The Distraction
Triumph
At approximately four thirty a.m., the foursome found themselves approaching the port again. Their contact had let them into his home the previous evening, then gone to his boat to ready it for departure.
However, when they arrived at the dock, Steel locked down even tighter than usual.
“You hear that?” he whispered.
They all paused in the shadowy overhang of a building along the pier. Nothing stirred.
“I don’t hear anything,” Triumph returned. “That’s weird. Shouldn’t the gulls be active already?”
“They should,” Glennon agreed. “Opportunistic creatures. Nothing scares them off. So where are they?” She grabbed her braid, the soft wisps at the end providing comfort as her stomach churned.
This portion of the wharf ran parallel to local businesses, some with boats pulled up directly to them.
Their contact, Arturo, had a mini-slip off a short pier about one hundred yards down the way.
The boat was there, but there was no movement on it.
Triumph looked all around the pier and even up and down the street.
“Why are there no people around? Arturo said most of the fishermen take off around this time of day, and that people should already be stirring to open up their businesses. The boats are here, but there’s no one moving around. ”
“He’s here,” Steel murmured. He didn’t mean Arturo though. He meant Guillermo. “When evil invades, people and animals naturally know not to show their faces.” He turned to Glennon. “You need to get out of here. Now.”
“What about the two of you?”
“Demon and I will create a distraction. I would have him go with you, but I’ll need to cover him while he gets that ready.
Do not try to help us. We’ve been doing this shit a long time and have exit strategies for all kinds of no-win scenarios.
Our job is to draw all their attention to us.
Yours is to get the fuck as far into the gap as you can. We’ll find you.”
Hurriedly, he delved into his backpack and pulled out a thin plastic case.
Inside were strips that looked like clear tape.
He pulled out four strips, gave two to Demon, and they quickly tore off the backing and attached one to Glennon’s armpit and the other under her bandage. They also applied two to Triumph.
“These are surface trackers. When activated, they last about four to five days.” Demon pressed hard on the one in Glennon’s armpit, and she felt a cool sensation tingle in the spot.
“If you feel like you’ve got prickles, it means it’s active.
Annoying, but at least you know it’s live.
If we meet up with you within four days, you won’t need to activate the others.
Activate one at a time to get the most tracking life out of them.
If the two of you get separated”—he looked at Triumph—“activate one of yours. But try to stay together so you have maximum charging time.”
“Why not give us more of them then?” he asked.
“You’ve basically stuck a leaking battery into your nervous system. Right now, they’re depositing toxins into your skin. Giving you more than two is dangerous. We’re working on how to combat that, but for now, this is the best we can do.”
Steel continued, “Activating the signal lets Midas know we’ve had to separate, and we need the cavalry to come back us up.
These should cover enough days for us to be found.
Head into the Darién Gap. Even if you end up going in circles, don’t stand still, but try to head as true north whenever possible.
” He dug a compass out of his pocket and handed it to Glennon.
“Normally, when lost in the wild, you’re advised to stay put.
Not this time. Whatever you do, keep moving.
It’s going to take our guys a day or two to get here, but either we or they will find you. ”
“All you have to do is stay alive,” Demon advised. “If you get caught, do whatever it takes to stay alive. I mean it. Whatever it takes.”
Steel nodded. “If they have me, Demon, a child, or anyone at gunpoint and they tell you to pull the trigger, you do it.” He paused. “No act is unforgivable to give in to. Do you understand?”
He felt a burning at the back of his throat and a taste of acid at the message Steel was sending.
“You think that’s a likely option?”
The cold, silver gaze of Guillermo’s half brother looked him dead in the eye. “It’s what I would do.”
Meaning he’d done it.
While executing someone was definitely something he thought Guillermo might do to enjoy the capture of his prizes, he worried more about what the man would do to Glennon. Added to that was his fear of what he’d be forced to watch Glennon endure.
“And the women?” He swallowed convulsively. Had Steel ordered men, women, and children to be defiled? Had he taken part in those actions?
