The plan, as with all great plans, was an elegantly simple one. There were eight real-estate-development projects. In each case the deceased had set up himself as the general partner representing foreign moneyinvariably described as Persian Gulf oil money or Japanese industrial money, with the funds laundered through an incredible maze of non-American banks. The general partner had used the Oil Moneythe term was almost generic in the venture capital fieldto purchase land and set the project in motion, then solicited further development funds from limited partners who had no say in the executive management of the individual projects, but whose profits were almost guaranteed by the syndicates previous performance. Even the one in Fort Worth had made money, despite the recent slowdown in the local oil industry. By the time ground was broken on every project, actual ownership was further disguised by majority investment from banks, insurance companies, and wealthy private investors, with much of the original overseas investment fully recovered and gone back to the Bank of Dubai and numerous othersbut with a controlling interest remaining in the project itself. In this way, the overseas investors speedily recouped their initial investment with a tidy profit, and continued to get much of the profits from the projects actual operations, further looking forward to the eventual sale of the project to local interests for more profit still. For each hundred million dollars invested, Bright estimated, one hundred fifty million fully laundered dollars were extracted. And that was the important part. The hundred million put in, and the fifty million profit taken out were as clean as the marble on the Washington Monument.

Except for these computer disks.

Every one of these projects, and every dime of investment and profits, went through IRS, SEC, and enough lawyers to fill the Pentagon, and nobody ever caught a sniff. He kept these records in case somebody ever burned himbut he must have expected to trade this information for a crack at the Witness Protection Program And hed be the richest guy in Cody, Wyoming, Mike Schratz observed. But the wrong people got a sniff. I wonder what tipped them off? What did our friends say?

They dont know. Just that they pulled the job of killing them all off and making it look like a disappearance. The bosses clearly anticipated losing them and compartmentalized the information. How hard is it to get one of these mutts to take a contract? Its like filling out a girls dance card at the cotillion.

Roger that. Headquarters know about this yet?

No, Mike, I wanted you guys to see it first, Bright said. Opinions, gentlemen?

If we move fast . . . we could seize a whole shitload of money . . . unless theyve moved the money on us, Schratz thought aloud. I wonder if they have? As clever as this stuff is . . . I got a buck says they havent. Takers?

Not from me, another agent announced. This one was a CPA and a lawyer. Why should they bother? This is the closest thing Ive ever seen tohell, it is a perfect plan. I suppose we ought to show some appreciation, what with all the help theyre giving our balance-of-payments problem. In any case, folks, this money is exposed. We can bag it all.

Theres the Bureaus budget for the next two years And a squadron of fighters for the Air Force. This is big enough to sting them pretty good. Mark, I think you ought to call the Director, Schratz concluded. There was general agreement. Wheres Pete today? Pete Mariano was the special-agent-in-charge of the Mobile Field Office.

Probably Venice, an agent said. Hes going to be pissed he was away for this one.

Bright closed the ring binder. He was already booked on an early-morning flight to Dulles International Airport.

The C-141 landed ten minutes early at Howard Field. After the clean, dry air of the Colorado Rockies, and the cleaner, thinner, and drier air of the flight, the damp oven of the Isthmus of Panama was like walking into a door. The soldiers assembled their gear and allowed themselves to be herded off by the loadmaster. They were quiet and serious. The change in climate was a physical sign that playtime was over. The mission had begun. They immediately boarded yet another green bus which took them to some dilapidated barracks on the grounds of Fort Kobbe.

The MH-53J helicopter landed several hours later at the same field, and was rolled unceremoniously into a hangar, which was surrounded with armed guards. Colonel Johns and the flight crew were taken to nearby quarters and told to stay put.

