“Just making sure you still know who’s in charge.”
Inside the room, Nathan shoved her forward and kicked the door shut. “Estefan, close the rear window.”
When Nathan heard the metallic scrape and subsequent thump, he verified the curtains were closed and flipped the light switch. The room filled with bland yellow light from the nightstand lamp.
Antonia pursed her lips when she saw Estefan.
Harv emerged from the bathroom, drying his hands with a blood-smeared towel.
“Sit her down,” Nathan said.
Estefan pushed Antonia toward the bed.
She sat, keeping her legs together and her hands in her lap.
Staring at the girl, Nathan remained silent for ten seconds. Neither Harv nor Estefan said anything. It was a classic interrogation strategy. When Nathan finally spoke, his voice had an icy evenness. “I don’t suppose you feel the slightest bit guilty about the men we killed out there.”
She kept her head down and didn’t respond.
“I didn’t think so. I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them truthfully. Here’s my first question. Do you understand what I just told you?”
She nodded without looking up.
“In a few minutes, you and I are going to walk over to the pay phone, and you’re going to call the man you know as Franco. I’ll tell you what to say. If you deviate from the script, you’ll end up like your father — with one ear.” Nathan pulled his Predator from its ankle sheath and held it a few inches from her face. He twisted its menacing blade a few times. “I trust I won’t have to use this?”
She shook her head and wiped a tear.
“Spare me,” Estefan muttered.
Nathan looked at him. “Wire up. We need eyes outside.”
Estefan looked like he wanted to object but didn’t.
After Estefan slipped outside, Nathan continued. “You’re in over your head, Antonia. I’m sure that’s abundantly clear now. This isn’t a kid’s game of cops and robbers. You’re in the big leagues now. Here’s the deal. You’re going to answer my questions. Refusing to answer or lying will result in pain. If you’d like to test yourself to see how tough you are, by all means try it. I’m willing to administer your exam. Try to imagine what it feels like having your skin peeled off in narrow strips. Personally, I think that kind of sacrifice is misguided, given who you’re protecting, but that’s an internal debate you can have once we get started.” Nathan looked at Harv who crossed his arms. “Since we don’t have any goggles or rain ponchos for blood spatter protection, we’ll have to start with noninvasive methods, such as broken bones, dislocated joints, and soft-tissue trauma. I’ll secure a folded pillowcase inside your mouth, so you won’t crack your teeth during the process. Ready, Harv?”
Harv obliged with a solemn nod.
“Are you ready?” Nathan asked Antonia.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“About the men who died.”
“Well, it’s a start. Ask yourself this. Do you think your white-shirted boyfriend would suffer through horrible agony for you?”
From the look on her face, Nathan knew he was close to breaking her. “Quite frankly, you’re in our way. We could make our lives a whole lot easier by adding your corpse to the bathtub. Maybe you have info we can use, maybe you don’t — it’s too early to say. I’m not going to ask questions that require long answers. If you go off topic, I’ll be very unhappy.”
“You don’t have to hurt me. I’ll tell you what I know.”
“A wise decision. For the record, I don’t think you’re a stupid person. I think you’ve made some bad decisions, but that doesn’t make you stupid.”
“I’m really sorry about Estefan’s father. He was a nice man.”
“If all goes well here, you can tell Estefan that yourself. I’m sure he’d appreciate hearing it. The man you’re… associated with burned Estefan’s house down and put his wife in the hospital. Did you know that?”
“No.”
“Did you tell him who Estefan was?”
She hesitated, then nodded.
“How did you get personal information on Estefan?”
She told him about the uncashed check from the church.
“If I were you, I’d pray Estefan never finds out about that.”
“You aren’t going to tell him?”
“No.”
At this point Nathan knew she’d answer his questions readily, so he went methodically through a list of things they needed to know.
Three minutes later, they had a basic understanding of Macanas’s operations in Santavilla. He also verified the information she’d shared with Estefan earlier. The lumber mill was the center of activity, and Franco never came into town without going there. Antonia didn’t know why so many men were stationed there, but she said the number had grown from three to five or six over the last nine months. Franco’s men lived there in a barracks type of setup. If her information was up to date, then they could count on at least two more men being at the mill.
Nathan did a quick calculation in his head. Estefan had fired the shot in front of Antonia around twenty minutes ago. The remaining men in the lumber mill would be wondering why their friends hadn’t come back by now. He pressed the transmit button on his radio. “Estefan, we need you back in here.”
“On my way.”
Antonia kept her head down and remained motionless while Harv let Estefan into the room.
“Watch our guest for a minute,” Nathan said. “If she tries anything cute, break her arm… in two places. Cut up some strips of bedsheets to use as ties.”
Estefan nodded. “My pleasure.”
Walking across the street with Harv, Nathan thought about the call he wanted Antonia to make. A good idea formed, and he was surprised he hadn’t thought of it earlier.
“So what’s the plan?” said Harv.
Nathan found a place in the shadows where they could speak without being seen. “Well, we need to force Raven to come up here as soon as possible, if he’s not already on his way. We can do that with a call from Antonia, but immediately afterward we need to cut off all communications between Santavilla and the outside world. That accomplishes a couple of things: Raven won’t be able to coordinate with his men, and no one can report our presence to him.”
“Good point,” said Harv. “If he hears one of his former kilo colleagues is working with a couple of American agents, he’ll put two and two together.”
Nathan nodded. “We’re pretty hard to confuse with anyone else. Especially me. And there’s no way Raven would engage Estefan and his two old Echo instructors, even with a small army of men.”
“So we cut the phone line coming into town?”
“Basic military strategy. Sever the enemy’s communication.”
Harv looked to the south. “Yeah, it could work. There’s no cell service in this valley, but didn’t Estefan say there might be a signal at the top of that mountain?”
“‘Might’ being the operative word. If we have time later, we’ll hustle up there and check.”
“Cantrell could be trying to contact us.”
“We can’t worry about that right now.”
“You realize we’ll be isolating the town from the outside world. If someone calls one-one-eight in an emergency, no one will receive it.”
“I don’t like it much, but I think the odds are pretty low someone will have a life-threatening emergency during the next few hours.”
“Nate, we create life-threatening emergencies.”
“Come on. You know what I mean.”
“I guess I’m okay with that too. Like you said, the odds are pretty low. So we’ll need a pair of wire cutters.”
“We’ll ask Antonia if the general store has them. If not, we’ll improvise. It might take a few bullets, but we can shoot the phone line if we have to.”