When the stowaways were on the truck and the back door sealed, Julio climbed into his cab and headed for the compound, a religious man, he prayed as he never had before.
CHAPTER 30 – So far, so good
“Get on your knees,” Alvarado said, as he glared at Amy, Rodrigo, and Emilio, who had their hands cuffed behind their backs.
The guards pressed down on their shoulders and forced them to do what was commanded. Emilio, his blindness hidden behind dark glasses, nearly fell forward, but he steadied himself and went down to his knees.
Amy was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, while both Rodrigo and Emilio wore suits with white shirts and no ties.
Like many older men, their clothes appeared to be a size too big, something that often happened when age began to wrinkle the flesh and muscle mass diminished. It caused both men to look soft beneath the loose garments.
Malena stood beside her husband and glared at the captives before her, as a triumphant smile sat on her lips.
Amy was staring up at her, while Emilio, blinded, stared straight ahead, and Rodrigo kept his head bowed with his gray-streaked hair hanging down and obscuring his eyes.
They were in the courtyard, near the fountain, and the hot sun beat upon them as midday approached.
Alvarado was on his crutches, but he bent over as far as he could and spoke in a voice filled with hate.
“I know all about Tanner’s pathetic plan to infiltrate my compound, and I will use the three of you as a weapon against him.”
Amy stared up at Alvarado as a tear rolled down her right cheek. Malena saw in her gaze a look of defiance mixed with hate, and she walked over to Amy and wrapped a hand around her throat.
“You are the lover of the man who crippled my husband, yes? Then know this, the pain your man caused mine is but a fraction of the agony your man will experience, and someday, I’ll come for you as well, just for the hell of it.”
Amy said nothing, but the look of defiance faded. It wasn’t replaced by fear as Malena had hoped it would be, but rather by concern.
Malena released her and Alvarado shouted an order to the guards.
“Lock them up!”
As Amy, Rodrigo, and Emilio were being herded away by the guards, Alvarado checked his watch.
“The truck will be here soon.”
Malena kissed her husband on the lips.
“We will have vengeance.”
***
Although most infractions of the rules within the compound carried a sentence of death, there were a few minor regulations that when broken only resulted in incarceration for a few days.
Those sentences were served in a cell that had a dirt floor two meters square along with a ceiling that was just over six-feet high. The place smelled of feces, urine, and vomit, and underscoring it was the faint scent of death.
It was located near the barracks, and the sun beat down on its metal roof all day.
The guards jammed Amy, Rodrigo, and Emilio into the tight space, even as one of them copped a feel of Amy’s ass.
When the door slammed shut, the cell became nearly devoid of light, but there was a crack in one of the brick walls, and a thin sliver of daylight illuminated Amy’s face.
She smiled as she looked at Rodrigo.
“Spenser’s plan is working.”
CHAPTER 31 – Turning tables
Julio, the young truck driver, was sweating buckets.
If not for the love he felt for his wife, he would have abandoned the truck on the side of the road and run off through the desert.
The worst part was that he felt responsible for what was happening. He knew who Alvarado was, knew that the man was a merciless drug lord, a Narco kingpin, but he had volunteered to make the deliveries to the compound every Friday because it paid extra.
There wasn’t enough money in the world to replace his sweet wife, and if he got out of this mess alive, he promised himself that he would never let money sway his decisions again.
When the compound came into view, he felt his stomach flip at the sight of it.
Also, something had happened recently that had caused them to change the configuration of the entry gate, and there were hordes of men camped outside the walls, and as far as Julio could see, they all held weapons of one kind or another.
Julio thought the man named Dante must be insane to think that two men and a woman could overcome the odds, but he could plainly see the plan.
They hoped to get inside the compound, where there were far fewer men, and then they would strike.
It was a wiser move than facing the multitude outside the walls, but there must still be a dozen or more men in the compound, and first, one had to get through both the outer and inner gates.
***
Inside the compound, another young man was sweating from nervousness.
It was Joaquin, Dante’s friend, and he had been busy since learning that an attack was coming, and had gained two new allies among Alvarado’s men.
Both men were from the local towns, and were enraged by the murder of the prostitutes who had been present on the night that Alexa had breached the compound.
They were not alone either in their feelings, as an undercurrent of hate for Alvarado had been spawned by that heartless act, but the two men were the only ones that Joaquin was willing to trust.
When the attack began, Joaquin and the other two men would be ready to give aid, and if successful, he would signal Dante.
Joaquin heard a shout. One of the tower guards had spotted a vehicle approaching, and the vehicle was a truck.
It’s time. Joaquin thought, and then he kissed the silver cross that hung from his neck, and prepared himself to kill.
***
Alvarado and Malena watched the truck approach.
They were seated in the rear of a large golf cart that was parked near the inner gate. They couldn’t see anything outside the walls with the naked eye, but they were each looking at a computer tablet that was receiving a feed from the cameras outside the front gates.
Martinez had driven the golf cart, and he too was watching on a tablet from behind the wheel.
