Read Online Atlanta Extreme by Randy Wayne White - Free Book Online Page B

saying that I’m wrong?”
    The pale eyes bored into Hawker, and he knew that how he answered would be the difference in his own life or death. Curtis’s hand rested uneasily on the grip of his .45 automatic pistol. Hawker carried his own Beretta in the shoulder holster in plain view, and slung over his back was an M16 with a full clip he had selected from the camp arsenal. The vigilante didn’t doubt that he could kill Curtis where he sat, if need be. But he also knew that Curtis’s men would shoot him down before he had a chance to kick his horse into full gallop.
    Hawker saw in the colonel’s eyes that his very life depended on how he answered.
    Trying not to cringe at the lie, Hawker said, “Wrong? Hell, no, I don’t think you’re wrong, Colonel.…” And in his mind he continued, I think you’re as crazy as a bag lady, but I don’t think you’re wrong .
    Wellington Curtis threw back his shaved head and laughed loudly. “God damn it, Hawker, you had me worried there for a minute. I thought maybe you had come down here to put together information on my operation so you could go back to the world and squeeze Pendleton and Warren.” The man’s gaze grew sharp once again. “By the way, James, why did you come here?”
    â€œTo tell you the truth,” Hawker said easily, “that was the reason I did come—to stop you and to stop your two men in Georgia.”
    Curtis roared at that. “If you have given me any other answer, James, I’d have known that you were lying. By God, I’m happy as hell that you’ve decided to join us. Let’s see how you do in this first skirmish, but I think I can guarantee you a pretty fair rank after the way Laurene said you handled yourself during the attack on the plane this morning. Say, major?”
    â€œMajor? That’s awfully generous of you, Colonel,” said James Hawker. “I’m very honored.…”
    They forded the river into Masagua and marched another three miles before Curtis called the troops to a halt. The rain had abated; sheets of storm, dragging the gray tentacles of a squall, sailed across the distant hillside. In the green valley below was a village of thatched huts, camp fires, laughing children, barking dogs, women washing clothes at a stream.
    â€œYou expect to find the government troops here?” Hawker asked.
    â€œNot at all,” said Curtis. “I told you that we always try to do the unexpected. We slid past the government troops an hour ago, not long after it started to rain. You never noticed, did you? Ah, but I knew. I could smell their cooking; I could smell the very stink of their sweat. Our two armies probably passed within half a mile of each other. If you stay in the jungle long enough, your senses become so acute that you can tell such things accurately. As I told you, they were looking for our camp. By now they have found it. You noticed the tree houses we had built high up in the trees? The government troops will walk into an apparently deserted camp. When they are sufficiently close, my men in the tree houses will open fire with automatic weapons and grenades. We even have two shoulder-held rocket launchers. The soldiers they do not kill will flee in a panic. Those soldiers who survive will return to their base and tell the other soldiers horrifying stories about our hill of heads and how our weapons are far superior to theirs—the last, of course, will be a lie. But they will need to tell lies to save face, and that’s all the better for us. A childish people, these Masaguans.”
    â€œThat still doesn’t explain why we have come to this village,” said Hawker. “I don’t understand.”
    Curtis swung down off his horse and unshouldered the automatic rifle from across his back. “This morning, James, when you were attacked at the airplane, you proved that you are not afraid to fight. This afternoon I