The Savage Little Flea

by Steve Shadow

He ignored Fabiola and only spoke to Chuey. He smiled often. His smile looked like one a wolf would exhibit when finding a maimed lamb in front of it. He made the Italians in Chicago seem like genial fellows compared to the grim and dour aspect he presented us with. He and Chuey talked back and forth with a quiet intensity. Fabiola began to say something but without even looking at her, he once again flicked his fingers and she sat back in her seat. It was easy to see who ruled this roost. After what seemed like forever but was probably only a few minutes El Maestro rose and without so much as a backward glance, left the room. He had never once even looked at me or Danny.

  As soon as he left the room the two men at the door came in, still carrying weapons, and escorted us outside and into our car. Fabiola pulled out of the driveway and we sped silently through the front gates.

  I could tell that Fabiola was seething. Chuey sat silently in the back seat with Danny. I was the only one in the dark.

  “Would someone like to tell me just what the hell happened back there?” I said.

  Chuey patted me on the shoulder. “Is OK Jack. I explain when we return to hotel. We see Assesino and then we make plan. Es muy complicado, I think.”

  No one spoke as we retraced our route back to hotel. When we arrived we were met with a strong breeze off the ocean and a funky salt water odor that I had begun to identify as uniquely Vera Cruz.

  We joined Assesino in the empty dining room. He had chilled margaritas waiting for us as we all took seats. Chuey spoke briefly in Spanish and Assesino nodded.

  “Fabiola, I think is better you tell Jack what happens with El Maestro.”

  “Si but first of all I want to say that he is a pig like all men. I know I am less than nothing to him but he did not have to be so obvious about it. Well, never mind. Basically what he said is that when Luis showed up dragging his friends and La Guera, the old blonde, behind him he came to El Maestro and wanted to know if he was interested in selling Mayan artifacts for him. I guess when the drug plans for Chicago did not work out he had another plan. It seems that Luis has family that is extorting valuable relics from some villagers in Chiapas. The Indians have found a lost Mayan site and want to sell what they have. Luis planned to go there and steal everything. El Maestro told him that he was interested in this but if Luis and his three partners wanted to do business with him then they had to pay him half the proceeds for finding buyers for the stolen items.

  Chuey explained to him why we were here and why we needed his help. El Maestro, from what I understood, could care less about our problems. What he did offer was the use of an unregistered vehicle, any weapons we might want and directions to where Luis was going. He said if we could deliver the relics he would return Luis’ money to us and make sure we got out of Mexico. He is only interested in the money the relics will bring. Chuey agreed to the deal and he will drop off a vehicle for us in the morning with detailed directions as to where we can find Luis.”

  Danny jumped up. “I can’t believe that crazy Shelly is doing this. Is she totally bonkers? What the hell is she thinking? This is crazy stuff.”

  I pushed him back in his seat. “Danny, never mind about Shelly now.” I looked at everyone. “You people are talking about us going into a strange place and having a battle with Luis and his family over Mayan relics.” I stared at Fabiola. “I know you think you’re tough but Luis has family. You said they are criminals. What chance do we stand against them? This is crazy on 75 different levels. Chuey, are you nuts also? How do you think this can be done.”

  “Por favor Jack, sit down. They do not know we is coming. We surprise them. Also we are no going alone. Assesino has many friends here. They help us. Is so, I think.”

  Assesino nodded in agreement. “I will send three good men with you. They know the jungle. The village is very near the ruins of Palenque. Many turistas, easy to get there. Also I know Luis. He is not a brave man.”

  Fabiola nodded in agreement. “It is true. I blinded myself to his true character to get what I wanted. Senor Centeno is correct. He is a coward. I will make him beg for his life.”

  “Whoa there lady,” I said. “I do not want any killing. El Maestro can promise us anything he wants but I want to leave here alive. If all of you think this is a good idea then I’ll go along but it sure sounds loony to me.”

  We argued more but seeing as El Maestro was willing to help us and Luis had our money it seemed our only choice was to go after both the money and the relics.

