Chapter 13 #5
Dane let the question hang in the air. Oscar knew all about it. He knew more about Floyd’s relationship with the woman than Dane did. He also knew about how a loss could eat at a man, bit by bit over the years, if a man weren’t careful.
Oscar spoke up. “Floyd’s relationship with Maria was more real than his relationship with the CIA.” He looked at Dane before continuing. Dane didn’t blink.
“Maria was a native of Columbia, brought up poor. She was running a high-end brothel when Dane and I met her, but the rumor was that Floyd set her up in business. She was also a drug mule and had a large bank account. I’m fairly certain it was a joint account with Floyd.
They were business partners. She got caught in a setup by the ATF when Dane worked with them.
Dane was undercover but Floyd knew him, so Maria knew Dane was undercover.
“We all had to trust her and she turned out to be very trustworthy. Dane posed as a customer and she gave him the inside intel on the time and place the cartel members would be there.” Oscar stopped. He firmed his mouth, reined in some emotion before he continued. Dane braced himself.
“Dane hadn’t warned Maria about the exact time of the takedown.
Floyd apparently hadn’t warned her either.
Maybe they both assumed the other would.
” He stopped again and looked at Dane, expecting him to add his commentary, his version.
Dane didn’t want to speak, but they all waited.
In a contest of silence, he wasn’t sure who would win this time.
His conscience or his soul or maybe the heavy thudding of his heart that felt like it was building to an explosion prompted him.
“I was supposed to meet with her earlier in the day. I would have warned her then. It had to be done in person. It wasn’t the kind of thing I could broadcast on the phone or in writing or by messenger.
Floyd asked me to cancel my appointment with her.
Said it was over since the takedown was that night.
He hadn’t relished my role. Maria didn’t have clients—not since she’d been in charge of her own business.
And as far as I could tell not since she took up with Floyd. ”
Dane didn’t say that he felt Floyd’s jealousy, that Dane’s posing as Maria’s client for his undercover role had caused more tension between him and Floyd than anything else, though they wouldn’t have liked each other under any circumstances.
“I knew Floyd was meeting with her. He should have warned her—maybe he did. Maria was a singular woman. She had her own mind and loved the excitement, yes, but she felt deeply about the cause. Maybe she felt guilty about consorting with the cartel men. She hated them. They paid her well, but they also threatened her and her women routinely.”
“So you think she might have stayed, knowing the takedown was happening?” David asked. He didn’t show much, but Dane saw the skepticism in a minor twitch of his eyebrow.
“Yes. I was surprised she was there when we raided. I tried to get to her, but…” His cool exterior was about to disintegrate and expose the turmoil inside. He squeezed his eyes shut. He took a long shuddering breath and vowed that was all the emotion he would show.
“She had a weapon—I have no idea where she got the Glock—maybe from Floyd. She tried to fight alongside the ATF and shot one of the cartel men when that man raised a gun.
“His gun had been aimed at my head, I was told. She had no intention of hiding or pretending to surrender. Someone shot her down. No one could ever figure out where the shot came from, whether it was a cartel thug or if she got caught in the crossfire because the volley of gunfire that followed her shot was fierce. I had my weapon on full automatic aimed at the cartel army as I surged in her direction, but I never got there. She had fallen and I became engaged with a man with a knife.”
The silence in the large place sounded unnatural.
Dane tried to control his breathing, keep it regular, but he couldn’t stop the sweat streaming down both temples now and between his shoulder blades.
The only sound he heard was the pounding of the pulse in his eardrums. Oscar moved, changing his weight from one foot to the other, then spoke.
“Floyd heard about it—and so did I—the next day from several sources. He knew of Dane’s role, but what had really bothered him was that Maria had made herself a target by shooting a cartel member to save Dane.”
Oscar left a few things out of his story. He didn’t say that Maria had had a thing for Dane and had trusted him.
And that Dane had used her affection and trust for his mission. That’s what Dane lived with. What he tried to forget.
Floyd thought Dane had tried to steal his woman. It didn’t matter that he was wrong.
“Why now? Why would Floyd wait all this time for revenge?” David asked.
Dane said nothing.
Oscar shrugged. “I think it’s been simmering a long time, but my handler is a supremely practical man. Made him good at his job. He could put a lot of terrible things from his mind and continue operating.
“But the instigation of Maria’s brother combined with the gift of opportunity handed to him by the Tavares brothers and the timing—time to retire—would all fall into place in his mind.
It would be the exact convocation of elements to trigger action.
He is a patient, well-disciplined man,” Oscar said.
“I could see him waiting for the elements to line up.”
No one said anything. Floyd’s motive was almost secondary at this point. But Dane agreed with what Oscar hypothesized. It was identical to his own best theory.
“So Floyd bided his time and nursed a grudge against Dane Blaise,” Shana said. “But he knew Dane was a dangerous man with many friends, so he didn’t play his hand. He also knew Dane didn’t trust him.”
“When Floyd ran into Oscar and he learned that I was with Dane, that set Floyd off. He could give Dane a taste of his own medicine.” She stopped.
She didn’t say the words, but he thought them.
Floyd could take him down and hand Shana over to Tavares, exacting a revenge worse than murdering Shana would be.
Dane said, “He plotted the setup by using Oscar’s phone without his knowledge.” He paused. No one spoke. Shana watched him. He continued.
“Floyd figured he could get a payoff and have Tavares shoot me for him in exchange for Shana. Maybe he would fake his death at the hands of the Tavares organization and take off with half the money to some island. Or maybe he’d kill Henrique Tavares, chase the rest of them off, and become a CIA hero. And keep all the money.”
David cleared his throat. “Meanwhile you foiled his plans when you and Shana escaped. Now he needs you to stay in Rio to get another chance at you. He’s trying to keep you here with the lure of Oscar.”
“You and the rest of the posse are another wrinkle in his plan. He needs to find out what we know and potentially take us all out.” Dane turned to Shana.
She spoke before he did. “We’re going home now.”
“While the getting’s good.” He held her green eyes with his.
“He may be able to run to an island to escape legal action by the United States government—officially,” David said.
“But I’m not sure the CIA plays by the rules unofficially.
I’ve heard they have some kind of internal protocol to take care of their own problems. Either way, it’s certain he’ll be in trouble with the Tavares people.
They would hunt him down and extract their revenge.
We’ve seen firsthand that they have long memories. ”
Dane said, “Floyd’s best way out is to follow us to Martha’s Vineyard with Tavares and company and blame whatever happens on them—after he kills them and preferably they kill as many of us as possible—and to keep any evidence against him to a minimum.
He’ll have a plausible case that he was coerced into it.
” Dane let the acidic aftertaste of his words pass, swallowing hard as if it would help.
“Whatever we do, I don’t want Floyd Parker to get away with this,” David said. “Worst case, if Floyd doesn’t follow us back to Martha’s Vineyard, we go after him.”
Dane smiled. “I have time.” Then he looked at Shana, “And by ‘we,’ David means he and I. Maybe Acer and Oscar if they’re game. That’s it.”
“I think we can do better than that,” Shana said. She stared at Dane and he knew she was concocting something, but he was ahead of her.
“You’re right. We’re not leaving things to chance. We’ll make sure they follow us.”