"I think he's seen the light," Gadgets marveled. "Ironman thinks, Ironman reasons. I don't believe it... Ahggh..."

Lyons caught his partner in a headlock to silence his sarcasm. While Gadgets struggled against the hold, Lyons continued. "Or we can fly down to Mexico City. Make like tourists and maybe hit them where they'd never expect."

Breaking Lyons's hold, Gadgets gasped, "Second the motion."

"Could we take the helicopter that far?" Lyons asked Davis.

"Twelve or thirteen hundred miles? And without maintenance? Might make it. We'd need at least four refuelings."

"What do you think, Vato?" Lyons asked the Yaqui leader.

"Exploit confusion. Move secretly. Strike where unexpected."

Lyons nodded. "Will you come with us?"

"If we cut off the head, the body will die," Vato answered. "I will go. Perhaps a few of the others."

Lyons turned to Coral. "And you, Miguel?"

"You give me the opportunity to kill those who murdered my friends, who murdered the son of my patrde.I thank you for the opportunity."

"Then it's unanimous," Blancanales concluded. "We go to Mexico City."

Colonel Gunther lay in the sand, immobilized by ropes, guarded by teenagers with automatic rifles, his mind calculating how he could survive. His intelligence had already saved his life once that day.

Suspecting an ambush, Gunther had directed his helicopter pilot to land on another hilltop. But the petty-pompous Mexican officer commanding the other two troopships of Mexican airborne soldiers disregarded Gunther's suspicions. The Mexican commander took his men and helicopters blindly into the killzone.

But bad luck also condemned Colonel Gunther and his squad of soldiers. As explosions and waves of flame decimated the Mexicans, a second group of North Americans and Yaquis struck. Gunther lost his soldiers, his pilots, his UH-1 troopship.