Caribbean's Keeper

by Boland, Brian;

  They paused again and as the truck neared the airstrip, Tony explained his rationale to Cole. “I do this kind of stuff to keep it off the streets of America. I know it’s not pretty, Cole, but it’s happening. If we don’t try to stop it, no one will, and these cartels will not stop on their own. It’s a nasty business, on their end and on ours. But someone has to do it.”

  Cole nodded, accepting Tony’s explanation.

  When they returned to the plane, the pilots were already busy starting the engines. Tony and Cole climbed up and Tony went forward to talk with the pilots, returning a minute later and sitting down next to Cole.

  Tony asked, “You feeling adventurous?”

  “Why?” Cole asked.

  “The pilots topped off the gas tanks with some local fuel, and they told me they’re not entirely sure it’s good shit. It would kind of suck to crash halfway across the Caribbean at night.”

  Cole asked, “So where are we going?”

  Tony smiled, saying, “I figured we could go check on your girl why we’re down here. If David is out for blood, it’s probably time to get her somewhere safe.”

  Cole’s eyes grew wide and he didn’t know what to say.

  “Or we could sleep here tonight in the plane and wait for morning. It might be a bit safer in daylight.”

  Cole laughed under his breath and stared at Tony. “Are you fucking with me?” If Tony was screwing with him, Cole was ready to start swinging. After the death of the old couple, Cole was not in a mood to joke around.

  Tony patted Cole on the shoulder and answered, “No, I’m not fucking with you, Cole. I think you could use a break for a day or two.”

  “Then what the hell are we waiting for?”

  Tony motioned the pilots to get going and before long they accelerated down the pock-marked runway and lifted off, turning east into the night sky.

  g

  Tony nodded off during the flight, but Cole found it impossible to sleep. Isabella was only a few hours away from him. It had been almost two weeks since he’d last seen her. Cole knew he was a mess, but he smiled and imagined that she would laugh at his roughed up appearance. Now more than ever, he longed for her companionship. How good it will feel to lay down next to her, he thought. He smiled at the thought of her hair tickling his face.

  It was after midnight when the plane touched down and taxied off the runway not far from where Murph had put his plane to bed the last time. The airport looked and smelled the same. Had it not been for Isabella, the mood would have been somber at best. Thoughts of Murph flying out of Panama haunted Cole as Tony and him stepped out of the plane and the two pilots went to work putting the King Air to bed. The gravity of losing a good friend sunk in even more and Cole tried his best to shake those thoughts from his mind.

  Finding a cab outside the gate, Cole said, “Hotel Bakoua.”

  The cab driver nodded and they were off. It was the same as when he’d left almost two weeks before. He stared out the window at the palm trees swaying under the easterly winds. So much had changed in two weeks and so much of it had been out of Cole’s control. The familiarity of the island soothed his mind, but thoughts of Isabella still gnawed at his stomach. Simply seeing her would be such a relief. Before long the cab pulled up through the gate and Tony paid the driver in U.S. dollars.

  Walking up to the front desk, the woman at the counter recognized Cole immediately and went into the back room. She emerged a minute later with Cole’s bag and set it down on the floor, yelling at him in French. Cole had no idea what she was saying, but she made quite a commotion, enough that an older man appeared from the offices down the hall and spoke with her before turning to Cole and Tony.

  He spoke English, “Mr. Williams, you cannot stay. Here are your things.”

  Cole didn’t understand. “Why, what happened?” Cole was reaching for his wallet to settle whatever trouble there was.

  The man shook his head and scowled at Cole.

  “Mr. Williams, men came after you left and went through your room. They told us you are a criminal. We cannot allow you to stay here with us. You must go.”

  Cole was floored. “Is Isabella here?”

  The man shook his head. “No. She has gone back to France. She was worried about the baby. The men were not nice to her. Mr. Williams, you must leave or I will call the police.”

  Cole’s eyes grew big as he asked, “Baby? What baby?”

