Ready to Kill (24 page)

Cowering inside the recycle Dumpster behind the post office, Antonia hadn’t heard anything in a long time and wondered what she should do. Thankfully, there was only paper and cardboard in here. She slid the flattened boxes she’d used for concealment aside, cracked the bin’s plastic lid, and peered through the narrow opening. She didn’t know how long she’d been hiding in here, but it felt like hours. One thing was certain, she sure as hell didn’t want to get shot at again. She’d seen the red laser beam a split second before the bullet plowed the ground in front of her. Raw panic had seized her, a wholly unpleasant state of mind. She’d been panting like a dog when she’d scrambled into the bin. Ten seconds later, her body had begun an uncontrollable shiver, and she’d nearly vomited at the thought of the shooter opening the Dumpster’s lid to finish her off. She’d been utterly helpless and thoroughly shamed. Franco could never know about this; he’d dump her for sure.

Once her mind calmed, she questioned who’d shot at her. It had to be Tobias’s son, but why would he do it? He seemed to care about her. It didn’t make sense. Could he have missed shooting her on purpose? If so, why? Maybe he wanted her to react exactly like she had. Maybe he was teaching her a lesson and wanted her to go home. If that was his intent, it worked. She’d had her fill of action for the evening. She climbed out of the recycle bin and followed the rear wall of the post office to its southwest corner. It took her a moment to build up enough nerve to peer around the corner.

Was that movement? She could’ve sworn she saw something on the south end of town. She held perfectly still and stared toward the bridge. There it was again. Thirty seconds later, the movement turned into two dark shapes walking down the middle of the road.

One of them was in front of the other, and it looked like the guy in front was a prisoner. His arms were behind his back, and he walked with a slight limp. The guy behind was holding a rifle at the hip. It looked like he had a backpack with something bulky dangling on the outside. As they got closer, she confirmed the first guy was definitely a prisoner. Then she saw him clearly, and despite her frazzled state, Antonia managed a smile. Perhaps the evening wasn’t a total disaster after all. One of Franco’s men had captured Tobias’s son and was marching him up the road. It felt good to see Estefan Delgado caught and helpless. He certainly wouldn’t be shooting at her again.

Without conscious thought, Antonia decided what she’d do: follow them at a safe distance wherever they were going. If Franco planned to interrogate the guy, she wanted to watch and learn how to do it.

“I’ve got the girl,”
Nathan said.
“She’s at the southwest corner of the post office. Slowly angle to the west side of the street. We want her to recognize Estefan.”

Harv clicked his radio and jabbed Estefan in the back with the flash suppressor—hard. “Keep moving, you low-life scumbag,” he said, loud enough for Antonia to hear.

“Asshole,” Estefan whispered. “That damned thing better be on safety.”

“It has a safety?” Harv asked.

“You’re a real riot, you know that?”

Nathan watched Antonia advance up the street to the tavern.
“We’re in business; she’s following you. She’s behind the tavern. Keep going at your current pace.”

Harv stepped closer to Estefan. “I’m glad you’re in front in case this doesn’t work.”

“You’re a double asshole.”

“Don’t worry. It’s going to work.”

“It better.”

The motel’s office appeared dark. The owner had probably gone back to bed after reporting Estefan’s presence. The street looked nearly pitch-black. High, thin clouds reflected a tiny amount of moonlight.

If the third gunman was still at the gas station, he should be able to see them by now.

Keeping the assault rifle level with his left hand, Harv felt for the laser’s tiny power switch on the base of his Sig’s handle and moved it to the “on” position. He’d turned it off when he tucked the gun into his belt at the small of his back. The beam would remain dark until he pressed the activation button on the Sig’s grip. Adding to the ruse, he gave Estefan a shove forward. At the same time, he diverted his hand to the radio. “Nathan, stand by.”

Doing his best imitation of what he’d heard down at the river, he issued the high-pitched whistle.

Nothing happened.

“Let’s go a little farther,” Harv whispered.

Estefan kept his hands where they were, maintaining the deception they were bound behind his back.

Harv repeated the whistle. Louder. “Let’s slow our pace. If G3 doesn’t show up in the next few seconds, we’ll go to plan B and divert over to the motel room.”

“He might’ve relocated without Nathan seeing him. He could be anywhere.”

“I’ll tell Nathan that unless we see our guy in the next few seconds, we’re going to plan B. Wait, I see motion. I think he’s behind the gas pumps. Nathan, we’ve got G3. Do you have eyes on Antonia?”

“Affirm. She’s watching from the tavern.”

