The Independents (2 page)

Her challenge had the desired effect
as Bishop spun her around and looked her square in the eye
. His voice was firm
.
“You can’t compare
our current situation to
Mitch Mo
r
rison’s little
late night jaunts to a nearby
Walgreens for ice
cream
.
In case you haven’t noticed, things are a little different now. Show me a f
rigging
Walgreens
,
and by god I’ll bring you back en
ough ice cream to sink a battle
ship. That’s not fair
,
Terri. I can’t
spoil
you the
way I
want
to. The world has changed
,
and while I love you more than anything
,
I can’t just simply…”

The corners of Terri’s mouth showed just enough of a smirk that Bishop stopped. Her eyebrows
raised
just a little
,
and when he saw the twinkle in her eyes, he realized he
’d
been had. He smiled, shook his head
,
and looked down at her feet. “You got me.
”
 

Her voice softened
,
an
d she put her hands on his face.
“Baby, the world
has
changed. Our roles have
to adapt
. It’s so sweet that you want to protect me every moment of every day, but you can’t. I’m a
big girl
. We made it this far because we trusted each other’s instincts. Don’t change that – it works.”

Bishop nodded and seemed to be studying his feet. Terri wanted to reinforce her message. She
smiled and rubbed her tummy in small circles. “
This is a baby, not
Kryptonite
,
so
don’t let it weaken you
,
” she
continued
in a steady and reassuring voice. “
You
have
to go see
who was in that plane.
You
have
to trust your judgment.
” She paused and smoothed his tousled hair with her deft fingertips. “
I
’ll
make your favorite soup when you get back
,
and
then
we
’ll
find Orion’s B
elt
.
I
’ll
wear
my pistol and stay close to the cave
while you
’re
gone
. I need to see how much food we have left in here anyway.”

Terri’s words seemed to calm him.
Bishop reached up
and pulled
down a laminated set of papers hanging on the wall. He kept an inventory of all of his equipment along with his DOPE, or Data on Previous Engagements
,
next to
the
tools
. He di
dn’t know how far away the aircraft
was, so he intended to
pack for an overnight stay in the
desert
. It had
been months since he had done this
,
and
he knew from experience that
everything needed to be planned out in detail.
The plastic-
covered paper had lists of
gear
and the time it
took to do everything from making
a mea
l to clean
ing
his rifle. He opened
a small bo
x on the makeshift workbench,
pulled out a clean piece of paper
,
and began writing out a plan.

Terri padd
ed over to his side for a closer look. A mischievous smile crossed her lips as she asked,
“Isn’t
this
like packing for a vacation? Just throw everything in you might possibly need and go
?
Why do you keep all those lists anyway?
”

Bishop laughe
d and kissed her on the forehead.
“Well, just like our vacations, there isn’t room for everything. Don’t you remember having to repack a
bout ten times whenever
we d
ecided to get away for the weekend
?”

She playfully swatted him on
the arm and feigned a hurt look.
“It wasn’t
ten times
,
Bishop.
” Terri paused briefly before continuing. “
Seriously though, h
ow come you keep all that information
?”

Clearly lost in thought,
Bishop
paused
and
then
inhaled deeply.
“Did I ever tell you about Mr. Franklin P. Mossback?”

Terri shook her head and giggled. “No, Bishop. I
’m
sure
I would remember a name like that.
”

He
stared
into space fo
r a moment
before
pulling
more
equipment from
the rock wall. He glanced
at his watch and
turned to Terri.
“I
bet
the plane tried to land on the hig
hway, and I want to get there when
the light is
at my back
.
I’ve got some extra time before I need
to leave.
So l
et me tell you about Mr. Franklin P
. Mossback, Senior
Geologist, HBR.
”

“Several years ago, before you and I
met, I received my first assignment at HBR where I was going to be in charge.
HBR had
won a contract
to
explore for natural gas in
a
remote
location
known as the
Tri-Border Area
,
in Sou
th America
.
Quite the little cesspool of criminal and terrorist activity, i
t
was
basically a disputed border region between
Argenti
na, Brazil, and Paraguay
.
”

Terri interrupted him.
“Terrorist
s in South America
? Are we talking about Islamic terrorist
s
or rebels?”

