Page 337 of The Black Trilogy

After the guards had been past once more, confirming our suspicions they were on an hourly schedule, we snuck around to the entrance. Security there was better. A metal barrier spanned the drive, five feet high, manned by a team of four guards who sheltered from the early afternoon sun in a brick hut. The good news was they looked bored out of their minds, more interested in watching television than checking for an imminent attack.

“Doesn’t seem like they’re expecting us, does it?” I whispered to Nate.

“No. I’m not sure whether to be pleased or concerned.”

“It’s about time we got a break.”

Altogether, we counted ten guards patrolling, which with the four game show fans, made fourteen.

“Two shifts or three?” Nate mused.

“I’d go with three. Eduardo reckons that’s standard.”

“So there’s another twenty-eight foot soldiers somewhere.”

“Plus more in the house, I’m betting.” I did a bit of adding up. “I reckon forty-five to fifty men.”

“Probably about right.” Nate jerked his head forward. “And don’t forget the ladies.”

I trained my binoculars on a dour-faced woman collecting washing from a line and folding it into a basket. A nervous-looking girl scurried up to her carrying a tray of food. She said a few words, frowned, then moved on. From her facial features, I guessed she was Japanese, and although her baggy dress came to her feet, there was no hiding her swollen belly.

“Who would want to have a baby in a place like this?” I muttered.

“Wonder what she’s doing here? Everyone else looks native.”

I stiffened as Diego walked out of the main building. The two-storey stucco-covered villa looked alien in the jungle setting with ornamental stone dragons either side of the front door and a trio of large-chested ladies forming the centrepiece of an ornamental fountain. Who thought that was classy? And no, you don’t want to know where the water was coming from.

Diego looked at ease in a pair of board shorts and flip-flops, a far cry from the suit I’d seen him in at the party. I couldn’t see a weapon on him, but to wear that outfit, he must have been doused in mosquito repellent. Or maybe they just found him as repulsive as I did? He scratched his unmentionables as he wandered across the courtyard to chat with a guard on the other side. Delightful.

I’d hoped to see Carlos, but there was no sign of him. Curiosity ate away at me. Would he look as much like Black in person as he did in the photos? Would he walk like him? Talk like him? I hadn’t told Nate of my plans to have a little chat with Carlos when we stormed the place. Before I killed him, that was.

We didn’t see Hector, either, and after a day of skulking around, we figured he was either holed up in the main building or somewhere off-site. I’d taken hundreds of photos, and Nate had put together a rough map of the compound, adding little details that the satellite photos couldn’t give us like the guards’ patrol routes and the most frequently used doors.

As dusk fell, we backtracked out the way we came, and the trek back was slightly easier as we were more familiar with the terrain. The RIB we’d motored down the river in was still exactly where we’d left it in the next valley over, moored to a sturdy tree and hidden under camouflage netting.

“I was thinking we’d come in the same way for the actual operation,” I said.

“Makes sense. We know we can do it now.”

“Then we spread out around the compound and come at them from all angles. I want to hit the place hard and fast, take out as many men as possible before they realise what’s happening.”

“And leaving? You’re sticking with the choppers?”

“I don’t think there’s a better option.”

Eduardo had offered a pair of ex-military Hueys to pick us up at a pre-appointed time and fly us straight back to his place. It wouldn’t matter about noise at that point, and I wanted to get clear of the area fast.

I also had to plan for the worst. If anyone got hurt, speed would be of the essence. A trek through the jungle or a bumpy road trip would lessen a casualty’s chance of survival if their injury was serious. Helicopters were definitely the way to go.

Once we got back to Eduardo’s place, Nate and I updated everybody on what we’d found. As pictures of the Ramos’s jungle lair and the main players popped up on the projector Eduardo found for us, the operation became real.

“I’ll send a couple of men to watch the road in and out,” Seb said. “That way we can see who comes and goes.”

“That’s the biggest unknown.” And my biggest fear, put into words. “I want to get all three of the Ramos clan. Hector, Diego, Carlos. I don’t think I need to explain how much difficulty we’ll be in if any of them escape.”

And people in that line of business would always have an escape plan. If they went to ground, it could be weeks, months even, before we found them.

“They may try to fly out when we attack,” Nate said. “Our first priority is to disable anything in the hanger.”

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