He brought the gun up slowly, centering the ringed forward sight in the aperture rear sight, making sure that he could see the white circle all around, and putting the center post right on the black, circular mass that represented the back of a human head that was no longer part of a human beingit was just a target, just a thing. His finger squeezed gently on the trigger.

The weapon jerked slightly in his grip, but the double-looped sling kept it firmly in place. The target dropped. He moved the gun right even as it fell. The next target was spinning around in surprise, giving him a dull white circle of reflected moonlight to aim at. Another burst. There had hardly been any noise at all. Chavez waited, moving his weapon back and forth across the two bodies, but there was no movement.

Chavez darted out of the trees. One of the bodies clutched an AK-47. He kicked it loose and pulled a penlight from his breast pocket, shining it on the targets. One had taken all three rounds in the back of the head. The other had only caught two, but both through the forehead. The second ones face showed surprise, The first one no longer had a face. The sergeant knelt by the bodies and looked around for further movement and activity. Chavezs only immediate emotion was one of elation. Everything hed learned and practicedit all worked! Not exactly easy, but it wasnt a big deal, really.

Ninja really does own the night.

Ramirez came over a moment later. There was only one thing he could say.

Nice work, Sergeant. Check out the shack. He activated his radio. This is Six. Targets down, move in.

The squad was over to the shack in a couple of minutes. As was the usual practice with armies, they clustered around the bodies of the dead guards, getting their first sample of what war was really all about. The intelligence specialist went through their pockets while the captain got the squad spread out in a defensive perimeter.

Nothing much here, the intel sergeant told his boss.

Lets go see the shack. Chavez had made sure that there was no additional guard whom they might have overlooked. Ramirez found four gasoline drums and a hand-crank pump. A carton of cigarettes was sitting on one of the gasoline drums, evoking a withering comment from the captain. There was some canned food on a few rough-cut shelves, and a two-roll pack of toilet paper. No books, documents, or maps. A well-thumbed deck of cards was the only other thing found.

How you wanna booby-trap it? the intelligence sergeant asked. He was also a former Green Beret, and an expert on setting booby traps.

Three-way.

Kay. It was easily done. He dug a small depression in the dirt floor with his hands, taking some wood scraps to firm up the sides. A one-pound block of C-4 plastic explosivethe whole world used itwent snugly into the hole. He inserted two electrical detonators and a pressure switch like the one used for a land mine. The control wires were run along the dirt floor to switches at the door and window, and were set as to be invisible to outside inspection. The sergeant buried the wires under an inch of dirt. Satisfied, he rocked the drum around, bringing it down gently on the pressure switch. If someone opened the door or the window, the C-4 would go off directly underneath a fifty-five-gallon drum of aviation gasoline, with predictable results. Better still, if someone were very clever indeed and defeated the electrical detonators on the door and window, he would then follow the wires to the oil drums in order to recover the explosives for his own later use . . . and that very clever person would be removed from the other team. Anyone could kill a dumb enemy. Killing the smart ones required artistry.

All set up, sir. Lets make sure nobody goes near the shack from now on, sir, the intelligence sergeant told his captain.

Roger that. The word went out at once. Two men dragged the bodies into the center of the field, and after that, they all settled down to wait for the helicopter. Ramirez redeployed his men to keep the area secured, but the main object of concern now was to have every man inventory his gear to make sure that nothing was left behind.

PJ handled the refueling. The good visibility helped, but would also help if there were anyone on the surface looking for them. The drogue played out from the wing tank of the MC-130E Combat Talon on the end of a reinforced rubber hose, and the Pave Lows refueling probe extended telescopically, stabbing into the center of it. Though it was often observed that having a helicopter refuel in this way seemed a madly unnatural actthe probe and drogue met twelve feet under the edge of the rotor arc, and contact between blade tips and hose meant certain death for the helicopter crewthe Pave Low crews always responded that it was a very natural act indeed, and one in which, of course, they had ample practice. That didnt alter the fact that Colonel Johns and Captain Willis concentrated to a remarkable degree for the whole procedure, and didnt utter a single unnecessary syllable until it was over.

Breakaway, breakaway, PJ said as he backed off the drogue and withdrew his probe. He pulled up on the collective and eased back on the stick to pull his rotors up and away from the hose. On command, the MC-130E climbed to a comfortable cruising altitude, where it would circle until the helicopter returned for another fill-up. The Pave Low III turned for the beach, heading down to cross at an unpopulated point.

Uh-oh, Chavez whispered to himself when he heard the noise. It was the laboring sound of a V-8 engine that needed service, and a new muffler. It was getting louder by the second.

Six, this is Point, over, he called urgently.

Six here. Go, Captain Ramirez replied.

We got company coming in. Sounds like a truck, sir.

