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Red Riding Hood was going to go in as low as possible to the ground and train its M134D on the corrugated steel building that the satellite imagery interpreters believed to be the compound headquarters-lots of people and a rather powerful shortwave radio station had been detected-and a motor pool behind that building.
Big Bad Wolf was going to land in the compound as soon as Red Riding Hood Three fired at the headquarters building, then off-load three shooters. The shooters would rush to the pole where DEA Special Agent Timmons and the two gendarmes had been chained, free them, and load them onto Big Bad Wolf, which would then immediately take off, under cover of Red Riding Hood One and Two, which by then would have returned to lay down covering fire.
Red Riding Hood Three by then would be seeing what it could do to facilitate the passage of the gendarmes from the highway to the compound, conducting what is known as "reconnaissance by fire."
Everything went as planned until Red Riding Hood Three picked up a little altitude to give it a better shot at the motor pool.
The pilot of Big Bad Wolf, the copilot, and Castillo-who was kneeling on the deck just behind them-almost simultaneously said, "Oh, shit!"
"Fuck, he hit a wire," the copilot said. "It cut the fucking blade!"
Red Riding Hood Three, which was tilted to the left, straightened out for a moment, looked as if it was trying to turn, then tilted back left, and was almost upside down when it crashed into the motor pool.
The pilot looked at Castillo for orders.
Castillo gestured impatiently at the ground.
"As soon as you're down, turn it around so we can take off the way we came in," Castillo ordered.
"Big Bad Wolf. Three is down. Repeat, Three is down. Two, go cover the gate. One, give us some covering fire."
"One on you, Big Bad Wolf."
"See what you can do for the guys on Three, Colin," Castillo ordered. "I'm going to get Timmons. Give me your chain-cutters."
Leverette gave him a thumbs-up and jumped off the helicopter.
Castillo turned to the two shooters.
"You go with Mr. Leverette," Castillo said to one, then to the other said, "And you come with me."
There was also a former Green Beret and a Chicago police officer on the helicopter, the latter grasping a snub-nosed.38 Smith amp; Wesson revolver.
"You stay on the chopper," Castillo ordered them.
"He's my brother-in-law," Mullroney protested.
Shit. That's why we brought him along in the first place.
Castillo looked at Lorimer and shouted, "I don't want him hurt, Pegleg. Got it?"
Lorimer nodded.
Castillo turned to Bradley.
"Lester, cover my back."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Special Agent Timmons was sitting with his back resting against the pole to which he had been chained. He was looking with confused eyes at what was going on. The two gendarmes were asleep.
"Hey, Charley," he said with slurred speech, dimly recognizing his brother-in-law and smiling. "What's up?"
Mullroney and Lorimer worked as a team to hold and cut through the chain. Castillo then hoisted the freed Timmons over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He started trotting toward Big Bad Wolf. Mullroney and Lorimer quickly snipped the chains on the gendarmes, then followed Castillo back toward the helo.
Halfway there, Castillo suddenly felt as if somebody had hit him with a baseball bat in the leg, and then, a moment later, in the buttocks.
He felt himself falling.
