by Don Easton
Ramirez shrugged and said, “If you wish. I have a pen and paper in the glove box.”
“Pencil and paper,” replied Laura.
“There is a difference?”
“Yes.”
Damien peeked out from under the bridge and saw an SUV slowly driving toward him. It stopped and two men got out and quickly ran toward the bridge as the SUV sped off.
Damien gripped the pistol tighter and ducked as the men slid down the embankment near the bridge. He watched as they scrambled to hide in some bushes.
Moments later, someone was walking on the bridge above him. He heard the sound of a stone grate on the plank above his head and caught a quick glimpse of Laura’s face in the moonlight as she bent over. She then continued walking across the bridge and out onto the street. Now what the fuck is going on?
Immediately the two men left their hiding spot and went to the top of the bridge. Damien heard them whisper and then heard one place a call on his cell. Seconds later, they both headed down the street. Damien peeked out again and saw one of the men staying in the shadows as he followed Laura down the street. The other man was carrying a pad of paper and stopped to wait a short distance down the street.
Damien saw Laura nervously looking back as the SUV arrived again. The man with the pad of paper quickly climbed in and the SUV drove away. She stepped back and hid in the doorway of a building, oblivious to the other man who was creeping closer.
chapter thirty-nine
Carlos accepted the pencil and pad of paper and quickly scanned the crude drawings. One showed the first level of the villa, with a bathroom, kitchen, and a pantry room at the rear and a dining room and television room at the front. Near the pantry was marked a set of stairs leading to the upper level.
The second drawing showed three bedrooms on the upper floor with one marked with a large X and the drawing of a stick man lying on a bed.
“Your puta, she do good,” said Carlos. “Now, tell me about bobby trap,” he said, shoving the paper and pencil onto Jack’s lap.
Jack quickly sketched two trees that were the closest to the rear door of the villa. He then drew what he said was a fish line tied to one tree leading to a glass hanging in the crook of a branch on the other tree.
“The glass is held in place with a clothes pin,” said Jack. “He puts a grenade with the pin removed inside the glass. Below the glass is a rock. If someone walks into the line...”
“Then the glass falls and the grenade ... it go bang,” said Carlos.
“You’ve got it,” replied Jack. “A simple idea, but effective.”
Carlos rolled down the window and handed the sketches to one of his men. He then gave him some brief instructions before rolling up the window.
The minutes passed and the tension reduced everyone to silence. Carlos finally got the call he had been expecting. When he was finished, he barked some orders at the driver, who flicked a switch. Jack heard the doors lock. Entering the car without permission was virtually impossible. Now, leaving the car would be up to the discretion of the driver.
“My men in place at back,” said Carlos. “No bobby trap.”
Normally Jack might have found Carlos’s grasp of the English language amusing, but this was not the time — and he hated Carlos too much to find anything amusing about him.
From her hiding spot in the doorway, Laura watched as two vans, followed by two SUVs, roared past her down the street toward the small bridge. The Mercedes followed from behind, but the darkness, coupled with the tinted windows on the Mercedes, stopped her from catching a glimpse of Jack’s face as it went by.
The first three vehicles bounced across the small bridge, causing the wooden planks to echo loudly in the night. The fourth vehicle stopped crossways at the entrance to the bridge. Four men leapt out and stood with machine guns at the ready as the Mercedes skidded to a stop in the dirt behind it.
Jack watched as Carlos, sitting beside him, screamed instructions into his phone from the safety of the back seat. The two men in the front of the Mercedes remained in their seat, but the man in front of Jack had turned to face him and made no pretext of hiding the pistol he was pointing at Jack.
Jack tried to control his breathing and relax his muscles as he watched Carlos, waiting for the inevitable. Waiting for when Carlos knew and turned to face him...
Jack looked across the creek and caught a glimpse of a small army of men as they kicked open the front door to the villa and rushed inside. The time will be now ... I love you, Natasha.
