Leary had been looking down at the river and watching the other helicopter just below and slightly ahead of them. The river was shallow, speckled with rocks and sandbars, and there were many stretches where it meandered so wide and slow it almost disappeared.     

“You’ll like this job,” the pilot assured him.   “You’ll get a real charge out of it.”

Leary shook his head.   “We’ve done something like this before,”  he said, and the pilot looked at him blankly but said nothing.  

The two helicopters, painted black with no identification, flew low over the Canadian-U.S.  border and followed the Kettle River south.   Leary knew there were many gaps in radar monitoring along there, and small planes and choppers smuggled drugs through them all the time.  He knew the chances were good they wouldn’t be picked up until they were a good way into the U.S.

They soared higher over the bridges at Kettle Falls where the Kettle joined the Columbia, then quickly dropped to fly low down Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake towards Grand Coulee Dam.   At the mouth of the Spokane River they turned southeast briefly along Highway 25, avoiding the security net around Coulee Dam, but then swung back southwest and fluttered low across the rolling prairie towards Odessa.

They were flying over low, round hills, gaining height when they flew close to farms but otherwise staying close to the ground. There were few people. Cattle and horses huddled in the shade of wilted trees, the ground around them worn black. A few cattle stood hopefully near empty feed bins.

“You’re carrying a lot of weight with those bombs,”  Leary said.   “Sure you got the range?”

The pilot nodded as if he were thinking about something else.   “The extra fuel will do it.   We’ll be OK.”

“Who’s paying?” Leary asked, more to make conversation than anything.   “This operation’s not cheap.”

The pilot grinned, apparently enjoying being in control.   “People who thought it was a good investment I guess,”  he said vaguely. 

“People?”

“All I know is they’re all Canadians.”  The pilot sounded proud of himself.    But then he added, “At least, I’d call them Canadians.   They may disagree.”