by Rich Johnson
Nicole noticed a change in the old man’s countenance, and softened her tone, “What happened to you as a child? What did your mother do that filled you with so much hatred of people?”
A wave of anger and sadness crossed de la Vega’s face. He had not told his story to anyone, and was unsure why he would tell it now. But he looked at Nicole and the words started coming.
“I was four when my mother sold me for a bottle of whisky. The man who bought me to work as a slave in his bar beat me with a strap every night before I was sent to sleep under the porch with the dogs and share their food and water. Ticks from the dogs sucked my blood until they swelled up this big,” – he held his finger and thumb in front of her face, an inch apart – “they sucked my blood until they got too big, then they burst and my blood was all over me.
“When I was seven, I crawled out from under the porch one night, ran away to the waterfront, stowed myself on a freighter and hid under the canvas cover of a lifeboat. I had nothing to eat for three days, and to drink I had only the stale saltwater trapped in the bottom of the boat. I thought I would die if I didn’t get off of that ship, so I jumped overboard in the middle of the night when I saw lights on shore in the distance. I didn’t know how to swim, but it was swim or die, so I kicked and thrashed my way toward the lights and finally came ashore on Isla de la Juventude.
“I broke into people’s houses to steal food and lived like an animal in the jungle for six years. Then I fell in with Castro’s revolutionary brigade. They took me in because I was tough and could live like a rat in a garbage dump. They taught me all I needed to know about taking what I wanted from those who had more than I did. But years later I saw that Castro’s government was nothing but a lie, so I got out, stole a boat and came here to set up business.”
“Sounds like a hard life,” Dan said.
De la Vega blinked and shook his head, as if to remove the memories. “You have no idea.” Then a cold grin spread across his mouth. “But you’re about to find out.” Turning to Ruiz, he gave the order. “Throw them in the hut. Lock it solid. If either one of them tries to get away, kill the other one. We’ll deal with them tomorrow. I’m tired.” Then he strode off toward the end of the dock and ducked into the darkness of the trees.
Ruiz pointed the machete at Dan’s stomach and shoved Nicole with his other hand. She stumbled back, caught her heel and fell, her arms pinned behind her, and she cried out in pain.
Anger filled Dan’s heart. “You son of a—”
“Shut your mouth,” Ruiz ordered. “Get up and get moving,” the bearded pirate snarled at Nicole. She struggled to her feet and felt Ruiz’s powerful hand shove her forward. “You next,” Ruiz growled at Dan, spinning him around and planting the point of the machete against his spine. As prisoners, Dan and Nicole walked the length of the dock then followed a trail into the shadows of the jungle before emerging a moment later in bright moonlight at the edge of a clearing. There ahead were two small huts, and Ruiz pressed the machete into Dan’s back to move him faster.
Dan winced, and under his breath, he whispered to Nicole, “I’m working on a plan.”
“Shut up,” Ruiz snarled, digging the point of the machete into the flesh beside Dan’s spine. “Why wait for the hunt? I should kill you right now.”
The sharp pain nearly made Dan’s knees buckle, and he felt blood ooze from the wound and run down his back.
Chapter Thirty-one
Thirty feet into the clearing the first hut stood in bright moonlight like a black tool shed. It was made of rough wood planks, hammered together with rusty nails and tied with bits of rope or braided vines where nails had no purchase. At first glance, it looked flimsy, but Dan could see that with an armed guard outside it was strong enough to serve as a temporary prison.
“Get in there and shut up or I’ll beat your brains in,” Ruiz threatened them as he shoved them through the door and slammed it shut. From inside, they heard the metallic sound of a lock snicking closed through a latch. Why would they need a lock on a tool shed? The reality of it settled in. We aren’t the first prisoners to be held here. I wonder what happened to the others? But he didn’t even want to bring up the subject to Nicole.
