by Leon, Judith
“Who is ‘they’? These men here?”
“No. We never saw the two men or Alex again.”
Ronnie searched Nova’s face. “Do you think they’ve killed Alex?”
She shook her head and told him the truth, both because it was the truth and might also reassure him. “I doubt it very much, Ronnie. No. Your friend is alive. They didn’t bring any of you down here just to kill you. Do you know if he had his medicine with him?
Colette said, “None of us were allowed to talk to each other until we arrived here. There is no way for us to know.”
“Look everybody,” one of the Special Ops team said with authority, “we’re here to get you out, and we have to move it. Follow me out of this bunker.”
Nova joined Joe, who was talking with the special ops team leader. “This is Bill,” Joe said by way of introduction.
“Nova,” she answered, and shook Bill’s hand. “We need to ask questions of the other guards.” She nodded toward the man still lying facedown on the floor, pushing away any thoughts of a wife, mother, children, or even a pet dog that he might love. “I’m sorry to say, I had to take this one out.”
Bill turned, and she and Joe followed him back to the first room. The hostages and three of the Special Ops team were apparently already above ground. One towering, black-clad, iron-jawed African American stood guard over their captives, who had been lined up and seated in a row on the floor.
Nova looked at Joe and nodded to Carlito Gomez. Gomez needed to be intimidated as much as possible, at least for starters. This called for Joe’s appearance and demeanor, not hers.
Joe went directly to Gomez and ripped the duct tape off Gomez’s mouth. To his credit, Gomez didn’t complain. “Who is the boss here?” Joe asked in Spanish, leaning over the seated man.
Gomez nodded to one of their five kidnappers, a wiry man with a heavy five o’clock shadow. “Luis,” Gomez said softly, apparently hoping that pointing out the boss would get the very angry-looking American off his own back.
Still in Spanish, “Where is the other boy?”
Gomez kept his gaze fixed on the floor.
Joe struck Gomez a solid blow on the jaw, snapping his head to one side. “Where is the other boy?”
Gomez answered in good Spanish. “I will be killed if I tell that.”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t tell.”
She could see Gomez clench his jaw tightly. She moved in and nudged Joe aside. Time for the good cop. She stuck with Spanish. “You know these people you have taken are very important. You know we want all of them back. I can offer you anything you want if you will tell us where the other boy is.”
“I don’t know. Ask Luis.”
“I’m asking you.” To give him a bit of time to think about her offer she asked a different question. “Where is your boss, Felipe Martinez?”
It seemed Carlito realized it would be unbelievable to her or anyone that this operation could be on Martinez’s property without Martinez’s knowledge. He said, “He’s gone to a big celebration.”
Escurra’s party? “At the Escurra rancho?”
Carlito nodded and looked sideways at Luis, who was glaring at Carlito and, had his mouth not been taped, would probably be screaming at his subordinate to keep his mouth shut. Isolation from the pack might help loosen Carlito’s tongue. “Bring Carlito into the other room,” she said to the big African American soldier.
Leaving Joe behind, the three of them moved back into the room where she had shot the guard. Seeing his dead friend on the floor opened Carlito’s eyes wide. The soldier shoved Carlito into a chair.
Nova came close to him, stuck her face inches from his. “Anything you want, Carlito. We need to know where the other boy is.”
“Anything?”
Right on! Just how much would he ask for? “Pretty much anything that’s legal. I won’t kill someone for you or go to bed with you.”
“Will you fly me out of Paraguay? Right now. Take me with you. If you leave me here or even put me in jail, Martinez will find and kill me.”
“Sure. I can promise you that if you know where the boy is.”
“Will you take me to Spain and give me a thousand U.S. dollars?”
Clearly Carlito had no real appreciation for how little a thousand U.S. dollars could buy him, even in Spain. “I can’t promise Spain for certain. But I can swear that I will see to it that you are accepted by a Spanish-speaking country and that you have the money.”
“How can I trust you?”
“Why would I lie? You are nothing to me and nothing to my government. The boy is very important. Stop stalling. Either you know where he is or you don’t.”
“He was taken right away to the Eagle.”
“The Eagle? That’s what people call Escurra, right? Escurra has him?”
“Yes.”
“Where does he have him?”
“On his ranch.”
“But the ranch is huge. Where?”
“I don’t know, but I think the Casa Grande. Luis said once that he wished he would be spending his time watching over the other boy instead of having to sit in this hole in the ground. It made me think the boy might be at Señor Escurra’s fine place.”
Nova looked at the Special Ops man and said in English, “Keep him separate from the others. They don’t need to know he talked.”
She returned to Joe and Bill in the living and sleeping room and told them that the Hill boy was possibly at Escurra’s ranch house. With Joe and Bill, she quickly went back outside into the heat, leaving the gagged guards in the soldier’s care. The Special Ops men had already hustled the Americans into a transport helicopter.
Cobra approached. The boys had put Ramone’s body into one of the Land Rovers. “We’re taking him back to Asuncion with us,” Cobra said. “Did you get what you want? I hope it was worth it.”
