The Cartel: A Novel

by Don Winslow

  “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “Try me!” Keller says. “If you don’t wear this wire you are fucking worthless to me! And you know what worthless means? It means you’re not worth a ‘Q’ visa, you’re not worth a new identity, you’re not worth the house, the car, you’re not worth another one of my fucking sandwiches!”

  He rips the food out of Palacios’s hand and throws it against the wall.

  “I guess we can’t expect to come back to the Four Seasons,” Aguilar says, surveying the damage.

  “Two days,” Keller says, calming down. “You set up your meeting with Vera, I’ll set up your entry into the States. You wear the wire, you get us what you need, you disappear until you testify.”

  “You never said anything about testifying.”

  “The wire is no good without your testimony,” Keller says. What did you think—you and Vera were going to be buddies anyway after this? You were going to bang girls together like the old days? Grow up.”

  Palacios agrees to wear the wire.

  “Business as usual,” Keller tells him. “Do everything you normally would, nothing out of the ordinary. Call me when you’ve set the meeting up.”

  The rest of the day goes by like a muddy, slow-moving river. It’s well into night when Keller gets the call.

  “Tomorrow at 6:30,” Palacios says.

  “Where?”

  “Gerardo has a little love nest he keeps in Polanco,” Palacios says. He gives Keller the address.

  “We’ll meet at five,” Keller says. “Las Alcobas. We’ll wire you up there.”

  “Do you think Gabriela would go for a farewell fuck?” Palacios asks.

  “I doubt it.”

  There’s a lot to get done. Aguilar arranges for SEIDO surveillance outside Vera’s condo to get pictures of the AFI chief coming and going. Then he goes to work on the exit plan—a SEIDO Learjet 25 will be standing by at the 1st Military Air Station at Mexico City International Airport. The flight plan will be filed to the 18th Military Airbase in Hermosillo, Sonora, for Aguilar to confer with SEIDO personnel there. In Hermosillo, they’ll change to an American DEA plane and fly to Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso. The DEA at EPIC will have arranged for the plane to clear American airspace and to pull into a classified hangar.

  Palacios will be taken to EPIC, interviewed, and housed under heavy security at Fort Bliss.

  Aguilar will join his family on vacation in Arizona and await developments. If Vera is arrested, Aguilar will return to Mexico to pursue the prosecution. If not, he’ll consider staying in the United States, where a position in a D.C. consulting firm has already been quietly arranged.

  During the operation, Keller will remain in a surveillance position in a car two blocks removed from Vera’s condo, with remote audio sensor equipment allowing him to monitor the meeting.

  He’ll call Taylor at EPIC as soon as Palacios exits.

  Palacios will walk the two blocks from the condo, and, if he’s all clear, will get into an unmarked SEIDO vehicle and go out to the airport. If he’s not clear, he’ll walk to his own car, a late-model Cadillac, and his driver and bodyguard will take him.

  That’s all if Palacios gets what they need on tape.

  If he doesn’t, he’ll simply go home and set up another meet with Vera to try again.

  —

  The day, which promises to be endless, begins with Keller having a late breakfast.

  With Gerardo Vera.

  It’s part of the plan, to make Vera think that everything is as normal, keep him at ease. So Keller, feeling sleazy, sits with him at a sidewalk café out in Coyoacán. Keller is too edgy to be hungry, but he makes himself eat a large plate of pollo machaca. Vera goes for eggs Benedict and a Bloody Mary. He leans back in his chair, smiles at Keller, and says, “Big night tonight.”

  Keller feels his stomach tighten. Does Gerardo know something? Is he probing? “Yeah?”

  “This woman,” Vera says. “A famous beauty I’ve been seeing. Tonight I think I’m going to, as you say in the States, ‘close the deal.’ ”

  “How famous?” Keller asks.

  “A gentleman doesn’t name names,” Vera says. He grins and adds, “Quite famous, really. For her beauty and her…sexuality.”