Another helicopter, this one a Marine CH-53E Super Stallion, lifted off the deck of USS Guadalcanal just before dawn. It flew west over the Bay of Panama to Corezal, a small military site near the Gaillard Cut, the most difficult segment of the original Panama Canal construction project. The helicopter-carriers flight-deck crew attached a bulky item to a sling dangling from the helicopters underside, and the CH-53E headed awkwardly toward shore. After a twenty-minute flight, the helicopter hovered over its predetermined destination. The pilot killed his forward speed and gently eased toward the ground, coached by instructions from the crew chief, until the communications van touched down on a concrete pad. The sling was detached and the helicopter flew off at once to make room for a second aircraft, a smaller CH-46 troop carrier which deposited four men before returning to its ship. The men went immediately to work setting up the van.

The van was quite ordinary, looking most of all like a cargo container with wheels, though it was painted in the mottled green camouflage scheme of most military vehicles. That changed rapidly as the communications technicians began erecting various radio antennas, including one four-foot satellite dish. Power cables were run in from a generator vehicle already in place, and the vans air-conditioning systems were turned on to protect the communications gear, rather than the technicians. They wore military-style dress, though none of them were soldiers. All the pieces were now in place.

Or almost all. At Cape Canaveral, a Titan-IIID rocket began its final countdown. Three senior Air Force officers and half a dozen civilians watched the hundred or so technicians go through the procedure. They were unhappy. Their cargo had been bumped at the last minute for this less important one (they thought). The explanation for the change was not to their collective satisfaction, and there werent enough launch rockets to play this sort of game. But nobody had bothered telling them what the game actually was.

Tallyho, tallyho. I have eyeballs on target, Bronco reported. The Eagle bottomed out half a mile astern and slightly below the target. It seemed to be a four-engined Douglas. A DC-4, -6, or -7, a big onethe biggest hed yet intercepted. Four piston engines and a single rudder made it a Douglas product, certainly older than the man who was now chasing it. Winters saw the blue flames from the exhaust ports on the big radial engines, along with the moonlight shimmering from the propellers. The rest was mainly guesswork.

The flying became harder now. He was closing on the target and had to slough off his airspeed lest he overtake it. Bronco throttled his Pratt & Whitney engines back and put on some flaps to increase both lift and drag as he watched his airspeed drop to a scant two-hundred forty knots.

He matched speed when he was a hundred yards aft of the target. The heavy fighter rocked slightlyonly the pilot would have noticedfrom the larger planes wake turbulence. Time. He took a deep breath and flexed his fingers once around the stick. Captain Winters switched on his powerful landing lights. They were alert, he saw. The wingtips rocked a second after his lights transfixed the former airliner in the sky.

Aircraft in view, please identify, over, he called over the guard frequency.

It started turningit was a DC-7B, he thought now, the last of the great piston-engine liners, so quickly brushed aside by the advent of the jetliners in the late fifties. The exhaust flames grew brighter as the pilot added power.

Aircraft in view, you are in restricted airspace. Identify immediately, over, Bronco called next. Immediately is a word that carries a special meaning for flyers.

The DC-7B was diving now, heading for the wave tops. The Eagle followed almost of its own accord.

Aircraft in view, I repeatyou are in restricted airspace. Identify at once!

Turning away now, heading east for the Florida peninsula. Captain Winters eased back on the stick and armed his gun system. He checked the surface of the ocean to make sure that there were no ships or boats about.

Aircraft in view, if you do not identify I will open fire, over. No reaction.

The hard part now was that the Eagles gun system, once armed, did everything possible to facilitate the pilots task of hitting the target. But they wanted him to bring one in alive, and Bronco had to concentrate to make sure hed miss, then squeezed the trigger for a fraction of a second.

Half the rounds in the magazine were tracers, and the six-barrel cannon spat them out at a rate of almost a hundred per second. What resulted was a streak of green-yellow light that looked like one of the laser beams in a science-fiction movie, and hung for a sizable portion of infinity a bare ten yards from the DC-7Bs cockpit window.

Aircraft in view: level out and identify or youll eat the next burst. Over.

Who is this? What the hell are you doing? The DC-7B leveled out.

Identify! Winters commanded tersely.

Carib Cargowere a special flight, inbound from Honduras.

You are in restricted airspace. Come left to new course three-four-seven.

