“That’s the one I’d want to be in,” Marc said. Even though his eyes were fixed on the rutted dirt strip that was passing for a road, far too often lined by boulders that beckoned all but the most vigilant drivers, J.J. could see by the set of his strong jawline that he was smiling, just a little.
“Hell yeah, you would!” she answered after a pause that was probably a little too long.
Tony sat in the front seat of the Lincoln, looking over at his mother, her face washed in blue light from the information screen. Neither had said a word for several minutes. At first, they’d been quiet so that they could listen to the spoken instructions of the GPS lady. Nicole was the only driver in the caravan who had not seen the way to the compound, so just telling her to go back the way she came was clearly not going to work.
But after the last instruction told her to stay on the current road for the next hour ,their silence became a vast stadium of empty seats, save for the two they occupied. And those were behind opposite endzones.
Tony wanted very much for his mother to be the one to break the silence. He wanted for her to offer an explanation that wouldn’t too severely strain the limits of credibility. After all, his dad’s lame assassin jokes aside, what could she possibly tell him that was any stranger than the saga Marc had recently unfurled?
However, she did not go first. She did not offer an explanation that once heard made the listener think, “Of course! How stupid of me not to have realized that on my own!” In fact, she didn’t offer any explanation at all. She was just concentrating on not riding too close to the Hummer’s ass-end and, oddly, humming an old Bobby McFerrin tune.
Finally, Tony realized if there was to be any exchange of thoughts, he’d have to be the instigator, and was about to open his mouth to form the words, “What the hell, Mom?” when Nicole spoke instead.
“Well, that was certainly a crazy scene, huh?” She asked the question in the same tone one might ask, “Boy, can you remember the last time we’ve had this much rain?” Or perhaps, if not that, then just “How about those Rockies, huh?”
“Yeah. It was pretty crazy. Not Marx Brothers crazy, but certainly crazier than their imitators,” Tony said, not trying to hide the sarcasm.
Nicole deftly avoided biting on to the hook hidden by that worm and said, “You sound more like your father all the time.”
“Wow, Mom.” Tony was unable to fend off a smile. “No need to get hurtful.”
“Don’t pick on your dad when he’s not here to defend himself.”
“Yeah, so, um, about that craziness?”
“Which part, or do you just want all of it?”
Tony began to answer at once then stopped himself. Did he really want to know all of it? Did he want to know any of it?
“The works,” he said finally.
Nicole drew in a deep breath and let it escape as a half-sigh of painful hesitancy. “I really didn’t expect to have to tell this story to every member of the family in such a short span of time.”
Tony felt his ears heat up. It was a life-long autonomic response that happened when he was either suddenly angered or hurt. In this case, it was both, and he was thankful that he’d decided to wear his hair a little longer than most of his friends. It covered the tops where the tell-tale reddening would have shown like a blathering beacon otherwise.
“So then I have to assume that I’m the last of the family to hear… whatever it is you’re going to say.”
“Yes, but don’t read too much into that.”
“A bit hard not to.”
“I get it Tone, but… but let’s agree to table the order in which you were told the story and maybe, you know, get to the story itself?”
“Fine,” Tony said, sounding positively petulant.
“So I was out here because I’d been kidnapped along with Manny and Luis.”
“Okay. Manny is the guy I thought was going to stab you.”
“Howdy!” said Manny from the back seat, startling Tony, who’d gotten so caught up in the emotions that were flying in every direction, had forgotten he’d held the door open for Manny, and had closed it once he was safely in.
“Hi, Manny,” he said, the sincerity of his nonchalance almost convincing. “But, um, I don’t recall seeing anyone named Luis.”
“Luis está muerto,” Manny answered quietly.
Cole spoke to her fellow cleaner. “Tony’s language was French in high school, Manny.”
“‘Luis is dead,’” Tony translated. “That one’s not too tricky, Mom, and that word’s roots are essentially the same in both languages.” After a beat, he added, “Also equally disturbing.”