Jack smiled at the man facing him from the front seat and gave a nod of his head toward the villa just as the lights went on in the house. The distraction didn’t work. Jack saw the man’s eyes flicker toward the villa, but he remained focused on Carlos’s face, waiting for his boss to give the order.
Instantly, automatic weapons erupted inside the villa as men’s screams echoed their terror. At the same time, men rushed out of the shed beside the villa while their weapons burped fire and death.
Carlos looked at Jack. His eyes burned with hatred and his mouth opened to shout a command.
Jack gripped the pencil. The eraser butted against the palm of his hand while the pencil protruded from between the middle of his fingers.
Carlos reeled back in horror as Jack slammed the point of the pencil upwards through his neck under his jaw. His intent was to penetrate the brain but Carlos twisted his head. Instead, the pencil skewered his esophagus and snapped in half, leaving the jagged end protruding from his throat. He tried to scream but instead his voice became an ugly wheezing sound as his body demanded air.
Jack was barely conscious of the man in the front seat raising his gun toward his head while he grasped Carlos with both hands around the back of his neck, pulling him down on top of him.
Carlos gurgled and tried to push himself upright, but Jack had partially wriggled down between the seats and held on tight. Carlos grabbed at his own throat, trying to remove the pencil.
Jack twisted and turned. For a few brief seconds, he felt fingers trying to pry his arm free from the back of Carlos’s neck while the two men screamed at each other in the front seat.
Laura waited for the sound of gunfire before leaving the shelter of her doorway and running toward the Mercedes. She was thankful that Ramirez had given her a Glock 9mm for protection and reached for it in her purse as she raced forward. She knew it wouldn’t penetrate the car, but if a door opened she might have a chance.
A few scatterings of citizens on the street ran past her, going in the opposite direction to escape the din of terror that unleashed itself at the far end. One man appeared in front of her and she gasped as she recognized his face. The stringy red hair ... chipped front tooth. Her brain tried to react to what she thought was impossible. Rellik raised his hand and she saw the gun pointed at her face — point blank range!
Her training took over as she instinctively crouched and started to raise her own weapon. Over the noise of a multitude of automatic weapons firing and people screaming, her brain heard him yell, “Fuckin’ bitch!” and she saw the muzzle flash from his pistol.
Rellik grinned. Good shot. Right through the centre of the forehead!
Jack hung onto Carlos’s neck with one arm while his other hand reached around Carlos’s waistband. His fingers touched the leather holster and he frantically grabbed for the weapon and felt his fingers wrap around it. Got it! ... Wait ... No! It’s a cellphone! He was just packing a second cellphone!
Jack was conscious of the man in the front seat opening his door. A second later, the door by Jack’s head opened. He tilted his head and looked up just as the man took aim at the top of his skull. In a futile effort, Jack released Carlos and tried to grab at the gun. The man stepped back slightly, and it gave Carlos the opportunity to push himself upright, exposing Jack from the chest up as he lay pinned between the seats.
Jack had heard that you never hear the sound of the shot that takes out your brain. It’s not true. I hear it ... sticky pieces of
skull and brain splattering down my chest ... Carlos pushing himself backwards to safety ... blackness...
He heard the sound of a second shot, then stared numbly upwards as the light returned.
“Jesus fuck!” yelled Damien. “Don’t just lie there!” he screamed, while dragging the corpse off Jack’s face with one hand, holding the pistol in his other hand.
Jack wriggled out of the car backwards onto the ground. He saw the driver slumped over in the front seat and the car window awash in blood behind him. In the back seat, Carlos stared at him in terror with the broken pencil protruding from his neck. He took his hand from his throat and made a gesture to reach for the door handle. He knew it was hopeless. He was right.
Damien’s third shot sent another wave of blood over the rear passenger window.
Laura saw the smile on Rellik’s face when he fired. Her ears were ringing as the pistol exploded a round just above her head. She immediately fired two bullets from her own gun into his chest cavity.
