by David Archer
With her face still pointed at the table, she picked up under her eyebrows to look at his eyes. “You like me?”
Noah smiled, and reached out to put a finger under her chin and raise her face so that he could look at it. “I do,” he said. “I think you’re very pretty, and you seem very sweet. You just don’t seem like the kind of girl who usually ends up in a place like this.”
She shrugged her shoulders, and gave him a weak smile. “My mother, she died when I was only eleven years old,” she said. “I did not have a father, and no other family. I lived on the street for a while, I don’t know how long, until a man named Diego found me, and he—he taught me how to make money, with the sex.” She flicked her eyes toward the bar. “One day, a few months ago, Eduardo saw me, and he said I was too good to be on the streets that way, so he bought me from Diego. Now I work here, and he helps to keep me safe. He helped me get off the crack, that Diego made me use.”
Noah shook his head. It wasn’t hard to figure out the proper, human response to the story he had just heard. “You poor thing,” he said. “But you’re safe now, here with Eduardo?”
She smiled. “Yes, he keeps me safe, and he lets me keep some of the money I make. Diego, he took everything, but Eduardo is good to me. He is good to all his girls. I’m very lucky to be here.” She reached out and caressed the side of Noah’s face. “Can I do something for you? There is a little room, in the back, where we could go.”
Noah looked at her for a moment, but kept smiling. “What if,” he began slowly, “what if I wanted you to come back to my hotel with me for the night? How much would that cost me?”
Her eyes went wide. “I would have to get permission from Eduardo,” she said. “Let me go and ask him.” She jumped up and hurried to the bar, and Noah could see her whispering furiously with the bartender. Eduardo looked over at him, and Noah gave him a big smile and a thumbs-up sign.
Eduardo winked at him, and smiled. A moment later, Felicita hurried back over to Noah. “He says it would be one hundred dollars, but you must bring me back tomorrow. I must be here by lunchtime, is that okay?”
Noah nodded. “That will be fine. Do I give Eduardo the hundred dollars?”
“Yes, or give it to me and I will give it to him now.”
Noah pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his pocket and gave it to the girl, who hurried over to the bartender once more. When she came back, she was beaming from ear to ear. “Señor John, tonight I will show you all the things that I can do to make a man very, very happy.”
Noah smiled at her. “Well, good,” he said. “Go ahead and drink up, now, because I have a ride arranged and he should be here just about any minute.”
TWENTY-FOUR
“How’s it going?” There had just been a knock on Neil’s door, and the skinny kid had found both Moose and Sarah waiting when he opened it. Moose was holding an extra large pizza, so Neil grinned and opened the door wide.
“Well, our illustrious leader has already bought enough heroin to kill off every addict in the greater Chicago metro area,” Neil said. “The deal goes down in a couple of days, and the guy who set him up with it is working on hooking him up with other deals, too. I’d say he’s got his cover working pretty solidly. Is that a supreme?”
“Supreme with extra cheese, extra sausage and extra pepperoni,” Moose said. “Your little bugs are working okay, then?”
“Take a look for yourself,” Neil said, pointing at a monitor on his desk. Moose and Sarah leaned close, and saw Noah sitting at a table with a pretty young girl.
“Who’s the girl?” Sarah asked.
“Hooker,” Neil said. “He just arranged to take her back to his hotel for the night.” Neil watched Sarah out of the corner of his eye, and saw her jaw clench for just a second. “Do I detect a hint of jealousy?”
Sarah cut her eyes to him. “Maybe a little, but it’s not what you think. Don’t worry about it.”
“I’m not worried about it. Things are about to get a little dull; he and the girl are leaving, so all we get to do is watch the Eduardo’s Tavern reality show.” He rolled his eyes around Moose. “Unless you want to listen to the audio from his hotel room tonight?”
Moose looked at him. “Why don’t you let me take the tavern, and you can listen to the hotel room, okay?”
