The Beasts of Juarez

by R. B. Schow

  Leopold answered by saying, “I’m driving right now.”

  “I heard you got the family back,” the old man said, his voice more raspy and raw than ever.

  “Who told you that?” Leopold asked, senses on high alert.

  Russell Lumley didn’t call people out of the blue, even if he was calling family. Sadly, Leopold’s great uncle, the former secretary of state, lived his life by a secret agenda. Worse though, he was not a good man and Leopold knew this.

  Lumley had been an integral part of a large sex trafficking ring operating in Ukraine and Russia. Six months ago, Atlas and Kiera put a stop to it. By the team’s actions alone, much of Eastern Europe’s market for adrenalized children’s blood had all but been depleted.

  Unfortunately, other outfits were now ramping up the collection and distribution of new blood, one group being so bold as to call their mixture Vampire Kiss 2.0, or VK2. He hadn’t yet identified the blood trafficking networks, but when he did, he was going to hit them with a vengeance.

  “I still have security clearance and friends that work in intelligence, my boy,” Lumley said. “I just wanted to call and congratulate you.”

  “Thanks, Russell,” he said.

  As they pulled off into a largely empty lot of a closed-down restaurant, Leopold glanced up in the rearview mirror and saw a look of sheer terror in Camden’s eyes.

  “Can I call you back, Russell? I’m driving right now and traffic’s kind of crazy.”

  “Sure, take your time,” the old man said.

  When Leopold hung up, he looked back at Camden and said, “You look like you just saw a ghost.”

  Breathless, red in the face, he said, “That was the man I was telling you about, the scratchy-voiced man.”

  A cold chill raced down Leopold’s spine. “Are you sure?”

  “I’d stake my life on it.”

  “Well, then, it looks like you might want to hang around the hotel until I get the others. I’m having our jet gassed up now.”

  “Who was that man?” Sydney asked.

  Leopold saved Camden the explanation in front of his kids because Sydney already knew what had happened. Instead, he said, “I’m afraid he was the man responsible for all of this.”

  “Who is he to you?” Sydney asked.

  “An archenemy.”

  “Did you have something to do with this?” she asked.

  “Not that I’m aware of, but I’m sure as hell going to find out.” To Camden, he said, “If you’d like, Congressman, you are more than welcome to accompany us to see him.”

  “I’d like that very much,” he said, his tone darkening.

  “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” Sydney asked in a sharp, icy tone.

  “Nothing will bring back Callie,” Leopold said, “but perhaps your family would like its pound of flesh, and possibly some closure.”

  Camden looked to Sydney for permission. Frowning, she finally said, “If you need to go then go.”

  “I hate to leave my family,” Camden turned and said to Leopold, “but this man can’t be allowed to do this again.”

  “Are you going to be okay, Sydney?” Leopold asked. “Because I can have Cira escort you and the girls back home.”

  “I’m sure she’s tired from attacking our driver,” Sydney said with some bite. Leopold hoped that Cira understood the animus was directed at Camden and not her.

  “It’s no problem at all,” Cira replied, indifferent. In the front seat, Agent Fykes started to stir. Cira reached up, put pressure on both sides of his neck to close the carotid artery then watched him slump over again.

  “I can clean up then get us back home,” Sydney said. “But thank you, Leopold. And thank you, Cira.”

  Leopold dropped the family off at the hotel, hugging the girls, and then Sydney. After that, they went to a nearby auto parts house, purchased a few things, and drove to the border. Cira had to keep Agent Fykes unconscious long enough to get somewhere private.

  “I’m glad that you’re with me,” Leopold said to Camden as they were driving to the part of the border that Camden identified as being the most porous.

  “Me, too,” he said.

  “But not for the reasons you think,” Leopold said as they left the paved roads for a dirt road that ran parallel to the border wall. “This way if my team doesn’t show up, I won’t have to chase you down to beat you to death.”

  When they were finally clear of any other witnesses, Leopold pulled into a small grove of trees, the border wall in sight, but inaccessible.

