On pages 29-36, Commander Baldwyn's officer Marchesi drives the camper through the desert. He too is attacked by a COPE police strike team. But another team of police in a helicopter attacks the strike team with a rocket. An argument about jurisdiction breaks out:
“This is the national police! Cease fire, and drop your weapons! Identify yourself!”
“Are you crazy? I am Guillermo Torremolinos, a lieutenant of the Carabineros. There are armed terrorists in that camper! My team and I had orders to stop them, by any means. To fire on my men – it is unheard of! You will regret it!”
“My orders were different, Lieutenant Torremolinos. And we will see who will regret it.”
“The driver is still alive!”
(Marchesi) “I was wearing a bulletproof vest.”
(Cabral) “A wise precaution, my colleague.” (To Torremolinos) “The man you shot is a police officer on a special mission. Yes, I believe this story will lead to an investigation, Lieutenant Torremolinos… but on you and your superiors!”
(Marchesi) “There's no point in looking over there, Lieutenant. I was the only one in the camper.”
“Agent Marchesi, good job.”
“You too, Commissioner Cabral.”
“When you see Baldwyn again, you can tell him that some part of this country is still healthy.”
“Commander Baldwyn is a very long way from here now.”
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Our heroes are on a freight train.
(Kurjak) “How much longer will we have to stay in here?”
(Baldwyn) “Our car will be shunted to a siding not far from Desert Town. We will get there after dark and then separate, Señor Guerrero. You and your family will continue by train to Iquique, where you will be protected by the state police.”
“Iquique isn’t far from where we’re going, right? Why can't your colleagues lend us a hand, Baldwyn?”
“First we need the precise location of the Condor.”
(Harlan) “Too much commotion would only drive him away.”
(Kurjak) “Maybe he's already run away. Masters of the Night don't always want to face you, Dampyr. And when they do, it's only because they feel ironclad safe. Like Ixtlàn, remember?”
(Tesla) “I don't think things went so well with Ixtlàn, soldier boy.”
“That time, we had a big stroke of luck, and I certainly spent one of my nine lives against those planes. I may have used up another, the other day in the pool of the Sheraton Hotel. I don't have many left.”
“Don't get pessimistic now. Instead, describe to me what the landscape is like out there.”
“Flat and empty. Not the kind of place I'd go for a picnic. Are there no towns or farms around here?”
(Baldwyn) “The Atacama Desert is almost deserted. There used to be some mining towns, now ghost towns, with at most a dozen or so overseers and workers who extracted the minerals.”
“Is Desert Town one of them? Why does it have an English name?”
“The Condor Copper and Nitrate Mining Company had American capital, and almost all the profits ended up in the pockets of foreign shareholders and financiers.”
“The Allende government nationalized it, right?”
“You're well informed, Harlan.”
“Everyone knows that the money from the expropriated foreign industrialists financed the coup. Condor was among them.”
(Baldwyn) “Here's Quebranta train station.”
(Harlan) “Abandoned?”
“Like most stations here in northern Chile.” (Tesla leaps from the train and runs ahead.)
(Teresa) “Up there, on the left.”
(Kurjak) “Tesla has gone ahead to scout. If there are any problems, she'll notice before anyone else.”
(Baldwyn) “We part ways here. Desert Town is not far away.”
(Guerrero) “How will you get there?”
“The train has two locomotives. We will take the branch to Desert Town with a single car, and you will continue on the main line to Iquique with the rest of the freight. You won't raise any suspicion, and Detective Perez will come with you to protect you.”
(Teresa) “I'm a good shot, Señor Guerrero, and other police officers are with us on the train.”
(Ernesto) “I'm sure that Diego and Francisca will be safe with you, but I won't go with them to Iquique. I want to stay with you, Baldwyn. We will hunt the Condor!”
“Huh?”
“If the Condor is one of the main authors of the military coup, well… I have to be there! Give me a weapon and take me with you. I have already shot, on September 11th many years ago. You understand me, right, Francisca? It's something I have to do together with these men. The victims of the Condor and the other executioners still scream inside me. It's the only way to silence them…”
“Ernesto, my love…”
