by Linda Ladd
“It’s deep inside the jungle,” Desoto told them. “I’ve been inside several times but not recently. They used to keep the people they kidnapped out there. Back then, it was usually American tourists whose families had enough money to pay ransom. I didn’t know they were selling off little kids. We have to stop that. My children are my greatest joys.”
“Who gives the orders out there?” Novak asked.
“His name is Diego Ramos. He’s bankrolled by your old friend Arturo Ruiz, Novak. I know you remember our little visit to his place. I did a job for Ramos once many years ago. This Max Kellen you speak of sounds like a psychopath.”
The rest of them looked askance at him. Nobody asked questions about what Desoto’s job had been for Ramos. Nobody pointed out that psychopath was a relative term while in Desoto’s company.
Desoto smiled. “It’s not what you’re thinking. It wasn’t a hit. He merely asked me to find out who a certain woman was. He told me that he had found her lying unconscious on a street in Flores and needed to find her family and take her home. I didn’t believe him, of course. I figured she had been abducted and he wanted to exact ransom from her family. Turned out I was right. She was a South African national working here, but her father was a British business tycoon with multiple companies stationed all over the world. She was pregnant and worth a lot of money. Ramos received a huge ransom for her.”
“And you thought that was okay, right? Hey, that’s fine, I’ll help you extract money from a girl’s distraught father?”
After Lori’s question, Desoto turned to face her and gauged her silently for a long moment. “I didn’t consider her plight to concern me. Just like this abduction of Claire Morgan doesn’t really concern me. I help out my friends when they ask, especially when they’ve done a good turn for me. I owed Ramos all those years ago, and I owe Will Novak today. My little daughter, Carmelita, suffered terribly at the hands of my enemy until Novak rescued her. He treated her with great kindness. Once she was back safe at home with her mother, I told him that if he ever needed my help, anything at all, at any time, that I would answer his call. He needs me now, so here I am. The same went for Ramos.”
“Well, that’s a fine trait, I guess,” Lori answered, but then she gave Novak an openly disgusted look.
Novak felt the need to explain. “Sebastian can be a big help to us right now, the kind we’ll need to get Claire out safely. He knows this plantation or whatever the hell it is. He can guide us directly to it, and he can show us how to infiltrate without raising suspicion. He would be welcomed inside. That’s to our advantage.”
Black’s eyes remained on the small Mexican. “Do they hurt the women they take captive?”
Desoto met his gaze. Novak assumed it wasn’t hard for Desoto to understand the gist of that question. He had seen Desoto’s condition when Carmelita was held captive, and he had seen the assassin’s helplessness and terror at what might happen to her. “I would think not. They are valuable to Ramos and Kellen. The South African girl I mentioned was returned in good health, and she actually had her baby while with them. The birth made Ramos double the ransom, of course. He received a small fortune in American dollars for her, well over two million dollars.”
“Prices have gone up considerably since then,” Novak noted.
“I want Claire back unharmed,” Black said. “The money doesn’t matter.”
“No, it does not or should not,” the assassin told him. “Not when it concerns family.”
“So okay, we got all that settled. Now when and where do we do this thing?” That was Doc. He was sitting at the end of the dining room table, cleaning his Glock 17, ready to go. He was a good Marine, one of the best Novak had met. Novak looked around the table and saw the irony in the situation. He had enlisted Doc’s help a year or so back to track down the very Mexican assassin who was now sitting right beside him. Sometimes life was a laugh a minute.
“This is not going to be a cakewalk,” he said. “After I tell you what I’ve got planned, any of you can opt out at any time. We are definitely at a disadvantage here.”
He looked at each person in turn. Everyone stared back without comment. No one was out, not yet, anyhow. He gave Lori a few extra seconds to make up her mind, but she looked as calm and ready as the rest of them. They were all experienced and battle tough.
“Claire is in serious trouble,” Lori said. “I don’t know the lady, haven’t ever met her, but I want to. She sounds like a hell of a woman. So what’s the plan? I take it that’s what you were contemplating during the entire flight while the rest of us slept.”
