Chapter Nineteen
Kathi Wofford stood with Stone and his team in the Miami International Airport and listened to their story. She would allow no apologies.
"His death accomplished more than he would ever have thought possible," she told them. "All these years, he risked his life, but he never really stopped the drugs for more than a week. Now he has, with your help. He would have been proud to know what he was a part of."
"He knew something, there at the drug lab," Hog told her. "I don't know what, but he knew."
She touched Hog's massive arm. "Thank you." She turned to Stone. "I'm glad you saw him, talked to him. I know it helped him, having you there."
"I was glad to be there," Stone said. "He was a brave man."
He raised his gaze and looked down the corridor. There were the usual travelers, a few small children, baggage handlers, and a cart going by making its warning noise. At the metal detector, Rosales and Williams were showing their badges and being allowed to bypass the alarm.
"Here are two more people you should meet," Stone told Kathi. "One of them was your husband's boss. The other is head of the Organized Crime Division of the Miami police."
Rosales and Williams walked up. Stone made the introductions.
Williams made the expected remarks to Kathi Wofford about her husband's bravery, his service to the agency, how much he would be missed.
Then he began to thank Stone. "I know I didn't want you here. I thought your methods would cause nothing but trouble. Not that they didn't, but at least they were effective. I was wrong, and I want to apologize."
If Stone was surprised, he didn't show it. "I knew you wouldn't like my being here, but I have to admit I thought you overplayed your reaction. Now, though, I understand why."
Stone reached into his pocket and took out the papers that he had found in the drug lab. He handed them to Rosales.
"These came from the Colombians. Among other things there, you'll find the names of their major suppliers. And you'll also find out why someone might not have wanted Jack Wofford to be rescued."
Rosales flipped through the papers. "Not wanted him rescued? Why?"
"Because someone was afraid that Wofford, being captured, might learn that this someone was taking money from the drug dealers, something Jack wouldn't have learned on the streets. The someone's name and number are listed, along with some others the Colombians bought. I expect our bad apple was selling information to the Cubans, too. Maybe even to Don Vito and Crazy Charlie."
Rosales was running his finger down a page of names. He looked up at Williams. "You!" he said.
Williams didn't hesitate. He grabbed Kathi Wofford around the throat and pulled her in front of him. Then he drew his pistol, a short-barreled .38. "You should have left quietly, Stone."
Stone cursed himself silently for not warning Hog and Loughlin about Williams. They would have prevented the scene now confronting them, but he had thought of Williams as a blustering coward, not as someone who would take action. He had made a cardinal mistake. He had underestimated an opponent.
Williams dragged Mrs. Wofford backward toward a baggage car that was being unloaded at the counter. He got on it, still holding her, and began to drive away.
"Hey!" the skycap who was unloading the cart yelled. "You can't do that!"
Williams didn't bother to answer.
Loughlin, Hog, and Stone were off in pursuit of the jangling cart. Carol Jenner was right behind. They had no weapons, but they could not afford to let Williams get away. Stone, particularly, did not want Kathi Wofford to get hurt. He felt a personal responsibility.
Rosales trailed along behind them. He was the only one with a gun, and he had it out and ready. He could not shoot, however. There were too many innocent people in the way. He was afraid that any second now airport security would get into the act and bullets would begin to fly. If that happened, it was only too possible that someone would get hurt.
Still, Rosales felt a slight thrill. He had been on the sidelines throughout the whole episode involving Wofford, and he had felt not only left out but guilty at his lack of accomplishment.
Now he had a chance to redeem himself. He ran faster.
Williams hoped he would not have to kill the woman. He had been the cause of her husband's death, indirectly of course, but still the real cause. He had sent Wofford to Miami only because he was a familiar face there. He had thought that Wofford would prove ineffective and the whole operation would be canceled. But it hadn't worked out. Wofford had been recognized, all right, and then used as a pawn. Who could tell what he might have overheard?
The cart careened down the corridor, people jumping to the left and right to avoid it. Let them. Williams didn't care. He'd hit them if he had to. He had to get out of there. Stone was crazy. He would kill Williams as he had killed all the others.
Williams flew past souvenir stands, newsstands, fast-food restaurants. He knew the others were behind him, but he was gaining. They didn't dare shoot, not in the terminal.
He came to the main doors, stopped the cart, and got off. He tapped Kathi Wofford behind the left ear with his pistol and tossed her aside, strolling through the doors as if he were a casual visitor.
Outside, he was in an area of taxis, minibuses, and automobiles. He looked for the way to his car in the parking lot. Stone came through the doors.
Williams hadn't expected him so soon, and pumped off a shot reflexively.
