“I thought you might admit it. Tomlinson’s too religious and Kal Wilson wouldn’t have the nerve. You’re different, Ford. Nerdy and industrious-like setting out food for everyone. But underneath, you are one very damn cold customer.”
The woman stopped, relit the joint. Inhaled a couple of times, holding it like a cigarette, then offered it to me once again. When I refused, she said, “Boy Scout, huh? I don’t think so. You and I have a hell of a lot more in common than either one of us is likely to admit. Scary, huh?”
She turned her back to me and began doing something-unbuttoning her blouse, I realized. I replied, “When you put it that way, yes.”
“I can’t imagine what you think of me after hearing what’s on that recorder.”
“Don’t worry. I averted my ears when it got personal.”
She laughed. “Like a boy who covers his eyes when a western gets too romantic.”
“I didn’t hear any romantic parts.”
“That’s because I’m a realist, not a romantic.” Waters slid her blouse off, unsnapped her bra. With the practiced immodesty of an actress, she tossed them above the tide line. Then, using fingers to brush her hair back, she turned to face me. Curtis Tyner and Juan Rivera shared the same fixation, and their interest was not unwarranted.
“Ford? You should let your hair down. Because I’m getting my hair wet. After the day we’ve had, we both deserve it.”
The woman shimmied out of her slacks and panties and I watched her walk into the sea.
25
Use a predator to lure a predator…
Kal Wilson had said it about a hammerhead shark that was shadowing a barracuda. Cayo Costa, five days ago.
It seemed like five weeks ago. I should’ve felt tired after so little sleep and so much travel. Instead, I felt energized.
I am not fanciful when it comes to speculating about emotion attributed to creatures not of my species. When people say their cat, or dog, “believes he’s human,” I attempt to smile as I edge away. But I have speculated-fancifully, I admit-that the single-minded focus of a shark might be the purest sensation in nature.
That’s how I felt. Single-minded.
I was sitting high in a tree, back braced, sniper rifle in my hands, as I watched political luminaries assemble for Panama City’s Independence Week ceremony.
It was 11:05 a.m., Wednesday, November 5th.
I was more than a hundred yards away. Even with my glasses clean, the crowd was a blur-people socializing and finding their seats on a stage decorated with bunting and flags. But when I pressed my eye to the rifle’s scope, individual faces came into focus, filling the lens, as I moved crosshairs from person to person searching for the assassin that Kal Wilson told me would be there.
He was not the only one expecting trouble. Security around the stage was intense. Panama’s special assignment cops wear black. There were dozens moving through the crowd, using bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at the two public entrances cordoned off by rope.
Political ceremonies attract political activists. There were several protests under way: clusters of people carrying signs, already chanting slogans. Elections were approaching. U.S. economic sanctions against Panama was a volatile subject, and so was Indonesia Shipping amp; Petroleum’s control of the canal.
Some despised the yanquis. Some despised the IS amp;P. Discontent on other issues was scattered throughout. There were many issues because Panama is like no other country in the region.
Panama City was part of Colombia until the U.S. dug the Canal, then protected its investment by backing independence. They named the new nation “Panama.”
Panama was an invention of the Canal Zone, and the canal’s construction spawned a population assembled from cultures around the world. It was not considered a Latin country until the 1950s for the simple reason that its citizenry was so varied.
Kal Wilson had referred to Panama as an Ark. He had been stationed at nearby Albrook Air Base and he knew the people and the country well.
Once again, he was right.
The Apocalypse could start here.
I paid close attention to a large and vocal group of protesters to the north. Signs they carried identified them as members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian faction devoted to creating an Islamic state in Southeast Asia and joining Middle Eastern Muslims in Holy War.
Ramadan had just ended, so there was a big turnout. Many wore traditional Muslim dress, loose robes, shawls, kufis. Women kept their faces covered with scarves, or burqas- a full-face veil with only a slit showing the eyes and bridge of the nose.
I moved the rifle’s crosshairs from face to face.
