The Loverboy

by Miel Vermeulen

  worst Annie ever faced was cheerleaders whereas Gabriella had to

  watch out for ruthless killers. Gabriella revealed that Marcella

  was getting restless and everyday she asked her dad if she could

  go back to the city because she was bored. Her dad was still

  holding off, it was too dangerous and she could get caught again and go back to prison but Marcella kept pushing. Gabriella was

  hoping he would buckle soon to her whining so she would leave.

  Everyone went to sleep and after Gabriella was sure they

  were asleep she pulled a chocolate bar from under her mattress

  and broke a piece off. She poked Kim with it and Kim was

  instantly awake.

  “Sssh” Gabriella hissed and handed Kim the chocolate.

  “Where did you get that?” Kim asked.

  “There is a path in the northeast corner of the plantation.

  It looks like it"s impassable but you just have to climb over a

  few rocks and you can get out. The cartel doesn"t even know it"s

  there. My dad sometimes uses it to go to town and get some extra

  supplies like medicine when someone gets sick or something. He

  always brings something back for me” Gabriella explained.

  “Isn"t that dangerous?” Kim asked.

  “Very dangerous but the cartel would rather let someone die

  then get them medication. They don"t want to risk being

  discovered” Gabriella explained.

  “He"s been doing it for six months now every week and has

  never been caught” Gabriella continued with a sense of pride. After they finished the chocolate they fell asleep.

  Chapter 29:

  Two days later there was a commotion at roll call. They

  were looking around to see what the holdup was. Gabriella was

  standing next to Kim and she started panicking.

  “What"s wrong?” Kim asked in a hushed voice.

  “My dad” Gabriella responded, “A woman in one of the other

  huts had a bad cut two days ago and the wound got infected. My

  dad was sneaking to town last night to get antibiotics. He"s not

  here.”

  “Maybe he didn"t wake up in time and just missed roll call”

  Kim said trying to reassure Gabriella even though it sounded

  stupid.

  Then a man walked from behind the main house. His hands

  were bound behind his back and his face was a mess like someone

  had worked him over badly. Sandro walked behind him and pushed

  him along. Gabriella gasped “Dad!!!” she screamed and she rushed to

  his aid as did Lucia. He fell to his knees in front of them and

  they immediately started to tend to him. Sandro looked at the

  display and smiled. It was a cold smile, one of a man that was

  up to no good. Sandro started explaining to the group that this

  man had been caught trying to sneak out at night. Everybody knew

  that there was no unauthorized coming and going but apparently

  that had not been explained well enough. So Sandro was going to

  explain it again. He raised a pistol and aimed it at the man

  that was being tended to by his wife and daughter.

  Gabriella noticed the gun first and started begging to let

  him live, then Lucia joined in. Sandro thought for a second and

  Kim held her breath hoping there was a bit of humanity left in

  this monster and he would let the man live. Then the evil grin

  returned and he moved the gun slightly and squeezed the trigger.

  Everyone gasped and to Kim"s horror it was not the man that

  slumped to the ground but Gabriella. The man and Lucia stared in

  shock and before either could react the gun went off again this

  time hitting Lucia square in the head and Kim could do nothing

  but close her eyes as a third shot rang. All three were lying

  dead at Sandro"s feet.

  “Is that enough of an explanation?” he asked loudly. The small group of people stayed quiet. Many were crying

  but nobody made a sound. Kim was one of them. Two of the men

  were instructed to bury the family out in the desert away from

  the valley under guard of two cartel members and the rest were

  sent to work. Lunch was a sober affair and some picked at their

  food but nobody ate. After work Kim couldn"t bring herself to go

  back to the hut she had shared with Lucia and Gabriella and she

  checked with the first hut she had stayed in.

  “Of course you are welcome here” the women had said.

  They all knew how close Kim and Gabriella had become.

  “How can they do this?” Kim asked in disbelief.

  “The cartels do whatever they want” one of the women

  replied.

  The women cooked but nobody ate more than a bite or two.

  Kim ate nothing and cried herself to sleep that night. The next

  morning her feet felt like lead walking to the roll call. She

  prayed that this would be a normal one but it wasn"t. Fernando

  attended and talked about the importance of everybody following

  the rules. If people didn"t follow the rules the operation would

  be at risk and that was not acceptable. It was almost as if he

  was trying to justify the killings the day before. Sandro stood

  in the background his head dropped low and whenever he looked up Fernando shot him an angry look. Clearly Sandro had overstepped

  his boundaries and had been scolded. Kim couldn"t help but think

  that he should be shot too if he broke the rules.

