Heller: The Complete Thriller Series by Roderus Frank

Author:Roderus, Frank
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2020-09-08T14:00:00+00:00

23

We went to the fifth rock cairn and stopped two-tenths of a mile beyond it. How many had he told me there were? I couldn't remember. Not that it made any difference. We hadn't stopped at the first one. That was what did matter

It bothered me some that I couldn't recall exactly how many there were. I think my brain was a bit numb at the moment, thinking about those Border Patrol men waiting back there for a bunch of wets who wouldn't show.

Me, they would be able to find tomorrow. By then the wets would be well on their way to Detroit or Boston or some damn place. I didn't really care about that. I did care about what Major Samuels was going to conclude when he spent a lonely night out there in the brush.

I had mighty scant expectation that he wouldn't hear about this crossing, too. El Paso/Juarez is a pretty big area but not so dang big that rumors and whisperings won't reach eager ears. I thought the good major's ears would be very keenly tuned after tonight.

Dammit!

We were in the lead of the procession of vehicles hauling all the wets. Duke pulled off onto the shoulder of the road and killed the lights, and the others rolled to a halt behind us.

It took only a few minutes for the other drivers to unload their wets and take off back the way we had come. Lucky them, I thought. Their jobs were done, and they would have nothing to worry about come the dawn.

It took a little longer for Duke to establish some degree of order in the crowd of milling, chattering Mexicans who were going to make the crossing.

He told them in a lengthy spiel of Spanish what they could expect, and then in English, an abbreviated version, I'm sure, told me, "Absolute silence tonight, Carl. It isn't as critical as it might have been, but there's no need for them to know that. We all have to stay together No strays and no side excursions. Anyone can't keep up, leave them. You got that?"

I nodded.

"No exceptions. I don't care if it's a Vera Cruz virgin needing time to give birth, Carl, once we start moving, we don't stop.

"Another thing, if we're hit by bandits, we make no fuss at all. Understood?"

I nodded again.

"I hope so. Last time you could have gotten your group in trouble. You were lucky. Tonight, don't take any chances. None. If we're hit, stop and pay up and then get moving again. This is too big to ruin playing the hero."

"I understand," I assured him. At the moment I was fretting about things much more worrisome than some small-time Mexican-border bandits, although he couldn't have known that. At least I hoped he couldn't.

"I take the lead," Braxton said, "and you bring up the tail. Remember: no noise and no straggling. You remember that, and we'll all have a nice quiet walk across the river. Okay?"

"Okay.”

He began to speak Spanish again, and after a little while everyone was assembled more or less into an order of march.

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