Elizabeth Lowell - The Wrong Hostage

Faroe counted four closed-circuit television cameras on wall mounts positioned to cover the entire interior of the warehouse. Red status lights burned on each camera, a warning that they were transmitting to a control center.

The camera mounted above the warehouse door swiveled to follow Faroe’s movement. He pulled Grace close and breathed down her blouse.

“Transmitter check.”

The radio on Faroe’s belt beneath his shirt popped twice.

“I’m going off the air,” he told Grace’s bra.

Two more pops.

Faroe kissed her fast and hard and deep. She kissed him back the same way.

Then he turned his back to the closest camera, reached under his shirt, and switched off the radio. He walked toward the sandbagged defensive position that had been created by pallets of beans and rice.

Except for the soft drumroll of rain on the roof, the place was silent.

The offices were empty.

The door to the bathroom was locked.

Unless there was somebody already inside the bathroom, the warehouse was deserted.

“Anybody home?” Faroe called out.

Silence.

Pulling his cell phone off his belt, he punched in numbers as he walked back to Grace and Franklin.

“No noise,” he said to them.

He punched the send button and listened for the telltale sounds of another phone ringing somewhere in the warehouse.

Silence.

After two rings, Hector answered. His voice was slurred, like he was loaded.

Good news and bad news in one, Faroe thought grimly.

“We’re in the warehouse,” Faroe said. “Nobody’s home.”

“We close, pendejo.” Hector chuckled.

“Put Lane on.”

“You give me Franklin with the files.”

It wasn’t a question.

“With my blessings,” Faroe said.

“You have him?”

“You’re looking at the TV displays, what do you think?” Faroe said impatiently. Then he said to Franklin, “Wave to the cameras.”

Sullenly Franklin lifted his cuffed hands toward the nearest camera.

“Now put Lane on,” Faroe said.

“I no like orders. I am el jefe.”

“You’re in charge the moment I see you and the kid,” Faroe said. “Until then, we’re just two men bullshitting over the cell phone.”

Over the invisible link that reached up to a communications satellite in space and back down six hundred feet to the south, Faroe heard a moist noise as Hector sucked on a Mexican cigarette and drew the cocaine smoke into his lungs.

Enjoy it, Faroe thought. With a little luck, it will be your last.

“Okay,” Hector said, his tongue thick. “You talk to Lane. Then I send Jaime. If he like what he see, we make next step.”

The connection rattled hollowly for a moment, then Lane’s voice came over.

“Mom, Dad?”

“It’s Joe,” Faroe said. “You okay?”

“I guess.” Lane’s voice sounded shaky. “At least I, uh, have everything I left with.”

“Got you. Can Hector hear me?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Watch your mom. Don’t take your eyes off of her. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Do what she tells you to do,” Faroe said. “Don’t pay any attention to your dad. Just your mom. Got that?”

Lane started to say something, but his words turned into a sharp cry of pain.

“Don’ worry, gringo,” Hector said. “He jus’ fine. I show him manners, tha’s all.”

Faroe’s grip on the cell phone made his knuckles white. “Send in your man.”

He looked at his watch and started counting.

OTAY MESA

MONDAY, 12:11 P.M.

FOR WHAT SEEMED LIKE an eternity, Faroe, Grace, and Franklin stood in the glare of the overhead lights. By Faroe’s watch, the eternity was only one minute and forty-nine seconds.

Faint sounds, metal on metal, muffled.

Fifteen seconds.

A toilet flushed.

“Who will it be?” Grace asked under her breath.

“Jaime,” Faroe said. “Hector has to send someone he trusts, someone who already knows both ends of the tunnel. That means family. With people like Hector, blood is all that counts.”

And blood is what screws them every time.

Faroe would have felt sorry for Hector if the man hadn’t earned a slow death fifty times over.

The doorknob of the bathroom squeaked.

The bathroom door swung open. Jaime Rivas-blow-dried and splendid in an Italian suit and loafers without socks-strolled out of the darkened room, zipping up like he’d just finished filling a urinal. In his left hand he carried a silver-plated semiautomatic pistol.

Jaime never took his eyes off Faroe.

“Hola, Jaime,” Faroe called out. “?Que pasa?”

“Shut up,” Jaime said. “I don’t like to chat as much as my uncle does.”

When Jaime was ten feet away, he snapped his pistol up to eye level and stared over the sight into Ted Franklin’s face.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” Jaime snarled. “I ought to whack you right now.”

