CHAPTER 90
I CAUGHT UP to Rob Trilling and Jaime Nantes on the sidewalk near the warehouse. I’d seen the whole incident from half a block away. I couldn’t help saying to Nantes, “I guess you didn’t mind Trilling being a little close to you during your walk.”
“I never seen no one run like that. That cat is fast. I probably could’ve jumped out of the way, but I appreciate him looking out for me.”
I looked at Trilling. “That really was some spectacular shit. I know the Army didn’t teach you to move that fast. That’s natural talent.” As usual, my partner barely acknowledged the compliment. He just smiled and looked up the street toward the warehouse.
I guessed Nantes was so happy with Trilling that he didn’t mind us walking with him the last half block to the building. He slid a key into a sophisticated lock in the warehouse door. I expected to see a hot, dusty space with wide-open bays as soon as we stepped inside. Instead, there was a series of rooms with one big common area. The air wasn’t stale, which meant they had a good ventilation system. They probably could even keep this giant place cool in the summer.
Then Nantes called out to someone loudly, in Spanish. His voice carried and echoed through the empty rooms. He spoke too quickly for me to follow a word of it.
I grabbed him by the shoulder, while my other hand, by habit, touched the Glock in its holster at my hip. “Who else is here?”
Trilling was already on alert, his hand pulling out his own gun and his head moving in every direction. There were too many hallways in this place to get a good eyeline.
Terri had warned me about Jaime Nantes. I hadn’t listened.
I kept a grip on Nantes’s shoulder and shook him. “Who the hell did you call out to?”
A voice behind us said, “He was calling out to us.”
When I turned, Trilling was already raising his hands, his Glock 19 dangling by two fingers. I moved my own hands, palms up, away from my body, away from my still-holstered firearm. There were three men holding submachine guns on us. Two on one side of the hallway, one on the other. They weren’t going to get caught in a crossfire.
Nantes jerked away from me. He took a couple of steps and said to his friends, “Call Deason and tell him to come here. We have a present for him.”