by Thomas Craig
The dance was interesting and elegant, as I caught a bit of a performance street-side in passing. It looked like a courtship where the female dancer was very much in control, gliding around having the male dancer gliding after her. More serious competitors had judges assigned to the area to help declare winners of more formal contests.
We were on our way to one of these judging locations, as one of the surveillance teams had been there waiting in case the parents came back with Tazario. The odds were slim for Taz to take a detour for some street shows in the middle of the chaos he found himself in these days, but best to cover the bases in Neiva.
Fighting the traffic and parades was a monk’s game as we inched along, practicing our patience.
A call came from Arya on my cell phone.
“We just joined the surveillance team and police here,” she advised. “The tail paid off, Lou. The parents are home and thermal imaging of the residents and activity inside shows a third person moving around in a hurry. We believe it to be Tazario.”
“I really hope it is him. Be safe and get that S.O.B.,” I said to Arya before she hung up to rejoin the task force.
Before we left Bogota, Holliday had the bright idea to make several calls ahead to the local newspaper and news channel to ask about the new big-wig investor that flew in at night by helicopter to check out a potential 100 Million dollar investment project. We thought this would get the newshounds out this morning snooping around on our behalf.
The commando driving us pulled into the local newspaper building. He told us he was going to run in and ask someone for follow-up information, and as he was a native speaker, we waited in the Jeep. The commando walked out of the building with a smile. Eureka! Finally, a break.
A journalist had found the helicopter and pilot sitting in the back courtyard of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
The pilot was interviewed this morning, only to find out what we already knew, the passengers were anything but investors. The only investment made was the handsome donation Tazario made to the church to park the helicopter in their garden and let the women rest in the basement.
Depending on traffic, the GPS put us at the Cathedral in 15-minutes.
◆◆◆
Arya and Lauren geared up with the surveillance team and the Federal Police that were staging a few houses down. Within minutes of arriving, they had already joined forces with the teams on-site and were now flooding the residence in force with the Polícia.
When Arya only discovered the parents in the house, the frustration reached an all-time high. They could not believe this had happened again. Visual confirmation from the surveillance team was a few minutes earlier. Taz had to be in the house.
The parents sat patiently at the kitchen table as the team ransacked the place looking for Tazario and his financial stash.
It took a while before the Police made the parents move from their seats and discovered a false floor leading to a basement.
Tazario was not there either, as the team discovered the basement had a secret passage leading to a neighbor’s garage directly behind the house. That parallel street behind the parent’s house was not being watched, as no one anticipated this possibility. The team had police come through neighboring backyards to block a backdoor exit, but apparently, that was not enough.
Unbeknownst to them, Tazario took a motorbike he had stored with this neighbor and rode off practically right in front of the assault team that took over the house he was in moments ago.
All was not lost. Lauren was pleased to see the basement revealed a floor safe. It was obvious that Tazario had to break concrete to get to the hatch. It likely took him hours, and this was why there was so much commotion being observed by the surveillance team earlier.
Whoever installed the floor safe had apparently miscalculated on the depth of the concrete. It was buried a foot and half in the ground, then covered with another foot of concrete to conceal it. While it was well concealed, Tazario was barely able to reach down through the 30 inches of concrete and dirt to turn the dial on the safe, let alone reach in and grab money and documents. There were kitchen tongs to the side of the hole that he had used to grab valuables. So much was left behind due to poor thinking and engineering.
Two Policemen pick up sledgehammers and went to work widening the concrete hole.
Lauren came down with the vacuum cleaner and hose attachment ready to show-off. She plugged it in and began to quickly suck up stacks of money and documents left behind.
Arya and the police laughed and clapped at her ingenuity. Everyone was thankful that Taz had not thought of this simple yet creative solution.
To the parent’s surprise, the team found physical bearer bonds from various international companies at an estimated value of 800 million dollars, along with jewels and cash valued at over five million. Seeing that the bearer bonds were buried under the stacks of cash, it looked like Taz was only able to remove about half a million in cash and an undetermined amount in diamonds or gems.
The team had grossly underestimated the amount Tazario had put into, or, more importantly, made from his businesses. Seeing this begged the question “were the other Cartel members aware of his unique banking and investing system, which seemed to give him the lion’s share of available assets?”
If the team had raided the home any later, Tazario may have retrieved the whole lot from the safe. Leaving the nest egg behind would hopefully make Tazario reckless, or at least distracted. The team hoped to use this financial blow and distraction to their advantage.
Chapter 35
Neiva No More
We were about six blocks away from the Cathedral when a motorcycle passed us. It seemed like the guy riding the bike was staring at us, almost sizing us up, and then noticeably accelerated down the road before disappearing.
I wrote it off to a curious local speculating what these two army commandos were doing with two gringos in their jeep. It wasn’t until we pulled up to the Cathedral, and noticed the same motorcycle parked out front that I started to think this was not a coincidence.
