The explosion was so huge it took out a couple of the lead vehicles and created a crater the other vehicles couldn’t pass through. The general’s troops quickly jumped out of their vehicles and pursued Eddie, Lazzo, and Amadi on foot towards the river. Gunfire broke out behind them as the troops closed in. At the same time Eddie saw the boats ahead of him, he also saw a man kneeling in front of him firing toward them. He hesitated a second until he noticed the bullets were coming nowhere near him. He looked behind him long enough to see a couple men go down; then, seeing Lazzo raise his gun at the man by the boats, Eddie yelled out, “No. Lazzo, don’t.” But it was too late. Lazzo had already fired off a shot, and the kneeling man spun to the ground.
Eddie reached Danny and helped him get up as Lazzo grabbed a boat, and Amadi grabbed two paddles. Eddie lifted Danny into the boat, and Amadi was pushing them off when he took two bullets in the back. He disappeared into the water as Eddie, Lazzo, and Danny drifted quietly down the San Juan River escaping, for the moment, into the cold dark night.
As the general and his men raced west from Aztec towards Shiprock, he continued to receive updates from various soldiers about explosions and blocked roads, apparently preventing the Americans from coming south to him. It was making him more and more furious, and he increased his speed. Driving through the roadblock in Shiprock, the lead jeep was demolished in an explosion. Given the amount of explosives they saw that hadn’t gone off as they drove past, the general realized they’d been lucky. He should have been dead too.
Again, in approaching Teec Nos Pos he learned the Americans had been diverted by another explosion. He’d even lost some of his own men. These were unusual events to be sure. Whoever was setting off these explosions was either a complete failure or was helping the Americans. Was that possible? When the general turned onto Highway 191, he learned of yet another explosion north of him, and he decided to take the Americans head on. He turned up 191 with the rest of his force and had closed to within a few miles of them when his radar showed them cutting west on another country road. How were they anticipating his moves so perfectly? Now he was furious.
Just before the river there was a huge explosion, and a couple of his vehicles were reduced to rubble. He ordered all of his men out, and they began pursuing three men on foot through the park. They were firing at the men but were also taking fire from someone near the building ahead of them. The general watched as more than a dozen of his men fell, including one of his officers and one of his dogs. The three men they’d pursued through the park climbed into a boat and pushed off down the river before the general’s men caught up to them. His men managed to hit one of them, but he’d fallen in the river and had been sucked immediately downstream.
The general’s men waited for him by the boathouse. Four of the nine boats left stacked were damaged beyond use. The general ordered two of his three remaining officers to take the other five boats down the river with twenty-three other men, paddles, vests, and weapons. “Try to find the body, too,” he ordered them as they pushed off.
He took his other officer and the remaining thirty-one men back to the vehicles with him to radio the nearest command base. He wanted four helicopters here before dawn. They were going to find these Americans. They’d evaded him once. Never again. And whoever was helping them was going to beg for a bullet when he was done with them.
An hour later as the general drove west, he started to make sense of what had happened. His men’s every move had been telegraphed the entire route. He was certain some of his own men had betrayed him. They had tipped the Americans off and essentially escorted them through the danger zones. Since most of his men had been with him, that meant it had to be someone else who had known exactly where they were going. Probably someone from the Buena Vista camp. Probably Eddie. But how? And why? For personal revenge? Why would he help the Americans?
When General Roja arrived at the nearest base, he established contact with the post in Delta to see if any Qi Jia soldiers had passed through there recently. They informed him that some officials had come from Denver to recognize them for their heroism. Since that didn’t sound anything like The Seven commanders he knew, the general asked for descriptions of the men, and all he needed to hear was “giant African” to know he’d been correct in his assumptions. But then he was back to “how?” How could Eddie have known where they were and what they were doing?
It didn’t take him long to realize there was only one possible answer. One of his men had to have something on them, a tracker of some sort. He had every man’s pack brought to him and searched, including his officer’s, and sure enough, he found a tracker in the officer’s pack. No other chips were revealed, but he suspected his officers on the river had them too. Only one man had access to those packs beyond the general and his men. Amadi. So he was with Eddie the whole time. Clearly the man wasn’t as stupid as he seemed.
As the pieces fell into place, the general figured out a way he could use these developments to his advantage. He called the Flagstaff base, as it had the nearest long-distance radio, and asked to speak to the base commander. “Colonel Dominguez,” he said. “I need a favor.” He couldn’t call it in himself with their lower-range radios. “Call Commander Vasquez in Denver. Tell him the general needs ‘the package’ in Page, Arizona. I need it right now.”
An hour later the Flagstaff base commander radioed back. “The package” was on its way from Puerto Rico. It would be there before noon tomorrow. Perfect!
SEVENTY-NINE: “Answers”
The Kevlar in Danny’s uniform had slowed the bullet, but not stopped it. It was embedded below his left shoulder blade. Danny had managed to take out all but three of the closest men to Eddie, Lazzo, and the other guy before Lazzo had shot him. Danny knew he was in a tough position because yelling at Eddie would give him away to the others, and they’d know for sure he was American, but not yelling and just firing left the possibility he too could be taken as an enemy. Eddie seemed to recognize Danny was helping them, but Lazzo must have seen him as a threat. He was fortunate Lazzo hit him where he did. It hurt like crazy, but the bullet had missed his shoulder blade, head, and every other potentially fatal target. Nonetheless, the bullet spun him onto his back and sent his night vision goggles flying.
As he tried to get up, a strong arm pulled him up and dragged him to the river, throwing him into a boat like a doll. It was pretty easy to figure out that was Eddie. Another man jumped into the boat beside him while Eddie and the third man pushed the boat off. Eddie rolled into the boat as the man in the water took several shots in the back and never got in. Lazzo fired back at the other boats, striking a couple of them. They’d be useless in the water, but several had escaped damage. Soldiers would be in those rafts and pursuing them shortly. Danny was trying to sit up, but the heavy weight of Eddie’s knee held him flat. “Stay down,” Eddie hissed.