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covered the center right around to the right flank. The left center and flank were protected by the Second Assault Section. However, there were no trees, and the grass was not high enough to offer much in the way of concealment. This problem was dealt with handily through the use of camouflage netting slung low to the ground. In addition to protecting the fighting positions from sight, the arrangement provided concealment for Brannigan's CP, the supply stockpile watched over by the Odd Couple, Frank Gomez's commo center, and the medical aid station set up by Hospital Corpsman James Bradley. Additionally, a trio of temporary OPs had been put out in front of the perimeter for use when necessary.
    The detachment also constructed some small, fortified dugouts to be used as living quarters. The abodes were quickly dubbed "hooches," and were also skillfully camouflaged to blend in naturally with the local surroundings. Most of these earthen domiciles were occupied by two or three SEALs who shared the housekeeping and maintenance chores.
    It was from this bucolic headquarters complex sunk into the terrain of the Gran Chaco that Brannigan's Brigands would carry on their campaign against the enigmatic enemy known as Falangists. Even to the pragmatic SEALs, used to operating under austere and perilous circumstances, this latest setup had an eerie, unknown quality about it. It was almost like being on another planet, albeit a hot, steamy mosquito-infested one.
    RIO ANCHO
    0830 HOURS
    IT was raining heavily as the First Assault Section under Lieutenant (J. G.) Jim Cruiser came down the Rio Ancho in a raider boat towing a piragua to use when silent traveling was necessary. The Odd Couple, Mike Assad and Dave Leibowitz, had been attached to the patrol to act in their usual capacity as scouts. After a short twenty-minute run along the waterway, the patrol reached a point where a large creek intersected the river. Cruiser decided to hold up at that location and send the Odd Couple forward in the piragua to see what lay ahead.
    The section moved into the cover offered by the vegetation along the banks to wait for the result of the Odd Couple's recon. Chad Murchison and Garth Redhawk were put on outpost duty a dozen meters up the creek. The pair, their ponchos dripping, sloshed through the wet grass to reach the position.
    Redhawk, one of the new men in the Brigands, was a Kiowa-Comanche from southwestern Oklahoma. This descendant of two of the fiercest warrior tribes of the American prairie country was the quintessential Native American. The SEAL was dark-skinned with coal-black hair, and his sharp features gave him a rather aggressive countenance when he wasn't smiling. The effect was intensified when he applied camouflage paint to his face. Rather than put on irregular smears like everyone else, he applied a special pattern used by the Comanche warriors of old. The bold stripe over his eyes and the zigzag pattern down his cheeks symbolized thunder and lightning, the plains Indians' representation of war. It was something learned from his grandfather, who was a member of a society dedicated to the study of the culture and history of their ancestors. This elder Redhawk, a retired schoolteacher, wag in the finishing stages of writing a Kiowa-English dictionary in a project to preserve the native tongue before it disappeared altogether from use.
    It was from his grandfather that Redhawk learned about the tradition of medicine bundles for divine protection in battle. His was a small pouch that contained a hunk of wood from an Oklahoma cottonwood tree that had been struck by lightning. The other item was the original trident badge issued him by the Navy when he qualified as a SEAL. The young Native American would add other charms as his combat experiences multiplied.
    Chad Murchison crouched in the grass beside Redhawk as they maintained watch out over the empty rain-swept grasslands to their direct front. The two, who hadn't known each other