The Bonita Protocol

by P J Skinner

  ‘I think I’m in love,’ he muttered, as he tried to regain his composure.

  ‘I have that effect on men,’ said Sam.

  Despite the unusual mix of people, the impromptu gathering proved to be an unqualified success. Horace and Manfred took advantage of the visit of the Lara brothers to learn about tonnages, grades and extents of the major structures in Monterico. Sam found herself sitting with Señor Muerte.

  ‘Where did you get the seal that you gave me?’ she said.

  ‘I found it at the beach in Manta.’

  Sam’s face betrayed her doubt.

  ‘Honestly, I fell over on a sand dune when I was drunk and when I tried to get up, my hand closed around it in the soft sand. I thought it was a funny shaped stone, and I was about to throw it away when I realised what I had found.’

  ‘Why did you give it to me?’

  ‘Don’t you want it?’

  ‘Oh, I love it. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.’

  Muerte grunted.

  ‘Where did you get that Inca hammerstone?’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen one like that.’

  ‘If you promise not to kill me, I’ll take you there before I go,’ said Sam.

  ‘It’s a deal.’

  I’m bargaining for my life with a serial killer.

  The shot glasses appeared and the first bottle of Siete Pingas opened with ceremony by Muerte.

  ‘This is made to a secret family recipe,’ he said, without a trace of irony.

  Horace threw back a shot and swallowed. His eyes bulged out of his head and he almost coughed it back up again. A strange expression of bliss crept over his face.

  ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘This stuff is amazing. What does pinga mean, Sam.’

  ‘Um, penis,’ said Sam, looking at the table.

  Horace beamed.

  ‘Penis? Genius! Where do they make this?’

  ‘We have a still at my mother’s house,’ said Muerte.

  Sam blinked. Mr Death had a mother? Every stereotype she had imagined for him had faded away.

  By the time both bottles were empty, midnight had come and gone. Sam tried to hide her desperation for bed. She had pretended to drink a few shots of Siete Pingas but managed to tip them out onto the floorboards when no one was looking. Alcohol made in local stills could be dangerous and she didn’t like the odds. Horace had to be helped upstairs by Javier and deposited on Rhett’s bed. He waved his hands around to encompass the wonders of Siete Pingas as he left.

  The Lara brothers shook Sam’s hand and stumbled out of the canteen and down the steps. They crossed the concrete apron and stood waiting for Señor Muerte who took Sam by the arm and sat on the steps with her.

  ‘I want to tell you something,’ he said. ‘Those people, I don’t kill them I only steal their ID cards. I stabbed a man once when he attacked me but he recovered. I’m a target now. Every brigand in the area wants to carve a notch in his doorpost that corresponds to my demise.’

  Sam couldn’t think of anything to say. She felt disappointed in a way she couldn’t define. Muerte continued. ‘I’m finished and I blame you. I know you’re out of my league but you’ve made me feel human again. I hate that.’

  ‘I’m flattered,’ said Sam.

  It was the wrong thing to say. He stood up, and without looking behind him, he stalked into the night.

  The next morning, Horace stayed in bed moaning about the pain in his head. Sam, who considered it lucky that no-one woke up blind, feigned sympathy but dragged Manfred Buendia and his hangover down to the adits and the core shed despite his fragile state to avoid them staying for an extra day. As she had anticipated, his take on the geology matched hers.

  ‘These veins are amazing but it would be almost impossible to drill out a reserve. We’d be guessing,’ said Manfred.

  ‘The only solution would be to use private money to mine it,’ said Sam.

  ‘Ah but then we’d miss the opportunity to mine the market.’

  Mine the market. That’s what Rhett wanted to do. Surrounded by people who all had the same motive and no scruples, Sam’s feeling of isolation increased. There was no one she could confide in about her doubts. The only person she trusted was Selma but she did not understand mining or markets so Sam was loath to involve her.

  Horace and Manfred departed the next day. They seemed satisfied with the visit but Sam could not judge whether or not they would go ahead with the investment. One thing was for sure. She couldn’t wait any longer to find out how Amanda and Rhett were fiddling the results. Her next break in Calderon would be key.

