The Independents (19 page)

It took Bishop several minutes to
get his legs.
He finally managed to stand, bracing
himself against the steel tank.
H
e
was not a stranger to the sight of
death and horror. Every time he believed he couldn’t see any
thing
worse from his fellow man, he was proven wrong
. After catching hi
s breath and rinsing the foul taste from his mouth
, h
is
mood
altered
, quickly building into a boiling rage. He had come here to scout, gat
her information, and perhaps stea
l a vehicle and go back to the ranch. Now
, he was consumed with wrath
, and
he wanted to kill
these
men.
His heart,
mind,
and very soul
wanted to walk down the path and deliver death to these sub-human scum.
His common sense was being compromised by
his anger
,
and he tried desperately to
regain control.
He kept visualizing those two women trying to cover the children with their bodies as the bullets were ripping through the house
. T
hey
w
ould
have
hear
d
the agony
of
their men outside dying.
The children would have been screaming and
crying.
Will someone ever do this to my child?
H
e
imagined
the
bedroom
door being kicked in
,
and
the gun barrel hovering over
the threshold
. H
e doubled his fist and punched the metal tank out of pure frustration.

The pain in his hand snapped him back to reality. As he flexed his now throbbing
limb
to verify he hadn’t broken any bones, an idea occurred to him. Perhaps it was providence he had come
here;
perhaps the ghosts inside of the home had guided him here for a reason.
He would make sure these murder
er
s would never harm another child.
I hereby appoint myself judge,
jury,
and exe
cutioner. The sentence is death,
Bishop resolved.

Terri slowly maneuvered the truck through the boulder field
that cluttered the open end
of their box
canyon. She kept the speed very slow so as n
ot to raise any dust.
This really didn’t require much effort since the large rocks barely left enough room for the truck to pass
anyway
. Bishop had set up three tripwires along the route, and she had to stop and disable each one. Once she had passed
by
an
early warning device, she again had to stop
and
rearm the wire.

This was only the second time she had been out of the canyon since they
had arrived. The first time,
Bishop
and she
had decided they needed a
vacation before she got too pregnant
to hike
easily
. So they had loaded up their packs and
left
for an extended
food-
gathering excursion.

That trip had been wonderful. Bishop remembered a secluded mountain waterfall on a neighb
oring property
,
and the two
had set off to camp at the site for a few nights. When they had first arrived at the ranch, she had set about converting the camper from a
seldom-used
hunting retreat to a home. In one of
the small storage nooks, she
found a couple of yellow
ed old books. The subject matter
of one was
edible desert plants
,
and it had made a big difference in their lives. Terri had packed the book to take with them. While Bishop knew a lot about the land, he
’d
never been in a situation where he needed to live off of it. As they
had hiked, Terri pulled out
the
book and
reference
d any unusual plants to determine their
value. At that time, they still had supplies carried with them from Houston and gathered
along the way. Both of them were beginning to realize those staples would not last forever. That trip had proven to t
hem that they could survive off the natural resources of the ranch
. Terri had gather
ed a small bag of seeds from a
tree on the way back home. She had dried
them
and then ground them into flour. While it was only enough to make a few dumplings, it had
n’t
tasted
bad,
and they had not gotten sick.

As Terri and David maneuvered toward the highway
, she couldn’t help
but make mental note
of the plants she could remem
ber from the book. Depending on what she found
available
at the
Meraton
market, she might
be out here hunting and gathering soon.

Bishop returned
to the hous
e and kicked in the side door of
the garage. He found the previous owner
’
s tool
box
and was quite
impressed with the man’s collection and organization. If
the situation had been  different
, he might have considered borrowing a few of the tools to
take back to the ranch. He located what he needed
and returned to the yard.

Next to the picnic table was a small, half-full propane tank that supplied the barbeque grill
.
Bishop removed
the tank and
the
brightly colored,
plastic
tablecloth.
His
final stop was a
water spigot
that had about 50 feet of garden hose attached.
After
Bishop removed the hose
, he
wound his way thru the pines, working his way ever closer to t
he hotel.

