The Gunman from Guadalez

by Eric Meyer

  “I’ll take her down next, and then you, Juanita. Curtis, lend Kaz a hand. He doesn’t look like he can hold onto the cable.”

  “I’ll help him.”

  Then Manuel was sliding down the cable, and he touched the ground with Eva safely still on his back. Juanita followed, and the flames were fiercer than ever. The Huey was ablaze, and Curtis eyed it warily.

  “We don’t have any longer. It’ll blow any second. Kaz, get down there.”

  “You first, Curtis, I got you into this.”

  “Dammit, I told you to go. Get off the fucking roof!”

  He grabbed him with both hands, and Curtis showed a surprising strength. He dangled Kaz over the edge, so he had no choice but to grab the cable, and he started to climb down. He almost fell when his grip failed with his injured hand, but Curtis was right behind him, and a hand reached down, grabbing the collar of his coat.

  “Keep climbing down. I’ve got you.”

  He climbed down, and they were almost on the ground when the Huey blew, a massive explosion. The cable parted, and they fell the final few feet, falling in a crumpled heap at the foot of the building. Clarence stood over him and helped him up with one hand; the other holding the machine gun like it was a rifle.

  “That’s what I call cutting it fine. A few seconds earlier and you’d have bounced off the concrete.”

  “You’re gonna tell me if I’d landed on my head, I’d have been fine.”

  “Something like that. We’re gonna go for that helicopter before Martinez realizes we’ve gone. You okay to walk?”

  “I’m good. What about Eva?”

  “I’m fine.” He looked up. She was on her feet, looking down on him, “After all that time in the freezer, the burning gasoline was all I needed to get the circulation moving again.” She managed to grin at him, “Just don’t try it at home.”

  He got to his feet and took her in his arms. “I thought you were…” He stopped and stood back, “I’m sorry.”

  He realized he’d thought about her more than he cared to admit.

  “Don’t be sorry. Just get us out of here.”

  He nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They started walking, following Juanita as she led them toward Martinez’s helipad. It was behind a vehicle workshop, and Curtis gave a low whistle. The helicopter was painted matt black, and even the Perspex windows were smoked to hide the occupants. Curtis opened the door and climbed inside. Kaz watched him flick switches and inspect the gauges as they came to life. Manuel rooted around inside the luxurious interior, hide leather seats and plush lining over the cabin sides and roof.

  When he reappeared, his face wore a look of astonishment. “You guys should take a look at this.”

  He hoisted several packages into the open and ripped one open. White powder poured out.

  “Cocaine,” Kaz murmured, “He’d use the helicopter to take it over the border.”

  “What do we do with it?”

  “Rip the packages open when we’re in the air and scatter it.”

  “He’ll never forgive us, Kaz.”

  “Too late for that, my friend. I don’t forgive him, and never will. When he set up the hit that killed Sheryl, forgiveness went out the window. All that’s left is justice.”

  “Not revenge?”

  “Justice.” He thought for a moment, “Biblical fashion. An eye for an eye.”

  Curtis poked his head out the cockpit. “I’m ready to go for engine start. I won’t wait for any preflight checks, just crank her up and we’re away, so get aboard. And pray he doesn’t have any men in the area, because it could be a short flight. All the way to hell.”

  They climbed aboard, and the engine fired. Seconds later, Curtis applied full power for the take off. The engine seemed to take forever to spool up, but eventually he adjusted the collective, and the McDonnell Douglas wobbled into the air. He muttered to himself, cursing his lack of knowledge of the unfamiliar aircraft, corrected, corrected again, and they were hurtling upward. From below, a few shots pursued them as they realized what was happening, but none came near. Curtis adjusted the controls and set a course along the border.

  “I’ll find somewhere quiet to cross. There’s just one thing, Kaz.”

  “Uh, huh.” He was only half listening, looking back at Eva, returning her gaze, and seeing her through new eyes. She’d been kidnapped, almost killed inside that freezer, and she should have been mad enough to toss him out of the helicopter. Yet the look she was giving him was warm, and he knew he’d been dumb.

