by Desiree Holt
“Damn!”
“Uh-huh. He built his own distribution chain before you could blink and it’s just gotten stronger and bolder. He grabbed hundreds of acres of agricultural land to grow his product and processes it with very cheap labor. He already had contacts for buyers and distribution. He’s using the same supply chains to distribute his drugs that he worked with as part of Sinaloa.”
“And no one stopped him?” Viper asked. “What about the other cartels, bigger ones?”
“By the time he was making significant money, he’d consolidated his power on Santa Marita and created his own army. It wasn’t worth the time, effort, energy and expense for the cartels to bother. Although he’s accumulated a disgusting amount of wealth and power, it’s all confined to the little island of Santa Marita and I’d guess of little significance.”
“And now he also controls the government,” Blaze added.
“That he does. When the government tried to have him arrested, he killed the president and half the leaders of the country and just took it over himself. He controls every bit of the country, including the tourist business. Which, by the way, is heavy with criminals ‘vacationing’ from other countries.”
“Rocket, do you have any idea why Mallory’s friend, Inez, would leave a good job in Houston to go back to Santa Marita and fall into that mess? If she’s part of Barrera’s group, I’m surprised Mallory is still alive.”
Rocket brought up another page on his laptop. “I didn’t find any hint of that. Best guess? Lot of people getting shot there and disease is more prevalent. Her mother probably begged her to come back and work at the hospital there. Once she was home and saw what was happening, she must have reached out to her good friend, Mallory Kane.”
“Who jumped in with both feet,” Eagle pointed out.
Rocket nodded. “That’s just who she is. And she’s been very successful writing about it.”
“Well.” Eagle cleared his throat. “She’ll only be successful this time if we can get her ass out of there in one piece. So let’s get to it.”
The table in Rocket’s dining room was big enough to spread out the maps Eagle had downloaded, including those he’d refined using the special software he had. Rocket leaned over it, a thick marking pen in his hand.
“In order to land there, we have to come in at this end of the island,” he told the others, drawing a tiny arrow. “The only way is through water, and in a way that we’re not seen. According to what I’ve been reading, Barrera’s goons are heavy on the airport, plus there’s only the one marina in the harbor of Santa Marita, right near the port, and it’s heavy with guards.”
Rocket circled it on the map. “So underwater approach. Okay. We can swim a long way in our wet suits and with our breathing equipment. Surface near a building—I’ll find pictures and print them out—ditch the wet suits and make our way to the Albados’ house.” He leaned back. “It sounds too simple.”
“It’s simple, all right,” Eagle told him, “except for the ten million complications we have to prepare for. Like where can we surface and not be seen. Are there a lot of people there after midnight? All that shit.”
“Not to mention that we’ll need transport,” Blaze pointed out.
Rocket nodded. “I’m checking the car rental places in Santa Marita. I’ll use one of my other IDs to do it. Then we just have to stay unseen until the place opens.”
“We could launch from a Zodiac, but we’d need to pick a place to dive and figure out what to do with the boat afterwards,” Viper told them. “But first we have to get our hands on a boat if this is the plan. And we don’t know how closely Barrera’s thugs are checking every arrival. We’re just the kind of people they’d be suspicious of.”
“You’re right,” Blaze agreed, nodding. “We just need to figure out where to launch the Zodiac from. Plus, none of us trained as a coxswain to handle the boat, although how hard can it be? And like you said, Viper, what about when we’re done with it? Leave it floating out there for Barrera’s goons to find it and start a search?”
Eagle held up his hand. “Stop. We’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
“Yeah?” Rocket asked. “Well, we’re on a tight time schedule here, in case you didn’t hear me mention it. And we have to be damn fucking careful who knows about this.”
“Understood, but we need help down there. We can’t just waltz in there and pluck Mallory out from under their noses. We need details, and knowledge and all the shit that goes into something like this. And this might not be the right way to effect her recue.”