“Back to back,” Dan whispered. “Quick, let’s get these ropes off.” They moved together, leaning back against each other. “I’ll do yours first,” he said and started fumbling with the knot lashed around her wrists. It took only a few minutes and her hands were free. A moment later, she had loosened the rope restraining his arms. He rubbed his wrists to restore circulation, then in the darkness felt his way over a pile of unidentifiable rubble on the floor until he reached the side of the hut and pressed his face to a narrow slit in the wall.
Twenty feet away, he saw the hut that held Jacob and Cadee. Through the thin wooden walls and across the short distance, they heard Cadee whimpering and they heard Jacob’s voice trying to console her.
“If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll kill de la Vega if he hurts you or the kids,” Dan swore under his breath.
From fifty yards farther on, the sound of slurred men’s voices roared through the night air. To Dan’s ear, nothing sounded more pathetic than a bunch of drunks baying at the moon, but tonight, it was the music he wanted to hear, the louder the better. “Listen to that,” he whispered to Nicole. “That might work to our advantage.”
“What, a bunch of drunken pirates?”
“Yeah, I just hope they keep on drinking.”
Dan searched along the wall until he found a wider slot between two planks and pressed his eye to the wall. Across the clearing, he saw the other hut. The moon was bright, and sharp shadows were cast on the beach grass that covered the ground. Beyond the hut, he saw a larger building with lights burning inside. Through the bare window he watched shadows of men moving about, raising bottles of booze to their mouths, and he listened to the boisterous singing and yelling and cursing. “Keep slopping it up, you filthy pigs,” Dan muttered.
In the moonlight, Dan noticed that there was no guard standing by the hut where the children were confined. Apparently, Ruiz was expected to guard both huts, figuring that the kids would stay put in the locked shack and cause no trouble, as long as their parents were being held as prisoners.
“Hey, son,” Dan yelled, and a crashing blow thundered against the door from outside.
“Shut up!” Ruiz yelled, but it was too late. Dan saw his son’s hand reach out through a slot between the planks of the far hut.
“Yeah, dad?” Jacob yelled back. “We’re okay.”
“Shut up, you kids,” Ruiz threatened at the top of his lungs, “or I’ll kill your mom!”
Cadee howled when she heard that, and the verbal torture was more than Nicole could take. “Listen, you stinking animal, you shut your mouth, or after I’m through with your boss I’ll hunt you down and rip your tongue out by its root.”
Dan raised his eyebrows and stared in surprise at Nicole. Her eyes were glowing with anger and she was puffing her breaths like a fighter getting ready for battle. He’d never heard her talk this way before, but decided to go along with it. “Ruiz,” he called through the door, “you’d better listen to her. She’s a karate master and she’s already killed a man bigger than you.”
Ruiz yelled back, “You’re lying,” but his voice sounded a little unsure. “You just be quiet in there, or the boss will have my head.”
“You afraid of your boss?” Dan thought he detected a weak spot that could be worked.
“Are you kidding? I ain’t afraid of nobody.”
“I don’t know,” Dan said with obvious doubt in his voice. “Sounds to me like you are.”
“I ain’t afraid. I’m just smart.” The pirate tried hard to sound convincing. “I know where my money comes from.”
Dan moved against the back wall, shoved his shoulder against a plank and felt it give. One more shove and the slot opened a little wider. He stuck his hand out and waved it toward the far hut, and Jacob waved back. Good, he sees me. In
a flurry of finger movements, Dan flashed sign language into the night. A moment later, Jacob’s hand started moving and Dan read the message.
“Listen, Ruiz,” Dan called out, wanting to keep the attention of his guard, “if you’re so smart about money, why are you going to split the treasure in the container with all those other men. How many are there?”
“Hey,” Ruiz shouted, “I’m not stupid. I know what you’re trying to pull. You want me to tell you how many men we have here.”
“No, that’s not what I was trying to do.” Dan rolled his eyes at Nicole. “I was just thinking of how many ways you’re going to have to split all that money. And here you are, standing guard all by yourself while everybody else is in there, drinking up your share of the booze and having a good time. Why should you have to split the money with them when you’re doing all the work? You’ll only get, what, a tenth or a twentieth?”
