Chapter Three

Donovan pulled the Hummer off the road.  "We need to cover this and pray it's still here when we get back."

Jake opened the rear hatch and pulled out a camouflage net and handed it to Donovan.  While he started to cover the Hummer from the front of the vehicle, Jake pulled out a backpack with night vision goggles, extra guns and ammo.  He strapped the pack onto this back and helped Donovan finish concealing the Hummer.

"How much farther is the compound?" Jake asked, following Donovan's lead through the dense underbrush.

"Seven miles or so," he answered shortly.

"Senorita Larissa?" Maria spoke quietly.

Fallon raised her head slowly.  "Yes, Maria?"

"Señor Jorge said to put this on, ¡por favor!"  She placed a skimpy red dress on Fallon's lap.

"Maria, I'm tied up...naked and have to pee like a race horse.  How exactly do you expect me to put that on?"  Fallon asked angrily.

"Forgive me, senorita."  Maria knocked on the door and a guard entered.  He cut Fallon loose from the chair, his eyes lingering on her nude body.

Maria admonished him.  " Señor Jorge will cut your throat if he sees you looking at his woman that way!"  She shooed him out of the room and helped Fallon put the skin tight, low cut dress on.  "Come, we will go to the washroom so that you may...how you say?  'pee like a race horse'."  She chuckled as she opened the door and called to the guard. 

Fallon's wrists were handcuffed in front of her and she was led to the washroom by the guard, who waited in the doorway while she took care of her business.

"Might I, please, have some privacy?" She asked, irritated.

"No."

She shrugged.  "Can't blame a girl for trying," she said as she unabashedly hiked up the short skirt.

The guard shook his head and turned his back on her.

"Come, senorita.  Señor is expecting you for dinner."  Maria took her by the elbow and led her to the main house of the compound. 

"Ouch," she cried, stepping on the rough pebbles.  "Wish you'd have brought me some shoes, Maria."

" Señor said dress only.  If you have shoes, you will leave," she explained in her broken English.

"Yes," Fallon agreed.  "Of course, he's not stupid enough to think that would stop me."

The guard shoved her forward.  " Cierre para arriba, pu..."

Fallon cut him off.  "It's one thing to tell me to shut up...but if you people call me a whore one more time..."

The blanket of darkness closed in quickly as the sun set in the horizon.  By Donovan's calculations they were about six miles from Espinosa's compound.  His headache had finally subsided as his mind focused on other things, such as, staying alive.  He angrily swatted an annoying mosquito that landed on the back of his hand.

"Tell me something about her, Jake."  Make her real to me, not just some picture in a dossier.

"She has one hell of a sense of humor...quite off the wall, actually.  For instance,  you know when they put you through some of the deprivation scenarios?" Jake asked, remembering the experiences at the training academy.

"Of course," Frank replied, moving through the thick foliage.

"Ouch," Jake cried out when Frank let go of a low hanging tree limb and it smacked him in the face.  "We had been going through the one where they deprived you of food and sleep for three days.  You weren't allowed to have any interaction with other people; you were completely isolated.  It was eerie.  I could hear her in the cubby next to me...singing, exercising...talking to herself."

"Yeah," Frank commented absently, keeping a watchful eye of their surroundings with the aide of the night vision goggles.

"So, the three day trial was over, and I go back to my room thinking how good sleep would feel.  I get to the room and open the door and my roommate's stuff is gone.  He dropped out.  There on the empty bed sat Fallon with a six pack of Bud and a large cheese pizza," Jake said, rattling on.

"Uh-huh."  That must have been a pleasant shock, he thought.

"I told her I was too tired to eat, maybe some other time.  She laughed and asked if I was too tired to do the horizontal mambo.  I thought I misheard her, but she seemed serious enough.  Well, hell, I'm a man...so, I perk right up, ya know?"  He chuckled, remembering Fallon's response.

"Sure," Donovan replied, reflexively, not entirely paying attention because something else had suddenly drawn his interest.

"Fallon laughed and shoved a piece of pizza in my mouth, saying 'why is it...you mention sex to a man and his flag pole immediately comes to attention?'  That was when I realized..."

"Shhh.." Frank hushed him.

"What is it?" Jake whispered.

"Heard something..." too late, he saw the flash of a muzzle as a shot rang out in the distance.  "Look out!" he yelled, pushing Jake into the brush.

He heard Jake groan.  "I'm hit!"

"Dammit."  Donovan took aim in the direction of the muzzle flash; saw a shadowy movement and triggered his Glock.  One down, he thought as he heard movement of another target nearby. 

Donovan ducked behind the cover of trees and waited.  He watched as a guerilla soldier neared Jake's position, checking the dense underbrush with his machine gun.  He crept up behind the man, grabbing him by the back of the head and chin and twisted violently, snapping his neck.  The man fell lifeless to the ground.

"Jake, you okay?" he asked, reaching down to help Jake to his feet.

"Will be...bullet went through the meat of my thigh."  He groaned as he stood.

"Sit down," Frank insisted, pointing to a large, fallen log.

He dug out Jake's first aide kit, removed a pressure bandage and antiseptic and tended Jake's bullet wound.  "I need to find a safe place for you," he said, slapping Jake on the shoulder.

"I'll be fine, Frank," he insisted.  "I can make it."

"No way, Jake.  We might need to move fast."  He glanced around the area.  "There's an abandoned house about a half mile back."  He helped Jake to stand.

"You're not leaving me there."

"Jake, be reasonable."  He began walking, supporting Jake's weight as he hobbled along side of him; he was fairly sure Jake was turned around enough not to realize they were headed back to the abandoned house.

"Dammit, Donovan...You're not leaving me here," Jake insisted again, when he saw the house come into view.

"Yes, I am," he stated flatly.

"Frank...I want to help Fallon." 

"Help her by staying here and taking care of yourself.  I'll be back for you ASAP."  He stopped when he reached the door.  "Jake...you're going to follow me, aren't you?"

"Damn right, I am." Jake said, emphatically, standing his ground as Frank closed the short distance between them.

"Thought so," he replied, and delivered a right hook to Jake's jaw, knocking him unconscious.  "You'll thank me later," Frank assured, laying him out on the small couch inside the house.