“What do you mean?” Rocket glared at Eagle, knowing he was losing his control. “What way do you suggest? We don’t have any contacts down there to help us or guide us.”
“That you know of,” Eagle told him.
“What?”
“Contacts. That you know of. But I just realized I do. Have a contact.”
Rocket stared at him. “Who in hell would that be?”
“Ed Teagan. We were on the same SEAL Team together. It didn’t hit my brain until I looked at a map of the entire area. Santa Marita is just off the coast of Mexico, not far from the little city of Manzanillo.”
“And?” Viper prompted. “Did he just not re-up then leave at the end of the next tour the way you did?”
Eagle was silent for a moment, as if choosing his words.
“Ed lost a leg and injured an arm when our vehicle hit an IED, so he was medically discharged with injuries. He has a prosthesis, but he’s so damn good with it you’d never know. He’s mobile enough for what we want.”
“And this is important because?” Blaze asked.
“But it also gave him a thirst for stopping people like Barrera. It’s in his blood. We ding each other now and then to make sure we’re both alive. So far, the answer continues to be yes. I get little hints of what he might have his fingers in whenever I talk to him.”
“Where is he now?” Rocket asked.
“Running a bar and dive shop in Manzanillo, along with a charter fishing service, which I get the feeling works as a cover for whatever stuff he’s involved in. You can take a man out of the SEALs, but you can’t take the SEAL out of the man. Truthfully, I don’t think he’s ever really retired from blackwork, no matter what he says. And Manzanillo is a perfect jumping-off spot for us since we can’t exactly pop up in Santa Marita and say here we are.”
Viper gave him a hard look. “You trust this guy? Because if we read him in, he could hold a lot of lives in his hands.”
“With my life.”
“Well, then—” Viper began.
Blaze interrupted him. “Can you just go ahead and call him? Get him on the horn?”
“We usually Skype. I can go ahead and see if he’s online.”
The others looked at Rocket.
“Your call, Rocketman,” Viper said.
Rocket nodded. “Go ahead. Do it.”
They watched as Eagle activated the Skype app, clicked on Ed Teagan’s name and waited while the call ring sounded. In a moment, a face appeared of a man about their age, well-tanned with hair past his collar and a slightly scruffy beard. He wore a ball cap with Salty Dog Dive Bar on it.
“Eagle, my friend. You so bored you’re calling me in the middle of the day now?”
“Just thought I’d surprise you.” He grinned, but it disappeared almost at once. “Listen, this isn’t exactly a social call. You got a couple of minutes?”
Ed looked out at him from the screen for a long moment before he nodded. “Yes. Let me get the door.” He left the screen for a moment but was back quickly. “You sound serious, my friend. You got troubles?”
“First let me introduce you to my partners in Galaxy.”
The others each poked their faces at the screen as Eagle called their names, then stood behind him.
“Okay.” Ed narrowed his eyes. “Nice meeting you all. Eagle said his partners are all former SEALs, so I’m guessing we’re not having a tea party?”
Eagle thought
for a moment how to phrase this. “Let’s suppose, for a second, that I knew someone who needed to steal a person out of Santa Marita right under General Barrera’s nose.”
“Whoa.” Ed blinked. “Are you fucking kidding me? Felix Barrera? Is this a fairy tale or a real mission? Because Barrera is a dangerous asshole and Santa Marita is about the size of my shower. What the fuck is this person, whoever it is, doing there?”
“Just say for a minute it’s real and we want to extract this person. Is this something you’d spare a few minutes for? Or are you, as you love to say, long out of the business? A retired beach bum?”
Ed was silent for the space of two heartbeats.
“If it was anyone but you asking, I’d act like I had no idea what the fuck you were talking about. But since it’s you, want to tell me what’s really going on? Because messing with Barrera can be a death wish.”
Eagle gave him a brief but complete synopsis of the situation and their mission to retrieve Mallory Kane.
“And we need to do it like yesterday,” Rocket added.
