A Clean Well Lighted Place

She stiffened and said casually, "Of course not." I let it slide but Eve had raised more questions than she had answered. First of all, she was clearly holding something back. More pointedly, I could take Doctor Dickbreath's radical change in behavior a couple of different ways. One option was that Eve had done something to displease the great man. That was the simplest and likeliest explanation. The other was a lot darker. I had the chilling thought that maybe they were putting on an act for me??!! If so, they were doing a very clumsy job of it.

Then, Dr. Fuckface dropped "The Big One." He told us that The State Department had asked Mayo to loan his-august-self to Doctors without Borders. THEY wanted him to set up a Chagas Disease diagnosis and treatment facility, in Chiapas Province, Mexico. I would have cheered his departure, but he ended THAT pronouncement by telling me that he wanted Eve to go with him.

I blew up. I said angrily, "Why in the world would you ask my wife to accompany you to Mexico?" There was a bit of a threat in my voice so he scoffed, "What's the matter, you don't want to help poor migrant workers? I know that you are too ignorant, to understand the big-picture. But your wife has a lot of valuable practice experience in third world countries. In fact, she is the most qualified of any of the nurses on my staff." I said angrily, "But she isn't ON your staff." He said, "She is now, I added her. You DO know that your contract is through Mayo, right? So either she goes or we close this clinic."

I couldn't let that happen. I said, "This is blackmail," and I turned to Eve. I said, "Eve, you don't have to go. Just say the word and I'll walk away. We can start someplace else." We all knew that I was bluffing. There was no other clinic within an hour of here. I could see the pain that she was experiencing and it made me even angrier. She was in the same position as I was. She knew that our Golden Boy was making her into his personal slave by holding the "under the supervision" clause over our head. It just wasn't right. But that was the way the medical establishment had stacked the deck.

She said very hesitantly, "I'll go. It's only a month and we're doing the right thing. I DO have a lot of experience nursing in improvised settings. More importantly, I don't want to jeopardize what we built here, so I will do what Doctor Williams wants." She turned to Doctor Dickhead and said, "If I help you I want your promise that you will stop micromanaging us, let us practice like we did before your arrival."

The glint in the fucker's eyes was pure malevolence. He turned to me and said in a gloating voice, "I knew you would both eventually see it my way." He might as well have said, "I knew that you would eventually let me fuck your wife." I looked at Eve and she was devastated. I had always wondered why she had married the first husband. That guy sounded like a gold-plated, numero-uno, narcissistic asshole; while Eve is as gentle, sweet, kind and nurturing as they come. The problem was that she is TOO nice, TOO polite and she would do ANYTHING to avoid confrontation; as she had just done here.

Of course, MOST medical people would have a hard time saying "no" to the opportunity to help the less fortunate. Eve had done that exact same thing for three deployments. Moreover, there was no actual WAR going on in Mexico. She was upset because she would have to leave her husband and her happy home and live rough in a jungle for a few weeks. But the mission itself was humanitarian and I could cover our caseload by myself. So theoretically, Doctor Douchebag's request was a very reasonable and possibly ADMIRABLE hardship.

Nevertheless, everybody in the room knew the REAL reason why he wanted Eve to come along. It was to get her by herself, so he could put on the full-court press. I almost said that, out loud. Unlike Eve, I have absolutely no problem with confrontation. But I knew that a pitched battle would humiliate her. No woman wants her husband questioning her fidelity and that is what I would be doing if I made a Federal case about her being alone with Doctor Douchebreath. So instead I said, "I want your assurance that Eve will be safe!!" He sneered and said, "Don't you worry about THAT. I'll take VERY good care of her." The implications of THAT were almost too much to bear. But in the end, I had to trust my wife and so the deal was done.

She tried to kill me the weekend before she left. That behavior wouldn't be strange in-and-of-itself, but the crying afterward was something that drew my interest. I said with concern, "What's the matter Eve? Why are you so upset?" She said through her tears, "I love you SO much. I just can't bear being apart from you. Do you love ME?" Now THAT was a loaded question. I said with real emotion, "Of course I love you. You are the only person I have ever REALLY loved. I have loved being married to you and I will love you forever." That got a shamefaced smile. She said, "Sometimes I just can't cope with my feelings."

