“If he brought the girl at all, it was surely because he heard about the ransom, Señor Ortiz. Maybe she told him about it because she was afraid for her life and knew he would kill her unless he had a good reason not to.” The man turned to Eric. “So, tell us something, if you did bring her back with you, then where is she? Why is she not with you right now?”
“Because I didn’t know who I could trust. We first stopped at a village called La Carroza that Carmen was certain was under the protection of Los Nuevos, but it was not. The men who greeted us there tried to kill us. We escaped, but they damaged the airplane, hitting one of our fuel tanks with a rifle bullet. We lost most of our fuel and had to land again on a small road in the mountains just west of here. I set out alone to try and find someone from Los Nuevos, because I knew it was the only way I could protect her. She is safely in hiding with my partner, Luke, and I can take Don Carlos directly to her as soon as he is ready to go there, but if I am not with him, then they will disappear, and you won’t find them.”
“La Carroza!” Ortiz spat in disgust. “The Fronteras Cartel has become far too bold, encroaching that far into Los Nuevos territory!”
“Why should we believe he even brought her at all, Señor Ortiz? Or that he’s ever even seen her?”
“Because of what she told me about her father,” Eric answered for him. “Carmen anticipated that I might have a difficult time convincing anyone here that I was telling the truth, so she gave me details that only the family and his closest associates could know; details of her father’s schedule, and which of his homes he spends the most time in, as well as details of that home itself. If I can tell you these things, will you at least get the message to Don Carlos that his daughter is here and that she is okay?”
“Secure him in the car,” Señor Ortiz ordered. I will hear what he has to say in private, only because he knows Carmen’s name and the name of her father, and that the Fronteras Cartel is indeed in La Carroza. I will decide what to do with him based on what he tells me.”
Eric was taken across the parking lot to one of two black Escalades waiting in the shadows. He didn’t resist, not only because it was futile considering how badly he was outnumbered and that he was unarmed, but also because he knew this was a necessary step if he were to have a hope in hell of meeting Don Carlos in person. The unmarked SUV was set up like a police vehicle with a steel grate barrier separating the rear passenger seating from the front, and no accessible interior door or window controls in the back. Eric allowed the English-speaking gunman to lock him inside it, and through the dark-tinted windows, he saw Ortiz speaking to the others in his security detail before finally, he walked over alone and got into the driver’s seat, closing the door behind him so that the two of them could talk in private.
“So, tell me these secrets that Don Carlos’ little girl let you in on. If you are telling the truth, then perhaps I’ll pass along your message. If not, then you have wasted my time and you will regret it.”
Eric started talking and had barely gotten through half of his memorized narrative before Ortiz stopped him. The man knew that what he’d told him had to have come from Carmen or someone as close to Don Carlos as her, and now his only question was why. Why did Eric come all this way and take all this risk to bring her here?
“Look Señor Ortiz, I have a daughter of my own who is about the same age as Carmen. That’s the main reason. But the other thing is that as soon as we saw that airplane, and my partner, Luke told me he could fly it, we made up our mind to use it. I needed it to get back to my family, because I was facing the prospect of crossing the entire state of Texas to reach them. Finding Carmen inside it and hearing her story gave me a better idea and she agreed it would probably work. She said she was certain that her father, Don Carlos, would guarantee that we were given protection in Mexico, as well as supply the fuel we would need to carry on from here in the plane. My partner and I couldn’t just leave a young woman alone there in that desolate place, and after what she told me, I saw that by helping her we would be helping ourselves as well. That is why I took the risk to come here, and why I have put myself at your mercy tonight, Señor Ortiz. Surely Don Carlos will want to hear my story as well because he just wants his Carmen returned, right? It is what any father would want.”
“What Don Carlos would want is for me to do the job he pays me to do, and that is to look out for his best interests. That means that you will take me to where Carmen is waiting with your friend, and you will turn her over to me for safe transit back to her father. If he is inclined to believe your story after that and Carmen backs it up too, then maybe he’ll provide you the assistance you seek.”
“That other guy who threatened me, the one who speaks English, said that there is a huge reward for anyone who finds Carmen. I have no interest in such a reward, but how do I know that you do not, Señor Ortiz? If I take you to where Carmen is now, how do I know you will not simply dispose of me there and take all the credit for finding her yourself.”
“Do you not have faith in her that she will tell her father the truth? If what you have told me is the truth, then will she not tell him the same, rather than let him believe that it was I who saved her? Besides, I am only giving you two choices, and they are not open to negotiation. You can lead me and my men to wherever you have hidden the girl right now, this very night, or I will have them extract the information from you the hard way before I put a bullet in your head, after which we will go there anyway. Trust me when I tell you, my men know how to make people talk. It is what they do, and I don’t care who you are or what kind of soldier you are or were before, you too will talk before they are finished with you.”
