Because of her eyesight, Hunter could see rabbits and mice as they scampered across the openings between the brush and grass. A small coyote slinked by a hundred yards away, aware of Hunter and moving farther from the human. Stopping twenty yards from the river gave Hunter cover and an easy view of the bluff area in Mexico where Buddy and Brandi saw the three men and the drone.
She settled in and waited, putting her binoculars beside her on the ground. Art’s image crept into he
r mind again, and she let him in.
~*~
Hiyoki was two miles south of the river in the Tahoe, with Chuy driving and Felix in the back seat as they headed for the bluff. Hiyoki’s phone rang and he answered, “Yes.”
Ashton’s voice sounded anxious as he said, “You have to accelerate your work.”
“I thought you wanted me to wait until something was done with Lincoln Jones.”
“I just did it. Lincoln found out I knew where Art had been and that I didn’t help him.”
“What did he do?”
“He tricked me. We were in his Navigator, driving down your way when he told me he knew that I deliberately failed to send help to Art. I tried to act like I’d forgotten, but he didn’t buy it.”
“What did you do?”
“I shot him in the head with my hideout gun, the .22 you gave me. He’s in the back of the Navigator right now, covered with a tarp.”
“Why are you bringing him here?”
“I want you to dispose of him in Mexico so he’s never found.”
Hiyoki looked at the two men with him, “We can do that. But how does it help with our plans?”
“I get to run his corporation while he’s gone, and in seven years, when he’s declared dead, I’ll inherit everything. We’ll control the entire border on both sides with no cartels opposing us in Mexico and the U.S. Government being an unsuspecting puppet on the American side. We’ll all be billionaires in less than eight years.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“You only have one thing to do. And you know what that is.”
Hiyoki said, “We’re thinking it will happen tonight.” He pulled the phone from his ear and typed the keys, then said, “This is where we’ll be. You should drive down and see the results yourself. Then we can take care of both bodies at the same time.”
“Excellent. I won’t be long.” Ashton hung up, still feeling spooky about shooting Lincoln with the hideout pistol, but also feeling elated that his final plan had come together, even though things were shaky for a while. Fourteen long years of soul-draining work for Lincoln Jones had made him almost suicidal, especially when Lincoln disparaged him so often by lavishing money on his son and others, but never him, never Ashton, not one word of praise or a single monetary bonus, and he did everything to make Lincoln’s orders work.
Well, that had now changed, and with a discrete alteration to Lincoln’s will and the corporation’s money to make everything happen, his life would become better than he could have dreamed.
The only thing left to do was for Hiyoki and the two assassins to eliminate Hunter Kincaid. He smiled, because Hiyoki intended to do it with the last remaining drone. It seemed fitting. Ashton felt excited that he would be able to stand over Kincaid’s corpse in a matter of hours. For a nobody, she caused more trouble than any of the other government people. With her, Art, Lincoln, and Lincoln’s son out of the way, things would run much smoother, especially with all of the Cartel people recently dispatched at the hunting lodge.
Hiyoki ordered Chuy to park in the usual place beyond the river bluff, and as they walked toward the river with Felix carrying the drone, Hiyoki wondered if Hunter took the bait. It had taken a bit of luck to find where the friends of Kincaid liked to park in the country to star gaze, and that the area opposite the bluff was their most prized location. When he knew they would be there, he flew the drone so that the couple saw the drone several times, and Hiyoki felt sure they would tell the Border Patrol Agent about these air crossings over the Rio Grande.
One of Hiyoki’s informants called after watching Kincaid at the Starlight Theater as she dined with her friends, Buddy and Brandi McFarlen. Kincaid was in uniform, he told his boss. Hiyoki hung up and knew, absolutely knew that this would be the night.
He decided to send up the drone from farther back than usual, and fly it up high, using night vision to search for Hunter.
Five minutes later, as he watched the green-tinged image on the laptop of what the drone’s GoPro was showing, he spotted the Border Patrol vehicle. He circled, looking for the female Agent, but didn’t see her, and didn’t want to waste time looking. He knew she would be visible when he flew the drone at low altitude, especially when he and his two accomplices showed themselves on the bluff at the river’s edge. He almost admired her, because she was so good at her job.
They were high enough to see the vehicle lights coming down the dirt road on the American side, toward their location. He called Ashton, who affirmed he drove the car. The vehicle would be at the river in minutes, and Hunter would hear them before then.
Hiyoki motioned his men forward, where they passed by the remains of an abandoned one-room shack with a small, aluminum boat leaning against the wall. A hundred yards farther and they stood at the edge of the bluff, looking down at the Rio Grande River reflecting rippled silver images of the full moon. He held the laptop and worked the keys, then the keypad, and the armed drone banked to descend lower in the night sky.
Chapter 11
Hunter watched three men walk to the edge of the bluff, and at the same time she heard the faint sound of a vehicle as it slowed to a stop some distance from her. She didn’t hear the car door open or close, so she thought it might be a couple out parking, or a person or persons enjoying the night sky and the luminous full moon.