Luis was being put in his place.
As Luis took his place behind the wheel, Juan leant forward. “Not so fast, we have another passenger coming,” he said as Katie came into view and was torn away from her son, James, before being thrown, kicking and screaming, into the back of the car, next to Juan.
“You don’t want us to hurt him, do you?” suggested Juan menacingly, sending a very clear message to Katie to calm down. She did instantly but her tears and whimpering did not.
As they began to pull away, Juan tapped Luis’ shoulder indicating for him to stop. He indicated for his man to come to him. The message he passed on was simple but deadly. “Five o’clock exactly!” Juan said, before tapping Luis’ shoulder once more.
Luis looked at the little boy crying for his Mommy and couldn’t think but wonder what the hell he was doing with these people.
Sean checked his watch, ten minutes to go. The cheers from the courtyard ahead had been good cover and allowed him to make better than expected progress. He was almost at the back of the white barn.
He had watched the car disappear down the hill. Three bodies were inside which was encouraging; it seemed Luis was coming through. He pulled out the cell and hit the dial button.
“Are you on your way?”
“Yes,” replied Luis.
“Put me on speaker,” demanded Sean. If they were on speaker it would sound like Sean didn’t trust Luis.
“No,” replied Luis, they weren’t on speaker.
Perfect. Sean could talk freely “Have you got them both?”
“No!”
“But there are three in the car.”
“Yes,” replied Luis.
Sean thought quickly. He couldn’t ask too many questions otherwise he’d expose Luis.
“Male or female.”
“Did you say first and then second exit?” confirmed Luis.
Male and a female. It had to be Katie. At least he knew where she was and wasn’t being used in one of the cartel’s whorehouses, as so subtly suggested by Luis earlier.
“Your uncle.”
“No, sorry, I didn’t catch you the lines not great.”
“Juan?”
“OK, yes, got it.”
Juan being with Luis was not great news. He would see through things far more readily than El Jefe. Thank God the meetings were real thought Sean. How they had managed, he didn’t know but he had a lot of thanking to do if he managed to get out of this alive.
The noise from the courtyard had died and the men that guarded the ranch house had returned to their milling around or the barracks that housed them while on duty. Sean squatted by the white barn, just out of sight. The small outbuilding that housed James lay just to his right but there was no way to get to it without exposing himself. Time was not on his side, two minutes to five.
He waited for a moment when none of the men were watching the 20-yard gap but nothing. The sight of the Mexican walking towards the outbuilding sharpening a knife with barely a minute to go made any decision with regard to staying out of sight irrelevant. They really were going to kill the boy at five, for absolutely no reason, other than they had said they would. Sean had never before met such a ruthless bunch of bastards in his life and he was including the Taliban in that list.
Being spotted was an irrelevance, he wasn’t going to be able to stop the man and save the boy without alerting everybody to his whereabouts. Sean lay his ammo on the ground before him, along with the Gyurza and lined up the would-be child killer in the sights of the MP-5. There was little or no chance he’d manage to save himself and James but he’d take as many of them with him as he could.
He pulled the trigger and the silenced shot took out the Mexican’s kneecap, a second shot took out the other and a third hit him in the gut, all delivered in quick succession. By the time the Mexican screamed, all three rounds had hit. It would take him hours to die in agony. Sean grabbed the ammo and as heads turned to the screamer, he raced to James’s outbuilding. The maid who was looking after him was startled as Sean burst through the doors but not as startled as young James to see his dad before him.
As the realization of what had happened hit the courtyard, weapons began to train on the outbuilding. Sean suggested that the maid might want to take her chance to leave. She didn’t hesitate and rushed out of the door away from the large American. The hail of bullets that cut her down as she rushed from the outbuilding only emphasized how screwed Sean and James were. Particularly as with James clamped to Sean’s leg, there was very little he could do anyway.
As the screams of the would-be child killer filled the air, bullets began to ping off the outbuilding’s structure, which was sturdier than it looked.
The small outbuilding was stone built with two small windows and a solid wood door. They were going to need heavier weapons or storm the building thought Sean. He managed a peek through the window and watched as both seemed likely. A rocket launcher was being passed forward while another group looked as though it were readying for an assault. Luis was right again. The guards were ex-military and knew what they were doing. He raised his MP-5 and shot off a couple of rounds through the window. Two hit target while the rest went wayward as Sean was pulled off target by James pulling at his leg and calling him 'daddy’. Sean thought better of pointing out he wasn’t his daddy as it seemed likely the point would be moot soon enough. There were at least forty soldiers surrounding them and from the sounds of it, more were coming.
His cell rang and was a welcome distraction. “Hello?” he answered, keeping an eye on the movements outside.
“Where now?” asked Luis. He was driving aimlessly and Sean should have called.
“Just head to the airport and make sure you get Katie to the CIA, please,” replied Sean, squeezing off a round and stopping the first semblance of an attack.
“OK!” it was as close to a question as Luis could manage, given what he was hearing. It didn’t sound good.
“Not really. Bit of an issue with a few pissed off Mexicans!” replied Sean.
Suddenly the noise outside stopped. Silence had descended. Sean struggled to see why. Then he saw a man walk through his troops in a white vest, muscular and covered in tattoos. He fitted the description of El Jefe, although, he was surprised that nobody had described how ugly he was. It would have been his first word in describing the man that commanded his troops’ silence.
“Come out!” he commanded.
Sean looked down at James whose head was buried deep in his thigh. He owed him a last try and to fight for their lives.
Sean remained silent and made no move.
“Come out and I’ll let the boy live!” was the next offer.
Sean didn’t think it likely but it was a far better prospect for James than was currently facing him.
Sean opened the door, dropped his gun and swinging his leg with James attached to it, he walked out into the courtyard to more than a few gasps.
Chapter 61
Luis pulled into Quetzalcoatl International and drove straight for the private hangars. An area he was well acquainted with as Los Zetas owned more than its fair share of the jets stored in the area. It was of course the first time that Luis had realized how poor a venue the airport was. There were at least ten Los Zetas men permanently on duty protecting and directing Los Zetas products and aircraft.
Juan instructed him to slow down next to one of Los Zetas’ own hangars and instructed the guards to watch the woman. He would call and instruct them when he was ready. He signaled for Luis to continue and Luis drove towards the private apron where two of the three jets had already landed. The third was powering down the runway to land and, thanks to favorable wind, all had landed early.
Agent James Smith waited aboard the second jet. His phone wasn’t ringing. Without orders to the contrary, he was to proceed as agreed. He opened the door and nodded at Luis in the car.