Stone ducked and the bullet slammed into a blue Samsonite bag being put into a taxi by a tired traveler, who looked up, startled.
Williams began to run.
Stone followed, and Rosales came through the doors. He had left the rest of Stone's team with Mrs. Wofford. Seeing Williams and Stone, he went after them.
Williams was sweating inside his suit in the muggy night air. He had taken a wrong turn and couldn't get to the parking lot. He didn't know where he was going.
He was heading for the runways. Not the best place to hide, but if by some chance he could get across them he might be able to escape into the countryside. He tried to run faster, but he knew that Stone was gaining. He turned and fired another shot.
The bullet plowed into the tarmac in front of Stone, not slowing him a bit. By turning to fire, Williams had lost a second or two of his advantage. Stone increased his effort.
The lights of the terminal spilled out onto the tarmac now. Soon they would be getting into the landing area. Stone didn't want that. Planes could get in his way.
He made a flying leap and grabbed at Williams's legs. He got them and held on. The men fell in a tangle.
Williams's breath went out of him as he hit, but he kept struggling. The fall hadn't helped Stone, either. Williams struck at him with the pistol, opening up the cut that Feliz had made earlier. Stone felt a jolt of pain.
Williams fought his way to a sitting position, Stone still clinging to his legs. "This is it, Stone," Williams grunted. "You've caused me enough trouble. Now it's your turn."
He aimed his pistol at Stone's head.
"Don't do it!" Rosales called out.
Williams looked up. The cop was in a crouch with a two-handed grip on his pistol, which was aimed right at Williams's heart.
"Drop the gun, Williams."
Williams watched Rosales. "What if I don't?"
"Then I shoot."
"I can kill Stone first. You drop your gun."
"Lots of people have tried to kill me," Stone informed the D.E.A. man. "They haven't had a lot of luck at it."
He released Williams's legs abruptly and rolled quickly to the side.
Williams snapped off a quick shot at Stone, missed, then swiveled to face Rosales.
Rosales shot Williams three times.
Williams fell backward, his head bouncing off the runway. Dead.
Stone got up and brushed himself off. "Thanks, Bill." Rosales had walked over and stood looking down at Williams.
"I didn't want to have to kill him."
Ston
e touched the body with his toe. "He didn't give you much choice."
"No, he didn't." Rosales put away his pistol. "It's too bad that there have to be cops like him, scum who sell their souls. They make the rest of us look bad."
"No one judges people like you by people like him," Stone said.
Rosales shook his head. "Sometimes they do. You watch the papers. The big headlines will not tell about the destruction of the drug lab. They will tell about the informer within the D.E.A."
"Don't count on it. Carol called the papers with the drug lab story. The D.E.A. gets all the credit. Jack Wofford is the agent who broke things and did most of the work, even though he died in the fighting. That's too good a story to let something like this take precedence."
"I hope you're right. It would be nice to think that the good guys do win one now and then."
They left Williams lying there for security to clean up and went back into the airport.
Kathi Wofford was standing up, surrounded by Stone's team. They all looked at Stone and Rosales when they came back through the doors.
"It's over," Stone told them. "This time, it's really over."
"And we've closed one more loophole," Rosales reminded them. "Not only did you shut down one of the biggest drug operations in the state of Florida, you've now cut off a pipeline of information that was flowing right out of D.E.A. headquarters."
"Hey," Hog told him, "looks like you finally did your part, too, copper."
Rosales smiled. "Thanks. Anytime you need a little bit of help, just let me know."
Epilogue
In a war, someone always dies.
Sometimes, most of the time, it's the wrong someone.
As the plane left the runway, Stone knew that his old friend had died in a good cause.
Kathi Wofford, watching the takeoff with Rosales, knew it too.
But that didn't make Jack Wofford's death any easier to bear, or their grief any less.
They had to think about the other side. The drug lab that had been destroyed, the drug gangs that had been decimated.
A good soldier had been taken prisoner, and he had died in action, but his death had not been in vain, no. His sacrifice had gotten Stone involved, and Stone's team had ripped through the Florida drug underground.
They had left devastation behind them.
And they had left those papers with Rosales.
The papers had spelled doom for Carl Williams, and they would do the same for others. Many Colombian sources had been named, along with ships and pilots of planes. Rosales would put the information to good use and slow down the drug trade even more.
As the plane soared northward through the night, Stone thought of the thousands of other prisoners his team—and Jack Wofford—had just freed; prisoners who did not even know of their bondage.
The potential addicts who would now never be hooked, who would now never know the bondage of drugs and the prison without bars that their addiction could create.
If even one of those prisoners had been freed, though he or she would never know it, then Mark Stone's mission had been a success.
M.I.A. Hunter: Miami War Zone Page 18