  “Are you sure the cameras here don’t work?” Leopold asked.

  “They shut them off,” Camden said.

  “Good, now be a sport and hand me the agent’s credentials. And don’t touch him where you would leave fingerprints. That’s any flat or shiny surface.”

  He got the man’s ID and badge. “Now what?”

  Just then, Fykes started stirring, with a grumbling in his gut that sounded like either hunger or explosive diarrhea being loaded into the chute. Cira leaned forward and knocked him out again.

  “Help me get him out of the SUV and lay him face-up in the dirt,” Leopold said. “Cira, you’re behind the wheel.”

  Without hesitation, she climbed out of the Suburban’s back seat and took the wheel. On the other side of the vehicle, Camden and Leopold pulled Fykes out into the desert landscape. When he’d been dragged out in front of the SUV and laid out on his back, Leopold said, “Okay, now run him over slowly.”

  “Say again?” Cira asked. She stuck her head out of the window to hear him better.

  “I said, put the SUV in gear then slowly drive over him.”

  Shaking her head in dismay, she put the vehicle in gear and approached the man’s body slowly. When she bumped his side with the front tire, she put her foot on the gas and rolled forward just enough to climb over the top of him. The second the front wheel rose up onto his ribcage, it slammed down quickly causing both Leopold and Camden to turn away and grab their noses.

  With the window rolled down, she said, “Leopold, come here.” He walked over to her, still plugging his nose. That’s when she caught a whiff of a rather distinct fecal odor.

  “Tell me I can work the field now,” she said.

  “You can work the field now,” he replied, still taken aback by what had just happened. “Now back up and run over his head.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “You broke his ribs for sure, but this man’s colon just exploded into his pants, which explains the foul smell in the air. Run over his head just to be sure.”

  “Now that I’m on the team, I don’t mind saying that it’s time for you to get your hands dirty. For heaven’s sake, stop being such a bitch.”

  “I wear a suit and tie to war,” he said.

  “That’s so pathetic,” she replied, half joking and half pissed off. “Move back.”

  She backed up the SUV, running back over his guts, and then she lined the Suburban up right and took a breath. When she ran over his head, when she felt his skull crack under the tire, she felt like she’d done the job the right way.

  To the two men still plugging their noses and groaning, she said, “Drag his body into the trees and get your pansy asses in this beast.”

  When they dragged him out of the road, they left behind a combination of both brown and red smears.

  A short drive later, when they arrived at the rendezvous point, they figured they would have to wait a couple of hours for the team to show up. An hour into the wait, they were met by a Border Patrol unit with flashing lights. He got out of his vehicle with his gun drawn asking for their IDs. Leopold showed the man his badge which calmed the BP guard enough to take his hand off of his weapon.

  “You should alert us to your activities here first, Agent Fykes,” the border agent said. “That’s the protocol where I come from.”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of time. My CI’s are coming across right now. If this pans out, I’m about to lea
rn the new distribution routes of the Juárez Cartel. When that happens, BP and I are definitely going to have a conversation.”

  The border agent glanced over the others, stopping when he saw Congressman Fox. Nodding appreciatively, he said, “Oh, I didn’t know you were here, too. This is great. Thanks for what you’re doing for us, Congressman.”

  “You bet,” Camden said.

  “I’ll leave you to it, then,” he said.

  When he was gone, not half an hour later, all four members of the field team walked through a double section of the border wall that had been left wide open.

  “I told you,” Camden said.

  “Yes, you did,” Leopold replied with a smile. He turned to Cira. “It looks like we’re all done here. Now, all we have to do is ditch this ride, wipe it down, and get to the airport.”

  “That’s not all we’re doing,” Cira said, knowingly.

  “I know,” he said. “It’s just what’s next.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  LEOPOLD WENTWORTH

  In the six months since Leopold and his team took down Russell Lumley’s sex trafficking and blood harvesting ring in St. Petersburg and Odessa, the former secretary of state had relocated to the Virginia countryside. As far as Leopold was concerned, it was time to bring his great uncle a housewarming gift. First things first, though. He had to get clearance for the new flight plan.

