Once back home Toni gave up all pretence and got in her bed and stayed there. She tried her best when Terry would call, not wanting him to know the state she was in. Munchie brought her meals and sometimes stayed while she ate to make sure she did. Betty cleaned the bedroom around her. She couldn’t face it, day after day, not knowing, not seeing him, imagining the worst.

Down in Quito some progress had been made. Tomas, for all his guilt over his brother-in-law, had the local police force in his pocket, literally, and after questioning a number of people around the hotel site it was learned a van had been spotted. Soon it was traced to the border with Colombia but from there they had no further information.

Tomas had contacts in Columbia and was working them. The thing that worried Terry was that two weeks had gone by and no demand for payment had been received. Either they were still on the move or Dino was no more.

"Tomas, get your team in here."

"I'll get them but where are they to go? We do not know for sure."

"We know one thing for sure, he’s in Colombia…and we’re not."

"You’re going to send them across the border to where?"

The truck had stopped and this time he could hear voices. After two days of bouncing along in the back of the truck under a tarp, Dino was ready for whatever was to come. He’d already decided it wasn’t going to be pleasant, but if he was as he thought, being held for money, he would at least be kept alive. His new captors weren’t nice guys. They liked to push and shove and kick but he was okay. He understood the mentality. What he didn’t understand was why him of all people? He was a nobody.

Brian Hogeland and Wyatt left the room where the former employee sat rubbing his eyes. He hoped the information he gave would be of some help. They went into Brian’s office and placed a call to Terry.

Terry woke, his phone going off by his pillow, and sat up. He’d moved to Tomas’s house, forgoing any luxury he might have enjoyed at the hotel.

"Yeah, Thorne."

"Terry, we may have a line on who the captors might be. A former employee worked a job down there about a year ago. He got his man out but didn’t pay the ransom. Same area, same type of operation. Victim taken from the airport and transported to Colombia. The client was a banker. The fact that they have one of our own now could be retribution."

"What happened to the money?"

"He brought it home. It wasn’t paid. It was a clean snatch. We may be dealing with the REA, Revolution Enforcement Army. I say may, of course, because we haven’t any proof. No contact as yet."

"Okay, so where are they, this REA?"

"A year ago they were up in the mountains, between Tumaco and Ipiales. They could be anywhere now."

"Except the van was found in that area. Where are the pictures you promised, Wyatt?"

"You probably already have them. You aren’t sleeping, are you?"

"What did he say?" asked Brian.

"He’s a bloody Aussie. There is no translation."

Terry padded into the lounge room where Tomas had all his equipment and went to the printer. He pulled the photos and turned on a lamp. "Okay, point me to it. I assume you already know."

"The lorry with the cover on the back, it tracks all the way and then disappears into some trees."

Terry studied the pictures. Sure enough the truck was spotted just past the van, apparently a little off the roadway. It looked good to him, "What do you think, Brian?"

"Could just be curiosity, I suppose, wrecked van. I say we wait a while and see what our man from Panama has to say. He’ll be there, oh, probably about now I should think."

"Not much traffic on that road," Terry observed, laying down his glass.

"No, there are a few little villages on that mountain. You can see the agriculture, whatever is on top, is hidden. That’s where the army was a year ago according to Phillip Cosco."

They followed Highway 10 until they came to the road where the van was found. Marine’s boys had already found a place where they could be dropped off. The transport truck and the jeep Terry was riding in with Marine would be driven back down by two young men he’d paid good money to for their service and to keep their mouth shut. There were eight of them with Marine and his guys. Terry took one last look as the vehicles disappeared from sight and struck out on foot with the rest of the men. They were all heavily armed. Terry wore a Kevlar vest under his coat as did Marine. They were silent as they walked and climbed the rest of the way up the side of the mountain.

They’d worked their way up to a rise that gave them a pretty good view of the camp except for the trees. They were looking down and spread out among the rocks. Silently they watched and waited. With his binoculars Terry spotted the pole where Dino’s picture had been taken and began scanning out from there. A small pebble tossed on his back had him turning. Marine pointed to what looked to be a pile of rocks or some kind of formation. Terry trained his glasses on it and nodded to Marine. There were bars clearly imbedded in the rock. He watched the same spot until his eyes were watering from strain, looking for any movement at all.

It was cold and getting colder as the sun began stretching toward the west. A fleeting thought went through Terry’s mind. At least his love was warm.

Movement began in the camp and each man on the rise began counting bodies, and holding up fingers to the next man. By the time it got to Terry there were fifteen. He’d seen twelve, including one who took something to the barred rocks. His gut told him Dino was in that prison. They would more than likely have to blast the damn thing open. His adrenalin was pumping and he wanted to move. He looked over at Marine and got a thumbs up. Quietly Marine moved down the line…everybody was ready. They each sighted their target and at Terry’s signal it began. Five down, six down, and still they fired. Marine took his guys down, moving around down the rise. Terry reminded himself that these men were professionals. For himself this was the real thing. This was no movie but he found out the talents he thought he had were true. He began making his way down the rise, firing his gun as he went at anything that moved or returned fire. They were taking a lot of fire, too. There were more than fifteen. He’d seen three more go down. They were hunkered down in a building, some of them, but Marine and his men took care of that with grenades. Terry’s only thought was to get to that pile of rocks and see what he had to deal with, see whether Dino was in any condition to help or even walk. He took the opportunity of the grenade blasts to skirt around the building. He had maybe 30 yards to go.

Dino was on his feet at the first shot. They'd left him untied and without a blindfold in his rock prison. He stretched his eyes open, trying to see where the firing was coming from and judging from the position of the gunmen near him, it was coming from the rise. It hurt his face to smile. The cavalry had arrived at last. He stayed well away from the bars, not wanting to stop a bullet this close to home.

He turned when the building went up and not long after he saw somebody working their way toward him. He felt helpless as there was nothing in the cell for him to use on the locked bars. They would have to be shot off or blown off from the other side. He watched the man working his way over and hurt or not he smiled. Terry, by God.