She was flying out on a private jet supplied by the State Department. It was with the entire medical team. They were leaving from Rochester International Airport and flying directly to Palenque International Airport, with a necessary refueling stop in-between. We held hands as I drove her the two and a half hours to the airport, fingers intertwined. Eve spent four years as a Marine Combat Nurse; she is tough and she is used to deployments. But she looked miserable.

The jet was an Army C-37B, which is called the Gulfstream G550 in civilian use. I thought, "Nothing but the best for Doctor Dickface." I watched the entire team board; 17 people, support staff, other nurses, Eve and the Asshole himself. Eve gave me one last anguished look as she boarded. Then they rolled out and disappeared into the grey overcast. It was hard to see through my tears.

Meanwhile, I had a clinic to run and patients to tend to. Considerations like duty mean everything to me. Eve called later that evening. She was at the lodgings that they had set up outside of Palenque at the Technical University. She said that she was living in a dorm room. But the University itself was a surprisingly NICE place, amazingly modern. We talked for a long while; she was in a mood to reminisce about all of the good times. I called her again on Monday night. She said that the first day was mainly meetings. She said that she was bored and desperately lonely. I sympathized with her, since that summed up my situation in Kansas City to a "T."

She said that, tomorrow the administrative team was going to scout a couple of locations for a clinic. She said that it was just her, as senior nurse, Dr. Dickbreath, the State Department rep and three of the nursing staff. They had a few places in mind. All of them were in the desperately poor and overcrowded part of the City. She said, "Don't worry; I'll never be alone with him." Bless her; she knew exactly what I was thinking.

I called her on Tuesday and there was no answer. I tried her cell all day. There was still no answer. Tuesday morphed into a Wednesday without sleep. I must have called a million times. Her phone seemed to be off. I have no idea how I was able to work that day. But doing rewarding things can get you through a lot of anxiety. Even so, the waiting was getting excruciating. So, I made up my mind to head for Rochester.

I called the receptionist and told her to tell tomorrow's patients that I had an unavoidable emergency and to reschedule. Just as I was grabbing my coat I heard a knock on the door. I opened it to find Doris on the porch. I said, "Doris, good to see you. But I have to go." She stiff armed me back into the house. That was so unexpected that I said with irritation, "I really need to get going Doris." She looked at me grimly and said, "You'll listen to me if you value your wife and my only child."

I could feel the walls closing in. I walked over to a chair, sat down to get my equilibrium back, took a deep breath and said, "Tell me everything. Don't hold anything back." Doris is from Viking stock and you could see her heritage in the blood and mayhem look that she gave me. She said, "You have probably guessed that Eve has been having trouble with Dr. Williams." So it was true. I nodded my head in agreement. Doris said with fury in her voice, "He was harassing her every minute you were gone; getting way too personal with her, pawing at her, and making suggestive comments. She tried to avoid him. But he got increasingly brazen, until he actually attacked her in one of the examination rooms."

I must have looked horrified, because Doris hastily added, "She got away from him and ran to me. I came back to the clinic and cornered the varmint. He was very conceited. acted like feeling-up the nurses was a doctor's right. I told him in no uncertain terms what the people of this town would do to him if I said ONE word about what he had just done to Eve."

I thought to myself, "That explains Eve's strange behavior. It also explains why she didn't tell me. She knew that I would have killed the fucker, consequences be damned." Then it hit me. It ALSO confirmed Dr. Douchebag's sudden interest in helping the people of Mexico. He wanted to get Eve away from her support system.

My anxiety level spiked. Doris gave me the same basilisk look that she uses to freeze unruly customers and said with emphasis, "That is not why I'm here. Eve made me her emergency contact." I looked stunned. I said, "Why YOU and not ME?" Doris said with affection, "She didn't want to add to your worries. She was going away with Dr. Williams. That was bad enough. She didn't want to make things worse by implying that the area was so dangerous that she needed an emergency contact. She knew that I would tell you if anything happened."

Then she added with her self-control starting to slip, "THEY just called me and told me that Eve's vehicle had been found abandoned near one of the archaeological sites. Her group had been working in the bad part of town and it was presumed that they were kidnapped." I knew that kidnapping was not a totally unheard of occupation for certain elements down there. Then Doris added grimly, "The government rep said that they were negotiating with the Mexican authorities to get them back safely."

