Retribution Road Jon Coon (best android ereader TXT) 📖

buoyancy, bringing the deck up enough to be above the swells. He moved down to the deck and caught lines thrown from the fishing boat. Tires ran the full length of the hull, and the crew snugged the sub against them.

Men climbed down to the sub’s deck and soon, with Caldera’s help, were passing the drugs onto the fishing boat. It took two hours, and when they were done, men opened an ice hold and began passing fifty-pound boxes back to the sub. Large red letters on the boxes read SEMTEX 10, with the appropriate high-explosives warnings. It took another hour to transfer the Semtex, and then the bottom fishing boat bid Caldera good luck and farewell.

He tossed the lines, closed the hatch, and settled the boat fifty feet deep. He set a course at slow speed on the autopilot and hit the bunk closest to the helm for a few hours of much needed sleep. The norteamericanos had destroyed his empire. Now it was his turn.

Chapter 42

WITH THE ADULTS IN MEXICO, Paul and Angelica had the run of the ranch. They finished their chores early and headed to the lake. A few easy strokes got them to the raft where they eased out of the water, and Angelica lay on her stomach, undid the clasp on the top of her suit, and asked Paul to rub on her lotion. He did so with enthusiasm. “Now roll over,” he suggested, innocently, when her back was well protected.

She laughed. “I don’t think so.”

“Come on, there’s no one out here. It’s just us.”

“Cool your jets, Top Gun. We’re not there yet and you know it.”

“Angie, you know how I feel about you. I’m not one of those guys who hurt you. I would never do that. Why can’t you just relax and let nature take its course?”

“Girls who let nature take its course have a name—mothers. I’m Catholic, and I have future plans. Being a single mom isn’t part of that plan.”

“But you love me. I know you do.”

“I do, that’s true. But one of us has to keep our hormones balanced if this relationship is going to work. Are you ready to tell your grandfather we’re pregnant? Don’t think that’s going to fly very well.”

“I suppose not. But that doesn’t mean you can’t roll over.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t.” She reattached the suit strap and rolled over. “Happy now?”

“You’re treating me like a kid.”

“Come here, kid.” She pulled him into her arms and kissed him.

They stayed together until it was apparent they needed to be apart. She pushed him away.

“You’re blocking my sun. You need to go for a swim and cool off. My suit is staying on and so is yours.”

“Look, you saved my life back there in the jungle, and I thought—”

“Paul, I love you. I do. You saved me too. I’d have died back there. You have no idea what my life was like. And I would love to make a life with you. But not yet. Not until we can stand on our own two feet and pay our own way. And not until I can give myself to you and not have to worry about the consequences. We can’t stay here forever, and we need to have a plan. You work that out and we’ll have something to talk about.”

“I wish my granddad hadn’t sold the ranch. I love it here.”

“Would you be happy mucking out stalls for a living? I think that might get old after a few years.”

“All right, I’ll come up with a plan. But the most important thing is that we’re together. I love you, Angie. I’ll do anything to make you happy.”

“My name is not Angie, it’s Angelica. Let’s start there.”

The morning of September sixteenth was a bluebird day: not a cloud, not a whisper of wind. The flags were flaccid on the distinguished visitor’s platform, the display and vendor tents lined the old runway, and stands to accommodate ten thousand waited.

Gabe and Carol were in Rainbow Chaser’s gondola a thousand feet above the field where Gabe manned the large digital camera. A new crew sat at the controls, and Carol monitored the radio, an open channel to all the planes. As the sun rose, miles of cars filled the parking lot, and then families filled the stands.

At ten, the first plane, one of the last DC-3s still in service, roared into the sky with a troop of military skydivers.

Nearly eighty years old, the “Gooney Bird” was popular with skydivers since the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, when US paratroops jumped from her round belly into Normandy, France.

While the audience waited for the plane to gain altitude, several dignitaries, including the president, were introduced to the crowd’s cheers. Seated in the presidential box, the Caldera family, minus Juan, were honored guests. Lareina was regal in a stylish reproduction of an early-nineteenth-century vintage dress, and the four kids were also in costumes commemorating the war of independence.

Anticipation built as the plane gained altitude, and then the announcer pointed his arm toward the sky where the team of skydivers jumped and formed an eight-man star as they fell from the heavens. As they lost altitude, they broke formation into a line, and one after another deployed red, white, and green parachutes. Colored smoke streamed behind them, and then the last deployed a Mexican flag, streamed from his shroud lines. Television cameras broadcast the event live throughout the country. It was a proud day for Mexico.

A large target had been painted in the grass directly in front of the stands, and the first jumper nailed it, rolled his chute, and cleared the landing area just in time for the second, who came in with the same precision and cleared the LZ just as ably. When the last was down, with the flag flying all the way and the national anthem blaring from loudspeakers, the crowd rose to its feet with applause and cheers. The jumpers lined for deep bows. The show