“Uh, Mallory’s kind of Rocket’s project,” Eagle explained.
“Uh-huh.” Ed stared out of the screen for a moment then nodded. “Okay, before you give me the details and I agree to anything, let me make you aware of the fact that General Barrera has absolutely no morals, no scruples, no honor. And his thugs—oh, excuse me, soldiers—are everywhere. This may be the trickiest thing you’ve ever done.”
“Trickier than snatching a high-value target from a Taliban village right under their noses?” Blaze asked.
“Rescuing a captive in the same situation?” Rocket added.
Ed nodded. “Because once you got outside the village or encampment, you had miles of desert and mountains to hide in before your exfil arrived. Here, you have no place to go because every inch is covered by Barrera’s so-called army.”
Eagle frowned. “So you’re saying it’s impossible?”
“No.” Ed shook his head. “Just tricky. Barrera is a cold, stupid, arrogant, power-hungry piece of shit. His thugs dressed in their so-called army uniforms are all over Santa Marita. He’s got his sycophants who see a chance to suck up to him if they support his drug business, but everyone else, he terrorizes at will. The bloodshed has been beyond belief.”
“Damn.” Eagle spat out the word.
“Yeah. No shit. You’re up against it here,” Ed told them. “But if you’re really going to do this, then I’m your man. I know every corner of that island country like my back yard.”
“Originally, before we got more information, I had thought sneaking in through the marina would be our best bet,” Blaze suggested. “Find a car rental place so we’d have transport. But since you tell us it’s so heavily guarded, we definitely need another plan.”
Ed nodded. “Most definitely. I know we’ve all done it that way before, blended in with the population without sounding alarm bells.”
“But?”
“This is different. Barrera’s paranoid about new people coming to the island, even if they turn out to be harmless. I’ve seen him order soldiers to follow people for three days to be sure they weren’t going to cause him trouble. Besides, he uses the marina to ship out his drugs. He’s got a whole fleet of boats where the owners are part of his cartel and they move his stuff down the pipeline for a cut of the profits. Works out well for everyone and they aren’t in danger of discovery on highways or on planes.”
“But don’t agencies like the DEA or Interpol have their eye on him?”
“Sure, but he and his friends have set this up so cleverly and have such tight control over the country that getting even a scrap of evidence is next to impossible. And like I said, sneaking someone into Santa Marita is all but impossible.”
Eagle frowned. “Who are the people who own the boats?”
“Not the kind normally associated with something like this. As stupid as Barrera is, his chief of operations is smarter than you can imagination. They recruited people you’d never suspect so stop and frisk isn’t an option. But every boat that docks at the marina that he doesn’t sign off on in advance has to go through his version of customs. Even if I hid you on my boat, getting you off and into town is impossible.”
“Shit.” Viper spat the word.
“And you can’t rent a car anywhere in Santa Marita because Barrera has such a lock on the country that he’d know in five minutes. People are paid to feed him every piece of information about strangers to Santa Marita. His goons would be all over you.”
Rocket was getting irritated by the whole wall of obstacles they were facing. Mallory’s life was in more danger every minute she was in Santa Marita.
“So do you have any bright ideas to share with us? Because we need to get this woman out yesterday.”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“So let’s hear it,” Eagle prompted.
“You happen to be talking to someone who Barrera thinks of as a friend. He and his so-called inner circle used to hang out at the Grand Hotel here in Manzanillo while they were making their plans to take over Santa Marita. We’re just outside the borders of Sinaloa, close enough that El Jefe wouldn’t wonder what they were doing but far enough away that they didn’t have people hanging over them.”
“And that means?” Eagle prompted.
“He and his men like to fish. While they were putting together the invasion of Santa Marita and the creation of the cartel, sometimes they came down to the beach and hung out in front of my place. I also do fishing charters and a few times I took out Barrera and his men. They’re obnoxious shitholes, but their money is good. When they took over teeny-tiny Santa Marita, I kept getting calls from Barrera when he wanted to go fishing. Likes to bring his friends and play the big shot. Still does.”
