“We don't know.”
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. “And what are you doing about this?”
“Not much we can do. We're just waiting so Macias can do his stuff and then leave Titus somewhere with the Navigator like he's supposed to do.”
“Supposed to do, ”she said. It made her heart crawl right up into her throat. “Supposed ”had never carried so much import, had never sounded so flimsy and menacing.
“I can't sit here and watch this, ”she said. “We know exactly where Titus is, don't we?”
“Yes.”
“Then I want to be as close as I can get to him.”
“You are as close as you can get to him.”
“Not as close as you.”
Silence.
“You're staying as close as you can, right? ”she continued, pressing her point, “without endangering Titus's life, without screwing up the situation?”
Silence.
“Then I want to be where you are.”
“Impossible.”
There was a moment when neither of them spoke, and Rita swallowed the bile in her throat and smothered the rage in her head. But she resisted the temptation to give in to her gut instincts. She had seen enough of how Burden operated to know the behavior he exhibited himself and probably respected. If she was going to get what she wanted, she had to meet him where he lived.
“Let me tell you what's impossible, ”she said with the kind of evenness under duress that Burden himself was known for. “I'm not a fool. I know that you can't guarantee Titus's life and safety. This isn't your nightmare. It's ours.
“But… if anything happens to him, and I'm not as close to him as reasonably feasible, then… it's impossible that I will keep my mouth shut about all of this. If anything happens to that man, and I am not as close to him as you are capable of getting me… then it's impossible that I will not drag you and whoever's behind you through the media for years. If I'm forced to sit here and watch my husband's death-if that's what it comes to-as if it were a goddamned video game
… then it's impossible that you will ever again know the anonymity that you're so damned proud of.”
She paused.
“And yes, ”she added, “I remember your threats-rather, your good counsel, your cautionary word. And no, I'm not intimidated.”
She stopped. There was silence in the room behind her and silence on the other end of the cell phone. Her anger had scorched her face, and she could feel it burning.
“Give the phone to Kal, ”Burden said.
She started to go on, to say, Well, what the hell are you going to do, then? But then she realized that she had said all that she had meant to say, and she had meant all that she had said. He had better believe that.
She turned around and held the phone out to Kal across the room. He came over and took it and turned his back to her as she stood right there while he said, Yeah, and, Yeah, and, Okay, and, Got it.
He turned around, pocketing his phone as he looked at her.
“Come on, ”he said.
Chapter 54
Titus could almost hear Macias thinking. The headlights of the Navigator panned over the cliffs and hillsides as they twisted their way through the hills toward the city. To their left they could see the lights of the houses close and high above them on the dark hillsides. To their right they caught glimpses of the river far below them and the lights of the homes on the broad, upward-sloping valley on the other side, where Titus lived and Rita waited anxiously for him.
Following Macias's directions, they turned off and slipped down into the escarpment that led to a lower level of cliffs above the river. The dark streets twisted back upon themselves and were crowded with houses set close together and nestled into dense woods. Macias directed Titus back and forth on the streets while Macias and the bodyguard kept up a staccato exchange in Spanish. They seemed to be evaluating the feasibility of stopping at one of the houses, which Titus realized they must have driven past several times now. He could see from glimpsing between the houses that these homes were on the cliff high above the river.
Was this where Luquin had been staying?
“Do you know anything about how they were going to deal with Luquin? ”Macias asked. “Don't lie to me.”
“I have no idea.”
“Shit! ”Pause. “Pull over.”
Titus stopped. They were looking at the house two houses up and on the right.
“Luquin is in there, ”Macias said. “I've left a computer notebook in there. I might as well be dead now if I have to leave without it. ”He thought a moment. “They were going to kill him.”
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
“I have no idea.”
“Shit shit shitshitshit, ”Macias was muttering.
“Look, ”Titus said, “I do know that… well, this guy, Lender, his big deal is, you know, leaving no trace… that anything had ever happened. If Luquin is killed, I doubt they would do it in there if they could help it. They're going to want to leave the house clean, without any sign of anything having gone wrong.”
Silence.
“What's this guy's name again?”
“Lender.”
Macias said nothing, but he was thinking about this. He said something in Spanish to the bodyguard. They talked. More silence. “Vamos a ver, ” Macias said, and then to Titus, “We're going in.”
Titus put the Navigator in gear, and they eased along the street and pulled into the driveway. The driveway to the garage was protected from the street by a high hedge, and when they rounded the corner they saw the black Navigator in the driveway.
Macias swore. “Stop!”
He and the bodyguard talked in Spanish some more, now whispering illogically.
“Go on in and park, ”Macias said.
Titus pulled up beside the other Navigator and cut the motor.
“Get out, ”Macias said.
They left the doors ajar, and the bodyguard started toward the front porch with his pistol ready at his side. They passed a knee-high privet hedge with Titus in between the two men.
Suddenly the bodyguard hissed loudly. He looked back at Macias. “Lo hicieron, ” he whispered, and gestured at a lawn chair where a man was sprawled awkwardly, his head hanging back over the chair. “Rulfo, ”he said.
Titus began to feel that strange, unreal humming sensation again. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He wondered what Burden and the others were thinking as they watched his mole sensor at Luquin's clifftop house. Were they sending help? Was there going to be a shoot-out after all, despite everyone's elaborate efforts to maintain silence?
The bodyguard put his hand on the doorknob of the front door and twisted it slowly. He pushed carefully. The door eased open, and he followed it in as if he were part of it. Macias nudged Titus forward with his pistol. The bodyguard looked toward the pale flickering light that came from the room just off the main hallway. Television. Lots of light, big screen. The moment Macias cleared the front door, the bodyguard stopped again. He turned around and looked past Titus at Macias behind him and pointed to the hallway floor. Another dead man.
