A/N: Characters aren't mine. Follow up to 'War Zone'.

Mine fields

Prologue

The dark brown head of hair trapped in my scope swiveled around in his chair. Victor Sanchez looked out of his office window, oblivious to the shortening of his life span, and smiled as he watched his two young sons play in the small backyard. Sanchez had made too many mistakes for one of Alexander's Italian associates. Too many mistakes gets your face in a picture with a price tag on the back.

What was the price tag for killing a low level Spanish thug who's skimming off the top of drug and gun shipments? Fifty thou. Not bad for a three day trip to Spain. The sad part for Alexander's associate is that I would have done it for free after I watched the jack ass slap his wife in the face when she had tripped and dropped a cup of coffee on the office floor carpet.

Did I feel bad about taking someone's life? Sometimes I did. Sometimes I didn't. And when I didn't mind wiping a scumbag, wife-beater off the face of the Earth, I'd smile and go shopping after as a reward for a job well done.

I re-sighted my target through my scope, a small smile tilting up my lips.

"Enjoy your swift trip to Hell, Mr. Sanchez."

The trigger was pulled, glass shattered, a woman screamed, and my job was finished.

As I dismantled and packed up my riffle, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket.

"Plum," I said once I got the phone to my ear.

"Trip," a gruff, familiar voice clipped back to me. "I'm walking out of the meeting with George Andrews. He's pissed off that I can't lower the rate that we quoted him."

"How much lower does he want?" I asked as I closed my gun case and headed to the rental car I had parked at the curb. "The rate that we had discussed at our first meeting was already discounted ten percent and he was agreeable to that rate."

"I know." Trip was definitely not sounding pleased. "When are you going to be back?"

"My flight out of here is tomorrow morning," I said as I climbed in my car and headed back into Madrid. "Have Alice call and set up a meeting for me and Mr. Andrews for Monday afternoon. He probably just thought that he'd be able to get another discount with you since he's been dealing with me."

"Alright. So..." Trip hesitated for a moment. "How's Spain?"

I grinned. "Quiet."

"Okay. I'll see you Monday morning for our weekly department meeting."

"Oh, Trip?" I stopped him from hanging up.

"Yeah."

"Tell Ranger to pass along that there is a shipment coming in on Thursday night that the DEA and ATF should sniff around." I pulled out a note pad and read off the ships name and the port location that I had overheard from a deck hand. "Should be an interesting shipment of goods."

"Will do," Trip said. Then paused. "You know that this is dangerous, right?"

"I'm not that fond of Alexander's Italian associate," I said after a moment. "I'm not all that fond of the Spanish associate that he had either."

"I see," Trip said with a sigh. "I'll pass the message along. Have a safe flight."

"Will do."

After tucking my cell phone back in my pocket, I headed for the nearest shopping plaza. I really deserved some new shoes.