  My head was spinning with the prospect of a war in the jungle. I left them while they continued to forge a plan. I went to my room and in a daze changed to a swim suit and went downstairs. I dove in the pool and began to swim laps to clear my mind. I went back and forth until my arms and legs ached and my lungs felt like they would explode. I heaved myself out of the water and lay on my back looking up into the shaded face of Fabiola.

  “And how is my little Gringo? You think we will all die in the jungle?”

  She knelt down and brushed the hair from my face. Her touch was cool and hot at the same time. “Do not fear Jack, La Sirena will look out for you.” She said with a giggle.

  I sat up. “Yeah, that’s very funny. I’ve now gone from one bit of hell to another. All of a sudden my life is like a bad crime movie. I don’t know if I’ve got Sterling Hayden’s part or Elisha Cook’s.”

  She looked puzzled. “I do not understand. Who are these men you speak of?”

  I stood up and wrapped a towel around me. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. All I need now is for Raoul Walsh to show up and yell, “That’s a wrap.”

  She looked at me with a frown. “What are you talking about? Have you had too much sun?”

  I began to laugh. I took her hand and led her to a sun-shaded table. “No Fabiola, just a touch of hysteria. I thought it would be good for me to get away from the dangers in Chicago and now I find myself about to embark on a John Wayne style assault in the jungles of Mexico. Maybe I am already dead and this is all a dream.”

  I reached out and cupped her beautiful face in my hand. “But you are not a dream, you are real and I want you so bad I can taste it.” I pulled her to her feet and led her back to my room. She stood silently facing the blue sea out my window as I took her clothing from her body. The air conditioner gave us goose-bumps or as she called them, “Piel de Pollo”. We jumped in the shower, lathered up and kissed wildly. I rinsed us off while she stroked me to hardness. I led her to the bed and fell on her like a ravenous beast. My fear of death led me to prodigious feats of love-making until we lay spent in a pool of sweat. There was nothing more to say. She sighed, I stared wide eyed at the fan spinning above us. Que sera, sera, I thought. We fell asleep with a soft cool breeze washing over our naked bodies.

  24

  Once again we met in the dining room. Assesino introduced us to the three men seated at his table. They were dressed in typical Veracruzano style; light colored pants and guyabera shirts. The three of them looked hardened and determined. Jose, Chico and Eliondo were the names we got but little else. Assesino ordered food for all of us. Chuey nodded at the three men in a way that made me assume he knew them. I had noticed that he had smiled when he saw them and seemed heartened by their presence.

  After breakfast we were led out back of the hotel and into a service bay for the hotels vehicles. A non-descript gray SUV sat inside as promised. It had three rows of seats and huge tires. The vehicle looked rigged for off-road use. Jose, who had thick forearms and a stocky build, lifted the tail gate of the truck to access the interior. He raised a blanket to expose three Kalashnikovs and a pile of pistols. Along side the weapons were boxes of ammo and some flak vests.

  “Hey, what is all this?” I said. “Can’t we just try and reason with El Diablo when we catch up to him?”

  “Is better we are ready, you know, just for emergencia.” said Chuey.

  I turned to Danny. “Jesus, are you up for this? I knew things might get a little hairy but this is a lot of firepower. We aren’t Rambos; I never e
ven held one of these things.”

  Danny only shrugged. “Hell, that’s what we got these guys for.” He motioned to our three bodyguards who were trying on the flak vests and checking the machine guns.

  I was offered what appeared to be a 357 Magnum but refused it. Fabiola eagerly reached for one of the pistols and began checking the load and the action. Chuey and Danny also took a pistol.

  I smiled at my new found killer-lover. “You seem awfully familiar with the weaponry Fabiola.”

  She grinned. “Well one good thing about Luis, he loved guns and he taught me to shoot. On days we had off from training we would go out and practice. He started calling me La Pistolera. I’m going to make him regret his lessons.”

  I could see that my hope for a reasoned confrontation was slipping away like a tarpon on a slack line. My breakfast started to come up on me. Whatever notion I had about being even slightly in control of this mad foray was disappearing faster than a bobcat after a broken winged sparrow.