  I’ve mourned Sheryl for two years, long enough. And if we ever get out of this, something tells me I’ve found a girl with the heart of a lion, with Sheryl’s strength and wisdom, with her compassion, and yet she isn’t Sheryl. She’s different. Dammit, she’s a journalist, a profession I’ve always despised. And now she’s turning my ideas around, and nothing will ever be the same again. Except…

  “What is it, Curtis?”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “Go?”

  “Buddy, you’re a wanted man in the United States, and probably on the Mexican side of the border. What I’m saying is you can’t just step out onto the main street in Lewes and say everything’s fine.”

  It is fine. I have a score to settle. Two scores, with Paco Martinez and with Diego Rivera. I’ll never give up until it’s finished.

  Eva was looking at him. “You could do this the legal way, Kaz. Tell the cops, swear out a statement with the FBI, or whoever is prepared to take the case. Sit back, let them arrest Martinez and Rivera, and you can watch the trial. All the way through to long sentences. Maybe even death.”

  He knew what she was doing. Trying to head him off at the pass, stop him going on with the quest to take down the drug lord and his murderous henchman. She wanted him alive.

  “Do you see the Mexicans allowing the U.S. to extradite them? Or do you believe money will talk, like it always does?”

  She mumbled a reply, which he didn’t hear over the noise of the engine and rotors. But he heard the shout from Curtis.

  “We’re close to the border. Where do I land, Kaz? I need a destination.”

  He was thinking hard. Wherever he went, he was a wanted man, or a marked man if he fell into the hands of the narcos.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Kaz, don’t know won’t cut it. We have to land, buddy, sooner or later.”

  He suddenly remembered the laptop in the pack on his back. “Give me a minute. I need to check something out.”

  “Make it quick, the Mexicans will start showing an interest if we hang around here too long.”

  He took out the laptop, but he couldn’t get past the log in screen. Eva reached over and took it out of his hands.

  “Let me have a look. I assume you’re trying to get access.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know the password.”

  “Have you tried a back door?”

  “A what?”

  “Never mind. This shouldn’t take long.”

  It took her less than a minute, and the machine had booted into Windows. She handed it back to him.

  “What’re you looking for?”

  “Anything.”

  Several minutes later, Curtis was about to give up, and just cross the border and land somewhere out in the desert, when he found it. It hit him like a battering ram, and the knowledge almost sucked the air out of his body. He checked and rechecked, and checked again, but there was no doubt. There was also no way he could make it stick. He knew the rules of evidence, and no way would this laptop ever be accepted into evidence in a court of law.

  Nothing has changed. And everything has changed.

  “Curtis, you wanted a destination.”

  “About time, buddy. Give it to me, and I’ll punch the numbers into the nav computer.”

  “Guadalez.”

  There was a long pause. “You what?”

  “I said Guadalez. We’re going back to Martinez’s place.”

  He didn’t cha
nge course. No one spoke. There was just the roar of the engine and the rotors as they flew on through the Mexican night sky. Finally, Curtis looked around and met his eyes.

  “Did I hear you right?”

  “You did. We’re going back.”

  “To Guadalez?”

  “Back for Martinez. When we cross the border, we’re taking him with us.”

  “Yeah, right. I guess we’ll be taking Rivera along, too.”

  “He won’t be coming back. He’ll be dead.”

  Curtis slowed, and the helicopter went into the hover.

  “I’m not going anywhere until you explain. And you’d better make it quick, because in a few minutes the Mexican Air Force will be taking a keen interest in us. And they have missiles.”

  “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. That’s why we need Martinez.”

  “And Rivera?”

  “It’s personal.”

  Curtis sighed. “Okay, Rivera I get, and the world will be a better place without him, but Martinez? Take him out, and more will step up to take his place. It won’t make one tiny bit of difference.”