Praxcedes Lourdes was a theatrical man. It was a costume he might enjoy.
I checked my watch: 11:10 a.m.
I expected to come face-to-face with Lourdes very soon.
We had arrived in Panama City at dawn and I had neither seen nor spoken to Kal Wilson. An hour after landing, I left Vue and Tomlinson in the lobby of the El Panama Hotel so it was possible they had made contact. I didn’t know. There was no reason for me to speculate.
Wilson had given me simple but specific verbal instructions plus the sealed envelope. I had not opened the envelope until I was alone in the suite we’d rented.
The president’s note included a final, unexpected order. I felt numb as I read, then reread it. There was no mistaking what he wanted me to do. Question was, could I?
When I had read the card twice, I burned it and flushed the ashes.
I knew what was expected of me, even though I still didn’t know what Kal Wilson had planned. The president shared information only on a need-to-know basis.
My only clue was what he had said on Cayo Costa: Use a predator to lure a predator…
But who was the barracuda? Who was the shark?
What I knew, apparently, was enough. I had orders. I would carry them out.
I knew how to view a parade ground or a motorcade route as a killing field and I knew how to reconnoiter that killing field. Where were the unavoidable intersections? The unobstructed walkways?
They were “X spots.” Good places to kill.
A shooting post that would appeal to a skilled assassin would also appeal to me. I could identify those spots and secure them. More difficult was anticipating the scrambled behavior of an amateur.
I have done similar surveys other times in my life. It was the reason I had been in Colombia the day they fired a rocket at Wilson’s motorcade.
I spent an hour jogging the area-joggers being as common as stray dogs and no longer drawing attention. I was already familiar with the Balboa and Quarry Heights sections because I’d spent a lot of time there with Zonian friends before the U.S. transferred control. By the time I was done jogging, I knew it better.
The Canal Administration Building, where the ceremony was to be held, is located at the base of Ancon Hill, a bunker-shaped mound that’s forested, topped with radio towers and a giant Panamanian flag.
Five hundred feet below the Administration Building is an E-shaped fortress, separated by woods, canal housing, and gardens, all built on a steep incline. The Administration Building is museum sized, four stories high, built of rock, marble, and redwood, all from the U.S.-Teddy Roosevelt’s way of marking this small country with his own spore.
The ceremony was to be held at the front of the building, where royal palms create a corridor connecting the massive entranceway with a stone monument and fountain, the Goethals Monument-a tribute to the canal’s architect.
Panama is among the most beautiful countries in the world. This was the most beautiful section of Panama City.
The stage had been erected next to the fountain and monument. There was a podium with microphones screened with bulletproof plastic. There were four chairs to the left of the podium and two rows of chairs to the right.
The four highest-ranking people would be in the chairs to the left.
The back of the stage was tented so political luminaries
would not be seen until they stepped out onto the stage-a security precaution.
I had no trouble finding a superb sniper post. While giving me instructions, Wilson had reminded me that on the east side of the Administration Building there was a trail called the “Orchid Walk.” It zigzagged uphill, two hundred yards through rain forest. It was now overgrown, I discovered, but still passable.
I selected a tree at the edge of the trail that gave me a clear view of the stage and the adjoining park. I found branches that allowed me to brace my feet and back but weren’t too far off the ground. Then I rigged a rope so I could get up and down quickly and spent a few minutes practicing both maneuvers.
The ceremony started at noon. It was now 11:20.
I took a last look through the sniperscope, then buckled rifle and sling to a limb that could not be seen from below.
I was expecting a visitor.
I was wearing leather gloves and had the rope coiled, ready to slide to the ground. I had a pistol and also the curve-bladed knife, the Indonesian badek, I’d taken from the bearded killer.
In ten minutes-11:30-I was expecting a man to come plodding up the steep trail. But people are sometimes early.
A hundred yards away, the stage was equipped with a sound system. A man was experimenting with the volume, his voice booming, Testing. .. testing… one, two, three, one, two, three, lyrical in Spanish, but I waited in silence of my own making, a silence that originated in a dark and single-minded space.
