“Annie,” Linda exclaimed.
“It came from in there,” Albert said as he gestured toward a door. He went to it and kicked it in.
Annie was tied to a bed. Linda rushed in, untied the ropes, and scooped her up. Immediately, she covered Annie’s dirty face with kisses and squeezed her tight.
Argentine soldiers reacted to the ruckus downstairs, their boots stomping along the farmhouse’s second floor hall. Linda looked to Albert; the look uniquely female: It asked: ‘Will you protect me and my little girl?’ Albert wondered if the mother of the child at Jugroom Fort had had that same look. If she had looked that way as the men that had driven the SUV honked the horn outside her hut; and, had likely assured her that her little girl would be just fine, but then she spotted that missile that flew its way in to kill her family.
“Don’t worry,” Albert assured Linda. He picked up one of the dead soldier’s pistols and handed it to her butt first. “Can you use one of these?”
Linda press-checked the chamber, found it empty, and cycled the slide to load a round.
Albert looked out the kitchen windows and then opened the farmhouse’s back door just a crack.
“Alright then,” he said. “It looks clear. Move out. I’ll cover you.”
Albert knelt; his weapon aimed down the hallway and directly at the sounds that rushed at them. Linda immediately complied and tugged at Annie.
“Mommy,” Annie mumbled, jerking this way and that. The tone of the little girl’s voice made it clear how distraught she had become, and that she longed for the familiarity and safety of home.
Albert saw a face that peeked around a corner, and then an arm emerged, holding a gun that fired with a deafening flash. The rounds ripped into the wood-paneled wall next to him. Then Albert heard whispers in Spanish as Argentine soldiers stacked up and prepared to charge down the hall. Somebody chucked a grenade that landed with a metallic clunk, and rolled at him. Albert jumped out the open back door where he found Linda and Annie sitting in a car with the motor running. The grenade exploded in the kitchen, blowing out the window glass.
“Get in,” Linda shouted. Albert piled in and readied his rifle to cover their retreat. “Keys were in it,” Linda said with a nervous laugh as she peeled out.
“Get down and stay down,” Albert told Annie who was in the back seat. Linda spun the tires and revved the engine into its tachometer gauge’s red zone. The car skidded along the muddy road that led from the farmhouse. Extending the FAL rifle’s folding stock, Albert trained the weapon on the farmhouse’s back door, and fired when two soldiers rushed out. Annie cried, covering her ears. The Argentines ran smack into Albert’s bullets and fell back against the house.
“Bastards,” Albert yelled at the dead men and he then bounced into the car’s roof. Annie giggled when he came back down and at his funny grimace. The white farmhouse grew smaller in the car’s rear window. Albert realized his adopted weapon was now empty. He tossed it to the floor by his feet.
Vargas went to the upstairs bedroom. His sniper had his rifle poked outside, tracking the fleeing car.
“Yo tengo una oportunidad, mayor,” the man reported that he had a shot.
“¿De quién?” ‘On who?’ Vargas asked.
“El conductor. La mujer.” The driver — the woman — was in his sights.
“Alto el fuego,” a frustrated Vargas told his sniper to hold fire.
“¿Mayor?” the man questioned the order.
“Le dije: Alto el fuego,” Vargas repeated the order. He turned to leave and give chase once again. He stopped in the doorframe and turned back to the kneeling sniper. “Si usted recibe un disparo en el príncipe, llévelo,” Vargas told the man to shoot if he got a clear shot on the Prince.
“Si, mayor.”
The adrenalin waned and Albert became aware of the throb in his hand. He looked at it. The two punctures were caked with dry blood, and his palm was hamburger. He opened the glove compartment and found a paisley scarf that he wrapped around the wound.
The dirt road pushed the car around. Deep tractor ruts channeled its small wheels, and its nearly bare tire treads barely gripped the slop. They reached the apex of a small hill. Linda slammed on the brakes. They locked up, and the car slid along a bit further before it stopped. Ahead sat an armored vehicle, its cannon and missile launcher pointed their way.
“Out of the car, now,” Albert shouted.
8: TANGO
“Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.”
Albert did not wait for Linda to react to his order to vacate the car. He reached back and lifted Annie into his lap, tucked her in tight, and tugged Linda along as he rolled out and onto the grass. As they all hit the ground, it began to rain. They rolled behind a rock, and Albert pushed Annie and Linda down. Then he stole a peek at the Argentine Marder infantry fighting vehicle.
The Marder’s cannon muzzle flashed. Sparks flew as the big rounds ripped into their little escape car. The car jumped and shook as it was torn apart, and then it burst into flames when the gas tank was hit and ignited. Albert felt the resultant heat dry his eyeballs. Annie cried and Linda screamed. Albert pulled them both on top of him and began to roll down a small embankment. They landed in a streambed.
The icy cold water stole their breath. Rain pelted them hard. Albert sat up. The rain became a downpour, falling in sheets.
“Not our day, is it?” Albert said to Linda, a crooked smile on his face. Linda forced herself to smile back. Even soaked, exhausted, and bruised, Linda was a beauty, Albert once again realized. He leaned in and kissed her. Then he offered a jealous Annie a compensatory peck on the cheek. “Come on,” he said with urgent big eyes. Albert tugged them along the stream, and started to circle to the side of the threat. They heard and felt the rumble of the armored vehicle’s big engine.
The Marder rumbled along the road. Its tracks spat rocks and mud, and the infantry fighting vehicle was soon alongside the stream, high above where Albert, Annie, and Linda snuggled up to an eroded bank. Pebbles and clumps of dirt fell upon them, and they felt the reverb of the engine in their chest, smelled the sooty diesel, and crossed their fingers, hoping it would pass them by. After a moment, they agreed that they had not been seen.
When certain that the vehicle had moved on, they clawed and slipped their way up the embankment, and peeked over the precipice through the tall grass. Their car was still ablaze, but now a truck approached. It stopped short of the wreck. Linda gasped and Annie cringed as Vargas and several soldiers dismounted. The infantry fighting vehicle had stopped several hundred yards beyond. Albert saw terror in the eyes of Annie and Linda.
“Annie seems okay. Scared, but okay” Albert whispered to Linda. He smiled at Annie as she grasped a fist-full of mud and grass. Albert’s face turned solemn. He gently brushed a finger across Linda’s warm, rosy cheek, and ventured, “Did that bastard really…touch you?”