White Cargo

by Stuart Woods

  Cat glanced toward Jinx and discovered that her chair was empty. So was Meg’s. Cat had an almost overpowering urge to go and look for them, but he made himself concentrate on his food, which was excellent. Five minutes later Jinx returned to her seat. She did not look his way and immediately began talking to the man next to her. Soon Meg returned, and she didn’t look at him, either. She looked preoccupied.

  Prince stood. “Now, my friends, if you have finished your coffee, we will adjourn. For those of you who would like a little nightlife, the discotheque is only a two-minute walk, and we have a little floor show for you.”

  Cat met Meg at the end of the table, and they followed the flow of the crowd out of the room. “What happened?” he demanded. “Did you talk to her?”

  “I don’t understand,” Meg said. “Are you really sure that’s Jinx?”

  “What are you talking about? Of course I’m sure!”

  “Well, this is very odd.”

  “What?”

  “We were alone together in the ladies’ room upstairs. I began telling her about you and Dell, and she didn’t understand a word, until I switched to Spanish. The girl is South American.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “I can’t quite get a handle on her accent. It’s odd. Does Jinx speak Spanish?”

  “Well, she studied it in school, but I don’t see how she could speak it very well.”

  Meg sighed. “Look, if you had been kidnapped by a drug baron, and suddenly somebody walked up to you and said your dad was downstairs, wouldn’t you react? She said, in Spanish, she didn’t know what I was talking about, then she walked away. Are you absolutely sure that is your daughter?”

  “Meg, I’m telling you, that is Jinx. Don’t you think I’d know her?”

  Meg didn’t look at him. “I’m beginning to wonder,” she said.

  29

  CAT SHOOK MEG AWAKE.

  “What time is it?” she mumbled.

  “Seven-thirty; we’ve got a tennis date at eight.”

  “What?”

  “Sorry, I forgot to tell you last night. We’re playing with Prince. And Jinx.”

  She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “This is ridiculous, you know, all of it. We come down to this jungle camp, which turns out to be a sort of Amazonian Rockresort, to find your daughter, who suddenly speaks nothing but Spanish, who is being held by a drug lord, and we’re playing tennis with them.”

  “Well, I’ve never bored you, have I?”

  She threw an arm around him and kissed him. “God knows that’s true. Listen, I’d throw you down and screw you right now, if I didn’t have to play tennis.”

  • • •

  Prince was waiting for them, warming up with Jinx. “Morning,” he called out cheerfully.

  “Morning,” Cat called back. “Sorry we’re late.” He watched Jinx walk back to Prince’s side of the net. A little heavier, maybe, but it had to be Jinx, he thought. Even her tennis swing fit.

  Prince won the serve, lost the first set, six-three. He called Cat to the net. “Listen, you’re stronger than we are. Why don’t we trade partners? That might make for a better match.”

  “Okay,” Cat replied. “Meg, you play with our host.”

  He watched Jinx closely as she came around the net. She didn’t avoid his eyes, but she gave no sign of recognition. Cat took his time serving, trying to figure out what to do next. They won the game and changed ends. Cat took care to walk next to Jinx. “Listen to me, but don’t react,” he said quietly. “I’ve come to get you out of here, and I need to know where your room is.”

  “Qué?” she said, raising her eyebrows and smiling. “I do not speak English,” she said with a heavy accent. “Do you speak Spanish?”

  “For Christ’s sake, Jinx, what’s the matter with you? It’s Daddy, don’t you know me?”

  They had reached the baseline. She smiled and shrugged, then pointed to herself.

  Cat glanced at Prince. He was talking with Meg. “Yes, I’ve come for you!” he said, trying to keep from shouting.

  Now she was pointing at the ball. It was her serve; she wanted the ball.

  Cat finished the match in a fog of frustration and bewilderment. Prince and Meg won the next two sets easily. Prince waved them to a little pavilion at courtside. “Have you had breakfast?” he asked. “Join us.”

  They served themselves eggs, sausages, and bacon from a nearby buffet, then sat down at a beautifully set table.

  “Good match,” Prince said, “but you were a little off your game the second two sets.”

  “I guess I’m not awake yet,” Cat said lamely. “Say, how did you choose this site for your factory and . . . all this?” He waved a hand.

  “The factory came first,” Prince replied. “I chose the site purely for its remoteness. We got in a chopper one day and left Leticia, just looking. There was a small clearing here, and there’s a river not far to the north. We get our water supply from there. We began simply enough, but business was so good, it made sense to build a more permanent setup. Here, we are, for all practical purposes, immune from any intrusion.”

  “But surely the place will become known to the authorities eventually.”

  “Eventually, yes, I suppose it will,” Prince replied. “But you don’t understand the extent to which we have infiltrated the authorities. There is virtually nothing that goes on in the police or the army that I don’t know about, and having access to that information is remarkably inexpensive, considering its value.”

  “You don’t worry about arrest, then?”

  “Of course not, but even if any of my people were arrested, they would never come to trial, and if they did come to trial, they would not be convicted, and if they were convicted, they would serve no sentence. There is almost no one who cannot be bought, and the exceptions have a way of disappearing.”