“We split everything,” Ruiz responded. “It’s the rule.”
“Yeah, but who made the rule?”
“De la Vega makes all the rules,” Ruiz shouted “He’s the boss. Now shut up.”
“Yeah, and how much does he take?”
“You don’t listen very well, do you?” Ruiz growled.
“You afraid to even talk about it?”
“I told you, I ain’t afraid of nothing.”
“So why not tell me how much de la Vega takes?”
Ruiz huffed. “The rule is that he gets half, and the rest gets split nine ways between us.”
“So,” Dan continued quickly, not wanting Ruiz to realize what had just happened, “if we’re talking about a million dollars, the boss gets half a million and you end up with a little over fifty thousand? Does that sound fair to you? I don’t think so.”
Ruiz was silent for a long moment. “Are you saying there’s a million dollars in that container?”
“I know exactly how much is in that container,” Dan lied. “And better yet, I know how to open it. But I’m not going to tell anyone who is such a fool that he lets himself get ripped off by some guy just because he says he’s the boss and wants to make all the rules.”
“The boss says—”
“Listen man, the boss is only the boss as long as you let him. He’s ripping you guys off. What would you do if you were the boss?”
Ruiz started talking in a lower voice, as if he were afraid to be overheard having such a conversation. “I’d split it all even.”
“Now that sounds fair to me,” Dan said. “I can work with a boss like that.”
“You?” Ruiz sounded unbelieving.
“Heck yeah,” Dan said. “I figure our chances are better if we cooperate with you than if we fight you and end up getting ourselves killed. Yeah, I’d work with you, if you were boss.”
Ruiz was quiet, and Dan hoped it was because the man was thinking about what had been said. Greed and power are temptations that can tear a man away from his foundation, and Dan knew that if he lured Ruiz into his trap, it might give him a chance to save his family. If he failed, it was likely that by tomorrow he would be dead, with Nicole in bondage to de la Vega and the kids sold into white slavery.
Dan stuck his hand back out through the slot and pressed his face to the opening, then signed again to Jacob. A moment later, his son’s fingers began moving. He understood, and he pulled his hand inside. After a few minutes, the sound of Cadee’s crying stopped, and Dan was hopeful that it was because her brother had shared the plan with her and gave her a job to do that her dad said was important.
In the distance, the drunken party was louder than before. “Ruiz,” – Dan moved next to the door so he could speak in a low voice – “listen to them in there, having a good time while you’re stuck out here. I think you’d be a better boss that de la Vega. You deserve something better than the measly little bit he is going to give you. You ought to be in charge.”
“Perhaps, you are right, senor,” Ruiz said in a hushed tone. “What do you propose?”
NIA Headquarters
Curt Delamo’s phone rang and he looked at the caller ID display, then reached for the handset. “Josh. What do you have to report?”
“Sorry to call you so late,” Josh said, “but we’re going to need to pull out all the stops here. We need more C-130’s looking for containers. Only three have showed up so far, and none of them is the right one. It’s still out there somewhere.”
“I talked with Secretary of the Navy, Bob Avery, this afternoon. The president has authorized him to dispatch a carrier out of Pensacola as soon as the storm gets out of the way. Probably another day or two, but as soon as possible we’ll get a ship loaded with planes down there to help with the search. At least Husam al Din is no longer on his way to Miami.”
“Until we find the container, I’m not willing to assume that. I know this guy. He’s a fanatic, and I won’t rest until I know he’s caught or dead.” Josh replied. “In the meantime, is there anything you want me to do other than keep the Coast Guard company.”
“When you have a minute, you might stop by one of those little gift shops and buy a get-well card to send to Susan,” Curt suggested.
“I’ve been sending those every day since I heard the news.”
“Thought you might.”
“What’s the latest?” Josh asked.
“She’s going to keep her eye.”
