Jackal: Barrett Mason Book 3

by Stewart Matthews

  A minute after Greer slipped into the shadows, there was a knock at the door. Shave and a haircut, two bits.

  Cute.

  “Please come in!” Julio said in lightly-accented English.

  The door pushed inward. I kept my rifle trained on it, my back against the glass behind me, Carolina scrunched in the corner to my left, taking cover beside a desk pushed up to the wall.

  Greer’s head came around the door like a weasel inching out of its den.

  “Well, hello, Barrett.” He grinned at me like I was his long-lost pal.

  Chapter 29

  “WIPE THAT SMILE OFF your face, before I blow it off,” I barked at Greer. “I’m not in the mood for any bullshit.”

  The smile faded from Greer’s face as he stepped in, and slowly closed the door behind him.

  “Is that better, Mason? Or would you rather shoot a fellow intelligence officer than a threat to national security?” He nodded toward Carolina, crouched in the corner. She’d poked her head over the side of the desk to see him.

  “Would I rather spare an innocent woman and shoot a guilty man? You seem to know me pretty well Greer, so figure it out yourself.”

  Greer raised his eyebrows at me, then shook his head.

  “Still holding on to some misguided code of honor, I assume. Glad to see your time in Venezuela hasn’t changed you.” He started to move toward Julio.

  “Stop,” I said, keeping my rifle trained on a puckered scar across Greer’s forehead. “Not another step.”

  He stopped. Stared at me. His eyes staying cool, but the flesh around his burned ear turning a darker shade of red. I was being a real pain in the ass for him. And I’m sure he didn’t appreciate it one bit.

  “What are you going to do, Mason?” he asked. “Are you going to hold me hostage until I agree to evac you out of Venezuela? Because if that’s your plan, we’re going to be here a very long time.”

  “No.” I turned the end of my rifle a few degrees right. Pointed it at Julio.

  He inhaled sharply and raised his hands.

  “I don’t know if you care about your own life. But I’m sure you care about missing out on the money this place is supposed to make for you, Greer. Probably some important people back home would be pretty upset with you if things fell through at the last minute, too.”

  Greer closed his eyes and grumbled. Like a kid having to put up with his bratty little brother for the hundredth time.

  “I went through a lot of trouble to make this deal happen,” he said. “You have no idea what kind of interests are behind this.”

  “If I kill Julio, I’m sure I’d find out sooner or later. But my guess is they’d come after you first, and once they had you, they’d take their sweet time before they put you out of your misery.”

  He said nothing, but the tension in his posture told me everything. I was right on the money. He was scared witless of whoever pulled his strings.

  “I know what you want,” Greer said. “You want a ticket home. Back to your family.”

  “And I want this young woman to be brought with me.” I jerked my head in Carolina’s direction. “And from this moment forward, she’s to be left alone. You made your point to her. She saw too much, and if she talks, she’s dead. She knows that.”

  Greer pursed his lips. Studied Carolina with his dark-rimmed, tired eyes. Her life meant nothing to him, even now. She was just another figure in the calculus of his survival. Would rejecting my new demand end up costing him his life—either from me shooting him right here and now, or from his backers killing him slowly in the future?

  Beside me, I could practically feel the worry working through Carolina. I don’t know how well she spoke English. But I think that she understood her fate was being decided right before her eyes.

  “Fine.”

  I felt a coil unwind inside me. I didn’t realize it, but it must’ve been wringing itself in my chest for days—it was the best I’d felt since I arrived in this country.

  “All she can bring are the clothes on her back.” Greer motioned toward her.

  But even as relief washed over me, I didn’t lower my rifle. Not when Vance Greer was around.

  “Then go ahead.” I pointed at the computer terminal with my eyes. “Do what you came to do.”

  Using a quick look, Julio checked with Greer.

  “Do it,” he said.

  Julio slowly lowered his hands. He placed his fingers on the keyboard, and slowly pecked away at the keys. I watched him closely. Every bend in his knuckles, every click of the keys sinking and rising. He couldn’t have tapped that code in fast enough.