Rellik’s mouth gaped open in surprise and he fell backwards. Laura heard the sound of another body fall behind her and she turned to look.
Oh man! He missed me and took out a citizen!
Then she saw the gun in the man’s hand, and the realization of what had happened took over. She looked back at Rellik, then quickly knelt down beside him.
He looked at her and his voice gurgled as he spoke.
“Why’d you fuckin’ shoot me, bitch?”
“I thought you called me a fuckin’ bitch and shot at me!” cried Laura.
“I said Duck, bitch! You ducked and...” Rellik’s body convulsed and spewed blood from his lungs. Seconds later, he died without speaking another word.
Jack, followed by Damien, ran up the street and found Laura counting aloud while pumping a man’s chest with her hands and then pausing to blow air into his lungs.
“This is Rellik!” Jack exclaimed. “What is he doing here?”
“You’re alive!” said Laura, returning to pump on Rellik’s chest.
“Yeah, still above ground,” replied Jack, looking at Damien for an answer.
“Carlos ... you kill ’im?” asked Laura. She glanced at Jack, while still pumping on Rellik’s chest.
“Pencil snapped in his throat. Damien finished him off,” said Jack, while placing two fingers over the carotid artery in Rellik’s neck. “He’s dead, Laura. What the hell are you doing?” He looked at Damien and asked, “What is he doing here?”
“You didn’t really think I would trust the Feds to protect me down here, did you? I had Rellik and two of his crew tag along for protection.”
Laura continued to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until Jack said, “Laura! Will you cut this out! He’s dead! We will be too if we stay out here in the middle of the street!”
Laura looked dazed as she slowly sat upright before picking the 9mm up from where she had dropped it in the dirt.
“I sent Rellik to protect you,” said Damien. “Didn’t know you had a piece. This other guy, he kill Rellik and then you shoot him?”
Laura shook her head. “I thought Rellik was shooting at me. I didn’t know this other guy was behind me. I ... I didn’t know....” Her voice trailed off and she stared down at Rellik.
“Yeah?” replied Damien. “Well, shit happens. Honest mistake. Rellik wasn’t exactly one of my favourites, anyway. Guess we don’t have to worry about him climbing any more trees.”
“Where are your other two guys?” demanded Jack, looking around.
“They helped me take out the four guys outside of Carlos’s Mercedes. I told them to take off after I waxed Carlos.”
“You shouldn’t have brought them here! Damn it, Damien!”
“Yeah, right. And if they weren’t here, you both would be dead!”
Jack, Laura, and Damien hardly spoke as Ramirez gave them a ride back to his place. Once there, he gave them jogging suits to wear and took their bloodied clothes to be burned.
Ramirez told them that nine men who worked for Carlos managed to escape Palmira in a van. He said they did not arrive back in Buga.
It was almost four o’clock when Jack, Laura, and Damien arrived back at their hotel and hurried to their rooms before Jean-Louie and the narcs could see their jogging suits.
Jack waited a few minutes for Jean-Louie to return, then called his room.
“Went really well,” said Jack. “Some details still have to be worked out, but we can head home now.”
“Long night. Was starting to worry.”
“Partied hearty. Helped gain his trust. Right now we’re all beat. I’m going to grab three hours of shut-eye, then meet you at seven. We want to catch the morning flight back to Vancouver.”
Jack then knocked on Laura’s door. She came out in the hall and quietly closed the door behind her. They gave each other a hug before walking down the hallway.
“Think I could round up a drink if you want one,” Jack said. “It’s just that if you feel like talking, we can’t do it in our rooms.”
Laura shook her head and said, “One drink would-n’t be enough and forty-seven would be too many. Glad you’re here, though.”
“How do you feel?”
Laura didn’t respond.
“You okay?”
“I don’t know. Right now I just feel numb. I just killed a guy for saving my life. How do you think I should feel?”
“Numb. Same as I feel.”
