AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But, we didn’t know you were here.”
Anda was trying to move unnoticed, inching closer to Godoy’s holster. One of the soldiers put his foot against her and said, “Return to the fire, little one.”
Godoy tapped his lips with an index finger, “Kill them,” he said. Alicia wailed. Godoy turned to the soldiers and said, “Wait until after the delivery, when you get back with the truck. We can burn their bodies with the truck.”
“Colonel Godoy,” the voice was deep and rattled with phlegm. Anda’s head snapped up.
Anacleto Holguin stepped from the shadows. He wore a white linen suit, his enormous stomach protruding and pushing the jacket to the sides. His face was shiny with oil and sweat, and his dark hair hung in greasy ringlets to his shoulders. His small, black eyes stayed on Anda as he touched where the fork had stabbed him.
He said, “I owe this one something. Allow me to use her, then kill her in my own way. I would take great pleasure in it, and…I would be in your debt.”
The Colonel glanced at Anda, “She’s of no importance. Do with her as you like. Put the other two in the latrine,” Godoy pointed to a rough-built wooden outhouse across the clearing. He turned without another glance.
Anacleto said to the two closest soldiers, “Take the girl to my tent, and bring me a sharp knife.”
He felt of himself again as they drug Anda away.
CHAPTER 5
Hunter and Raymond were working RATS, Roving Agents Targeting Smugglers, on the midnight shift. RATS allowed them the freedom to roam the entire Big Bend area, crossing over Border Patrol Station boundaries and keeping the smugglers from reading any routines they could use to their advantage.
Raymond was underneath a jutting shelf of solid rock high up on the hillside, sitting in the deepest shadow and looking at the Rio Grande through his binoculars, using the moon’s brightness to pick out silver-tinted images and movement on the Mexican side. “You ever have one of those songs goin’ in your head you can’t get rid of?” He asked.
“Uh-huh,” Hunter said, sitting beside him, “Drives me crazy.”
“The kids found some old records and a record player of mine the other day, started playing them and laughing. They played that old one by The Archies, you remember Sugar Sugar? That one. They must’ve played it ten times in a row. Been going in my head ever since. Jesus.”
Hunter looked through her binoculars as she said, “I’ve heard it on the Golden Oldies stations when I’m in Midland, but that’s way before my time. Kinda catchy, though.”
“Catchy? I sing a verse or two for you, you’ll be in Stuck-Record Replay for a week; leave you so brain-fried somebody’ll have to spoon-feed you pablum.”
“What about that old one by that actor, Richard Harris? MacArthur Park. How’d it go? MacArthur Park is melting in the dark, all the sweet green icing flowing down…”
“Don’t do that. It’ll start playing and I’ll never get it stopped.”
“Those are the words, look it up. I’ve got others, too.”
“No.”
“How about Muskrat Love? Or, Yummy Yummy Yummy I Got Love in My Tummy?”
“Stop, I mean it.”
“Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree? Or, Fill Me Up, Buttercup? Now that’s got a melody that’ll stay with you.”
“I’m gonna mace you if you don’t quit.”
“All right, but did you notice that all those songs are from your time? Just thought I’d mention it.”
They were silent for a while, then Raymond asked, “They found out anything on the two girls and the baby?”
“No. ICE said they have some leads pointing to that Grupo Delta we heard about the other day.”
“I heard they found some bus tickets in their shawls and got an ID on them?”
“Yeah, looks like the two girls were from the Sierra Madre area. The Mexican Consul gave us a lot of help on that, running down their families and all. They don’t know about the baby.”
“The Consul’s a good one.”
