“I will have Roberto look into it,” said Fernando.
Antonio met Roberto when he had paid a visit a year or so ago to Fernando and enjoyed his hospitality.
“Someone’s trying to hurt us,” said Antonio. “Could it be competing cartels?”
“Not likely. What would they gain? They would be destroying the very market they would be after. Anyway, we are very cohesive as a group here and band together to fight our common enemies, which are the government and the police.”
“So who would gain?”
“Our only competition really is with white heroin, generally from Afghanistan. They have most of the eastern US and us the south and western US. Never been an issue before with them trying to muscle in on our territory.”
“But it’s a possibility,” said Antonio.
“It’s a possibility,” agreed Fernando.
“Let me know what Roberto is able to uncover,” he said and hung up.
Fernando sat for a while trying to comprehend what he had just heard. People dying from poison-laced heroin will certainly put a dent in his business. He noted that usual orders over the last few days had dwindled from his various buyers. He wondered how many other cities were affected by the laced drug. He called Roberto, who was in the city on an errand.
“Roberto,” he said when he answered the phone.
“Fernando,” he said. “Want me to pick up milk?”
Fernando didn’t respond to Roberto’s idea of a joke and proceeded directly into the spiel about the laced drugs.
“Shit,” said Roberto. “That’s not good.”
“What route did we use for that shipment? ”
“Have to check when I get back. Driving now and should be there in half an hour.”
“OK, see you when you get here.”
Fernando’s next call was to Miguel Ferraras Sonterro, the head of the cartel organisations. This issue could affect other cartel members, although Fernando did most of the shipments to the US. Miguel could not take his call, so he asked his assistant to have him call ASAP.
Roberto arrived 25 minutes after the call from Fernando and logged into his laptop. He checked the details for the previous shipment to the US. It had gone by sea to Puerto San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, then by road to El Paso. A note in the file explained about a run-in with the coast guard off Panama and that they were shot up, lost fuel and had to commandeer another boat off Costa Rica’s coast and finish their trip to Puerto San Juan del Sur. A two-day lag ensued between the time it reached the marina and it was on the road again. When questioned about the delay, the shippers said that there was heat in the area with Federales and Police, and they had to lie low for a while. Bingo ! Roberto said to himself. We have the location where the drugs were laced.
“The shipment was delayed for two days in Nicaragua,” Roberto reported to Fernando. “My guess is that this is where the lacing occurred. I will be talking to my men who ran the shipment and find out what went wrong.”
“Do you think we have a mole?”
“We’ll see,” said Roberto. “These are all good men, and it seems difficult to imagine that all three of them would collude together on this.”
“See what you can find out.”
Roberto called Emilio, who was still not back from Nicaragua. He said he had trouble with the boat they commandeered, but didn’t elaborate. There was really nothing that could be done until he talked to them.
* * * *
Emilio, Pablo and Sergio were ushered into the large office in the hacienda. An air of nervousness surrounded the men—visible sweat on Emilio’s upper lip, constant wiping of hands on jeans for Pablo and the avoidance of Roberto’s stare from Sergio.
“Sit down,” he said .
They all took a seat and fidgeted while Roberto slowly paced around the room, then he turned to Emilio.
“What happened in Puerto San Juan del Sur?” he said calmly.
“Nothing, señor ,” he said, glazed eyes looking up at him and large beads of sweat now on his lip, which he wiped with the back of his hand.
“OK.” He turned to Pablo and repeated the question, again in a calm manner.
“What do you mean, señor ?”
“There was a two-day delay in the shipment. What happened?”
“Si ,” he said, shuffling his feet. “There were lots of Federales and policia around. We stayed in a hotel until things calmed down.”
“And what happened to the shipment during this time?”
“We had already delivered it to Cris … it was on his boat.”
“I see. You left millions of dollars’ worth of heroin unguarded on the boat?”
They all looked at each other.
“We didn’t want to draw attention to ourselves,” said Sergio, not even looking at Roberto.
Roberto walked over to him and stood in front of him.
“Look at me when you address me,” he said.
Sergio looked up at him sheepishly.
“So, you didn’t want to draw attention to yourselves. Why did you not take off in the boat?”
They all looked at each other again. Finally, Emilio spilled the beans.
“Señor , they were holding our families. What were we to do?”
“Who was holding your families?”
“I don’t know. Some men approached us in the restaurant and showed us pictures of our families and told us to check into a hotel for two days.”
Roberto had the information he wanted. Obviously, this was a planned set-up by someone—he just had to find out who.
“OK, you can go.”
The three men looked at Roberto in surprise. They were expecting some kind of punishment, so they just sat there.
“GO!” he said.
The three men leaped from their seats and ran out the door … before he changed his mind .
Roberto put in a call to his contact in Puerto San Juan del Sur.
“Jorge,” he said as Jorge Navarro answered the phone.
“Roberto, so nice to hear from you.”
“Good to speak to you too. How is the family? Is Jorge junior doing well in school?”
“Very well.”
“And Santana?”
“My lovely wife Santana is doing very well.”