“Hey Holliday, do you think that was Taz on this bike that flew past us a few minutes ago?” I asked as we all climbed from the jeep and headed toward the front entrance stairway.
“Could be…” He stopped talking and pointed to nowhere in particular in the air.
“Do you hear that?!” Holliday said with urgency. “The helicopter has started up. Let’s go!” he yelled as he led the charge up the steps to the huge double wooden doors.
I was struggling to run up the stairs while trying to tell the commandos to contact the Blackhawk pilots and have them get airborne A.S.A.P. I don’t know why we didn’t do this before arriving here. The excitement from the solid lead earlier had given us a bit of tunnel vision, and that could be a mistake we could not afford.
◆◆◆
Izabella heard the shouting, and the voice was unmistakably Tazario’s. She woke the other women and headed up the stairs to be the first and only loyal companion to greet Tazario.
When she arrived in the nave, she could see Tazario walking quickly down the middle of the pews shouting at the Bishop and pilot. He was upset that someone talked, leaked the whereabouts of his chartered helicopter. He ordered the pilot to go start the helicopter and the pilot ran off to complete the task.
Izabella waved, “Tazario.”
He gave her a quick look then shoved the Bishop to the side into one of the pews as he marched past him, past the stage and podium, and through a back door where the pilot just ran through.
Izabella looked back to see if the other women had come up from the basement yet. They had not. At that moment Izabella had the feeling Tazario was about to leave her behind, so she started running for the door leaving the women in the basement.
It had not crossed her mind to just stay put, let her guardian, her lover, her companion go on without her.
As she crested the door and entered the garden, the blades were already rotatin
g quickly and causing debris to kick up everywhere. She could see Tazario stepping onto the aircraft and not even looking back for her.
Her knees got very weak as she ran. It felt like they would give out any second now. Fear was starting to consume her. She was now under the blades and approaching the door to the fuselage.
Tazario was sitting in the middle seat with a backpack on the floor in front of him. As soon as she stepped on board, the helicopter was ascending. She was slightly off-balance for a second and felt like she was going to fall out of the aircraft. Her hands found the ceiling and stabilized her enough to recover and move past Tazario to the seat on the other side.
She hadn’t realized she was supposed to close the sliding door. She picked up a bottle of water from the pocket in front of her and tried opening it. Her hands were shaking.
“Close the door Izabella,” Tazario order. He had not even acknowledged her struggles or presence until just then.
She quickly struggled again with the bottle and this time successfully twisted off the cap, only to fumble it with her unstable hands, spilling water onto the seat between her and Tazario.
“Dammit!” yelled Tazario, as he smacked away the bottle and then smacked her. He quickly got up before being completely soaked by the water invading his seat.
He went to close the door before taking the other seat. The strangest thing happened as he reached for the door handle to slide it closed. He seemed to have lost his sense of depth perception as his hand completely missed the handle. Which wasn’t a big deal until he realized he was actually being pushed right out of the helicopter.
He began flailing about as he fell, instinctively trying to grasp for something that was not there. As soon as he realized he was about to die he tried to scream. The last 100 feet were a blur. All Tazario felt was a sharp pain in his head and heart for a split second before the lights went out.
Izabella was standing again, holding onto a tether on the ceiling as she watched Tazario falling to his death 400 feet below.
She looked at her free hand and watched the trembling subside and could feel the fear leaving her body and mind now.
She knew what she wanted to do as soon as she was running from the Cathedral to the helicopter. Her legs became weak because she realized for the first time in a year that she was a victim, and she was running toward her evil captor. Her legs became weak out of fear she might not go through with confronting him or that she would confront him, and he would punish her like the others.
When he stood and moved towards the door of the helicopter, she thought, “Why not?” She had not buckled in yet and the smack to her cheek from him lit a fire of courage and rage that carried her the two strong and swift steps towards Tazario’s backside. She pushed him right out the door and almost laughed and puked at the same time. Then peace came over her.
She picked up the backpack, sat down, and buckled in.
“What is going on back there? What have you done?!” The pilot yelled back to her as he noticed the absence of the man.
She ignored him momentarily as she opened the backpack and took inventory. It contained more money and jewels than she could spend in a lifetime. She took a stack of cash out and held it up.
“Take me to my family in Bucaramanga please,” Izabella announced.
“That is almost 400 miles away,” the pilot protested.
She held up another stack of cash and the pilot smiled and nodded. Izabella sat back and began reflecting on the past year. It was as if a fog had been lifted and she could see everything clearly again.
She was not well, but she now had the presence of mind to know this and do something about it.
◆◆◆
As we stepped out into the courtyard and garden area of the Cathedral, we could not believe what we were seeing. Tazario getting away. Again.
The commandos told us that the Blackhawk would be here in 5 to 10 minutes, with no place to land. I guessed it would chase after them without us, or we would waste valuable time landing it, boarding, and getting back to the chase.
