As with previous chapters in the Dr. Mitchel series, I would like to first thank my editor, RecHiker. Many of you know that I had a heart attack last October. (10/5/2015) After open heart surgery the road back has been a long process. I am happy to let y’all know that my cardiologist said I can resume any activities I choose to resume. Writing is not really a lot of activity, but I choose to resume it.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the chapters that RecHiker and I are writing that continue the Hawaiian adventure of our characters have been delayed. There will be more.

Having made my excuse, I am going to submit a chapter, that I have finished, that covers a period of time after the weddings and the Hawaiian party. I expect that both RecHiker and I will complete our story lines from Hawaii in the coming weeks. We are still collaborating; we just have to deal with our own lives, and the added complication of visits to our health care providers.

I would also like to thank my English/Spanish translator, Poisonlove. Poisonlove knows the Spanish language as her native language, but also knows my only language, so her translations are accurate, – beyond the Google translator. I envy those of you who speak and understand more than one language. Thank You, Poisonlove!

In the case of this chapter of my story Poisonlove went through the whole chapter and added a lot of editorial value. I was amazed at how much different things look from the viewpoint of a different language, as seen by someone to whom that language is primary. It’s great to have both RecHiker and Poisonlove helping to make my writing presentable.

This chapter is short on graphic sex scenes. If that’s all you are looking for, try another author. I like sex, but it isn’t my whole life, nor is it the only thing I write about. My characters are people I would like to know. They don’t exist in real life, but in my perverted mind they capture my attention and we would be friends if they did exist.

The events and places in this story are fictitious, mostly. Some of the cities, states and countries do in fact exist, but they are used as props for the fiction where my characters can live and do the things my imagination allows them to do. If you find issues with some part of this story, I ask that you remember it is fiction. I have been able to create things I would like to see, have, or do, that may or may not be real. There are a lot of actual factually based parts and pieces to the story, but I, like so many others, enhance reality to fit my own fantasies.

If you’ve read this introduction to this point you are one of the people I write for.

I’ve enjoyed writing this chapter in the life of the fictitious Dr. Marshall Mitchel. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Fat_Dad

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Marsh didn’t recognize the phone number on his cell phone display; Doctors wi… The area code was from San Diego, California, Marsh recognized that, but the number was nothing he had seen, or at least not that he remembered. He pushed the “talk” button and spoke: “This is Marsh.”

The voice on the other end was new to Marsh as well. “This is Dr. Hubert Jefferies. I’m looking for Dr. Marshall Mitchel, please.”

“Yeeeaasss.” Marsh drawled. “This is he. How may I help you, Doc?”

“Dr. Mitchel, I am calling…”

“Just a minute Dr. Jefferies. Let’s cut the formality. My mother named me Marshall. My friends call me Marsh. You may use either of those, but let’s leave it at that. OK Hubert? Or would you prefer Hugh?”

“Uh, OK Marsh. My friends do call me Hugh. I would like to get to the reason for my call, though.”

“Now that seems reasonable, Hugh. I’m all ears.” Marsh chuckled.

“Marsh, You are listed as next of kin for our Dr. Elizabeth Martinelli.” Hugh began. “She has you listed as her brother, with another brother and her parents listed as well.”

It took Marsh a few seconds to put the names in order. Dr. Elizabeth Martinelli was Mama Vicky and Papa Victor’s daughter. When they were kids Elizabeth Evangeline Martinelli had gone by a shortened form of her middle name. She had been Eva back then. Now as a physician, she was using her given first name, Elizabeth, and most of her family had shortened that to Lizzy.

“Um-Huh.” Marsh hummed. “If you are calling me, there must be a problem of some sort. How can I help you Hugh or better yet, what can I do for my sister?”

“Marsh, your sister told one of her staff to; “Call my brother Marsh.” She, that staff member, called me from Nueva Loja, Ecuador. Marsh, I assume you knew your sister is practicing medicine in South America as part of ‘Doctors without Borders’. I don’t know if you knew she had just been sent to a small village just across the border from Ecuador in the San Miguel area of Colombia.”

“Marsh, things were going pretty good for the people of the village, until a group of soldiers came in and güvenilir bahis took your sister and two US nurses hostage. They left the South American staff alone, and one of the US nurses who looked Hispanic and spoke Spanish was left also. She went across the border immediately and called us here in San Diego. I don’t know how much you know about us Marsh, but our main US offices are in New York, and we also have an office here in San Diego.”