  Tony took a step back and looked at Cole for a reaction. Even the always calm Tony realized the magnitude of the man’s words.

  The old man pointed for Cole to leave, replying, “She is pregnant Mr. Williams. And she left to go back to France. That is all I know. Now I am sorry but you must leave.”

  Cole took a deep breath and nodded slowly, “I’m sorry to have caused you any trouble.”

  Still struggling for words, he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked around the hotel, down to the beach, and sat under a tree for some time. Tony silently followed and sat a few feet away, waiting for Cole to process the past few minutes.

  If Isabella was pregnant, she hadn’t said anything to Cole. It didn’t make any sense to him, until he thought about how she’d cried the day he left Martinique. Maybe she had hid it from him to protect him, but the thought troubled him even more. There were a lot of things Cole had screwed up, but he could not let himself ruin her life, or that of a child.

  Cole took a deep breath and grit his teeth. The sun would be up in a few hours and Cole had nowhere to go as thoughts of Isabella and now of their child weighed on his mind. With Isabella gone, there was no point to any of it. He was certain she’d been hurt badly and he knew he alone bore the blame. It pained him even more than when he’d left her the first time.

  Tony finally spoke up. “Cole, this isn’t what you want to hear, but has it occurred to you that she is better off without you?”

  Cole was furious for a second and stared back at Tony. He felt his core tremble.

  Tony continued. “I’m not trying to be an ass, Cole, but your life is a series of bad decisions right now. If she is as good as you say, you are better off leaving her alone until you can sort this thing out.”

  Cole inhaled just a bit and held his breath. There was truth in what Tony was saying. Cole exhaled and said softly, “Let’s walk some more.”

  Cole picked up his bag again and the two of them walked the side street over to the marina. Everywhere Cole looked he remembered her. The familiar restaurants were all closed, their waiters and bartenders having long ago finished sweeping up and putting things away for the night. Cole found a spot and sat again up against some trees with his back against his bag. He sat there for a second, then pulled it around to his side and opened it up. Inside were most of his clothes, his boots, and his hat. He tried to smile for a second at the sight of his leather boots, but any fond memories didn’t stick.

  Rummaging through it some more, he pulled out one of Isabella’s shirts. It smelled like her perfume. He held it against his face and took a few deep breaths. It was all he had left of a girl who had all but changed his world. If he knew how to cry, he would have, but his emotions were far too hardened after the last year. He knew he couldn’t stay in Martinique, nor could he return to his previous life in Key West without getting David off his back.

  David would kill him at the first chance, of that much Cole was certain. He didn’t want to think of what David might do to Isabella. He put the shirt back in his bag and looked out across the marina. The boats were mostly dark, with a few still showing a dim light in their cabins. On the far side of the marina, he saw two guys his age loading a sailboat from two pushcarts parked on the pier next to it.

  It was almost one in the morning. Cole watched the two of them for some time as they loaded bags of groceries and filled the water tanks from a hose on the pier. Tony had walked off at one point and made a slow lap around the marina to give Cole some time alone. After half an hour, Cole watched both men pull
the hatch closed and one of them reached down to fire up the engine. They ran it for a few minutes then cut it. Cole watched intently as one of them set the key in a cup holder next to the helm. They walked the deck once more and, satisfied that the boat was secure, both hopped over to the pier and walked away.

  It was most likely a chartered sailboat for a week. In the morning, some family would arrive from the States or Europe and spend the week sailing around the islands. The two guys onboard were the crew who would do the legwork. In the Caribbean, chartered boats like that were good business. For a few thousand dollars, it was an easy and exciting way to cruise the islands. Cole pieced a plan together in his head. Across the marina sat a fully provisioned sailboat. The crew was off to get their last night of sleep before setting sail for a week. Cole looked around at the cafes and restaurants that were all dark for the night. Except for Cole and Tony, the marina was quiet. He instinctively began to connect the dots.