I was flabbergasted. My Eve, the love of my life, had been abducted by a gang of Mexican thugs and the people who put her in that situation wanted to NEGOTIATE???!! Every second that my wife was in the clutches of those animals was one second too long. Some people might head to church to pray. But, Rangers lead the way. So, I knew what I had to do; and it never crossed my mind to do otherwise.

My decision to go down there and settle things myself, was not as idiotic and self-serving as it might sound. Hostage rescue is in my skill-set and this wouldn't be my first time to the rodeo, or even my fifth. It was just that; we always worked as a team before. This time the planning and execution would all be on me. I said, "Don't worry Doris. I'm going to get her back. Just tell the patients that the clinic is closed for the duration and I'll take care of the rest."

The flight out of O'Hare was at 5:45 AM. It went to Killeen Texas. That gave me time to make the necessary calls. You might wonder why I was flying to Killeen rather than directly to Palenque. Well, it was going to take me almost 20 hours to get to Palenque by air, with all of the connections and lay-overs. I didn't have a fancy private jet at my disposal like Dr. Douchebag did. At the same time, I could drive from Killeen to Palenque in about 24 hours. Of course, that wasn't the real reason why I was driving. I had to stop and pick up a few essential items in Killeen first.

Fort Hood is the home of the 4th Infantry Division and a number of my battle buddies were embedded with that ID. So, I had two of the brotherhood waiting for me as I walked out of security into a cloudless Texas morning. They had been busy while I was traveling. We shook hands. But we wasted no time. They escorted me briskly to a Ford Explorer, which was idling by the curb. The driver hopped out, we also shook hands and I drove off down U.S. 281 headed for McAllen and the Rio Grande.

I hit McAllen at 1:00 PM. The border inspection was perfunctory. I certainly didn't look suspicious. I looked military; with an obvious high-and-tight. They gave the car the quick once over and used the mirrors. Then they waved me through. Everything I needed was strapped to the frame of the car; unrecognizable for what it was. I would assemble it when I got to my destination. The rest of the stuff looked like the sort of camera gear a tourist would carry.

The trip down the east coast of Mexico was at desperate speeds. So, it actually took less than 20 hours. Doris was feeding me information all the way down. Two of the people who were with Eve had been left at the kidnapping site to convey the ransom demand. None of the residents of that part of town had seen anything. That was to be expected. The groups who perpetrate those kinds of crimes can get very up-close-and-brutal with people who see things.

The members of Eve's party said that they thought that it was a local bandit gang, not a cartel, or guerilla group. But they had no idea where they were headed. Eve's abandoned vehicle was found at the archaeological site. So I decided to start there. I arrived at its parking lot at 4:00 PM on Friday. I walked 300 yards down a long tree lined trail to the site itself. The heat was brutal and the jungle around me was alive with movement and sounds. The racket of the monkeys and birds was like something out of a Tarzan movie.

The site itself was your classic UNESCO tourist attraction; with very well maintained Mayan ruins. It was situated on a higher elevation than the surrounding jungle which was fortunate, because I saw one of those traditional Mayan stair-step temples to my right. The field of vision at its top would let me see over the jungle for miles.

I had assumed all along that the kidnappers would walk into the jungle from the place where they had abandoned the car. That's why I had brought a FLIR T1020 Forward Looking Infrared system. If there was any heat source in the surrounding jungle I would see it from the top of that pyramid. I also had a pair of military grade, Armasight N-15, third gen night vision goggles. Those would let me navigate to whatever I saw. It would be "High-Noon" with those goggles on; and as far as I was concerned the analogy was appropriate.

My final special piece of equipment was a Barrett M107A1 with a Leupold Mark 8 M5B2 Tactical Scope and a suppressor. Only the government has access to that kind of gear. My friends had "loaned" it to me for the duration. I can put three 661 grain, fifty-caliber rounds inside the space of your hand from a quarter mile away; and our best snipers thought that I was a bad shot. They could do the same thing from over a mile. The field-stripped parts of the M107 were what had been strapped under the SUV. Otherwise, I was pretty sure I would raise some suspicion if I had tried to enter Mexico with an almost five-foot-long sniper rifle in the back seat.

