Bandages covered the right side of the agent's face. A plaster cast immobilized his right shoulder and arm. Outside the window of the private room, birds fluttered in the courtyard of the clinic. The only survivor of the two surveillance units, Agent Nava, now sedated against terrible pain, described the killer of the other federal officers.

"A North American. Blond, but dark from the sun. Tall, I think. Strong. A very good shot. He killed the others with only a pistol."

Sitting beside the agent's hospital bed, Captain Gomez noted the details on a pad. He underlined the words "North American."

"Did he speak Spanish or English?"

"English only. When I rode in the van, I pretended to be unconscious. I listened to what they said. They talked in English about the White Warriors and..."

"The American did?"

"Yes, he knew of us. They talked of the Warriors and the federals and the army. The ones in the front, I don't know who said what, but they talked of the organization. Then they talked about 'the fuel.'"

"Gasoline?"

"No, they used the word 'fuel.' One of them, the Mexican, said, 'That's why we went to Juan. He took care of our planes.' That is what they said."

"Then they were Ochoas?"

"They never said 'Ochoa.' But I think the Mexican was an Ochoa. He said 'our planes.' That is what Juan Perez did for the Ochoa Gang, right?"

Captain Gomez nodded. "The Mexican and Perez were Ochoas, but not the American. Interesting. They said they needed the fuel for their plane?"

"No. They never said what. Not a plane, not a truck, not a boat. They only said, 'fuel.' What happened to that Perez? Have you killed him yet?"

"No, he and his family escaped. We are searching — we alerted our units in the north — but nothing yet. Maybe Perez went with the others. We will learn soon. We have alerted all our men in the other cities."

"Kill him. We should have killed him weeks ago. When his son killed our man."

"We thought we could use him. But now he dies. And those others."

Folding his note pad closed, Captain Gomez left the ward. His driver took him directly to his next appointment. The driver parked the car and went into a downtown office. After a wait of a few minutes, an officer of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency got in the car.

The driver wove through the city traffic while the officials in the back seat discussed the events of the previous day. The Texas-born DEA agent laughed when he heard the description of the American gangster who had killed the Federates.

"Well, where'd that fellow come from?" he said with a chuckle. "He's supposed to be dead. We had him shot down."

"Who?" Captain Gomez asked, confused by the Texan's response.

"That's Carl Lyons. He's called The Ironman because he's into weapons. He and his partners volunteered to work with the agency, and the agency sent him south to work with us. Damn, we couldn't have that. So we had their plane shot down. We were told it crashed and burned, no survivors. Damn, this complicates everything."

"What do you mean?"

"They're going to know who set them up! We sent them out there to fly over what we told them was a Mexican army operation. And the Mexicans shot them down. That puts us and the army on their shit list. And then yesterday this Lyons fellow shoots it out with Federates. That means they go it alone from now on. They won't trust anyone. Makes it more difficult to kill them."

"Who are these men?"

"Hotshots. Specialists. Antiterrorist terrorists. Always interfering in our operations. Thought we'd get rid of them this time."

"But they are still alive."

"Yeah, and while they're alive, there won't be no end to the trouble. So we got to fix that." The Texan looked directly at Captain Gomez. "We'll work close on it with you, okay? For our mutual benefit."

Returning to the federal offices, Captain Gomez typed up a summary of the information. One copy went by courier to Rancho Cortez. And one copy went by coded transmission to Mexico City, to the offices of the International.

Below the helicopter, the land became lush, tropical. Groves of bananas and avocados spread across mountains. Red dirt roads cut through jungles. As they neared Tepic, the sky darkened with the rain clouds of a southern storm.

Blancanales saw railroad tracks. He matched the landmarks and the railroad line to a map, then spoke into the intercom.

"You see the airport?"

"I've got it on trie radio," Davis answered.

"How's the fuel?"

"Getting low. But the airport's coming up."

Turning to his partners, Blancanales saw Gadgets sleeping. Lyons and Coral studied the land under them. Coral pointed to a grove of trees. Clearings appeared here and there in the trees. A paved road cut past the groves.

Lyons shouted to Blancanales, "How far?"

"Close."

"Look there." Lyons pointed to the grove.

"Yeah, but Davis wants to get closer to the airport."

Lyons nodded. The helicopter banked. To the east, they saw the hangars and runways of the airport. A few kilometers to the south, sunlight flashed from the windows and sheet-metal roofs of thousands of houses and shops. Then the storm clouds moved across Tepic. A smear of rain trailed from the clouds.

"How close are you going to the city?" Blancanales asked Davis.

"I'm circling for a spot now. See a good place?"

"In those trees."

A tight bank took them back to the grove. Davis eased the troopship into a clearing. The rotor tips thrashed the nearest trees, chopping leaves and branches, then the skids touched the red earth and Davis switched off the power.

Silence.

Their ears rang in the sudden absence of turbine whine. Vato and the three Yaqui teenagers left the helicopter and took guard positions, playing the role of soldiers.

Gadgets woke and stared around him. "Where are we?"

"Tepic," Coral answered.

"Where's that?"

"Eight hundred kilometers from Mexico City."

The afternoon light went gray, and rain swept the grove with a sound like a wave breaking. The downpour bowed the trees' branches and hammered the aluminum of the troopship. In seconds, pools of water covered the ground. Rain angled into the troopship and puddled on the floor panels.

Reaching out to pull the door closed, Gadgets's hand grasped nothing. They had unbolted the doors and left them in the desert outside Culiacan the night before. Gadgets searched through his backpack and pulled out a wallet-sized packet. Unfolding a plastic poncho, he asked Coral, "Ever been to Laos?"

Coral shook his head.

Gadgets looked out at the muddy earth, the sheets of rain, the shadows of the Yaqui sentries, the green forms of the trees fading into the gray sky.

"Helicopters and rain," he said. "Takes me back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when I was a teenager in Laos."

"Was that a war? How long have you been fighting?"

"Forever. The wars never stop."

Voices and laughter came from the falling rain. Feet splashed through the mud. Three barefoot children ran to the helicopter and looked inside. When they saw Coral and Gadgets, the children dashed away, laughing, pointing imaginary weapons at one another as they ran through the rain.

In his office at Rancho Cortez, Lieutenant Colonel Alvarez read the report prepared by Captain Gomez in Culiacan. He studied every detail, noting how the information supported his own suspicions concerning the mysterious battles in the Sierra Madre.

The lieutenant colonel, in the absence of Colonel Gonzalez, now served as acting commandant of the base and the International Group. Though he had assigned patrols to search the mountains for their commanding officer or any surviving members of the unit, he did not expect the patrols to find any living soldiers or officers. And in two days of searching, they had not.