Hunt the Jackal

Chapter Eleven

Crocker slipped the phone into his pocket and turned to Mancini, who was reloading his MP7. The firing in front of them seemed to have let up. But the sounds from the backyard were still ferocious.

“I’m going upstairs to look after Nieves,” Crocker said. “Suárez’s in the back with Davis. Akil’s upstairs.”

Both men ducked simultaneously as an explosion sent the hood of the burning truck flying in the air.

“You want me to go back and relieve Suárez?” Mancini asked as it crashed to the pavement.

“Make sure the front is covered first.”

Mancini shouted at Crocker’s back, “Tell Akil to get his ass down here. I have an idea.”

“I’ll send him.”

Upstairs on the balcony he found Akil kneeling over a prone Nieves, holding both hands on his neck.

“It’s bad,” Akil whispered. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Let me see.”

Akil removed his hands from the bloody mess. A round had taken a two-inch-long chunk out of the side of Nieves’s neck but had missed the carotid artery. Nieves had already gone into hypovolemic shock due to the loss of blood, but his body temperature was still relatively normal, which meant that the shock wasn’t severe yet.

“Hold this,” Crocker said, applying a blowout patch to the wound. Then he removed his black T-shirt and said, “Now move your hands away.”

He used the T-shirt to tie the bandage in place, then lifted Nieves’s legs and slid a deck chair under them so that they were about a foot off the balcony floor.

“We need to get some blood in him,” Crocker said.

“How?”

“Go see Manny downstairs in front. He needs you.”

Just then several large explosions rocked the back of the house. Crocker grabbed his radio and shouted, “Suárez, you okay? Suárez, report!”

No answer.

He tried Mancini. “Manny?”

“Yeah, boss.”

“I’m going to relieve Suárez. Any sign of medevac or reinforcements?”

“Not yet.”

He found Suárez crouched by one of the back windows, fighting like a manic kid.

“Suárez?”

No answer, so Crocker kicked his foot.

Suárez frowned and pointed to his eardrums, indicating that they weren’t working. Outside, past the patio and cement planters filled with geraniums, eight to ten men had taken up positions and were inching toward the house.

Crocker raked the middle of them with fire, then reloaded and continued left. He shouted, “You take the right, I’ll cover the left!” Then, remembering Suárez couldn’t hear, he slapped his shoulder and pointed. Suárez nodded, his face a mask of grim determination.

Crocker liked the guy more every second. Out of his right periphery he saw a flash and shouted, “Incoming!”

A second later, a shoulder-fired rocket passed through the destroyed window and exploded on impact with the cabinets on the wall behind them. Crocker felt hot shards of wood and metal burn into his back.

He heard Suárez coughing and spitting blood.

“You hit?”

Suárez shouldered his MP7 and continued firing. Crocker calculated that they would soon either run out of ammunition or be overrun.

Shouting into the radio, he said, “Manny, we need the forty mike-mike in back.”

“I got something even better. We’re coming.”

“Make it quick!”

When he raised his head above the sill to fire, he saw three men wearing black helmets circling to the right side of the house. Then a barrage of rounds came at him, causing him to hit the floor again and bruise his mouth.

“Fuck!”

As he readjusted the sight, he saw that he was down to less than a magazine and a half. Suárez continued to cough and choke.

“What’s wrong?”

Squirming over on his belly, he grabbed Suárez under the ribs from behind and pushed up and squeezed at the same time. A piece of plaster the size of a Ping-Pong ball flew out of Suárez’s mouth.

“Disgusting,” Suárez said.

“Drink some water.”

The shooting from the yard had intensified to the point that it was difficult to raise a weapon above the sill to return fire. But he did anyway, and as he fired heard a tremendous crash from the right side of the house.

He thought for a second that the Federales had broken through the barricaded side door, and that maybe he and his men would be joining Ritchie soon. But then a loud, incessant firing deafened him, and he saw that it was directed at the men behind the planters. He watched as they retreated and the big guns from the right mowed them down one by one. Then the guns tore into the Federales on the left side of the yard.

Suárez looked at Crocker, and Crocker looked at him, both men’s expressions asking, What the fuck is going on? Seconds later, a black M706 armored car swung into view.