“It’s very disturbing,” Nicole confirmed.
“Who kidnapped you?”
“Two men who are by now already in Tijuana.”
“Well, good. Let them stay there, and you can drive with us back to Marc’s place in San Diego.”
“Not quite yet,” Nicole said, shutting down that part of the conversation.
“Alright, so two guys. That’s what we’ve got to go on?”
“Oh, I know exactly who the two men are, and I know why they took us. I also knew that would be your next question.”
Again, Tony smiled. “Nope. My next question was going to be ‘How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?’”
“Wiseass. Everyone knows the answer is three.”
“Yeah, it’s three,” Manny confirmed.
“Har-dee-har. There, we’ve had a good laugh. Now, please go on.”
With one final sigh, representing the dissolution of Nicole’s last scrap of secrecy with her family, she launched into the tale of Cleanup Crew. She started with Dan finding the body in her car’s trunk. She gave a barebones accounting of the mission to Bucharest and an even leaner version of her return to Greenville. She then explained the nature of the current case. Notably absent from the narrative (partially due to Manny’s presence, but also because there were things she didn’t feel right talking about with her son) was any mention of Conrad or of how he shaped her path to Cleanup Crew.
Tony’s reaction to the story was stunned silence. He’d forgotten his promise to talk about Marc. He’d forgotten to ask about Conrad. To him, it felt like he’d forgotten everything other than the mad tale he’d just heard.
Cole, seeing anguish on her son’s face, didn’t push the issue. There would be time to learn about Marc after she finished the task at hand and reunited with her family in the much friendlier confines of San Diego, California.
Dan had fallen into the final spot in the convoy and was smiling to himself as he followed the path marked out by the headlights of the two vehicles in front of him. He was smiling because he was not in either one of them.
“Marc, whoever he is, is going to be asking some tough questions, not the least of which will be ‘Why’d you steal my car.’ And I don’t even want to think about what poor Tony is going through right now.”
“Who said anything about hookers?” Neal’s voice from the back seat scared Dan so much that he actually jerked the wheel hard to the right as he reflexively spun around to see his friend stretched out across the back seat. He looked forward just in time to correct his course and avoid hitting a cactus.
“Jesus, man! I thought you were riding with Marc!”
“He’s not the boss of me. I ride where I want to!”
Holy hell, Dan thought. I am really bad at drugging people. I wonder if he’s ever going to be normal again. Then he laughed at his own thought. What the hell am I talking about? He’s never been normal.
“No, it’s cool, man. Just startled me.”
“Startled you? Next rest stop, you’d better check your underwear. Startled!”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. So what’s all this about hookers?”
“Who said anything about hookers?”
“You just did!”
“Does it make you feel better to tell these lies, Dan?”
“Never mind,” Dan
said, realizing that he wasn’t getting past that wall.
“Why ‘poor Tony?’” Neal asked, again surprising Dan, but this time because he’d apparently been able to pay enough attention to his surroundings that he’d heard those words spoken and retained them.
Without really thinking about what he was doing, Dan began to talk about Nicole’s secret career, also beginning with the Lexus’s trunk in the Home Depot parking lot. He’d meant to explain that he probably knew what Tony was feeling as he too heard… what he was no doubt hearing. He’d meant to give a fairly concise answer to Neal’s question.
But as he began to tell the story, Dan realized he’d never actually talked about this crazy shit to anyone outside of the family, except briefly with Wally and Darlene Mason, who were pretty much family too. And, he reasoned to himself, Neal was not likely to remember much of what he heard anyway.
And so he not only told about saving Ana Albu, the model called The Beauty of Bucharest and about the people he’d killed, but he told the story of Conrad and Nicole from age ten forward. He talked about J.J.’s kidnapping, about her rescue and about her demonstrating so many of the same characteristics that Nicole possessed. Really the only thing he couldn’t give much detail about was the mission in which they’d both become involved. For all that had happened since receiving Coley’s 9-1-1, he’d never actually learned the full nature of this case.