Look, we didnt know about the restriction. Tell us where to go and were out of here, okay? Over.

Come left to three-four-seven. I will be following you in. You got some big-league explaining to do, Carib. You picked a bad place to be flying without lights. I hope you got a good story,cause the colonel is not pleased with you. Bring that fat-assed bird leftnow!

Nothing happened for a moment. Bronco was a little bit peeved that they were not taking him seriously enough. He eased his fighter over to the right and triggered off another burst to encourage the target.

And it came left to a heading of three-four-seven. And the anticollision lights came on.

Okay, Carib, maintain course and altitude. Stay off your radio. I repeat, maintain radio silence until instructed otherwise. Dont make it any worse than it already is. Ill be back here to keep an eye on you. Out.

It took nearly an houreach second like driving a Ferrari in Manhattan rush-hour traffic. Clouds were rolling in from the north, he saw as they approached the coast, and there was lightning in them. Theyd land first, Winters thought. On cue, a set of runway lights came on.

Carib, I want you to land on that strip right in front of you. You do exactly what they tell you. Out. Bronco checked his fuel state. Enough for several more hours. He indulged himself by throttling up and rocketing to twenty thousand as he watched the DC-7s strobe lights enter the blue rectangle of the old airstrip.

Okay, hes ours, the radio told the fighter pilot.

Bronco did not acknowledge. He brought the Eagle around for Eglin AFB, and figured that hed beat the weather in. Another nights work.

The DC-7B rolled to a stop at the end of the runway. As it halted, a number of lights came on. A jeep rolled to within fifty yards of the aircrafts nose. On the back of the jeep was an M-2 2 50-caliber machine gun, on the left side of which hung a large box of ammunition. The gun was pointed right at the cockpit.

Out of the fuckin airplane, amigo! an angry voice commanded over some loudspeakers.

The forward door opened on the left side of the aircraft. The man who looked down was white and in his forties. Blinded by the lights that were aimed at his face, he was still disoriented. Which was part of the plan, of course.

Down on the pavement, amigo, a voice said from behind a light.

Whats gives? I Down on the fuckin pavementright the fuck now!

There were no stairs. The pilot was joined by another man, and one at a time they sat down on the doorsill, and stretched down to hang from their hands, then dropped the four feet or so to the cracked concrete. They were met by strong arms in rolled-up camouflage fatigues.

Face on the cement, you fuckin commie spy! a young voice screamed at them.

Hot diggity damn, we finally bagged one! another voice called. We got us a fuckin Cuban spy plane!

What the hell one of the men on the cement started to say. He stopped talking when the three-pronged flash suppressor on an M-16 rifle came to rest on the back of his neck. Then he felt a hot breath on the side of his face.

I want any shit out of you, amigo, Ill fuckin blow it outa ya! said the other voice. It sounded older than the first one. Anybody else on the airplane, amigo?

No. Look, were Check it out! And watch your ass! the gunnery sergeant added.

Aye aye, Gunny, answered the Marine corporal. Give me some cover on the door.

You got a name? the gunnery sergeant asked. He punctuated the question by pressing his muzzle into the pilots neck.

Bert Russo. Im You picked a bad time to spy on the exercise, Roberto. We was ready for yall this time, boy! I wonder if Fidelll want your ass back . . . ?

He dont look Cuban to me, Gunny, a young voice observed. You spose hes a Russian?

Hey, I dont know what youre talking about, Russo objected.

Sure, Roberto. Iover here, Capn! Footsteps approached. And a new voice started talking.

Sorry Im late, Gunny Black.

We got it under control, sir. Putting people into the plane now. Finally bagged that Cuban snooper, we did. This heres Roberto. Aint talked to the other one yet.

Roll him over.

A rough hand flipped the pilot faceup like a rag doll, and he saw what the hot breath came from. The biggest German Shepherd dog hed ever seen in his life was staring at him from a distance of three inches. When he looked at it, it started growling.

Dont you go scarin my dog, Roberto, Gunnery Sergeant Black warned him unnecessarily.