KNIFE, this is Six, Ramirez reacted immediately. Pull back to the west side. Take your covering positions. Point, fall back now!

On the way. Chavez left his listening post on the dirt road and raced back past the shackhe gave it a wide berthand across the landing strip. There he found Ramirez and Guerra pulling the dead guards toward the far treeline. He helped the captain carry his burden into cover, then came back to assist the operations sergeant. They made the shelter of the trees with twenty seconds to spare.

The pickup traveled with lights ablaze. The glow snaked left and right along the trail, glowing through the underbrush before coming out just next to the shack. The truck stopped, and you could almost see the puzzlement even before the engine was switched off and the men dismounted. As soon as the lights were off, Chavez activated his night goggles. As before, there were four, two from the cab and two from the back. The driver was evidently the boss. He looked around in obvious anger. A moment later he shouted something, then pointed to one of the people whod jumped out of the back of the truck. One of them walked straight to the shack Oh, shit! Ramirez keyed his radio switch. Everybody get down! he ordered unnecessarily and wrenched open the door.

A gasoline drum rocketed upward like a space launch, leaving a cone of white flame behind as it blasted through the top of the shack. Flames from the other drums spread laterally. The one whod opened the door was a silhouette of black, as though hed just opened the front door of hell, but only for an instant before he vanished in the spreading flames. Two of his companions vanished into the same white-yellow mass. The third was on the edge of the initial blast, and started running away, directly toward the soldiers, before the falling gasoline from the flying drum splashed on him and he became a stick figure made of fire who lasted only ten steps. The circle of flames was forty yards wide, its center composed of four men whose high-pitched screams were distinct above the low-frequency roar of the blaze. Next the trucks fuel tank added its own punctuation to the explosion. There were perhaps two hundred gallons of gasoline afire, sending up a mushroom cloud illuminated by the flames below. In less than a minute the ammunition in various firearms cooked off, sounding like firecrackers within the roaring flames. Only the afternoons heavy rain prevented the fire from spreading rapidly into the forest.

Chavez realized that he was lying next to the intelligence specialist.

Nice work on the booby trap.

Wish the fuckers coulda waited. The screaming was over by now.

Yeah.

Everybody check in, Ramirez ordered over the radio. They all did. Nobody was hurt.

The fire died down quickly. The aviation gasoline had been spread thinly over a wide area, and burned rapidly. Within three minutes all that was left was a wide scorched area defined by a perimeter of burning grass and bushes. The truck was a blackened skeleton, its loadbed still alight from the box of flares. Theyd continue to burn for quite a while.

What the hell was that? Captain Willis wondered in the left seat of the helicopter. Theyd just made their first pickup, and on climbing back to cruising altitude, the glow on the horizon looked like a sunrise on their infrared vision systems.

Plane crash, maybethats right on the bearing to the last pickup, Colonel Johns realized belatedly.

Super.

Buck, be advised we have possible hostile activity at Pickup Four.

Right, Colonel, Sergeant Zimmer replied curtly.

With that observation, Colonel Johns continued the mission. Hed find out what he needed to know soon enough. One thing at a time.

Thirty minutes after the explosion, the fire was down enough that the intelligence sergeant donned his gloves and moved in to try to recover his triggering devices. He found part of one, but the idea, though good, was hopeless. The bodies were left in place, and no attempt was made to search them. Though IDs might have been recoveredleather wallets resist fire reasonably welltheir absence would have been noticed. Again the airfield guards were dragged to the center of the northern part of the runway, which was to have been the pickup point anyway. Ramirez redeployed his men to guard against the possibility that someone might have noticed the fire and reported it to someone else. The next concern was the courier flight that was probably heading in tonight. Their experience told them that it was still over two hours awaybut theyd seen only one full cycle, and that was a thin basis for making any sort of prediction.

What if the airplane comes in? Ramirez asked himself. Hed already considered the possibility, but now it was an immediate threat.

The crew of that aircraft could not be allowed to report to anyone that theyd seen a large helicopter. On the other hand, leaving bullet holes in the airplane would be almost as clear a message of what had happened.

For that matter, Ramirez asked himself, why the hell were we ordered to kill those two poor bastards and leave from here instead of the preplanned exfiltration point?

So, what if an airplane comes in?

He didnt have an answer. Without the flares to mark the strip it wouldnt land. Moreover, one of the new arrivals had brought a small VHF radio. The druggies were smart enough that theyd have radio codes to assure the flight crew that the airfield was safe. So, what if the aircraft just orbited? Which it probably would do. Might the helicopter shoot it down? What if it tried and missed? What if? What if?

Before insertion, Ramirez had thought that the mission had been exquisitely planned, with every contingency thought outas it had, but halfway through their planned stay they were being yanked out, and the plan had been trashed. What dickhead had decided to do that?