  Assesino had the kitchen pack us a cooler full of water and bean tortillas. We said our farewells and left for our first planned stop; a surprise visit to Chuey’s cousin. Hopefully he would have more info on Luis and how many people he had with him.

  Our three guards sat up front. Chico, who said little from behind his thick moustache and scarred face, did the driving. Fabiola and I sat in back of them and Danny and Chuey were behind us.

  Chuey called out directions as we navigated our way through the narrow streets. The sun glinted off the white-washed buildings and slowly cut through the early morning haze as we headed out of town. We were going in a different direction than we did yesterday and I was lost in the maze of tiny twisting streets. The housing got simpler and sparser the farther we went. After we had gone a few miles Chuey yelled something to Chico and he pulled to the side of the road.

  “We stop here,” Chuey said. “You stay in car.”

  After talking rapidly in Spanish Chuey got out of the SUV. Jose and Eliondo followed him. They carried their machine guns with them. The three of them went quickly into a thick copse of palms and were gone from view in seconds.

  “What’s going on?” I said to Danny behind me.

  “Chuey is going to sneak up on his cousin’s house just in case he has company with him. For all we know the info El Maestro gave us may be a load of crap. You can’t trust anyone down here. Chuey thinks he was straight with us but no sense in taking any more chances than we have to. He said if we hear any gun fire to get away as fast as possible. That little guy got guts, don’t he?”

  With the engine off the car began to heat up quickly. I was soon bathed in sweat as the fetid odors of the dense vegetation enveloped me with a cloying earthy smell. Fabiola sat calmly filing her nails. Danny sipped at a water bottle. I was ready to jump out of my skin but they seemed unperturbed. I took some deep breaths and tried to slow my racing pulse. Chico kept peering through the window with his hands on the wheel. The tension of waiting was getting to me.

  “I gotta’ step outside. I can’t sit here anymore.” I started to open the door and Chico reached back and grabbed my arm in a steel grip.

  “No senor, is no good. You sit, you no move.”

  I flopped back in the seat. Fabiola squeezed my leg and held a finger to her lips. I got the message.

  After what seemed like hours we saw the three of them emerge from the dense greenery. They climbed back in the car. We turned around and headed back to the highway.

  “Chuey what happened? Will you talk to me.” I pleaded.

  Jose and Eliondo stared straight ahead. I turned to Chuey. I had never seen him look as he did now. Instead of the usual good-natured grin he always wore his face was now a grim mask.

  “Ay Jack, is bad. Mi primo I think is dead. We find only a chair. All around the chair is much blood. He is stupid man. This is all we find.”

  Chuey held up a gold necklace and gave it to Danny.

  “This is Shelly’s.” Danny said. “I wonder if she left it to tell me she’s still alive. I hope she’s all right.”

  “Jesus,” I said. “Don’t be a sap. You heard what Fabiola told us, she came because she wanted to. Don’t go getting it into your head that you are on a rescue mission to save your kidnapped wife. C’mon Danny, wake up.”

  He smacked me in the back of the head. “What the hell do you know? You’re like all these other creeps that just used her and left after they got their jollies off.”

  “Aw Christ, will you talk to him Chuey. If he’s going off the deep end then I don’t think he ought to be on this trip.”

  Chuey took Danny by the arm and spoke rapidly to him at great length. Fabiola just sat shaking her head.

  “You men, you are all crazy. You want us, you don’t want us, ay chihuaha, yo no comprendo nada.”

  Chico pulled in next to a little road side shack. We were the only ones there. He killed the engine. He barked something and we all got out of the car. Danny and Chuey continued talking. Fabiola told me it was time for a pit stop and something cold to drink. We were leaving for Palenque and it was a six or seven hour drive. They wanted to get there before nightfall.

  I waded through the thick jungle air and found a shed in back. Once inside all I saw was a hole in the ground. Mexican plumbing at its rural finest, I thought to myself. It smelled of human waste and it had to be 120 degrees inside the shack. I pissed as fast as I could and came out sweating and gagging. I found the rest of them standing around a Coke cooler with drinks in their hands. Chuey handed me some Mexican cola. Its coldness felt good. I rolled the bottle against my burning forehead.