Josh stroked his forehead. “Ahhh, that’s good,” he exhaled hard.
“They’re releasing her tomorrow morning. Chris Banes is on his way to take up where she left off. Whoever it was that shot Alicia Gomez and wounded Susan is still out there, and we want to find him.”
“You sure it’s a him?”
“Not sure at all. Who would have guessed this Gomez woman would have risen to the level she did? But Susan has some information for Chris that might help track down the shooter, or at least someone close to him.”
Josh nodded silently, unsure what else to say. Then it came. “Tell Chris to take good care of her.”
“He knows,” Curt ended the call.
San Luis Miguel Island
“Ruiz,” Dan spoke quietly through the thin door. “As a show of good faith, I’m going to tell you what’s in the container.”
From outside, the pirate answered in a hushed voice. “How do I know you will tell me the truth?”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Why should I trust you, senor? You are a prisoner, and soon you will be dead.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to be dead. I want to make a deal with you.”
“What kind of deal?”
“You get everything that’s in the container. You don’t have to split it with anybody.”
“What about the boss?”
“If you’ve got the guts to do this, you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Ruiz was quiet for a long moment before speaking again. This time, his mouth was very close to the door and he was speaking just above a whisper. “Before I will listen to your plan, I need to know you can be trusted.”
“All right. You know de la Vega was after the combination to the safe on our boat?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’m going to give you the combination. There’s $4,000 still in there. You go open the safe and keep the money for yourself. Then you’ll know you can trust me.”
“I can’t leave here,” Ruiz complained.
“Where the heck are we going to go?” Dan sounded frustrated. “You’ve got us and our kids locked up. Are you going to do this or not? If you don’t have the guts for it, forget it.”
“I got the guts,” Ruiz protested. “What’s the combination?”
“Okay, the safe is under the sink in the galley. Spin the dial twice to the right, then stop on twenty-two. Turn it back to the left all the way around once and then to thirty-two, then back to the right to fourteen. Go check it out. You’ll see that I can be trusted.”
The sound of footsteps walking away brought a sigh of relief to Dan, and
he moved to the rear of the hut again. “Nicole, I need your help pushing this old plank out. We’ve got to hurry. He’ll be back in a few minutes.” Together, they shoved against the loose plank until it fell away from the side of the hut. He squirmed out through the opening and raced to the other hut, kneeling in the shadow at the rear corner. “Jacob, Cadee, it’s dad,” he whispered loudly.
“Dad,” both kids said in unison.
“Shhh,” he cautioned them. “You guys shove while I pull on this plank.” In a moment, they had it loose. He reached in and stroked Cadee’s hair, then grabbed Jacob’s hand in a wrist wrestler’s grip. “You two just stay put until I get my plan going. Watch for my signs. Then you know what to do.”
“Got it, dad,” Jacob said, referring to the sign language instructions received earlier.
Dan swung his eyes toward the dock. “I’ve got to get back. Wait for an opening, then do it.” He kept low and sneaked back to his own hut, crawled in through the opening and repositioned the plank. A few minutes later, footsteps sounded from the direction of the dock, and Ruiz took up his position again in front of the hut.
“You told me the truth, senor.”
“Well, that’s just the beginning,” Dan said through the door. “You can have everything that’s in the container for yourself, or you can split it up with your gang anyway you want. You’ll be the boss.”
Ruiz sounded more friendly this time. “What is in the container, senor?”
Dan’s mind flashed back to what he saw painted on the container as they first approached it with their boat. In his mind’s eye, he could read it perfectly, but he wanted to buy some time and give Jacob and Cadee a chance to make their move. Dan whispered through the door. “I’m going to talk quietly. We don’t want the rest of the men to hear what we’re talking about, okay?”
He heard Ruiz squat down next to the door. “Here’s what I want you to do, Ruiz,” Dan whispered. “Walk down to the container and look at the top corner. You’ll see some letters and numbers painted on it. It’s a code that tells what’s inside. And I know what it means.”