“Assignment? Thought you were on vacation.”
“It was a little of both.”
“How’d that work out for ya?”
“Better than expected.”
“Where was this work-slash-vacation?”
“Nogales.”
Sal rubbed his eyes and sucked on his unlit cigarette. “A border town? You bring anything back other than a cheap tattoo and a bad venereal disease?”
“Is there such a thing as a good venereal disease?” Autumn asked.
The women filling out bond forms laughed at her comment.
Sal liked it too. “Good one! But Quin didn’t answer my question.”
“I found what I was searching for, if that’s what you mean,” he said, glancing back at his sister.
“And the bureau paid for this vacation?”
“Of course.”
“How much?”
“They pay better than you, Sal.”
“The bureau pays with taxpayer money. Entrepreneurs like me create jobs and pay taxes that fund your bureau-bloated salaries,” he said. “What do you care? Now that you’re a hot-shot FBI man.”
“Who told you that?”
“Word gets around.”
“From who?”
“Hawk called me, bragging on you,” Sal said.
“The bureau offered me a position but I turned it down, said I’d continue on as a contractor.”
“You got time to help out old Sal?”
“On weekends now and then, sure.”
Sal opened a file drawer, mumbling, probably even cursing, Quin wasn’t sure. He’d only been gone six weeks from this place and yet Sal seemed to have aged another ten years. Behind Sal on the wood-panel wall, Quin spotted the latest FBI Ten Most Wanted poster.
“What are you looking at?” Sal asked.
“The Ten Most Wanted.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, so what?”
Sal collected them and owned every one issued since J. Edgar Hoover thought of the idea back in 1950.
“You’re always telling me how important the posters are,” Quin said. “Tell Autumn how many fugitives have been caught from those posters.”
“Well, 495 made the list, 465 apprehended,” Sal said. “See the new face on the Top 10, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman? He’s the drug lord who just escaped from a Mexico prison. This is the second time he’s escaped.”
Quin stepped closer and studied the poster with Autumn.
“El Chapo is the head of Sinaloa,” she whispered to him. “Jefe works for him.”
“You know how he broke out of a maximum security prison?” Sal asked.
Quin had learned of the escape while he was on vacation. “His men dug a tunnel right to his prison cell,” he said to Sal.
Both Quin and Autumn had felt uneasy about El Chapo’s escape because of the obvious similarities to how he rescued Autumn. The tunnel was of sophisticated design with lighting, a motorcycle on tracks, and a ventilation system to prevent suffocation while motoring underground. The drug kingpin’s cell was monitored with 24-hour video surveillance. He wore an ankle bracelet right up until his escape through the floor in the shower stall.
It obviously took years of planning and corruption inside the prison. Quin and Autumn’s use of tunnels couldn’t have inspired the escape, but he couldn’t help wondering if this was the deal that Agent Kruse had agreed to. That the FBI and DEA would look the other way, or at least give El Chapo a little room to run before they assisted in his recapture. Catch and release.
“He’s a billionaire, could be anywhere in the world by now,” Autumn said.
“That’s why the bounty is set at $3.8 million,” Quin said.
Sal finally lit that cigarette, sucked in the nicotine, and said, “Focus on my skips, my debts.” He slid a manila folder under the glass.
The folder contained details on Sal’s skips, their bail pieces, mug shots and any other photos he’d copied from the Internet, and addresses of family and friends. Quin grabbed it, looked up at the poster again, and left Freedom Bail Bonds with Autumn.
They stepped off the curb, walking to his truck when Autumn asked, “Would you ever hunt down a man like El Chapo?”
“Why are you interested in chasing him?”
“Well, $3.8 million is a lot of money.”
“And that means every bounty hunter in the country wants to bag him,” he said. “And if bounty hunters like the Finn brothers have TV cameras following them, it’s gonna be a circus.”
“Let that one go,” she agreed.
