Black Coke

by James Grenton

  The door creaked open. A guard stepped through.

  ‘Hey, you’ll never believe what—’

  The guard stopped in surprise when he saw Nathan. His hand went for his weapon.

  Nathan shot him in the head.

  Chapter 95

  Putumayo, Colombia

  17 April 2011

  Nathan lay flat against the wall, listening. All of his senses were acutely switched on. His eyesight was clear despite the dim lighting, his hearing was sharp, even his touch was ultra sensitive.

  Footsteps. There were three pairs of them, marching down a corridor ahead. He narrowed his eyes and spotted a junction. The guards walked straight past without seeing him.

  Nathan turned right and reached the metal door leading to the production lab. He waved the swipe card in front of the scanner. The door slid open.

  Three men in white lab coats were pouring over a line of test tubes. Their heads swivelled round to look at him. One of them was Herbert. A look of annoyance crossed his face, as though he was asking who dared interrupt him. Then he recognised Nathan, and his mouth fell.

  Nathan lifted his gun. Any sense of remorse at killing people dissipated, replaced by a cold fury amplified by the drug still pulsing through his veins. He fired six rounds. Herbert fell first. The other two collapsed on top of him like puppets whose strings have been cut. Nathan strode up to them and finished them off with a single bullet to each head. They twitched and shuddered and lay still.

  Nathan looked around. His bag was on a table in the corner, next to a steel drum with the overlapping circles of a biohazard symbol emblazoned on it. He pulled out the night vision goggles, the Semtex, wires and remote detonator. He walked around the room, placing the Semtex at key spots and wiring it up. It took time, but his mind was lucid and he knew he had to do it properly. He’d seen too many botched operations because the explosives guy went too fast.

  He checked the set up. He could detonate it remotely, once he was out of here. Satisfied, he headed for the door leading to the other prison cells.

  Amonite swivelled in her chair in the control room.

  ‘Get El Patrón on the line,’ she said.

  Dex punched a number on the phone and handed it to Amonite.

  ‘El Patrón?’

  ‘Didn’t I say I’d be the one calling you?’

  ‘There’s been a slight problem.’

  El Patrón’s voice went grave. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Nathan Kershner. He’s back.’

  There was silence on the other end of the line.

  ‘I’m sorting it out as we speak,’ Amonite said, her throat tight.

  ‘You incompetent fool. I’m coming over.’

  ‘That would be dangerous.’

  ‘Nothing is too dangerous for El Patrón. By the way, a special friend of yours has come to see me. He’s spoken to me about a few things concerning you. I’ll bring him with me. I think we all need to talk face to face.’

  ‘A friend?’

  But El Patrón had hung up.

  Amonite stared blankly at the computer screen in front of her. How dare he speak to her like that. And who the hell was he referring to? For a start, Amonite didn’t have any friends.

  Dex took the phone back. ‘Did he say anything about the gala? Was he happy with the result?’

  Amonite whacked the desk with her fist. El Patrón coming over was not good news. She slammed her laptop shut, stood up and reached for her assault rifle that was leaning against the wall.

  ‘Let’s go hunt the fucker,’ she said.

  Nathan tried the card against the scanner for the cell where the other prisoners were kept. Nothing happened. He tried again, then realised he probably didn’t have the right security clearance. He jogged back towards the production lab and searched around in Herbert’s clothes, found his card and jogged back.

  The door slid open. A stench of death and decay hit him so hard he nearly gagged. The place was pitch black. He switched on his night vision goggles.

  All of the prisoners were dead. They lay on top of each other, like a grotesque statue of death. Nathan stepped round them, nearly slipping in a puddle of blood, and headed for the doors on the far wall. It looked like a row of cells. He swiped his card on the scanner next to the door the most to the left. The cell was empty. He tried the next one, and the next. Empty.

  He pushed the desperation from his mind. If Manuel wasn’t in the last cell, he’d have to keep on searching. But he was running out of time. Everyone must have been on high alert by now.

  The door to the last cell slid open. Nathan peered in. A man was huddled in a corner. Nathan shook the man’s shoulders. The man didn’t move. Nathan checked the man’s heart beat: he was alive. The man opened two bleary eyes.

  It was the young soldier Nathan had stuffed in a cupboard. He’d clearly been locked up and punished.

  ‘Where’s the campesino?’ Nathan said.

  The man recoiled and stammered something.

  ‘My friend,’ Nathan said. ‘Where is he?’

  The man shook his head frantically.

  This was getting nowhere. Nathan rushed out of the cell, over the piles of bodies, and back into the production lab. Maybe Manuel wasn’t even in the complex.

  He heard a crackle of static. He ran towards Herbert’s body and unclipped the walkie talkie from his belt.

  ‘Herbert?’ It was Amonite’s voice. ‘Answer me, you dumb fuck.’

  Nathan switched off the walkie talkie and attached it to his belt. He left through the far door.