We were about to walk back inside when we saw someone falling from the helicopter. We all just stared, following the body down until it disappeared what looked like a street over from our locations.
No one said a word. We all started running for the visible gate exit in the back courtyard and off we went to track where the body landed.
Chapter 36
R & R
The smell of salt in the light sea breeze, and St Barts’ sand between our toes seemed to be washing away the stress of the past few weeks. Arya looked relaxed, peaceful, and happy as she sipped her tropical drink. We both stared at the sunrise, reaching further and further across the Atlantic Ocean towards us as it completed its ascent from beyond the outer skirts of the Caribbean Islands.
It was a much-needed vacation, and a shame it would only be 2 days. We decided to make this our side trip home from Bogota to Atlanta. The rest of the team took a more direct flight to get back and decompress.
We were holding hands, relaxing in side-by-side beach chairs when I recalled the conversation Arya and I had many months ago during her first night in my apartment. She was there on protection detail and we discussed our favorite places we had been. St Barts was top of her list, so here we were.
It was a bittersweet memory though. I recalled commenting that I would love to go someday if they allow dogs on the beach. I started to get a little choked up thinking of the absence of my good buddy Andy.
I looked over at Arya and she knew what I was thinking. I noticed a tear from behind her sunglasses that ran down her cheek. I stood up and helped her up into my awaiting hug. We both needed it. We missed Andy dearly.
“Let’s go eat breakfast, then take a stroll on the beach looking for shells,” she suggested as we released each other.
“That sounds like a plan. But first I have to check off one of my must do’s.” I took her hands and put them on my waist and then cupped her beautiful face in my hands while planting a long kiss. Her hands traveled up my back pulling me in as she reciprocated.
“Thank you. That was nice,” she said as she tucked under my arm and directed me back towards the resort’s beachfront restaurant.
“What was on your ‘must-do’ Lou?” She asked.
“Well, I told myself that night at the table that I would kiss you on the beaches of St Barts if the opportunity came up,” I shared.
“Really? Aww, that gives me the warm and fuzzies,” she said smiling. Then she added, “You just checked off one of my bucket-list items too.”
“I did?” I asked.
“Yes. I promised myself to return here one day and kiss a handsome man on the beach. Something I did not do the first time here.”
“Glad I…wait. Just any random good-looking guy? Not me specifically?” I shot back.
“You’ll do. Hey, I just paid you a compliment. You are handsome,” she said with a straight face.
“You are impossible sometimes. We were having a moment there,” I said smiling back just before she broke out laughing at me.
“Come on, sweetie. Let’s go back to our room before breakfast. There is something else I want to cross off my St Barts list.” She tugged my arm and off we went enjoying each other and the island as much as we could for the two days we had here.
Chapter 37
Losing the Mojo
The day we returned from St Barts, we were greeted by the apartment manager and work crew replacing our door and doorframe. Not the welcome home Arya and I were expecting.
Hours after the door was repaired and the apartment was cleaned up, we were able to settle in from our journeys just long enough for the phone to ring.
Lolo called to inform me she had a small window of opportunity to arrange a ceremony on the top of Dowa Yalanne. From the sound of it, I was being summoned back to the pueblo for some education and possible answers.
Clearing the extended leave with SAIC Cooley first and asking Arya if she cared to jo
in me, the plans became firm. Before we could leave for New Mexico, I had to ask Lauren for a quick tech favor.
◆◆◆
Upon passing Black Rock and entering the town of Zuni, we met up with Lolo at one of the few diners in the center of the small town. My lifelong friend was about to get the greatest gift of her life from me. Something I never thought would be possible because I honestly never gave it any thought at all in the past. However, when the opportunity presented, I was clever enough to have the presence of mind to take advantage of the situation.
I surprised Lolo with a recording of one of the Ahayuta Bothers speaking to me in the temple underground. When I took a knee in front of the God, I had slid my hand up to my front pants pocket and pressed on the side button of my phone through the outside of my pocket. Programmed to record with one touch of the phone, I captured most of what the War God spoke to me.
At the time, I had no idea if the phone had survived the fall to earth and burrowing through dirt to the temple. The glass face was shattered, and the phone was dinged up pretty good. I used what little battery life it had running the flashlight app to find my way out of the temple. It died and wouldn’t take a charge to turn back on.
Lauren had taken the phone apart and extracted everything from the phone, including this 2-minute recording of a God and a Beast speaking to me in a remarkable temple unknown to mankind.
Lolo was floored as she listened to the ancient Zuni dialect. It was similar to today’s, but with so many different inflections Lolo decided to make this recording her new life’s work.
She was gasping and mumbling to herself as she listened. Arya and I showed great patience as we watched her listen to the 2 minutes over and over for 30 minutes. Finally, she was ready to share something with us.
“Lusio, this is so incredible. I don’t think any of us will ever fully comprehend just how special and significant this recording truly is. That aside for the moment, it appears you have some admirers,” she shared.