The inner ear bridges an ancient barrier between land and sea. Sound waves must be converted into waves of liquid before the brain reads them as electrical impulses. I was oblivious to the blaring speakers. But the sound of leaves stirring, then the pop of a branch broken underfoot, registered like gunshots.
I sat straighter, ears straining.
The night before, Shana Waters wasn’t the only one who had used Tyner’s satellite phone. I’d called my son in San Diego. The number was new-I hadn’t had time to store it in my cell phone and forget it.
It was after midnight in San Diego but Laken was still awake doing research on his computer. Praxcedes Lourdes, I told him, was probably somewhere in Panama City doing exactly the same thing.
Maybe there is a paternal link between parent and child that alerts the brain’s emergency circuitry. This is important. He did not argue or question when I told him to send Lourdes an e-mail.
“You want me to tell Prax that I’m in Panama City?” Laken had asked.
“Yes, and that you want to meet him.”
There’s an old trail called the Orchid Walk, I told my son. “He’ll find it.”
I gave him a time.
Ten yards downhill, around a bend, another limb cracked… then came the sound of a rock rolling free.
Lourdes had gotten my son’s e-mail.
26
Praxcedes Lourdes was dressed as a woman… a Muslim woman, with traditional robes, a shawl and a burqa, the full-face veil with only a horizontal slit for the eyes. The man was a freak for costumes.
I waited until he was beneath me, then jumped, using the rope to slow my fall. I crashed into him so hard he was launched tumbling into the bushes. His surprise registered as a girlish scream.
By the time he got to his feet, I had the knife out. I grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him to me with unexpected ease, then looked into his eyes as I touched the blade to his neck.
Lourdes’s burn scars are signatory. I expected to see one sleepy gray eye and one lidless blue eye. Instead, I was looking into eyes that were olive-brown, wide with terror.
I stepped back. It was a woman. She screamed-a high, warbling alert-as I slid the knife into my belt and stammered in Spanish, “I’m sorry… I’ve made a terrible mistake. I thought-”
I didn’t finish. There was a rustling of bushes behind me, a woof of heavy breathing, and as I turned to look a huge hand spun me, as a knee hammered at my groin. I deflected all but the first kick, a glancing shot that buckled my knees with nauseating paralysis. The barrel of a gun, jammed under my chin, kept me on my feet.
Once again, I was looking at a figure cloaked in a burqa. This time, pale eyes stared back, one gray, one lidless blue.
“Ford, you meddling punk! I expected your spawn. A younger face. Softer. Skin I can use. ”
Praxcedes Lourdes swung his head at the woman, who was edging sideways down the trail. “Go, bitch! You’ve done your job.”
The woman understood English. She lifted the hem of her robe from the ground and ran.
Lourdes had his left hand behind my neck, the gun in his right, and he pressed the barrel deep, rotating it as if burying a screw. He found the knife in my belt, then the pistol. As he tossed them away, I tried to spin away but gagged as he pushed harder and tried to knee me again. He stank of cigars, and also something fetid, like bugs I’d once left in ajar too long.
“I can’t believe your son conned me. We were becoming such pals. Where is that sweet boy, California? I checked the IP address.”
Lourdes the computer wizard.
My voice was hoarse as I nodded, “California. Yes.”
Laughter. “What a fucking imbecile! You think reverse psychology works on me? So he is in California. I’ll catch the next freighter. I’ll bring scalpels and dry ice. Maybe there’ll be a harvest moon.”
As I brought my hands up to pry the gun away, his knee hammered me twice in the thigh. The body’s most sensitive glands all seem linked to the gag reflex. My legs sagged once again and he collapsed with me onto the ground. He buried a knee in my stomach, then got to his feet and stood over me, a stainless steel revolver pointed at my head.
I told myself not to panic- Breathe, the nausea will pass- as he said, “Ford, I knew it was a con. I’d would have been on this trail waiting, anyway. That’s how stupid you are.”
