A shout of “Oh my God!” from Katie had Sean rushing into the kitchen, the small screen she was staring at had Breaking News flashing in the top corner of the screen. The story of the Governor’s wife dying had been made public.
Sean could hardly believe it himself. He had just met the governor less than hours earlier and he had quite possibly been one of the happiest people he had ever met. The poor guy had no idea what that day would bring. Sean suddenly thought of Vincent. What if he wasn’t strong enough to pull through the heart attack? He shook his head. If Sean knew one thing, it really was that Vincent Black wasn’t going to let a heart attack get the better of him.
“Looks like I may not be going to Moscow after all!” said Sean, more to himself than to Katie.
“Sorry,” she asked.
“The governor wanted me to go to Moscow with him,” explained Sean.
“What about James?” she asked, despite the fact that Sean had said he probably wouldn’t be going.
“I was only going if we had him back,” explained Sean.
“But should we not talk about things like that before you say yes?” she asked.
Sean suddenly realized she was talking to him like he was her Sean. She had so easily slipped into the comfortable world of him being there for her. The strangest part for Sean was that he actually thought for a second that maybe he should have spoken to her first. He really needed to get James back and to get to a beach very soon.
A thud from the living room allowed him to change the subject. “Any idea of when the builders are likely to return across the road?”
Luis was struggling to empty the house, for a second time, of its bodies. This time, however, there were far more and thanks to the daylight, they would not be unceremoniously dumped in the lake. Sean had already cranked the air conditioning in Katie’s garage as low as it would go and had laid his fallen colleagues carefully side by side, covering each with a blanket or sheet. They would be picked up later by a local coroner, courtesy of the CIA, to be flown to their respective families.
Luis was rounding up the Russians and loading them into the wheelbarrow to be stored within the empty house across the street. A specialist had already been dispatched to deal with the bodies. As far as anyone was concerned, within twenty-four hours, there would be no evidence that any Russian had ever been in Laredo, or the US, for that matter. Although Luis bitched about his role in cleaning up the mess, he was delighted that was all he was doing. If he heard another electric saw in his life, he wasn’t sure how he would react.
As Sean helped him load the final body into the wheelbarrow, the phone rang. Sean checked his watch, only thirty minutes had passed since he had spoken to Jane. Katie rushed into the hallway and grabbed the phone, looking at the caller id, 'withheld’.
Sean shook his head. Jane’s number would have shown up. He looked at Luis who shrugged.
Katie answered. “Hello?”
“Luis!” barked the caller.
Katie ran over to Luis with the phone outstretched to him, desperate for him to tell her what was happening.
“Uncle!” he answered.
“No, Juan!”
The fall of Luis’ face had Katie panicking. Sean grabbed her, as much to comfort as to quieten her.
“I believe you have sourced the contacts?”
“It’s in hand,” replied Luis as confidently as he could.
“Excellent, I have convinced your uncle that to ensure we do resolve this matter that you should point out to whoever it is helping you, that we have set a deadline,” he paused. “We wouldn’t want them to start stalling and playing silly games! Of course your uncle agrees.”
“Of course not, everything is on schedule,” said Luis his confidence wavering.
“Excellent, I’m delighted to hear that. I wouldn’t want to have to kill the boy just because you bullshitted your uncle!”
“Never!”
“Good, by close of business, five pm we’ll have our contacts or the boy is delivered to his mother in a coffin, closed of course!” spat Juan.
Luis replaced the handset and looked at Sean in despair. He knew if the boy died there was little hope he would survive.
“What?” rushed Sean.
“It was Juan, my uncle’s right hand man.” Luis began and saw the look of desperation on Katie’s face.
“A big deal we are working on, it is nothing to do with this!”
“But you look very worried?” pleaded Katie, not believing him.
“He is a very difficult man to work with!”
“Worse than your uncle?” scoffed Sean.
“Yes!” replied Luis.
“He must be some piece of work,” offered Sean. “Now come on, we need to move these bodies before anyone sees them,” he continued disengaging from Katie, again.