  Then, Julio’s hands turned a bright shade of pink. Greer’s face did as well. In fact, the whole room lit up like a barroom in a strip club, but only for a second.

  I turned, and looked out the window to my right. West. The same direction we’d come from. I saw a flare dimming out after reaching the apex of its arc, streaking toward the ground. It was, maybe, a couple hundred feet off.

  Too close for my liking.

  “Who the hell is that?” I said to Greer. I figured he had some trick. A backup plan in case I somehow elbowed my way into his meeting with Julio Diaz.

  “That’s not mine,” he said. “That is a friend of Julio’s. He set us up.”

  Before I had a chance to decide whether I wanted to shoot Julio or give him a chance to explain, a window to my right shattered. Bullets shredded a tile in the drop ceiling nearby. Reflexes kicked in, and I dropped to the floor.

  The door burst open with an ear-splitting sound. My brains bounced around the inside of my head.

  When I got ahold of myself again, I saw armed men streaming through the door, their weapons singling me out.

  I dropped my rifle and put my hands on my head. Kept my nose to the floor. I felt their boots clomping all around me. Then, two sets of hands wrenched my arms behind my back. They pulled me up to my knees and held me there.

  They weren’t playing around. If I breathed in a way that had a little too much attitude, that seemed to indicate hostility, I knew one of the men behind me would shoot. So, I stayed as still as I could.

  Ahead of me, they took Greer under their control, too. They twisted his arms behind his back and kicked the pits of his knees, forcing him to kneel. I heard Carolina struggling, but didn’t dare turn my head.

  All I could do was kneel and wait.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. A second or two after things settled, a man in a dark green officer’s uniform came walking through the door.

  My eyes were drawn to him. His full, dark beard, his broad shoulders, the way he moved with the quiet confidence of a combat-tested officer. All eyes snapped to him. He was the man in charge, no doubt. And he was flanked by another officer who looked around the same age.

  The second officer had a long, narrow face. His eyes ragged with sleeplessness. His cheeks hollowed with worry. He looked like he’d just been pulled off a tour and handed a fresh uniform on the way over.

  The officer in front, the guy who commanded the attention of the entire room strode over to me. He stopped one step short of me, and looked down his nose. I don’t know if he knew who I was, or he simply wondered why this ragged-looking bastard had shown up here.

  “General Barrios,” I said.

  He looked me over. “Should I know you?”

  Chapter 30

  “NO,” I SAID, LOOKING away. “You shouldn’t know me.”

  “He’s killed your men.” Julio Diaz decided now was a great time to speak up from the back.

  Barrios turned and looked over his shoulder at Diaz. I couldn’t see the General’s face, but I doubted he was glad to hear that news.

  “This man?” Barrios said, pointing at me.

  “That’s what he claims,” Diaz answered, meekly. Poor guy suddenly had trouble finding his voice. “I was not home, so I don’t know if it’s true, or if he doesn’t know when he should shut his mouth.”

  Barrios’ eyes snapped back
to me. They sharpened as he looked me over. His lips curling into a sneer. He knew I wasn’t spinning a tale. I was sure he’d seen plenty of real killers in his time. He’d be able to spot the authentic thing.

  “Those were some of my best men,” he said. “Two of them were with me on six separate campaigns.”

  “They fought bravely,” I said.

  He laughed. Long, and loud. His laugh sucked up all the oxygen in the room. Nobody else joined in with him.

  For a quick second, I thought he was going to say something else to me. Instead, he booted me square in the gut.

  All the breath jumped out of me. Carolina shrieked. I saw stars and doubled over. My ears rang, and then my shoulders burned as his people pulled me up to my knees again.

  “Why are you doing this?” Carolina screamed. I thought she was talking to the General, but Julio answered.

  “Because it’s the smart thing to do,” he said.

  “They stormed your house this morning. They would have killed you!”

