by Rowley, M C
“Let me.”
My son stood still, chained like an animal and observed me with hatred. The muscles in my face quivered as I held back my tears. I had never seen something so pitiful and tragic. The human life I had failed to save 22 years ago now here to remind me of it. The years I had not been with him, taught him about life, held his hand in the dark, read him stories, played football. All of it wasted, and the suffering we had all received. Eleanor would be destroyed seeing this. I wanted him to kill me. I wanted him to plug a dagger deep into my chest so I could hold his head to my face and tell him I loved him. And that I was sorry.
There was a knock at the door, and another large man in chinos and a blue vest white shirt - one of the private security guys at the conference center - entered. He nodded at Esteban.
“Listo, señor,” he said.
Esteban nodded back. “Perfecto.”
I snapped out of my trance. Eleanor was still in danger. I couldn´t give up now.
“Carlitos here will take you in the chopper Mr Dyce. We will stop the chopper a kilometer away from Reynolds´ people, and give you an hour. If you don´t return with Pep at your side after that, we use force. Understood?”
“Yes,” I said. “You´re coming?”
“You better believe it,” said Esteban and he walked to me and undid the ties at my wrists and my legs. I could move again and blood washed into the tendons in my arms.
I stood up. We were almost the same height, and I looked at him in the eyes. Esteban had betrayed me. A man he didn´t even know. He had used one man´s terrible misfortune against him, for his own selfish gains. And what about all of us? The cartel must have taken hundreds of children like Jairo. I had to make sure that whatever greater good I chose in the end, Esteban would fall on the wrong side of it.
His man, Carlitos said, “come with me to the roof.”
Up on the roof, a huge green Bell helicopter awaited us, rotors already spinning. The noise was immense, and the wind hit us like a wall. I saw we were still in Lujano. Some sort of hotel tower, but I didn´t recognize the immediate vicinity. There were other security personnel standing around, waiting for us. They were armed to the teeth. Each had a semi-automatic rifle in their hand and at least two bloc pistols around their waists. They all wore cyclist-style shades with reflective skins, and looked grim and serious as we approached.
Carlitos waved his hand in a sort of coded circular spin, and the guys jumped up into the helicopter, and I saw the pilot nod to him.
We approached and climbed up into the cabin. Jairo was pulled by force, banging his knees on the rim on the way while Esteban was aided like an old señora.
The luxury of the interior surprised me. The seats were beige and leather and wide. They looked comfortable and of a high quality, like a German car. Carlitos got in and sat down next to one of his men. I sat on the opposite bench. They all put headphones and mics on, and I got just noise reducing headphones. I put them on and looked at Jairo. His face was turned the other way. I thought of Eleanor.
Carlitos handed my a small color printed map, and a red marker pen.
I looked at it and found the highway that led from Lujano out of town. I followed it with my finger until I got the industrial park where Polysol was located. Then, I traced our escape route where Kyle and Jason´s team had picked us up.
I eventually found the route we had taken to the first hiding place, close to where Salvatierra had been killed.
From there, I traced Kyle´s and my journey through the small town to the North and there nestled in the hills, Pozos. I circled it like a target and handed the map back to Carlitos.
He took it and passed it to the pilot, who looked at it alongside a tablet computer, nodded, began flicking switches and pressing buttons, and the chopper lurched forward and rose. Everyone grabbed their arm rest as we hovered for a minute, and then, gradual and slow, we rose up high above the building, and moved forward.
Esteban´s men would give me an hour. I had not considered this as a gamble. I had been obsessed by the four I had already taken, and won. But this was a gamble too.
That Jason and his team were still at Pozos.
That Pep was with them.
And that they would let me speak to Eleanor.
As for my decisions, I had to choose who would fall. Esteban for sure. Jason too. Pep? Maybe. Reynolds? Me?
That sacrifice was necessary now.
A lot of bad and little good.
The chopper´s rotors deafened and thumped at my ears, despite the ear protectors, but the ride was smooth. We had already circled around the city and now travelled north. The city was a kind of L shape of gray indiscriminate buildings, surrounded by green hills and mountains.
After about twenty minutes the chopper began to descend. Before long, we hovered over the middle green hills as he found a flat spot on which to let us disembark.
This time, he killed the rotors and suddenly everything was silent.
Everyone took off their headsets, and jumped down and I followed suit. Carlitos turned to me,
“Pozos is one kilometer that way,” and pointed toward one of the hills. “You got an hour, ok?”
I nodded and set off. I didn´t need to waste any more time.
The going was rough at first, and I even had to climb a couple of small slopes.
I was approaching Pozos from the West this time, and after a while, I saw the small dilapidated buildings of the ghost town.
I slowed down. It was important to not make them jump, but I also wanted to make sure they didn´t run with Pep.
I got to the closest building and then moved in short bursts from wall to wall. At last, the tourist cabin came into my view. And my heart soared to see the two Tundra trucks parked outside.
I still went with care. Building to building, corner to corner until I got to the cabin.
I walked to the back part and found the side window, climbed up on an old medium sized barrel and looked through.
