Alegre stared at his top adviser. "What do you suggest I do? Give in?"
Montez tried placating his friend. "Not give in. But we must play for time. You tried to defeat the cartel and—"
Alegre pounded his desk. "We still can defeat them. I will use the army under the state of siege provisions."
It was time for the president to crash on the harsh rocks of reality. "The army will not fight the cartel," Montez argued. "Not all the way. They'll do police work and fight some of the lesser dealers, but they will not go against the main body of the cartel. Not until we have an alternative for the people, and not until we can solve the guerrilla problem."
Alegre stared at his old friend. "Are you saying you will not support me on this?"
"You are my friend and my president, but I must do what is right for the country. If you pursue this course of action, I believe you doom this country to a period like la violencia. I do not want to see that again. I cannot support you on this."
Alegre's shoulders slumped. If even his friend Montez would not support him, he knew he stood little chance with the army. "What do you suggest we do?"
Since darkness had settled over the countryside, the temperature had fallen. Riley estimated it now hovered around fifty degrees. He took another look through the ART 2 scope at the lit villa compound. No change from last night. He still had no viable plan. The best he could come up with was trying to go in over the wall at night. He figured that plan ranked somewhere up near Custer's at Little Big Horn in tactical soundness.
Westland was curled up at the base of the tree. Riley hoped she was sleeping, but he imagined she was shivering. She'd told him about her conversation with Pike. The general's admonition not to do anything before midnight on Thursday was the only thing keeping Riley from going in tonight and trying to get Powers out. He had no idea if Pike could come up with something but he'd follow the instructions. Plus, he wasn't too keen on dying tonight. He figured that if they'd kept Powers alive so far, they'd keep him alive at least another day or so.
Riley decided there wasn't much else he could see tonight that he hadn't seen last night. Even if the Ring Man showed up in the backyard with a spotlight on himself, there was nothing Riley would do. His first priority was getting Powers out.
Riley climbed down the tree and squatted next to Westland's reclining figure. "You awake?"
"No. Of course I am. It's too damn cold to sleep."
Riley chuckled and slid down beside her. "Two's warmer than one. When we used to go on winter warfare training, the guys on the team would always buddy up against the cold. Same thing in Ranger school. I think on some of those cold nights in the mountains at Dahlonega I was closer to my Ranger buddy than any woman I've ever been with."
Kate pressed her body back against his. "Want to test that last thought?"
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The buzzing of the phone woke Pike out of an exhausted sleep. His hand shot out and grabbed the receiver. "Pike here."
"Go secure." Pike obliged the caller. "Where'd you get that information on the guards and their shifts and the helicopter? Do you have a source on the ground down there?"
Pike relaxed as he recognized the voice on the other end. "I've got a man pulling surveillance on the target."
"Do you have commo with him?"
Pike reflected on his conversation with Turrel late the previous evening. He was just guessing that Riley and Westland had gone into hiding at the surveillance site near the villa. But he figured it was a good guess, since the two hadn't shown up at the embassy or used their escape route back to the States. Unfortunately, their going into hiding had severed his communications link through Turrel at the embassy. "No," he responded.
"Shit." The voice on the other end paused for a second. "I guess that's not a problem. We already have our own surveillance en route. I just hope the two don't bump heads. Is there any way my people can identify him?"
"There should actually be two people there. A man and a woman.
"The man's a guy from 7th Group named Dave Riley. The woman's name is Kate Westland."
"Is this Riley the same guy as the finger card in the file you gave me?"
"Yes."
"I'll assume they are there for the same reason we're going in. That's all I need for now. I'll get back to you if we need anything else."
Pike forestalled the quick hang-up. "How're things looking?"
"Well, we're refining a couple of ideas and we've coordinated with the aircraft we're going to need. It's cutting it tight but we'll have something ready." The voice paused briefly. "Hey, I got to go, Mike. I'll keep in touch when you come up on the SATCOM later this morning."
"All right. Thanks."
Pike hung up and slumped back on the couch in the office. The emptiness of the building reminded him of the loss of the men of Eyes Three even more than the memorial service had the previous day.
The forces he had set in motion were now rumbling and moving. Pike just hoped they made it through the day without someone getting wind of what was going on and questioning it.
Riley was disoriented for a few seconds as he awoke. He felt cold on one side and warm on the other. The comforting feeling of a woman nestled alongside him contrasted with the harshness of the hard ground. He stared up at the branches above his head, dimly lit in the approaching dawn.
The reality of his situation hit him with a rush. He sat up and peered around in the dark. The lights from Ring Man's villa lit the sky to the southwest, slowly being overwhelmed by the rising sun.
Riley looked over at Westland, who was still sleeping peacefully. For a moment he wished they could simply leave this all behind. If it was just the Ring Man mission, Riley would have been willing to. True, Ring Man had been responsible for the killing of his teammates, but they had all known the risks when they signed on for the mission. He'd kill Ring Man if he had a chance, but he wouldn't throw away his, or Kate's, life on it.
The anchor that held him on this knoll in the mountains of Colombia was the presence of Powers in the villa below. Riley wasn't going anywhere until he gave rescuing his old friend the best possible shot. He still didn't have much of a plan, but he was going to wait until this evening and see if anything developed.
Of course, Riley knew, Westland didn't have the same commitment, and she was crazy if she still believed in the Ring Man mission. Riley was determined to lay it on the line when she woke up. He would tell her that the Ring Man hit was off. He didn't want her here. He wanted her safely back in the U.S. embassy or even better on a flight back to the States. Riley didn't know what the next twenty-four hours would hold, but he was certain it would be dangerous.
He sat back against his lookout tree and let his eyes adjust to the growing light. As he waited for Westland to wake, he broke down his weapons one by one and cleaned them. Using his sweatshirt as a rag he wiped the morning moisture off all the parts. He carefully reloaded the magazines, bullet by bullet, and checked the functioning of the weapons' actions. He put the M21 back in the plastic case. The Berreta was strapped back under his left shoulder. The MP5 he placed on his lap.
Finished with his morning priorities, Riley turned his gaze back on Kate's relaxed face. He realized he'd never had such strong feelings for a woman. He'd lived with a girl for a while at Bragg several years ago, but like all his other short-term relationships, he'd ended up drifting out of it. All those women had seemed too weak. It was hard for him to put his finger on the reason Kate attracted him, but it had a lot to do with her personal strength and self-confidence. She didn't need him but she wanted to be with him. That made a lot of difference. He felt they were on an equal footing.