The Cartel (A Sarah Roberts Thriller Book 15) Read online

“Great. There goes that idea.”

  “Yeah. Sorry.”

  Neither spoke for a few moments. Casper focused on his breathing, hoping the wretched headache would dissipate.

  “What’s that fetid smell?”

  “Hector.”

  “Who’s Hector?”

  “An employee who allegedly stole from these guys. He was beaten and then murdered in this prison cell. Left to rot. They just removed him a few days back.”

  “Hmmph, sounds like nice enough fellows.”

  “Yeah, real classy joint.”

  Casper breathed deeply. Aaron huddled silently.

  “What next?” Aaron asked a few minutes later.

  “We get you out.”

  “How? Was getting captured part of your plan?”

  “No, but I’m adaptable. Now that I’m inside their compound, I’ve done half my job. I’ve found you. The other half is getting you out.”

  “You can’t. Security is too tight. There’s got to be a hundred men on the grounds. The electric fence is topped with barbed wire. Signs say High Voltage.”

  “You’ve been outside?” Casper asked, his attitude becoming more positive.

  “A few times on occasion when they drag me to the barn for water torture and finger cutting.”

  “Tell me about the outside. Paint a picture.”

  “There’s no use. Unless you can fly a helicopter, you’ll never escape this place. It’s a virtual prison.”

  “I don’t want to escape it.”

  “Then what does it matter?”

  “You’re going to escape. And I’ve got an idea how. Now, shut up about it and describe everything you saw in fine detail. I want to know it all, see it all. Got it?”

  Aaron shuffled something on his side of the room, made a thumping noise, then began talking.

  Soon, Casper saw the outside of the prison walls while his eyes remained closed and he waited for the headache to subside.

  Chapter 6

  Sarah eased up from a prone position to sit on the couch. Darwin stood at the stove in the kitchen on the other side of the cabin. The smell of eggs, bacon, and toast wafted Sarah’s way. Her stomach yearned for nourishment. The shit they’d fed her at the hotel was clogging her system up, but Casper had professed they had to eat hotel food or run the risk of getting some kind of illness. Especially the water. It had to be bottled water. Sarah had asked about the ice. What water did the hotel use to make ice? Casper hadn’t answered her. She didn’t have ice in any of her drinks.

  “Morning,” Darwin said.

  “Hey.” She rubbed sleep from her eyes.

  “You always sleep that good after a few murders?” he asked.

  “What? Those guys? I hate to sound like a cliché but I don’t lose sleep over scum.”

  “Good. Me neither. Get up, use the bathroom, then come to the table. Breakfast’s ready.”

  “What’s the hurry?”

  “We have a lot to talk about. Then we need to make a move.”

  Sarah headed for the toilet. The same toilet she finally got to use last night when they arrived after leaving the carnage at the Baja Café behind. When Darwin approached the hotel where Casper and his men had been keeping Sarah, the road was blocked and rerouted. They had gotten close enough to see four ambulances and at least a dozen police cars, marked and unmarked, surrounding the front. Some kind of attack had taken place in her absence. She only hoped Casper was still alive and the casualties were minimal.

  When she was done in the bathroom, she emerged to a steaming breakfast on the table and a smiling Darwin in his chair waiting for her to join him.

  “How did you get your name again?” she asked as she pulled her chair out.

  “My name? You mean, Darwin?”

  Sarah nodded and sat down.

  “Survival of the fittest. My father was Greek, hence the last name Kostas, even though that’s usually a first name in Greece.”

  Sarah got comfortable and dug into her food.

  “Thanks for this,” she said between bites. “Much needed.”

  “No problem,” he said. “Nourishment is as much an ally as any weapon when fighting an enemy. One must be at their maximum physical potential at all times.”

  She stopped chewing and looked up at him. “You sound like you’re putting on a seminar.”

  He bit into his bacon and watched her as he chewed without responding.

  “Sorry,” she said. “That sounded rude and ungrateful.”

  “Don’t worry. I don’t take things personally. The world doesn’t revolve around me. I’m the one who has to adapt and learn to live inside the world. Comments like that flatter me.”

  Sarah removed the whites from around her yolks, then took the yolk intact into her mouth, squeezed it with her tongue until it burst and fought off the urge to moan.

  “Interesting way to eat eggs,” Darwin commented.

  She swallowed. “I’ve always loved the intensity of a bursting yolk, flooding my mouth with its richness.” She swallowed again. “What do we have to talk about?”

  “Bad news.” Darwin’s face soured. “I heard from Rosina.”

  Sarah set her fork down. “Has something happened to your wife?”

  “No, nothing like that. She’s been monitoring everything from Italy and giving me hourly updates.”