  He’s boyishly pleased. Keller feels almost guilty, aware of the old adage that every successful operation ends in a betrayal. And he does feel guilty, irrationally, looking across the table at the broad, smiling face of a man who’s thwarted every effort to get Barrera, who has taken tens of millions in cañonazos, a matón—a bully who held a young girl while his partner gouged out her eyes.

  What the fuck do you feel guilty for? he asks himself.

  “What about you?” Vera asks.

  “What about me?”

  “You have a woman?”

  Keller shakes his head.

  “You did, though, didn’t you?” Vera asks. “She was a doctor or something, right?”

  Is that a threat? Keller wonders.

  “How do you know about that?” he asks, keeping his voice level.

  “It’s my business,” Vera answers, “to know about everything. No offense, Arturo, nothing personal.”

  “Anyway, it’s over.”

  “She left the city, as I recall.”

  He knows where Marisol is, Keller thinks. And it is a threat. Keller has an impulse—deep, atavistic—to just stand up and shoot him in that broad forehead right now.

  “It was you, right?” Vera’s asking now.

  “Me who what?”

  “You who told the Tapias about the Salvador Barrera deal,” Vera says casually. “I know it wasn’t me, and Luis is incapable of that sort of manipulation. So that leaves you.”

  Keller doesn’t answer.

  “No, congratulations,” Vera says. “If you’re going after Barrera, it was the perfect move. Split his organization in half, make people pick sides…Well done, mi amigo.”

  What’s he doing? Keller wonders. Where’s he trying to go with this? Is he threatening, testing, checking out the water? Shit, maybe he wants to come in, make a deal.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Keller says.

  “Of course you don’t,” Vera says, still smiling. His lifts a finger to get the waiter’s attention and then points at his empty glass. “Where are they?”

  “You’ve lost me.”

  “The Tapias,” Vera says. “If you’re in touch with them, if you know where they are, now is the time to tell me.”

  He’s working me the way you work an informant, Keller thinks. Shit, he’s working me the way I work an informant. “I’m not in touch with them and I don’t know where they are.”

  The waiter sets down a fresh Bloody Mary. Vera ignores it and says, “I think it’s time for you to go home, Arturo. I think it’s time for you to leave Mexico and go home.”

  Keller shakes his head. “Not until I get Barrera.”

  The smile comes off Vera’s face and he says very seriously, “That is never going to happen. Listen to me, Arturo—that is never going to happen.”

  Jesus Christ, Keller thinks, he’s doing everything but telling me that he’s on Barrera’s payroll.

  Why?

  Vera reaches out and lays his hand on top of Keller’s. In another culture it would be interpreted as a homosexual gesture. Here it’s a mark of strong friendship between two men.

  “I respect you,” Vera says. “I admire you. But you are never going to bring down Barrera, and your life is in danger now. Things are on the move and I am asking you—no, I’m begging you—leave the country as soon as possible. Tonight. I’m trying to save your life, Arturo.”

  And I’m trying to destroy yours, Keller thinks, the guilt coming back.

  “Have a real drink with me,” Vera says. “We’ll toast to fighting the good fight. Then, if you’re still here tomorrow, I’ll have you arrested and deported. It’s for your own good.”

  He orders two whiskeys and they drink to the good fight.r />
  —

  Keller goes back to the embassy and waits.

  Eats a lunch that he can barely taste at his desk, leaves early, takes a walk through Parque México, and finally wanders over to the bar at Las Alcobas, where he nurses a beer before going up to Room 417.

  Aguilar is already there with a Model G1416 body wire and a roll of medical tape.

  Palacios is due in twenty minutes.

  —

  Chido Palacios sits at his usual table, sipping his usual espresso and watching women in their short summer dresses walk by.

  They’re beautiful—sleek and stylish with long, tan legs fit from the gym, and he’s sorry that this is the last time he’ll have this particular pleasure, but he knows that there are sidewalk cafés in Scottsdale, and, if not there, in Paris, and that there are beautiful women everywhere.