“Who’s that?” Suárez asked.

It looked like the one Crocker had seen on the front drive with twin.30 cal machine guns and five-foot run-flat tires. Now it was firing at the Mexicans.

“They’re on our side!” Suárez shouted with a rapturous smile on his face.

“Seems like.”

Before Crocker had a chance to say anything about Mancini, Suárez stepped through the broken window with his MP7 and ran to join the mop-up activity in the yard. Crocker followed.

Five minutes later, all the Mexicans had either fled or were dead, or bleeding out. One soldier with a black mask over his face lay in a pool of blood behind one of the concrete planters. Crocker was bending down to grab the RPG-2 that lay next to him when he heard Akil’s voice.

“You gonna fucking thank us, or what?”

He looked up into the slanting sunlight and saw Akil’s dirt-smudged face sticking out of the side door of the M706. Without missing a beat, Crocker said, “Get your lazy ass out here and help me load Davis and Nieves inside.”

“Ungrateful fuck,” Akil groaned as he jumped and hit the grass.

“Nice work,” Crocker said, slapping a hand to his chest.

“By the way, your back’s a bloody mess.”

Crocker reached around and felt sticky blood mixed with grime. It didn’t seem serious, so he said, “Not a problem.”

“What the fuck just happened?” Akil asked as he and Crocker climbed the steps to the balcony.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, who were they and what the fuck was that all about?”

“That was the Mexican police,” Crocker answered.

“You’re kidding.”

“I saw ‘Federales’ painted on one of the trucks.”

When they reached the balcony, out of breath, Akil wiped dirt and sweat off his forehead and said, “And I thought Iraq and Afghanistan were messed up.”

“Welcome to Mexico.”

The bleeding from Nieves’s neck seemed to have stopped, but he was still in shock, and his pulse was weak and thready. As they carefully carried him downstairs and toward the armored car, a black helicopter banked overhead.

“Medevac?” Akil asked.

Crocker squinted into the morning haze. It was a Black Hawk with POLíCIA FEDERAL painted along the back of the fuselage. “Apparently not,” he answered. “Load him inside.”

The interior of the M706 was extremely hot and had room for a driver, a gunner, and eight other occupants on benches along the sides. Mancini drove while Akil manned the machine gun. Nieves lay on one bench and Davis on the other. Crocker crawled on his knees from one side to the other, monitoring each man.

“How about getting some air in this crate?” Crocker asked.

Mancini shouted, “The air conditioning doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Try the fan.” Crocker tossed his cell phone to Suárez, seated crossed-legged on the floor. “Call Lane. Tell him where we are.”

The M706 growled and lurched toward the front gate.

“No answer,” Suárez shouted over the growl of the engine. “I left a message.”

“Try again!”

Once they reached the street, Mancini cranked the Chrysler 361 cubic V-8 engine as fast as it would go and tried to trace his way back to the FBI safe house. The Polícia Federal Black Hawk followed about sixty feet overhead.

“What should we do about the helo?” Akil asked from the turret.

“Ignore it.”

“What if it fires at us?”

“Shoot back!”

Suárez pointed to the phone and shouted, “Still no answer!”

“What the hell is Lane doing?”

He grabbed the cell phone back and tried himself. It rang and went to message. Crocker said, “Lane, we’re on our way to you. We still need medical assistance, badly. Call me back!”

Nieves’s pulse was growing weaker by the minute. A cool, clammy sweat covered his face and arms. His lips had started to turn blue.

“Manny,” Crocker shouted, “if you see a hospital, stop!”

“What?”

“A hospital! Stop if you see a medical facility.”

“I’m staying on as many well-traveled roads as I can and riding next to buses and cars, to deter the Black Hawk from shooting at us.”

“Good man.”

Crocker couldn’t see shit-just grim, battle-weary faces and bleeding men. The big vehicle roared, hit holes in the pavement, and lurched forward like a tractor on steroids.

“Hold on!” Mancini shouted as he took a sharp curve. The metal beast tipped as if it was in danger of turning over. Crocker held Nieves so he didn’t fall off the bench.