  Tony walked back towards Cole, but said nothing for a minute or two. He looked across the marina at the same sailboat Cole was focused on. Finally he grinned and spoke up to break the silence.

  “Cole, don’t tell me you’re thinking of stealing that sailboat.”

  Tony was spot on. Cole was surprised that he’d been read so well. “How did you know what I was thinking?”

  Tony shook his head and looked across the marina at the sailboat. He laughed out loud. “It just fits you. It’s exactly what I would expect from the kid who rolled into my office as a soaking shit sandwich. You’re a cowboy and I’ll say it again—she is better off without you right now. There’s hope for you yet, Cole, but you’re not there right now.”

  Cole looked down at the ground and accepted Tony’s advice. It was true after all. It was in Cole’s nature to be an outlaw. That cavalier attitude had gotten him kicked out of the Coast Guard. It had also made him one hell of a smuggler, but at the same time had nearly cost him his life. As hard as it was to admit, there was blood on his hands as well. It had all led him to Isabella, but at the same time his life had led him to one too many bad decisions.

  Tony extended his hand to Cole, helping him up. “Let’s go find a hotel for the night. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

  Cole nodded and slung his bag over his shoulder once more. In a way, it felt as if he was giving up.

  Tony asked, “Am I going to have to put you in handcuffs?”

  Cole smiled a bit and shook his head. “No Tony. I’m done running.”

  Chapter 17 – Para Bellum

  TONY AND COLE BOARDED the King Air the next morning and flew back to Key West. Cole spent much of the flight staring out of his window at the Caribbean below. They flew over the same waters where Cole’s year of bad decisions had come to a head. Somewhere below the blue water sat the remains of his last Go-Fast and the body of man he didn’t know but for whose death he bore responsibility. Unlike the shootout in Panama, Cole felt genuine remorse for the stoner who had died when he burned the boat. And on the other end of the Caribbean were the corpses of a husband and wife buried in shallow grave with not so much as a stone to mark their final resting place. And somewhere further south and east sat the remains of Murph’s plane, probably littering the side of some unnamed valley in Venezuela. It was difficult for Cole to let go of Isabella, but in the face of so much death and so many mistakes, it was in fact best for Cole to leave her alone.

  In France she would be safer than in Martinique. And it seemed as though David had no trouble keeping tabs on Cole’s movements. If Cole left her alone, she was that much further removed from the danger Cole had put her in. He hated the thought of abandoning her, especially if she was pregnant, but as painful as it was, Cole knew for once he was making the smarter choice. So many of Cole’s decisions were made in the moment and he rarely thought beyond the matter at hand. While his life was his own to ruin, Cole knew he had inadvertently brought down others with him. Moreover, the drug smuggling was not simply a risk or an adventure he bore alone, but rather a cancer that had spread through all of North, Central, and South America. He’d had enough.

  g

  Back in Key West, Tony put Cole in touch with a few more guys from JIATF-S. Over the course of a week, they gave Cole a crash course in the counter-narcotics game. Cole was up and running each morning with the sun and each day ended around sunset, having spent the majority of the day either in the command center or in the various offices at JIATF-S, learning the trade. He understood more about the structure of the cartels than he ever knew while working for them and the plan Tony had in his mind began to take shape.

  They monitored David’s phone 24 hours a day, and twice that week David had called the same blocked number. Each time he ended a call, there was flurry of activity among David’s contacts. The entire staff in the command center speculated as to who was on the other end and how David and his unknown partner were able to encrypt the calls.

  After the second call that week, Tony looked at Cole and pointed at the computer monitors, saying, “That’s our ticket, right there.”

  Cole sat back in his chair, asking, “What is?”

  Tony grinned. The rest of the team was frustrated by it all, but not Tony. If anything, the added challenge of cracking David’s contact energized Tony like nothing else. “The only reason they’d go through the trouble of encrypting a line like this is if the guy on the other end is a big deal. We’re going to get that phone and it’s going to take us straight to the top. David doesn’t know it, but he’s giving away more than he thinks.”