“Finally,” he said, hopeful that in mere hours he would be free to leave the compound.
The truck slowed as it approached the first gate leading into the compound, the outer gate, then slowed even faster, as a pickup truck drove in front of it and forced it to stop a dozen yards from the gate.
The man inside the pickup fired several rounds into the front tires of the delivery truck, while also perforating its radiator.
In the truck, Julio dived to the floor of the cab, as his heart beat wildly.
***
Inside the compound, Alvarado spoke to two of the three guards who were standing near him.
“Bring the hostages here.”
Both men answered with a single nod and headed towards the cell.
“Why do you want them here?” Malena asked.
“I don’t see how Tanner could possibly make it past the gates, but if he does, I’ll use the hostages to bargain with. If nothing else, they’ll make a handy shield.”
On the monitor, the guard from the pickup truck approached the big rig and, after ripping open the door, he screamed at the driver to get out of the cab.
Julio complied, and the guard shoved him towards a second guard who had just arrived at the truck with two other men.
One of the men held a thermal imager, while the other held an augmented directional microphone. As the two aimed their instruments at the truck, a group of nearly two dozen men approached the truck’s rear.
They were all armed and wearing heavy body armor and bullet resistant helmets, and each looked as if they were expecting the truck to be filled with live tigers.
The man with the thermal imager appeared stymied by what he was seeing, and he reported that because the inside temperature of the truck was so high due to the day’s heat, that he couldn’t distinguish any forms from the ambient air.
However, the second man, the man with the microphone confirmed that he was hearing three heartbeats.
“They’re calm, all three of them,” said the man. “A nice steady rhythm,”
Alvarado heard the man’s words and made a face.
“The devil doesn’t feel fear, but I’m sure he feels pain, use the gas.”
On screen, two men forced open the rear doors of the trailer while another man lobbed teargas inside. After the doors were shut again, the man with the directional microphone spoke.
“Their heartrates have risen, and I can hear coughing.”
Alvarado gave the order to enter the trailer and drag them out.
***
The two guards sent to get Amy, Rodrigo, and Emilio didn’t even bother to take out their guns before opening the door on the cell.
Their captives were an unarmed woman and two old men, one of which was blind, and all three of them had their hands cuffed behind their backs.
Once the door opened, their captive’s eyes blinked at the sudden light, that is, those eyes that could still see.
“Come out,” said one of the guards, and Amy went first, as she came even with the guards. Emilio refused to budge and began cursing at them. He was joined by Rodrigo.
As they were getting the guards attention, Amy slipped behind the men, and in a flash of movement, she jammed a thin round blade into each man’s back, while aiming for their kidneys.
Both guards cried out in agony. One man took a swing at Amy, who ducked beneath it, as the other man put his hand on his weapon.
Before he could slide the gun from its holster, Rodrigo grabbed his wrist, and at the same time, he drove the palm of his hand at the man’s face on an upward angle, breaking the guard’s nose.
Amy still held the short thin knives, and she sliced a line across the man’s throat, and ended the movement by jamming one of the blades into his Adam’s apple.
The guard collapsed to his knees with both hands to his throat, and Rodrigo took his weapon.
While that was going on, Emilio was on the ground with the other guard, and he had the man in a chokehold.
With one hand, the man was clawing at the sleeve of Emilio’s suit jacket in an attempt to break the hold, while with his other hand, he tried to free his weapon from the holster, but Emilio had a leg wrapped around the man’s waist, preventing him from grabbing the gun.
After an audible, SNAP!, the man went limp, and Emilio flung him aside. When he stood, he looked down at the other guard just in time to see him take his last breath, as he lay on the ground with a gashed and bloody throat.
Emilio took hold of something that was hanging around his neck, beneath his shirt. After lowering his head and removing the dark glasses, he slid an eyepatch up into place.
Emilio was actually Spenser. He was wearing makeup, along with stipple latex to make his face and hands look wrinkled and darker in color, while his hair and beard were dyed white. Rodrigo, who was Tanner, was similarly made up.
Amy was Alexa, and while she hadn’t any need to look older, she wore makeup on her arms, face, neck, and hands, to pass as Caucasian. A pair of blue contact lenses completed her look.
The real Amy, a former professional makeup artist, had practiced on getting their disguises just right while they were still in Wyoming, and was able to apply the makeup in a matter of hours before leaving with Rodrigo and Emilio to a secure location that morning.
Expecting to be taken hostage, Tanner, Spenser, and Alexa had hidden handcuff keys on themselves. They used the one from inside the hollow heel of Alexa’s shoe to get free of the cuffs.
The two thin blades were from “Emilio’s” dark glasses. They were clipped to the inside of the glasses’ frame, along the arms.
The blades were the length of the arms, while the curved earpieces were the small handles. Although they were only a few inches long, the knives were rigid and razor sharp.
The men killed at the motel, and who were believed to be guards, were actually two of Alvarado’s own people. They were survivors from the raid on the underground vault. Dante had drugged the men and placed them beneath the tree.