  “This isn’t about Martinez.”

  “Then who?”

  Kaz paused, knowing his next words would take some believing. He never got them out. A sudden wash of dizziness swept over him, and everything went black.

  Chapter Ten

  When he came to, the noise of the engine and rotors had stopped. When he passed out, it had been dark, but now he was lying in sunlight. He tried to focus on something and saw Eva's face.

  "Where am I?"

  "Samalayuca. Curtis put down on Manuel's place, or what's left of it after they torched the house. We're a half-mile away from the house, and he touched down in the center of a small wood." She looked around, "Palm trees, they give pretty good cover, as well as shade from the sun."

  "We don't have time to be lying in the shade."

  He attempted to get to his feet, but although his mind commanded his limbs to move, the muscles refused. He slumped back down, and he felt her hand on his forehead.

  "Take it easy. You've been ill and running a high temperature. Clarence thinks it could have been blood poisoning. Manuel managed to retrieve some medical supplies he'd stashed in his house, and the fire didn't get to them. We pumped you up with strong antibiotics, and it's been touch and go for a couple of days."

  "A couple of days! You’re saying I've been out that long."

  "Yep. And you're still not out of trouble. You need several more days to recover."

  "I don't have several days. They'll know I have the laptop, which means they'll start cover their tracks, in case I hand it over to the authorities."

  "What's on it that's so dangerous to them?"

  Juanita appeared, hand-in-hand with Manuel. Curtis and Clarence showed up, and they stared down at him, waiting for him to answer.

  "You won't believe me."

  "Buddy, that's what you said in the helicopter just before you passed out. We're still waiting to know what we won't believe."

  "Dr. Nathan Weatherby."

  His face creased up in puzzlement. "The Medical Examiner?"

  "That's right. Chief Medical Examiner and drug trafficker."

  Clarence thought for a moment and frowned. "You're right. I don't believe it. How did you arrive at that conclusion?"

  "The laptop I pinched from Martinez. Eva, if you boot it up and look at the emails, you'll start to understand."

  Even talking for a few minutes had tired him, and Juanita helped him sip from a bottle of water while Eva tapped at the keys of the laptop.

  She glanced aside at him. "Did you know the battery is running down on this thing?"

  He put the water bottle down. "I didn't know. Is it enough for you to look at those emails?"

  She was staring at the screen. "I have them loaded now. I reckon we have about fifteen minutes before it dies. After that we’ll need to charge it. I guess you didn't bring the power supply."

  "As I recall, I was in something of a hurry at the time."

  She ignored his sardonic tone. "Don't forget it next time. Hey, this is interesting. Damn, you guys need to look at this."

  They crowded around the tiny laptop screen, and Kaz in the ample arms of Juanita. “I looked after you while you were ill,” she murmured, and there was something about her he hadn’t seen before. Gone was the sensual, former prostitute, and her face wore an expression of care and concern.

  “You should have been a nurse. You’d have been good.”

  A shrug. “When I was a young girl I wanted to train as a nurse, but it never happened.”

  “Why not?”

  “Cocaine, poverty, and despair. I couldn’t even afford the bus fare to attend college. I also then had a daughter to support. Her name is Elena. I never want her to take up the same life as me. Prostitution is not a good way to live.”

  More of a living hell.

  He gave her grateful smile. “You’d have made a great nurse, Juanita. Maybe it’s not too late. Your daughter would be proud of you.”

  “If Martinez lives, my life has effectively ended. He’ll know I’ve helped you, and he’ll find me and kill me. No matter where I hide, it won’t make any difference. All I can hope is he never finds Elena.”

  “We’ll take care of Martinez.”

  “Many people have tried, and they all failed.”

  “Juanita, if you fail the first time, you just keep trying.”

  “They couldn’t keep trying. Anyone who goes up against him has bought themselves a death sentence.” She sighed, “What wouldn’t I give to put a bullet in that man.”

  “He hasn’t killed us yet, and he’ll be going back to face justice in the States.”

