by Paul Knox
“It had to be him. I can show you where. I think he followed us somehow.” Chang blotted his face and hair.
Reece grabbed her phone and opened INSITE. The tracking beacon still read loud and clear—and pointed to the room she was in.
“Your beacon,” she said to Sandy.
“There is zero chance of anyone else tracking it unless Xie is privy,” he answered.
Reece’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll be sure to ask about that when I personally request that Kai leaves the treasure hunting to the professionals. If I’m lucky, he’ll try to kill me—and make my job easy.”
Sandy gave her a perplexed look. He only said one word, but his quizzical tone meant everything. “Reece?”
“First of all, I can’t take him to jail. Not here. And not in America.” Reece’s voice rose in pitch. “Second, Kai has and will take any and all opportunities to kill me, or you, or any of us, without batting an eye. And if I walk away and go home, they’ll hunt me down and everyone I love. He’s not giving me a choice.”
Everyone in the room was silent, looking at her. She rolled her shoulders and backed her tone down.
“I need more guns,” she said, matter-of-fact. “Let’s see that arsenal of yours.”
Without a word, Sandy unlocked the suitcase and opened it, revealing three machine guns, dozens of handguns, and loads of ammunition.
Reece tucked one gun in her jeans above her butt, and two in a double shoulder holster in front, which she covered with a jacket.
“You’re leaving again?” Duke asked, his eyes flickering from Reece to Chang and back again.
“I have to,” Reece said. “Keep an eye on Mario.”
“Sure. But please…be careful out there. I, um, I…” Duke’s voice faded and he hung his head.
Reece turned to Sandy. “And you keep an eye on Duke.” Her voice softened. “He’s a good guy. I like him.”
Duke’s head popped up and Reece gave him a smile. Then she turned to Chang. “Here’s a poncho. Put it on and let’s go.”
32
KAI CASTRO stood under a corrugated metal awning in an alley, infuriated about the promised money he had lost with the Pozo de Fuego disaster. He vowed that the Cannons would pay with their lives.
He peered through binoculars, watching the front door of a Vista Los Volcanes hotel room. Four men beside him were all armed to the teeth.
Besides the Cannons, there was a boy inside that room, and he wanted the boy alive. His tattoo might be the key to the gold fortune.
Until now, Kai hadn’t known about the Leon boy. He grunted, thinking about how he would punish the Pipil villagers for that omission.
Today Kai had an especially powerful hankering to punish. Earlier he had seen the dead bodies of his brothers with his own eyes. Not only did he want revenge, he wanted violence.
He returned his eyes to the binoculars. The hotel door opened. Reece Cannon and one of her people left.
“Looking for me?” he whispered to the rain. “I’ll be seeing you soon, don’t you worry.”
Kai waited a few moments until Reece disappeared into the storm. He prepared to move out.
But to his surprise, one of her other friends stepped out of the room. He had a large camera around his neck and began taking pictures of the city.
“Get down,” Kai ordered his men.
They all crouched down out of sight just as the man aimed his camera at them.
33
“THAT’S A GOOD SHOT,” Duke mumbled to himself, taking a picture of a strikingly white cathedral with two large towers. Duke imagined it was built by Spaniards in the 1700s. The old cathedral reached for the heavens as a pillar of stability within the chaotic skies and wind-whipped treetops. Compared to the multicolored dwellings surrounding it that hugged each other like jellybeans in a jar, the snowy exterior exuded purity.
Thunder rumbled and lightening cracked from the skies.
Click-click-click went his camera.
The entire experience felt divine. But not necessarily comforting. Duke searched his soul.
What am I really doing here? Am I just a fool?
Reece had said she liked him. But did she love him? Maybe not yet. But not ever? Duke had to prove himself somehow.
He felt boyish coming down here, after reflecting on the conversation with his mother. Though his love aspirations might be premature, he wasn’t immature.