  He’s admiring a particularly stunning brunette when a man walks up to the fence, and, before the bodyguards can react, empties a .380 Cobra into his face and runs away.

  The espresso spills on his lap as Palacios slumps in his chair, his dead eyes looking up at the blue sky, sightless.

  —

  Aguilar clicks the phone off.

  “That was Vera,” he says. “Palacios is dead. They killed him.”

  Things are on the move, Keller thinks.

  They had started to worry when Palacios didn’t show at the hotel, didn’t answer his phone. Keller supposed that he was having second thoughts or had just decided to run on his own, but—

  Gabriela didn’t show up either.

  They were trying to track her down when Vera called.

  “They’re already blaming the Tapias,” Aguilar says. “Same MO, same weapon.”

  He gets up from the couch and carefully puts the recording equipment back in its case. “That’s it. It’s over.”

  “Gabriela—”

  “Was the leak,” Aguilar says.

  “She’s either dead or on her way to a country with which we have no extradition arrangements. Face it, Arturo, they beat us. It’s over.”

  He’s right, Keller thinks.

  It is over.

  For now.

  “What are you going to do?” Keller asks.

  “Go ride horses with my daughters,” Aguilar says. “Talk to my wife and decide what career I want next. I know it’s not this one.”

  He picks up the case and walks out of the room.

  —

  Keller is walking down Presidente Masaryk when his phone rings.

  “It wasn’t us.”

  Yvette sounds urgent, almost frantic.

  “Please, Arturo, meet me.”

  —

  Gerardo Vera opens the door of his condo to see Luis Aguilar standing there.

  “How did you find me here?” Vera asks.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me in?”

  —

  They meet outside the Palacio de Cortés in Cuernavaca, one of the oldest structures in the Western world.

  Cortés built it on the ruins of an Aztec temple.

  “I thought you were out of the country,” Keller says.

  “I was. Martín is. We didn’t kill Palacios.”

  “I know,” Keller says. “Vera did.”

  “I gave you the tape weeks ago,” Yvette says. “You haven’t done a thing with it.”

  “Without Palacios, it’s worthless.”

  “How can that be?” She’s agitated, scared. “They’ll never stop now. They’ll track us down and kill us.”

  “If Martín wants to come in,” Keller says, “and testify, I can guarantee his safety. And yours.”

  “And how many years in jail?” Yvette asks.

  “A short time. Maybe none at all.”

  “He’d have to testify against his brother,” Yvette says, “and he would never do that.”

  “This only ends one other way, and you know that,” Keller says. “I can have you on a flight to the States tonight, Yvette. There are no charges against you there. Just tell us what we need to know and—”

  “You’ll extradite me back to Mexico,” Yvette says. “I’m not going to Puente Grande, Arturo. I hoped you would help us.”

  “I’m trying.”

  She smiles bitterly. “They always win, don’t they?”

  “Who?”

  “The polo crowd.”

  “They usually do.”

  “Laura Amaro doesn’t know me anymore,” Yvette says. “None of them do. We thought we were them. We’re not, and they’ll never let us be.”

  “Bring Martín in.”

  Yvette stares at him. “You got what you wanted, didn’t you? You split Adán’s organization in half so you can destroy it one piece at a time. And you don’t care how many people get hurt, how many people get killed, as long as you get Adán. God save us from men of integrity.”

  She walks away.

  —

  His phone rings.

  “I have it.”

  It’s Aguilar.

  “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”

  Aguilar’s voice is tight and excited. “I have tape of Gerardo incriminating himself.”

  “Luis, what did you do? What did you do?”

  “Where are you?”

  “Cuernavaca, headed back.”

  “Come to the airport. Hurry.”

  “Luis, what did you do?!”

  “Just come. We can’t wait long.”

  “Luis, go. Don’t wait for me. Just go.”

  —

  Keller drives 95 North back toward Mexico City.

  The route takes him through El Tepozteco National Park, a winding road across the mountain, past lakes and meadows, now metallic in the moonlight.

