by Dan Kelly
Abby said, “We were headed back to the hotel anyway. We’ve set up something with the bartender at The People’s Pub for six o’clock and we’ll be heading back there after we’ve had something to eat.”
“Okay. We should be able to turn these lowlifes over to our people here and be back at the hotel before then. I’ll have to call Dave Morrison to find out where he wants us to take them. If there’s a hang-up somewhere and we can’t get back in time, I’ll call and let you know. You’ll be on your own until we can get back. Be careful and don’t push your luck. These people we’re dealing with don’t play nice.”
Pete said, “We hear you.”
Abby said, “Before we go, let me take a picture of these creeps with my camera. The bartender at The People’s Pub said there were a couple of goons in the pub looking for us several times recently and I want to show him the pictures to see if he recognizes any of these guys.”
She snapped a few and then they split as the sound of approaching sirens filled the air.
At a quarter to six, Pete and Abby had eaten dinner and touched base with Dave with Tommy’s input and were getting ready to leave for The People’s Pub. Manny and his men weren’t back yet. When Abby talked with Dave, he told her he had talked with Manny and given him the information he needed to deliver his captives. It was only ten miles away from where Pete and Abby left him earlier. Something wasn’t right.
Pete said, “We’ll have to head out without them, Abby. I want to talk with as many of my friends as I can tonight as soon as I can and then get out of Belize before anyone knows what we’ve been up to. I don’t want to put my friends in harm’s way if I can avoid it.”
“I understand, Pete. Let’s go.”
When they arrived at the pub, the place was jumping, bodies all over the place. They came in the back way and found Tommy in the office waiting for them. Tommy told them that a lot of the regulars that Pete knew were in the pub but that he hadn’t said anything to them about Pete and Abby wanting to talk with them in private. “I didn’t want to spook any of them or start a lot of gossip going around that might get into the ears of the wrong people.”
“That was a smart move, Tommy. Thanks.”
Abby said, “When we left here earlier, we ran into some toughs who wanted to take us for a ride. After a brief discussion, we convinced them that we weren’t interested in their offer. I took some pictures of them.”
Showing Tommy the pictures she asked, “Do you recognize any of them?”
Tommy immediately identified the two guys that had jumped out of the car. Pointing at the picture of the driver he added, “I’ve never seen this guy.”
Abby said, “The reason they didn’t come back to annoy your customers some more is they were staking out your place, waiting for Pete to show up. These cartels have eyes and ears everywhere and I think your assumption was right on. Someone must know that this is a favorite place of Pete’s when he’s in town.
“From the types of questions I’ve been asking all over the Caribbean, someone with some smarts probably figured Belize would be a likely place for us to ask more questions and were willing to spend some time watching the pub to see if we showed up.”
Pete said, “Thanks Tommy for letting us do this here. Let’s get started. Bring them back one a time. That will arouse the least amount of curiosity from your other patrons.”
Two hours later they had talked to a dozen of Pete’s friends and received a wealth of information that could help them drive the cartel leaders higher up the wall than they were already. One of the men, Jesse Casale, knew Pablo Salazar and had even served on a “fishing trawler” owned by him. He had signed on as a permanent member of the crew, but quickly got suspicious when he started to spot packages in the hold that were covered with fish and ice. He decided to take a hike and told Salazar that he had an opportunity to work with a cousin of his taking recreational fishermen out to the various islands of Belize. Salazar apparently bought his story because he got no static from him.
As they walked back to the hotel, Pete and Abby were wondering where Manny and his men were. There was no sign of them anywhere. They are good at concealment and if they didn’t want to be seen they wouldn’t be, but Manny said that they would no longer be doing that. He said they would be more out in the open, blending in with the surroundings, trying not to be too obvious, but close by if a threat to Pete and Abby reared its head.
“Abby, something out of the ordinary, something unexpected, has detained Manny and his men from meeting up with us. Those guys can deal with just about anything, but it’s been way too long for them to be out of touch with us. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“I’ll try to reach him on his cell.”
She tried three times and each time she was transferred to voice mail. “Damn, damn, damn! What the hell could have happened?”
“I can imagine a lot of different scenarios, none of them good.”
When they got back to the hotel the message light on their phone was blinking.
A Sergeant Wilcox from the local constabulary called to say that they had Manny and his men in custody for engaging in a gun fight with a bunch of men in a school yard in his precinct. Manny and his men are uninjured, but some of the other men, four of them, and the three prisoners that were being taken someplace for interrogation are dead. Manny and his men had clammed up other than to say they wanted a lawyer and gave them Pete’s name and number at the hotel.