“So you’re one of the good guys, as far as he’s concerned?”
“Yup. I’ve been to Santa Marita enough times for him that my presence isn’t questioned. But like I said, the place is so tiny I can’t just pull my boat into the marina and take you on a tourist jaunt through town. Repeating myself, Barrera wants to know who every person is who arrives on ‘his’ property. He’s so paranoid that I’ve even had his so-called soldiers follow some of my customers from the hotel here who wanted to check out the town as they soaked up the atmosphere.”
The Galaxy partners exchanged a glance.
“Well, shit.” Rocket stared at the screen. “That doesn’t sound good. Where did this guy come from, anyway?
“Barrera was a little cog in a big wheel in the Sinaloa cartel. When he wanted his own kingdom, he deliberately chose a place small enough that he could control it with fear and muscle. And it’s so penny ante that Sinaloa won’t make an issue of him doing this. What I’m saying is we can’t just drive up to the house where your friend is and snatch your target.”
Eagle grinned at the screen. “We’re always up for a challenge. Right, guys?”
They all nodded.
“And you’re really willing to do this? If Barrera gets wind of this, we could all be dead meat, especially you.”
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t know.” Ed’s voice was flat and uninflected. “Like I said, I’m completely aware of what’s going on there. But you should know that lately things haven’t been so steady for Barrera. He’s not the businessman that the head of Sinaloa is, so a couple of his drug deals have gone bad. He’s beginning to lose control of the country and he’s reacting in not very good ways. If not for Ruben Vidal, his chief lieutenant and good right hand, things would really have gone to shit.”
“Wait.” Blaze’s voice had a hard edge. “If all that’s true, it’s not fair of us to drag you into a mess like this. It could damage your situation.”
“Let me worry about that,” Ed told him. “Eagle saved my life. That’s a plain and simple fact. I’m glad to have a chance to repay him.”
They all turned their attention to Eagle, who shrugged.
“Nothing any of you wouldn’t h
ave done. Anyway, you can trust this guy, or I never would have reached out to him. He wouldn’t do this if he didn’t want to and besides, he’s our only option.”
“I get it.” Rocket blew out a breath. “Okay. Let’s do it. Ed, tell us what you need from us and what we do to get moving on this. I had Mallory text me the address of her friend’s house where she’s hiding.”
He read it off.
“Got it. The first thing I’m going to do is get photos of the house where your girl is hiding out. I’ll also pull up the map of the island and see what our escape routes are. Then we’ll have some idea of how to get her out of the house and out of the city. Meanwhile you all should do the same thing with the maps so you have a visual of what we’ll be discussing.”
“Time is short,” Rocket reminded him. “When will you have the info for us? When you give us the Go sign, I’m going to have our pilot fly us down there. We’ll land at Manzanillo.”
“Yes. Barrera keeps a close eye on everyone in and out of the airport on Santa Marita.”
Ed frowned and Rocket could almost see the thoughts whirling in his head.
“How about scheduling a call for late tomorrow afternoon? Say four o’clock? It turns out your timing is great.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It so happens I’m going to Santa Marita tomorrow anyway. Among other things, I have business with Barrera.”
“What kind of business?” Rocket snapped and looked at his friend. “Eagle, are you sure this guy’s on the up and up?”
“Yes,” Eagle said. “I’m positive.”
“Not to worry,” Ed said at the same time. “Listen, I understand your reluctance. The man thinks he owns me, which is not a bad situation to have. I can do a lot of things without raising eyebrows or being questioned.”
“What kind of things?” Blaze demanded.
“Uh. Sorry these guys are being so rude,” Eagle said.
Ed shook his head. “Not rude at all. This is a critical, dangerous situation and they need to be able to trust me. Listen, sometimes I do favors for other people that require me to be able to move around the country without generating a lot of questions.”