“You all did something fine. You know that. We’ve rescued seven people and we’re going to rescue another one. The Special Ops guys will help us now.”
“You know that Ramone had Sam monitoring Martinez’s phone calls, the landline.”
“Yes.”
“Well, did Ramone tell you that this Luis has called Martinez every hour on the hour saying that everything is fine? And during one of the calls Martinez said he expected to hear from Luis on schedule all night. The calls were all to the Escurra ranch.”
She didn’t know if Cobra would like it or not, but she was truly grateful for their help. She put her hand on his arm and said, “Thank you. I want you to let me know where Ramone is laid to rest.”
A nod. A sad smile. “The boss thought helping you was worth it.”
With that, Cobra returned to the Land Rover, and he and the other boys took off.
Bill said, “It’s time for us to get the hell out as well.”
“You can’t go yet. We don’t have Alex Hill.”
Chapter 35
Bill shook his head. The Special Ops team leader widened his stance and crossed his arms. “We’ve retrieved seven of our nine targets, most especially the VP’s daughter. We need to get out ASAP. We’re not hanging around.”
“We can’t leave the boy behind,” Joe snapped at him.
“You can take out the people we already have,” Nova said, “but we’re not writing the boy off.”
Bill shrugged and looking at Joe said, “What do you suggest?”
Joe looked at her. “So?”
“I don’t like to think out loud, and we’re going to have to do some serious calculating.” She looked at Bill. “All right. Take them out. But I want you to call first and get permission to come back to extract us once we find the boy. You make that call while Joe and I start thinking how we’ll find him.”
“Okay.” Bill moved off several feet and spoke into his communicator.
“First off,” Joe said, “we need to have at least one Special Ops guy stay here and make Luis send his everything-is-okay messages to Martinez. We should have kept the guys here. One of
them could have done it.”
“It’s just as well we don’t get the boys any more involved than necessary.”
Joe looked at his watch. “It’s one thirty. First things first. We need to get onto the Escurra property. Search the house. If we’re lucky, Alex will be there. If not, we have to have a plan B and C.”
“What I can’t figure out is why they would treat Alex differently.”
“I’ve been beating my brains out over that one myself,” Joe said. “If we knew that, we might know better what kind of treatment they could be giving him.”
“I can’t get out of my mind that he’s a diabetic and presumably without the ability to eat the foods he needs. God forbid that they have him stashed in some hot place.”
Bill strode up, a determined look in the bearing of his squared shoulders. “Okay. I have permission. We’ll take these folks to the Ronald Reagan. It’s our base just outside of Brazilian territorial waters. When you locate the boy, you can call. We’ll come in again, with only one copter.”
Joe said, “We’re going to need someone to stay here with this guy Luis. We have to be dead certain he makes his call in to Martinez regularly.”
“I can leave James. Twenty-four hours only. Then he abandons the bunker and Martinez’s guards and we pick him up.”
“Okay,” Joe said. “I’m going to go down right now and see to it that Luis makes a call. He may already be past his scheduled call time.” Joe went back into the shack.
Nova shook Bill’s hand and held it just a bit longer than necessary. “We’ll be depending on you. And thank you.”
“It’s my job,” he said, but he grinned at her.
She watched the helicopter take off. It disappeared over the jungle canopy as Joe returned to her. “Luis is cooperating nicely,” he said. “I get the feeling his men don’t much like Martinez. Luis calls on the half hour, so this call-in was only eight minutes late. Martinez chewed Luis out, but I don’t think any alarm was sounded.”
“Unless they had some kind of special agreed-upon signal for indicating that something’s gone wrong.”
“What can I say? These guys are big-time operators. We just have to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
“Yeah. Look, it’s hotter than hell out here. You’ve got maps of the Escurra place in the Land Rover. Let’s take them back into that deliciously cool bunker.”
Nova collected up the playing cards and Joe spread the maps onto the table. James had found a beer in the refrigerator and made himself comfortable in a chair where he could keep an eye on the bound guards. For a while Nova stood beside Joe, both of them thinking in silence. Finally she said, “He’s having this big party tonight. Maybe we could find out who’s catering the whole thing and I could go in as a cook’s helper, or serving girl.”
“You can’t be serious.”
She laughed. “No. But a ploy like that might work if this was the States.”
“Probably not even there. Mobsters have their catering service employees fully vetted. Besides, this guy very likely employs so many people he won’t need outside help with the cooking or anything else. He wouldn’t need me to park cars, either.”
Again she smiled. Joe’s sense of the ridiculous was one of the very best things about him to love.
Love. There it was again.
“I know a way for sure that I can get into the house, but we’d have to wait until this evening. I hate having to wait.”
“If we find the kid, an extraction at night will be best in any case. The place is going to be crawling with people preparing for the party. How could you get in?”
“Bebe has been invited. He could take me as his guest.”
“You’re certain he can bring a guest?”
“Not certain, but I think so. I can call and find out.”
“Call.”
Bebe answered immediately. “Yes. Of course. No problem. I’ve brought people before. You come see me when you are ready. We will go together from the hotel.”
“We’re on,” she said to Joe as she snapped the cell phone shut.