There were two people sitting on chairs, tied up and gagged. One was Pep, looking stressed again, in the same clothes we had left Polysol in.
The other person I hadn´t seen in what felt like a long time.
Eleanor.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Eleanor´s mouth was covered and her hands were tied together but sat on her lap. Her legs were tied to each leg of the chair. She was wearing weekend clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair was neat, but I could tell she´d been pushed around a bit. There were small dark bruises on her arms and neck. My heart leapt into my throat as the gravitas of what I had caused hit me. I stepped off the barrel, put my back to the wall of the cabin and sank down.
The sky, still a patchwork quilt of thick and dark cloud, finally broke. The rain drops hit the dry dirt ground like a violent chemical reaction, and the stench of sun baked vegetation rose up into the air. I got up, and the droplets slammed into my shirt making inch wide circumferences.
I walked around the cabin, opened the front door and walked in.
At first, Jason, Hernandez, Kyle and Bayer all drew their guns on me, and luckily for their training, didn´t pull the trigger.
It was hard to tell whose eyes were more shocked to see me between Eleanor and Pep.
Eleanor´s eyebrows were so stretched upward, the whites of her eyes made perfect rings around the blue centers.
“Get her out of here now!” said Jason, “And him too!”
Bayer and Hernandez grabbed Eleanor by her underarms and carried her with the seat still tied to her to the back part of the cabin. Pep fought a little but eventually let them do the same with him.
I looked at Jason, and he looked at me. His eyes said sorry but his expression grew tight as he gathered himself.
“You screwed up,” he said. “But you´re in time. And I don´t even want to know where you´ve been or what you´ve done, because it doesn´t matter shit.”
I counted the time back to where I had left Esteban´s men. I reckoned twenty minutes had p
assed already.
Forty to go.
“You´ve seen her now and I´m guessing from your lack of shock, you figured it out,” said Jason. “So let´s not waste time with the dancing. We need you to confess to Pep´s kidnapping, on a live stream to the New York Times.”
Jason´s face had an alien downturned look to it, tilted sideways at a tiny angle, mouth screwed up.
“What do I get in return?”
“Eleanor.”
I nodded.
“I´ll do it,” I said, “but I need to see my wife.”
Jason peered over to where Bayer was setting up a small standalone mic with the laptops. He turned back to me.
“Ok,” he said. “You get five minutes Then you´re on. It´ll be live, and you even think of changing the game plan, the connection gets cut and we shoot Eleanor in the head.”
It was good enough. He turned and started walking me to towards the back room where Eleanor had gone. I counted up the minutes in my head. I had thirty tops.
Jason opened the door, and Kyle got up. The room was dark and dank, and apart from the crappy one person bed, Eleanor sat alone tied to the chair.
“Untie her,” said Jason. And Kyle did.
Eleanor looked at me with astonishment in her face. Fear, and confusion flushed her features. It was the most heartbreaking thing I had ever seen. The damage done.
“Let´s go, you got five minutes,” said Jason, and Kyle followed him out of the room and shut the door.
I turned to my wife and ran to her and we embraced. My arms stretched so far around her I almost touched my own shoulders. She started to shudder in tears I felt myself teetering on the edge too, but then she pushed me hard and landed a ferocious slap to my face.
“Screw you, Scotty,” she said.
“We don´t have much time,” I said. “And I know what I have done cannot be repaired. I know that. But our son,” and I had to stop. The muscles in the jaw that are connected to the chemical energy that comes from your brain when you cry jolted into an uncontrollable pain, but I held it.
“Our son.”
Eleanor looked at me, and worded why? from her red stained and tear streaked face.
“Our son is alive,” I said, finally.
Her face lightened, and then transfigured with terrible shock.
So Jason had told her the lie too. She had believed our son dead. The son she never knew.
“I´m going to get you out of here, El, but you have to be careful.”
She started to cry. I went to comfort her, but she pushed me hard.
“Listen to me. I´ll tell you everything. I was going to, but this happened and I, I´m sorry they got you. I never meant for this. We don´t have enough time.”
Her eyes were bloodshot and around her eyes had gone gray from lack of sleep. I had kept the truth from her these nine months to protect her, I had thought, and all the time the truth had been her cure. I had deprived her of it, and it had nearly killed her to find out her son lived, and hadn´t died
“Our son was taken by a cartel, and brought up by them. He turned into one of them. And pledged to murder us. It was all Esteban.”
“Who´s Esteban?” she asked.
“Matias Esteban. The Matias Esteban,” I said.
Her face registered surprise, for about 2 seconds. I supposed it made so much sense, like it had to me, the fact a rich guy had illegal endeavors hardly shocked.
“What is going on, Scott?”
“He owns me El. His people contacted me nine months ago, and threatened me. They showed me a video of our son. He was a kid. But he—did terrible things. They told me I had to steal information from International Paper. And that was it, we´d get him back. They told me to tell nobody. But it changed. When the job finished, they ordered me here.”
Eleanor´s head slumped downwards. I continued,
“Then it got out of control. There´s too much to tell you now in such short time. But the most important thing is that our son is still alive. And he´s close by.”