“Desoto shows us the best way in. We go in, take out everybody, and rescue Claire. It’s that simple.”
“Nothing’s that simple,” Black said, frowning. “I don’t want her hurt.”
“We don’t have many choices.”
“We can pay the money and make the exchange,” Black said. “I don’t give a damn about that money. Your guy over there just told us they’ve made this kind of exchange before and nobody got hurt.”
“This is different, Black, and you know it. Claire can identify Kellen and other people involved. They can’t let her go.” Novak didn’t like his own blunt words, not when Black was ready to go to pieces, but Black had to look at things clearly. Otherwise, this could end in disaster.
Black’s face didn’t change, but angry heat ran up under his skin. He turned away and stared out the big windows at the bustling city. He said nothing in the ensuing silence.
“Tell me exactly where this compound is,” Doc said to Desoto.
“Up north of here, around the town of Flores but not close. It’s remote up there, jungle as far as the eye can see. There are a few dirt roads here and there, but they’re nearly impassable. The jungle takes them back almost before they’re graded.”
“How remote?” Lori asked him.
“It’s the Teten, and it’s basically impenetrable in most places. You have to hack your way through with a machete. There are venomous snakes, and spiders as big as your fist. It still looks like it did centuries ago when the Maya Snake Kings had cities out there. They’re just now beginning to find them with aerial laser technology.”
“You mean cities with stone pyramids like at Tulum?” she asked.
“Si, they are out there but undiscovered for the most part. Ramos goes in and out on helicopters, but he has cleared some land around his compound. Sometimes it’s passable, sometimes not, depending on the time of year. Right now, we should get through, but we can’t count on it. We can’t count on anything out there.”
“My, you have mastered English as well as killing, haven’t you now?” Lori said. Nope, she definitely didn’t like the assassin, not one bit, and didn’t mind showing it.
“Desoto worked as a professor of Mayan history at the Museo Nacional here in Guatemala City. He is highly educated and knows his stuff. He’s conducted archaeological digs out there. That’s why I called him,” Novak told Lori. “He knows how to get us in there undetected and how to get us out. We need him.”
Lori said nothing.
“Getting out will be more difficult than getting in,” Desoto warned them. “We need a helicopter and a pilot not afraid to land in a remote jungle clearing.”
“I can get us a helicopter. No problem. I can fly it. I don’t care where I have to land it.” Black looked interested now because they were discussing taking action, and that was what he’d been waiting for.
“Good.” Desoto nodded. “I’ve got friends in Flores who will put us up and keep our presence secret.”
Novak was glad he’d called Desoto. Initially, he had hesitated, unsure that involving Desoto would be wise. Now he felt his decision was a good one, although it could and might go south. He had tried to get hold of another friend, a CIA procurer named Jenn Ryman, but she was on assignment in Cairo. She had come through for him plenty of times in the past, and so had Doc.
He didn’t need to second-guess his choices now; he had assembled a good team. He wasn’t worried about how any one of them would perform. He was worried about Claire not making it off that ship alive.
“We’re going to need assault rifles, maybe some grenades, and plenty of ammunition,” Novak told Desoto.
“I have trusted sources here in the city. Purchasing the weapons will be no problem.”
“You’re a good friend to have,” Black said, relieved to hear about the guns.
Desoto studied him. “I am a good friend to those I know and trust.”
His meaning was obvious, but Black didn’t push it. He’d trust them all eventually. Lori still looked suspicious of the assassin. If she knew some of the things Sebastian Desoto had done, she probably wouldn’t be sitting beside him. Or even in the same room. Still, Novak knew nobody was going to trust anybody explicitly until they earned that respect.
Desoto appeared interested in Lori as well. “So what is your expertise on this foray, senorita?” he asked her. “It surprises me that Novak brought a woman along, since his lover, Jenn, was so terribly hurt last time.”