Bishop shook his head, “Both
. . .
and much
, much
more
than that
. There were drug cartels,
C
hinese
m
afia, homegrown
syndicates
-
you name it. If you were into money laundering, drug shipments,
gunrunning,
or general mayhem, you had to have an organization in the area to be considered an A-player. It was kind of like a United Nations for the underworld.”

Terri
absentmindedly
toyed with a
flathead
screwdriver
lying on the bench
, digesting
his stateme
nt for a bit before responding.
“We knew this was going on? I mean
,
America knew they were all
down
there and didn’t do anything about it? Why didn’
t we ever hear anything about this
on the news?”

Bishop chuckled and explained
, “Our government was doing a lot more in the region than anyone knew. The DEA had infiltration teams all over the place. A lot of Special Forces were there as well. I’m sure
the
CIA and every other clandestine
U.
S.
organization had boots on the ground at one point in time or another.”

Terri pushed for an answer that made sense.
“What about the local governments? Why didn’t they do something?”

“The area is quite isolated, and hundreds of years of border disputes bred
a society of corruption that was several generations old. I’m sure if you didn’t em
brace the established method of doing business
, you ended up
as
monkey
bait
out in the jungle somewhere…or worse.
”

Terri settled down on the homemade workbench, making herself comfortable while Bishop finished his tale.
He
turned to look at her before continuing. “
Have you ever heard of a city called
Ciudad
Del
Este in Paraguay?”

Terri shook her head no. 

“It’s a sh
itty-
looking berg, mostly slums
. Y
et it ranked
third
in the world in
the size and number of
cash transactions. Miami and Hong Kong are the
only places w
here more dough changed hands.
”

Early in their relationship, she would have asked how he came to know such things. Instead
,
Terri mused
,
“
Sometimes you scare me with the things you know
,
Bishop.”

Bishop
shrugged his shoulders
.
“There was a
meeting of
HBR’s advanced security team
.
Again, I
was still
kind of
new to the job and trying to figure out how everything flowed at the company.
I’ll never forget that first briefing.
About
a dozen
of the
security
team
and I
were sitting around a large conference tab
le when the door flew open
,
and
the Colonel
stormed in.
”

Bishop paused and smiled at
the
memory
.
“I
doubt any human being
has
walked more erect since homo sapien
DNA aligned itself in its
current configuration.
I know you never met him, but
the Colonel
was about 5’10” and
built like the proverbial fire
plug. It was difficult to judge his age, but everyone guessed he was in his mid-50s.
H
is hair
was
closely cut
, like a
burr
. I think it was turning grey,
but there was
n’t
enough to really tell. His shoulders were always squared
,
and his gut
was
flat.
He was definite
ly not just a desk jockey.”

Bishop moved away from the bench
and did his best imitation of the Colonel
’s stride
.
“
He walked like he was going to throw his weight against a door with every next step.
He wore a
West Point ring on his finger
, but it
was
un
necessary – any fool could see
he
was a military man down to
the
very core.
We all i
mmediately stood
at
attention
when he entered
the room
.
I’ll tell you Terri, the man had a presence. I
’d
swear
a couple of the guys twitched,
subconsciously wanting to throw
him
a salute
.”

Terri c
huckled and teased, “I
’ve
noticed
some women come to attention when you’ve walked into the room
,
baby.” She
threw Bishop a couple of exaggerated winks followed by a blown kiss.

Bishop
sheepishly grinned and
pull
ed more
equipment off of the wall.
“That day,
the Colonel
stood at
the head of the conference table, and without any preliminaries, began
briefing us on the upcoming assignment. I really, really didn’t want to mess up my first big job in charge
, so I sat there soaking
it all in
like a sponge.”