Jorge knew the small talk would eventually lead around to his ‘assistance’ he gave allowing drugs through his port. The extra money helped with putting food on the table for his family, which included a two-year-old daughter.
“A few days ago, we had a … boat … arrive in your port and my men say that they were held up for two days.”
“Si , I remember. There were men in town from one of our local land owners. I believe they are from Afghanistan and have a hacienda near here.”
“I see,” said Roberto. “Did these men take … anything … from the boat?”
“Si , they did. I surmised that this was something arranged by you … a sale of drugs or something.”
“Christ, Jorge, they produce their own drugs in Afghanistan. Why would they be dealing with us?”
“I thought it a little odd, but I have learned to look the other way when cartel work is being done.”
“Where will I find these people?”
“I can send you their coordinates, but my account is running low now.”
“I will send some more money to boost it Jorge.”
“Thank you Roberto. It is always a pleasure doing business with you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I will email the coordinates of the hacienda for you.”
“Thanks.”
Roberto hung up the phone. The bastards , he said to himself. So the Afghans are the ones who laced the shipment. Makes sense . This would drive the supply to the white heroin coming from Afghanistan.
Roberto reported his findings to Fernando.
“So, what do you think we should do about it?” Fernando asked .
“I have a plan,” said Roberto.
Eig ht
&nb
sp; Miguel rolled over to his side of the bed after making aggressive and passionate love to Anna. The smell of sex filled his nose as their glistening bodies parted. Reaching his arm under her head, he pulled her to him.
“God! I missed you,” he said.
“I missed you too Cariño ,” she purred in his ear. “I just don’t like it when you have to stay on the boat for so long.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” he said, giving her a kiss on the top of her head.
“I couldn’t get any fonder of you anyway,” she said as she turned her face to him and gave him a tender kiss on the mouth. Miguel returned the kiss, slightly opening his mouth, which Anna quickly filled with her tongue. She eased herself on top of him and pushed herself into him.
“Hey! Baby, I’m not the young stud I used to be and I need a little more time.” he said jokingly.
Anna gave a pout and said, “OK, but don’t go away; I’ll be back.”
With that she leaped off of him and grabbed her housecoat.
“Where are you going?” he said.
“Be right back,” she said and disappeared from the room.
Miguel reflected on how his life had changed so much in the last few months. A year ago while diving off the coast of Cocos Island with his then-girlfriend Jenny when they stumbled onto a large lost treasure stolen from the Peruvians in 1820. However, a Colombian Cartel group, thinking the treasure was on the boat, had made off with it along with Jenny. Kyle had the foresight to hide the treasure on the island and had to formulate a rescue mission to get Jenny and the boat back. Even though they were able to rescue Jenny, members of the cartel kidnapped her again, the cartel’s leader almost killing her as retribution for Kyle’s actions. Kyle, realising that Jenny would never be safe from them as long as she could be used as a pawn to get to him, faked his own death and assumed the new identity of Miguel Diaz.
Anna returned with a package in her hand and a big smile on her face. She jumped on the bed playfully and kneeled next to Miguel.
“I got a little present for you,” she said.
“Oh,” he said with a puzzled expression on his face. “What’s the occasion?”
“Why do I need an occasion to buy mi hombre hermoso a present?”
Kyle took the package that Anna wrapped in coloured paper with a gold bow on top. About the size of a DVD, it was thicker than a single disk.
“It’s a DVD?” he asked.
“Nice guess Sherlock. So what’s the title?”
“Now that’s a little more difficult to guess,” he said as he turned it and weighed it with his hands. Miguel knew that Anna was aware of his tastes in movies. Kyle was a Star Wars fan and a Trekkie, but generally liked all the blockbuster films. When he ‘died’, he had to leave a large DVD collection behind and was gradually building it up again.
“How about Star Wars Box Set ?” he asked. It was one of the sets he hadn’t yet purchased.
Anna said nothing and smiled at him.
“OK, I’ll open it,”
Anna always got excited when she bought things for Miguel, and she watched in anticipation as he slowly peeled the paper back from the sticky tape, trying hard not to spoil the paper. Kyle did this almost in slow motion, knowing that it drove Anna crazy. Anna grabbed the package and ripped the paper off of it and threw it on the bed, exposing the gift.
“You ripped the paper,” he said playfully. “I wanted keep that.”
Miguel looked at the now exposed package and smiled. It turned out to be the Lord of the Rings box set.
“Thank you my love,” he said as he pulled her to him and gave her a passionate kiss.
“Ouch!” she said and rubbed the side of her breast.
“What is it? ”
“It’s nothing,” she brushed off nonchalantly. “Sometimes I get a pain in the side of my breast, and I have an appointment with the doctor next week.”
Miguel’s face had a look of concern on it.
“It’s nothing,” she said and decided to change the somber mood.
“Have you had enough time to recover yet,” she said in a sultry voice.
“No!” he said and gave her a light slap on her butt. “You’ll be the death of me yet.”
“But what a way to die,” she said as she cuddled up beside him.
They lay there in each other’s arms for a while until Anna spoke.