  “You no worry Jack, Danny will be OK. He is afraid for Shelly. He knows she is bad but he love her for many years. Is hard for him to think she finally leave him and no come back.”

  “OK Chuey. You know best. You keep an eye on him; we got enough other stuff to worry about.”

  We returned to the car and headed out on highway 145D. Along the way we once again went over our plan. Without being able to find anything out from Chuey’s dead cousin we had to assume that Luis was still with the other three wrestlers and Shelly. Hopefully we could find them without them knowing we were coming and maintain the element of surprise. If he had a lot of other men with him then we would just have to turn back or try and talk to him. However the more everyone made their feelings known I realized my hope of some peaceful settlement with Luis was wishful thinking. I looked at my companions. Chuey probably wanted to kill Luis for murdering his cousin, Fabiola just wanted to maim him for dumping her even though she hated him. Danny was the loose cannon. At this point I wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill Shelly or take her back; maybe a little of both. As for the three stoics in front of me, well who the hell knew what their agenda was. Supposedly they were working for us or Assesino or maybe themselves. If it wasn’t for Chuey’s apparent trust in them I thought we would have had as much to fear from them as from Luis. How the hell did I end up in this mess? My crazy life was turning into a noir thriller but this was not the script I would have written.

  We continued down the nearly deserted road past Indians, ragged children who waved at us and donkey carts hauling produce. The vibrant green low-lying jungle was all around us. I sunk into my seat and just hoped I would live to see Chicago again.

  25

  After a long and boring ride we approached the city of Villahermosa. Fabiola told me we were about 50 miles from Palenque, where we hoped to find Luis. She told me that our three gunsels had contacts here. They would try and find out about Luis movements in the last few days.

  We stopped at a small country inn. A greasy looking guy who I assumed was the manager greeted us. From his obsequious behavior and high pitched splatter of Spanish it was clear that he knew who we were and must have owed Assesino a favor.

  “Bienvenido, my friends,” he said with a big smile, switching to English. “I have been awaiting you. Please let me know if you need anything. I have rooms ready for you.”

  He r
epeated this in Spainsh and then led us inside. The lobby was modest and a far cry from Concho’s place in Vera Cruz. The whole place had a shabby worn look about it.

  He gave us three rooms at the back of the inn. We unloaded our bags and all the weaponry. Chico parked the SUV behind the units and out of sight of the road. Chuey told Danny, Fabiola and me to stay in our rooms and they would bring us some food. He wanted to wait until it was fully dark and then he and the others would go into town and try and make contact with the people who they thought could help us.

  As the actual confrontation with Luis and Shelly got closer I got more nervous. What in God’s name was I thinking? This could turn out to be a disaster. The loss of the money from the matches began to seem insignificant when I compared it to getting my head blown off. Neither Fabiola nor Danny seemed to share my hesitancy. They both just stared at the wall in front of them and said nothing.

  We sat around the table in Danny’s room. The furnishings in this place looked like they hadn’t been changed since the 1940’s. Everything was overstuffed and all in sickly shades of faded mauve. We sank into the chairs and sipped at the chilled bottled water that Senor Santiago had sent to our rooms.

  “I got to admit; this whole deal has got me spooked.” I said. “You two seem to not care what we may be coming up against but me, I’m not too thrilled.”

  Danny stood up and began pacing. “You’re right, I don’t care. What the hell have I got to care about? Shelly left me and what am I looking at? Another few years getting busted up for chump change? I got no home, no future and no wife. Hell, I’ll take ‘em on myself. I might as well go out with guns blazing.”

  He slumped back into his chair and hung his head. Wonderful, I thought to myself, now I got a wrestler with a death wish on my hands.

  I turned to Fabiola who was quietly playing with her pistol. “What do you think?” I said to her. “Will Luis start shooting? Do you think we can talk to him without a battle erupting?”