by Lincoln Matt
“All dead,” I confirmed. “You can dispose of them.”
“Alright, well, everybody needs to sit tight where they are while my guys suss out the place,” the officer ordered.
“I understand,” I said, nodding to him.
We stood in silence for some time as we waited, and I thought over everything we had learned so far. It was a lot. But something was still missing. None of this quite made sense.
I checked my phone again to see if there was anything from Bonnie and Clyde, but I only got a message that their plane had landed and that they were on their way to the hospital in Santo Domingo to examine the girl’s remains. I sent a quick response telling them to check back in with us as soon as they had any information to share.
“Anything?” Holm asked.
“Bonnie and Clyde landed, but there’s nothing new,” I said.
“Bonnie and Clyde?” Alejandra repeated.
“They’re just nicknames for our lab techs,” I explained. “They’re the best in the business.”
Eventually, another officer came running in and said something in Spanish.
“They’ve cleared the hotel,” Alejandra translated. “It’s all safe now.”
“It was supposed to be safe before,” Holm grumbled.
“Well, we’ll just stick to our rooms while we’re here,” I said. Then, turning to Alejandra, “Anything else with the conference today?”
“The conference is over,” she said, holding up the sheets of paper the gangbangers had tried to take from her. “We got what we came for.”
“Maybe you should go home, then,” I suggested. “You’ll be just as much help in the capital, if not more.”
“No,” Alejandra said sharply. “I started this with you, and I’m damn well going to see it through to the end.”
“Understood,” I said, giving her a smile. Though I wanted her to be safe, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t glad she would be sticking around for a while longer.
CHAPTER 14
Ethan
Holm, Alejandra, and I all headed up to our rooms when the patrol officers gave us the all-clear. I went off to go clean myself up while Holm debriefed with Diane back in Miami. Alejandra headed off to update her father on the negotiations with the border towns.
The wound in my shoulder wasn’t too severe, just as I’d suspected. The bullet had barely scratched the surface of my skin. One of the patrol officers patched it up for me with a traveling medkit.
All in all, I’d say we were pretty lucky. I shuddered to think what would’ve happened if Holm and I had been just a few minutes later in getting back from our trip to the border. I didn’t like the thought of Alejandra having to face those guys alone, but I had to admit that she’d handled it well. She’d even saved Holm’s ass at the end there, and I was never going to let him forget it.
When I headed back out to Holm’s room, he was just getting off the phone with Diane.
“Anything new?” I asked, entering the room and taking a seat on the edge of the bed. It felt good to rest my feet for a moment.
“Not much on her end,” he said, pocketing the phone and sitting down at the nearby desk. “A lot on our end, but you know that already. You know, I think this may be our most eventful case yet.”
“Don’t say that,” I chuckled. “You’re just tempting fate with that attitude.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Holm laughed. “But I don’t know, Ethan, something about all this just doesn’t sit right with me.”
“Me neither,” I agreed. “We’re going to need to head across the border to check out this witch doctor, or whatever it is that they said about that.”
“Diane wasn’t too keen on that idea, but I convinced her we had to do it,” Holm said. “But given what that kid told us today, and what happened this morning, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got torpedoed by these guys the second we crossed over the border.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said. “Among other things. We’ll have to take some border patrol guys with us. Or some of García’s guys, once they get here. I’m sure we could arrange that.”
As if on cue, Alejandra knocked on the door, and Holm let her inside.
“I just got off the phone with my father,” she said, walking in and taking a seat next to me on the bed. “He’s going to send reinforcements down here right away. They should be here by morning. Oh, and your lab techs, Bonnie and Clyde, he met with them. They’re examining the girl now, as well as another victim.”
“Another victim?” I repeated. “There’s been another one?”
“There have been several, I’m afraid,” Alejandra said. “It seems the drug is spreading, and activity in the cities are picking up. My father is growing more concerned by the hour, but he’s glad we’ve hashed out an agreement and that you two are on the case.”
“We’re on the case, alright,” Holm chuckled. “We’ve been shot at more times in the last twenty-four hours than I have been in that amount of time since I was in the SEALS.”
“It has been a lot,” I agreed. “They just snuck up on you like that?”
“I think they were waiting until I was alone,” Alejandra said. “And then they pounced. But they didn’t know who I was. When I told them my father was the President, they hesitated. I don’t think their leadership wants another screw up like what happened with my brother.”
“Well, they’re going to get one if we can help it,” I said. “Do you think it would be alright if some of these reinforcements accompany Holm and me to the other side of the border in the morning?”
“The other side of the border?” Alejandra repeated with concern. “Do you really think that’s wise, after what just happened? And after this morning?”
I related everything that Holm and I had learned from the boy at the holding center, as well as the update Officer Díaz had given us from his interrogation of the witnesses to that girl’s death. Her eyes grew wide when I mentioned the witch doctor.
“How strange,” she muttered. “Haitian voodoo just keeps popping up. And zombies now, too! And what did that man say, right before he died, about ‘the mask of death?’ Could that have anything to do with all this?”
