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The farmer said he would have been home sooner, but he took the opportunity to visit his brother who lived near the village Oh, yes, he said after a long description of his faer had the radio Trout's heart fell Then rose again a minute later when the farencies, mostly medical The priest had called for help and asked the fare, which he wrote on sheet of paper: "Tell the men in the helicopter that someone will be sent to find them"

With rescue ie of the cornfield, frequently glancing at the cloudless blue sky Before long he heard a faint roughrough sound He cocked his ear The noise became louder until he could actually feel the vibration of whiplashed air

A Huey painted in greenish brown flashed into view above the trees with another right behind it Trout waved his arht circle around the field, then touched down at the perimeter of the corn rows The doors opened even before the rotors stopped, and e Uniforms spilled from the choppers Morales, the pilot, and the farreet the new arrivals There were six of the a captain in the lead helicopter and a medical technician in the second The ave them clean bills of health except for superficial injuries

Trout and Morales went to the downed helicopter, but Ruiz was gone The chiclero had squirmed out of his hastily tied bonds After a quick parley they decided against a ti search Trout would have liked to see if Ruiz had h frogling tote at the escape optiuar He would pity the jaguar They thanked the farot into the Hueys Withina few hundred yards over the treetops

Less than an hour later they set down at an army base The captain said the base had been established near Chiapas at the ti a year earlier The captain asked if they would like food and a bath and a change of clothes A shower could wait Trout had other priorities He asked to use a phone

Austin was in his office at NUMA headquarters exaarage when the phone rang Zavala had just described the trip to Halcon's co hielo Donatelli A broad sood to hear froo Did you find Gamay?"

"Yes and no" Trout told Austin about the near miss on the river, the helicopter crash and rescue

"What do you want to do, Paul?" Austin said quietly

A heavy sigh came from Trout's end of the line "I hate to let you down, Kurt, but I can't come back Not until I find Gamay"

Austin had already made his decision "You don't have to come back We'll come down to you"

"What about the job we've been working on? The archaeology thing?"

"Gunn and Yaeger can work up an operational plan while we're gone You stay put until we get there"

"What about the admiral?"

"Don't worry I'll handle things with Sandecker"

"I really appreciate this, Kurt More than you know" The stateo