  Cat could think of nothing to say. Prince was wrong about the army; he had to be. Cat concentrated on his eggs.

  But Prince was not through impressing him. “Let me tell you, Bob, that in another couple of years, we are going to completely control this country.” He sat back and sipped his orange juice. “No person will run for office without our approval; no official will be appointed, no policeman hired or promoted, no army officer given command, no judge will sit. Not unless I say so. Have you ever thought of what it would be like to have an entire nation at your disposal?”

  “No, I haven’t,” Cat replied.

  “Oh, I don’t want to be another Adolf Hitler,” Prince said, waving a hand, “don’t get me wrong. I have no interest whatever in politics or the international situation, except as they apply to my business. I don’t wish to rule this country, just to control the people who do. And believe me, the people will be much better off when I do.”

  “How?” Meg asked. “Are you going to do something for them?”

  “Indeed I am,” Prince replied. “This country has a foreign debt of thirteen billion dollars. Not as bad as Brazil or Argentina, but bad enough. We’re going to pay that off in one fell swoop.”

  Cat gulped. “Thirteen billion dollars? How the hell can you pay that off?”

  “Our consortium, along with a dozen others, has considerably more worth than that,” Prince said. “And once that debt is paid, Colombian tax dollars can be spent on housing, job training, industrial development, and, above all, drug rehabilitation programs.”

  “I’m confused,” Cat said. “Why would you want drug rehabilitation programs in this country?”

  “It’s very simple,” Prince said, spreading his hands. “A drug problem is very expensive for a nation—it generates violent crime, which requires a large police force and prison system to control. We will eliminate the drug problem very quickly because we control the source of the drugs. Without drugs, there will be no drug problem. We see the cocaine trade as purely an export business. Five years from now, when you visit this country, there will be general prosperity, the tourist trade will have been revived, the beggars
and thieves will be gone from the streets, the bars will have come down from the windows and doors of homes. Colombia will be the pearl of the Western Hemisphere. Believe me, I will make all of this happen.”

  “That is a breathtaking plan,” Meg said. “How many people will you have to kill to accomplish this?”

  Prince shrugged. “Does it matter? As many as necessary. Those addicts who do not respond to rehabilitation will certainly have to go; a certain element in the government, in the courts, and especially in journalism, will have to be dealt with. We must control the press, but only to the extent of what is written about us. All of this will be conducted in a very businesslike way, you see. That is the secret of my whole program—that it is run strictly by proven entrepreneurial business methods.”

  Cat looked at Jinx. She had been quietly concentrating on her food, oblivious of the conversation. Prince stood up. “Would you like a little tour of the place?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Cat replied, “we would.” Prince turned to say something to a servant in Spanish, and Cat whispered in Meg’s ear, “Try and talk to Jinx. Find out where her room is, what her schedule is.”

  Prince led the way to the main house. Cat walked alongside him, and Meg fell back with Jinx.

  “How long has it taken you to build all this?” Cat asked.

  “Less than two years, from scratch,” Prince replied. “When you bring in your labor force, pay them well, and keep them here until the job is done, things happen very quickly. Not everything is complete yet, but in another couple of months we’ll be finished.”

  “I see you’re building an airstrip,” Cat said.

  “Yes, we’ll have a runway that can take a large jet transport, not to mention my own airplane.”

  They strolled along the path, Prince pointing out the water purification plant, the vegetable garden and fruit orchard.

  “We’re pretty much self-sufficient here,” he said, “but when the runway is finished, we can fly in what we need directly from Bogotá.”

  “Aren’t you a bit cut off from the outside world?” Cat asked.

  “Come, I’ll show you something,” Prince said. He led them into the house and into Vargas’s office. Vargas looked up from his desk. “Don’t let us disturb you,” Prince said to him. He continued into an adjoining room, which was filled with electronic equipment. “What we have here is a complete communications center. We keep in touch the way a ship at sea would.” He pointed to a bank of radio equipment, then to another bank being installed by a technician. “But soon we’ll have our own international telephone system. Down near the factory a couple of dish antennas are being installed that will keep us in touch with the world by satellite—we’ll also be able to receive whatever television we wish. I’d hoped to have it all up and running in time for this convocation, but things got a little behind.”

  Prince walked over to a computer terminal and began explaining his computer installation.

  But Cat was distracted. At Prince’s elbow was a Cat One printer, and next to it was the operator’s manual. It was lying facedown on a desk, and on the back of the manual was Cat’s photograph, taken in his office after the incident on the yacht, after the beard had been shaven, the weight lost. It was an awfully good likeness, Cat thought. His name was printed boldly under the photograph.

  “We are as well set up as any large corporation,” Prince was saying. “Our normal operations are conducted from our Cali headquarters, but I have sufficient facilities here for issuing instructions.”

  Cat made a show of walking around the room, examining the installation. He finished at Prince’s elbow and picked up the Cat One manual, flipping idly through it. “Do you have an office here?” he asked.

  “I have a comfortable suite of rooms upstairs; my office is there,” Prince replied. He did not offer to show it to them.

  Cat closed the printer manual and placed it on a bookshelf over the printer, out of Prince’s view.

