushing the Devil Woman ahead. Taking a deep breath, he fired over their heads into the steep slope on their right, then stood in the open with both arms open wide, hoping Hawke would understand his meaning.

  Hawke whirled, raised the AR and fired also. Esteban expected to feel the impact of the bullets, but they whined off the rocks five feet to his left.

  His idea was working.

  Chapter 49

  Behind several large boulders perched on the ridge overlooking the road, Perry Hale peered through the binoculars. A tidal wave of relief washed over him when the saw a black Expedition come around the bend. It had to be Sonny. Who else would be driving such a vehicle at a high rate of speed this far off the main highway?

  The image was crystal clear in the German glass, and he barked a quiet laugh when the big SUV stopped and Sonny stepped out from behind the wheel. With two fingers, he pressed the microphone clipped on the collar of his tactical vest, hoping the signal would get through. “Yoli.”

  “I told you never to call me that.”

  “Sonny’s here.”

  “Thank God.”

  “He still has his prisoner. Stop where you are and find a place to cover us. I’ll make contact and help him push her along.”

  “Roger that.”

  “You gonna be easy to find on that trail?”

  “Just follow the tracks and trash.”

  He reacquired Sonny again through the binoculars. By that time, Sonny had forcefully dragged a woman from the vehicle by the hair of her head.

  Must have made him mad about something.

  They had a long exchange, and she hung her head. A few seconds later, he watched as Sonny left her standing on the road and popped the hood. Moments later, black smoke rose in the sky, blowing in Perry Hale’s direction.

  What’n hell?

  Then he got it. Hawke was using the burning SUV to bl
ock the narrow road, making it impossible for another vehicle to follow. Perry Hale grinned as he watched them jog in his direction. The grin disappeared at the sound of machine-gun fire.

  Dropping the binoculars, he shouldered the AR-15 and squinted through the scope. Sonny spun and returned fire, but from Perry Hale’s elevation, the smoke hid the shooter. Frustrated that he didn’t have a clear target and growling deep in his throat, Perry Hale waited with his finger on the trigger, praying that the gunman would step to the side or the smoke would shift.

  And it happened. A gust of wind took the smoke away to reveal a man standing in the road, arms out and hands by his side. Perry Hale hesitated. With his arms wide, the man was not an immediate threat, and he wasn’t sure the soldado he was looking at was the one who’d fired in the first place.

  Sonny had a weapon, and the distance was short. He could take care of himself.

  Probably best to wait and see what happens.

  Chapter 50

  Knees suddenly weak with relief, Esteban lowered his arms. Sonny had recognized him. The sicario twisted around to make sure his compadres hadn’t seen what happened, but the curve and smoke covered his actions. The rising pitch of an engine told him they had a plan. They were either leaving and abandoning Esteban or had another idea.

  Turning back, Esteban waved Sonny onward and gave him a thumbs up signal. He’d bought them a few minutes at least. The Ranger had the woman in custody and seemed competent enough to get her to the U.S. authorities. It was time to come in and leave this life of murder and blood before his luck ran out.

  I’ll make sure Hawke gets her across the river, and then I can contact my handler and give them all the evidence we need.

  He wasn’t sure about how everything was going to work out, but he was finished.

  The burning car whumped somewhere inside, sending up an even thicker boil of black smoke. Close enough to feel the pressure wave, Esteban staggered forward, away from the intensified heat.

  La Jefa took that moment to bolt. Arms tied behind her back, she sprinted down the road, but the Ranger didn’t notice. He seemed stunned at seeing Esteban, and at the muffled explosion that almost sent the undercover agent to his knees.

  Too close to his men to shout instructions at the Ranger, Esteban waved his arms, pointing behind Hawke, but Hawke’s attention was on the action around the SUV. The only thing Esteban could do was shoulder the Scorpion, take careful aim, and send a string of bullets in front of the fleeing woman only half a second before the wind shifted again, enveloping him in smoke.

  A second weapon chattered from somewhere up ahead, and bullets stitched the ground only inches from where he stood. He jumped back at the same time the burning car suddenly moved.

  Esteban realized Incencio intended to push it out of the way. He glanced at the front tires that were burning fiercely, but the Ranger had turned them to the right, toward the wall of rock He grinned and moved even farther back from the blistering heat to crouch behind the cover of a thick growth of desert scrub growing at the edge of the road. He figured that the shooter on the ridge wouldn’t be able to find him in the prickly vegetation covering the canyon’s slope.

  Wondering who was up there in the first place, he waited to watch and see what would happen next.

  Chapter 51

  That was the damnedest thing I’d ever seen. The guy shooting at us was Esteban, but the shots were only to get my attention. Seeing him standing there with his arms wide almost made me laugh, until the car exploded behind him.

  Esteban staggered and almost fell, but the next thing he did stunned me for a moment. He shouldered his weapon and fired again. The rounds whizzed past fifteen feet to my right.

  “What is he doing!” I whirled, looking for cover and saw the Devil Woman on the ground, twenty yards away. She’d been trying to run, and I wanted to slap my head. I should have expected that.

  To make things even more interesting, someone in the ridge above cut loose with a string of rifle shots directed at the burning car and Esteban. I looked up to see the shape of a man high above, and knew immediately who it was.