From twenty paces away, Harv watched G3 step away from the pumps. The guy waved.

Harv waved back and gave Estefan another shove forward.

Holding his rifle in one hand, the gunman kept coming. “You got him,” he said in Spanish.

The guy took two more steps and stopped. His body language tensed.

“Jaime? Where’s Tomas?”

Estefan moved to his left to screen Harv from the gunman’s view, but it was too late.

Something had already spooked the guy.

In an aggressive move, the gunman grabbed the assault rifle with his other hand.

Estefan ducked.

Harv reacted before G3 could bring his weapon to bear. He dropped the rifle, pulled his Sig, and activated its laser.

He centered the red dot on the man’s chest and fired a two-round burst.

The result wasn’t glorious.

Twice punched by an invisible fist, the gunman’s body shuddered as the subsonic slugs tore through his heart. He dropped his weapon and stood motionless. When reality hit home, he fell to his knees and crossed himself.

Harv rushed forward, but the guy had already slumped sideways onto his shoulder.

“Grab the rifles,” Harv told Estefan.

As quickly as possible, Harv dragged G3 across the street to the motel. Estefan reached the room first and opened the door.

Antonia waited until Franco’s man walked Tobias’s son well past the tavern before following. She still felt uneasy about the way the two men were acting. She’d heard them whispering again.

Staying out of their line of sight, she crept along the back of the post office where she’d hidden herself in the recycle bin. She peered around the corner and saw the two men continuing up the street. Confident she wouldn’t be seen, she ran north to the tavern. From there, she’d have a good view of the motel and gas station.

Franco’s man slowed and whistled. A few seconds later, he did it again, only louder. She wondered who he was signaling. Her answer arrived when she saw a third man appear from behind the gas pumps. Carrying a rifle in one hand, he waved and stepped away from the pumps.

Something was wrong. The third guy suddenly stopped and brought his rifle up with both hands. Was he going to shoot them?

The next few seconds became surreal.

Estefan crouched and Franco’s man grabbed a handgun from behind his back.

His gun flashed twice, but it wasn’t very loud.

Antonia covered her mouth as the man from the gas pumps fell to his knees.

This whole thing was a trick. Estefan wasn’t a prisoner at all. His hands weren’t even tied.

For the second time tonight, Antonia felt fear, raw and deep. She needed to get out of here. Something terrible was happening, and she no longer knew who was who.

She pivoted to her right and found herself face-to-face with the biggest man she’d ever seen, his face painted like Tobias’s son’s.

“It’s nice to meet you, Antonia.”

She inhaled to scream, but the guy moved faster than she’d thought possible. She had a brief sense of feeling weightless before landing on her chest. The impact drove all the air from her lungs. She felt the man’s weight lift off her back a little, which allowed her to suck in a labored breath. Completely pinned with her face jammed into the dirt, she couldn’t move at all.

CHAPTER 26

“You’re in a world of trouble, young lady,” Nathan said in Spanish. “If you scream or try to fight, I’ll hurt you. Are we clear on that?”

No response.

Nathan added some weight to his knee.

The girl grunted and nodded tightly.

“Good. I’m not planning to hurt you unless you try something stupid. If you scream, I’ll make you regret it. We’re going across the street. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. I never hit women, but I’m willing to make an exception in your case.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the guy asking the questions. Now would you like to walk or be dragged?”

“Walk.”

“Good choice.”

Nathan hauled her upright and forced her wrist behind her back. He walked behind and slightly to her left. He knew she was right-footed from watching her earlier.

“Hey, you’re hurting me.”

“Keep moving. The discomfort’s a reminder to behave yourself. Don’t worry. We aren’t going to rape you, so you can put that out of your mind.”

At hearing that, she seemed to relax a little.

Across the street, the motel room went dark just before Estefan and Harv disappeared inside.

If Antonia was going to make a move, it would happen within the next five steps or so. Nathan knew she’d have to pivot to her left to free her left arm, so he drove it higher and tighter to her body. She cried out but not loudly.

“Just making sure you still know who’s in charge.”

Inside the room, Nathan shoved her forward and kicked the door shut. “Estefan, close the rear window.”

When Nathan heard the metallic scrape and subsequent thump, he verified the curtains were closed and flipped the light switch. The room filled with bland yellow light from the nightstand lamp.

Antonia pursed her lips when she saw Estefan.

Harv emerged from the bathroom, drying his hands with a blood-smeared towel.

“Sit her down,” Nathan said.

Estefan pushed Antonia toward the bed.

She sat, keeping her legs together and her hands in her lap.

