The pilot hadn’t heard the silenced shot, but heard Stephan’s cries of pain. The pilot seemed disoriented, hesitating before looking under the plane. He saw Stephan rolling and holding his bloody lower torso. The pilot crouched and ran to Stephan’s aid as fast as he could. Stephan’s extended open, bloody hand halted the pilot. Stephan yelled at the pilot, “Start the damn plane!”
Chapter 30
Wade waited for his next shot as Stephan’s body rolled and spun below the plane. The pilot was torn, trying to decide whether to follow Stephan’s instructions or assist him. Disobeying Stephan’s orders, the pilot came to his aid. The two men spoke, with Stephan’s bloody hands grabbing the pilot’s clean dress shirt to emphasize his point. Wade was unable to hear their conversation, but watched as Stephan screamed instructions. Pushing the pilot away, Stephan rolled behind the landing gear, which blocked Wade’s next shot.
The pilot backed out from under the plane toward the opposite side and stepped on the wing as he reached for the handle of the pilot’s door. He was clearly unnerved, his hands visibly shaking with fear. Before entering the cockpit, Stephan yelled out new instructions to the pilot: “Start the engine! Call the house for help!”
Standing on the wing, the pilot turned back toward the farmhouse, cupped his hands, and yelled instructions in Spanish. Wade couldn’t make out what he said. The pilot wasn’t Wade’s concern, so he focused on Stephan, who had managed to pull himself up to a sitting position using the landing gear for support.
Blocked by the tire and landing gear, Wade was still without a shot. The pilot disappeared into the cockpit, slamming the door behind him. With one hand on his wound Stephan’s other hand shook as he pointed in Wade’s general direction.
The plane’s propeller made a single revolution, with white smoke billowing from the ports before the engine went silent again. Wade thought the pilot might have had second thoughts, realizing that despite Stephan’s orders, the plane would roll over Stephan if he moved forward.
A movement caught Wade’s eye in the scope. Two men in camouflage fatigues were running at full speed from the farmhouse toward the plane. Each had an automatic weapon hanging from his shoulder. Wade turned his attention to making scope adjustments for the oncoming threat. He decided it would be better to let them come closer before he took the shot.
He turned his attention to the underside of the plane. The pilot had abandoned his seat in the plane, and had come underneath it to help Stephan, despite his orders to the contrary. Stephan was frustrated with him, but didn’t refuse his help. Grabbing onto each other, the pilot was able to drag Stephan to the opposite side of the plane near the pilot’s door.
The threat from the farmhouse was quickly edging closer. The two men continued running at full speed toward Wade. They were 150 yards away and were bringing their weapons to shooting positions. Wade moved his scope sight back from Stephan to the oncoming shooters. He scanned behind them to see if there were others following, but saw no one. He quickly scanned the other roads leading to the farmhouse with the same result.
As the two men got closer, Wade recognized their weapons. One man was carrying a Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine gun, and the other was carrying a Russian AK-47. Both men wore military boots and camouflage fatigues with vests loaded with magazines of ammunition.
The pilot managed to get Stephan onto the wing and somehow pushed him through the door. Following him into the cockpit, the pilot pushed and lifted Stephan’s body over the controls into the copilot’s seat.
The two armed men took up firing positions, and rounds were now landing all around Wade. Stephan managed to gather enough strength to yell instructions out of the pilot’s door. Wade could see him pointing the men in his general direction. Rapid fire continued to split banana plants before landing deep behind Wade’s position.
Within a few seconds, the Beechcraft propellers started spinning. The plane lurched forward a few feet, confusing the two shooters and causing them to split their positions on either side of the plane.
Stephan continued yelling directions. But over the sound of the plane’s engine, no one could hear. It didn’t stop Stephan from animatedly pointing in the general direction of the banana plantings.
Not seeing return fire or resistance, the two shooters were still uncertain about their target. They fired multiple bursts from their automatic weapons in a wide arch, sending broken foliage to the ground around Wade’s position.
Wade moved five feet to his right for a better angle at the plane. The approaching men had now assumed prone positions. With his rifle stock resting on the trunk of a recently cut banana plant, Wade scoped the plane one more time as it made a right turn approaching the runway. Wade saw the outline of Stephan’s head. At that point he imagined the rest of Stephan’s body profile on the inside of the plane’s aluminum skin.
He had one last shot, but it would have to be a miracle shot. Adjusting his scope, he imagined where the center mass of Stephan’s body would appear in the copilot’s seat. This time he ignored the fact that he might still be wearing body armor. The odds of hitting any other body part from this distance and angle were too remote. Perhaps he would get lucky.
The plane started picking up speed. For the moment, he ignored the two men shooting at him and exhaled slowly, increasing his pressure on the trigger. His silenced shot fired, giving no indication of where it landed. Wade wasn’t even certain his shot hit the plane. Between the plane’s increasing speed, vibration, and distance, along with a slight turn to the left just before moving down the runway, he couldn’t be sure. With his vision of the copilot’s door now obscured, there was no way to confirm his shot. He had other problems just in front of him.
The two oncoming men moved forward fifteen feet and resumed a prone position. With the plane gone, both men were exposed on open ground. The two men rushing him had been cautious, uncertain of their target and how many men were hidden in front of them. They took turns fanning rounds in his general direction while the other man offered cover, looking for signs of movement. As their bursts were fired, Wade could hear rounds ripping through the plants and leaves around and above his head.
His adversaries were trying to cover an area which they perceived to be fifty yards on either side of Wade. Both men had enough automatic fire power to take out a platoon of men beyond the long banana fence line. They just didn’t have a precise fix yet. Wade identified each of the two men by number.
Shooter One stopped firing long enough to carefully scope the surrounding area, looking for signs of movement of any kind. He no longer seemed interested in firing blind. Shooter Two had just emptied his magazine and was in the process of reloading when Shooter One yelled a command in Spanish that Wade took to mean “Cover me.”
Wade could see their revised plan was to cover each other, firing into the dense foliage in more systematic segments. Sooner or later, the plan would reach Wade’s position. Between alternating firing sequences, they would move closer until they reached the dense cover. Once they were in the cover, they would have the same advantage as Wade, and he couldn’t let that happen.
When Shooter One reloaded, he gave the ready command for Shooter Two to run to the next position. When the second shooter hit his second step, Wade fired into his center body mass, causing him to flip backward like a circus clown. He landed flat on his backside, lifeless, face up to the sky with his weapon resting quietly at his side.
Shooter One didn’t hear the shot, but recoiled in shock at seeing his partner’s back flip and the lifeless body a few feet in front of him. He didn’t have a clue where the shot had come from, but emptied an entire magazine whose rounds landed on either side of Wade, missing him by ten yards.