“What if the kid isn’t at the house? This Escurra has other homes, some in Paraguay, in addition to this place in Brazil.”
“But they brought everyone else here. Why not Alex as well?” She started folding up the maps. “Let’s drive back to the Blue Parrot. I have to pack what I’ll need.”
“Fine. After you pack we can work on plans B and C.”
“Basically we only have twenty-four hours of surprise on our side—the rest of today and half of tomorrow—because after James leaves, the calls from Luis will stop and someone will come out to find out why.”
Joe walked her to her Jeep. He closed the driver’s door for her, letting his hands rest on the top of the doorframe, temptingly close. He said, “I loathe to suggest another worry, but how much do you trust Ramone’s boys? Ramone is dead. They could make a lot of money selling what they know to Martinez or Escurra.”
She put her hand over Joe’s. She didn’t need to. She just couldn’t stop herself. “They smuggle birds and orchids and look like they could do battle with the devil himself, but Ramone vouched for all of them. I think they loved Ramone. I don’t think they’d do anything to dishonor his memory.”
Joe’s fingers curled around hers. “I love you. And I hope you’re right.”
Joe loved her. That had not changed. They had never talked about children, and that was the only really compelling reason to marry. Security for children. And children didn’t appear to be all that important to Joe. When this op was over, she would win him back. Things could be like they had been before.
Joe drove back to the Blue Parrot at top speed. He kept kicking himself for telling Nova that he loved her. She hadn’t said a thing. She sure didn’t say, “Okay, I’ll marry you,” although that’s what he wanted to hear.
The words had just popped out of his mouth, and he knew why. He’d seen her tears when Ramone died. He knew, just knew, there had to be something more than one op between Nova and Ramone. Why would she cry?
Would she cry if he died? That’s what he’d been wondering.
Chapter 36
At quarter to six, still dressed in the green birding outfit and boots, Nova entered the now festively decorated lobby of The Royal Hotel Iguazu. A mammoth fir tree, imported from a cold climate, dominated the two-story room. Its angel-crowned peak looked down on a treescape of twinkling white lights, fake snow, and hundreds of sparkling red and green Christmas bulbs. The soft strains of “O Holy Night” provided background music and was accompanied by the strong and distinctive scent of cedar.
She went directly to Bebe’s office carrying her woven bag and a small backpack with the dress she would wear to the party. Inside the bag’s lining she had packed the Glock, the GPS transponder, the lightweight camouflage bodysuit and climbing shoes, and the miniature camera/tape recorder/cell phone. The obvious contents, should the purse be searched, were lipstick, a mirror, money, cell phone, a small but powerful flashlight, and a packet of tissues. Of course, she could worry about the extra weight of the Glock…but she wouldn’t.
Bebe closed the door behind them and after hugging her said, “Did you find them?”
“Yes, Bebe.” They took seats opposite each other, she on a sofa in front of a low coffee table and he in a comfortable armchair. “Your friend’s information was correct. The shack he described actually covered an underground bunker where Martinez probably stores weapons and ammunition. Maybe drugs. We didn’t check it all out. We found seven of the hostages, and the team sent to rescue them wanted to depart ASAP. Now we must find someone else.”
“Was your sister with them?”
“Yes. I found Linda. But another boy is still missing.”
“You’re not going to tell me who is helping you, are you?”
“I can’t say much more, Bebe.”
“CNN and MSNBC and all of the Brazilian channels still talk of practically nothing else. Everyone says maybe the Ame
ricans will send troops to invade Manaus.”
She laughed.
“Why must you go to Escurra’s party?”
“Because we think Escurra has the boy hidden somewhere on his ranch. Most likely somewhere in his big house.”
“You don’t look well, Nova. Are you okay?”
“Of course. I’m fine.”
But she wasn’t fine at all. She kept having flashes of Ramone holding her hand and then letting go. The effect was profoundly shocking and sobering. One minute you could be alive and the next millisecond you could be dead. Contemplating this fragility of life was eating at her, as if urgently trying to remind her of something important.
“I won’t press you. Tell me what you want me to do.”
She explained some of the plan she and Joe had devised, an awful lot of it being sheer improvisation once she penetrated the big house. She did not mention Joe. Then she asked, “What is the earliest we could arrive at the party?”
“The party will not start until eight o’clock. It’s a thirty-minute drive from here. We can leave at seven thirty.”
“I’m exhausted, Bebe. I hate to impose, but could you find a small room for me where I can rest? I also need to shower and change clothes.”
He accompanied her to the registration desk, arranged for a room in double-quick time, and then he walked her to it. “You don’t need to babysit me,” she said as she opened the door to room 311. “I’ll be fine. I’ll meet you in the lobby at seven thirty.”
“I’m not babysitting you. I’ve seen you in action. You never need to convince me you can take care of yourself. It’s just my pleasure to be at your side.”
Bebe took her hand and gave it a continental kiss. A warm glow of affection for him and recognition of his affection for her flushed her skin. He turned quickly and strode away, a big, dear man who, she was quite sure, must have made his wife extremely happy. Certainly Solange adored him.