What the hell is going on? he demanded of himself. His men looked to him for information and knowledge and leadership and assurance. He had to pretend that everything was all right, that he was in control. It was all a lie, of course. His greater overall knowledge of the operation only increased his ignorance of the real situation. He was used to being moved around like a chess piece. That was the job of a junior officerbut this was real. There were six dead men to prove it.

KNIFE, this is NIGHT HAWK, over, his high-frequency radio crackled.

HAWK, this is KNIFE. LZ is the northern edge of RENO. Standing by for extraction, over.

Bravo X-Ray, over.

Colonel Johns was interrogating for possible trouble. Juliet Zulu was the coded response indicating that they were in enemy hands and that a pickup was impossible. Charlie Foxtrot meant that there was active contact, but that they could still be gotten out. Lima Whiskey was the all-clear signal.

Lima Whiskey, over.

Say again, KNIFE, over.

Lima Whiskey, over.

Roger, copy. We are three minutes out.

Hot guns, PJ ordered his flight crew. Sergeant Zimmer left his instruments to take the right-side gun position. He activated the power to his six-barreled minigun. The newest version of the Gatling gun of yore began spinning, ready to draw shells from the hopper to Zimmers left.

Ready right, he reported over the intercom.

Ready left, Bean said on the other side.

Both men scanned the trees with their night-vision goggles, looking for anything that might be hostile.

I got a strobe light at ten oclock, Willis told PJ.

I see it. Christwhat happened here?

As the Sikorsky slowed, the four bodies were clearly visible around what had once been a simple wooden shack . . . and there was a truck, too. Team KNIFE was right where it was supposed to be, however. And they had two bodies as well.

Looks clear, Buck.

Roger, PJ. Zimmer left his gun on and headed aft. Sergeant Bean could jump to the opposite gun station if he had to, but it was Zimmers job to get a count on the last pickup. He did his best to avoid stepping on people as he moved, but the soldiers understood when his feet landed on several of them. Soldiers are typically quite forgiving toward those who lift them out of hostile territory.

Chavez kept his strobe on until the helicopter touched down, then ran to join his squad. He found Captain Ramirez standing by the ramp, counting them off as they raced aboard. Ding waited his turn, then the captains hand thumped down on his shoulder.

Ten! he heard as he leaped over several bodies on the ramp. He heard the number again from the big Air Force sergeant, then: Eleven! Go-go-go! as the captain came aboard.

The helicopter lifted off immediately. Chavez fell hard onto the steel deck, where Vega grabbed him. Ramirez came down next to him, then rose and followed Zimmer forward.

What happened here? PJ asked Ramirez a minute later. The infantry officer filled him in quickly. Colonel Johns increased power somewhat and kept low, which he would have done anyway. He ordered Zimmer to stay at the ramp for two minutes, watching for a possible aircraft, but it never appeared. Buck came forward, killed power to his gun, and resumed his vigil with the flight instruments. Within ten minutes they were feet-wet, over the water, looking for their tanker to top off for the flight back to Panama. In the back, the infantrymen buckled into place and promptly began dropping off to sleep.

But not Chavez and Vega, who found themselves sitting next to six bodies, lying together on the ramp. Even for professional soldiersone of whom had done some of the killingit was a grisly sight. But not as bad as the explosions. Neither had ever seen pictures of people burning to death, and even for druggies, they agreed, it was a bad way out.

The helicopter ride became rough as the Pave Low entered the propwash from the tanker, but it was soon over. A few minutes after that, Sergeant Beanthe little one, as Chavez thought of himcame aft, walking carefully over the soldiers. He clipped his safety belt to a fitting on the deck, then spoke into his helmet microphone. Nodding, he went aft to the ramp. Bean motioned to Chavez for a hand. Ding grabbed the mans belt at the waist and watched him kick the bodies off the edge of the ramp. It seemed kind of cold, but then, the scout reflected, it no longer mattered to the druggies. He didnt look aft to see them hit the water, but instead settled back down for a nap.

A hundred miles behind them, a twin-engined private plane circled over where the landing stripknown to the flight crew simply as Number Sixwas still marked by a vaguely circular array of flames. They could see where the clearing was, but the airstrip itself wasnt marked with flares, and without that visual reference a landing attempt would have been madness. Frustrated, yet also relieved because they knew what had happened to a number of flights over the previous two weeks, they turned back for their regular airfield. On landing they made a telephone call.

