"Avidn!" Jacom yelled.

"Dande?" Coral yelled back.

The Yaquis in the right-hand door pointed to a glint of light in the west. Lyons scanned the sky with his binoculars and pointed to another speck.

"A light plane and a helicopter," he said.

Blancanales relayed the information to Davis. "We got a helicopter and a spotter plane to the west-southwest."

The troopship dropped. Lyons and Blancanales grabbed the safety rope across the door as Davis took the troopship down. The skids seemed to touch the ridge lines.

Davis shouted through the intercom, "Get on their frequencies. Listen for an alert..."

Gadgets interrupted. "Already on it, fly-boy. Me and Seflor Coral have been on it nonstop, all day long."

"What're they saying now?" Davis asked.

Gadgets laughed. "What they've been saying all day. 'Colonel Gonzalez, where are you?' The helicopter and plane are on the way to look for their little lost colonel."

Lyons took the intercom microphone. "Just make distance, Davis. Get us out of here before they get serious."

As Sergeant Castillo banked the Piper in a slow circle of the destroyed helicopters, Lieutenant Lopez focused his binoculars on the scene. He saw the ashes and blackened metal that had been four helicopters. Knots of vultures fought over the corpses of dead soldiers.

The lieutenant spoke into the radio. "We are above the hill. I count four helicopters. They are burned, nothing left. There is no one alive down there."

After a moment, questions came from the radio. "This is Colonel Alvarez. You see only four helicopters?"

Lieutenant Colonel Alvarez, the International Group's second-in-command, directed the search for the missing Colonel Gonzalez from the safety of the communications office of Rancho Cortez.

"Only four."

"Is there evidence of fighting?"

The lieutenant exchanged glances with the sergeant. The sergeant shook his head at the question. Suppressing a laugh, the lieutenant answered, "Yes."