  When Kim looked at Sandro she could not remember ever

  hating anyone more. She hated him more than she hated Jake even

  though before yesterday she had never imagined that she could

  hate anyone more than Jake. Fernando continued and asked for a

  volunteer to replace Gabriella. Gabriella had been a valuable

  resource and he needed someone that spoke English and could work

  a computer. Kim thought about it but did not want to be in the

  same house as these people. In the field she had little

  interaction with them. They shouted some commands at her at

  times but most were from far away. In the house she would be

  working with them all the time. In the same room with these

  killers and that was something she would rather avoid.

  When nobody stepped forward Fernando asked again. Kim

  didn"t know that many of the small group very well but most

  seemed like poor farmers and they didn"t give the sense of any

  decent education that included fluency in English or computer

  skills. Marcella stepped forward and whispered something in

  Fernando"s ear. Fernando looked in Kim"s direction and then

  stepped towards her. He looked her over and without asking if she wanted to he instructed her to report to the house after

  breakfast.

  After breakfast she went to the house and with shaking

  knees she knocked on the door. Sandro opened the door.

  “Of all people, why him” she though.

  He looked her over with the same look he had given her in

  the van and Kim immediately felt uncomfortable. He stared at her

  for a few long seconds before letting her in and she was led

  into the house where Fernando was sitting at a large desk while

  Marcella was lying on a couch watching satellite TV looking

  really bored. Fernando instructed her to sit down and she did.

  He explained that Gabriella had functioned as his secretary of
/>
  sorts. Despite how she might feel about the cartel it is a

  business he explained. Kim had a hard time grasping that

  concept.

  “My daughter told me that you did legal work for other

  prisoners over the last year or so and that you grew up in the

  United States. I need someone that can speak fluent English.

  Most of the people I supply to are in the United States and many

  do not speak Spanish. My English is very basic at best and I

  need someone to handle the communications” he explained.

  “Are you any good with computers?” he then asked. Kim nodded and explained that computer class was a

  mandatory subject in middle and high school now. She was no

  expert but she could handle basic stuff like word processing,

  spreadsheets, emails and internet. Fernando nodded in approval.

  “Then from now on you will be my new secretary” Fernando

  announced.

  He pointed to a small table in the corner of the room with

  an old wooden kitchen chair. On the table were a laptop and a

  phone.

  “That is your desk” Fernando explained.

  “Do not use the phone unless it is for cartel business. If

  you make any calls that are not for the benefit of the business

  you will be in serious trouble, same with email. The computer

  has a satellite connection to the internet. You will do my

  communications and handle financial transactions. The financial

  transactions are secure and the codes are in an encrypted file

  on the laptop. You do not have access to that file and when you

  have a transaction set up I will enter the codes. If you keep

  out of trouble you will have a very easy life here” Fernando

  explained further.

  Kim could not bear to think of staying with these criminals

  for very long. She would rather go back to prison but as she had learned in the last few years you can"t always get what you

  want. Over the next two days Fernando didn"t have much for her

  to do so she worked on familiarizing herself with the laptop and

  looked through old communications to get a feel on what was

  expected from her. She found the file with the bank codes but as

  explained the file was password protected and she couldn"t get

  to them. The only other activity was the constant nagging of

  Marcella to her “Papi” about being bored. Fernando was getting

  more and more fed up with it and finally caved and told her she

  could go stay at his brother"s in Mexico City.

  The cartel was a well organized family business. Fernando

  was in charge and handled production, sales and finances. His

  youngest brother was located in Mexico City and handled some

  side business and odd jobs. Kim did not know what that meant but

  it seemed like the side business was prostitution and gambling

  while the odd jobs could be anything that came up like taking

  care of reporters that stuck their noses into cartel business or

  the like. The middle brother was in Juarez and he handled the

  distribution which was more the trafficking of the drugs.

  Kim was even happier than Marcella that Marcella had been

  given permission to leave. Marcella was annoying and her boredom

  and continuous whining was driving Kim nuts. The next day

  Marcella left and Fernando too seemed glad to be rid of her for a while. The problem was that Kim was not allowed to be in the

  house by herself as they did not completely trust her yet and

  thus there was a cartel member with her at all times when

  Fernando left. The first few days it was one of the guys that

  normally kept an eye on the plantation but more and more Sandro

  would relieve whoever was keeping an eye on her. This was the

  last person Kim wanted to be in one room with but she just tried

  to ignore him. Sandro got friendlier and friendlier but Kim

  wanted nothing to do with him.