“Well,” Neal said at last, “that’s gotta do a number on your head.”
Dan noticed that his friend no longer sounded like he was under the influence of the Mickey. Neal was also sitting up now. He felt a little bit of dread in the pit of his stomach, as he realized the Battery King might remember more than he’d hoped about the story he’d just spent nearly an hour telling. But Dan also smiled a little.
“How long has your head been clear, you ass?”
“I was fine when I climbed into the Rover. Hell, all I’ve done is sleep since you dosed me. Not very neighborly of you, by the way.”
“You figured it out, huh?”
“Daniel, your wife sounds as though she is a very dangerous and competent person. She sounds like she is probably very good at very many things and is clearly not someone to be trifled with. When it comes to espionage, you, on the other hand, are a fine software executive.”
“I totally still suck at this,” Dan admitted.
“Still, you killed two people. Respect. Respect to you, Godfather.”
“Knock it off.”
“How many people did you send to sleep with the fishes back at that burning house?”
“Stop with the Godfather references! Besides, I didn’t cause any fish naps tonight. Manny did a guy in a rather grizzly manner, however, and Cole tucked in two. You know. Into the fish bed.”
“You’re killing me! You’re not even good at talking about doing this!”
“Maybe you can see why I was reluctant to tell you this story?”
“Yeah, I totally get it. Still think you were a little heavy-handed with the solution to the secrecy issue, though.”
“Sorry I drugged you.”
“At last! The apology cometh! That’s all I wanted to hear you say. Listen, Danny. I’m a guy that just about everybody in Denver has seen, thanks to the commercials and the flyers and the bus banners…”
“And the billboards,” Dan offered.
“Yes, the billboards. So a lot of people know who I am, but not many people actually know me, Dan. You’re not only my best friend, you’re just about my only friend.”
“Nicole likes you.”
“And now more than ever I’m glad that she does. But my point, Dan, is that when your list of friends is short, you don’t, as a rule, do things to make it even shorter. If you had told me what was up from the get-go, my response would have been the same as it is now.”
Dan waited for a moment, then when Neal didn’t continue, asked, “And just what is that response?”
Neal made a show of flopping back down across the seat. In his roofied voice, once again he murmured, “Who said anything about hookers?”
19
Rooftops
The vehicles rolled into Tijuana just before sunrise and gathered outside Nicole’s hotel. After a brief meeting during which the words spoken were terse, business-like, and masked all of the feelings being felt, it was agreed that everyone except Nicole would drive back to San Diego and await her return. They redistributed themselves yet again, so now Marc, Tony, and J.J. drove together in the Lincoln, while Dan, Neal, and Manny climbed into the Humvee, leaving the Land Rover for Nicole.
Enough time had passed that Neal felt comfortable dropping his act, claiming to “finally be feeling like himself again.” As the six prepared to leave Nicole behind, he walked to her with a grin that somehow was saying something Nicole had never known him to express before. She wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
“Please take care of the Rover,” he told her.
“I won’t hurt your car, Neal.” Her voice was dismissive, but he didn’t let it go.
“Take care of the Rover so that it can take care of you. Your husband loves you very much, and if my car doesn’t bring you back to him, he’ll blame me.”
The crooked smile had not disappeared, but Nicole watched it soften now. Neal was not the least bit worried about his car. He was worried about his best friend, and he was worried about her. He held her gaze a moment longer then gave her arm a friendly squeeze and waddled toward the car.
The two young men gave perfunctory goodbyes, appearing eager to return to the States. Marc awkwardly shook Nicole’s hand and promised to get them back safely. Tony merely gave his mother a quick hug and walked away. Cole realized his quiet demeanor was hiding an internal maelstrom as he began digesting the partial truth she’d offered him.
J.J. lingered a moment longer, and when she was comfortable that she wouldn’t be heard, whispered, “Finish the cleaning and get the hell back to us.”