Abrasion’s seeming betrayal was also part of Spenser’s plan. Dante had originally been chosen to play the part of the betrayer. However, Spenser later realized the opportunity for gain from the charade and thought that the Tin Horsemen should profit for all the help they had given, and Abrasion had played the part well.
Alvarado was a man who liked to use his enemy’s loved ones as weapons against them. Spenser turned that sick trait back against him, and it would soon be the man’s downfall.
Tanner checked the guard’s weapon, verified that it was loaded, and looked first at Alexa, and then Spenser.
“Let’s go kill that motherfucker.”
CHAPTER 32 – Let the right ones in
Four men wearing body armor entered the trailer with gas masks on and stun guns at the ready. Alvarado ordered that the captives be taken alive, and so the men carried no lethal weapons.
The sound of coughing was coming from the first wrapped skid on the right, and it was shaking from the movement within it.
Once they examined it, they saw how the phony skid of materials opened, and after removing the top, they dragged their prisoners out of the truck and into fresh air.
The two men and the woman were coughing violently from the teargas, but it was their appearance that startled everyone.
“They’re Mexican, and not just the woman,” Malena said. “Alonso, what is going on?”
Martinez looked closely at the image on his screen. The trio were coughing from the gas, yes, but their eyelids drooped as well.
“I think they’ve been drugged,” Martinez said.
One of the men outside said something to the man who was in communication with Alvarado, and he relayed it.
“Jesús says that he knows these people. He said that they work for you.”
Alvarado ordered that the camera zoom in closer, and when it did so, he cursed.
“That woman, she works inside the underground vault counting money. Tanner must have kidnapped them when he destroyed the facility yesterday.”
Malena looked uneasy, and she jumped when her husband gripped her wrist.
“What is that on the side of your hand?” Alvarado asked her.
Malena flipped her right hand over and looked. There was something there on the outside of her palm, it was light in color, and when she touched it, it felt slippery, and yet powdery at the same time.
“I think it’s makeup,” Malena said. “I must have gotten it on me when I grabbed the woman earlier.”
Alvarado stared at her hand, and in a flash of insight, he understood what had happened, and how he had been deceived, so monstrously deceived.
He raised his hands and clamped them to his head as if he were about to pull his hair from its roots.
“Two men and a woman, and like a fool I brought them inside the compound.”
“What are you talking about, Alonso?”
Alvarado ignored Malena’s question and shouted to a guard who was standing nearby.
“Open the gates! Do it now, now!”
The guard said, “Yes sir,” and headed towards the inner gate, as Alvarado poked Martinez hard in the ribs with one of his crutches.
“Drive us back to the house, hurry!”
Martinez looked flustered, and barely managed to start the golf cart before the first shot came.
The bullet struck the guard who had been heading to open the gate, and his blood sprayed so violently from the exit wound that some of it splattered Malena’s white silk blouse.
The cart began moving as more shots rang out, Alvarado turned his head and saw the two guards standing near the gate go down.
Assuming that the guards sent to bring the prisoners were dead, that meant that he had lost five of them, and there were less than a dozen more inside the compound.
He had been concerned with keeping Tanner outside the
walls, and so had constantly fortified the forces guarding the walls and the gates. Now, if those gates couldn’t be opened, all those men were locked outside, and essentially useless.
Alvarado jerked his head back around as a scream came from the left, and he watched, horrified, as a tower guard plummeted to the ground.
The wounded man landed with a sickening thud. The impact cracked the man’s head open and exposed his brains. His eyes looked towards Alvarado, eyes that were empty and dead.
Malena grabbed Alvarado’s arm with an iron grip and spoke in a high voice that was laced with fear.
“What is happening?”
“Tanner,” Alvarado answered, “It’s Tanner.”
***
After killing the guards outside their cell, Tanner, Spenser, and Alexa headed for the front gate.
They had to keep it from opening or they would soon find themselves vastly outnumbered. Dante was in the area with his troop of villagers, but unless he received a signal from the young guard Joaquin, he wouldn’t risk approaching the compound.
They made it towards the front wall while being surprised at how empty the compound seemed to be, but they had seen the hordes of men outside the walls as they were being brought in, and were aware that their enemies numbered in the hundreds.
They peeked around the corner of the compound’s large garage, where a line of tall white propane tanks were lined up against the side of the building.
The gate was ahead and to their left, and near it was Alvarado, seated inside a golf cart and looking down at a tablet computer.
“That man driving the cart, he looks like the photo of Martinez that Burke sent us. We need to keep him alive if we can,” Tanner said.
Alvarado suddenly appeared as if he had been hit with an electric shock, and then he reached up and grabbed his head. When Tanner saw the look of stunned realization lighting the man’s face, he knew what had just happened.
“He’s figured it out. Alvarado knows we’re here.”
The TANNER Series - Books 10 -12 (Tanner Box Set Book 4) Page 25