I took a chance and sat up. My pistol was only a few yards behind me, the knife next to it. I arched my back as if in pain, my right hand behind me. The first weapon I touched I would use.
“Keep your hands where I can see them!” Lourdes moved as if to kick me. I put my hands up to block him.
He stepped back. He motioned with the gun. I got slowly to my feet, expecting him to pull the trigger any moment.
“Your boy has such a beautiful face. Nothing at all like your slab of meat. I may boil you down for glue. Picture it before I put a bullet in your brain. How am I going to look wearing your brat’s face?” He bowed and yanked the burqa off his head.
Praxcedes Lourdes resembled a human skull over which gray skin had been stretched too tight, then patched with melted wax. Tufts of blond hair grew out of white bone. He had the wild eyes of a horse that smelled smoke.
I had once sealed this man in a fifty-gallon drum, determined to roll him off a ship into the Gulf of Mexico. Wilson was right-I was a fool to have spared him.
Lourdes was reaching into the pocket of his robe as I said, “Plastic surgery can’t disguise an asshole, Prax. It’s been tried.”
My lungs were working again, the adrenaline circulating. I took an angling step toward him as he pulled a lighter-sized butane torch from his pocket, then a plastic squirt bottle filled with some kind of gel.
I was watching the man’s eyes. Excitement increases blood flow, eyes appear to glaze. With this freak, compulsion was pathology. He couldn’t stop himself. He had to see me burn.
“You are so goddamn sure of yourself. You know what I’d like? I want to see you run, Ford!” Lourdes lunged at me with the bottle, squirting a stream of gel as he snapped the torch’s flint trying to fire it.
It didn’t light-and he also dropped his pistol.
I blocked some of the goop with my gloves as I side-stepped, then dove at him. I hit him just below the knees, knocking his legs from beneath him. Lourdes weighed close to three hundred pounds and he came crashing down on me. But he didn’t let go of the torch, which still wouldn’t start.
“Goddamn thing!”
We got to our feet at the same
time and I waited for him to lunge. I dropped to one knee when he tried to club me, ducked under his huge hands, and came up behind with my left elbow cradling his throat, my left leg threaded between his legs so he couldn’t move. I locked my fingers beneath his jaw, tilting his head back, and pinned my right knee against his spine. The gloves gave me a better grip.
Lourdes still had the butane torch and I snatched it from him. The gel was close enough for me to reach and I grabbed it.
“Ford… what are you doing?”
I was squirting a stream of gel down the back of his robe, that’s what I was doing. The goop smelled of soap and petroleum.
“Are you insane? Stop that!”
Lourdes, the psychopath, was also claustrophobic. The last time we’d met, I had told him I would bury him alive if he threatened my son again. Fire, as it burns, can also entomb. It was close enough.
I had the man’s head torqued so hard that he was looking over my shoulder. I could have broken his neck if I’d wanted. But I was furious… and he did not deserve a quick and painless ending that for me has become procedural.
Talking into his ear, I whispered, “Too bad, Prax, change of plans. You’ve got to run.”
As I started flicking the butane torch, I watched the one lidless blue eye grow wider in that terrible face. Then, abruptly, he stopped struggling. He seemed to be focusing on something behind me.
“Ford! Let him go. No fires.”
I waited until I heard, “Step away. That’s an order,” before I turned to confirm that the voice was familiar.
A man was coming down the hill toward me carrying a gun. It was Kal Wilson.
Wilson was wearing a navy-issue sweatsuit and ball cap pulled low on his head and pointing a pistol at Lourdes. It was the Russian silent pistol I’d seen earlier.
Vue was with him but several yards up the incline. The barrel of his submachine gun moved in synch with his eyes as he stood watch.
Lourdes appeared dazed. I felt the same. What was the president doing here?
“Step away,” Wilson said again. He used the pistol to wave me back as he marched toward Lourdes. Instead of tinted glasses, he was wearing contacts. Even so, he paused to focus on the man’s face. “Good God… I didn’t believe the photos. You really are a monster. But you did it to yourself.”
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