“Ready to meet my coworkers from the bureau?” he asked.
He drove through downtown traffic, describing the people she’d soon meet: Dillan, Rachel, Agent Kruse, and Dr. Hayden. Today was the first of a new series of offsite meetings where the paranormal team could socialize with each other without the pressures of work. It was something Dr. Hayden had suggested and Kruse had agreed to, if it would keep the team together.
However, Quin thought it was odd that they were meeting at the Sculpture Garden for a picnic near the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture. This was one of the targets from their remote viewing practice sessions. Kruse must’ve chosen the location for the picnic. Work and socializing would always be more work when Kruse was footing the bill.
Quin pulled into the lot and parked in the shade. Candace was there, leaning on the back of her car, but today instead of wearing a cowboy hat and boots, she wore sandals and a baseball hat, her ponytail sticking out the back.
He stepped out of the truck and with Autumn he walked over to her. “Candace, what are you doing here?”
“Dillan told me you were all meeting for lunch,” she said. “I was hoping to meet your sister.”
“Oh, Candace, this is Autumn. Autumn, meet Candace,” he said.
They shook hands briefly and Candace said, “They actually found you. I had to see you for myself.”
“I’m here in the flesh and blood,” Autumn replied.
“I apologize about Agent Kruse killing your story in the name of National Security,” Quin said.
“He gave me a tear-jerking patriotic lecture about how the information could jeopardize agents in the field,” she said.
“But eventually all this stuff becomes declassified,” Quin assured her.
“Then I’ll write the big story,” she laughed.
“In the meantime you could always become an informant for the bureau,” he joked.
“I hear it pays pretty well,” she said with a wink, before she walked back to her car door. “Tell Hawk and Jimmy I enjoyed our road trip together,” she said to Quin. “It was the best history lesson I ever had.”
She sat in her car, started the engine and drove off. Quin was surprised she’d agreed to kill the story. Kruse either exerted a lot of pressure on her, paid her to not write the story, or maybe she was already an informant. He really didn’t know. He was learning that in the undercover world of Homeland Security, you’re not always at liberty to know.
He walked with Autumn along a limestone path through a grove of trees toward the pond where the team was setting up the picnic.
“You ready for this?” he asked Autumn.
“I think so,” she said.
Agent Kruse and Dr. Hayden were standing next to a picnic table with Dillan, Rachel, and Susan. They all turned and looked as Quin approached with Autumn. How would he describe the look on their faces? It was a mix of awe and wonder.
“Everybody, this is my sister, Autumn,” he said.
Kruse turned to Dr. Hayden and then back at Quin. “You brought Autumn home,” he said.
Quin knew it was important for all of them to see the fruits of their labor. “We all brought her home.”
Kruse set his drink on the table and walked toward her with his arms outstretched. “Autumn, I’m Agent Kruse. It’s an honor to finally meet you.”
He embraced her as if Autumn was his long-lost relative. She politely returned the hug. She was living, breathing proof that what
remote viewers did behind closed doors actually worked. And Quin knew that RV was more effective when a viewer like him was in the field. He wondered how long Kruse would wait before he’d offer to test Autumn’s sixth sense. And then he’d recruit her to join their team to protect the homeland from wolves. Quin knew she’d have reservations but if she joined them, they’d work together, in good company.
<<<<>>>>
What Reviewers Are Saying About Larranaga's “In The Company of Wolves” series
“Larranaga's intricate development of characters and the way he compares them to wolves and pack hierarchy is captivating.” - GoodbooksToday Reviews
“Another little twist and you're once again reading late into the night to see what is coming next.” - LibraryThing
“Full of lies, deception and drug induced hallucinations, you are kept on your toes till the end with the outcome never certain. The analogy with wolves which runs through the story is clever.” - Basingstone Book Reviews
Download Book I: http://www.amazon.com/In-Company-Wolves-Thinning-Herd-ebook/dp/B00FRM6FG4/
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