Dangerous to Hold Read Online Free PDF Page A

all the way down through Central America. Dry and barren on the Pacific side, the mountains were greened by the trade winds on the Atlantic side. The moisture-laden winds dumped up to three hundred inches of rainfall a year on the steep slopes. The lush rain forest that resulted made for harsh living conditions and difficult travel, but, as Jake well knew, it provided excellent cover.
    In classic guerrilla style, the band he’d infiltrated made maximum use of existing land features. They traveled under the screen of the thick forest canopy and carried with them only what they needed to fight with. For their base camp, they’d appropriated a cluster of tumbledown shacks that had once been an outpost of a vast coffee plantation. Abandoned by workers seeking more lucrative employment in cocaine-processing factories, the outpost had long since been reclaimed by the jungle. Only a few of the tin-roofed huts still stood, their wooden shutters gaping. The rebels used the most secure one to store their supplies. Their leader had claimed another for his personal use.
    A narrow, sluggish stream cut across the far edge of the clearing, providing the only source of water for sanitation and drinking. Thin, barrel-ribbed packhorses, still the primary means of transportation this deep in the interior, cropped beside the stream. Overhead, camouflage netting stretched across the entire camp, shielding it from observation.
    As the small group straggled into the clearing, Jake moved alongside the woman. “Keep quiet,” he murmured. “And keep your head down.”
    She immediately flashed him a wide, startled look.
    Christ! Those eyes were going to get them both killed. “Keep your head down,” he all but snarled.
    Stepping in front of her, Jake skimmed the gathering crowd for the thin, hawk-eyed leader who’d taken the name of the revolutionary hero he revered. He didn’t have to search long. The only one in camp who adhered to any standards of discipline in his dress or personal hygiene, Che stood out among his scruffy band. The woman with him stood out even more. Her lush figure strained the fatigues she wore, but Jake knew better than to equate her rounded curves with stereotypical concepts of feminity. He’d seen her use the automatic rifle slung over her shoulder to deadly effect.
    Stiff and unbending in his camouflage uniform, the leader stopped a few paces away and listened while the man nominally in charge of last night’s fiasco stumbled through a muddled explanation in his thick mountain dialect. They’d already radioed in a brief report, but Jake could see that Che was tight-lipped with anger over the loss of the shipment of shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles he’d been expecting.
    When the man’s muttered excuses ran out, Che turned cold eyes on Jake. “So, gringo, why do you think the government troops were near the drop zone last night?”
    â€œBeats the crap out of me,” Jake drawled, “but you’d sure better find out. I’m not risking my ass with these trigger-happy bastards of yours again unless you get some reliable intelligence that the area’s clean.”
    Che’s lip curled. “Or unless we up your fee, eh?”
    â€œMy fee doubled last night. I don’t like working with amateurs.”
    A wash of color rose in the man’s olive cheeks. “Watch yourself, gringo.”
    â€œYou want me to show you how to arm these little toys you’re collecting,” Jake replied steadily, “you pay for it. The price goes up with every botched drop.”
    A muscle twitched on one side of Che’s jaw. Jake held his look with a cold one of his own. After a long, tense moment,the rebel’s gaze slid to the silent, black-clad figure. “Why did you bring her?”
    Jake’s voice deepened with disgust. “Because these fools you call soldiers of the revolution almost left her lying in the dirt in the