“I know what I have to do, Jayj.”
“I don’t doubt it a bit, but I have a bad—” she stopped as Nicole shook her head.
“No. Don’t say it. Don’t even let yourself think it.” She didn’t want to go into the final stages of this mission thinking about her daughter’s bad feeling.
J.J. nodded, understanding without completely realizing why. She grabbed her mother and hugged her for all she was worth. “I’ll see you in California.”
Like in the Wizard of Oz, Dan was always the scarecrow – the hardest to say goodbye to.
“This shouldn’t take long at all,” she told him preemptively. “I have been looking at the area online, and I expect it to go smoothly. Take care of the kids. And Neal. Take care of Neal. He’s a good man.”
Dan had to smile at that. “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever called him anything other than a goof.”
“Oh, he’s all of that. But he also cares about you.”
Nicole saw a little sadness in her husband’s eyes as he nodded in agreement. “He does. He’s proved it more than once since he suggested this perfectly insane road trip. And I fear I’ve done him a series of wrongs that will need atoning for.”
“I’d be willing to bet he feels differently.”
“Maybe. But I know what I know.”
Now Nicole had to smile. “I know what I know” had long been one of the ways Dan had told her that he loved her. In fact, he’d said it to her multiple times early on in their relationship, before either had had the courage to finally utter the three little words that made everything migrate from fun and games to life-changing reality. He wasn’t using it to convey that now. He meant that in his heart he knew that he had to make things up to his friend, whether Neal acknowledged it or not.
“I know what I know too,” she said at last. “I know that Dan Porter is the love of my life, and I’ll run into his arms the moment I’m finished with this… task.”
She had meant it to be a warm romantic farewell but found herself swallowing hard an in
stant later as she saw his eyes mist up. He collected himself quickly, however, and attempted to sound stern as he said, “See that you do.” He kissed her, perhaps more passionately than any man who knew his wife was about to kill a man had ever kissed a woman.
From the Navigator, Dan and Nicole heard J.J. shout, “Gross!” With a grin, they parted and Dan ran to the Hummer, knowing that if he’d tried to walk away, he would have stopped and come back to her. He didn’t say it, but he had a bad feeling too.
Luis’s car was still parked where they had left it, and seeing it caused Nicole a pang of grief, which she quickly stuffed into a black mental duffle, embroidered in matching black thread with the word “later.” Walking to the trunk, she repeated the same pattern she’d seen the handler use when he first armed her, knowing she was about to collect the last weapon she’d likely need on this mission. God, let it be the last weapon I need today. Let me squeeze one trigger, then go home.
As the trunk popped open, her eyes went immediately to its rear wall where she remember the long guns had been stashed. She selected a large, time-tortured case, its faux-woven, khaki-colored plastic scarred and dented. She smiled as she opened it, revealing a disassembled Sako TRG-42 .338 Lapua sniper rifle. From the research she’d already done on the location, she knew it had more than enough mojo for the job. She wouldn’t know for sure until she was in place, but she was sure that her target would be no more than 800 meters away, 1000 tops. The TRG-42 had an effective range of over three times that.
Closing the case, she extracted it from Luis’s car. She realized at the last minute it would be wise to grab a sidearm, so she picked another Walther and some ammo before slamming the trunk shut. In the predawn morning air, the thump as it closed echoed with a hollowness that she didn’t particularly care for. As she walked to the Land Rover, she realized why. It sounded similar to the closing hatch of the metal coffin in which she’d spent far too much. She was also aware, a little too late, that in the already warm Tijuana morning, the sound was louder than the ambient noise and could have drawn attention. She placed the rifle in the Rover’s back seat and jumped behind the wheel. As badly as she wanted to leave the minimalist Gamma De Fiesta Inn in a shower of gravel from loudly squawking tires, she put the car in drive and slowly, quietly pulled away.
The Terror of Tijuana Page 18