The spokesman challenged us with, "You can't scare us. The Diablos own this part of Crawford, and we will soon own it all. Go crawl back into your hol...e before we eat you alive."I couldn't help but laugh. The spokesman had such a huge mustache that he had trouble talking without it getting into his mouth. I quickly decided to take a hard-nosed attitude and asked, "Tell me, Senor Big Bush, can you eat anything but soup with such a silly mustache?"Okay, that cut away the bluster and made the guy. My brother had remarried and was now a happy family man who wanted to forget that we had shared a bed while he was in the depths of despair. My father was dead and my mother had become more than a little batty.I had foresworn drinking, my pleasure and my curse since that day 15 years before when I ordered a gin and tonic in a Kansas City bar. To say that I was edgy and depressed when I got off the airplane in Kansas City is an understatement. What to do?I looked up Sue, my oldest friend and. " was all Mallory had time for before bullets were slamming into the ground all around him. They plinked off rocks and kicked up dust around his feet. They whizzed through the air as streaks in the infrared spectrum of his combat goggles. He was under fire! He was under fire and three of his men had already been hit!Mallory was a veteran of ambush attacks by Argentine rebels. His brain reacted instantly once the message that he was under attack was processed. He threw himself to the ground.. I let out another gasp of horror, but just then, something slammed intome from behind and knocked me to the ground. "GET DOWN," a familiarvoice command. "Take cover."Marcus crouched down beside me, aiming his gun at the old man, though hedidn't shoot. It took me a moment to realize that with the way theywere positioned, the old man had my grandmother in front of him like ashield. If Marcus tried shooting him, he'd likely hit my grandmotherinstead. After a moment, Marcus shifted targets and.