Hunters, Matt Rogers [pdf ebook reader .txt] 📗

was reserved, and Violetta’s silence meant she wanted him to do the talking.

They were all reeling from what had transpired.

King let the sound of drumming rain envelop the car for a full minute, then looked across. ‘You don’t have any questions?’

Antônia was straight-backed, a vein in her forehead protruding as she focused on the road ahead. The wipers zipped left and right in overdrive, trying and failing to clear the pouring rain. Vision was limited to a few dozen feet ahead.

She took a breath and said, ‘I figured you have more questions than I do.’

‘Who was he?’

‘The guy back there?’

‘Who else?’

‘He’s the reason I’m in-country. Fabio Torres is one of the wealthiest men in El Salvador. A commercial property magnate. We had him in our pocket, then Cártel de Texis got to him, and he changed sides. I was in Santa Ana to make him see the light. He lives up there, in a gated community away from the slums and the poorer barrios. His influence is priceless, and we couldn’t let the drug-runners sink their hooks into him.’

‘Because you’re morally pure?’ King said, which drew a sly smile out of her.

‘I know about you. You come from my world. You know how it works. We need him on our side so we have influence over this little country. There’s nothing moral about what I do.’

King knew. It’s why he’d gotten out of the game in the first place. Same as Slater.

If life experience had taught him anything, it’s that there’s little difference between organised crime and politics.

King said, ‘He’ll tell your employers what just happened.’

‘He certainly won’t.’

‘They’ll come for him,’ King said. ‘They’ll ask him why he released four rogue terrorists they desperately wanted their hands on.’

‘And he’ll tell them Cártel de Texis made him do it.’

King hesitated. ‘You’ll make him say that?’

A slow nod. ‘The government and the military are corrupt to their core. Word spread that four high-value targets were in military custody, and two of those targets were legendary killers from U.S. black operations. The cartel needs enforcers on their payroll. They put pressure on Torres to get you four released, and now you’re in their hands.’

‘You sure Torres will stick to that? Even if they threaten to kill him?’

‘Oh, I’m sure he’ll beg and plead for his life. He’ll promise it won’t happen again, that it was simply a final request from Cártel de Texis before they left him alone for good. I told him if he so much as breathes my name, he’ll end up dead in his sleep. I made that clear.’

‘But I thought you already brought him back to your side. Will the government buy his explanation?’

‘Maybe. That’s on him to persuade them. Whatever the case, he won’t betray me. I made sure of that.’

‘What did you do to him?’

She hesitated. The rain beat down harder.

‘Nothing you want to hear,’ she said. ‘But I had to terrify him worse than the cartel did. That took some effort.’

King shivered, and it wasn’t cold.

After ruminating, he said, ‘Thank you for helping us.’

‘I’m helping Alonzo. I don’t know you.’

‘Are you and Alonzo—?’

She glanced sideways and laughed. ‘Married? Dating?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Maybe one day. If I have a soul when I get out…’

He didn’t respond.

She took a hand off the wheel and wiped her forehead with a dirty palm. It came away wet with perspiration. The humidity in the car was stifling.

She said, ‘Did you?’

‘Did I what?’

‘Keep your soul.’

King closed his eyes to give his headache a moment’s reprieve. It seemed egotistical to answer.

Violetta chimed in from the back, her voice soft. ‘He did.’

Antônia seemed to acknowledge the three occupants in the rear for the first time. She looked over her shoulder. ‘Antônia. It’s a pleasure.’

‘The pleasure’s ours,’ Slater said, drawing her attention.

She looked him up and down. ‘You’re all in bad shape.’ Her eyes wandered to Violetta. ‘You look okay.’

‘She has to be,’ King said. ‘She’s pregnant.’

Antônia faced the road again, squinting through the downpour. ‘Congratulations.’

It felt hollow. It was hollow. King knew what she was thinking.

This is no life for a child.

He felt the impulse to fill the silence. ‘This isn’t what our life usually looks like.’

‘You’re not fooling anyone,’ Antônia said, leaving stunned silence in her wake.

King didn’t answer.

Finally she said, ‘Once you’re in, there’s no getting out. Normal life is … lesser.’

‘Not for us,’ King said. ‘Not anymore.’

When he looked over, she met his gaze, and winked. ‘You keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you might even convince yourself. But you’ll never convince me.’

They barrelled northwest toward Santa Ana.

53

The first noise to break the quiet after twenty long minutes was Alexis exhaling a full breath, releasing pent-up emotions.

Antônia glanced in the rear view mirror. ‘You okay?’

‘As okay as can be,’ Alexis said.

King said, ‘We all thought we were dead half an hour ago.’

‘Glad I could help.’

‘Where are we headed?’

‘Santa Ana. I have a safe house there, a small walk-up apartment. It’s where I laid out my web to trap Torres.’

King thought about what had happened, finally able to digest the whirlwind. ‘How did he do that?’

‘Get you out?’

‘We must have been some of the highest-value prisoners the Armed Forces have ever seen. And he waltzed in there and had us released like it was nothing.’

Antônia said, ‘This is the Northern Triangle, Jason. Things are different here.’

King said, ‘I know. Sorry. I’m still wrapping my head around everything.’

She didn’t elaborate out of respect for his experience. She must have heard the stories about King and Slater. Where they’d been, what they’d done. They’d started their careers in solo black ops in their early twenties. That was an unfathomable survival streak, given the odds. They’d seen a side of the world that most who live in first world countries are never exposed to, a side that’s not even touched on by the bravest of investigative journalists.

King said, ‘I take it he does what he wants, when he wants.’

‘Which is exactly why we need him,’ Antônia said. ‘There’s been controversial reports coming out of