He had started his own photography business. When times got lean because everyone had a camera phone, he improvised, evolved and branched out.
He lived alone, stable and well. And he was happy—well, mostly.
Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn’t notice the five men jogging in front of the hotel. But the long barrels of black metal—rifles?—caught his attention.
Machine guns!?
Duke slammed backwards against the hotel room door and tripped, falling inside to the ground.
Behind and above him Sandy’s prescient words boomed. “Who is it?”
Duke scrambled to his feet. “Machine guns! They’re running outside—”
“How many?”
“Like, five, I think.”
“Which side of the building?”
“Out front…maybe on the right, more so.”
“There are a second set of stairs to the left. Take Mario and get out of here, now! I’ll hold them off.” Sandy had already removed a machine gun from his suitcase, cradling it in his hands, readying it.
Duke barely comprehended the next words that came out of his mouth. He didn’t mean to say them, but they seemed too important not to say, even instinctual. “No. You go. I’ll never be able to fight them off if they come after me and Mario. You take him. You can do it. Then come back for me—you’ll come back, right?”
Sandy took a look at him, and for a split-second, Duke almost thought that Sandy regarded him like a man rather than a boy.
“Here.” Sandy handed him the machine gun.
In the same instant that Duke fumbled the scary-looking gun, half-dropping it on the ground—lucky he didn’t shoot himself—Sandy lifted a wide-eyed Mario into his arms and over his shoulder.
Seconds later Sandy and Mario were gone.
Duke aimed the machine gun at the door. He noticed the barrel was wobbling back and forth. His eyes traced the barrel down to his fingers, which were shaking.
In fact, his entire body was trembling. He couldn’t seem to catch a breath. He couldn’t even swallow.
Does this thing have a safety? Did Sandy take it off?
He stared at a sandwich box-sized green container connected to the bottom of the gun with bullets hanging out, which were fed into the chamber.
If that’s full of bullets…that’s a lot of bullets.
Then the cracking sound of the doorframe splintering around the handle hammered his senses as the door broke open and the first man rushed in.
34
THE BARRAGE OF SHELLS that spit from Duke’s machine gun shocked him. And the mangled body of the man in front of him, who had been stopped in his tracks by the PKM, made him want to instantly vomit.
Duke had managed to stitch a line from one wall, across the man, then to the other wall, and then back to the man again, almost cutting him in half. Blood instantly pooled around the body clumped on the floor.
Duke stared at the dead body, his world spinning. Another two men rushed in. Duke pulled the trigger again.
One of the men flew backwards and fell off the second-story balcony, and the other lay crumpled on the ground. This time Duke kept firing like an obsessed madman—until he really did run out of bullets. In truth, he was simply scared out of his mind.
He dropped the machine gun and looked around the room. Sandy’s arsenal-suitcase was only a few feet away. He ran to it.
But before he could figure out a plan or grab a weapon, two more men came in—the last two. One had a large scar down his face. Kai Castro. Kai studied Duke with a pistol raised while the other man—with a machine gun that clo
sely resembled the one Duke had used—fired.
The suitcase was the size of Duke’s body, and his only thought was to hide behind it. He screamed at the top of his lungs, high-pitched like a child. His scream surprised even him.
I’m gonna die.
The bullets clacked loudly against the case. But they didn’t make it through. Duke didn’t die.
The machine gun stopped firing, but Duke kept screaming. Moments later he heard the sound of laughing. Kai and his accomplice were laughing at him, at his scream.
“You are very lucky to have a bulletproof suitcase to hide behind, cameraman,” Kai called out in between snickers. “Or should I say camerawoman?”
More snickering and laughs.
“Unfortunately, I can’t let you live. You just killed three of my best men. Show your face and tell me where the Sandman and Mario are. And I’ll make it quick. Otherwise, you will be screaming all night—until I cut out your tongue.”
Duke didn’t realize he had tears on his face as he called out, “I don’t…don’t know where they w-went.”