“Marsh that call came in less than an hour ago. We contacted the State Department first, and then I called you. I don’t know you and I have no idea what, if anything you can do, but your sister was very adamant that we call you first.”

Marsh took a deep cleansing breath before he replied. “Hugh, you say you have not called our parents or my brother right?”

“That’s correct, Marsh. Liz was very specific. We were to call you.” Hugh stated.

“Good.” Marsh told him. “And what did the State Department tell you they would do?

“Marsh, we knew the region was not the most stable area in the world to begin with. Liz knew the needs of the people, and the risk of the unrest there. The State Department said they would call the Colombian Government, but they were not hopeful. The Colombian government doesn’t always play well with the US and the drug cartels. The FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) down in that region is completely unpredictable. There is way too much corruption in that area.”

“Again Marsh, I have no idea what Liz thought you could do. I’m just calling you at her request.” Hugh sounded quite discouraged.

“Hugh, is there a number where I can call and talk to any of your staff that was with my sister when she was taken? I may have some resources in that region that can help. I would need to get as much information as they can give me as to who took her and where they took her.”

“Marsh, the US nurse that was there is now at a hotel in Nueva Loja, Ecuador. She doesn’t have much money and she will need help soon. She can only be there for a couple more days. We want to get her home as soon as we can, but this was not something we had contingencies for. I’m going to begin trying to arrange transportation for our nurse as soon as I get off the phone with you. I hope you understand.” Hugh was truly apologetic.

“OK Hugh,” Marsh reassured him. “You’ve done exactly the right thing. Lizzy knows that I have some connections. You just sit back now and let me work on some things. Hugh, please don’t go ahead with transportation for your nurse, yet. I have a plane that I can send for her, and I may need her down there as a contact. I’ll get back to you after I get in touch with my friends.”

Hugh gave Marsh some contact information for the nurse that was still in Ecuador, and Marsh ended the call and sprang into action.

His first call was to Jimmy. Marsh needed Jimmy to know what was going on, and he knew he would need Jimmy and Rick’s resources. Jimmy assured Marsh that he would get Rick on board ASAP.

Marsh’s next call was to Mike Taylor. Mike had just returned from that area, and knew a lot about the countryside and the people of the region. As soon as Marsh laid out the problem, Mike indicated that he knew his way around that specific area and that he was pretty sure he knew who had taken Liz.

Mike went on to tell Marsh that his team had been engaged by some FARC soldiers just a few days earlier, and that he thought one of the head honchos had been injured. Mike was pretty sure the FARC had been transporting some prisoners and some of them may have been injured as well. The FARC would NOT be above kidnapping an American physician to treat one of their own.

Mike knew the locations of several of the cartel/FARC compounds and farms. If a team needed to go down and pull Lizzy out Mike was confident he could lead them to the right locations and with the right people on the team, there should be very light casualties if any.

Marsh was glad Mike Taylor was on his team.

Next Marsh called Doug at the bull-pen. He needed to have satellites tasked to the region, starting NOW. He asked Doug to check with Mike Taylor for specific locations to surveil. Marsh wanted to know everything they could know about the places his people might need to go. Including who was there and who had what, as far as armed resistance they might encounter.

Marsh’s next call was to Uncle Joey. Marsh knew Uncle Joey could keep a level head and tell him how to handle notifying Mama Vicky. “Marsh,” Giuseppe slowly responded. “You’re going to have to tell her. If you want me to fly to LA with you, I’ll fly to your place and we can go together. Victoria is going to be inconsolable. She didn’t want Lizzy going down there to begin with. After the thing with you and Tommy…” Giuseppe paused. “Don’t get me wrong, Marsh. Victoria thinks you did the right thing. She is really pissed at Tommy and at türkçe bahis Tony for getting him in with that crowd.”

“How soon do you want me to show up? Oh, another thing. You might want to tell Marguarita, and have her come with us. She can handle Victoria better than even my brother can.”