Of course I was not supposed to be anywhere close to the archaeological site after dark. So I booked a room at Margarita and Ed's Cabanas. I expected a third-world hot-pillow joint. But what I got were quaint little individual huts stuck in among the rainforest trees. There was the usual complement of small lizards, but no bed bugs, and it was a LOT better and more modern than I had expected. Of greater importance, was the fact that I managed to secure the end unit. So I wouldn't have to climb out the bathroom window in order to slip into the jungle.

Everything had to be dark and deserted before I could start my journey. I had only had about four hours of sleep in the prior 40 hours and in the Rangers you learn to sleep when you get the chance. So I set the alarm for eleven-thirty and got four more. Midnight found me rested and moving with all of my gear, headed southwest through the jungle. I was aiming toward the ruins. It was literally like broad daylight; with the goggles on. So the going was relatively easy if you discounted all of the rainforest shit, including one very large and scary looking snake.

The archaeological site itself had been cleared. So, in order to stay hidden I had to work my way completely around it. There would be no cover while I was climbing to the top of the pyramid. But once I got up there I could flatten out. I checked the immediate vicinity with the FLIR. It showed nothing, not even a guard. So I shinnied up the narrow steps of the "Temple of Inscriptions" and found a spot on top where I could observe.

I had expected to have to stand watch all night and maybe for several nights to come. But the moment I turned on the FLIR I saw a big hot spot on a volcanic mountain about ten miles to the west. It lit up the FLIR like they were holding a Cinque de Mayo celebration. The small fire and the bodies were generating a lot of heat. So it was obviously a camp even if it was totally invisible to the naked eye. I thought to myself, "Really!!??? Those guys are clearly NOT criminal masterminds." Of course it was black as night, and infra-red detection might not be something a Cholo would know about.

It might have been my target, or maybe it wasn't. I didn't know at that point. It was 23:30 and I had perhaps seven hours before sunrise so I decided to work my way over to that camp; just to see what I could see. In the years that I had been out of the Rangers I had never lost my physical edge. So the ten miles took me a little over two-and-a-half-hours. I had to move up-slope. But when I got there, I found crags and prominences located above my target. I poked around until I discovered an ideal place for a sniper's nest. The FLIR showed a dozen heat sources. Four of them were indistinct, in some kind of makeshift tin hut. The other eight heat sources were distributed around a small clearing in front of the hut. It looked like most of them were asleep.

They had a fire going, which threw a halo that obscured part of the infrared picture. I was still a quarter mile away and even with the excellent resolution of my night vision goggles, it was impossible to confirm whether those were the guys. It was important to confirm that these were the cocksuckers who were holding Eve. Because if they were, I was going to make them ALL dead.

I left the FLIR and the Barrett on the tip of the promontory and worked my way the last quarter mile to the vicinity of my targets. I was wearing a black, skin-tight, light absorbent tac-suit made out of ballistic nylon; with a balaclava. I would be invisible in the dark, unless somebody was standing right next to me. I was carrying a KA-BAR and an M9 Barretta. Those had been my standard side-arms in the Rangers and I was comfortable with them.

When I got to the camp I saw that a couple of the vaqueros were awake, serving as guards. They were smoking and talking. As I worked my way around the clearing, I heard one say something to the other. They both laughed loudly. Then the guy who had done the talking got up and wandered into the hut. There was a commotion and then a scream, a slap, and then shortly thereafter the loud "Uh! Uh! Uh!!" grunts of a woman being royally fucked. It was an ugly noise but it verified what I had suspected; THESE WERE THE GUYS. I just hoped that it I wasn't hearing Eve. A couple of the others were awakened by the sex noises coming from the hut. They rose slowly and sauntered in to get in line.

Meanwhile, I was moving as fast as I could up to my sniper nest. I had to take a second to calm myself when I got there. The thought of my angel being raped by some filthy thug had my heart-rate way above what it would take to make the shot; even at the relatively easy distance of 400 yards. I took a number of cleansing breaths and silently focused the cross-hairs of the Barrett's Universal Night Sight on the guy sleeping the furthest away from the fire. A bullet strike from a Barrett is not insignificant. So I planned to kill the guy who was least visible, then work my way in to the one sleeping closest to the fire.