Sit? Stay? Ha! Eddie seethed, shaking his head and gripping the steering wheel, a cunning smile curving the corners of his lips. You’re not poaching my Americans!
SEVENTY-THREE: “Learning from Experience”
It bothered Eddie a little the Americans hadn’t gone the way he’d expected them to. He felt certain they would come out of the mountains and head directly south towards Mexico. He considered himself fortunate he’d been tuned in to the radio and caught the deviation, and had been prepared to alter his own course and plans as necessary. In that regard, all the whippings had been worth it.
Part of him was unsure whether these were the same Americans. It had given him a moment’s pause before he and Lazzo killed the eleven soldiers. But their moves were a little too strategic, too military, to be random chance. These had to be his lions. Sure, it was possible there were more Americans hidden in Estes Park over the winter, but it wasn’t too far to Durango from Buena Vista to go check. If he went there and it wasn’t them, he’d improvise again. He still had the radio, and it was on the same frequency as the Mexican commander’s. As long as he was near any of their communication towers, he would be able to get the same feed as the general. The only soldier who knew he and Lazzo had the radio was in the back seat with them. The radio and the tracking chips were advantages you usually didn’t get in a hunt. This was almost going to be too easy.
The general and his men had gone straight south, presumably a hundred miles down to Monte Vista, where they’d then turn west towards Durango. It was the shorter route, but not how Eddie wanted to go. He wanted to go directly west to Montrose and then south. He didn’t trust the Americans would do as they’d told the guards in Delta. If these were the same Americans, they didn’t tend to show their cards like that.
Eddie pulled into a gas station in Montrose just after 4 p.m. As Lazzo filled their jeep up, Eddie looked over his maps. Delta was a short ways north, and there was a small station with a radio tower there. Eddie decided to head up there.
When they arrived in Delta, he stayed in the jeep with the radio while Lazzo and Amadi went in to talk to the guards and congratulate them on their good work. Lazzo claimed he’d come straight from Central Command in Denver and since he still had his Intelligence Division badges, he made sure they were visible for the troops at the post. Lazzo took down some information from each of the guys and told them they should expect to receive commendations in the near future. They were thrilled. Anything to keep them from calling us in. Eddie laughed to himself in the jeep.
Lazzo and Amadi sat down for a lengthy celebratory late lunch/early dinner with the other soldiers while Eddie listened to the radio chatter. There was a lot of it. The Mexican commander, fortunately, loved to talk. The drones had been flying back and forth between Montrose and Durango all afternoon and had yet to pick up the stolen jeeps. Either the Americans were hiding somewhere waiting for darkness, or they had gone a different route. Eddie anticipated it was the latter. They never seemed to follow the main roads. That meant they had to have headed through the mountains, through Telluride. A few drones had flown that pass as well, but nothing was seen there either. Still, that made more sense to Eddie.
Between 6:30 and 7, as Lazzo and Amadi sat around having tea with the guards, Eddie heard the general radio the Mexican commander. They talked back and forth for a while. The general had set up a wide net around the Durango area. There was no way the Americans would get past him. The military base at Grand Junction had sent two hundred more men. Half of the men swept through the mountains down to Durango and, not having found the Americans on their sweep, had joined the general’s forces there. The other half remained posted ten miles south of Ridgeway State Park, at the entrance to a place called Rotary Park. They would stay there to block the Americans if they decided to turn back.
Intelligence was quite sure the Americans were trapped somewhere in between. Unless, of course, they’d gone somewhere other than Durango. Eddie was fully aware Central Command thought nothing of the intelligence of these Americans. Few other Americans had proved difficult in this entire endeavor. There’d been many gunfights but little strategy, and the Americans stood no chance in a weapons war. But an intelligence one…Eddie knew better than to underestimate his prey there. They had proven time and time again they were up to the battle of wits.
It would have been easy to call in forces from multiple bases, to corner and converge on the Americans—block all their possible routes—at so many different points in this journey. But that wasn’t how Eddie had wanted to play this. He’d wanted personal revenge for Markus’s death. Then these Americans had fooled him, and angered him—multiple times—so he continued the pursuit.
And then there was Cheyenne. When the Americans could have run away free, they’d come back and saved his life and Lazzo’s. He still didn’t understand that. They’d earned the one chance he’d given them, but he still wanted them dead. And he definitely didn’t want anyone else catching them first.
Eddie had been given the opportunity to out them when the vice president was killed, but he didn’t. He had gone into that meeting with The Seven commanders intent on sharing his knowledge if they pulled a gun on him. But when they didn’t, he kept it to himself. When he had visited the VP in the tent before taking him up to the alpine base, Eddie had noticed the mud on the floor leading to a cut across the back of the tent. It seemed to have been sealed from the outside, but that gap told Eddie someone had been there. He could have proved that to the commanders if he’d had to. But he didn’t. The demotion didn’t bother him because he still was in the game. This wasn’t a matter of rank or recognition for him. This was purely personal. These Americans had started this fight with him, and he intended to finish it himself.
Then he heard the words that changed everything.
SEVENTY-FOUR: (Ryan) “End of the Road”
We were on the road again at 9 p.m. As we pulled into the town of Ridgeway and up to the fork in the road leading to either Durango or Cortez, we happened upon a roadblock. Only this roadblock was different. The troops were armed with guns and spotlights. “Danny, this isn’t good,” Sam said right away. “Three guards. This is different.”
He was right, of course. Danny knew they were going to search every vehicle passing through now. He knew the chain reaction alert had been passed on from Estes Park. “Just roll my window down now, pull up to them slowly and then roll your window down. Say the word ‘now’ when I have a clear shot at more than one guy. Make sure you stay out of the way.”
Sam nodded. He pulled up to the blockade and stuck his hand out the window to wave. The closest man didn’t wave back though. He said, “Park. Get out of car.”
Sam put the car in park, leaned towards the middle of the jeep for a second, and then asked, “Now?”
The soldier right next to our jeep went down before either of the other two guards even saw the gun. Danny took the second guy out with another single shot. The third guy ran for the radio, but before he’d lifted it an inch Blake shot it out of his hand. Nice shot! Danny swung out of the car and ran to the man. He’d screamed once already when Blake’s shot hit his hand. Danny didn’t let him scream again. He swept the man off his feet and knelt on his chest with a knee to his throat and a Springfield to the man’s temple. He asked which way was the safe way to go. The anger in the man’s eyes when he pointed straight south told Danny all he needed to know. Fear always said one thing. Anger always said another. “We need to go west, guys,” Danny said to Sam and Isaac after he’d finished the last guy off. “They’re waiting for us south.”