“His lover Jenn, you say?” Lori raised a brow at Novak.
“Jenn’s a friend. She works out of Belize. I tried to get her on board, but she wasn’t available.”
“Too bad. I love to meet your old girlfriends. We could exchange notes and recipes, stuff like that.”
Novak didn’t deny it. He and Jenn had been lovers. They had a long, complicated history together that he wasn’t going into.
Fortunately, Black changed the subject. “Okay, let’s do this. You guys go gather up what we’ll need, and I’ll go back to the airport and find a helicopter. I’ll let you know when I’ve got it. Keep me informed on what’s going on.”
After Black left, Novak and the others went munitions shopping. Desoto took them to a seedy backstreet in what appeared to be the worst slum in the Southern Hemisphere. The goods they sought were stored down in a basement of a ramshackle tenement building owned by an American gunrunner by the name of Josiah Plunkett. He told them to call him Josie. He was a red-haired, bearded guy about the size and girth of a Canadian Sasquatch. He smoked a pipe, and he liked Lori’s good looks right off the bat. He gave her a huge bear hug that lifted her off her feet and angered her. “You really used to be a sniper, girl? That’s the kind of woman I need around here. How many kills you get over there?”
“I’ll chalk up another one, if and when you ever pick me up again like that.”
Josiah first looked startled, and then he gut-laughed. “Not gonna give you reason to pick up a rifle, missy.” He looked at Desoto, ready to get down to business. “What do you need, amigo? I got a new shipment last month, so I should have anything you want.”
Novak pulled out the list he’d compiled and handed it over. Josiah took a moment to silently read through it and started nodding before he was finished. “I got all this stuff and more. C’mon, mosey around and see for yourself.”
They followed him down a steep, cramped, dark and narrow stairway to a locked metal door at the bottom. Josiah punched in a code on an elaborate state-of-the-art keypad. The door swung open, and he snapped on an overhead light and let them precede him inside. Novak stood back, never one to turn his back on a new criminal acquaintance in a building like this or while on a mission like this, so he motioned Josiah to go first. As it turned out, Josiah knew his armament, and his stockroom looked like a super arsenal inside a military fort. It was as clean and spotless and dry inside that basement as the rest of the building was shoddy.
They did their weapons shopping quickly and efficiently with a rusted shopping cart that Josiah had filched from the nearest open-air market, strolling up and down aisles with displays set out as neatly as in any Kroger’s supermarket. The arms dealer had everything they needed and ten times more. Apparently, military coups and revolutions were still alive and well in Latin America. They told him nothing about their mission, and he didn’t ask. Novak wouldn’t trust this guy to tell him the time of day. But he was a good merchant and fixed them up with everything they’d need to get Claire off that ship or out of that compound, whichever came first.
Once they had loaded the Jeep they’d rented at the airport under a false name, they headed back to Desoto’s apartment. The trip was made in silence; nobody felt like chatting. Now they were armed and ready. All they had to do was sit and wait for Kellen’s ransom call. That would give them an idea of where Kellen was keeping Claire. It was also the hard part, not knowing if Claire and her baby were still alive. At least they were in place, armed, and ready to move out.
Chapter 23
Right after Kellen had hung up with Black, the nurse gave Claire some kind of medicine that eventually stopped the contractions. It had been false labor, but it had been stress related, which terrified Claire. She had to remain calm, no matter what happened, and do nothing to cause it again. Claire was almost twenty-five weeks along, and her baby wouldn’t be ready until thirty-seven weeks or more. She did not want to deliver her child early, and she did not want her to be born on this awful freighter. It was bad enough that she was held captive at sea, with the constant wave motion that nauseated her. So she cooperated fully and took whatever meds they gave her, and hoped to God that Black had some kind of plan to rescue her.
After a few days, Kellen gave Claire more freedom. He let her go outside her cabin, which was in the multilevel tower at the stern. So she took the elevator down to the immense cargo deck where the giant ship containers were secured. Why wouldn’t he give her that freedom? Escape was impossible. Where would she go? The vessel was huge, and the crew avoided her and treated her like a leper set loose among them. They never interacted with her, not a word or glance, so Claire felt like a floating ghost that nobody could see or hear.