  When they were finally airborne, everyone pretty much fell asleep for the duration of the flight, Esty snoring loudest of them all.

  When he woke up, Leopold saw that Camden had neither slept nor moved. The man’s eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, so he knew the congressman had been thinking about the horrors his family must have endured on his behalf, especially Callie.

  Callie’s gruesome fate broke Leopold’s heart, but he couldn’t uncork that well of emotion just yet. After he closed the book on this op, he would vacation somewhere exotic where he could empty out his emotions away from the civilized world and all of its prying eyes.

  “I’m still blown away at how you are related to this man,” Camden said with a frown. “I thought this was about me, but it’s about you, too.”

  “First off, he’s my great uncle by marriage, so technically he’s not a blood relative. Second, we took down his entire sex trafficking network in Russia and Ukraine,” Leopold said. “Furthermore, we killed all of his contacts—everyone critical to the survival of his infrastructure.”

  “How much do you want to bet he tracked down Kofi Danvers and had him tortured until he spilled the beans on us?” Atlas asked.

  “You should call Kofi after this,” Cira said, now awake. “We need to see about him and his family.”

  Leopold had a limousine meet them at the airport when they landed. Atlas, Camden, and Kiera opted to go with Leopold to pay a visit to Secretary Lumley while Esty and Yergha opted to stay on the plane and continue sleeping. He didn’t blame them. The drive to Lumley’s house was short but pleasant and when they arrived, Leopold met the private security guard at the gate.

  “Good afternoon, sir,” the armed guard said. Judging by the way the man appeared he was either former military or a former law enforcement officer. “Do you have an appointment with the secretary?”

  “Yes, but I want to show you something first,” Leopold said. Atlas handed him the phone. It was already opened to the picture of Callie’s body in garbage bags along with her decapitated head lying in the street.

  The man saw it then stepped back.

  “My appointment is to see my great uncle, who not only knew this girl but gave her the makeover you’re now seeing.”

  He looked up at the house, then back to Leopold. “Is that…Callie Fox?” he asked.

  Leopold nodded slowly, prompting the guard to look deeper inside the limo. In the back seat, he saw Kiera, and then he saw Congressman Fox. “My condolences, Congressman.”

  “Thank you,” Camden said, still pale.

  “Did Russell really have something to do with this?” the security guard asked Leopold in something of a whisper. His eyes were so serious they were cold and flat looking.

  “He had everything to do with everything,” Leopold said, “and now it has to stop.”

  “You want to fix this right now?”

  “How long have you worked for him?” Leopold asked.

  “Nine years.”

  “So you know there are dark things afoot, don’t you?”

  “I’ve always had an idea but never a confirmation of this sort.”

  “Do you have a set of keys to the house?” Leopold asked.

  He glanced back at Congressman Fox, then at Atlas, and then he pulled the keys out of his pocket, slid one of them off the ring, and handed it over. When he was done, without a word, the guard opened the gate and took a step back.

  Leopold and Atlas let themselves in the front door with Kiera and Camden in tow. They found Lumley in his private TV room with the lights off watching a horror movie.

  Atlas turned the lights on, prompting Lumley to pause the movie. Slowly, because he was old and aging hard, the wrinkled nightmare turned and saw the four of them standing there.

  “I wondered when I would see you,” he said, not referring to any of the four of them in particular. Then he focused on Leopold and said, “Oh, Leopold. Why are you here?”

  “I understand you wanted to meet the man who took down your sex trafficking network in Ukraine and St. Petersburg,” Atlas said. “It wasn’t just me, but a lot of it was. It was Kiera, too, and Leopold, as you know. We slaughtered them all. We wiped your entire slate clean, you sick fucking degenerate.”

  “It wasn’t just the kids,” Lumley said candidly because he saw the writing on the wall. “The blood market in America is bigger than you can imagine.”