  “What has she discovered?” Sarah asked as she picked up a strip of bacon and bit into it.

  “The safe house Parkman was being held at was hit last night.”

  Sarah dropped her bacon. It missed the plate and landed on the tablecloth.

  “What?”

  “Whoever did it was extremely professional, but they’re not sure who it was yet.”

  “What can you tell me?”

  “Three agents, two outside, one inside. All were subdued and knocked out. No sign of Parkman. No sign of blood.”

  Sarah frowned. “That doesn’t sound like cartel men. With a chance to take out federal agents, they’d take it. They kill cops down here in Mexico just to send a message.”

  Darwin nodded. “I once read a cartel boss’ statement that cartels don’t kill for money. They don’t kill women, innocents or children. They only kill those who should die. The problem with that is they’re the ones who determine who should die. Which could be all of the above.”

  “Twisted.”

  They stared at each other a moment longer until Darwin nodded. Sarah started in on her breakfast again not knowing when the next time would be where she would get to eat something so tasty.

  Darwin continued. “There’s been no sign of Parkman. Customs at the border are on high alert. His description has been circulated to every point of entry in California.”

  “Why just California?”

  “He was being contained in San Diego, right close to the border in case they needed to get him into Mexico fast to help with you, as far as I understand it. With him being that close, whoever took him, if their intention is to bring him down here, they’ll try to sneak him in right away. They may already have. The window of opportunity closed fast in the middle of the night. Today it would be much harder.”

  Sarah wiped the rest of her plate clean with the toast Darwin had piled on a plate in the center of the table.

  “Thanks for this,” Sarah said.

  “You don’t seem too concerned for Parkman. Or am I reading you wrong?”

  Sarah leaned back in her chair, stretched and waited to respond until her mouth was clear. “He’s fine wherever he is. Vivian’s close by. I can feel her. I can feel her emotional state. She’s not talking right now, but she knows about Parkman and she’s okay with it. So I am, too.”

  Darwin looked stunned. “You’ve changed.”

  “I’m a new person since you last saw me in Italy. After I got shot in the head … it was like a portal opened. Vivian can access me directly now. It took some getting used to and a small learning curve, but now she just talks to me. She’s so close I can feel her emotions and the best
part is, she can translate better than any app.”

  “What?” Darwin said, eyebrows raised, mouth open.

  “When I was in Greece, as the taxi driver spoke to me in Greek, a language I know nothing about, Vivian whispered what he said and then told me how to answer in Greek. When I hear the language in my head, it rolls off my tongue almost accent free.” She could tell this news was shocking Darwin. “Chinese too.”

  “Chinese!” he shouted.

  “Yeah,” she shrugged. Wanting to change the subject, she said, “What else did Rosina tell you?”

  Darwin drank the rest of his orange juice, set the cup down and got up from the table. He started to clear the dishes.

  “Last night’s hit on the hotel you were staying at was the Enzo Cartel according to the authorities.”

  Sarah looked down at her napkin and began fiddling with it. How close did she come to being taken by them in the hotel that was full of DEA, FBI, CIA and every other alphabet acronym she could come up with?

  “How many dead?” she asked, knowing the cartel wouldn’t have just knocked the authorities out and left them all sleeping.

  “Thirty dead. But the media isn’t releasing that number.”

  Her stomach felt like a pit of ore. The food rolled around in an attempt to be digested, but her nerves forced acid into the mix, upsetting the balance.

  “Did Rosina get access to a list of names?”

  “If you’re referring to Special Agent Buck Schaffer, he’s been reported as missing from the scene.”

  “Missing?” Sarah snapped, looking up at Darwin.

  Darwin set the plates on the counter. “They’re assuming he was kidnapped.”

  Hopelessness settled in over her system. Aaron had been gone for almost two weeks now. Parkman was missing. Casper had been kidnapped. The only good thing to come out of all this was Darwin and Rosina. Without them, she might have been killed last night in her recklessness. But of course Vivian knew about Darwin, otherwise she wouldn’t have sent her after the lieutenant.

  “What now?” Sarah asked. “I don’t even know where this cartel is or how they operate. We were supposed to rely on intel from the Mexican authorities but they weren’t very forthcoming.”

  She got up and moved to the couch where she stretched out to rest her stomach.

  Darwin took the chair facing her.

  “I’ve done some research on the Enzo Cartel and cartels in general. They control ninety percent of the cocaine entering the U.S.” Darwin leaned back and cleared his throat. “Wholesale earnings are as high as fifty billion a year. Some of the cartels near border towns like Tijuana have taken over trafficking cocaine from Columbia by working with FARC.”

  “I’ve heard that name. Remind me who they are again.”