“Uncle Joey,” Marsh replied. I know you have to tell Uncle Tony. I think we should head out to California this afternoon if we can, or at the latest first thing tomorrow. I have teams getting ready, and I want to head down to Ecuador as soon as we can get down there with the resources that we need. The sooner we get down there the better. We need to use the element of surprise on them. They won’t be expecting an armed intervention this soon, if they even are expecting it at all.” Marsh paused. “Uncle Joey … I have to get her back. I will go down there myself, and die trying if that’s what happens.” Marsh’s voice faltered as he talked to Uncle Joey. “I can’t lose my big sister Uncle Joey. I just can’t lose Lizzy.”

Marsh was remembering how kind Elizabeth had been to him when his parents disappeared. Marguarita and Mama Vicky had taken good care of Marshall, but Lizzy had been his rock. Marsh had been able to cry in front of her, and she had held his head on her chest and just allowed Marsh to let it all out. She had been there for his worst days. Marsh was going to be there for her now.

“Marsh,” Joey spoke softly. “Antonio and I will go with you. We aren’t as young as we were in ‘Nam, but we were, and still are good Marines. If nothing else, Tony can fly a Huey and I can still pull the trigger on a machine gun. You may just have something more sophisticated than my old M60, but I bet they still clear the enemy out of the jungle.” Giuseppe chuckled as he remembered his days in the jungles of Vietnam.

Marsh felt a weight lift off of his shoulders. He was dreading going to Mama Vicky with this so soon after telling her about Tommy. Ahhhh, hell’s bells, “so soon” had nothing to do with it. He dreaded telling Mama that Elizabeth was kidnapped, period. This was going to be hell. To have Uncle Joey volunteer to go with him was a comfort. Having the two “old” warriors going with him to South America would be reassuring as well.

Marsh ended his call after confirming the details of when and where to pick up Uncle Joey and Uncle Tony. That would happen first thing tomorrow.

As Marsh hung up from talking to Giuseppe, his phone rang. Caller ID said it was Jimmy. Marsh answered with a hopeful greeting.

“Marsh,” Jimmy began. “I thought you could use some good news right off the bat. We have some clients very close to that area. It’s an oil drilling and exploration region, and we provide satellite exploration services as well as security. We have a base of operations in Ecuador, and we actually have office and control buildings at our base near Nueva Loja. It’s within a hundred miles of the village you told me your sister was taken from.”

“Marsh, the best part of this is that we have a landing strip there that we can and do use on frequent occasions. Our client uses the runway to fly in a lot of their equipment, in big transports. We can take anything you want down there, including the 747s. We already have several helicopters stationed there, and the oil companies we have contracts with have some large transport helicopters as well.”

“That’s great news, Jimmy! Thanks for that.” Marsh responded. “What do we have for aircraft already there and what kind of personnel? What is our facility set up?”

Jimmy was pretty quick to respond. “Marsh, the clients use our satellites for several purposes. We have an antenna farm and a multitude of receivers of several varieties. They use several kinds of information in exploration of natural resources, and for mining and drilling control. Their equipment is all equipped with GPS guidance systems, all run off of our satellites.”

“Marsh there’s cameras up there tasked to watch the region, and we may well have footage of the abduction. Hell son, we may be able to follow them to where she is right at this moment.”

“I know we have several medium and heavy lift helicopters. We have at least two Hueys. A couple CH-53s, one S-92, and one S-76D. Marsh, we also have one very nice Airbus AS-365. We use it for transporting oil company executives when they are in the area.

“Hot damn, dad. Now you’re getting my hopes up.” Marsh sang. “Do we have any attack helicopters, some Apaches and or Cobras? This could be an easy recovery. I’d like that!”

“Easy there son.” Jimmy cautioned. “If you want attack helicopters, we’ll have to haul them down in transports, and then haul them back up here immediately after the operation. We have a good working relationship with the Ecuatorian government, but I don’t think they would like us to set up a combat base there.”

“The Colombian government works with us in our support of the oil companies, güvenilir bahis siteleri but I’m pretty sure they will frown on us crossing into their territories with combat aircraft. We could probably get away with a six to eight-hour mission, but if we are there with attack helicopters any longer than that we might get some Colombian Air Force attention.”

We have a lot of things going for us son, but if it’s the FARC, they are unpredictable as hell. We may have to fight a pretty vicious force of thugs that have no conscience at all.”

