Black Coke (53 page)

‘Nothing serious. They did head scans and everything’s fine. Just got beaten up a bit by those Front bullies.’

Nathan swallowed. His mouth was parched and his head felt like it was going to split in two.

‘Pass me some water, will you?’

Lucia handed him a cup that was on his bedside table.

‘So, what happened?’ he said.

‘Amonite’s dead. There was no way she could survive that helicopter crash.’

Nathan nodded. Amonite was dead before the helicopter blew up. He knew that, because he’d killed her. But he didn’t have the strength to go over it just now.

‘Was El Patrón really Escobar?’

‘If it wasn’t him, then it was someone who’d been close to him, who took on his identity. Manuel’s guys hacked into the laptop you found. A ton of emails and files. El Patrón was the mastermind behind the Front. Hijacked it from the convicts who set it up. Brought Amonite on board, and George. Had access to hundreds of millions of dollars in bank accounts. Switzerland, the Cayman Islands. Could be the money Escobar stashed away twenty years ago. Or another source. We just don’t know.’

‘George must have known Escobar from when he was ambassador here in the early nineties,’ Nathan said. ‘What about the Front?’

‘Disbanded. Manuel’s guys gave them a good kicking. They found a place near the base where the Front was keeping all the helicopters and trucks that George was delivering. They were building an army. Strong enough to take control of half of Colombia. The other cartels wouldn’t have stood a chance in hell against them.’

‘And you?’

‘I escaped all by myself. Like a big girl.’ She smiled, touched his hand. ‘Manuel told me you came back for me. Thank you.’

‘But they knew.’

‘Who?’

‘The guards.’ Nathan clasped Lucia’s hand and grimaced at the pain in his leg. ‘They were waiting for us at the RV point. They caught Manuel.’

‘One of the campesinos was a spy for the Front.’

‘Did they get him?’

Lucia nodded. ‘He was punished.’

Nathan closed his eyes. The nightmare was over.

‘So what next?’ he said.

‘The president’s dead.’

‘How?’

‘At the gala. An assassin shot him, then the place blew up. Killed George, General Zathanaís, half the cabinet, and a bunch of others.’

‘The Black Coke? There must be stocks left.’

‘Manuel destroyed it.’ She gestured to the laptop. ‘You can read all about the Front’s plans in there. Sounds like that reverend was planning on distributing a whole lot more. What happened to him?’

Nathan explained. Lucia shuddered.

‘Those horrific beetles,’ she said. ‘You saw the fields? The Front had been dumping the waste from the Black Coke production into them. Barrels of highly toxic chemicals. Mutated the beetles. They’re eating everything now. It’s not going to be easy to get rid of them.’

‘Where are we?’ Nathan said.

‘In a military hospital. A secret location.’ She stroked his head. ‘We’re safe.’

It was days before Nathan could get out of bed and walk around with a crutch. His right arm and left leg were healing well, the doctor said. The side wound had been more worrying, but was now out of danger.

Nathan and Lucia watched the news. Riots had erupted across Colombia, the people tired of the corruption and drugs war. The acting president called a state of emergency. Tanks rumbled onto the streets. Mercenaries trained by American and British forces charged at protesters, backed up by Colombian police in armoured vehicles with water jets.

Hundreds died.

‘What are we going to do?’ Nathan asked Lucia.

‘I’m going to continue the fight. The ASI is still around. The drug laws are still there. To be honest, I think the Americans and Europeans are happy that the president was assassinated. It’s all very nice having past presidents and statesmen argue against the drugs war, but presidents in office? Particularly for a country as central to the drugs war as Colombia?’

‘You think they were in on it?’

‘I doubt it. I think El Patrón, Amonite and George were the culprits, and only them. They had too much to lose from Colombia legalising drugs. Their whole empire would have collapsed. That’s why they saw the president as a traitor.’

‘So what now?’

‘We’ve won a battle against a drugs cartel, but it’ll keep on happening until the whole system changes. Or collapses.’

He stared out of the window at the fields outside. On the other side of the barbed wire fencing, farmers were harvesting coffee beans and putting them in baskets tucked under their arms. How much money would they make from this field? Probably nowhere near the amount they’d make if it was all coca plants.

Lucia slipped her arm round his waist and rested her head on his chest.

‘And you?’ she said. ‘What will you do?’

‘I have nothing to go back to. No home. No job. No family.’

‘You’ve got me.’

He looked down at her. The fury still blazed in her eyes, but there was something new there now, something that touched him deep inside.

He stroked her cheek.

‘I’ve got you.’

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F
or a political and shaded relief map of Colombia, go to:
http://www.mapcruzin.com/free-maps-colombia/txu-oclc-192062534-columbia_rel_2008.jpg
.

For a wider variety of maps of Colombia, go to:
http://www.mapcruzin.com/free-colombia-maps.htm
.

J
ames Grenton graduated from Oxford University with a BA in History and Economics and then obtained an MSc in Business Studies from a French business school. He started his career in financial journalism before moving to the international development sector, where he worked for 15 years, travelling extensively across Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was also the first CEO of a fast-growing NGO. In his spare time, James obtained an MA in Journalism and a PhD in Sociology.
Black Coke
is his second novel. His first novel was
The Somali Doctrine
. To find out more about James’s writing, go to
http://jamesgrenton.blogspot.com
.

T
HE
S
OMALI
D
OCTRINE

A dying man in the desert…
A massacre in a refugee camp…
A missing aid convoy…
And suddenly Interpol agent Jim Galespi is running for his life.

In The Somali Doctrine, an Interpol agent makes it his mission to stop the remorseless madmen at the helm of the world’s largest NGO.

From the deserts of Somaliland to the slums of Nairobi to the plush hotels of Cape Town all the way to the Department for International Development in London, the race is on to stop disaster from striking again. And again. And again.

The Somali Doctrine is an intelligent thriller built on years of first-hand experience in the NGO sector in Africa. It brings together excellent writing with a strong plot from one of the most exciting new thriller authors of the year.

Buy it now.

Copyright © 2011 James Grenton

The right of James Grenton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from James Grenton.

All characters in this publication are fictitious.

You can find out more about my writing at
http://jamesgrenton.blogspot.com
.

Cover artwork by Jeroen ten Berge:
http://jeroentenberge.com
.

Ebook design by 52 Novels:
www.52novels.com
.