Macias stopped. Luquin glared across the water at him, his legs apart in a combative posture.
“Goddamn it, ”Luquin barked, “get me a computer.”
Macias broke into a sweat as he went into the house and snatched a laptop from the dining room table. As he headed outside with it, his mind ran through all the places they'd anticipated glitches, trying to guess what might have caused Luquin's outburst.
“I don't believe this guy, ”Luquin said. His voice had returned to a conversational volume. His fury had gone underground. Now you needed to be afraid of him.
Macias set the laptop on the table, opened it, and hit the power button. Then he went around to the other side of the table so that he could watch Luquin's face. Luquin finessed the keys, his fingers barely making a sound as they whispered over the little gray plastic squares.
They waited for the secure site to materialize, and then Luquin pulled up the message that had caused his outburst. He turned the laptop around and shoved it at Macias.
“That pinche cabron, ”he said, smiling, his voice languid in disdain.
Macias looked at the screen.
I have the $10 million ready for Cavatino, but I'm not putting it through until I talk to you again, face-to-face. We have to understand something. I've done nothing to disobey your instructions. If you're going to kill people even when I follow your directions, then I'll keep my money and you can go to hell.
Macias couldn't believe his eyes. Cain had just kissed off another life or two. Macias could feel Luquin looking at him over the top of the computer screen, waiting for a response.
“Well, at least you know he hasn't got anyone advising him, ”Macias said. “Nobody in the business would have let him do that.”
Luquin said nothing. His eyes drifted away from Macias and held in the middle distance, seeing nothing.
“So what is he doing? ”Luquin asked.
“Maybe he can't handle the killing. Maybe he's going to freak out.”
“He doesn't do that. Maybe he hasn't seen enough killing, that's what I think.”
This was Luquin's big gamble, jugar el todo por el todo, all or nothing, and he had pored over psychological profiles of Cain as if he were a professional psychiatrist. From these documents Luquin had created his own understanding of Cain's psychology that allowed him to anticipate Cain's reaction to every pressure that Luquin applied even before he applied it. This, however, was a kink in the plans.
But Luquin's impatience with this surprise was only that, impatience. In Luquin's mind, his superiority was firmly established. Cain might make a sudden move that required a sudden reaction, but it was only a momentary diversion.
“This is an interesting development, ”Luquin said. “Defiance? After knowing he was responsible for his friend's death?”
“But he thinks the killing was unjustified, ”Macias said. “Maybe he doesn't think he's responsible at all. He thinks you're out of line.”
Luquin slowly pulled a cigarette out of the pack on the table in front of him, as if a quick move would make him lose his train of thought. He lighted it and stared out into the heat.
“Maybe, ”Luquin said, thinking. “This guy is a complicated mixture, a pussy with brass balls. ”He laughed. “Yeah, that's a good description. I'm just surprised the balls came into play at this point. After a little more pressure, maybe. But I thought the first killing would knock him off his feet, that it would take him some time to recover. Then, maybe, I'd have a tough time with him. ”He smoked, nodding to himself. “Yeah, this is interesting.”
Macias watched Luquin. This was interesting for him, too. Normally, having a target show this kind of defiance would already have resulted in an order for a swift, brutal death, but for some reason, this time, Luquin was not so predictable. This time he was willing to exercise a little patience, even if it was capriciously granted. Still, for him to show any at all was extraordinary. Maybe Luquin wanted the money even more than he wanted to make a machismo point with Cain. Luquin's greed was legendary. He wanted those millions.
But there was more to it than that. Though Macias was not directly involved, and Luquin never spoke to him about it, Macias knew that something bigger was at stake. Luquin was once again doing business with some of his old friends in the Middle East. Business in Mexico.
Macias wasn't officially in the loop, but he knew more about this than Luquin believed. Not much went on in Mexico that Macias didn't know about. And the strange activities of his old compadre Luquin were no exception.
Even by Luquin's standards, this Middle Eastern business was insanely dangerous. No wonder Luquin was volatile sometimes and uncharacteristically pliant at others. He was playing a game of snakes and ladders, jugar a la vida.
“Can that be done? ”Luquin asked, shifting his eyes to Macias. “A safe meeting with this cabron?”
“It can be done, Tano. But are you sure you want to do it?”
Luquin cut his eyes at Macias. “Fear. And flexibility. Huh? This requires a brutal hand… with a delicate touch now and then to give him hope. We have to be flexible, Jorge. We've never done it in just this way before. We have to be… sensitive to the possibilities. The blade here. A blessing there. We do what we have to do… for sixty-four million dollars, huh? You can do this? No problem?”
“Sure, we can do it. But we have to control the logistics. And we need to make him think that we need time for you to fly in for the meeting. We don't want him to know you're close by.”
Luquin thought a moment. Then he reached out and turned the laptop around and started typing.
Okay. One meeting. Wait for instructions. You would do well to meet your deadline for payment tomorrow.
Luquin turned the laptop around again and showed his message to Macias.
“I'll contact my people and start setting it up.”
“Send it, ”Luquin said.
Macias tapped the key, and Luquin shoved back his chair and stood. He wanted to see the laptop in the water. He walked over to the pool and stopped, the toes of his loafers almost over the edge. He looked in and there it was, sitting at the bottom like a single eye in a man's forehead. He smoked, and the smoke was whipped away in the breeze that blew along the cliffs above the lake.
His eyes picked up the movement of an oak leaf that had fallen into the water. It was floating about crazily, the variable breezes slinging it this way and that, first in manic pursuit, then in unstrung flight across the aqua sea.
That's the way he wanted Titus Cain, he thought, just on the edge of hysteria, his heart racing, his mind not quite able to stop long enough to gain the traction of reason, but having enough control of his faculties to know that the faster he unloaded the money, the sooner the deaths would stop. That was the kind of pressure that Luquin had to reestablish in his meeting with Cain. Cain had to be buffeted constantly, given no time to drift. He had to be driven.
Chapter 24
On the way back from the orchard, Titus stopped off at the guest cottage while Rita continued on to the house. The living room of the cottage was now crammed with computers and a variety of electronic equipment that he hadn't even bothered to try to understand.
Herrin gave Titus a quick overview of how it would all work and was bringing him up-to-date on the results from the Beechcraft when Titus's cell phone rang. It was Burden. “Have you seen Luquin's response?” “No.”
“He's going to do it. He's going to meet with you.” Titus was stunned. He didn't know what he'd expected, but he was definitely taken aback at the prospect of meeting face-to-face with Luquin again. “What'd he say?”
“He'll send you his instructions, so stay close.” “Did he say why he was agreeing to meet with me?”
“No, but he's not as sure of himself as he wants you to believe. I think he wants to look at you, reassure himself. This is good. We'll see his instructions, so just do what he says. We'll take care of our end of it.”
“Which is?”