  “It stands for Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia. Last I read they were nearly a 20,000-strong army in Columbia. Anyway, all the cocaine from Columbia, Peru and Ecuador runs through them in an exchange for guns program.”

  “They sound bigger and more organized than the Mafia.”

  “In some ways, they are. They’re involved in kidnapping, ransom, murder, robbery and extortion just like the Mafia. But they are always trying to find new and unique ways to kill and inspire fear in their enemies. And they have no issue with killing cops, unlike the Mafia. They also launder money like the Mafia, but cartels are known to launder over forty billion dollars through the United States per year.”

  Sarah rested her arm over her forehead. “What does all this mean for Aaron? Where is he and how can I get him out?”

  “I’ve got an idea for that.”

  She glanced his way. “What’s your idea?”

  “You call the DEA office in San Diego and offer up something tasty for them.”

  “What does that mean?” Sarah sat on the edge of her chair.

  “Tell them where the Enzo Cartel are meeting, or where a pick up is taking place. Hurt them. Get some of their members arrested or even killed. Do this a few times in a row.”

  “How am I supposed to know that kind of information? If I knew where they were, I’d go after them.”

  “You have to ask your sister. But here’s my point. We have to rattle them. Then we take you to the hospital.”

  She reared back. “Hospital?” He wasn’t making sense. “Why would I go to a hospital?”

  “To arm a gurney with explosives and guns.”

  “And do what with it?”

  “Now this is the good part.” He licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. “I want you to get kidnapped by the Enzo Cartel. Go inside armed to the teeth. Find Aaron. And prepare for my assault. I’ll be tracking you the entire time with GPS. It’s the only way to find their compound. Even the Mexican authorities have no clue where the cartel’s headquarters are. Enzo wants you. The cartel guys will take you to their camp. Once you’re inside, they won’t kill you fast. That’ll give me time to get in and take them all out.”

  “Gee thanks. Not kill me fast. Why am I not liking this idea too much yet?” Sarah looked down at the cabin’s hardwood floor. As crazy as this idea sounded, there was something that made sense to it. She looked back up. “I can grow to like it. But how are you—one man—going to enter a cartel compound and save the day?”

  “I won’t be one man. I have about a dozen fully trained mercenaries at my disposal.”

  “Mercs? A dozen? How?”

  “I’ve been slowly recruiting since I’ve been in Italy in the event that I end up having another showdown with the Mafia. I’ve worked with these men, trained with them and offered a number of them refuge when they needed it. At the back of my property, I dug out a subterranean floor. We train underground, out of sight from satellites and curious onlookers. Now I’m calling in favors. I’ve called all twelve. At least seven are entering Mexico over the next several days. None of them can be bought by a cartel. In this part of the world, they are loyal only to me.” His chest swelled as he spoke of these men. “I’ve handpicked them for this assignment.”

  “This sounds like a scene from Expendables. You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Darwin shook his head back and forth.

  “And you’re doing this for me?” Sarah asked. “So I can get Aaron out?”

  He nodded.

  “Why?”

  “Because one day you’ll return the favor. Maybe even save my life. But I don’t do it for a return. I do it because it’s who I am now. It’s what I do best. And I hate organized groups of criminals. The Mafia, a cartel, they’re all the same to me.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” Sarah got up from the table and approached the large window that looked out on the Mexican terrain.

  “Say you’ll agree to be a chunk of bait,” Darwin said. “It’s the only way I can think of getting you inside. Eventually they’ll kidnap you anyway. Better it’s on our terms.”

  “Great. Thanks for that.” She smiled. “You’re right. Let’s rattle their cage, then set me up to be taken.” She turned from the window with thoughts of Aaron, Parkman and Casper on her mind. This was no time to be idle. They had to attack viciously, hard and fast.

  Darwin clapped his hands. “I’ll set things in motion and get the gear prepared. You talk to Vivian and get me whatever you can on the cartel. Then we go after them.”

  Sarah moved to the couch. On her way across the floor, Vivian left her consciousness. It felt like an eagle gently, quietly fell off a high perch in a tree. When she did that, Sarah felt a void open up on the inside. The void was filled with despair, dread.

  Vivian moved away when she wanted no part in something.

  Vivian moved away when she disapproved.

  There would be no cartel locations, no assignments for the DEA to rattle the Enzo cage. Vivian wasn’t willing to offer anything unless she deemed it necessary. She could never be told what to do. Sarah understood that. And hated it.

  Pushing Vivian never worked. Her sister talked when her sister was ready to talk.

&
nbsp; It reminded Sarah of someone very close to her.

  Vivian reminded Sarah of herself.

  Chapter 7

  The prison door opened a crack. A chunk of something wrapped in aluminum foil was shoved inside and the door jerked closed, secured from the outside.

  Casper crawled over and unwrapped the package.