The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (22 page)

The man with the gun barked orders to two of the other three men to grab the body and he told the third one to carry all of their shovels. Then he led everyone to a spot about 50 feet away from the trail, surrounded by overgrowth, that already had a deep whole dug in it with a large mound of the excavated dirt piled next to the hole. He stopped the two men just before they dropped the body in and turned to Pedro.

“
Give me the gun you used.”

Pedro was hoping he could keep the pistol, as he bought it and the suppressor with his own money, but he knew better than to hesitate, so he took the pistol from the back of his pants and handed it to him. Then he took the suppressor from his pants’ pocket and handed that to him too.

The man examined the pistol briefly, checking the clip to see if bullets were missing, then he threw the pistol and the suppressor into the hole. As soon as he did, he turned and started walking back to the trail, giving orders over his shoulder to the two men.

“
Drop him in and cover him up!”

Pedro decided to remain with the men while they buried Jesus. He wasn’t filled with remorse. He knew he had to follow his orders, but he still didn’t like killing people. Pedro hadn’t been to church in awhile, but he thought it would be nice to say a prayer for the dead man and his family. He bowed his head, closed his eyes and folded his hands in front of him. Then he began to whisper to himself.

“
Father, forgive me for I have sinned—“

His prayer was cut short when a large caliber bullet entered the back of his skull. His entire head exploded like a watermelon would, if it were dropped from a roof. Pedro’s body collapsed just short of the hole. The man with the gun was standing right behind him with smoke still pouring from the gun’s barrel. He used his legs to push Pedro’s body into the hole. One of the men with the shovel laughed.

“
I think he was praying!”

The man with the gun tucked the weapon back into his belt, with no emotion showing on his face. He took his cell phone from his shirt pocket.

“
Well now he can talk to God face to face.”

The man hit an auto-dial button.

(In Spanish) “Tuco, I took care of it. What do you want me to do with his truck? … Okay, I’ll take it to Mexico City and have the cab painted and the trailer switched. Then I’ll assign another driver to it and send it back up to Monterrey.”

He put his cell phone back in his pocket and addressed the men.

“
After you replace the dirt, I want you to transplant shrubs from nearby. I don’t want this hole to ever be found, understood.”

Chapter 21

The Watchman Agency

Office of the President

Arlington, Virginia

4:55p.m., Friday, July 15, 2011

Mugsy Ricci’s intercom buzzed. Johnny-F’s voice rang out.

“
Mugs, Garcia’s transponder just pinged our grid!”

Ricci sprung up from his chair.

“
Are you sure? Is it confirmed?”

“
Yeah, we confirmed it. It’s definitely Agent Garcia’s transponder and it’s actively pinging now, it started just a few minutes ago.”

“
John, hold on.” He hit another intercom button, “Debbie, I want to see all department heads in Alpha immediately.” Then he patched back in with Francis, “John, I called everyone together in conference room alpha.”

“
Understood ...”

Everyone took their seats. A moment later, Cris De Niro appeared on the big screen. Ricci spoke first.

“
Cris … everyone … Johnny-F and his team just confirmed that as of a few minutes ago, Agent Garcia’s transponder began transmitting again and it’s remained active.”

“
Where is he?!” asked Michelle Wang, a combination of relief and anxiety in her voice. “Is he … alive?”

Francis typed into his laptop as he replied.

“
We haven’t been able to ascertain whether he’s alive or not. He’s not replying to our calls, emails, or text messages … but I can show you where the transponder is.”

With that, he hit a key on his keyboard and instantly the conference room’s big screen split in two, with De Niro’s image on the left and a map of Mexico on the right. Francis walked everyone through.

“
The red dot is the location in Monterrey where the warehouse is and from where Agent Garcia last reported. And—“

Francis hit another key on his keyboard.

“
That blue blinking dot is where the transponder is now located. It’s about 600 clicks south-southwest of Monterrey.”

“
John, can you superimpose the locations that Michelle and I narrowed down from that list of cartel holdings?” asked Santappia.

“
Sure,” Francis replied as he continued to type away. After a moment everyone saw about a dozen shaded areas of different sizes and shapes appear on the map. One of the largest shaded areas appeared directly over the blinking blue dot.

Santappia pulled up the list on his laptop and matched one of the locations listed with the shaded area.

“
It looks like the transponder is located on a farm that’s owned by Pacifico. The farm is about 30 clicks north of the city of Iguala. That puts it approximately 150 miles from the western shore of Mexico, which would be our point of ingress, just south of Petatian. That is, if we can borrow your yacht and EC135
¹³
, Cris. Like the Captain said, I worked up plans to infiltrate all of the remaining locations and the one that I came up with for that farm is from the west with an escape route north by sea. Mugsy told me about the
Santana
with its chopper and I’m familiar with the 135. It has the range and there’s a relatively unpopulated corridor to the west of that farm. We can put down, undetected, behind foothills to the west then hoof it to the location.”