You have a name?

Bert Russo couldnt see any faces. Everyone was backlit by the perimeter lights. He could see the guns, and the dogs, one of which stood next to his copilot. When he started to speak, the dog over his face moved, and that froze the breath in his throat.

You Cubans ought to know better. We warned you not to come snooping into our exercise last time, but you had to come bother us again, didnt you? the captain observed.

Im not a CubanIm an American. And I dont know what youre talking about, the pilot finally managed to say.

You got some ID? the captain asked.

Bert Russo started moving his hand toward his wallet, but then the dog really let loose a snarl.

Dont scare the dog, the captain warned. Theyre a little high-strung, yknow?

Fuckin Cuban spies, Gunny Black observed. We could just waste them, sir. I mean, who really gives a damn?

Hey, Gunny! a voice called from the airplane. This aint no spy-bird. Its full of drugs! We got us a drug runner!

Son of a bitch! The gunny sounded disappointed for a moment. Fuckin druggie is all? Shit!

The captain just laughed. Mister, you really picked the wrong place to drive that airplane tonight. How much, Corp?

A whole goddamned pisspot full, sir. Grass and coke both. Planes like full of it, sir.

Fuckin druggie, the gunny observed. He was quiet for a moment. Capn?

Yeah?

Sir, all the time, sir, these planes land, and the crew just bugs the hell out, and nobody ever finds em, sir.

As though on cue, they all heard a guttural sound from the swamp that surrounded the old airstrip. Albert Russo came from Florida and knew what the sound was.

I mean, sir, whod ever know the difference? Plane landed, and the crew ran off fore we could catch up, and they got into the swamp over yonder, and like we heard some screams, yknow . . . ? A pause. I mean, theyre just druggies. Whos really gonna care, sir? Make the world a better place, yknow? Hell, it even feeds them gators. They sound right hungry to me, sir.

No evidence . . . the captain mused.

Aint nobody gonna give a good goddamn, sir, the sergeant persisted. Just us be out here, sir.

No! the copilot screamed, speaking for the first time and startling the dog at the back of his neck.

Yall be quiet now, we be talking business here, the gunny observed.

Gentlemen, I find that the sergeant makes a pretty good case, the captain said after a moments contemplation. And the gators do sound hungry. Kill em first, Sergeant. No sense being cruel about it, and the gators dont care one way or the other. Be sure you take all their IDs, though.

Aye aye, skipper, the gunnery sergeant replied. He and the remainder of the duty sectionthere were only eight of themcame from the Special Operations Center at MacDill. They were Recon Marines, for whom unusual activities were the rule rather than the exception. Their helicopter was half a mile away.

Okay, sport, Black said as he bent down. He hoisted Russo to his feet with one brutal jerk. You sure did pick the wrong time to run drugs, boy.

Wait a minute! the other one screamed. We didntI mean, we can tell you You talk all you want, boy. I got my orders. Come on, now. Yall want to pray or something, now be the time.

We came in from Colombia Thats a real surprise, aint it? Black observed as he frogmarched the man toward the trees. You best be doing your talking to the Lord, boy. He might listen. Then again, He might not. . . .

I can tell you everything, Russo said.

I aint intrested!

But you cant Sure I can. What do you think I do for a livin, boy? Black said with amusement. Dont worry. Itll be quick and clean. I dont make people suffer like your kind does with drugs. I just do it.

I have a family . . . Russo was whimpering now.

Most people do, Black agreed. Theyll get along. You got insurance, I spect. Lookie there!

Another Marine pointed his flashlight into the bushes. It was as large an alligator as Russo had ever seen, over twelve feet long. The large eyes blazed yellow in the darkness, while the rest of the reptiles body looked like a green log. With a mouth.

This is far enough, Black judged. Keep them dogs back, goddammit!

The alligatorthey called him Nicodemusopened his mouth and hissed. It was a thoroughly evil sound.

Please . . . Russo said.

I can tell you everything! the copilot offered again.