Neil shrugged. “Fine by me, it’s going to be boring either way.” He shoved a slice of pizza into his mouth and took a huge bite, then handed a large tablet computer to Moose. He tapped a few keys on his computer, then reached over and touched an icon on the tablet, and the video and audio feeds from the Tavern appeared on the tablet screen.
They watched Noah and the girl walk out the door of the Tavern, and sat there and ate as they waited for him to arrive back at his hotel room. The bartender and a couple of other men in the Tavern had a short conversation about Noah, and seemed to come to agreement that he was exactly what he claimed to be, nothing but a buyer for other people.
A sound suddenly came from the microphones in the hotel room, the sound of the door opening. The girl’s voice could be heard proclaiming that the room was fantastic, and then Noah said he was glad she liked it. The next sounds they heard were not as verbal, and slowly built from an occasional moan to screams of pure delight.
All three of them were sitting there staring at the speakers, their eyes wide. After a moment, they heard:
“Señor John, you are the most amazing man.”
“Felicita, you’re pretty amazing yourself.”
A moment later, the moaning began once more. Neil looked over at Sarah, his eyes as big as they could get.
“Is he really that good?” Neil asked, and Sarah slapped his face. She stood up and turned to walk out of the room without a word.
Moose stared after her, then turned to look at Neil, who was rubbing his cheek. “If I were you, I think I’d take that as a yes. Looks like our wheel girl has it bad for the boss man. If she can’t get that under control, he’ll have to get rid of her.”
The action in the hotel room built up to another crescendo of happy screams, and the two men heard Noah suggest that he and the girl go down to the restaurant for dinner. Things got quiet a few minutes later, and then Moose took the tablet and its charger and went to his own room.
The next few days were more of the same. Each afternoon, Noah would head down to Eduardo’s and hang out there, occasionally making a deal. Once in a while, he would call Neil to arrange for one of the phony money transfers, such as when the heroin arrived in Chicago on schedule. The undercover DEA man confirmed that he was taking delivery of some top-quality product, and less than ten minutes later, Raul Delgado was able to confirm that a million dollars plus had been deposited to his Cayman Islands account.
After that was completed, the deals came more steadily. Raul had put the word out that John Baker was a man to be trusted, a man of his word, and that word was spreading. Noah, as John, had become a fixture of the bar, and had gotten to know a lot of the regulars well.
The girl, Felicita, was constantly at his side when he was there. She had spent every night but one at the hotel with him, and the only reason she missed that one was because she was in the hospital. One of the men who had come to do business with John Baker had accidentally brought along some trouble, and a fight had broken out. Noah had been forced to hold back, and not let himself fight as well as he could, but he had joined the fray in order to stay in character. Some of these criminals now thought of him as a friend, and he had to act the part. Unfortunately, Felicita had seen another man grab Noah from behind, so she broke a beer bottle over his head.
He objected, and hit her so hard that she had remained unconscious for several hours. Noah went with her to the hospital, and sat at her side through the night. When she woke the next morning, she was amazed to find her gringo there beside her.
Noah had been frequenting Eduardo’s for almost two weeks, waiting to see Ortiz put in an appearance. He knew that he’d been causing quite a stir in the city, b
ecause so many of the local criminal element had been showing up to meet him, to try to do business with him. At some point in the not-too-distant future, an awful lot of them were going to find themselves suddenly out of business, when all of their money disappeared. As far as Noah was concerned, Neil’s little program was one of the best tools he could’ve imagined in the war on drugs. After all, if you hit them in their money, it hurt worse than simply taking out a few of their employees. Every drug buy he made with Neil’s funny money program was likely to mean another big drug supplier closer to being out of business.
At last, his patience paid off. It was early afternoon on a Wednesday when Henrique Valdes came through the door. Henrique, he remembered from his briefing, was the chief bodyguard for Pablo Ortiz, and always came in ahead of his boss to make sure there were no police and would be no trouble. He looked around, spotted Noah, and cut his eyes to Eduardo.