“Where the hell you get your license?” Suárez shouted.

“Mexico!” Mancini shouted back.

Crocker waved Suárez over. “Hold Nieves. I’m gonna see if that big baboon knows where he’s going.”

“Probably not.”

Crocker squirmed forward on his belly and tried to peer through the forward slit window. “Move your big head aside so I can see,” he said to Mancini.

“See what? I just turned onto the street.”

“What street?”

“The street with the FBI house. It’s straight ahead.”

Mancini slowed the vehicle, executed a wide turn, and stopped abruptly, causing Crocker to hit his head.

“Fuck! There go another couple million brain cells.”

“You don’t need ’em!”

Akil laughed. Suárez hopped out the side door and rang the bell by the gate. When that didn’t work, he banged on it with the butt of his weapon. When no one answered, he climbed over and opened the gate from inside.

“What the fuck happened to that Ramón guy?” Akil asked.

“Who’s Ramón?”

“The old Mexican dude. The guard. Remember?”

“Maybe he took the day off.”

Mancini braked to a stop on the gravel. They were all soaked with sweat and out of water.

“What do you want to do now?” Akil asked.

Crocker thought fast. “You stay here and man the thirty cals,” he said. “Manny, you and Suárez help me carry Nieves and Davis out so they can get some fresh air. Then I want you to hydrate and guard the front gate. I’m gonna go find Lane.”

“Got it.”

“What about me?” Akil asked from the turret. “I need some fluids, too.”

“Suárez, on your way to the gate, bring a water bottle for Akil. See if you can find one with a nipple on it.”

“Very funny.”

It was all in fun, but then it wasn’t. Because as soon as Crocker stepped outside, he heard the Black Hawk roaring overhead. Looking up, he saw the helmeted gunners of the.50 cals leering down and gesturing.

He ignored them and with Suárez’s help lugged Nieves inside and set him on the porch sofa.

“Anyone home?” he called out. “We need help here.”

He hurried back to get Davis with Mancini’s help.

Suárez shrugged when he returned. “There’s no one here.”

“Where the hell did they go?” Crocker asked, trying to catch his breath as he peered into the shadow-filled living room.

Suárez shrugged, then seemed to notice a dark stream of something slowly creeping out through the living room door.

“What’s that?” asked Crocker.

The second he finished posing the question, he knew the answer. Stepping over the dark puddle on the tile floor, he entered the living room and was hit by the thick, musky smell of death. His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and made out four stacked, headless bodies in the middle of the floor.

“Holy shit.”

“God have mercy,” Suárez groaned at his side.

“Look.” Mancini pointed to four heads lying on the coffee table like Halloween masks. Lane, red-haired Karen Steele, Sheriff Higgins, and some blond-haired guy Crocker hadn’t met. Karen had the added indignity of a severed penis stuffed in her mouth.

“Savages,” Crocker groaned as he ripped down one of the mustard-colored curtains and laid it over the heads. Then he used its partner to cover the bodies.

“That’s what they plan to do to us,” Suárez muttered as he made the sign of the cross.

“Fuck that,” Crocker growled. The savagery of the deaths unleashed a rage inside him that was almost uncontainable. Finding the handheld, he pushed a button and said, “Akil, you read me?”

“Yo. Where’s my fucking water?”

“That Black Hawk still hovering over you?”

“Say fifty feet with assholes in the doors shooting me the bird.”

“You got a good bead on them?”

“You know it.”

“Take it down!”

“Now?”

“Yeah, now!” Crocker shouted.

“Copy.”

He stood seething with anger and listened to the twin.30 cals roar outside, which had a strange calming effect. And he realized that he had reached a state of absolute freedom that he’d almost never felt before. He didn’t care about orders, or protocols, or whether he died in Mexico or not. He was going to pay the fuckers back who had kidnapped Lisa and Olivia Clark, wounded Nieves and Davis, and desecrated Lane, Steele, and the others, no matter what it took.

The cacophony of firing continued. Mancini screamed in his ear. “Boss. Boss, what the hell are you doing?”

Crocker pushed him in the direction of the front gate. “You and Suárez go. Don’t let anyone in the gate! Do whatever it takes.”