  He had to keep searching for Manuel.

  Amonite burst into the production lab. Three bodies lay on the floor amid a pool of blood.

  ‘Herbert!’ she shouted as she turned over his body. She knelt next to it and felt for a pulse. She shot to her feet and kicked Herbert’s corpse repeatedly in the head.

  ‘You idiot, Herbert,’ she yelled. ‘You fucking idiot.’

  A strong arm grabbed her shoulder.

  ‘Chill out, boss,’ Dex said. ‘Kershner must be close.’

  ‘He’s wasted my main scientist. What the hell’s El Patrón gonna say to that? This is a disaster.’

  ‘Let’s get Kershner first. We’ll deal with this later.’ Dex gestured to the open doorway leading to the prisoners’ cells. ‘Maybe down there.’

  Amonite grunted and undid the safety catch on her rifle. Kershner was going to pay for this. They headed for the cells, Dex right behind her.

  ‘What’s happened here?’ Amonite said as they stepped over the rotting corpses of the prisoners.

  ‘Looks like they’re dead.’

  ‘I can see that. But why the hell did Herbert let them die?’

  ‘I guess he didn’t need them anymore. Or the drug was too strong.’

  Amonite grunted again. They reached the far right cell and found the young guard huddled against the wall. Amonite kicked him in the ribs. He looked up, then recoiled into a corner, his body shaking.

  ‘Seen anyone?’ Amonite said in Spanish.

  He didn’t reply. His eyes were wide and his jaw was shaking. She took a step towards him. He put his hands over his face.

  ‘I asked you a question.’ Amonite raised the butt of her rifle. ‘Seen anyone?’

  The guard nodded anxiously.

  Amonite kicked him again. ‘Who then?’

  ‘The same man as last time.’

  ‘Where did he go?’

  The guard shook his head. ‘Please, don’t hurt me.’

  ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’

  The guard curled up into a ball. Amonite whacked him on the head with the butt of her rifle. He collapsed.

  ‘Kershner can’t be far,’ Amonite said. ‘Let’s get the bastard.’

  Nathan hid in a small alcove as a group of guards rushed past towards the production lab. He eased himself out of the darkness and jogged ahead until he reached a staircase leading up a level. He reckoned he was somewhere near the centre of the complex. He could eith
er continue searching the ground level, or go up one.

  He took the steps three at a time. There was no time now for taking things slowly and carefully. He reached a room that had three desks, a few chairs, flipcharts, phones, radio equipment. Some kind of control centre. On the desk in front of him was a laptop. He put it in his rucksack. He placed some Semtex under the desks, then ran back down the stairways.

  Footsteps.

  Two people.

  Coming closer.

  He ran in the opposite direction to the one he’d come from, down a dark corridor that ended with a metal door. Nathan scanned the card and rushed through. He was in a large room piled to the ceiling with bags of black powder. Enough Black Coke to create a major disaster when it hit the streets. Next to it were stacks of crates. Some of them were open. They contained hundreds of British-made L85A2 rifles, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. Several of them were stuffed full of C-4 plastic explosives. Enough firepower for a small army.

  Nathan pulled a large chunk of Semtex from his rucksack. If he could blow up this storeroom, half the compound would be destroyed. As he was laying the explosives, he noticed a door in the corner, partly concealed by a cupboard. He pushed the cupboard away and opened the door. It was dark inside. He put on his night vision goggles and entered.

  Something hit him on the head. He staggered backwards. A blow to the chest then the stomach. He gasped for breath. A kick to the knees. He crumpled. He tried to catch a glimpse of his attacker. Just a whirl of arms and legs beating down on him.

  Nathan ducked sideways. He kicked out with his right foot, hitting his attacker in the groin. The attacker collapsed against the wall. Nathan jumped to his feet, aimed his gun.

  The attacker looked up at him. Nathan stopped.

  ‘Manuel!’

  ‘Nathan, is that you?’

  Nathan grabbed Manuel’s arm and dragged him into the light of the storeroom. He ripped off his night vision goggles.

  ‘I nearly blew your brains out,’ Nathan said.

  ‘Good to see you, my friend.’

  ‘You okay?’

  ‘Alive.’

  ‘Right, let’s get out of here.’

  Amonite marched past the stairs to the control centre. Then she stopped.

  ‘Check he’s not up there,’ she said.

  Dex ran up, three steps at a time.

  ‘Nobody here,’ he shouted down.

  ‘Grab the laptop.’

  ‘What laptop?’

  ‘On the desk in front of you, you dumb fuck.’

  ‘There’s nothing.’

  ‘What?’ Amonite ran up and pushed past him. She looked around the room. Dex was right. The laptop had gone. She yanked out her walkie talkie. ‘Block all exits. Now!’

  She leapt down the stairs and headed down the corridor.

  ‘Where we going?’ Dex said, right behind her.

  ‘To check the storeroom, where that campesino’s locked up. It’s the only place left.’