  Chapter XVIII

  The flight home bump landed at Calderon, shaking Sam out of a deep sleep. Her arms flew up in fright, startling her neighbour who shrieked in sympathy. Sam mumbled an apology and pretended to search for something in the seat pocket in front of her. The stress of working at Bonita had exhausted her.

  The tightness in her chest only increased with the thought of dealing with Amanda and the inevitable tantrum that awaited her. Horace Burns had decided against investing in the project and the scapegoat had landed. She didn’t dare go home first even though she badly needed a hot shower and some clean clothes.

  The taxi pulled into the pavement outside the office and the driver quoted her a random gringo-based fare. She paid him without protest and stumbled past Stalin into the lift which had finally been repaired. The doors slid open and she peered out into the ugly office.

  ‘Hello, anyone in?’ she said, hoping they weren’t.

  Amanda came out of her bathroom wiping her nose. She spotted Sam loitering beside the door. Her eyes glistened and she stuck out a clawed hand like a T-Rex zooming in on its prey.

  ‘Ah, you’re here. Great. Come into the office.’

  Great? That didn’t compute but Sam had no choice. She steeled herself for the confrontation and entered.

  ‘So, how’s it going?’ said Amanda. ‘I hear that clown Horace got drunk.’

  How did she know that?

  ‘Um, well, everyone did. We had a visit from some local miners who materialised out of the blue and wouldn’t take no for an answer.’

  ‘Anyway, he’s out of the picture. I’ve got a new investor who wants to put in a far larger amount.’

  ‘Is he coming to do due diligence?’

  Amanda laughed and shook her head without moving her helmet of hair which was cut into a bob and stiff with hairspray.

  ‘No, he’s going to issue new shares and float them on the stock exchange to pay us for the company,’

  ‘How much are they raising?’

  ‘Ten million.’

  ‘Wow. That’s fantastic. Congratulations.’

  ‘I wouldn’t get too excited if I were you. I doubt they’ll want you to stay on after your performance recently.’

  Sam stiffened but Amanda didn’t notice.

  ‘Well, I need a shower,’ said Sam, getting up.

  ‘You’ll need a hotel first,’ said Amanda. ‘Gloria’s moved back in with Alfredo.’

  Sam did a double take.

  ‘She has? When did this happen?’

  ‘Yes, it’s nauseating but it won’t last long. By the way, I need you to come in tomorrow to update the files with the latest results.’

  As Sam was leaving the office, Marina approached her with an envelope in her hand.

  ‘Mr Burns left this for you,’ she said. ‘Don’t tell Amanda.’

  ‘Thanks. I won’t.’

  Sam slipped the envelope into the front pocket of her rucksack. Horace Burns had been banished by Amanda. What on earth could he want with me?

  Sam took a taxi home and approached the front door with caution before knocking on it. The door flew open and Gloria stood in the sunlight. An expression of apprehension flitted across her features when she saw who it was.

  ‘Hello,’ said Sam. ‘Can I--’

  Gloria reached out and grabbed her, almost smothering Sam in her large mop of curly hair. Sam tried to shake her off, but it w
as like trying to remove a limpet.

  ‘Let me go,’ said Sam.

  ‘Only if you promise to forgive me. I’m such an idiot.’

  ‘I’ll suffocate.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘Okay, I forgive you even though you are a complete twit.’

  Gloria released Sam and looked into her face.

  ‘You’re my best friend,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why you put up with me.’

  ‘I don’t know either, anyway, I thought Amanda was your best friend.’

  Sam couldn’t help it. Gloria deserved a little bit of torture while her guard was down. It didn’t happen often.

  ‘Don’t be mean. You know that’s not true. I got carried away by her glamour.’

  ‘Hmm. I’ll consider it. Make me a cup of tea and give me a cigarette while I think about it.’

  Once they had their tea and were ensconced on the sofa together, Gloria gave Sam a blow by blow account of her reunion with Alfredo that suffered from a surfeit of gory detail.