“Dad,” Marsh responded. “I called Giuseppe. He and Uncle Tony are coming out tomorrow morning, and they are going to go to LA with me to tell Mama Vicky. Then they are going to go to Ecuador with me as well. Antonio can fly a chopper, and Uncle Joey sounded like he was itching for some GAU-17 or some M240 trigger time. He hasn’t played with something like that in a long time. I think he’ll like it a lot better than the M-60 from his ‘Nam days.”

“Dad, have you been to Nueva Loja? I know nothing about Ecuador.” Marsh asked.

“I’ve been down to our compound at Nueva Loja, Marsh. I was in the town for a couple of hours for a meal, several times. You’ll have to talk to one of our operatives, like perhaps, Mike Taylor, to find out anything about it.” Jimmy replied. Why are you asking, Marsh? You don’t even need to go into the city if you don’t want to. We have places to stay at the compound.”

“Dad,” Marsh replied. “One of Lizzy’s nurses got away and she is in one of the hotels in the city. They said she is at the Hotel D’Mario. I need to know she is safe till we get there and pick her up.”

Jimmy quickly responded, “Marsh, that’s no problem. Have one of our SEALs, no, have one of our teams go into town and bring her to our secure compound. She can stay there till you get Lizzy and then she can fly home with you in the Gulfstream. – I am assuming you will be taking that as well as whatever else you need to transport the teams and their equipment.”

“Do you know any of our guys or gals down there, dad? I’d love to know who I’m talking to. If we have a female operative, Eva will probably feel more comfortable with a woman escort?

“I know Bruce Addison is down there. Hmmm, let me think. I know there are a couple of ladies there too. Ahhhh, oh yeah! Lindsey Schultz, and Lucy Ramirez are there. Lindsey is more of an analyst, but she’s a good one. Lucy is hell on wheels. She was a Marine sniper. Lucy is deadly with a .308 and a .300 Win. Mag. and she can handle a pistol as well.” Jimmy praised the ladies he knew were available to Marsh in the foreign country.

“Marsh,” Jimmy continued. Who is this Eva? I could call down and have Lucy head into town and pick her up. If you want to call her, or have the guy from Doctors Without Borders call her, she might be a little more comfortable than just having some stranger show up and try to take her to someplace she has no clue even exists.”

“Good plan, dad. Her name is Eva Menendez. She is at the Hotel D’Mario. They didn’t give me a room number. She is an RN from SoCal, and I got the impression the Doctors Without Borders people would like to get her out of country.” Marsh agreed. “I’ll call her right now, while you get in touch with our people in Ecuador.”

Marsh ended the call with Jimmy, and dialed the number that he had been given for where Eva was staying.

“Buenos Dias! Hotel D’Mario. ¿Cómo puedo ayudarle?” Marsh heard after the second ring.

“Eva Menéndez, Por favor.” Marsh replied.

“Si señor. Un momento.” Was the reply he heard.

Marsh heard the telephone receiver laid down on a hard surface, and then he heard just the background noise of a small town hotel lobby.

In a couple of minutes Marsh heard an extension pick up, and then the first phone line went quiet.

“This is Eva Menendez.” A pleasant but nervous sounding female voice came through the phone line.

“Eva,” Marsh began. “My name is Marshall Mitchel. Dr. Hubert Jefferies told me you called him and said my sister was abducted yesterday.”

“Oh! Marsh!… I mean Dr. Mitchel I’m so glad to hear from you. Lizzy … ah Dr. Martinelli has talked about you so much, I feel like I know you. She said you would know what to do. Thank you so much for calling me.

Marsh chuckled as he listened to the excited young woman. “Eva,” he replied. You can call me by my first name, or my nickname. Marsh is fine. And, if Lizzy is what you know my sister by, you can just keep using that.”

“Now Eva, I have some employees at my office very near your location. I’m going to send Lucy Ramirez to pick you up, and take you to our compound, where you will be safe till we get you out of there.”

“Eva, Lucy is a US Marine, and she is a security agent for me, working for one of the big oil companies in Ecuador. She will probably be bringing some tough looking guys with her, and she will make sure nobody messes with you from the minute she meets you.”

“I’ll be in the country before tomorrow evening, Eva, and we will be going into Colombia either tomorrow, or the next day to bring Lizzy home. Do you have any questions for me?”