  I waved my arms. “No! Perry Hale! He’s with me!” For a moment, I couldn’t process everything fast enough. Perry Hale was here! Had Esteban shot at me again, this time hitting the Devil Woman?

  There was no time to stand around and think. Knowing now that I had cover from above, I rushed to Villarreal lying on the ground, expecting to find her leaking from several holes.

  She didn’t have a scratch on her and was not pleased at all. Sitting up, she shook the sand off her face and out of her black hair. She cut loose with a string of Spanish cussing that went on longer than Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and finally ended in English. “That’s Esteban! He is one of my best sicarios. Why didn’t he kill you, and why was he shooting at me?”

  A light bulb glowed over my head. It was time to knock her off her high horse and put a little doubt in her mind. “It looks to me like that guy’s trying to kill you. If he’d been a better shot through all that smoke, he’d’a done it.”

  Her eyes narrowed as I put both hands under her arms and stood her upright. She threw the hair out of her face and twisted her torso to the side, likely thinking I was going to make good on my promise to drop her britches around her ankles. “You’re wrong. My people are loyal to me. He’s been with me for years.”

  “Yeah, but you weren’t under arrest then and headin’ back to stand trial. Looks to me like he wants to take you out so you won’t talk, or maybe your whole gang’s in on it. I bet one of ’em intends to take over. With you out of the way, somebody’ll want to take your place, and all that money.”

  An engine roared just around the bend, and I knew something was up. “There’s more of ’em. They’re gonna do their best to run through me and get to you. I’ve opened a can of worms I didn’t expect. Lady, they’re after both of us. Run!”

  Chapter 52

  Enrique Ybarra, the youngest of the Devil Woman’s soldados, was behind the wheel. Following Incencio’s orders to push the burning Expedition over the edge, he’d only managed to set his own vehicle on fire. The burning SUV now sitting crossways on the narrow road ignited the sun-dried brush growing on the steep slope. Flames flickered and climbed upward. At the same time, long grasses swaying up over the drop-off had ignited, and the fire spread quickly along the edge.

  Ybarra hadn’t considered his tires would catch fire from the brush as he pushed the uncooperative SUV that refused to drop over the edge. Instead, it veered up against the upward slope.

  More black smoke billowed from his tires. Ybarra threw the transmission into reverse and backed away. Two of the gangsters in the SUV with him jumped out to stomp out the flames, but it was too little, too late. They backed away, watching both vehicles quickly become engulfed.

  Not knowing what to do, they waited on Incencio.

  Five minutes later, the two military Humvees with Incencio’s Expedition following behind pulled up to the curve. The lead Hummer stopped. Behind it, Captain Perez stepped out of the second Humvee’s passenger side and glared at the Expedition. He stalked around the first vehicle and stopped with both hands on his hips.

  “You idiots! What have you done?”

  Angry for what had happened, Ybarra pointed with the rifle in his hand. “I was trying to clear the road.”

  “And you succeeded in blocking it even more.” Perez stepped to the side and waved at the driver in the lead Humvee. “Push this mess over the edge.”

  The young, wide-eyed soldier nodded and shifted into gear.

  “Do not be too slow, or you will catch on fire, too!” The big 7,700-pound military vehicle crunched into the back of the nearest SUV. The Humvee’s engine roared as it pressed forward, shoving both vehicles down the curve until they went over the sharp edge with a furious crackle of branches. The fireballs rolled thirty feet to the canyon floor full of dry vegetation, strewing flames along the way.

  Perez nodded. “That is how
it is done.” He stalked past the young soldier behind the wheel. “Good work! Now, go! Lead the way.” Glaring at Ybarra and the others, he was back in his Humvee by the time the lead vehicle accelerated around the curve, gaining speed in an effort to catch their fleeing prey.

  Perez slammed the door. “Stay on his bumper!”

  The driver stepped on the gas as the same time an automatic weapon opened up on the lead Hummer. Perez’s vehicle cleared the fiercely burning curve just in time to see the lead Humvee jerk sharply to the left and tip over the edge.

  Perez’s driver slammed the brakes. “Hijo de puta! Ninguna arma de calibre ligero puede penetrar este vidrio!”

  “He didn’t shoot through the glass, it is bulletproof. That idiot got scared and went over the edge by accident.”

  Chapter 53

  Villarreal was running faster than she wanted. I don’t know if it was because I kept shoving her to gain more speed, or the idea that I’d planted that her own men were trying to kill her. Either way, we were hoofing it along pretty good to the wide turnaround at the end of the road.

  That doesn’t mean we were making good time. It’s hard to run with your hands tied behind your back, but she was inspired enough to settle into a fairly fast pace.

  I kept throwing glances over my shoulder, terrified that someone would get a clear shot at us. My back tensed at the thought of a bullet finding its way under the bottom edge of my tactical vest or above. The unprotected hairs on my neck prickled.

  Tire tracks underfoot circled the turnaround where heavy vehicles had dropped off their passengers then departed. Brush grew around the edges, but a clear space beaten down by thousands of northbound feet showed me where the immigrant trail dropped into the canyon.

  “There! Get below the rim and they can’t see us.”

  She thought that was a good idea and pitched over the drop-off and down the path that descended at a comfortable angle. It was a wide packed thoroughfare, making it easy to maintain her balance.