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said. “It can’t be a coincidence, can it? That exact phrasing?”
“But what’s with all this zombie stuff?” Holm asked.
“I was thinking… no, but that’s just too strange,” Alejandra said, shaking her head.
“Try us,” I chuckled. “This whole case just keeps getting stranger by the minute.”
“Well, long ago, the Haitian voodoo witch doctors were able to administer this drug to people that basically turned them into zombies,” Alejandra explained. “It was called Haitian zombie powder, and it made people walk around as if they were alive when they were completely unconscious. But that’s from so long ago that it’s practically an old wives’ tale now, though foreign scientists have studied it some.”
“Interesting,” I said, crossing my arms as I thought back on this. “I think I remember hearing something about this before, maybe in a class back in college. Do you really think that this new drug could be something like that?”
“No, not really,” Alejandra said dismissively. “But it is a strange coincidence, all this talk of drugs and zombies and witch doctors. You have to admit that.”
“Yes, you do,” I agreed, nodding slowly. “Very strange. When I talk to Bonnie and Clyde, I’ll have to bring this up.”
“Could they be mass marketing this thing now?” Holm asked. “But why? It doesn’t sound like a party drug.”
“Those kids did take it at a party, right?” Alejandra asked. “Most of the overdoses have been from the party scene with the younger crowd in Santo Domingo.”
“It could be a testing ground,” I suggested with a shrug. “They want to use this drug for other purposes, but they’re testing it on willing party-goers to see what happens.”
“That’s disturbing,” Hol
m said.
“Tell me about it,” I agreed. “But it is a theory. Do you think that would be plausible?” I turned my attention to Alejandra.
“It could be,” she said with a shrug. “But you would know better than I. At this point, I don’t pretend to have any idea what these people are thinking.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“But college parties aren’t exactly the best testing ground for something like this, are they?” Holm asked. “There are so many potential witnesses. And what do they get out of it? Why would college kids need a drug like this?”
“I don’t know that it would be a good first testing ground, since if things went horribly wrong, they’d draw a lot of attention to themselves,” I agreed. “But it wouldn’t be a bad third or fourth one after they’ve already ironed a few kinks out. And we already know that they started trying these things out in Haiti. And there are some college kids who may have a use for something like this. You compared this drug to roofies yourself, Holm.”
“Another happy thought,” my partner grumbled. “Rapey frat bros with the zombie drug from hell. What could go wrong?”
“Whatever the reasons, I want it out of my country,” Alejandra said. “And theirs, if that’s even possible.”
Her phone buzzed, and she looked down at it.
“Is that your father?” I asked. “What does he say about us getting an escort?”
“He’s sending some troops, including a translator, to pick you up around ten tomorrow morning,” Alejandra explained.
“Ten?” Holm repeated. “That’s late.”
“Yes, but I imagine whatever this voodoo shop is won’t be open that early,” Alejandra pointed out.
“And they’ll be on higher alert early in the morning,” I added. “Lots of these dealers are users, too. Mid-morning, they’ll be coming off their benders, not to mention they’ll be less likely to think we’ll strike at that time.”
“Fair enough,” Holm agreed.
“So, what do we do now?” Alejandra asked.
I looked at my watch. “Well, it is getting late. This day seems to have simultaneously flown by and taken forever to get going.”
“That tends to happen when you’re getting shot at,” Holm chuckled.
“Let’s order some room service, then,” I suggested, reaching for the landline sitting on the bedside table. “It’s safer staying holed up here for the time being, while the border patrol gets everything sorted out down there. What would you all like?”
Alejandra and Holm gave me their orders, and I sent down for them.
“Speaking of the investigation, I’m going to go down and check on that,” Holm said. “See if they need any assistance.”
“You can’t stay away from the action for a moment, can you?” I grinned as my partner ducked out.
Alejandra let out a big sigh as Holm left the room, and I noticed that her hands were still shaking. I gently reached out and cupped them in my own, larger hands.
“It’s all right now,” I assured her. “Those men are gone, and they won’t dare send more after what we did to them.”
“I know,” she sighed. “It was all just a bit of a shock, is all.”
“Of course,” I said, feeling the warmth of her skin against my own. “Though from the look of it, it was nothing you couldn’t handle.” I gave her a smile.
“These have been an eventful few months,” she said with a nervous laugh. “What with all that business with my brother, and now this. I’ll certainly have more than my fair share of stories to tell when all is said and done.”
“You already do,” I said. “Soon enough, you’ll be on our level.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever get quite that far,” she laughed, and it was a comforting sound. I realized that the events of the day hadn’t exactly been easy on me, either, though I was better prepared for it than she was, given the nature of my profession.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” I asked her.
“Yes, Ethan, I’m fine,” she said, giving me a smile. “Though I’m starting to think trouble just has a habit of finding me, no matter what I do.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I chuckled. “You were brilliant today, bringing those people together even when they wanted to do anything but. I’m shocked you were able to manage it, though I’m not surprised that if someone were able to make it possible, it was you.”