“That’s unfortunate for you, then,” Kai said, moving closer and pulling a knife from his belt.
And then a crazy thought flashed through Duke’s mind. It might not be enough to keep him alive, but he only had one card to play. He had to try anything.
“Wait,” Duke sputtered. “I do know something—your brothers are dead.”
Kai paused, his eyes like a hawk on a mouse. “And how do you know this? Or the better question is: why do you know?” He rubbed the blade of his knife cruelly, his face twisting.
“It wasn’t Reece!” Duke exclaimed. “Konstantin!—the red dragon! He’s after Reece too, and your brothers fired at him first. Then he killed them, I swear.”
Kai now stood inches from Duke’s face. Duke smelled the stink of Kai mixed with rain.
Duke squeezed his eyes shut. “And Yunru probably knows. He’s been talking to Konstantin.”
Seconds that felt like hours passed. Duke opened one eye. Kai still stood toe-to-toe with him, staring at him like he was a puzzle piece which could be put into position.
35
SANDY had rushed down the stairs and around the building with Mario. The noise from the storm hid the sound of their escape.
They dodged around a couple streets until they found a spot where they couldn’t be easily seen, but could view the entrance of the hotel room.
The door was open and there was no commotion.
They already left.
It was only a matter of minutes before the PNC showed. Someone nearby had to have called the violent disturbance in by now.
Then two more people appeared on that second-story balcony, stepping over the dead bodies and checking inside the room.
How do they know we’re here, too?
Sandy looked warily at the rice-sized tracking beacon in his wrist. Was Reece correct? Was Xie up to no good?
He glanced around his surroundings. The Sandman was way too skilled to let this opportunity slip.
“Stay with me, Mario,” he said, taking off towards the nearest parked car.
“I can fight, you know,” came the boy’s response as he followed right behind.
“Good.” Sandy picked up a fist-sized rock as he jogged and in one solid motion, smashed the rear driver’s side window with it. He turned to Mario and quickly added, “We need someone like you. Follow my lead. When it comes time, I’ll let you know.”
Mario’s eyes lit up. He nodded about one hundred times.
After jumping in the car, Sandy busted the ignition and hotwired it, then speeding off. “Get buckled, kid.”
“Are we going back for Duke?” Mario asked.
“Duke is either already dead or kidnapped. But we have a second chance—maybe even someone who knows where Kai is.”
Mario clicked his seatbelt. “Konstantin?”
“Smart kid.”
Sandy made his way closer to the hotel and circled it once, watching as Konstantin returned to his car and drove off. Konstantin’s associate, Alexey, took a different vehicle and went a different way.
Sandy had to quickly make a choice, but it was a simple one. He followed Konstantin.
* * *
Not long after, the Russian pulled his car into a back-alley garage, which sat next to a turquoise-colored jewelry shop with bars over its windows.
“Wait here,” Sandy instructed. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“What about my skills?” Mario asked, throwing his hands up.
“We’re going to need them. But for now, I need you to watch this car. Keep the engine running.”
Sandy exited the little car and approached the shop entrance. No one was crazy enough to be out in this weather. He glanced back at Mario who was watching with intense anticipation, soaking up the experience.
Sandy gently tried the store’s door. Locked.
Peering inside, he saw a light in the back beyond a short hallway, but no one in front.
Sandy didn’t hesitate. He pulled out a SIG Sauer 9mm and fired, shattering the lock. He threw the door open and ran inside toward the light.
Konstantin must’ve heard, appearing from around a corner and into the hallway. Sandy booted a solid wood chair across the floor into his shins and knees, driving him backwards.
Then Sandy leaped onto the chair and lunged directly into the large man, knocking him to the ground. His knee pressed into Konstantin’s Adam’s apple.