“No problemo,” Eduardo said. Henrique had heard of John Baker, of course. He looked Noah over once more, then nodded and stepped out. A moment later he was back, followed by Pablo and a couple of other men. The other girls, who had been warned off of “John” by Felicita, swarmed to the table where they always sat, and Eduardo grinned when he realized he was about to sell many more of the watered drinks.
Tequila began to flow, and the old jukebox began to play. The music was loud, and most of it was at least a decade out of date, but it was fast enough for dancing, and so it wasn’t long before Pablo and the others had the girls up on their feet. If there was one thing Pablo Ortiz knew how to do, it was party, and Eduardo counted himself lucky that his Tio Pablo liked to drink so much. He was also glad that his uncle was always happy to patronize his establishment, and many of Pablo’s business deals took place there. That meant that the bar stayed busy, and was one of the main reasons that Eduardo was able to keep so many whores working.
Felicita also liked to dance, but just as she was keeping John to herself, the other girls had Pablo and his crew. If she tried to insert herself into it now, all she would do was start trouble, so if she wanted to dance, she would have to get John up off of his barstool.
“You want to dance with me? Come on, Baby, come dance with me,” she said, but Noah smiled and shook his head.
“I don’t feel like dancing, not right now,” he said. He nodded toward the group that was on the floor. “You can go dance with them if you want to, I wouldn’t mind.”
She looked over at Pablo’s crew and the girls they were dancing with, but frowned. “No,” she said. “I must stay with you, Señor John. Us girls, we do not, how you say, steal from each other.”
Noah looked at her, then tossed his eyes over his shoulder at where Pablo and the others were dancing. “You really want to dance?”
Her eyes lit up. “Si! I really do,” she said, and then she tugged on his arm. Noah shrugged, as if cooperating with the inevitable, and let her lead him onto the dance floor. Henrique kept an eye on him as they approached, but he didn’t see any sign of danger, so he didn’t go to full alert. They were all dancing, just having fun. Who cared if a gringo joined in?
Within minutes, they were all laughing together, and since the big joke was how poorly the gringo was dancing, and he was laughing right along with them, Henrique figured it was a safe bet the man didn’t understand a word of Spanish. He kept an eye on Noah, just to be safe, but there was no sign at all that he presented any kind of problem to Henrique or Pablo.
Felicita and Ramona were dancing together, putting on quite a show. Pablo caught Noah’s eye and winked, and the American winked back.
“You’re Mr. Ortiz, right?” Noah asked, still grinning. “I hear tell you might be somebody I want to do some business with.”
Pablo grinned back. “And do you have money, with which to do this business?”
“I think I’ve got enough. All depends on what I’m buying, right?”
Pablo shrugged and stuck out his bottom lip. “What is it you are looking to buy?” Pablo asked. “There could be many things which I might wish to sell, and many things which I may not.”
Noah twirled Felicita before he answered, and let her dance away a short distance. “I’m looking for a couple of things,” he said. “I need cocaine, but if you don’t have the quantities I’m looking for, then I can also use heroin.”
Pablo burst out laughing. “Are you serious? These are not things in which I trade,” he said, “but I can help you to obtain them. However, the people I know will not be interested in selling small volumes. If you are thinking of less than seven figures, then perhaps you should go home.”
Noah smiled. “I think we’re on the same page,” he said. “I can handle those numbers. How soon can we put something together?”
Pablo shrugged, then looked over at Eduardo. “Nephew,” he called out. “Call Esteban, tell him to come down here. Tell him there is a man here who would like to do some business with him.”
Eduardo nodded, and picked up the telephone, but he was kicking himself mentally. He had known all along that John was a drug buyer, and had even toyed with the idea of making an introduction to Esteban, himself. If he had done so, he might very well have received a handsome finder’s fee for making the connection. Now, his uncle would get any reward, and he would be lucky to get a decent tip on the bar tab.
Still, he made the call. It was never wise to fail to do what Tio Pablo told you to do.