  “Well, I have some work to do,” Prince said. “You may order lunch in your cottage, and you’ve been given your schedule of seminars, right?”

  “Right,” Cat replied.

  They followed Prince back into the main entrance hall, where he excused himself and went upstairs. Jinx followed him like a puppy.

  Cat took Meg’s hand and led her outside. “Well? Did you find out anything?”

  “She lives with Prince in his suite,” Meg said. They moved down the path toward their cottage. “The other girls have a sort of dormitory at the back of the main house.”

  “That’s bad. She’s going to be tough to get at if she’s with him all the time.” Still, it made him want to get at her all the more, and get at Prince, too. “Did you find out anything else?”

  “She says she was born and raised in Cartagena, but the accent is wrong. She could be American.”

  “This is insane. That girl is Jinx, I promise you.”

  “She said something else.”

  “What?”

  “I asked her how she met the Anaconda.”

  “And?”

  “She said, ‘I’ve always known Stan.’”

  “Jesus, he’s done something to her, drugged her or something.”

  “She doesn’t play tennis like somebody who’s drugged, Cat. The girl seems perfectly normal to meat least as perfectly normal as anybody can be in a place like this. She seems quite content to be with old Stan.”

  “He’s done something to her,” Cat said, doggedly. “I’ve got to find a way to get her out of here.”

  Meg stopped and turned to him. “Cat, listen to me for a moment.”

  He stopped. “Okay.”

  “Maybe you’re not crazy; maybe that girl is your daughter.”

  “Well, thanks for that, anyway.”

  Meg went on. “But she’s not your daughter anymore—that has to be clear to you.”

  “What are you talking about? You mean that because she’s not her old self I should just forget about her?”

  “No, that’s not what I mean. I know you’re going to try to get her out of here.”

  “You’re right about that.”

  “But you have to realize something.”

  “What?” he demanded.

  “She’s not going to want to go.”

  30

  CAT SAT NUMBLY THROUGH AN AFTERNOON OF INSTRUCTION IN how to set up a cocaine sales network in his franchised area. He had been in this place for nearly twenty-four hours, and he was getting nowhere. Granted, he knew where Jinx lived, but it had turned out to be possibly the most secure area of the entire camp—in fact, almost the only secure area. Everything else, except the factory, was easy enough to see, and no one questioned where he went. Prince and his people seemed to think themselves invulnerable because of their remote location, and since they had screened everyone who was here, they were arrogant enough not to be suspicious of anyone.

  The meeting broke up, and he went back to the cottage. Meg was not there, still in a meeting of her own. The temperature outside was amazing, and the humidity worse. Cat got into a swimsuit and headed for the pool. There were half a dozen men scattered at tables, sipping drinks, and Dell was among them. It was the first time Cat had seen him since the evening before. Cat swam a couple of laps, then sat on the edge of the pool and waited. Soon, Dell came over and sat beside him.

  “I tried to talk to Jinx last night,” he said. “She pretended not to recognize me, to not even understand me.”

  “I know, I’m having the same problem,” Cat replied. “I don’t know if she’s pretending, or what.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She may be off her head. It may be that what she has been through has been so horrible that she’s just blocked it out.”

  Dell clenched his jaw and said nothing for a moment. “Were you serious last night?” he asked finally. “About the raid and getting Jinx out?”

  “Yes, perfectly.”

  “All right, I’ll stay out of your way.”

/>   “What about your million bucks?” Cat asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I think I can get it back when the raid starts. Maybe even more.”

  “Dell, you’re crazy to try that. It’s going to be tough enough just keeping from getting shot by the troops without trying something stupid.”

  “I don’t need you to tell me what’s stupid,” Dell said through clenched teeth. “I can take care of myself.”

  “Whatever you say,” Cat replied. He had to try not to have any more confrontations with Dell. “Just remember to hide someplace until the shooting is over, then give yourself up. Tell them who you are and that you were here to help me. If I don’t make it out of the raid, ask for a guy named Barry Hedger. He’s an important person in the Bogotá embassy.”

  “When is it going to happen?”

  “I’m not sure, but if you hear helicopters, it’s on.”

  “Right.” Dell made to get up, but Cat held him back.

  “Listen, when this is over, if we get out of here alive, I want us to talk, to try and find some middle ground between us.”

  For a moment Dell looked uncertain, vulnerable. Then he got up and walked away.

  Cat went back to the cottage and found Meg stretched out on a bed fanning herself. “What’s up?” she asked.

  He sat down on the bed beside her. “We’re getting nowhere fast here,” he said.

  She sat up on an elbow. “What do you mean? I thought we were doing okay. We’ve found Jinx, we know where she lives, and I’ve got some great videotape,” she said, patting her big handbag containing the miniature camera, which rested on the bed beside her. “I got all of that conversation with Prince during our tennis breakfast this morning. It’s going to be incredible on the air. All I want now is some shots of the helicopters coming in.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean we had got nowhere; I meant there was nowhere else to go. We’re not going to be able to spirit Jinx out of Prince’s quarters. I think we’re going to have to take more direct action.”

  “What do you mean?”