“Hostages down there,” the girl said. He motioned her forward. She went to the door and pulled back one of the bolts. Murdock opened the other one and swung the door outward.
People lay on the floor, sat against the walls. Two women cried silently, men sat talking. All stopped and looked up when the door opened. The girl spoke rapidly in Spanish and the people in the room began to cheer and cry for joy.
“Tell them to stay here until we’re sure the first floor is safe,” he told her. Then he ran back up the steps.
“Clear right,” Sterling said.
“Clear left,” Bradford chimed in.
“Clear front and back,” Ronson said. “All clear, Commander.”
As soon as the front doors opened, Colonel Paredes and a squad of heavily armed soldiers rushed inside. They took the four men in cammies prisoner and marched them outside. Murdock called to the girl to let the workers come up.
Later that day, Murdock found out that the four terrorists were executed by a firing squad on Colonel Paredes’s orders. The young girl sent to a women’s prison for six months. The commander of the raid, self-styled Colonel Cardona, was one of the men killed by the deadly shrapnel of the exploding 20mm rounds.
Murdock called for a radio check on casualties. There were none. They found the truck they came over in and drove back to their barracks.
“Damn, did those twenty-mike-mikes work good,” Jefferson said. “We could see the rounds go through the window and then explode inside. Must have been hell on wheels in there when we put ten rounds through the windows in less than a minute.”
DeWitt laughed. “Oh, yeah, those twenty-mike-mikes are going to be on my wish list for every mission we go on. I have a suggestion, though. We should get more weapons. We had to borrow some of the MP-5s you guys had. We need it so about half of us can use either the MP-5 or the Bull Pup. Those old widow makers still come in damned handy in a room-to-room situation like Alpha Squad had.”
Murdock agreed with him. Murdock had just finished cleaning and oiling the borrowed MP-5 when Holt came up with the SATCOM.
“Figured that I better leave the receiver on,” he said. “Seems Don Stroh has been trying to get us now for a day and a half.”
Murdock took the handset. Holt nodded. “Lost Sheep calling the Shepherd,” he broadcast and grinned.
“Lost Sheep? That you Murdock?”
“Not anymore, you found us. Thanks, Shepherd.”
“Quit clowning around on government time. Had some signals from the CNO. He wants a report. What the hell you doing in there with Colonel Paredes?”
Murdock gave him a quick rundown but didn’t mention the 20mm rounds.
“Yeah, sounds like you earned your keep. The CNO says he’s getting pressure for you to do something on the drug front. He says there are half a dozen big cocaine labs right near Cali that turn the coca paste into cocaine. That’s your next assignment. To tear up some of those labs and put them out of business.”
“Are the labs illegal?” Murdock asked.
“Damn right. At least they were under the old regime. This new bastard president is living off cocaine. We shrivel up their payroll, and they won’t have so much clout.”
“We need a contact who knows where these labs are.”
“Talk to Colonel Paredes. He works closely with Ex-president Manuel Ocampo. They can tell you.”
“Stroh, I have a bad feeling about this one.”
“Oh, yeah? You don’t get paid to feel, Murdock. I’ve got pressure on this I can’t even tell you about. Just get in there and blow up a few labs, and we’ll get you out before the locals lynch you.”
“We love you, too, Stroh.”
15
Two hours after the talk with Stroh, Murdock had an order to report to the colonel’s office for a briefing. The message said to come alone.
Murdock took the jeep that they had left for the SEALs’ use and drove to the commander’s office. He was escorted directly to the colonel’s lair. Murdock saluted smartly.
“Lieutenant Commander Murdock reporting as ordered, sir.”
The colonel returned the salute.
“Sit down, Commander. This may take a while. First, our thanks for your good work on our commo center. It’s almost back to normal operation. The rebels didn’t try to smash the equipment. I’m not sure what they wanted to do. At least that’s over with, and we lost only two men. Did you have any casualties?”
“None, Colonel.”
“Good.” The colonel looked at the ceiling for a moment.
“Commander, we knew when we asked for help from you that there would be a favor or two we’d need to do in return. I received orders from my president an hour ago. I’ve been trying to make sense of them ever since.
“As you may know, Colombia has been the world’s leading processor of cocaine for years. It’s not a record that I’m proud of. Our president had worked as best he could to fight the drug problem. The drug cartels won when they trashed our recent election and, by fraud and outright hooliganism, took over the federal government.
“Now I’m instructed to help you find and destroy cocaine processing plants in the Cali area, and then plants in the Medellin area.” The colonel sighed. “This is most difficult for me. I’m a military man, not a social or political reformer. But when my president gives me an order, I carry it out.
“What do you know about the cocaine trade, Commander?”
“Very little, Colonel.”
“Some basics. Cocaine is derived from the leaf of the coca tree. There are two varieties, and both are grown in the Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia from altitudes of fifteen hundred to six thousand feet.
“Growing coca leaves is legal in these countries. The shrubs can grow to twelve feet tall, and after four years, they bear leaves, which are harvested four times a year. The leaves are then dried in the sun and taken to a processing plant.
“This initial processing breaks down the leaves and eventually leads to a product called coca paste. A thousand pounds of dry leaves yields ten pounds of coca paste.
“At this point, most of the Peru and Bolivia coca paste is shipped to Colombia where it is processed further into cocaine. It’s a complicated and intricate process that is used, with the end result producing crack cocaine or pure cocaine powder. This is the product that’s sold around the world on the black market illegally. Most of it goes to the United States.
“The key here is economics. The hill country farmers in Peru and Bolivia, the campesinos, can make four times as much growing coca leaves as they can any other product. Here in Colombia, the cartels have become so enormously wealthy that they have now bought themselves the whole nation. It’s obscene. It’s deadly. It’s almost certainly the worst state of affairs in a nation I have ever heard of.
“There are two keys to disrupting the cocaine traffic. One is to stop the processing plants from turning out the finished product. The other is to stop the flow of ether to the processers. Huge amounts of ether are used in the final stages of cocaine processing. Colombia produces almost no ether. All of it is shipped into this country through legitimate vendors. Stop those shipments for sixty days, and the cocaine industry is paralyzed.”
“My orders are to assist you in locating the incoming shipments of ether and the cocaine processing plants near Cali. I’ll need the rest of today and tonight to gather information, to locate guides, and to establish contacts.”
The colonel looked up.
Murdock could feel the strain of the colonel’s duty.
“Colonel, are these processing plants in industrial or populated areas?”
“Up to now they have been clandestine operations at the edge of the jungle, usually with a four-wheel-drive truck needed to get in to them. Now I understand the new government is setting up huge processing plants near the cities and making them legal. Here they are still out in the brush. That’s why we need to have trusted guides to lead your men to some of these plants.”