  “But here I am, alive.” He stepped out from behind the computer, then stomped over to Carolina. I wanted to step in front of Julio. Protect Carolina by pushing him back. Maybe send him through one of the windows. But the General’s men tightened their hold on my arms.

  “The General knows how to cut a deal.” Julio had stopped behind Barrios. Hid behind him like some crony. All the meekness from a minute ago had evaporated. “While I sat in that hotel room hiding from him, I figured out a way to get a message his way. I made him a good offer, and he took it. He’s a smart man, Carolina—a man fit to lead our country.”

  “You offered him the refinery,” I said.

  “Yes,” he admitted. “In exchange, I’ll run Venezuela’s oil industry under the General’s new government. Better than the deal Greer offered me—as if I’d let the Americans strip Venezuela of her most valuable resources.” Julio directed that last part at the General, who seemed to approve.

  I looked past the General, at Greer. I almost felt bad for him—he didn’t speak a lick of Spanish. But men with guns bursting into your secret meeting was the international sign for “you’re screwed.”

  “So you’ve worked out your deal, and you’re going to let me die?” Carolina’s voice was hot with anger. Good for her. Don’t go out with a whimper.

  “That is the way this arrangement has worked out, yes,” Julio said. “I’m sorry for the misfortune you suffered on my behalf. I wish I could tell you things would get better from here on.” He looked at the men standing over my shoulders. “But you’re too smart to believe a lie like that.”

  “I’ll kill you!” Carolina screamed. I heard a thump behind me and to my left—where she was. Sounded like her head being pushed into the desk, and held there.

  The men holding me tightened their grips before I made a move.

  “So, General,” Julio said from behind him.

  General Barrios’ eyes slid to the left, to Julio, the back to me. He didn’t have the patience for a coward like Julio Diaz. After all this was over, Barrios would probably cut Diaz down the first chance he got.

  “Will you keep your part of the bargain?” Julio asked.

  “Did you put your code into the computer?” The General continued to watch me. I met his eyes. I wasn’t about to turn into a coward now.

  “I was just about to, General,” Diaz answered. “And we’ll still need the code from Mr. Greer before the refinery unlocks.”

  Greer perked up, hearing his name in the middle of a torrent of Spanish.

  “What’d they say?” he looked to me for an answer.

  My eyes were still locked on the General’s. “They want your code for the computer.”

  Greer laughed.

  Julio gave him a side-eye as he returned to the computer terminal near the back wall of the room. No one moved while Julio typed his code into the keyboard. The room stayed perfectly still for five, maybe ten seconds.

  “I’m ready for Mr. Greer’s code now,” Julio said.

  Barrios broke eye contact with me. He turned to Julio, behind him, standing at the terminal.

  “Did you enter your code into the machine?” Barrios asked.

  “Of course,” Julio answered.

  “Okay.” Barrios lifted his hand. Flicked his wrist in Julio Diaz’s direction. “Shoot him.”

  Diaz’s mouth fell open. He probably meant to say something, but he was peppered with bullets before he got a chance. I don’t know how many shots hit him, or even how many men fired on him.

  It was a lot. That’s all I know. Too many. Probably would’ve felt sorry for him, if he hadn’t brought this on all of us.

  Julio Diaz’s body crashed against the wall behind him. He slumped to the floor, dead.

  When all the shooting quit, Greer, his face bright red, and his mangled ear glowing like a hot coal, was standing. He glared at the other Venezuelan military officer in the room—the man flanking General Barrios.

  “Mr. Greer?” The officer asked.

  “Tell the General that there is very sensitive equipment in this room. If he wants to have a refinery after tonight, he shouldn’t shoot it.

  “I’ll tell him,” the Colonel said. Then, in Spanish, “Mr. Greer says he doesn’t want you firing weapons up here, sir.”

  “Did he?” Barrios said.

  “I think we should shoot him,” the Colonel said. “What’s the point in founding a new government if we’re going to invite the Americans to muck things up again?”

  Barrios laughed and clapped the Colonel on the back. “Nestor, you let me worry about dealing with the Americans. I’ll make sure they keep their hands to themselves.”