Something flickered in the man’s eyes, and Triumph wasn’t sure he was going to answer.
“I am not a good man, hermano. When I was under Hector’s thumb, I did many things I’m not proud of.
I’ve shoved them deep and hard into the back of my mind.
If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to look my wife in the eye.
Wouldn’t be able to raise my children with any sense of worthiness in me.
I did what I did to protect my wife, the son I lost, and ultimately, my daughter.
“In situations like I just described, if there were women and children involved, I gave the men the choice to take their punishment. Or, adults were offered the opportunity to protect any children threatened.” His expression seemed to go even colder.
“Sometimes, they did the right thing. Sometimes, they did not.”
Jesus Christ, they were screwed. They could not get caught.
Did he blame Steel? He didn’t have enough data to analyze and make a decision with any accuracy.
But given what Glennon had shared, what little he knew about the Colonel Cartel from his research, and the practical evidence provided by Steel on this nightmare of a journey, he didn’t doubt that the man was being brutally honest. He also didn’t get the sense that what he’d been forced to do in his past gave him any joy.
Glancing over at Glennon, that one look at her face told him she also understood what the man was saying. No doubt she would fare better at whatever “punishment” Guillermo doled out, given what he put her through in the past decade.
Glennon threw herself at Steel to hug him, then buried her face in Demon’s chest. “Thank you,” she whispered. “No matter how this ends, I’ll be forever grateful that someone was willing to try to help me.”
Demon smirked as she stepped away from him. “Stay alive. Don’t go throwing away all my great surgical skills by dying on me, yeah?”
“I’ll do my best,” she promised.
Triumph shook each of the men’s hands. “Thank you for helping us. Good luck. Hopefully, we’ll see you soon.”
Steel advised, “Stay here until you see the diversion. Once all the men come flooding down to try to pull the two of you out of the mess, make your way out of the port as fast as you can. Get to the camp and get your supplies. Once you’ve done that, don’t join any of the groups. Just go.”
“What’s the diversion?” he asked.
Now it was Steel’s turn to smirk. “You’ll know it when you see it. Trust me.”
With that, the two men took the safeties off their weapons and moved at lightning speed down the pier toward Arturo’s boat.
From their spot beneath the overhang, he and Glennon saw them stop at the lip of the boat and look down into it at something. Their slight pause before jumping into it suggested that they’d found Arturo, and not in the same state as when he’d left his home that morning.
A flurry of bullets rained from all directions toward the boat. Both of their escorts retreated into the cabin area to take cover, Demon completely disappearing and Steel covering him from the doorway.
It wasn’t long before a dozen men converged on the boat from the tiny alleyways between buildings, bullets still flying. Suddenly, Steel disappeared completely.
Movement to their left drew his eye, and standing on the far lower edge of the walkway stood a man.
Unlike the others, he was dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt, the top several buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to the elbows.
He was standing right in their way of escaping toward the gap.
“Glennon,” he whispered.
She looked to where he pointed, and he watched the color drain from her face. “Guillermo,” she confirmed.
Seconds later, shots resumed as Steel and Demon fled the cabin and headed toward the bow.
Almost in tandem, the two men dove into the water.
Some of Guillermo’s men rushed onto the boat and to the bow, firing wildly.
Others ran onto nearby boats or the ends of empty slips, doing the same in all directions. The men didn’t resurface.
Suddenly, the boat erupted into a ball of flame, taking several boats on each side of it along in its glorious demise.
The men on board were engulfed in flames.
Those standing on the dock itself were blown backward by the explosion, some landing in the water, others tossed onto boats, and a few striking the buildings across from them. None of them stirred.
The concussion reached Guillermo, causing his guards to pick him up from where he fell and drag him to a nearby SUV. After shoving him into the back seat, the two guards threw themselves into the vehicle, and it pulled away, the tires squealing.
“I think that’s our cue,” Glennon said.
Triumph swallowed hard. He couldn’t unsee their two escorts diving into the water, followed by a hail of bullets. “You think they escaped?”