The Mission War by Wesley Ellis Page A

orange-yellow light of the match revealed a taut mask.
    â€œMy mother was not young or strong. She was taken with the other old ones, the very young, the crippled—and they were slaughtered so that they could not tell the authorities what had happened and who had taken the slaves away.”
    Cardero said no more. He didn’t have to. Jessica tried to imagine how it was—the innocents taken out and killed, the screams and crying. A small hiss escaped involuntarily from her lips.
    â€œThis is the work of your cartel?” Brother Joseph asked.
    â€œYes,” Jessie said. “Don Alejandro is a part of the cartel. This is how they work. Ruthless and grasping.”
    â€œI understand now,” the friar said, “understand why you, too, must try to go south and destroy this Don Alejandro. And, God save my soul, I can find no fault with you for wanting to end his dirty life.”
    The friar then turned and walked away. The fire from San Ignacio still burned and it backlighted his cowled figure.
    â€œAm I to be allowed to fight with you?” Diego asked.
    â€œHow can we refuse? But how are you going to gain entrance to Don Alejandro’s house now?” Jessie asked.
    â€œSome other way. There will be a way, though not as simple.”
    Perhaps, Ki thought, by delivering our heads himself after this is over. Ki glanced at Jessica, but no such doubts seemed to cloud her eyes.
    You trust too easily, Jessica, Ki thought. She was a woman who made decisions with her heart at times and a surprising amount of the time her heart was right in its judgments. Ki only hoped she was right this time about the bandit, Diego Cardero.
    The three of them found the friar in the rectory. He told them what he had done.
    â€œCardero is to be one ally, but I doubt he is enough. I have asked the alcalde and several men from San Ignacio to come to the church.”
    â€œWill they fight?” Ki asked.
    â€œQuién sabe?” He shrugged and looked from Jessica to Ki and back. “Nor will I ask them. I have invited them here so that you may speak to them, so that you may ask them to fight beside you.”
    There was a drawback to this plan, Ki thought. More of the townspeople would know where Ki and Jessica were hiding, and perhaps it would make more sense to the alcalde and his delegation simply to turn them over to Mono rather than to try to fight the bandit leader.
    Their town was burning; their people were being hurt. They might go to any length to end the savagery of Mono.
    There was no other choice, however; they would speak to the people of San Ignacio and tell them how it must be, ask them to help drive Mono away or kill him.
    Ki could only hope they would listen. If they didn‘t, they could expect another visitor—Mono would return and this time he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had the heads of Jessica Starbuck and Ki in his saddle bags.

Chapter 10
    The alcalde of the town of San Ignacio was named Rivera. He was squat, heavy, balding, but there was something in his eyes that said he had once been a fighter. Ki saw that and approved.
    They were introduced to Rivera and the other three important men of the delegation, and then they sat around the friar’s table. Fire from the town cast bright reflections on the window of the rectory. Now and then they heard gunfire from San Ignacio as Mono continued to assault the little border town.
    Rivera spoke, “So you two are the cause of this destruction.”
    â€œMono is the cause of it,” Jessie answered. “We aren’t the ones responsible for what’s going on out there; it’s the bandits, and perhaps the people of the town who have allowed Mono to have his way in the past.” She spoke sharply, her eyes glinting, and Rivera, running his tongue across his upper teeth, nodded with apparent admiration. He looked more closely at the blond gringa now, seeing her differently.
    She was a woman with a remarkable