Eleanor lifted her head. “What?”
I shushed her.
“Help is coming,” I said. “Keep your head down, and we´ll get out of this.”
Eleanor was crying, fresh tears ran down her cheeks like a leak had broken.
I felt my own tears building up as I remembered what they had made me watch.
“I´m sorry.”
Eleanor looked up at me, “Why didn´t you tell me?”
I shook my head. “The lie got too big. The work became dangerous. They threatened me. They threatened you. But that´s no excuse.”
“You´re damn straight,” she said, and she stood tall and faced me. I had never seen anger like it. Her face trembled, her facial muscles bunched up like strings in knots, and she went for me. I jumped back to avoid her hand but lowered my shoulder and clasped her around her waist and held her.
“Eleanor, I´m sorry, I should have told you. But they threatened your life, through our son.”
She slumped against me.
“All these years, Scott. He never knew.”
Behind us, the door opened and Jason came in and put his hand on my shoulder. I brushed it off and turned to him, “Don´t touch me, asshole.”
“Time´s up.”
And he pulled me out. As we walked back into the room, I turned back and saw Eleanor knelt on the floor framed by the old wooden door. My entire being filled with sorrow.
Then the door shut and Kyle stood in front of it.
I turned back to the room. On the desk, the same laptops sat whirring away, and a video camcorder on a tripod had been set up. Pep was tied up facing it, and there was an empty chair for me.
I ran a count in my head. I figured only five minutes remained.
I sat down and looked at the camera. Jason was behind it, and with him sat Bayer, Hernandez and Aronson watching. Jason was on the phone and was speaking in English with what I guessed must have been the New York Times contact. Such was the nature of news these days. No printing press dictating the release of information, but live streams, tweets and videos shot on cell phones.
Jason looked at me, still holding the phone, “Yeah, he´s ready.”
And he signed off and looked at me.
“You know what to do, Scott. One wrong move and Kyle has her orders to shoot Eleanor. Now, you say we caught you. Mexican investigators are what we are. You don´t mention any other names, understood?”
I nodded.
The little green webcam light came on and I looked into it.
“Who are you?” asked Jason.
“My name is Scott Timothy Dyce. I am a British national and have been working as a corporate spy in Mexico and parts of Latin America.”
“Did you kidnap Governor Jose Luis Augusto?”
“Yes. Under the strict orders of Matias Esteban, my employer.”
I let it hang there for a bit. It had weight when I said it aloud.
Jason nodded.
“Who is holding you now?”
“A team of Mexican investigators. We have been treated well. I am handing Governor Jose over to the officials shortly.”
“Then what is the purpose of this confession?”
“To expose Matias Esteban for what he is. I was ordered to pick up a package some days ago, and the package turned out to be the Governor. I plan on releasing the governor today for the Mexican authorities to take him into safety, and turn myself in. I ask to be extradited and to be treated fairly taking into consideration the fact that I was forced to do this, and that I am releasing the Governor as stated.”
Bayer and Hernandez then came from the back room, dragging Pep by his arms, and brought him in front of the camera. Pep looked dazed, but awake and alert enough to make eye contact with the lens.
Jason nodded, and the video clicked off. He dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. I could hear the excitement in the voice on the other line.
“That good for you then?” Jason said into the phone, and smiled. He hu
ng up and looked at us. I looked at Pep, whose face had slumped into a deep catharsis.
“Well done, Scott, not so—
But Jason´s voice was cut off by a large explosion. We all dived down to the floor except Pep, who screamed through his gag and wriggled in his chair.
I did the count in my head.
Esteban´s team were right on time.
Chapter Forty
I scrambled toward the door where Kyle guarded Eleanor.
BOOM.
Another explosion, and one of the corners of the cabin evaporated into smoke and dust, leaving a massive gaping hole.
I struggled to fathom them using RPGs, a bit extreme to say the least. But then Esteban had said he didn´t take risks.
Everyone was on the floor except Pep.
Eleanor was behind me in the room. I turned back toward it and started crawling again.
“Stop there, Scott,” said Jason´s voice over the chaos.
I turned and he had his pistol aimed at me from a lying position.
“Untie the Governor instead,” he said.
“I did what you asked,” I said over the din, “let me get her out of here.”
But Jason had turned back and was busy firing shots off out of the hole in the cabin wall by now but still shouted back to me, “I ain´t stupid Scott. This was a bad decision you made.”
The noise trebled, and I ducked down as Bayer, Hernandez, Aronson and Kyle joined in by running to the edge of the hole in the cabin wall and draw fire toward Esteban´s men outside.
Backed up, Jason rolled over to reload, and looked at me while he did.
“That video went live already man. It´s too late for you. But I need you to untie the governor. Now.”
I scrambled back toward the terrified Pep and got to his hands. They were tied with plastic ties and were cutting his skin. I moved to the next table to look for something sharp.
Bullets started hitting the inside of the cabin. A tornado of them. Everything dulled out to the cascade of metal hitting metal and wood. I dived down again. We all dived down. Pep was screaming muffled cries at me. I worked along to the next table and looked up at it.