Before Sergeant Wilcox had finished delivering his message, Abby was on her satellite phone calling Dave. She filled him in on what was going on and after she gave him the contact information at the station house Dave said, “You two sit tight and don’t return the phone call until you hear from me. Phil will know who to call to handle this situation.” The connection was broken and Abby relayed Dave’s instructions to Pete.
Shaking his head Pete said, “I just knew something bad was going down with those guys. There must have been other people staking out the pub besides the ones we grabbed. They probably followed our guys until they found an opportunity to pounce on them.”
“Navy seals are exceptional warriors. They have a sixth sense when it comes to sensing trouble. It would be extremely difficult to catch them in a surprise ambush. Something really off the wall had to have happened to pull them into a school yard gun fight. Well, we’ll just have to wait until we have a chance to talk to Manny to find out what happened.”
A couple of hours later Dave called back and Abby took the call. “Okay, feathers have been smoothed and arrangements made for you two to pick up Manny and his men at the precinct. You are to ask for a Captain Valdez who will release Manny and his men into your custody, ostensibly until it can be determined if charges will be filed. Of course, that will never happen. You are not to engage in any dialogue concerning what happened in that school yard.”
“Okay, we’re on our way.”
After Abby hung up Pete commented, “Man, I’m sure glad Sea Wasp is on our side. They must have tentacles in every country in Latin America.”
“Just about.”
Three hours later they had checked out of the hotel, picked up Manny and his men, turned in their rental cars, instructing the agent to contact Captain Valdez for an explanation of why the cars were full of bullet holes, and were now back on board the Vuelta de Lujo. This was the first chance they had to ask Manny for the details of what they had encountered.
Abby asked, “Okay, Manny, give. What the hell happened?”
“We were almost to our destination, a Sea Wasp safe house in a nice little neighborhood not far from downtown, when we approached a four way intersection with just stop signs to control traffic. There wasn’t much traffic and there was no sign of anything suspicious. There is a school house on one corner, a deli and a cleaner’s on another corner, a gas station on another corner and on the last corner is a children’s day care facility and a pet hospital next door. Houses and some wooded lots lined the streets in all directions. W
e stopped and had just started moving forward when SUVs came out from concealed locations and started speeding toward us from the front and both sides and people in those vehicles started shooting at us. It was immediately apparent that this was a coordinated effort to take us out, so I took evasive action followed by the rest of my men in their car behind us and headed for the school yard. School was out for the day, so I thought there would be very few people about to get hurt by stray bullets and I spotted a building behind the school that we could use for cover.
“Using the building and our cars for cover, we began to return fire. Two of the assailants were pretty good shots and they seemed to be concentrating on the prisoners we had in the back of the car I was driving. I guess the game plan was to kill them before they could have a chance to cut a deal by giving up names and information to the authorities. They succeeded.
“The rest of the bunch weren’t marksmen that’s for sure and exposed themselves way too much. We picked off four of them before we heard the sound of police sirens coming our way. The surviving assassins took off and before we could get in our cars to pursue them the cops showed up and arrested us. The SUVs were probably hiding in the wooded lots until they spotted us at the intersection.”
Pete asked, “How did they know to wait there?”
With an embarrassed look on his face Manny said, “That’s been driving me crazy. I spotted no tail on us and that would have been easy to do even for a novice because the traffic was so light. They had to have eyes in the sky, a small chopper maybe.”
Abby chimed in with, “Well, these people certainly can afford something like that. Manny, don’t hold yourself responsible for what happened. If there was a chopper in the air following you, you would have had no way of knowing what it was up to and it could have been flying high enough not to be easily spotted from a moving vehicle.”
“Thanks for that, Abby, but if there was a helicopter near us I should have been aware of it and become suspicious. Damn it! Those prisoners could have given us a lot of useful info. They were hurting and scared out of their minds. It wouldn’t have taken much encouragement to get them to tell us everything they knew about the cartels’ operations in Belize.”
“Well, all of that’s past history now. Nothing can be done about it. We accomplished what we came here to do, so unless we want to chance running into some more of these guys who have no qualms about shooting people we better up anchor and head for Cozumel. We are now definitely in the enemy’s sights and are really going to have to be careful and prepared for everything.”