Eric knew he wasn’t going to get any farther by arguing with this man. It was best to comply at this point and let him believe that he’d won. What happened after that would be totally dependent upon whether or not the backup plan he and Luke and Carmen had quickly come up with was indeed sound. She seemed to think so, and she had a lot riding on the success of it. More importantly, even though her father had done his best to shield her from the details of the cartel’s inner workings, she understood enough of their tactics that she would never trust those of them she didn’t know personally, and very few of them that she did. Don Carlos barely trusted them himself, and the only way he and others at his level could remain in power and stay alive was by always keeping a step ahead of those who worked for them, because in their dangerous business, treachery and deceit was a way of life. After a long moment of silence to let Señor Ortiz know that he was putting serious consideration into the pros and cons of accepting his proposal, Eric gave him his answer: “Okay, if that is the way you want to do this, then we will go. I will take you there right now, but for the last part of the way, we will have to leave the cars and go on foot, because they are not waiting by the road. Carmen insisted that would be far too foolish. She and my friend Luke will both be watching to be certain that I am with whoever comes near the place they are hiding.”
Nine
WHEN ERIC LEFT THAT evening, Luke had no idea how long of a wait he and Carmen were in for. Eric could return in a matter of hours or it could be days, if he returned at all. There was no question that it was a serious risk he was undertaking, directly seeking out the dominate criminal drug cartel of the region to tell them he had the missing daughter of one of their highest chiefs. Doing it this way, with Eric going in while Luke stayed out in the campo with Carmen in hiding certainly wasn’t the most straightforward route, but after all that had happened since they’d landed at that airport, the extra precaution seemed worth the trouble. Everything Carmen told them about the way business was conducted here backed that up.
“Because he killed my fiancé, Miguel before I disappeared, my father knows Antonio Ramon kidnapped me, he just had no idea he would take me to the United States. Money is no object to my father, and even if I wasn’t his daughter that he loves and cares about so much, he would still offer a huge ransom to get me back, if he thought it me
ant he could catch Antonio and get his revenge. It is the principle of the thing, because he once trusted Antonio like he was a son. He will pay whatever it takes if he thinks it will give him a chance to meet Antonio again face to face. Of course, he has no way of knowing that you have already killed him.
But because whatever price he offered for Antonio’s capture and my return must be widely known throughout Nuevo Leon and beyond, you can’t just go and tell anyone you meet that you know where I am, even if they work for my father. If they have that information, they will kill you and then come for me so they can claim the money. Even the most trusted jefes working under my father would do this. So, out here, this far from Monterrey, we can’t simply walk into a town and tell them who I am and that I am ready to go home. No one will help two gringos get to Don Carlos, because they’ll never believe you are not doing it for the reward. I am sorry there is no easier way now, but after what happened today, you know we have to be very careful.”
After hashing out the options, Luke and Eric both thought the plan they’d come up with would work. They would simply turn the tables on whoever Eric made contact with, knowing that person would double-cross him in a heartbeat to get that ransom money. Eric would go to them with the truth, telling them that he had found Carmen and that he was looking for her father so that he could return her to him. This tactic would not get him directly to Don Carlos, of course. Carmen knew any Los Nuevos associates he talked to would insist the he tell them where she was, and then they would deliver her to her father. It would be up to Eric to convince them that only he could lead them to her location, and that he couldn’t simply tell them where to find her because she and his partner would be very wary of anyone coming there without Eric and would not come out of hiding.
Before Eric had departed for the lights of the town, Luke had quickly assessed the desert hills surrounding the river course and the road that paralleled it and picked a spot halfway up a small side canyon that would afford him a good view of anyone approaching from the road. Anyone coming there with or without Eric would have to leave whatever vehicle they might arrive in and proceed on foot up the canyon. That would give Luke ample opportunity to determine whether or not Eric was with them, and Carmen could likewise watch and see if she recognized anyone among them. They had a night vision scope they’d taken from McCullin’s gear if it happened that night, and a pair of binoculars if it was sometime the next day. But one thing Carmen was practically certain of, was that her father would not be with them.
“He spends almost all of his time in Monterrey, when he is in Mexico, and when he leaves the city, it is usually because he is leaving the country for business.”
It was Don Carlos’ high position in the cartel that made this whole affair of returning his daughter to him so delicate and dangerous. Men like him were surrounded by multiple layers of security and associates acting as buffers between them and everyone else, so even getting a message to him was exceedingly difficult. Luke suspected that Eric understood all this when he made the decision to bring Carmen back. But Luke hadn’t counted on it getting so complicated. The encounter that he was now expecting had the potential to turn violent in a hurry, and if it went sideways, Luke knew that he and Eric could find themselves in a serious E&E scenario with no chance of outside help. It wasn’t that it worried him, because he was confident that the two of them could handle whatever challenges they were up against, it was just that Luke had hoped this exchange of Don Carlos’ daughter for aviation fuel or perhaps an alternative transportation arrangement would go smoother than that. Carmen too, had hoped it would go differently, and as she and Luke waited, she expressed her fears for Eric, going into town alone to seek out the Nuevo Día Cartel.
“I wish he spoke Spanish as well as you,” she said. “It is true that he will surely find someone there who speaks excellent English, but he won’t understand everything that is being said in his presence when they are talking amongst themselves.”
“Eric can handle himself just fine, as you have already seen. And now I know that you can too, so I feel pretty good about our plan. Let’s just hope he finds someone willing to return here with him.”
