“You’re full of shit.”
But the quiver in Nolan’s voice betrayed his lack of confidence.
“Now,” Avery continued, “the question I keep asking myself is why would she want to kill you? I think it’s because you did your part, you delivered the missiles, and then she had no further use for you. She already knows we’re on her trail, and she knew we’d catch up with you sooner or later. That makes you one serious security risk. You can deny it all you want, but you’re only lying to yourself.”
Avery paused, and the silence to fester for half a minute.
“Nothing to say? Those agents died this morning to save your fucking life. They could have just left you there or turned you over to La Empresa at any time and walked away. You might want to think about that.”
“It’s not true.”
“Are you that fucking pathetic, Sean? You know damned well how the Viper operates. She kills her help after they’ve served their purpose and become a liability. Her brother’s the only person she’s really loyal to, and he’s rotting in the ground. What, you thought you were different? Well, that’s what everybody likes to think, isn’t it. You don’t mean shit to her.”
Avery saw the glimmer of doubt in the man’s eyes, replacing the earlier defiance, and knew he was almost there.
“Even if that were true, I still don’t see why the fuck I should help you. I’m facing the inside of a Colombian jail the rest of my life either way. Even if the cunt did set me up, I’ll still gladly see her kill more of you fuckers.”
“Who said anything about a jail? You’re in ANIC’s custody. No one knows they have you. When they’re through with you, you’re simply going to disappear, but not until the Black Eagles have a go at you. But maybe you can convince the Colombians to extradite you to the British. Then maybe your buddies in Sinn Fein can cash in some political points and commute your sentence.”
Avery allowed Nolan a minute to reflect on this before continuing.
“Yeah, your options are shitty, but you can choose how much shit you get. If you don’t talk to me right here and now, I’m walking out, and ANIC will take over.”
Without another word, Avery stood up, turned, and started for the door.
Nolan’s voice weakly called out after him.
“What do you want from me?”
When Avery walked out of the holding cell thirty minutes later, Culler and Daniel were waiting silently in the corridor.
Daniel took deep drags off a cigarette like he couldn’t get enough.
Culler read Avery’s expression as he came near them.
“What do you have?”
“How are Layton’s men doing?” Avery asked, ignoring the question.
“They’re being treated here, except for Tyson. They stabilized him and flew him out to Palanquero. He’s in critical condition. Even if he pulls through, his days in FAST are over. By the way, Layton was asking about you.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“He wants to talk to you.”
“What about?”
“To thank you, I’d imagine. There’d be a lot more dead agents if you and Aguilar hadn’t gone in.”
Avery was glad he was able to bring those guys out, but he didn’t plan to shoot the shit with Layton and exchange Christmas cards. His thoughts were with the dead agents and Colombian cops he failed to save, and that little boy in Medellin. When this was over and he left Colombia, Avery didn’t want any reminders of what happened here. He wanted to blot all of this from his mind, bury it behind new walls.
“So what did you get out of Nolan?” Culler asked Avery.
“Everything.”
Avery handed Culler a piece of paper with his handwritten notes.
“The Viper is headed to Mexico with the missiles. She has nine units. They left this morning from a small cartel airfield.”
“They?”
“Yeah, she’s travelling with two others; Benito Trujillo and Carlo Ibarra.”
“I know these men,” Daniel said. “Ibarra is a Basque terrorist. Madrid provided us with CNI’s complete dossier on him. Trujillo is a Peruvian mercenary. Both men are closely connected to FARC. Ibarra is known to have worked with the Viper in the past, but he’s been inactive for the past couple years and there has been no recent sighting of him. We surmised that he had retired.”
“Terrorism’s a business with a pretty a shitty retirement package. They can never fully give the life up,” Culler observed. Indeed, Abu Nidal had been inactive for over a decade, and it still hadn’t done him any good when his Iraqi hosts had decided that he was a liability and murdered him in the middle of the night.
“There’s someone else, too,” Avery said. “An unknown foreign player linked up with the Viper in Bogotá, before she hit Flight 224. But I don’t have a name, not even a description. Nolan only heard Moreno mention him once. Whoever this guy is, she doesn’t trust him. Nolan’s impression is that she didn’t bring him onboard by choice.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Culler said.
“I’m thinking it has to be one of Kashani’s men,” Avery said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“And you think we can believe Nolan?”
“He was telling the truth. He had no reason to lie. Plus his mental defenses were down, and he doesn’t care about the Viper’s cause. He knows she sent La Empresa to kill him this morning, to silence him, so he’s holding a bit of a grudge.”
“Nice,” Culler said.
It wasn’t a total deception Avery had pulled on Nolan earlier. The Empresa prisoners from La Orca had in fact revealed that the Viper instructed their organization to keep a close watch on Nolan and eliminate him if it appeared he was to be arrested.
“But it’s still worth having Daniel’s people continue working on him,” Avery added.
“We will,” the Colombian said.
“What’s going to happen to Nolan?”
“When it is clear that we have no further use for him,” Daniel answered, “I will contact the British embassy. They are welcome to have him, if they want him.”
“Where in Mexico is the Viper headed?” Culler asked.
“Tijuana,” Avery said. “They’re paying the cartel for safe passage into the US. Nolan says they were supposed to leave Colombia early this morning. He claims he doesn’t know the exact destination, but once in Mexico, they can be in America within a couple hours.”
“FARC has close ties to the cartel in Tijuana,” said Daniel. “FARC sells them cocaine.”
Avery started to walk away.
“Where are you going?” Culler called after him.
“Mexico. At most, I figure we’re six, seven hours behind the Viper. You guys coming?”
“Just hold up. You know I have to take this up with Rangel first.”
“No, Matt. We can’t waste any more time with that shit. We have to move now. What happens if the Viper reaches the States? Then the FBI has jurisdiction, and we’re out of the picture.”
“So what? Let the Bureau handle it.” Culler paused. “Afraid you won’t get the kill?”
“You think that’s what this is about, Matt?”
But Avery wondered if he was really that easy to read.
“Come on,” Culler said. “I know you. You see the Viper as a challenge, and you’re pissed off that she got the upper hand on you in Panama. You’ve gone through a lot of shit because of her. You want to be the one to put her down.”
“You know I’m right. A lot of people are going to die if we don’t stop her before she reaches the States. I don’t give a shit about Rangel. Let him complain and make threats. It’s not my problem.”
“No, but it’s my problem,” Culler said. He was once an ops officer himself, a veteran of the Afghan campaign, and he once held the same disdain for Seventh Floor oversight that Avery did. But it was different now. Culler answered to the director of the National Clandestine Service now, and he had a wife and children to support. “I’m responsible for you, and I already have Rangel and the Seventh Floor on my ass after Medellin, not to mention what happened in Panama.”