“I am so happy that we found each other again,” Anna said dreamily. “I often used to reminisce about that time on the beach in Playa Hermosa where we made such beautiful love. I knew I was in love with you and realized I had to leave because my husband would have destroyed us both if he found out. I didn’t plan on getting pregnant though, but am so happy that I had Enrique as a reminder of the love we shared. He has been my whole life … until you came back into it.”
She reached over and sealed that statement with a tender kiss.
“It never even occurred to me about being careful at that time,” said Miguel. “I presumed, quite wrongly, that you would have been on some kind of birth control. I guess we never got a chance to even discuss it.”
“When I decided I didn’t want my husband having sex with me, I stopped taking the pill. I know he got his sex from somewhere else, so he didn’t need any from me.”
“I just can’t imagine being married to someone so beautiful and not wanting to have sex with her.”
“Sex for Don was more of a challenge; a conquest. Once he achieved that, he had a need to conquer someone else. Don didn’t stay satisfied with anything for very long—he always looked for what was around the next corner; to write the next chapter in his life.”
“It must have been difficult to give up Alphonse.” Alphonse was Anna’s first child, and they had agreed to share the children … Don keeping complete custody of Alphonse, with no visitation rights, and Anna sole custody of Enrique. Because Anna and Don we re not having sex, it was obvious that Enrique was not Don’s, and he used this to ostracize her completely from Alphonse.
“That was the most difficult part of the divorce, but I had to make choices and Alphonse was a casualty with the choices I made. There were really few options … there was no way a court would order custody to a woman who sired another child outside her marriage … and Don didn’t want anything to do with Enrique.”
“It’s hard to believe it was, what, twelve years ago that we made love on the beach?”
“Twelve years and three months and …” she made a gesture of thinking, “… five days. Not that I have been keeping track.”
Miguel and Anna had been seeing each other for just over a year now. Anna moved out of the house she shared with her friend, and they rented a house in San José. Miguel needed to get back to what he loved doing—SCUBA diving—so he purchased another boat and ran dive charters from Puerto de Quepos (he didn’t want to run it from Puntarenas where he did previously as Kyle, for fear of being recognized). However, Anna needed to stay in San José close to her work, and Enrique needed to be close to school. But Puerto de Quepos was over three hours’ drive from Costa Rica’s capital, so Miguel elected to stay there on his boat for several days at a time, especially when there were charters. Miguel procured a ten-year-old 45’ Viking Convertible, complete with tuna tower, as many of his charters were for fishing, for less than $250,000 in an auction. A far cry from the 60’ Hatteras he owned before, but satisfactory for his needs and a little less pretentious.
Miguel often reflected on how Jenny was doing, feeling badly about faking his death. But he had no real option, as the cartel would seek her out to get back at Kyle. Although the relationship became strained, one of the deciding factors to sever the union in this way was her admission to being seduced by one of her captors. Miguel embarked upon a new life, basically his second new life (the first after his wife, Casey, was fatally shot almost 20 years ago). Although he had to relinquish all connections to his previous life, he did look up Anna again, as there no real link in their past existed except as a short-term
previous employee. He was concerned about Anna though and his son Enrique. After his wife’s death, he receded into somewhat of a shell and did not want to become close to anyone again. The fear of loss being always there, and for some time, he rejected any romantic situations until he met Jenny. However, Jenny turned out more of a buddy to Kyle; a brotherly/sisterly, shared goals type of relationship. What sex there was tended to be more of a biological need and devoid of any real passion. But it was different with Anna. He loved Anna, of that he was sure, and that scared him. Seeing someone you love die was a trauma he did not want to face again.
N ine
Miguel was awakened by the buzz of his cell phone—he had it on ‘Silent’ and ‘Do Not Disturb’ until 7:00 a.m. It was 7:20.
“Hello?” he answered somewhat sleepily, not even looking at the call display. Normally, he was an early riser and would have finished his morning run by now, but last night’s activity with Anna caused both of them to sleep longer.
“Miguel,” he recognized Frederico’s voice. “How are you?”
“Fine, had a late night,” he said as he swung his legs off the bed and headed to the bathroom. Anna stirred and raised her head and looked at the clock. Shock registered on her face and she too leaped out of the bed and ushered Miguel out of the bathroom.
“Not used to the fire of Costa Rican women?” Frederico boomed as Anna closed the bathroom door. Frederico was certainly a womanizer and loved to boast to Kyle, and now Miguel, about his exploits. Miguel declined to comment and just said, “What’s up?”
“Have a situation come up that should be right up your alley. Can you drop by this morning?”
“Sure. Let me get showered and shaved and we can meet for breakfast at Julio’s. How about 9:00?”
“9:00 sounds great. See you there.”
* * * *
Frederico was already seated in one of the booths toward the rear of the crowded restaurant when Miguel arrived at five to nine.
“So,” said Miguel, “what’s up?”
“I just got a call from my CIA contact in Honduras. We did a few operations together before, where our access to certain areas within Central America is better than theirs. Seems some Colombian drugs were laced with a kind of poison. Succsin … succ ... ”
Death Drones Page 8