All of them were solid members of the club, core members, except for Austin — but that would change tonight. Austin would be as solid with the club as anyone could be after this.

 

“Alright everyone, I know you have some idea of what we pulling tomorrow night. Now it’s time to tell you how we’re going to pull it off,” Leo began.

 

“The plane you are going to meet is a B100 King Air, a light two-engine cargo plane with a payload of about 4700lbs, or just about two metric tons, including crew. It won’t be carrying anything like that. It should have two hundred to three hundred kilos of cocaine and one pilot.”

 

“Holy shit,” Omar said. “Can’t get popped with that much shit on us; we’ll never see daylight again.”

 

“If you want out, now’s the time. No shame at all,” Leo told him.

 

“No, Danny already told us it was going to be a coke drop we were after. Just wasn’t prepared for the size. This is serious stuff,” Omar said.

 

“What’s the ground resistance going to be like, Leo?” Preston Pope asked.

 

“None. There won’t be anyone there to meet the plane except you,” Leo replied.

 

“No one? How?”

 

Leo told them about Nomar’s system. Nomar had a beacon, which was basically a cellphone with a GPS transmitter. This beacon was on the same frequency as the “hound” equipment on the plane, as in “fox and hound.” The hound equipment had a map screen showing the pilot where to go: where the fox was.

 

“What I did was create a duplicate of this device, which looks like it is working properly, but in fact isn’t sending out any signal at all. I tested this on the last drop and made sure Nomar bought the fake beacon as the real one. Everything went smooth then, and he’s had it now for five weeks. You are going to another one of Nomar’s landing strips, number 3, and turn on the real beacon there. The pilot will see the location, recognize it as one of the ten, and land the plane for you.”

 

“How does he pick his landing strips? Is it just a rotation?” Hugo asked.

 

“No, it’s fairly random. He has this black velvet bag with lottery balls inside — ten of them, numbered from 0 to 9. I wanted to make sure that he was going to pick airstrip 8, so I switched all of his balls with a set of ten I purchased. All of them have the number 8 on them,” Leo explained.

 

“Why did you care which one he was going to pick?” Hugo asked.

 

“Because I needed to set it up. It’s where I’m going to die. At least, hopefully he’ll buy into the illusion of my death. Just as we get there, the DEA will arrive on the scene, and several explosions will happen on the airstrip itself. During this confusion, I’ll set off my shirt, which is one of those special effect deals. If I time it right, Nomar will see me get shot three times in the chest and then roll down the south side of the mesa, where I already cleared out the big rocks so I don’t crack my skull. The DEA will be rushing up, and Nomar shouldn’t have time to come down to check on me. He’ll either run or give up. Giving up is the best option since he still has no plane, no drugs, and hasn’t done anything wrong.”

 

“Nice, but how are you getting out? Body bag?” Angel asked.

 

“No. As soon as the confusion up there is in full swing, I’ll slip out into the black and walk out of the canyon to where I hid my 450 thumper. When it looks like I can get away with it, I’ll be heading back here to get my things, strap them onto the bike, and head north, since everything south will be pissed off at me.”

 

“It sounds like Leo has this under control, and it’s well-thought-out,” Preston said. “Let’s get back to what we are doing, alright?”

 

Leo agreed. “Right. So, Danny has acquired two two-ton pickups and two Hummers for you. That should transport you down to the field. Once there, you turn on the beacon. As soon as you hear the plane, you light up the airstrip with flares and the lights from the trucks, like this—“

 

Leo walked them through the creation of the makeshift landing strip on the whiteboard he had set up, including where the trucks should be located and where the flares were placed.

 

“It’s going to take eight of you to get the flares in place quickly enough. Don’t delay on this. Move as fast as you can. The pilot will leave if he’s left hanging up there too long,” Leo warned.

 

“The cargo door is on the side, and the cocaine will be on pallets. There are rollers on the floor so you can pull the pallets out fairly easy, but after that it’s manual labor. Back the trucks up with the gates down, as close as you can, and pull them into the truck, then slide them forward as far as you can to get ready for the next one. You’ll probably only need the one truck, but just to be sure, I asked Danny to make it two. If one breaks down, then you have a chance of getting out of there with some of the dope anyway.

 

“Which brings up a point,” Leo said, lifting a finger and getting everyone’s attention. “This isn’t about the coke. It’s about hurting the fuck out of Nomar and getting reprisal for Woody and Emma. It will definitely help the club coffers getting this much coke, but don’t risk your freedom or your lives over it. If the truck breaks down, load what you can into the other, and walk away from the rest with your head held high.”

 

“What about just taking one pallet and burning the rest?” Austin asked.

 

“That’s up to you, and if you feel that’s the way to go, do it without hesitation,” Leo said.

 

“So we are expecting no hostiles?” Hugo asked.

 

“I always expect hostiles, and besides, you aren’t the only ones out there. DEA, Border Patrol, bandits, those fuckers that run around in dune buggies with automatic weapons acting like they are a home guard or something. So, Preston is going to set you up with hardware from the club armory if you don’t have your own. And if those home guard fuckers show up, be sure to shoot first. Because they will fire on you, even if you give up.”

 

Hugo nodded his head and motioned for Leo to carry on.

 

“Good. Now we have four night vision setups for the drivers. Fucking things are expensive as hell, so I only got the four. If anyone has experience with these, sound off now.”

 

“I do,” Austin said, followed by Omar, Sam, and Angel.

 

“Those are our drivers, then,” Leo told them.

 

“Alright, so what then?” Preston asked.

 

“Back to the club, back the trucks into the bays out back, lock ’em down, and deal with them after a good night of sleep,” Leo said. “You are each getting ten grand out of the sales, with the option for bonuses as Danny sees fit, but the ten grand is solid.”

 

They talk for another hour or so, going over details and making sure they understood everything, but the plan sounded basic and solid enough: get there, get the dope, get home, don’t get caught.