Terri stopped the
truck as soon as she reached
the paved highway. She checked with David that
the Colonel
was handling the bumpy ride okay
, and he responded that his grandfather
ha
d only grimaced a few times. Even before the current economic disaster, traffic on the public road had been almost non-existent. Still, Terri double-checked to make sure there were
no
chance travelers observing their journey
, grabbed
her rifle and walked around the vehicle, clearing the tire tracks left from their
passing.

After she had co
vered the evidence of their
passing
, she
headed toward
Meraton
. She had not driven in months,
but that didn’t seem to be a problem. The
truck was running fine
,
and she had almost a full tank
of fuel
. What did bother her a little was how far back she had to move the driver’s seat. She was almost
four
months pregnant
and thought she was only now beginning to show. The room required by her belly to fit behind the steering wheel made her question that thought. She hadn’t driven more than 20 minutes when she had to stop the truck, go behind a
bush,
and relieve herself. David, sitting in th
e back, decided to lighten the mood with a little humor.
“How long will it take us if we have to stop every 20 minutes for you to pee?”

Terri delivered
her best evil laugh
,
and then
her voice became
serious.
“You would say that to a pregnant woman holding an M4 rifle
, young man? Hmmm? Either you are not very bright
or
you
have been talking to Bishop too much.” David
still didn’t have a read on the hormone-driven woman navigating the truck and
decided it was
probably
be
st to quietly
pretend
to busy himself with his
grandpa. Terri let the teen
suffer f
or about a minute before giving the kid a break.
“Just kidding…you
’ll
have to tell Bishop that one. He will
really
think it’s funny.”

Bishop approached the backside of the hotel. It was easy to determine where the kitchen was
located
due to the big exhaust fans on the roof and the
smelly
dumpster close by. After
checking that he was alone, he removed
his
pack, tying it to the canister of LP gas with
one end
of his para-cord. He then scooted the dumpster
against the sid
e of the building and climbed up
.
His perch on the dumpster
was
the perfect height;
enabling him to
jump,
get a
hand
hold
,
and
pull himself up to the rooftop.
He had not seen any sentries on the flat roof of the single story hotel
while looking at it from the mountain above
and hoped he hadn’t missed any
guards who might have
a view of the
area
.
He would be trapped up here if discovered.
He pulled the pack and LP tank up with the para-cord
rope before taking a breather.
It was only about two hours before dark and
the timing of his actions was critical
.

Bishop
understood
that Estebon
was
a highly intelligent man.
And after stumbling upon
the
birthday party
massacre, he
further counted him
as
absolutely ruthless and without honor.
Bishop’s evaluation of his adversar
y had figured prominently in his
plan.
He had two goal
s. The first was to get Samantha
out into the open. While she was inside of the hotel, he had little chance of accomplishing anything other than getting them both killed. His second
goal was transportation. There were
over 80 miles of ha
rsh, rugged terrain between Big Bend
and the ranch. While he was confident he could make it, he wasn’t so sure about the young girl. He had no idea of her condition or capabilities.
Given the girl’
s key role in the
scheme to retrieve Carmen and Isabella,
Bishop di
dn’t believe Estebon would let Samantha
get far from his sight.
If Bishop
could draw the captors into the open by forcing
them
to
move the girl, he
would create an opportunity to rescue her. Certainly,
his chances of pulling this off were better than taking
gold to Juarez. He needed a catalyst.
He
considered several different diversions, but worried Estebon would easily identify the ruse and perhaps even harm the girl.

Bishop waited until
about an hour before
the sun would slip
behind the mountains to the west. During this time, he managed to get down some pine nuts and jerky. It wasn’t much, but his stomach was still not settled. He pulled the top off of the exhaust fan cover and peer
ed
inside. The tube was about ten inches in diameter and lined with a thick coating of grease,
fat,
and carbon. At the bottom, he c
ould see the blades of a small fan spinning. Beyond the fan, he could see what appeared to be a gas burner on a
stovetop
.

Bishop listened for
any sound
coming from the
tube
. He knew that as the hour grew
late, the chances of
activity
in the kitchen
increased
. His last glance at the front of the hotel had shown the children were still outside p
laying
a game of tag. S
everal adults
relaxed
on the porch
and the lawn
, enjoying the splendor of the setting west Texas sun
.
He still didn’t see Estebon or the girl.