Staring at the girl, Nathan remained silent for ten seconds. Neither Harv nor Estefan said anything. It was a classic interrogation strategy. When Nathan finally spoke, his voice had an icy evenness. “I don’t suppose you feel the slightest bit guilty about the men we killed out there.”

She kept her head down and didn’t respond.

“I didn’t think so. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them truthfully. Here’s my first question. Do you understand what I just told you?”

She nodded without looking up.

“In a few minutes, you and I are going to walk over to the pay phone, and you’re going to call the man you know as Franco. I’ll tell you what to say. If you deviate from the script, you’ll end up like your father—with one ear.” Nathan pulled his Predator from its ankle sheath and held it a few inches from her face. He twisted its menacing blade a few times. “I trust I won’t have to use this?”

She shook her head and wiped a tear.

“Spare me,” Estefan muttered.

Nathan looked at him. “Wire up. We need eyes outside.”

Estefan looked like he wanted to object but didn’t.

After Estefan slipped outside, Nathan continued. “You’re in over your head, Antonia. I’m sure that’s abundantly clear now. This isn’t a kid’s game of cops and robbers. You’re in the big leagues now. Here’s the deal. You’re going to answer my questions. Refusing to answer or lying will result in pain. If you’d like to test yourself to see how tough you are, by all means try it. I’m willing to administer your exam. Try to imagine what it feels like having your skin peeled off in narrow strips. Personally, I think that kind of sacrifice is misguided, given who you’re protecting, but that’s an internal debate you can have once we get started.” Nathan looked at Harv who crossed his arms. “Since we don’t have any goggles or rain ponchos for blood spatter protection, we’ll have to start with noninvasive methods, such as broken bones, dislocated joints, and soft-tissue trauma. I’ll secure a folded pillowcase inside your mouth, so you won’t crack your teeth during the process. Ready, Harv?”

Harv obliged with a solemn nod.

“Are you ready?” Nathan asked Antonia.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“For what?”

“About the men who died.”

“Well, it’s a start. Ask yourself this. Do you think your white-shirted boyfriend would suffer through horrible agony for you?”

From the look on her face, Nathan knew he was close to breaking her. “Quite frankly, you’re in our way. We could make our lives a whole lot easier by adding your corpse to the bathtub. Maybe you have info we can use, maybe you don’t—it’s too early to say. I’m not going to ask questions that require long answers. If you go off topic, I’ll be very unhappy.”

“You don’t have to hurt me. I’ll tell you what I know.”

“A wise decision. For the record, I don’t think you’re a stupid person. I think you’ve made some bad decisions, but that doesn’t make you stupid.”

“I’m really sorry about Estefan’s father. He was a nice man.”

“If all goes well here, you can tell Estefan that yourself. I’m sure he’d appreciate hearing it. The man you’re
. . .
associated with burned Estefan’s house down and put his wife in the hospital. Did you know that?”

“No.”

“Did you tell him who Estefan was?”

She hesitated, then nodded.

“How did you get personal information on Estefan?”

She told him about the uncashed check from the church.

“If I were you, I’d pray Estefan never finds out about that.”

“You aren’t going to tell him?”

“No.”

At this point Nathan knew she’d answer his questions readily, so he went methodically through a list of things they needed to know.

Three minutes later, they had a basic understanding of Macanas’s operations in Santavilla. He also verified the information she’d shared with Estefan earlier. The lumber mill was the center of activity, and Franco never came into town without going there. Antonia didn’t know why so many men were stationed there, but she said the number had grown from three to five or six over the last nine months. Franco’s men lived there in a barracks type of setup. If her information was up to date, then they could count on at least two more men being at the mill.

Nathan did a quick calculation in his head. Estefan had fired the shot in front of Antonia around twenty minutes ago. The remaining men in the lumber mill would be wondering why their friends hadn’t come back by now. He pressed the transmit button on his radio. “Estefan, we need you back in here.”

“On my way.”

Antonia kept her head down and remained motionless while Harv let Estefan into the room.

“Watch our guest for a minute,” Nathan said. “If she tries anything cute, break her arm
. . .
in two places. Cut up some strips of bedsheets to use as ties.”

Estefan nodded. “My pleasure.”

Walking across the street with Harv, Nathan thought about the call he wanted Antonia to make. A good idea formed, and he was surprised he hadn’t thought of it earlier.

“So what’s the plan?” said Harv.

Nathan found a place in the shadows where they could speak without being seen. “Well, we need to force Raven to come up here as soon as possible, if he’s not already on his way. We can do that with a call from Antonia, but immediately afterward we need to cut off all communications between Santavilla and the outside world. That accomplishes a couple of things: Raven won’t be able to coordinate with his men, and no one can report our presence to him.”

