Gabriel was ready to make an exhausted desperation leap at the bandit leader, but Cierra got between them.
“Stop it!” she cried as she stood there trembling with anger, her fists clenched at her sides. “You murdering bastard! Do you want me to fight for our lives now? I’ll fight! I’ll fight anyone you say, and I promise you I won’t hold back from killing him!”
Gabriel muttered, “Oh, hell.” But then he saw a sudden flare of recognition in Escalante’s eyes. A shadow spread slowly across the bandit leader’s craggy face.
“My God,” Escalante murmured. “Cierra Almanzar.” He lowered his gun. “You know, I believe you would fight, at that.”
Gabriel heard the metallic ratcheting of guns being cocked all around them.
But then Escalante made another gesture, telling his men to hold their fire. He looked at Cierra and said, “Your father’s death, your poor mother…can you ever forgive me?”
Then he put his arms around a shocked Cierra and held her as tenderly as if she were his own daughter as tears ran down his leathery cheeks.
Chapter 15
“I’ll never forget, even as a child you had that fiery temper,” Paco Escalante said. It was a short time later and he sat with Gabriel and Cierra on logs next to a campfire. Night had closed down completely over the mountainous jungle, but the flames kept a small part of the darkness at bay. Escalante went on, “That is how I finally knew who you were. I saw that temper on display more than once when I worked on your family’s plantation.”
Despite the primitive setting, Escalante had a modern first-aid kit, and one of his men had crudely disinfected and bandaged the cuts left on Gabriel’s shoulders and legs by Tomás’s bullwhip, after first tending to Tomás’s own wounds.
Escalante had given them food and drink, too, from their own provisions, which the bandits had appropriated from the back of the pickup in the name of the revolución.
Gabriel didn’t know if they were still prisoners or not, and he wasn’t going to press the issue just yet. Not having guns pointed at them was already an improvement in their situation.
Escalante went on, “Those were the good days, before everything went wrong.”
“If you want my forgiveness, as you claim,” Cierra said, “you must tell me how my parents died.”
Escalante nodded. “It was not at my hands, Cierra, this I swear. It was not my wish that any harm befall them. In fact, I didn’t even know about the raid on the plantation until it was too late to stop it. There was a member of my band, a lieutenant of mine, who was an ambitious man. He thought he should be el jefe, not me. He said that I was too gentle with the landowners, too weak to drive them out. So, while I was away negotiating with a man for some weapons, this lieutenant convinced the other men to go with him and attack the plantation. I returned too late to stop them. By the time I got there, your mother and father were…already dead. The buildings were in flames.”
It was a touching story, Gabriel thought, but there was no way of knowing whether or not it was true.
On the other hand, Escalante had spared their lives, and as far as Gabriel could see, the bandit leader had no reason to do that unless he really did want to make amends.
“At first I didn’t believe that you had killed them,” Cierra said. “But then all the reports said that it was your men who attacked the plantation. I came to hate you for what you had done. What I thought you had done.”
A pained expression crossed Escalante’s face. “For this, I am sorry, señorita. If I could go back and change things, I would. But this is a power granted to no man. The clock winds one way only.” He rested his hands on his knees. “Now, you must tell me why you and this man have come to Guatemala. You risk your lives traveling through this area—it must be a very important matter.”
“We are trying to find out what happened to someone who disappeared in this region many years ago,” Cierra explained. “Many, many years ago. More than a hundred and forty.”
“I am old, señorita,” Escalante said with a smile, “but I am not that old.”
“He was an American,” Cierra went on. “A soldier, a general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War. His name was Fargo.”
Escalante shook his head. “I know nothing of this.”
Cierra explained briefly about the general’s pilgrimage down from Mexico, although she didn’t mention the flags that were once again securely hidden under Gabriel’s shirt. When she was finished, Escalante nodded solemnly and said, “I remember hearing stories about this gringo warlord, but I never knew his name. You seek to find out what happened to him?”
Cierra nodded. “That’s right.”
“And others are trying to stop you?”
“So it appears.” Cierra hesitated. “A man named Esparza, most likely.”
“Vladimir Antonio de la Esparza?”
“You’ve heard of him?” Gabriel said.
“Just because we live in the rain forests and the mountain jungles does not mean we are completely cut off from the outside world, Señor Hunt. We hear news from time to time. Señor Esparza is a rich man, therefore a famous man.” Escalante frowned at Cierra. “He is also said to be a ruthless man.”
“I think that is right, Paco,” she said. “He has tried several times already to have us killed.”
“I would help you fight him,” Escalante declared, “as partial payment of the debt I owe you, but…” He lifted his hands and spread them. “Look around you. My men and I may fight like tigres, but we are gray now and there are not many of us left. I fear we would not be much help against a man such as Esparza.”
“That’s all right,” Cierra said. “I’m just glad that I finally found out the truth, after all these years.”
“Sí. And I can promise you safe passage through the mountains to wherever it is you are going.”
“We haven’t quite figured that out yet,” Cierra admitted.
“When you do, we will accompany you. In the mean-time, you can use the hut where you were kept earlier.”
Gabriel wondered if that was the bandit leader’s way of telling them they were still prisoners.
“You are free to go whenever you wish,” Escalante went on, as if reading Gabriel’s thoughts. “I would advise you not to leave without taking us with you, though. These mountains are full of peril.”
“I remember,” Cierra said. “Thank you for your hospitality, Paco.”
Escalante shook his head. “It is the least I can do, señorita.”
Cierra got up and went to the hut. Gabriel stayed where he was for a moment, to give her some privacy, and he said quietly to Escalante, “What happened to that lieutenant of yours, the one who went against your wishes and led the attack on the plantation?”
A sad smile curved Escalante’s lips. “What do you think happened to him, Señor Hunt?” He drew the machete that was sheathed at his hip and ran the ball of his thumb along the keen edge of the blade.
Gabriel nodded. “I see. In my country, there’s a saying, when a subordinate makes a mistake, about how ‘heads must roll.’ But it’s only a saying.”
“Your country,” Escalante said, “has the luxury of sayings.”
Cierra was waiting for Gabriel when he got back to the hut. She rose from the crude bunk and said, “Get your shirt off.”