Cortez had risked a direct flight from Panama to Medelln, though he did place the charge on an as-yet unused credit card so that the name couldnt be tracked. He drove his personal car to his home and immediately tried to contact Escobedo, only to discover that he was at his hilltop hacienda. Flix didnt have the energy to drive that far this, late on a long day, nor would he entrust a substantive conversation to a cellular phone, despite all the assurances about how safe those channels were. Tired, angry, and frustrated for a dozen reasons, he poured himself a stiff drink and went off to bed. All that effort wasted, he swore at the darkness. Hed never be able to use Moira again. Would never call her, never talk to her, never see her. And the fact that his last performance with her had ended in failure, caused by his fears at what hed thoughtcorrectly!his boss had done, merely put more genuine emotion into his profanities.

Before dawn a half-dozen trucks visited a half-dozen different airfields. Two groups of men died fiery deaths. A third entered the airfield shack and found exactly what theyd expected to find: nothing. The other three found their airstrips entirely normal, the guards in place, content and bored with the monotony of their duties. When two of the trucks failed to return, others were sent out after them, and the necessary information quickly found its way to Medellin. Cortez was awakened by the phone and given new travel orders.

In Panama, all of the infantrymen were still asleep. Theyd be allowed to stand down for a full day, and sleep in air-conditioned comfortunder heavy blanketsafter hot showers and meals which, if not especially tasty, were at least different from the MREs theyd had for the preceding week. The four officers, however, were awakened early and taken elsewhere for a new briefing. Operation SHOWBOAT, they learned, had taken a very serious turn. They also learned why, and the source of their new orders was as exhilarating as it was troubling.

The new S-3, operations officer, for the 3rd Battalion of the 17th Infantry, which formed part of the First Brigade, 7th Infantry Division (Light), checked out his office while his wife struggled with the movers. Already sitting on his desk was a Mark-2 Kevlar helmet, called a Fritz for its resemblance to the headgear of the old German Wehrmacht. For the 7th LID, the camouflage cloth cover was further decorated with knotted shreds of the same material used for their battle-dress uniform fatigues. Most of the wives referred to it as the Cabbage Patch Hat, and like a cabbage, it broke up the regular outline of the helmet, making it harder to spot. The battalion commander was off at a briefing, along with the XO, and the new S-3 decided to meet with the S-1, or personnel officer. It turned out that theyd served together in Germany five years before, and they caught up on personal histories over coffee.

So how was Panama?

Hot, miserable, and I dont need to fill you in on the political side. Funny thingjust before I left I ran into one of your Ninjas.

Oh, yeah? Which one?

Chavez. Staff sergeant, I think. Bastard wasted me on an exercise.

I remember him. He was a good one with, uh . . . Sergeant Bascomb?

Yes, Major? A head appeared at the office door.

Staff Sergeant Chavezwho was he with?

Bravo Company, sir. Lieutenant Jacksons platoon . . . second squad, I think. Yeah, Corporal Ozkanian took it over. Chavez transferred out to Fort Benning, hes a basic-training instructor now, Sergeant Bascomb remembered.

You sure about that? the new S-3 asked.

Yes, sir. The paperwork got a little ruffled. Hes one of the guys who had to check out in a hurry. Remember, Major?

Oh, yeah. That was a cluster-fuck, wasnt it?

Roge-o, Major, the NCO agreed.

What the hell was he doing running an FTX in the Canal Zone? the operations officer wondered.

Lieutenant Jackson might know, sir, Bascomb offered.

Youll meet him tomorrow, the S-1 told the new S-3.

Any good?

For a new kid fresh from the Hudson, yeah, hes doing just fine. Good family. Preachers kid, got a brother flies fighter planes for the Navysquadron commander, I think. Bumped into him at Monterey awhile back. Anyway, Tims got a good platoon sergeant to teach him the ropes.

Well, that was one pretty good sergeant, that Chavez kid. Im not used to having people sneak up on me! The S-3 fingered the scab on his face. Damn if he didnt, though.

We got a bunch of good ones, Ed. Youre gonna like it here. How bout lunch?

Sounds good to me. When do we start PT in the morning?

Zero-six-fifteen. The boss likes to run.

The new S-3 grunted on his way out the door. Welcome back to the real Army.

Looks like our friends down there are a little pissed, Admiral Cutter observed. He held a telex form that had emanated from the CAPER side of the overall operation. Who was it came up with the idea of tapping into their communications?

Mr. Clark, the DDO replied.

The same one who The same.

What can you tell me about him?

Ex-Navy SEAL, served nineteen months in Southeast Asia in one of those special operations groups that never officially existed. Got shot up a few times, Ritter explained. Left the service as a chief bosuns mate, age twenty-eight. He was one of the best they ever had. Hes the guy who went in and saved Dutch Maxwells boy.

Cutters eyes went active at that. I knew Dutch Maxwell, spent some time on his staff when I was a j.g. So, hes the guy who saved Sonnys ass? I never did hear the whole story on that.