Franklin made a primal sound of fear.

“You kill him and nobody is happy,” Faroe said. “Especially Carlos Calderon.”

Jaime stared through the pistol sight at the patch of skin between Franklin’s eyes. “Where’s the file?”

“It’s on a hard drive, pendejo,” Faroe said. “All decrypted and ready to go.”

“Show me.”

“No.”

“What?” Jaime’s face flushed.

“You heard me,” Faroe said. “Hector gets the file, not you. You don’t like the deal, complain to him.”

Jaime lowered the pistol an inch. The muzzle now stared at Franklin’s pale, trembling mouth. “Where is the hard drive?”

“When we see Lane, you see the hard drive,” Faroe said. “That’s the deal.”

Jaime turned his head and stared at Faroe. The look in Jaime’s eyes made Grace want to step backward.

“Tell Hector the deal is ready to go down,” Faroe said.

Jaime switched the pistol until it was pointed at Faroe’s face. “Hector won’t mind if I kill you.”

Faroe looked bored. “Calderon will. He wants that hard drive. You start whacking people, you don’t get it. Claro, homeboy?”

Jaime turned the gun on Grace. “Give me the file and she lives.”

“Shoot her and you die,” Faroe said. “Now stop jerking off and go tell Hector to bring Lane.”

A slow, thin smile changed Jaime’s mouth. “You are a very clever man, gringo. I give you that.”

Jaime lowered the pistol and pointed it again at the floor. He stared a long time at Grace’s face, trying to read her expression. She hadn’t flinched under the gun and she didn’t flinch under his eyes.

“Hector likes you,” Jaime said. “He’ll fuck you before he kills you.”

Grace just looked at Jaime.

“My uncle will be here in a few minutes,” he said.

Jaime turned and strolled back across the warehouse to the bathroom. He glanced over his shoulder at Faroe. “I see you soon, gringo. Look for me.”

The bathroom door slammed behind him.

Faroe let out a long breath. “Keep your gun handy, amada.”

He turned and walked swiftly toward the front door, sliding silently through light and shadow, light and shadow, until there was only darkness.

“What do I tell Hector?” Grace called after him.

“That I went out for a smoke.”

OTAY MESA

MONDAY, 12:14 P.M.

BY THE TIME FAROE ran across the parking lot he was well on his way to being wet. He ignored it. He’d be a lot wetter before he got dry again.

Cook, wearing green and brown cammies and carrying a matte-black submachine gun, stepped out of the hedge. Another operator in a ghillie suit lay on the ground, a backpack radio in front of him. He was listening to what was going on in the warehouse.

Grace was saying something to Franklin. Faroe couldn’t make it out, but he knew it was her voice.

“Sounds muddy,” Faroe said to Cook.

“Not on a headset.” Cook pulled a flat combat radio set from the cargo pocket of his cammies. “That Jaime is a real piece of work. For a minute there I thought we’d have to go in before Hector showed.”

“Jaime was just testing. Life would be a lot easier for him if he had the files rather than Hector or Uncle Sam.”

Cook stepped behind Faroe, slid the radio’s clip over his leather belt, and fed the cable and earpiece over his shoulder. Faroe hooked the receiver over his ear and slipped the clear plastic earpiece into place.

“Volume is on your right, squelch in the center on top,” Cook said.

“I know. St. Kilda field-tested these things before they were delivered to the Bureau.”

Faroe turned the volume dial and after a second heard the ragged sound of Ted Franklin breathing quickly, shallowly. His fear came across in each ragged breath.

“Relax,” Grace said. “Joe knows what he’s doing.”

Faroe tapped the earpiece and nodded to Cook. “Good to go. What about the tunnel?”

“You should get reception when you cross over to this side of the fence, but I won’t guarantee anything before that.”

Faroe nodded.

“If we have to blow the doors,” Cook said, “I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety.”

“No shit.”

Counting off seconds in his head, Faroe ran toward the border fence.

OTAY MESA

MONDAY, 12:15 P.M.

FAROE SLOGGED THROUGH THE strawberries and leaped the shallow ditch separating the field from the dirt road that ran along the fence. Through sheets of rain he saw what looked like ghosts. He ran toward them. The hollow metallic sound of an aluminum extension ladder being laid against the heavy chain-link fence told him he was heading the right way.