  What did you do, Luis? Keller asks himself. Then it hits him—Aguilar left the hotel room, miked himself up, and made the meeting with Vera himself. He must have solicited him, Vera agreed, and Aguilar got it on tape.

  And he can testify to its authenticity.

  But Vera is too smart to fall for that. He would have placated Aguilar to buy himself time to act.

  But he’ll act.

  Headlights flash in his rearview mirror and Keller sees a car coming up behind him.

  Fast.

  The car starts tailgating him, dangerous on this winding road. Then it flashes its lights—it wants to pass.

  “Hold on a second,” Keller mumbles.

  He finds a place to pull over and the car roars around him.

  “Asshole,” Keller says.

  But then the car gets directly in front of him and slows down. At first Keller thinks the driver is just trying to teach him a lesson, get back at him, but then another pair of headlights appears behind him.

  It comes up fast and then gets right on his bumper.

  They have him boxed in.

  Keller tries to pass the front car, but it slides out into the oncoming lane and blocks him and then the little parade races through a chicane, with steep slopes on either side, which opens onto a straightaway.

  The car in front slows down.

  The car in back—a Jeep Wrangler—pulls into the passing lane and comes even with Keller. He throws himself down on the seat as the muzzle flashes crackle red and bullets shatter his window.

  Keller cranks the wheel to the left and hits the Wrangler, which flies off the road and crashes into the opposite slope.

  The car in front slides sideways, stops, and blocks the road.

  The natural instinct is to hit the brakes, but the natural instinct is only going to get him killed. He can already see the gun barrels pointed at him.

  Keller hits the gas.

  He aims straight for the driver’s door.

  The crash is horrific.

  Keller’s face slams into the airbag and his neck snaps back.

  Dizzy, he reaches into the console and grabs his Sig Sauer. His right arm is weak, tingling, and he can barely grip the handle. With his left hand, he unhooks his seat belt and then pushes the door handle down.


  To his relief, the door opens and he gets out.

  Blood gushes out of his broken nose.

  He can see that the driver of the other car is dead, his neck snapped. The passenger is getting out on his side. Seeing Keller, he rests the barrel of his shotgun on the roof of the smoking car and aims.

  Shouldn’t have taken the time.

  Keller pops him twice in the head.

  Then he staggers back to his car. His legs feel like water beneath him and he realizes that he’s bleeding.

  He collapses on the hood.

  —

  Aguilar clicks off the phone.

  Keller didn’t answer.

  Where are you, Keller?

  The pilot’s voice comes over the intercom. “Sir? We’re cleared for takeoff. We only have a short window.”

  Aguilar wants to tell him to wait. Hopefully, Keller will be there any moment. But the material he has in his case is too valuable to risk, and Vera could be on his way already.

  “Go ahead,” Aguilar says, settling back into a thickly upholstered seat.

  It feels odd, being alone in the cabin, which can hold ten passengers. He watches out the window as the plane taxis, then picks up speed and takes off. Looking down at the lights of the massive Mexico City metropolis, Aguilar can’t help but wonder if he’ll ever come home again.

  —

  Adán looks at his watch.

  He hasn’t received the phone call he was expecting, the call to tell him that he would shortly have a body to view. There was a small risk entailed in coming to Mexico City, more from Tapias’s sicarios than from the police—but it’s worth it if he can look down at Keller’s corpse.

  Art Keller.

  Holier-than-thou.

  Mr. Clean.

  Incorruptible.

  You have to hand it to him, Adán thinks as he looks across the coffee table at Magda. He almost had me, he almost drove straight through the gap in my defenses, a gap that it’s taken great effort to close up.

  But it’s almost closed.

  Chido Palacios, the last of the Izta Mafia, is dead, the news all over the television, which is already blaming Diego Tapia.

  The rest will be taken care of soon.

  And Keller, by this time, should be in hell.

  He glances at his watch again and Magda notices. Then again, she notices everything, something he admires about her. She’s been a wonderful partner, maintaining relationships with the Colombians, assuring a smooth flow of cocaine, becoming wealthy and secure on her own.