Noah and Felicita were invited to Pablo’s table, and a couple of the men pulled another table up to the first so that they could all sit together. Pablo had Noah sitting to his left, and leaned over so that he could talk to him quietly.
“So, please, tell me,” he said, “is it only for the drugs that you come to Juarez?”
Noah smiled down at the small girl beside him. “That was what brought me here,” he said, “but it’s not the only reason I stay. This little Mexican beauty might be part of that, but there are other things that I’m interested in, as well. I’m just not sure where to look for them.”
Pablo’s eyebrows went up a quarter inch. “And what might be these things that you are looking for? Perhaps I may know where to find them.”
Noah looked into his eyes, and his smile started to fade. He forced it back into place a moment later. “I’ve heard stories about you,” he said. “There are rumors floating around that you can get anything at all. Up until lately, I thought that meant in the way of drugs, but now…” He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “What would you say if someone asked you if you knew where to acquire something very special, but very, very dangerous?”
Pablo smiled, and everyone at the table, except Noah, recognized the smile as the most dangerous one he ever used. It generally meant that someone was soon to die.
“I would say that there are some questions that should be asked very softly,” he said. “But, if I am asked in the right way, then it is likely that I would be able to say yes.”
Noah sat there and looked at him for just a moment, never letting the smile slip for a second. “I don’t know how to ask softly,” he said, “so I’ll just ask bluntly. I have a client who is interested in obtaining the necessary materials for making a small nuclear device. Would you be able to put me in touch with a source of such materials?”
Pablo Ortiz stared at Noah for a long moment, keeping his own smile firmly in place. At last, he licked his lips. “You ask a very dangerous question,” he said. “How am I to know that you are not an American federale? An American agent, sent here to try to entrap me?”
Noah chuckled. “Señor Ortiz,” he said, “until just a couple of weeks ago, I thought you were nothing more than a drug dealer. It was only when I spoke to Raul Delgado that I heard that you might be involved in, shall we say, more lucrative opportunities. I had asked Raul that same question, and he suggested that you might be the man to talk to. If it hadn’t been for that conversation, I would have settled for some simple purchases I’ve made since I got here, and probably would’ve gone home several day
s ago, but I’ve been hoping to meet you.” He leaned forward, even closer to Pablo’s face, and Henrique and the others all slipped hands up under their shirts. “Tell them they can relax, Señor Ortiz. I’m all alone here, so I’m not likely to present any kind of danger. I’m sure your people are smart enough that they would’ve spotted anyone watching this place from outside, so unless you think I’m some sort of miracle worker, then it seems to me that it should be pretty obvious I’m exactly who I claim to be. Just a buyer, working for clients. That’s me, and nothing more.”
Pablo let his smile grow even wider. “It is true what you say, that we know you have no one watching you. Eduardo has been keeping his eye on you since you got here, and he has told us of the deals you’ve been making. If there were the slightest possibility that you were any sort of risk to me, we would not be here today.” He picked up his glass and took a drink, then set it down. “I am curious about you, however. It is not often, in recent years, that an American comes to this part of our city unescorted. Do I think that you are a miracle worker? I do not know, but this I can tell you. You’re not a man who knows fear, because those who are afraid do not come here. So tell me, Señor John, why is it that you are not afraid?”
Noah chuckled again, this time a bit louder. “Oh, you misunderstand me completely,” he said. “The fact is, Señor Ortiz, that I’m downright terrified. This is the first time I’ve ever been asked to come into this part of the world, but as I said, I have a client who is looking for the materials I mentioned. It was she who told me to come here, based on some information she had that said there was a potential source to be located in this bar. I’ve just been taking advantage of the situation to make some other purchases while I’m here.”
Pablo sat back, and regarded Noah with suspicious eyes. “Your client for this material is a woman?” Pablo asked. “I find this to be very disturbing news, my friend. As far as I know, there is only one woman in the world who might seek such materials, and if you are working for her, then there is far more to you than I would have thought. Can you tell me your client’s name?”