Pete quickly got them under way and once he set the course for Cozumel he had some time to think about what has happened to them since they embarked on this mission. “These creeps have had a go at us several times now. We’ve been lucky so far that the Vuelta de Lujo hasn’t yet become a target. Ricardo and his crew came across her just by sheer chance. If the eyes and ears of the bosses zero in on her as our means of travel to the countries around the Caribbean, it won’t take long for those bosses to try to sink her as it would definitely put a monkey wrench in our operation. If Abby and I are on board if and when they do, so much the better for them. Manny and his men are the best of the best, but they’re not invincible. They could be heavily outnumbered. I’ve got to talk with Manny about how we can prepare for that possibility.”
Chapter 23
-Ten Nautical Miles off the Southern Coast of Cozumel –
When they were about an hour away from Cozumel, Pete sat down with Manny in the galley and over a pot of coffee that would make Star Bucks jealous told him about the fears he had for the Vuelta de Lujo. “Manny, it’s a beautiful ship and I don’t want anything to happen to her nor do I want to have to explain to Phil why I let something happen to her. Besides, I’ve become addicted to the amenities on board, including this fantastic brew, and I want to avoid withdrawal pains for as long as possible even though I know they‘re inevitable.”
Manny replied with, “It is a beautiful ship and because the owner was willing to put her at risk for a good cause that makes me even more determined to keep her unharmed. As for the amenities, you’re not the only one who has become spoiled. Being rich definitely has its advantages.
“Since we no longer have to worry about maintaining cover, perhaps Dave could arrange an overt naval escort for us until we pull into port in Miami. Certainly, the Navy’s Second Fleet could spare a cruiser, destroyer or something equally imposing for a week or so to discourage an assault on this lovely lady.”
With a raised eyebrow Pete asked, “Since when do Navy seals wax poetically?”
Manny replied with a chuckle, “When we’re spoiled we even surprise ourselves?”
“Well, I like your suggestion. I’ll run it by Dave and see if it’s possible. Thanks Manny.”
Pete passed on Manny’s suggestion to Dave who said he couldn’t promise what it would be, but he would arrange a suitable escort.
Soon after they left port in Belize, Pete had called a friend of his who owns a marina in Cozumel, but had to leave a message on his voice mail for him to call him back. “I’ll be pulling into port about three this afternoon and need to talk with you ASAP and on the hush-hush. Don’t tell anyone that I’m coming or that I called. I’ll explain everything when you call back.”
That had been over twelve hours ago and the satellite phone had remained silent. Abby asked, “Is there anyone else you know that might have information we could use?”
“A few, but I don’t know if I can trust them to keep their mouths shut. I’ve known Jake since I was a freshman in high school. His dad worked in a shipyard in Miami until he retired a few years ago and since my dad was a captain of a cruise ship and we both loved the sea we immediately hit it off. He won’t say anything to anybody if I ask him not to. He knows everything there is to know about the goings on in the waters off the coast of Cozumel. I’m hoping he’ll have some inside info on who the players are in the Cozumel area when it comes to crime on the high seas.”
“What will we do if he doesn’t call back?”
“Head for Miami. I normally dock at his marina, but not today. I don’t want to put Jake at risk by showing up at the marina and being spotted by someone who might not like him talking to us. If he calls back, I’ll arrange for us to meet someplace other than the marina.”
“How long do you want to wait?”
“Until nightfall. If he hasn’t called back by then, we should split. The higher ups in the cartels have probably obtained pictures of us and distributed them to all of their troops with instructions to shoot us on sight. We definitely have been zeroed in on as the reason for a lot of their recent troubles. Manny and his men are very good at what they do, but the odds are building up against them. Hell, there could be an army of thugs being organized to take us out of the ball game.”
“Okay, that works for me.”
As the sun began to rest on the horizon, the phone rang. It wasn’t Jake. It was Julio Mendoza. “You folks have definitely stirred up a hornets’ nest. The rumor going around here is that the bosses have placed a $500,000 reward on your heads. They want you dead. There’s also something else that’s a new development. My sources say that something big is being planned because there have been some secret meeting going on between some of the leaders of the cartels who normally would be at each other’s throats if they were in the same room with each other. What they’re talking about nobody seems to know, but the feeling is it’s something very bad.”
The reward was a surprise, but the rumor about the meetings confirmed what Dave had told them his sources were picking up. “Thanks for the heads up, Julio. We’ll bring you up to date about what’s been going on at our end the first chance we get. Now’s not the time for that.”
Pete broke the connection and passed on the news. Abby said, “$500,000, is that all. Cheap skates. We’re worth at least a million.”
“Well, it looks like our mission is creating the havoc it was intended to do, but the bosses gett
ing together to deal with the situation was not part of the plan. I sure would like to know what Phil and his team are planning to deal with this development.”