“Thank you,” she said with another laugh. “Though I think it was more out of frustration than brilliance that I managed it.”
“Either way, you have my admiration,” I said.
Just then, there was a brief knock at the door, and Holm came back in, closely followed by a room service cart and a young hotel employee carrying our dinner.
“Anything?” I asked Holm when the employee had set up our meal and gone on his way.
“Not much,” Holm said. “They’ve interviewed everyone in the hotel. It seems like it’s just the one guy. We can talk to them if we want after they’re done with him.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said, my blood boiling at the thought of the man who’d betrayed Alejandra and the others. “I’d like to have a few words with him.”
“Have most of the others from the conference checked out of the hotel?” Alejandra asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Holm confirmed. “Most of them went running after the shootout went down. I heard the remaining clerk say we’re the only ones left in the hotel at this point.”
“Well, that’s good for us, at least, if not the hotel,” I said. “We don’t have to worry about the other guests turning on us.”
“Don’t worry about the hotel,” Alejandra said. “We’re the most traffic they’ve seen in weeks. No one wants to hang out in a border town right now. They’ll be fine, or at least no worse off than they would have been had the gangbangers not shown up here at all.”
“Well,” I said with a smile. “I won’t shed a tear for the hotel, then, not that I was going to, anyway.”
CHAPTER 15
Ethan
Our dinner was good, a simple meal of smoked salmon and vegetables, and I enjoyed the company even more. It was good seeing Alejandra again, despite the circumstances, and I resolved to make more of an effort to keep in touch with her after Holm and I left. It was good to have friends, especially in this line of work.
After we ate, Holm and I headed down to the main lobby to interrogate the clerk who had fed information to the cartel.
“The patrol guys say he doesn’t know much,” Holm said as we rode the elevator. “Just a scared kid who got roped into more than he could handle.”
“Aren’t they all?” I said dryly. “Besides, even if he doesn’t know much, he might have heard something he doesn’t realize is important.”
Once in the lobby, the remaining clerk, who looked frazzled, overworked, and like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world, directed us to a smaller conference room, where several of the patrolmen were locked up with the mole.
I rapped my knuckles on the door to get their attention. One of them, who I recognized as the man who had been driving Holm and me around and speaking English with us, crossed over to open it.
“Do you want a word with him?” he asked, looking relieved to see us.
I nodded. “We just want to see if we can get anything you haven’t been able to.”
“Well, good luck,” the patrolman said. “He doesn’t seem to know a damn thing, despite causing a lot of trouble for us.”
“What’ll happen to him?” Holm asked, casting a glance at the scared young man, who was trembling and crying, his head hanging low over his handcuffs.
“He’ll get transferred to Santo Domingo and face trying and sentencing there,” the patrolman said. “I tried to tell him that how that goes for him is largely dependent on how much information he can give to us, but I really don’t think he knows anything.”
“They threatened him?” I asked, though it wasn’t really a question. Of course
they had.
“And his family,” the patrolman confirmed. “Doesn’t excuse what he did, though.”
“No,” I agreed. “But it does explain it.”
I’d met a lot of young people on this case, on both sides of the fight. And somewhere in between, like this sorry clerk. It just went to show that everyone suffered with stuff like this. But that was why people like me did what we did, even though it was hard.
“Does he speak English?” Holm asked.
“Yes,” the patrolman said, nodding. “Most hotel employees do on the island. Better to serve the tourists.”
“You get a lot of tourists around here?” I asked.
“No,” he laughed. “And even less now. But some come around every once in a while. Mostly shadier characters who crossed over from Haiti, though.”
“Shady, how?” I asked. “Like mixed up with the cartel?”
“Possibly,” the patrolman said with a shrug. “Or just random American guys looking for some blow, or sex. Or some voodoo artifact to impress their friends with. It’s nothing new around here.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Some of your guys will stick around and watch the hotel?” Holm asked.
The patrolmen nodded. “We’ll leave several behind,” he confirmed. “Can’t be too careful around these parts. We’ll have reinforcements tomorrow, after all.”
“Ah, yes, I’m afraid we’ll be stealing some of those,” I confessed. “But we’ll be returning them to you as soon as we can.”
“Anything to get us out of this thing,” the patrolman said.
Holm and I thanked him and sent him away before turning our attention to the young man in the handcuffs. We sat at the opposite end of a long, narrow wooden table from him. Where Emmanuel, the young Haitian boy, had fought to hold back his tears, this one just let them fall, his sobs echoing throughout the small room.
I looked around and thought that Alejandra wasn’t wrong to get restless cooped up in a small place like this with all those politicians. I wouldn’t last more than an hour here without going stir crazy.
“Hello,” I said, taking my seat. “I’m Agent Ethan Marston from MBLIS, and this is my partner Agent Robbie Holm. That stands for Military Border Liaison Investigative Services.”