“Ironic,” Sandy remarked while Konstantin half-coughed, “but you would make a pitiful Pakhan. In fact, your name should be Pitiful Packy.” He changed his voice as if talking to a pet dog. “Pitiful Packy, come here and let me pet you. You need a treat?”
“You’re a dead man,” Konstantin choked out.
“I AM A DEAD MAN!” Sandy roared. He pressed his knee into Konstantin’s neck harder. “WHERE IS KAI!?”
Konstantin tried to spit, but he couldn’t muster the wind power to do so. It was more like he drooled on his face.
Sandy sighed remorsefully. “You know I’ve killed more people than you, Kai, and Yunru have combined, times twenty or so, don’t you? I have absolutely no issue with pulling this trigger in three, two—”
“Okay, stop!” Konstantin uttered.
“Yes?” Sandy said cheerily, easing up on his neck.
“Kai kidnapped your daughter?” Konstantin asked, his voice raspy.
“Her boyfriend.”
“Than…he did you a favor?”
“That’s for me to decide. Where is he?”
“I have no idea where Kai is. But I do know a place. It’s called Jaguar Morado. Ask for a guy named Osmin. Kai and his brothers deal with him.”
“Until, of course, you killed the brothers.”
“Naturally. But Osmin will know how to find Kai. That’s the best I can do.”
Suddenly the front door of the shop was thrown open. The Sandman jumped up and turned just in time to see the blonde-haired Alexey barge in.
Mario… Sandy immediately worried about the boy all alone out in the alley.
Konstantin leaped to his feet and lunged forward. But Sandy was a moment quicker, kicking backwards and landing his foot into Konstantin’s chest, while simultaneously popping a shot at Alexey. Alexey dodged and the bullet missed.
Sandy leaped sideways into the back room Konstantin had been in, and glanced around. This room directly connected to the garage.
“Get him!” he heard Konstantin yell to Alexey.
Alexey began blasting rounds into the room before he even appeared in the doorway.
But as soon as Alexey was visible, Sandy fired a single shot—a direct hit to Alexey’s skull. Wasting no more precious time, he bolted into the garage and pounded the opener affixed to the wall.
Still barely open, Sandy dove to the ground and rolled under the garage door, over the watery concrete.
He dashed to the car. Mario was nowhere to be seen. Sandy looked back and all around, scanning t
he area. His heart sank.
But after opening the car door, he found Mario crouched down in front of the passenger seat.
“Someone walked by, so I ducked,” Mario said, hopping back up into the seat.
Sandy peeled out down the street before Mario could even finish latching his buckle.
A couple streets later, Sandy glanced at the boy. “I knew you were a bright kid.”
36
REECE followed Chang back down the block to the market, which was now closed. After passing by it, Chang pointed at a red and white building across the street. “He was in front of that ice cream shop talking to someone. And then I followed him to a taquería a few more streets down.”
About ten minutes later, they arrived to the taquería, which was also closed—like every shop around—and Reece surveyed the bleary surroundings. She held her hands over her brow, trying to keep the rain and wind from blinding her. The plastic ponchos barely helped against the hurricane’s onslaught.
She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. If Kai wasn’t out in plain view, it would be next to impossible to sniff him out. And Chang looked absolutely miserable, shoulders hunched forward and his head angled down.
“After he went here,” Chang said, “I came back to tell you.”
“Well…let’s keep looking for—” Reece was interrupted mid-sentence by multiple sirens passing them. First police, and then an ambulance sped by.
“It looks like they’re headed for the same area Vista Los Volcanes is,” Chang said, worried.
“We’re going back!” Reece started sprinting towards the hotel, about a half-mile away from where they were.
When they made it to Vista Los Volcanes, they found a grizzly sight.
“What?” Chang whispered, mouth agape, staring at the sight before them.
Dead bodies that Reece didn’t recognize were being loaded into an ambulance, and the PNC had the area barricaded. The officers walked in and out of their room.
“Nobody’s up there,” Reece said, watching. “And we need to get out of here.”