“Good point,” said Harv. “If he hears one of his former kilo colleagues is working with a couple of American agents, he’ll put two and two together.”

Nathan nodded. “We’re pretty hard to confuse with anyone else. Especially me. And there’s no way Raven would engage Estefan
and
his two old Echo instructors, even with a small army of men.”

“So we cut the phone line coming into town?”

“Basic military strategy. Sever the enemy’s communication.”

Harv looked to the south. “Yeah, it could work. There’s no cell service in this valley, but didn’t Estefan say there might be a signal at the top of that mountain?”

“‘Might’ being the operative word. If we have time later, we’ll hustle up there and check.”

“Cantrell could be trying to contact us.”

“We can’t worry about that right now.”

“You realize we’ll be isolating the town from the outside world. If someone calls one-one-eight in an emergency, no one will receive it.”

“I don’t like it much, but I think the odds are pretty low someone will have a life-threatening emergency during the next few hours.”

“Nate, we create life-threatening emergencies.”

“Come on. You know what I mean.”

“I guess I’m okay with that too. Like you said, the odds are pretty low. So we’ll need a pair of wire cutters.”

“We’ll ask Antonia if the general store has them. If not, we’ll improvise. It might take a few bullets, but we can shoot the phone line if we have to.”

“So what’s our timing?” Harv asked.

“We sever the phone line right after I force Antonia to call Raven. Raven’ll try to call the lumber mill for an update and be concerned when he can’t get through.”

“If our goal’s to get him to come up here, we need him more than concerned.”

“I have no idea if he’ll get an out-of-service message or if the line will just ring indefinitely. Either way, he’ll feel compelled to come up here and deal with Estefan. If we play things right with Antonia’s call, I’m ninety-nine percent convinced Raven will show up quickly. The wild card is, how he does it: fly or drive?”

Harv said, “He could do both. He could send some of his men in on the ground and fly himself in.”

“He knows he’s facing a former sniper. I doubt he’ll land at the helipad wearing a fluorescent-orange shirt and yell, ‘Here I am.’”

“He definitely won’t do that. What would you do?”

Nathan thought for a moment. “I’d time the arrivals simultaneously. There are plenty of places to land a helicopter around here. Raven knows Estefan can’t possibly cover the entire valley from a single location.”

Harv went silent.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Nate, we talked about this. We agreed we couldn’t go to war with Macanas’s cartel. We could be facing a small army of mercenaries.”

“I can’t deny that’s a possibility, but I don’t think Raven will be thinking that way. See, I think Raven needs to end this as much as we do. His boss would
not
want him getting into this kind of private war over something personal when it could jeopardize his business here. Chances are, Raven will be doing everything he can to keep this secret from Macanas.”

“Then he’ll only bring a handful of his best men.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Okay, but are we going to bail if Raven shows up with a small army?”

“Absolutely, Harv. We aren’t equipped for that kind of fight, and I have no desire to kill a bunch of men. I hate to say this, but one way or the other, we’re calling for our ride home later today.”

“I guess I needed to hear you say that.”

“Our mission hasn’t changed. We fight Raven on our terms in a limited engagement or not at all. We talked about this with Estefan. He knows the score.”

“Something just hit me,” Harv said.

“What is it?”

“We need to look for Internet satellite dishes at the lumber mill and ore-processing plant before you have Antonia make the call. There are ways other than landlines and cell phones for Raven to communicate with his men.”

“Good point. Let’s do this. You and Estefan split up. You’ll head over to the ore-processing plant and lumber mill and check for satellite dishes. All you’ll have to do is cut their coaxial lines or torque the dishes out of alignment. If they’re out of reach, just shoot their feed horns. That should disable them. Estefan will head to the south end of town and stand by to cut the phone line. I’ll wait here with Antonia until you guys are all set.”

“Sounds good.”

“Harv, if we can avoid killing anyone else tonight, we should do it. If it turns ugly over there, I know you won’t kill unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“What about the girl? We can’t keep her with us after the call. She can’t be hanging around during the fight, and we don’t want her loose to talk about us being here. We’ll have to confine her.”

“We’ll take care of that at the lumber mill. There’s got to be a good place somewhere. A storeroom or janitor’s closet. Something.”

Nathan nodded toward the motel, and they began walking back.

“Then we’re planning to neutralize the men over there?”

“Yes,” said Nate. “With nonlethal force, if possible.”