  ‘And guess what? His thing is working again. I couldn’t believe it when he--,’

  ‘Whoa! Okay, I get the picture. Please don’t tell me,’ said Sam, shutting her eyes to try and keep the images that were forming out of her mind.

  ‘Anyway, it’s all wonderful again, and I’m so happy that you’re not cross with me…’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘I can tell.’

  ‘Ha!’

  ‘Now my only problem is Amanda.’

  ‘Ah, she figures quite high up my list of problems as well.’

  ‘I’m finding it very awkward. She’s jealous of Alfredo and keeps demanding we go out when I’d rather stay home. I don’t know how to tell her.’

  ‘I don’t think she’ll be around for much longer so maybe you and Alfredo will have to compromise until she’s gone.’

  ‘It’s not only that.’ Gloria smoothed her shirt and looked away. ‘She keeps buying David presents.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Expensive presents. Sucking up to him. There’s something creepy about it.’

  ‘Has David noticed?’

  ‘I don’t think so. He doesn’t like her much. But she wants to take him on a trip.’

  Sam felt the hairs rise at the nape of her neck.

  ‘I don’t think that would be a good idea,’ she said, ‘if he doesn’t like her much.’

  ‘No, that’s what I thought. She’s hard to refuse though.’

  ‘Tell her he has exams at school.’

  ‘Exams? He’s seven.’

  ‘Amanda doesn’t know anything about children that age. Tell her he has to study.’

  Gloria smiled. ‘That’s a great idea.’

  Sam went upstairs to shower and put on some clean clothes. She brushed her hair and reached into the front pocket of her rucksack for a scrunchy with which to put it up in a bun. She found the envelope that Marina had thrust into her hand as she was leaving the office.

  Sitting down on the bed, she opened it and took out a letter, handwritten on Hotel Bolivar writing paper.

  Dear Sam,

  I have decided not to go ahead with the investment in Bonito Mining. My initial enthusiasm was generated by a drink fuelled evening with Amanda in Toronto. However, my geologist tells me that it is far from certain that the geology will prove to be capable of supporting production and it is a bit out of my comfort zone.

  On the other hand, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that the Siete Pingas hooch offers the prospect of a real working business. It would be a dream to market with that background story and the rude name.

  I would like to speak to Señor Morto about it if you could arrange this for me? My contact details are listed below. I realise that it may be tricky to set up but I have faith in your abilities to sort it out.

  I really enjoyed my visit to Cerro Calvo and my admiration for you holding it all together out there in Sierramar is unbounded.

  Yours sincerely

  Horace Burns.

  Sam let out a snort of disbelief. Life never turned out anything like she had imagined. Señor Muerte running a legal business? She shook her head and put the letter back into the envelope. Horace Burns would have to wait as she had more pressing matters to attend to. She put the envelope on the shelf with the Inca tools and went downstairs for dinner.

  Amanda turned up late at night and dragged Gloria out to dance until dawn. Alfredo had shrugged and shut himself in his office. Sam read David a story and settled down to watch the financial news on television. Granoro Mining shares had doubled again on the release of figures claiming a measured resource of ten million ounces of gold.

  Sam was flummoxed with the speed of developments. How on earth do they calculate the resource so quickly? It takes months to do it. The results looked too good to be true but no one had questioned them. No wonder Amanda got another better offer for Bonito.

  The next morning, she headed for the office early, secure in the knowledge that Amanda would not turn up for hours. The results were sitting on Marina’s desk and only confirmed Sam’s worst fears about the salting. She had made herself a mug of milky coffee when Rhett turned up, dressed in a pair of blue mechanic’s overalls. Sam rolled her eyes at his fashion choices, which rivalled hers in their eccentricity.

  ‘Morning. Where have you sprung from?’ she said.

  ‘I was at the laboratory crushing the samples for analysis. They won’t do themselves you know.’

  He strode off, leaving black shiny tracks on the carpet from his rubber boots. Intrigued, Sam bent over and ran her fingers across the trail. Heavy mineral sand. So that’s where the tailings went. But what was he doing with them? She had to find out.