As they stepped out of the house and out of Katie’s earshot, Luis whispered. “That wasn’t quite true!”
“No shit,” replied Sean, amazed that Luis thought he had believed him. “ Why do you think we’re out here, what did he really say?”
“If you don’t get them the contacts by five this afternoon, they’ll kill the boy!”
“I can’t tell you the pleasure I’m going to take killing your Uncle!” replied Sean furious at the course of events and how little control he had.
“I would advise against it!”
“So he can protect you?” exclaimed Sean, ensuring Luis realized that was not on his radar.
“I’ll already be dead. If I fail, Juan will make sure I pay as well! My uncle is a fighter, a very good one, in fact as good if not better than you. He is also a psycho. Juan is a fighter but he is also a strategist. Everything he does is done because he has calculated all the possibilities and probabilities. My uncle does what he thinks is right and because if he does this, that will happen.”
“I’m not quite getting your point?” interrupted Sean as he scooped up the last of the Russians and deposited him in the wheelbarrow.
“My uncle’s psychotic tendencies keep Juan at bay. He manipulates my uncle but he is limited as my uncle only operates on the one level, one action one result.”
Sean shook his head, it was as clear as mud.
“Juan plans at a much higher level than my uncle can comprehend. He will do one thing, because that will cause something else to happen, that will then cause another thing to happen and so on until the result he wanted in the first place happens. My uncle can’t be manipulated at that level, he’s not smart enough and it holds Juan back.”
“And I give a shit because?”
“Two reasons, he loves my uncle more than life itself and if you killed my uncle you’d better kill Juan. Otherwise, he would have every resource at the disposal of Los Zetas hunting you down for the rest of your life.”
Sean shrugged, non-plussed by the thought. “And two?”
“With my uncle’s constraints no longer holding him back, Juan will wipe out the other cartels and have Mexico under his de facto control before you know it. Which I’m sure would not be good for America, nor more importantly Mexico.”
“Sounds like a scary guy,” mocked Sean shuddering.
“If he says the boy will die at five, it will be five, not one minute past, not one minute to. Exactly on the stroke of five, his throat will be slit,” warned Luis.
Sean lost the smile and considered the time. He sped up and they dropped the final of the Russian bodies in the empty house. He checked the street. There was no sign that less than an hour earlier an all out battle had taken place and fifteen lives had been lost. Silenced weapons and stealth had played its part, as had the solid structure of Katie’s house in limiting the effects of the flashbangs on the local area. Even then the nearest neighbor was a street away and had left for work before the action kicked off.
A police car pulled into the street as they closed the empty house’s door. Sean paused, this was not good. The cruiser worked its way slowly down the street, checking each of the properties. Sean’s heart almost stopped. This was the last thing he needed. He nudged Luis to walk with him, as naturally as possible, as if it was just an average morning. The officer dipped his hat as he cruised past Sean and Luis and continued on down the street. As he turned out of sight, both breathed a huge sigh of relief.
As they walked through Katie’s door, Sean’s cell rang. Only one person had the number and he was in hospital. Sean turned and headed back out. He wanted some privacy.
“Hello?” answered Sean.
“Hi Sean, it’s Jane.”
Sean checked his watch, forty minutes. Not possible he thought.
“I’ve just heard from the hospital, Vincent is stable and comfortable.”
“Excellent,” replied Sean. The wave of relief that flooded over him made him realize just how worried he had been.
“Although, the first twenty fours are crucial,” she cautioned, he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“But it is good news!”
“Definitely.” Sean could almost hear her smile through her answer.
“Anyway, lots to do, talk soon,” she chirped.
“Any luck on that other stuff?” asked Sean hoping he had caught her before she hung up.
“Oh yes, that. But it’s only been forty minutes!” she teased. She had had no intention of hanging up.
“Timescales have become more pressing,” he explained seriously.
“Pressing how?”
“5pm!”
“Jesus!” exclaimed Jane, not the answer he had hoped for.