  But that didn’t seem to be any comfort to the Colonel. His lips twitched. A nervous tic. A visible signal that he didn’t agree with Barrios, but didn’t want to overstep his authority.

  “They’ll take any chance they have,” he said quickly.

  General Barrios arched an eyebrow at him.

  “Don’t make the same mistakes the communists made.” The Colonel kept his eyes down. He couldn’t look at Barrios. “Let Mr. Greer walk away without putting in his code—we don’t need this refinery. It’s a cancer, Pedro. The communists put everything they had into oil, and look where it got us. A collapsed economy—people starving, people dying of disease, unable to afford medications. Riots.

  “The exact things the Americans want for us—the things that will keep Venezuela sick. Vulnerable to American interests.”

  I thought Barrios would turn on his man. His eyes looked sharp. His lips went tighter and tighter as the Colonel tried to talk him out of cooperating with Greer (which would’ve been smart, but nobody asked for my thoughts).

  But the General sighed. He faced his friend, and a sad smile came across his face.

  “I know the risks, my friend. And I’ve come to accept them. This is all part of my plan.” Barrios lightly slapped the Colonel’s cheek. The way a father would do to his son after a quick pep talk. Shake it off and keep your head in the game.

  None of that seemed to set the Colonel’s mind at ease.

  “Then, respectfully, Pedro, your plan is wrong,” the Colonel said.

  Barrios didn’t like hearing that. His easy demeanor slid right away. The air between Barrios and his Colonel seemed to go thick with tension. I thought one was gonna pop the other.

  “Tell Mr. Greer to input his code,” Barrios said, staring down the Colonel.

  The Colonel met his stare. Held onto it. He squeezed his hand into a fist. Popped his knuckles.

  “Put your code into the terminal,” the Colonel said in English.

  Greer walked over to the computer, and tapped the keys. He couldn’t have cared less about the two Venezuelan officers. And, frankly, I stopped caring once I noticed Greer smugly looking my way.

  “You played this one pretty well,” I said to him.

  A few eyeballs drifted my way. Greer’s, and the officers, who were probably surprised to hear me speak. They could
’ve shot me then if they wanted to. I figured I was already a dead man. What the hell did it matter? At least I’d get a couple verbal jabs into Greer before it all ended. It’d keep my mind off Libby and Kejal, at least.

  “I always plan for the unexpected,” Greer said as he finished keying in his code. “I figured Diaz would try to double-cross me as soon as he got the chance—it’s what I would’ve done to him.”

  “Seems like you did,” I said.

  He laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “How much are they giving you?” I asked. “The Venezuelans, I mean.”

  “Nothing directly.” Greer’s attention flicked down to the monitor, as if he were waiting for something. “A 49% stake of the Venezuelan National Oil company will be given to an organization stateside that I have an advisory role with. I plan on making this payout last me for a long, long time.”

  “Legal graft,” I said. “Guess you really did have it all figured out. I’d ask if you’ll have trouble getting to sleep at night, knowing you’re profiteering off misery and an untold number of deaths here. But I know you better than that.”

  “Every man has his own interests at heart,” Greer said with a big smile. “At least I’m honest about it.”

  “Honesty ain’t something you have.”

  Greer shrugged. Then, the computer beeped at him, and he grinned and pushed one last button.

  “Colonel Milares, please let the General know that I’ve unlocked the refinery’s computer systems,” he said.

  “You know they’re just going to shoot you,” I said as the Colonel gave the message to General Barrios.

  “They’ll probably try.”

  Sure enough, Barrios lifted his hand, and a pair of his men raised their rifles in Greer’s direction.

  Greer held up his right arm. His sleeve pulled back, revealing a small, black band around his wrist. Looked kind of like a skinny watch or a rubber bracelet.

  “I’d hold off for just a moment, General.”

  Barrios kept his hand raised, holding the command to fire.

  “Colonel Milares, I’d like you to tell the General what I’m about to say.” Greer waited a moment for the Colonel to translate.