“It’s okay. I need some sleep, anyway. Nudge me if I snore.”

Big Al smiled as he placed the bag over Jack’s head and tied it shut.

Jack purposely avoided conversation as they drove. He tried to keep track of turns, stops, and any noises, but with the air conditioner running, along with the radio on and idle conversation, he quickly lost track. He also had the distinct feeling they had driven in circles a couple of times to make sure they weren’t being followed.

Adams and Rubalcava were sitting parked in Adams’s car at a gas station on the outskirts of Juarez when they saw the silver SUV drive past, followed by the white.

“Bingo.” Adams smiled and pulled out to follow them. It was a paved road, but traffic was light, with only about one or two vehicles every minute. Adams stayed far back and tried to keep two cars between him and the SUVs.

After driving for about ten minutes, Rubalcava said, “We are getting close.”

“How do you know?” asked Adams, concentrating on the vehicles in front of him.

“We passed an old farmhouse on the right. There were two tan coloured SUVs parked under a shed. A poor farmer could never afford vehicles that nice.”

Adams glanced in his rear-view mirror and nodded.

Half a mile further, the two SUVs slowed and turned right on to a dirt road.

“The road we are on basically faces west in the direction we are going,” said Rubalcava. “Where they turned, if they keep going north, they are only about four miles from the border.”

As they drove past, they saw that both SUVs had stopped to check in with someone parked in a crew-cab truck behind an empty fruit stand. Adams continued driving and watched in the rear-view mirror as the dust billowed up when the two cars continued north. Moments later, they disappeared from sight.

“Now what?” asked Adams, checking his watch. “From the times we were given, Jack should be on his way back out within thirty minutes.”

“Look, you can see the top of the tower from here,” said Rubalcava, pointing to the left. “It might be the closest vantage point we can find, unless these guys are also using it. The turnoff to it must be just up ahead.”

Adams glanced at the tower. “In this heat, a guy wouldn’t last long up there. My guess is anybody out here on security will be sticking close to the air conditioners. If someone is there, I’ll get out and make it look like I pulled off the highway to take a piss and then leave.”

A few minutes later, Adams parked beside the radio tower and was relieved to see no other vehicles present. At the base, scrub brush and a small cement building blocked their view of the main road from the sandy trail they had come in on. The facility itself was surrounded with a chain-link fence, topped with two strands of rusty barbed wire.

Adams parked the car beside the fence and went to the trunk and retrieved an old set of gloves, which he intended more for climbing the tower than getting over the fence. Touching metal exposed to the hot sun would be like putting your hand on a stove element.

Adams then hung a set of binoculars around his neck and used the hood of the car to help him climb over the fence. There was a ladder on the tower, but it faced the road and he was afraid to use it in case he was spotted. Instead, he climbed up the back of the tower where natural rungs in the girders accommodated his hands and feet. The mass of girders also gave him some cover. A couple of minutes later he climbed high enough to get a view.

“See anything?” asked Rubalcava from the where he stood beside the car.

Adams adjusted his binoculars and said, “I got an eyeball on the fruit stand that the truck is parked behind. Also the farmhouse we passed with the two tan coloured SUVs. The dust trail made by the two SUVs we were following disappears over a couple of hills in the distance. I should see them coming when they return to the main road.”

“I think we are in the best spot to watch then.”

“Jack is going to owe me a cold beer for this,” muttered Adams. Although he was fairly well-concealed, he was still cognizant of the truck behind the fruit stand. He knew the power of a sniper’s scope and tried to remain motionless as he clung to the tower, sweat trickling into his eyes, down his armpits, and soaking into his shirt.

He remained on his perch for fifteen minutes when he heard the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of where he was looking. His muscles automatically tensed, ready to spring into action and his mouth gaped open as he strained to listen. Two shots …

“You hear something?” asked Rubalcava.

“Gunshots!” replied Adams. The sound of two more shots was heard, then a flicker of movement caught his eye and he adjusted his binoculars. “There’s another tan-coloured SUV hidden amongst some bushes on top of a sand dune about a half-mile northwest of the fruit stand,” he said quickly. “I hadn’t spotted it until now. Two guys are getting out of it … one guy with binoculars … and the other guy just laid a sniper rifle laid over the hood,” he yelled excitedly.

“I don’t understand! Is it the sniper that is shooting?”

“Not yet! I think the sniper is sighting in on where the gunshots came from,” yelled Adams.

A fifth shot was heard in the distance, followed almost immediately by a louder explosive clap from the sniper’s rifle. Adams watched in horror as the man with the rifle received a high-five slap of congratulations from the second man.

chapter thirty-six

“We have arrived,” said Big Al, as Sanchez came to a stop. Big Al took the bag off Jack’s head and he rubbed his eyes.

“Welcome to Casa Blanca,” added El Pero.

All four men stepped out of the SUV and Jack glanced around. He was standing under an open shed where the SUV had parked. Berto and Eduardo were parked beside them. Jack saw a modest ranch-style home in front of him partially shaded by a large tree in the front yard.

Lily Rae … are you in there?

As they walked toward the house, Jack discreetly took in as many visual details as he could. The home was built in a hollow, making it difficult to see far, but there were no other buildings within sight. He tried to memorize the layout of the land while trying to imagine what it would look like if he flew over it in a plane.

Near to the house, a plot of land was being used in a crude attempt to grow corn, but the stalks were few and the ones that had managed to grow were parched and only knee-high.

Big Al saw what he was looking at and laughed. “That used to be a gully,” he explained. “We used it to get rid of the dirt from the tunnel. From the air it will look like a garden. Good idea, yes?”

“Yes, replied Jack, wondering what else had been disposed of in the ravine.

They entered the house and were greeted by two men standing in the kitchen. Both had close-cropped hair, M-16A2 automatic rifles slung over their shoulders and each wore drab green military singlet T-shirts, sand-coloured camouflage pants, and army boots. Their skin was a darker brown than the others, leaving Jack to speculate they spent considerable time outside the house, as well.

They each gave a respectful hello in Spanish to Big Al, who nodded curtly in reply. The two men then smiled and gave a friendly nod to Berto and Eduardo. There was no doubt they had all been soldiers, or perhaps the two with the M-16A2s still were, thought Jack, as he recalled Adams comments that sometimes soldiers were used to protect large drug shipments.

Big Al interrupted his thoughts. “You are standing beside the entrance to the tunnel,” he said, smiling.