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just got here and I’m
looking for Kathleen. Have you seen her?”
    Palmer marched toward him.
    “You tell me.”
    Before he could answer, he grabbed him by
his T-shirt and slammed him against the wall.
    “Ow, what’s your problem?”
    “My problem is that you did a very stupid
thing. How much did they pay you?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,
man.”
    “You have five seconds before I break
your finger and another five before I shoot off your nuts. One…”
    “I don’t know anything!”
    “Two. Who took her? Three. Where’d they
take her?”
    “Lay off, man.”
    “Four. How much did they pay you to set
her up?”
    Palmer didn’t count all the way to five
because in reality it was closer to 8 seconds. He swiftly grabbed Bryce’s left
pinky and snapped it.
    The kid screamed and tried to wrench
himself free but the soldier of fortune still held him in place. “Fuck!”
    “Are you gonna talk now or do I have to
blow your fucking balls off? Five seconds.” Pinning Bryce to the wall with his
left forearm, he drew his pistol and poked it between his legs. “One…”
    “Stop, stop! I’ll talk, I’ll tell you
everything!”
    “Two…”
    “They gave me five thousand bucks and a
pound of weed, man! They said they just wanted to talk to Kathleen, that’s all!”
    “Who are they?”
    Bryce was crying and torn between looking
at his broken finger and the weapon pointed at his testicles. “I don’t know…”
    “You’ve been here for months, you know
them, stop dicking me around.”
    “I swear, man.”
    “Oh you do? You wanna play the
five-second game again?”
    Palmer shoved the gun harder in Bryce’s
nuts and he yelped.
    “Okay, okay! It’s not like they gave me a
business card or anything, but I think it’s the Leopard Brotherhood.”
    “One to ten, how sure are you?”
    There was a pause and then Bryce bowed
his head as he recognized his fate. “Ten.”
    Palmer let go of him and holstered his
gun since there was no more information to gather from him. The kidnappers
wouldn’t have told him where they were hiding out. As he turned to leave, he
noticed that most of the villagers had amassed to see what was going on.
    Summoning his rudimentary Burmese, Palmer
addressed everyone. “This man sold Kathleen to the rebels. You decide what kind
of justice he deserves.”
    He strode away as he noticed the crowd
bristling. These were people Kathleen had helped, had nursed back to health, people
whose children she had taught. They genuinely loved her as their own and he was
confident whatever they chose to do to Bryce would be appropriate.
    *   *   *
    In the middle of the night, under a light
rain, Palmer was finally in position outside of the main camp of the Leopard
Brotherhood. While waiting for his team to be flown in, he had read everything
he knew about the organization. The intel came courtesy of Greenbrier’s
extensive library on possible threats and world events.
    “This is Hiker 1, I need a sitrep.”
    “Hiker 2 in position.”
    “Hiker 3 in position.”
    “Hiker 4 in position.”
    “Skyscraper, what do you see?”
    “This is Skyscraper. I have two tangos on
the west flank, they look sleepy.”
    “Roger, Skyscraper. Hold for now.” Palmer
switched channels on his radio. “Condor, this is Hiker 1.”
    “Copy, Hiker 1.”
    “Condor, you are go for Operation
Sparkle. I repeat, you are go for Operation Sparkle.”
    “Roger, Hiker 1. I am go for Operation
Sparkle. Good luck to you, sir.”
    It took less than ten seconds to hear the
helicopter breaking through the rain. It lost altitude and swooped low over the
rebel camp. The point was to make itself be heard. On cue, the two sentries
became alert and started shouting for their people to wake up.
    But the chopper continued on its way,
going over a small hill. It was out of view but before long an explosion rocked
the jungle. This was all according to plan as the pilot fired a couple of
rockets into their poppy