  Cole was impressed with Tony’s drive. “So, how do we get the phone?”

  Tony took a deep breath, looked at Cole, and replied, “You’re going to get it for us.”

  Cole said nothing. He was reminded of Tony’s earlier comments about going back to Panama. Now it was clear. Everything up to this point had been part of Tony’s larger goal of cutting off the head of the snake. Taking down lieutenants and guys like David had an impact, but not one the size Tony was looking for. If they were able to go over the top of all of them and bring down the boss, it would throw the cartel into disarray, at least for the time being.

  Cole asked, “So what happens if we get this guy?”

  Tony stopped what he was doing and explained, “When you take out leadership, the cartel will fall apart for a period of time. They won’t move as much and they won’t produce as much, because they’ll be busy killing each other while someone tries to reestablish leadership. We target the top and prosecute them if we can. It sends a message, but it also has an immediate impact on the flow of drugs.”

  Cole nodded and thought about the risks and the rewards.

  Tony walked over to Cole and sat in a chair next to him. “If we do this, it’s a home run, Cole.”

  “So what do you need from me?”

  Tony pointed at the desk with a phone. “It’s time to call David again. See if you can set up a meeting.”

  Cole walked over and sat down, dialing David’s number once more. When he answered, David sounded like his usual self. Cole kept his composure and the two talked for a minute before Cole got to the meat of the conversation.

  “David, I’m sick of waiting. I’m coming back down to Panama.”

  David laughed and agreed to meet with him. “My friend, it’s been a while since we’ve had a drink. Why don’t you let me know when you’re back in town and we can catch up.”

  Cole agreed and hung up the phone, turning to Tony.

  Tony nodded, “Well done.”

  Cole leaned back in the chair and wiped his face with his hands for a second, then dropped them both back in his lap. “I guess I need a plane ticket.”

  Tony let out a half-smile and nodded. “Yeah, I think we can make that happen.”

  He walked over to another phone in the command center and made a few calls. While Tony was busy, Cole took the time to explore his thoughts. David and his cartel were not going to let go of Cole so easily. They
had tracked him since the beginning and as much as Cole had thought of himself as a buccaneer of sorts, the truth was he’d been a pawn. Murph’s death, the old couple, the drive-by in Panama City, and the guy on the boat were all casualties of a war that included Cole. Some were collateral damage, while others were simply targets from the beginning.

  Cole knew his time was running out. He could feel it, even from Key West. The right thing to do, as hard as it was, was to try to end it. If Tony was correct, and David’s phone was the key to tackling the cartel, Cole was the right guy for the job. He had the contacts, the access, and the know-how to get close to David without too much suspicion. At the same time, Cole knew he had a target on his head.

  He thought back to Isabella. If the cartel was shaken up enough, Cole could slip through the cracks and distance himself enough to resume a normal life, hopefully with Isabella. If not, he would end up dead in a ditch like so many others like him. It was a risk he was now willing to take, not so much for the adventure, but rather for some justice.

  g

  Later that afternoon, Tony took Cole out for lunch. They ate at El Siboney again and in a quiet corner of the restaurant, and over a few beers, Tony laid out a plan.

  “You’ll meet David by yourself—somewhere public. Don’t do anything out of the ordinary. Get him talking, have a beer, and just keep him close to you. ”

  Cole suggested Habanas.

  Tony nodded, “Yeah, perfect. That will work.” Taking another sip of his beer, he continued, “I’ve got a team that will be watching you the whole time. They’re some rough dudes, and they’ll have your back from the second you land until we get you out of there. I’ll be down there along with a few others, but you’ll be moving on your own. OK?”

  “Yeah, got it. Can I meet these guys?”

  “No, it’s better if you don’t spot them. Your movements will be normal that way. Trust me; we’ll keep you safe. When the time is right, you’ll know it. My guys will move in, grab him, and we’ll move with a purpose to get the hell out of town.”