  “And Diego Rivera? He is the devil; did you know they call him ‘The Beast?’ Killing is in his dark soul, and he has no pity inside him, none.”

  “I’ll handle Rivera.”

  “Not if he kills you first. And in your state, Kaz, that’s likely to happen.”

  “I told you, I’ll handle him. It’s personal. He killed my wife.”

  Her expression softened. “I’m so sorry. It’s a good reason to kill him.”

  “And maybe you’ll get your chance at Martinez. But first he has to testify about people in the States who’ve helped him run his drug empire, like Doc Weatherby. One of the most respected men in the State, and he’s a narco scumbag.”

  “He deals drugs, this Weatherby?”

  “He deals money. Selling drugs is the easy bit, but it’s laundering the money that’s really hard. I haven’t looked at the stuff on that laptop, but I’m betting he owns a chunk of my home city, Lewes.”

  Eva and the others reappeared. “About twenty percent at a guess. Billions of dollars in property values, and it’s all there on the laptop. The battery went before we could read it all, but we’ve seen enough. Martinez processes and traffics the drugs, Doc Weatherby launders the cash into commercial property, and if anyone gets in the way, Rivera kills them. The trinity of evil, and what is astonishing is no one will believe it. As you said, the laptop won’t stand up in court, and if they think they’re threatened, the evidence will just disappear.”

  “You were right,” Clarence said, “We need Martinez to go back with us. And the last thing he’ll expect is for us to have another pop at him. If we can grab him and take him over the border, we have proof of everything. The whole rotten structure of his business will collapse, along with the men who’ve been helping him. Like Doc Weatherby.”

  It was almost midday, and Juanita offered to cook a meal. Concocted from canned food rescued from Manuel’s house, it was hot and tasty, even if the rice was partly singed and the meat pre-cooked in the cans. Afterward, they sat in the shade of the palms, and Kaz had one thing on his mind. The murmur of conversation stopped abruptly.

  “It has to be tonight.”

  They all looked at him. “What was that?” Clarence gasped.

  “Tonight, before they’ve had
time to shred the evidence. They’ve already had too much time.”

  “You don’t know they’re shredding anything,” Clarence objected.

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “Okay, I guess I would. But you’re forgetting something. There’s no way you’re fit enough to do anything, and you won’t be for several days. Maybe me and Manuel can do something, although I don’t know what. You’ve seen his place, and he has plenty of firepower.”

  “You’re forgetting something. We poured burning avgas into his house, and the last I saw, it was in flames. He won’t be living in there. He’ll have found somewhere else, a temporary arrangement until they make repairs. That means he’s vulnerable, right now. Until he can reorganize his troops, he’s exposed. There’ll never be a better time, and every day that goes by gives him more time to recover. It’s now or never.”

  “Kaz.”

  He looked at Juanita. They all looked at Juanita. “What is it?”

  “Rivera. He’ll be back with Martinez.”

  “I told you; I’ll take care of Rivera.” She looked doubtful, but she didn’t agree. “We need to find out where he’s staying, and we need transport, something that’ll get us there and back. Manuel, do you have any contacts in the area?”

  He nodded. “I think I can do something.”

  “Clarence, how’re we off for ordnance?”

  “The M-60, a couple of M-16s, and your Browning Hi-Power. Eva looked after it.”

  “We could do with some more. Manuel, can do?”

  “I’ll try. I’d better leave now.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Juanita gave him a fond look, “It’s a nice day for a walk. Besides, it could be the…”

  She stopped, but they knew what she was about to say. It could be their last day. He itched to get back into the fight with Martinez and Rivera, but Eva persuaded him to rest. “It’s gonna be a long night, and you’ll need all your strength.”

  He lay back, enjoying the warmth of the day. She fussed over him, making sure he was comfortable, that he had water to drink, putting her arms around him, as if she could revive him by virtue of her feminine powers. After a few minutes, he was inclined to think she could.