  Chapter 96

  Putumayo, Colombia

  17 April 2011

  Nathan ran down the corridor and hung a right. Manuel was just behind him, limping, but running regardless. This place was like a maze, but they had to find the exit quick. There was only so long they could wander around without getting caught.

  They turned a corner. Nathan stopped. Two guards were coming the other way. They shouted and lifted their assault rifles. Nathan crouched and fired four times. The shots echoed against the walls. The guards collapsed backwards. Nathan ran up to them and finished them off. Then he grabbed their rifles and handed one to Manuel. They stepped over the bodies and pressed ahead, passing some alcoves on either side. The corridor ended with a double metal door.

  ‘It’s the exit,’ Nathan said, relief flooding through him. ‘Get ready.’

  They raced up to the doors. There was a scanner to the left, on the wall. Nathan swiped it with his card. Nothing happened. He swiped it again.

  Damn. Maybe his card didn’t work for the exits, or maybe it had been deactivated. He ran back to the two dead guards and searched their pockets for their swipe cards. He found them and threw them to Manuel.

  ‘Try these. I’ll stay here. Just in case.’

  He crouched, weapon ready, facing back into the complex. His vision and mind were still unnaturally clear. A sense of invincibility flowed through him. The drug definitely had extremely positive effects. He felt an urge for more.

  ‘These aren’t working either,’ Manuel called from behind him.

  Nathan’s mind was racing. He could hear running footsteps. Shouting. Weapons being chambered. They were trapped.

  He grabbed the walkie talkie and switched it on.

  ‘Alert is over,’ he said. ‘Open all exits. I repeat, open all exits.’

  A pause, then a crackle.

  ‘Nice try, Kershner,’ Amonite said. ‘That ain’t gonna work.’

  Nathan shoved the walkie talkie in his pocket.

  Amonite’s laugh came through, muffled. ‘We’re gonna get you.’

  There was only one option left. Nathan ran back to the metal doors. He fumbled inside his rucksack for the remaining Semtex.

  ‘Cover me,’ he said to Manuel.

  He placed the explosives against the door and the wall. Manuel took position next to the alcoves. Nathan unwound the wire and hooked up the Semtex.

  Gunfire.

  Shouts.

  Manuel firing back.

  Nathan cancelled out everything around him. He had to focus on now, get it all wired up properly.

  More gunfire. A scream.

  ‘Nathan!’ Manuel shouted. ‘Can’t hold them much longer.’

  Nathan finished wiring up the explosives. No time to check it. He sprinted back to Manuel, crouching against the gunfire. He pulled Manuel into one of the alcoves.

  ‘Fuck you, Amonite,’ he said into the walkie talkie. ‘We’re out of here.’

  He pressed on the detonator.

  The blast tore the metal door to pieces.

  The explosions sent Amonite reeling. She dropped her weapon and fell flat on her back. Her face was hot. Thick smoke and the smell of burning filled the air. Scraps of metal pulsed scarlet. Screaming erupted up ahead, mixed with gunfire.

  She did a mental body check. Just minor burns. She staggered to her feet. Dex was lying next to her, not moving. His torso was a bloodied mess. She checked his pulse on his wrist, then his neck.

  dead.

  She whacked the ground with her closed first. Dex, her closest collaborator, wasted by that maverick Soca agent.

  ‘Kershner!’ she yelled. ‘You’re going to pay for this.’

  She ran into the smoke. The metal doors had been torn right off their hinges and were lying around on the earth and grass outside. Fragments of rock were everywhere. The ground was black in places.

  ‘He’s gone,’ a guard said behind her.

  She spun round, ready to whack the guard in the face, when the whir of a helicopter cut through the air. Her heart jumped. Was this El Patrón, arriving so soon, just at the wrong moment?

  She ran to the top of the hilltop, all thoughts about Nathan temporarily pushed to the back of her mind. A Lynx helicopter descended slowly, scattering bits of earth, grass, leaves and mud everywhere. Amonite put her hand over her eyes, nose and mouth and took a few steps back.

  The Lynx landed. The side door swung open. Amonite felt her heart accelerate even more. Her hands felt sweaty and her head faint. What the hell was she going to tell El Patrón? Would he order her shot on the spot?

  A Front guard jumped out and pulled someone behind him. It was a young woman with a slim body, dark hair and downcast eyes. Amonite had seen her somewhere before.

  But where was El Patrón?

  Amonite pushed past them and peered into the helicopter. It was empty.

  She sighed with relief.

  ‘Who the fuck’s this?’ she said, turning to the guard and his captive.

  The woman loo
ked up at her. Recognition flashed across her pretty but bruised face. Amonite felt her mouth twist into a huge grin. She’d forgotten all about Lucia Carlisla being captured and flown over.

  ‘Come here, my dear,’ Amonite said, grabbing Lucia by the shoulder and tugging her forwards. ‘I’m so glad to see you.’