  “Hopefully it’s less now,” Atlas growled, taking a step toward him.

  “These vampires will always find a way to get what they need,” Lumley hissed, his face shaking with the rage he was holding back.

  Atlas laughed and said, “You don’t really believe in vampires, do you?”

  “I believe in Vampire’s Kiss,” Lumley said. “VK was the biggest drug on the market until you upended my distribution lines and my product.”

  “You killed children!” Atlas roared.

  “Human sacrifice has been going on for thousands of years,” Lumley argued, the heated exchange taking a toll on him.

  “You are a disgusting creature,” Leopold said. “I should have killed you six months ago.”

  “But you didn’t,” Lumley said with a bit of pained laughter.

  “Who told you about my team going into Juárez?” Leopold asked. “Your low-rent cartel wannabes did a number on Esty, but in the end, my team killed them all. Who told you about them? Who tipped you off?”

  “I’ll give you a hint,” he said, eyeing Camden. “He’s in this very room right now.”

  In the back of his mind, Leopold knew that Camden had screwed them. Was it because Yergha came on too strong? But Leopold had threatened him in the hotel room as well. Was it their tact, or was the disgraced congressman always going to turn?

  That’s when Camden walked toward the television screen, his curiosity piqued. Atlas turned to it as well. But when Leopold saw the screen—when he saw what was on it—he was so shot through with horror, he felt faint, so close to passing out he took an unsteady step backward. Kiera caught him, took his arm, and stabilized him.

  On the TV, Callie was not only strung up by her hands, she was also naked and beaten. Behind her was a half-naked man with a black leather mask and a chainsaw. Camden sucked in a deep, painful breath, then turned around and looked at Lumley with a tortured expression that was so vile and so cold it could frost all of hell’s furnaces.

  Atlas was there a second later to hand Camden his tactical blade. Camden took the knife then rushed former secretary of state Russell Lumley with a mighty scream raging out of his mouth. He then went on a blood-soaked stabbing spree so ferocious
and so violent that by the time Camden was done, most of Lumley’s blood was outside of his body.

  When Camden was done, he stood up and staggered backward, his body so exhausted, so weary, the knife fell from his hand onto the floor and he had to grab the TV to keep from falling over. After seeing what he had done to the former secretary of state, he fell down and shook with a sob so deep and full of sorrow it almost tugged on Leopold’s heartstrings. Almost.

  Atlas walked up to Camden, but instead of picking up his blade, or consoling the man, he dropped before the man and said, “I have a little girl, too. She’s been missing for well over half a decade now. I would kill to see her again, and in fact, I am killing to see her again. But you had three beautiful girls and a gorgeous wife and you just threw them away.”

  Camden looked down, embarrassed.

  Atlas grabbed the man’s face and jerked it up, making sure they were eye to eye. “Do you know who I am?” Atlas asked.

  “You’re the cop who killed those three kids and got life in prison,” he said.

  “Three life sentences actually,” Atlas said. “Do you know what my job is here?”

  “To recover my daughters and leave a mess of carnage behind.”

  “Yes,” Atlas hissed. “I specialize in breaking things and beating things to death.”

  “I appreciate all that you’ve done, Mr. Hargrove.”

  “How much did he pay you to kidnap your wife and children?” Atlas asked.

  “Ten million. It wasn’t for the kids, though. Sydney and the girls were just meant to get you out of prison. He wanted you, Atlas. I know that now. He wanted Leopold’s junkyard dog, the one that cost him his trafficking lines and his satanic drugs. My girls…they were never…they were never supposed to get hurt.”

  “This is Juárez we’re talking about,” Atlas said.

  Camden seemed to have things he had to get off his chest, so Atlas let him speak. “You don’t understand how much I hate my job, but I can’t just quit. If my family was taken, the border issues would be exposed and I could finally retire from this god-awful shit life of politics. This asshole promised that I could do that with ten million in my account, minus what I paid Leopold.”