De Niro checked his calendar.
I knew it, I told David he could holiday on Santana for the weekend. I better call him.

“
Let me … get back to you on that.”

“
Is there a problem, Cris?” asked Ricci.

“
I promised a friend of mine that he could use
Santana
for the weekend. He’s a close friend and long time client from England. He was one of the first investors in my hedge fund, so in a way you can say that he helped me pay for
Santana
. He’s already on the yacht, I’ll have to break the news to him and call her back to port. I’ll try to reach him now. I’ll let you know.”

De Niro disappeared from the screen as conversations broke out around the room.

Ricci brought everyone back to order.

“
Karla, it’s imperative to keep Homeland and the Mexican government out of the loop with this operation, understood?”

“
Captain, the Mexican government would probably allow us to conduct this mission. They could make it easy for us to get in and out of there.”

“
It’s too risky, Karla. You’re right, there are some in their government who’d like to help us, but there are too many leaks and too many on the cartels’ payrolls.”

Matthews thought then asked, “What about Homeland? Couldn’t they help us?”

“
Not without running it up to State and once that happened we’d be ordered to stand down. We don’t want to find ourselves in that position, isn’t that right Les?”

Pastak was sitting in a daze. His palms were sweaty and his heart was palpating.
This is getting out of hand! What is Agent Garcia doing in the middle of a drug farm owned by one of the biggest drug cartels! I have to contact Fard now and find out if he had anything to do with it!

“
Les are you okay, you look sick.”

Pastak broke out of his daze and noticed everyone looking at him.

“
No, I’m okay Captain, just something I ate for lunch …”

“
Okay, so am I right not to want Homeland involved? What’s your take?”

“
We absolutely DO NOT want Homeland involved! As a matter of fact, I’m not sure it’s a wise idea for us to even attempt a rescue!”

Santappia came to full attention in his chair, “What are you saying Les, you think we should just leave Agent Garcia down there?”

“
I’m saying, Charley, that we don’t even know if he’s still alive. In fact, I think we all suspect that he’s not …and if he’s not, what do we gain by going down there?! Nothing but the risk of breaking about a dozen United States and Mexican laws! I think Michelle would even back me up on this – it’s not worth the risk!”

Michelle Wang couldn’t hide her frustration, “I … agree with Les. It would be one thing to find him holding up in a hotel or hospital… even the morgue, but on a drug farm owned by one of the most dangerous drug cartels … I don’t have to tell you, Charley, they have armies of men guarding those places.”

“
What did I say, I told you Charley, even Michelle—“

“
Michelle doesn’t make that call,” Santappia snapped.

“
Well neither do you!” Pastak snapped back, shouting.

Both men turned and looked at Ricci. He wanted to hear all of their arguments. Les and Michelle had the more reasonable point-of-view while Charlie was a Marine who didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

“
Captain, under the circumstances, you have to see our point. We—“

“
I do see your point, Les and I’ve noted it … but I say, we go down there, without anyone knowing and we bring Agent Garcia home, alive or dead.”

“
But Captain—“

Ricci put his hand up, “Les, I’m the one … that makes that call.”

The conference room became quiet. Finally, Santappia thought out loud.

“
Oh hell, this is all an exercise in futility anyway, if we don’t hear back from Cris. I can’t think of another way for us to get in and out of there undetected.”

* * * * *

De Niro ended his video feed, picked up his satellite phone and dialed the number to the satellite phone on
Santana
. The ship’s Captain answered the call on the second ring.

“
Captain, its Cris De Niro.”

“
Yes, Mr. De Niro, good to hear from you, sir.”

“
Where are you right now?”

“
We’re docked at the Loews Mistral Restaurant in San Diego Bay. We were just getting ready to get underway again. Mr. Nicholls wants to moor off Catalina Island tonight.”

“
Yeah, well that’s why I’m calling. There’s been a change in plans. Captain, I need you to refuel
Santana
and the 135 then plot a course for the western Mexican coast. Off the top of your head, what’s your best estimate for arriving off the coast of Acapulco if you left as soon as you could?”

“
I’d have to check the weather, but I’d say we could make waters near Acapulco by late Tuesday or Wednesday … if we left as soon as possible from here.”

“
There are a few friends of mine that you’ll be taking on board. At least one of them is an experienced chopper pilot, so it’s okay for them to use the chopper down there. Captain, I would appreciate it if you would ask no questions and obey their orders. That goes for the crew, whatever my friends want or need, please accommodate them.”

“
Understood sir ...”

“
You should be welcoming them aboard in about … two hours, latest. Then get underway as soon as you can. I want you to contact me when you do.”

“
Very good, sir ...”