“I should have ordered him to drop it. I just ... I was so freaked out with what was going on ... then to see his face. The guy I figured for the epitome of evil. I double-tapped him without thinking. I should have known that he wouldn’t have missed me at that range. My presumptions got him killed!”
“Rellik didn’t save your life. Damien did. Rellik was just a soldier following orders. The fact that he was ordered to save you doesn’t make him a good guy. He acts without conscience. He could have just as easily been told to torture you. Knowing his personality, he likely would have preferred that.”
“I thought of that, but I still fired without weighing all the evidence. He even told me to duck! I was so convinced about him being evil that I didn’t listen. What if he had been a good guy and I did that?”
“He wasn’t.”
“But me thinking he was...”
“We don’t live in a courtroom. We don’t have the luxury of taking months or years to decide whether or not a decision is right. Out here, it’s survival. You reacted how you should have.”
“It’s the consequence of my prejudgement that is eating at me. It made me react...”
“Consequences! Tell me about it! Everything I’ve done lately brings about a consequence I hadn’t planned on. I guess there are things we have to accept. Things we can’t control. There are always consequences. You shooting Rellik was a consequence of the type of guy he was. In a way, he got himself killed. At least, his lifestyle did. It wasn’t Mother Teresa running toward you!”
They walked for a little while longer, both lost in the silence of their own thoughts. Eventually they returned and stopped outside of Laura’s door.
“Thanks, Jack,” she said. “I’ll be okay. Just need time to sort things out.”
“You sure?”
Laura nodded and said, “You’re a good friend. Goodnight.”
“A good friend?”
Laura smiled and said, “Yeah. This time you’re helping me bury a body ... if only in my mind.” She then hugged Jack. He kissed her on the forehead and returned to his own room.
It was six-thirty in the morning when Jack was summoned to Jean-Louie’s room.
As soon as he entered, Jean-Louie waved a copy of El País in front of him and yelled, “What is this?”
“A newspaper,” replied Jack.
“What it says,” snarled Jean-Louie, holding up the headlines reading CARLOS — MORTE!
“I don’t know,” replied Jack. “Haven’t seen it and I don’t read Spanish.”
“I’ll explain the gri
sly details,” said Jean-Louie. “Sit down!”
Jack took a seat and listened.
“Norte del Valle,” Jean-Louie started, then paused and said, “Early this morning, on a road outside of Buga, travellers were shocked to discover the bodies of nine men piled in a pyramid on the road.”
“Wow!” said Jack. “People really play it rough down here!”
Jean-Louie stared briefly at Jack, then said, “I’m an old-school operator too, remember? Skip the concerned part and go straight to denial.”
Jack stared ahead, his face frozen.
“I’ll continue,” said Jean-Louie. “This pyramid of bodies was only half the size of another pyramid discovered on the outskirts of Palmira. A naked man was laid face-down at the top of that pyramid. He had a broomstick protruding from his buttocks with a green beret dangling from the end. Later it was discovered that this was the notorious...” Jean-Louie paused to look at Jack and said, “The hell with it! You know who it was!” he said, flinging the newspaper down. He glared at Jack and asked, “Any comment?”
“No.”
“The paper said that in both incidents the police were unable to find anyone who heard or saw anything ... but Ramirez is being linked as someone who has a previous history with Carlos.”
Jack nodded quietly.
“For the record, were you with Ramirez all last night at the party?”
“He left for a little while. We thought he was picking up some more guests.”
“A little while?”
“Might have been longer. Maybe a couple of hours. Everyone was partying and having fun.”
“Good.” Almost believable, Jean-Louie thought. “What are you thinking?” asked Jack.
“I’m thinking the three of you should grab your bags and get the hell out of here!”
chapter forty
It was eleven-thirty at night when the plane touched down on the Vancouver runway. It was an hour later when Jack and Laura cleared Customs. Damien was already gone.
Jack expected to get a taxi, but a familiar voice in the terminal stopped him.