  Once she had completed the filing of the sample results, Sam left the office again. It was now or never. She needed to break into the laboratory and discover what was going on, but she must have help.

  ‘You want to do what?’ said Gloria. Her eyebrows threatened to fly off her face altogether. ‘Are you completely insane? Amanda would murder you if she found out.’

  ‘It does sound a little risky,’ said Alfredo.

  ‘You must help me. It’s the only way we can eject Amanda from our lives and stop her cheating the investor out of ten million dollars,’ said Sam.

  ‘Will we get a reward?’ said Gloria. ‘I could do with some new shoes.’

  ‘I need a new car,’ said Alfredo. ‘Now that I’m driving again.’

  Gloria beamed. She took Alfredo’s head in her hands and kissed him all over his face.

  ‘Would you two get a room?’ said Sam. ‘We’re planning a complex operation here and you are snogging each other instead.’

  ‘We’re planning? You’re planning,’ said Gloria.

  ‘Look, it’s simple,’ said Sam, exasperated. ‘You take Amanda and Rhett out on the town and keep them there while Alfredo and I have a look around the laboratory for evidence of the fraud.’

  ‘But what if you are caught?’ said Gloria.

  ‘We won’t be.’

  Amanda did not cooperate with their plan. She developed a heavy cold and took to her bed leaving Rhett at a loose end. Since they could not be sure where he hung out when he wasn’t with Amanda, Sam and Alfredo did not dare to raid the laboratory before she got better.

  Unable to sit around waiting, Sam left Calderon for a couple of days at the beach with Yannis. She did not warn him that she was on her way. Was it a test? His expression when she turned up told her all she needed to know. Despite the presence of a dozen nubile teenagers on site, any of whom would have been glad to hang out with the handsome resident of the hotel, he had not hooked up with any of them.

  ‘I’m so glad you are here,’ he said. ‘My bed is too big without you in it.’

  Sam’s worries lifted in an instant and she kissed him with a passion she didn’t know she possessed. Her working life sucked the life out of her with its undercurrent of misogyny and the impossibility of satisfying the
demands of management that she should find deposits of metals in rocks which didn’t contain them.

  The palm trees swayed in the breeze as she lay in her hammock reading for the best part of three days. Yannis joined her whenever he managed to get a break from shepherding the young women in and out of meals. They ate langostinos and drank caipirinhas in the balmy evenings and went for long moonlit walks on the beach. Restored and ready for anything, she headed back to the capital.

  ‘When will I see you again?’ said Yannis.

  ‘Soon, I hope. Things may get a little complicated.’

  ‘Be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.’

  The same evening Sam arrived back in Calderon, Amanda appeared at Alfredo’s house and demanded Gloria’s company on her nocturnal excursion with Rhett. Since Sam needed to return to Cerro Calvo the day after next, they decided that she and Alfredo would go that same evening in case Amanda had a relapse the following day.

  Sam watched as Gloria struggled to put on her eyeliner in the bathroom mirror, her hand shaking.

  ‘I’m worried. What if they catch you?’ said Gloria.

  ‘Doing what? Visiting the laboratory? I don’t think it’s a crime.’

  ‘Not the police, Rhett and Amanda. You don’t know what they’re capable of.’

  ‘I’ve got a pretty good idea. We’ll be in and out of there in fifteen minutes. Anyway, there are no guards, it’s not like there’s anything to steal.’

  ‘Be careful. I got Alfredo back and I don’t want to lose him again.’

  ‘I know. I won’t let anything happen to him,’ said Sam. ‘By the way, pretend to Amanda that you and I aren’t getting on any more. Tell her that you don’t trust me any longer. She’s much more likely to tell you stuff if she thinks you’re on her side.’

  ‘She really hates you.’

  ‘I know. I feel a bit sorry for her really. Look what she’s missing.’

  Sam make a face in the mirror, crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue.

  ‘Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice,’ said Gloria.

  Amanda and Rhett turned up late, already drunk and aggressive. Gloria made a valiant attempt at pretending she was glad to see them. They left in a taxi; her sad face pressed against the window as she gave a thumbs down sign. Alfredo groaned.