As it turned out, Luke and Carmen didn’t have to wait nearly as long as they’d expected. An hour after midnight, they saw the headlights of two vehicles on the road below in the distance, following the winding route along the river until they came to a stop at the bottom of the side canyon. When the headlights went off, Luke focused on the two SUVs with the night vision scope, watching as the doors opened and the occupants got out. The distance was too far for positive identification with night vision, but Luke was sure that Eric was among the six people standing there, because two of them remained back by the vehicle while the others spread out, one of them sweeping the area with a flashlight, as if searching for something.
“I think he’s with them,” Luke whispered to Carmen, handing her the scope. “Two men are back there waiting by the vehicles. One is probably Eric and the other one probably has a gun on him. If the rest of them come up here without him, this may not be as easy as I’d hoped, but we’ll figure it out.”
Luke watched as the four men who’d spread out walked back and forth along the road and the riverbank, the one with the light shining it into the surrounding brush as well as on the ground around them. Luke thought they might start up the canyon right then, but instead, they returned to the vehicles and gathered around the other two that had waited behind. Several minutes passed, and then Luke watched as the entire party started up the canyon together. It was what he’d hoped would happen, when he and Eric had discussed it, although they both knew there was no way of predicting whether he’d be returning with two or three cartel men with him or twenty. As it turned out, five was a manageable number, especially since one of them seemed to be preoccupied with keeping an eye on Eric.
Luke knew that the one who’d been looking around with the light must have seen the obvious tracks he and Carmen had deliberately made in the sandy spots between the road and the mouth of the canyon. The distinct footprints of a man and a woman pointing up that way would back up the story Eric planned to deliver, and sure enough, they had taken the bait. Now, all Luke and Carmen had to do was separate them from their weapons once they were far enough from their vehicles that they couldn’t make an easy retreat. Such a plan wouldn’t have been a consideration before that afternoon, but then both Eric and Luke had witnessed first-hand Carmen’s skill with a rifle and her decisiveness to act when it became necessary for self-preservation. Now they would be counting on her again as a vital part of their ploy to turn the tables on these cartel men who were surely more interested in the ransom money than in the well-being of their grand jefe’s daughter.
Luke remained at her side until the approaching men were close enough that he could positively identify that it was indeed Eric walking in front of the man bringing up the rear. Then, it was time to put his practiced stealth skills to good use.
“If you have to fire, just be aware of Eric’s position, because I’ll be right behind him before they know what’s going on if this goes like I hope it will.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t shoot unless I have to. These men work for my father.”
Luke gave her a thumbs up and then turned and disappeared into the brush. He’d already scouted a route that would take him parallel to the obvious path that he and Carmen had taken to get up there. The key was to move both quickly and silently, but that was a skill that Luke had perfected since boyhood, and since the ground here was mostly smooth rock and sand, it was easy for him. When he was halfway down, he was pleased to hear Eric suddenly shout out into the night, calling both of their names. They had discussed their options when making this plan, agreeing that if Eric came back in the company of armed cartel men, as he almost certainly would if he came back at all, then it would be necessary to separate them in order to get the drop on them. So, when Eric yelled his and Carmen’s name, probably telling the men he was with that they
were close to the place where Carmen was supposed to be waiting, she shouted back a reply on cue, verifying Eric’s story in an instant.
Luke waited motionless in the scrub as the four men in the lead rushed past him, urged onward by the man keeping watch over Eric as the two of them followed. When they too, reached his position, Luke saw that Eric’s hands were secured behind him and that the Mexican man walking with him was a silver-haired, older gentleman, an observation that made Luke think he was a jefe of some sort himself. That was even better! While one of the other four was carrying an AK-47 and the others had handguns drawn, this man’s hands were empty. Luke had no doubt that he was armed, he just didn’t feel the need to keep a gun on Eric with him restrained as he was. The two of them paused almost adjacent to where Luke crouched, and he heard the man tell Eric in English to call her again. Eric did, but this time Carmen did not reply.
After several seconds of silence and waiting, the man called out to her himself, identifying himself as Juan Ortiz and telling her that it was okay to come down, that he was here to return her to her father. While he was preoccupied with listening for a reply, Luke made his move, slipping out of concealment and rushing in behind him. Before Juan Ortiz knew he was there; Luke had an arm around his neck and the muzzle of his pistol pressed against his temple. He took a step back to pull the man off balance, and at the sound of their shuffling feet, Eric spun around to see what had happened.
“Tell your men to drop their weapons and stay where they are if you want to live!” Luke told Ortiz in perfect Spanish. “Do it now!” Then he spoke to Eric: “You can get my knife off my belt if you back up to my left side.”
Eric did and Luke kept his grip and his gun on Ortiz as the man shouted out to his companions to put down their weapons. When one of them called back down to him, wanting to know what was the matter, Luke heard Carmen give them her own command to put down their guns from where she was waiting behind a rock above. By that time, Eric had managed to cut himself free and Luke felt his knife sliding back into its sheath even as Eric unclipped his M4 from its sling behind him.
Feral Nation Series (Book 7): Feral Nation [Sabotage] Page 9