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I sighed in relief. The villagers fanned out, while the chief permitted Slash and I to follow a small group into the compound.

“It looks like whoever was here is not here at the moment,” Slash said in a low voice. “But they’ll be back. They left the generator running. Come on, the large building with the generator is the one I want to get a better look at.”

Slash slipped inside, indicating that I should wait, then after a moment, cautiously gestured for me to enter. As soon as I was inside, I understood why Slash wanted me. Two laptops were sitting open and running. Slash sat down at the first one, his fingers flying across the keyboard. He didn’t need to tell me what to do. I took the other one and started investigating.

It took me a total of five seconds to log on. “What a joke,” I commented. “There’s no log-in or security.” Astonished, I zoomed around the computer without a single constraint. “Either these guys are complete idiots or they figured they were completely safe because no one would ever come out here.”

“Exactly. Not only can I access the files, but they’ve left their network woefully unprotected.”

“Yep. Seven seconds and I’m already in,” I said. “The network file servers had some basic security, but it was so minimal, I could have hacked this in the first grade.”

“Good for us.” Slash reached for his pistol when Vicente slipped inside. Relaxing, he set it back down on the desk.

“What did you find?” Vicente asked.

Slash returned his attention to the monitor as he flipped through some documents. “Drugs, drugs, and more drugs. I presume this data will be exceptionally interesting to Brazilian law enforcement, as well as the international intelligence community.”

“Any connection toEl Esqueleto?” he asked, looking over Slash’s shoulder.

“Not yet. But I’ve only scratched the surface so far.”

“Who’sEl Esqueleto?”I asked.

“He’s one of the most successful and least known international drugs kingpins, presiding over a multibillion-dollar worldwide enterprise,” Vicente answered. “Governments and police all over the world are looking for him.”

“Sounds like a stand-up guy...not.”

“Notis right. I’d like you to let me know if you see something that names him explicitly,” Vicente said. “As it is, we need to get this information to the authorities. Is there any way to do that?”

“There are.” Slash looked over at me. “You got any ideas on the best way to do this,cara?”

I appreciated that he asked, so I considered, trying to decide what would be the fastest and most secure method. “I think we should proceed carefully. We need to minimize the possibility they might detect and shut us down while we’re transferring this information out through their network portals. I’ll send everything I’ve got to your laptop, Slash, which apparently has no monitoring, and we’ll relay using the satellite link.”

“Good idea. I’ve got a secure drop I’ve established for just such circumstances. We can move it to the authorities from there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Vicente said. “But whatever you do, we’ve got to hurry. How long do you think it will take?”

“Hard to say,” I answered. “But not too long, I hope. I don’t want to stick around here another moment than necessary.”

“I’m with you on that.” He headed for the door. “I’ll let Salvador and the chief know what you’re doing.”

After he left, we quickly put our plan into motion, working silently and efficiently. We must have been working intently for about ten or fifteen minutes when Slash spoke. “I’ve just informed the NSA of this location and how to access the files when they’re finally uploaded. I’ll let them figure out who to send them to in the Brazilian government.”

“Smart thinking,” I said. “But we’ve got a heck of a lot of files and the satellite connection is slow. My optimistic estimation is that it’ll take several hours to download and retransmit the files.”

“Agreed. Our job is to get this information transferred and let the Brazilian government take care of the compound. While you’ve been funneling me the information, I’ve set up a download and transfer program to run automatically and unattended. When it’s done, it will delete all trace of the program’s existence and shut down. That way, we can get out of here before anyone returns to the compound and the information will continue to transfer.”

“Excellent,” I said. “But we’ll have to hide the fact that the computers are on.”

“Good point.”

We turned off the monitors and found some black electrician’s tape and started covering up the power switch. “I’ll finish here,cara. See if you can get Vicente to convince the chief to round up his men. It’s time to get out of here. Somehow he needs to convince the chief to pull back the warriors until we can get the authorities here.”

“Will do.” I exited the building, quickly bringing Salvador and Vicente up to speed on the situation.

The three of us agreed it would be faster if we split up. Salvador went to try and gather the warriors, while Vicente and I headed over to talk to the chief. It wasn’t easy convincing him to leave without waiting for the enemy, but eventually he agreed, whistling softly. Almost immediately, the warriors begin gathering back at the edge of the compound. Looking around, I noticed a movement off to the side of one of the buildings in the trees. Thinking it was a native straggler, I headed in that direction. I had to hustle a bit, as the shadowy figure was moving away from me. When I got closer, I realized it wasn’t a villager, but a man wearing clothes and carrying an AK-47. He moved into the shadows of several large trees where several other similarly armed men melted out of the darkness to talk in hushed voices.

My heart pounding, I slid back into the shadow of a tree and pressed my back to the bark.