  At one point he told her she should come to his hut

  tonight. It was much nicer than the others. Kim declined as

  friendly as she could muster being totally repulsed by the

  thought. Sandro was not happy about the rejection and clearly

  did not like to hear no for an answer. He grabbed her arm and

  pulled her toward him and told her it hadn"t been a request.

  Then he tried to kiss her but she resisted. At that moment

  Fernando walked into the room and he was clearly not happy about

  the scene that was playing out in front of him. He told Kim to

  go get him some coffee and she gladly complied. Kim went into

  the kitchen as she heard Fernando go off on Sandro in the other

  room. Sandro had already cost him a good secretary and maybe he

  hadn"t noticed there weren"t many left that could do the job. When Fernando was done he had made it very clear to Sandro

  that he was not to lay a finger on Kim and if he did than he

  would find himself working the fields. When Kim returned with

  the coffee she tried to pretend that nothing was wrong and put

  the coffee on Fernando"s desk. Fernando looked at her and told

  her that Sandro would leave her be now and if he gave her any

  trouble she should report it to Fernando. She thanked him

  politely even though she felt as if it was just because she was

  a valuable tool rather than a human being.

  Fernando then told her that next week they would start

  harvesting and things were going to get busy. The next day

  Fernando stayed in the house the whole day and kept Kim busy

  with emails and phone calls to clients in the United States.

  Customers were everywhere; Pittsburg, LA, New York, Chicago,

  Houston and even Milwaukee. Negotiations were constant and it

  seemed no different than how it would work if they were selling

  bananas except for the amounts. The amounts were almost

  exclusively in the half a million dollar range and up. Even

  though they were in Mexico nothing was negotiated in Pesos. Not

  even with the two Mexican clients. The Mexicans did get a better

  deal though which Kim thought was due to the fact that they

  didn"t have to cross the border with it and because it was just cheaper in Mexico but Fernando kept their quantities to a

  minimum where it would just keep them happy.

  The whole crop was sold two days before the harvesting

  started and next was the operational part of it all. Fernando"s

  brother had already setup the distribution channels and sent

  over a list of accounts and amounts that needed to be paid for

  services. The younger brother also sent some requests for

  payments; those were mostly to government officials for bribes.

  Kim was amazed at how well they had everything organized.

  Fernando instructed her to setup the payments. One by one she

  used the software on the laptop to setup the transactions

  filling out everything except for the bank codes. Then she would

  hand the laptop to Fernando and he would enter the bank codes

  from the encrypted file. The codes were long and you needed a

  photographic memory to remember them. When she took the laptop

  back again she finished the transactions. There were three

  accounts based in the Cayman Islands that the money was wired to

  and between the three accounts, after all the payments w
ere made

  there was a balance of over one hundred and fifty million US

  dollars. Kim couldn"t believe it. Why didn"t they just quit?

  Retire and not take any more risks and most importantly stop

  hurting people. She was disgusted with the display of greed. At night the laptop was locked into the safe which only

  Fernando and Sandro had the combination to. Kim had seen the

  safe and it contained the laptop and large amounts of cash and

  all the ID papers for the people that worked on the plantation.

  It appeared that taking their papers was another way to keep

  them under control. As if to say “We know who you are if you

  cross us.” Sandro did not have access to the bank codes though,

  only Fernando and maybe his brothers but likely they did not

  either. They were all criminals after all and one did not trust

  a criminal with your money even if they were family.

  Sandro stopped by every now and then to meet with Fernando

  and he spend as much time as he could get away with staring at

  Kim which made her very uncomfortable but he let her be not wishing to cross Fernando.

  Chapter 30:

  The day before the harvesting started more people were

  brought in with trucks. They all seemed to be poor farmers that

  signed up for it as there was no other work to find. They had

  been in the back of the trucks for many hours and looked dazed

  as the truck opened up. This was done so they didn"t know where

  they were and could not reveal the location after they were

  done. All papers were collected. Two actually had passports but

  most just a piece of paper with their information and a notary

  seal from which ever town they came from. The papers were stored

  in the safe with the rest in a shoebox which was not quite full.

  Tents were setup for the new arrivals as the huts did not

  have enough space. This was some operation Kim thought. The next

  day after roll call the harvesting started and all the plants

  were cut and dried. The process was slow and would take about a

  week. Then about another week for all the plants to be

  sufficiently dry and ready to be sorted. Overall it was going to

  take a month before it was ready to ship. 80% of the estimated

  crop had been sold already and the remainder would be sold as soon as they had an exact count. After the harvest they would