Except for one man, who apparently was assigned to keep an eye on her. Unfortunately, he took his job seriously. He was always loitering around somewhere behind her and would quickly look away if she turned around. If they thought she would panic and throw herself overboard, they could quit worrying. She had not given up. Black and Novak had ways to figure out where she was, and they would rescue her. She knew both men well, and they would not stop until they found her. They were probably getting closer now. Still, her guard dogged her like a well-trained Doberman.
The doctor’s name was Thea, and she checked Claire’s vital signs regularly. She never said an unnecessary word, no matter how much Claire tried to start conversation. Kellen made himself scarce most of the time, and she rarely saw him. That suited Claire fine. God only knew what he was doing with his time, but it would be bad, whatever it was. He was probably on the internet, locating other pregnant women to kidnap and abuse. He was so evil that it was hard for her to look at him. When her nausea improved, she enjoyed her walks on deck, and the salty fresh air agreed with her. The exercise seemed to help her anxiety and give her strength, and she tried not to think about how far away she was from Black and Rico and where she might end up at the end of this voyage.
On the other hand, she was a trained detective, and that made her observant. She knew she needed to find out the name of the ship and where it was headed. She needed to find a satellite phone that she could borrow, beg, or steal, and there had to be one somewhere on board. Maybe she could find a computer and zip off a text or email to Black. She had to do something.
They were headed southwest. Claire ascertained that from the sunrise. They chugged along at what seemed like a snail’s pace, slow but steady. So far, the weather had been calm and beautiful and hot. The name of the ship eluded her. She couldn’t see it on the hull, but she finally found it printed atop a crate someone was hauling to the galley. She was on the Juan Cortez out of Buenos Aires. So they were probably headed to Argentina. That could be good news or bad news, but as long as they wanted the ransom, she figured they weren’t going to murder her. Black would pay it u
ntil the time they refused proof of life. So she felt fairly certain she could survive until they got their hands on the cash.
As time passed, her thoughts grew morbid as she contemplated never making it back to her life at Lake of the Ozarks. She might never see the baby she carried inside her. Sometimes when she succumbed to those fears, her child would begin to get agitated, as if her baby girl knew they were in danger. Claire would put her hand on her belly and steel her resolve to think positively. She did that now as she made her way through a door that led to the galley, where she now was allowed to take her meals.
The loud buzz of conversation and clink of cutlery ended abruptly the moment she stepped through the door, just like it always did. The crew would watch her find a table away from everyone else. When she sat down, talking resumed. Sometimes this all seemed so bizarre, so utterly unreal, that she couldn’t believe it was actually happening and not just some terrible dream. Other than the doctor, the cook’s daughter was the only other woman she’d seen aboard. She was the waitress, and it was her job to bring Claire’s tray to her table. Claire tried to be friendly, hoping to create a cordial relationship that might get her to a phone. She had overheard one of the men call the girl Isabella. As of yet, she had been too frightened to utter a single word.
This time Claire decided to push the issue. Glancing at the men across the room, she lowered her voice. “Isabella, please listen to me. My husband has to be so worried about me and the baby. He doesn’t know where we are or what’s happening to us. Please, can you send him a message or let me use your phone so he’ll know we’re all right. Please, please, it would mean everything to us. You can watch me call him. I’ll just talk for a minute, I swear. Just for one minute, please, I’m begging you.”
The girl assumed a look of pure terror and put the tray down in a hurry. She rushed off, and Claire knew she would never get help from her. Not that she was surprised the young girl was scared. Still, she was disappointed. This girl had been Claire’s only hope to get word to Black. If she could just get the name of the ship to him somehow, he could find her. He could find any ship, anywhere in the world, through his contacts at the Pentagon. He could be waiting for her when they got to port.