Mancini opened his mouth to say something but was drowned out by an explosion. As the sound dissipated, Crocker heard Akil shout over the radio, “Got ’em! Mission accomplished!”

His ears followed the whining sound of the injured Black Hawk as it spun out of control, clipped the branch of a tree, and crashed somewhere in the yard. He didn’t take the time to look.

“Make sure you finish off any survivors,” he said into the radio. “Then stay on alert. Anyone who approaches this house either by air or on land, you shoot them unless I tell you not to.”

“Yeah, boss. Balls to the wall!”

He reached Nieves as his body started to convulse. There was nothing he could do except clear his tongue with one hand so he didn’t choke on it, and wrap the rug on the floor around him to keep him warm.

No more casualties, he said to himself, praying to God and remembering the recent string of rotten luck. I can’t allow another one.

He punched one of the emergency numbers Lane had programmed into the cell phone.

A smooth woman’s voice came on the line. “Who’s this?”

“Crocker. I’m with Black Cell at the FBI safe house in Zapopan. It’s been hit. Four people are dead.”

“What do you mean, it’s been hit?” the CIA station duty officer asked.

“You heard me. Find Jenson and tell him Crocker called and the mission went to shit. We just got back to the safe house and found Lane, Steele, and two others dead in the living room. Decapitated.”

“Lane? David Lane?”

“Yes!”

The woman on the other end gasped, “Oh, my God!”

“It’s awful.”

“David Lane?”

“Yes.”

“That was you who battled the police in Puerto del Hiero?” she asked.

“Yes,” Crocker answered. “We were ambushed by Federales. We’re back at the safe house now. I’ve got two severely injured men with me who need emergency medical assistance. I’m not going to let them die. How long is it going to take you to get a team out here?”

“I’ll have to check.”

“Where are you?”

“Mexico City. Hold on.”

She came back half a minute later and said, “Twenty minutes, maybe less.”

“They’ll be dead by then,” Crocker responded. “Is there a hospital nearby?”

“You’re in Zapopan now?”

“Correct.”

“Hospital San Javier is off Calle Parra about three minutes away.”

“I need directions.”

She transmitted them over the phone, and Crocker scribbled them down-a right at the first intersection and two lefts past a big park. “We’re going there now,” he said.

“How?”

“We’ve got an M706 that we took from the Federal Police.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Have your people meet us at the hospital. Call the consul, the ambassador, the mayor, anyone you think can help. We’re going in armed and the Mexicans are on our tail.”

“That’s ill advised. Let me get Mr. Jenson on the line.”

“Goodbye.”

Crocker radioed Suárez and Mancini and asked them if they saw any police activity on the street.

“Not yet,” Mancini reported.

“Any sign of Ramón?”

“Negative.”

“Okay,” Crocker said. “I want you to hurry back here and help reload Nieves and Davis onto the 706.”

“Aye-aye.”

Through the screen porch door, he watched the Black Hawk continue to burn out at the far end of the swimming pool as the men ran toward him.

They reloaded the two injured men; then Mancini climbed into the driver’s seat and asked, “Where’re we going?”

Crocker read the directions. Five minutes later, he pointed to the INGRESO DE EMERGENCIAS sign and Mancini steered the metal beast up to the entrance and stopped in front of a circular green-glassed atrium.

Seeing the armored car, the guard at the entrance dropped the M-1 he was holding and ran into the two-story hospital. The four-man construction crew that was repaving an outdoor staircase watched openmouthed as the grime-covered Americans stepped out of the vehicle, armed and ready. Crocker was still bare-chested. He and Suárez were bleeding from superficial wounds to their faces and backs.

Suárez took charge, grabbing orderlies and shouting instructions in Spanish.

Medical personnel wearing light-green tunics scrambled. Gurneys and nurses appeared. The wounded men were wheeled inside.

A weary Crocker turned to Mancini and said, “Relieve Akil in the M706. You and Suárez guard the door. Don’t let anyone in or out.”

“Looks like we’re taking the whole hospital hostage.”

“If that’s what it takes to save our men, yes.”