there.
Burden got into the Cherokee with Rita and the others, and they headed across the expressway, where Janet and Ryan took charge of Loza, driving away with him in the Navigator to check out Macias's safe house and make sure Titus hadn't been left there.
Calo returned to his car, and Rita continued in the Cherokee with Burden and Kal. In the backseat alone, she listened as the three men discussed the best way to handle the encounter with Macias. But before they could even get out of the massive parking lot, the signal left the address to which they were headed six blocks away.
“Calo, ”Burden said, watching the LorGuide, “get in behind him again. I don't know what's happened to the damn mole, whether it was moved from the gun deliberately or accidentally, but we have to play it safe and assume Macias doesn't know we're still with him. First thing, though, try to get close enough to the signal to get a sighting of the Honda. We've got to find out if it's carrying the signal, or if Macias has managed to somehow put it on a decoy vehicle.”
After that, the transmissions fell dead, and everyone was glued to the LorGuides.
Again Macias got into the back and Titus drove, following directions that took them through the neighborhoods to Loop 1 South, where they headed for Oak Hill. Titus took stock of his situation. It wasn't good. Now that the mole had taken off for San Marcos, and Burden's people had no visuals on Titus, he was on his own. He knew that Burden had had a small crew to begin with, and if everything was going according to plan, there was no one else to spare for this little unexpected development. Another blindside for Burden.
Macias had made it plain that Titus's life was only as good as Macias's own personal security. Titus understood that, but what happened when Macias decided he was safe? And how safe would he have to be before he made his decision about what to do with Titus? No matter how many times he went over it, Titus couldn't see how there would be any profit in it for Macias to kill him when he no longer needed him.
On the other hand, Titus didn't know what other factors waited in the background that might completely change that simple deduction. God knows he had seen reversals in spades during the last few days. Despite the fact that he told himself his odds were better as a hostage if he remained optimistic, he found it impossible. Right now the darkness outside was a pretty good metaphor for the way he was feeling about his situation.
“Watch the speed limit, ”Macias said behind Titus's head. “No cops.”
Titus checked Macias in the rearview mirror. He was still monitoring the traffic behind them. He was nervous, maybe feeling a little better now that he thought he had some breathing room. But Macias was a realist. He knew that the margin of his advantage was hair thin.
Titus wanted to try to get some feel for his state of mind. He wanted to hear him say something, maybe give Titus a little insight into his intentions.
“There's not any money in San Marcos, is there, ”Titus said. “I'll bet there's not even another Navigator there.”
“That's his problem, ”Macias said. “He'll deal with it. You've got a different set of problems you need to think about.”
They were moving through the incorporated village of Oak Hill on the southwest edge of Austin. In a few minutes Macias had a decision to make. Either way, the traffic was about to get scarce, and it was going to get easier to spot a tail.
“How are you going to make sure Luquin's dead? ”Titus asked.
“After seeing the spook show that was going on back there at that house, I don't think I have to worry about Tano being alive tomorrow morning. It looks like everybody wants Luquin dead. It's his time. When dogs smell blood, they all turn on the bloodiest dog first.”
Now they were at the intersection.
“Keep going straight here, ”Macias said, and they stayed on Highway 290. That would eventually take them to Fredericksburg or San Antonio. Titus guessed San Antonio.
“What I want to know is, ”Macias said, “how the hell did you find Garcia Burden?”
Titus told him the truth, without using names.
“And you went to see him the very next day?”
“Right.”
“How?”
Titus told him the truth again.
Macias shook his head. “And that was just three days ago?”
“Right.”
Silence. He heard Macias hiss under his breath.
“Only Garcia Burden could fuck up nearly two months’ planning in just three days, ”he said. “ Completely fuck it up.”
Well, not completely, Titus thought. Macias was still holding a gun to his head.
They left the city and the suburbs behind. The lights in the flanking hills gradually diminished with the churning numbers on the odometer. Mostly now it was only darkness on either side of the highway.
“How far are we going? ”Titus asked.
“Don't worry about it, ”Macias said.
Titus could imagine Macias kicking him out of the car at some vacant strip center or on some dark street in San Antonio. Then he could walk to a pay phone, and it would all be over. Titus couldn't wait for that, for the whole insane thing to be over. He focused on the center stripe in the highway and tried to keep his mind off of… everything.
But he couldn't keep it off the guy in the backseat. He thought of what Rita had said, that as horrible as it was, she couldn't keep from imagining Charlie tangled in the chain saw, Carla suffocating, gasping for breath. She couldn't help but wonder how all of that had happened, how it had actually happened. Neither could Titus. It was infuriating to him that the man who had orchestrated all of that was sitting behind him and that Titus himself was complicit in his escape. God, and neither Carla nor Charlie had even been buried yet.
“Slow down, ”Macias said.
Chapter 59
When it was clear that Macias was taking 290 west, Burden got on the radio with Calo.
“Calo, ”he said, “do you still have your night goggles?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, at this hour of the night the highway's going to be damn near empty. Put on the goggles, turn out your headlights, and catch up with the signal and see if it's the Honda. He's going to be driving the speed limit, so with luck you can catch up with him.”
“What about cops?”
“If you get busted, ditch the goggles and just take the ticket. You've got good ID, right?”
“Yeah. I'll be okay.”
During the next twenty minutes, Kal watched his speedometer while Calo kept up a running commentary of his progress screaming down the dark highway without headlights, the world in front of him apple green and black.
For Rita it was nearly half an hour of unbelievable tension, her eyes glued to the LorGuide, her ears straining to pull more information out of Calo than the typically terse tactical communications provided. Her stomach began to hurt, and she saw nothing of any help in the dash-lighted faces of Kal and Burden as they watched the LorGuide, too, and listened with passionless expressions.
“Got‘em! ”Calo broadcast suddenly. “Brake lights. They're slowing
… way down…”
“Where? What's there?”
“Nothing. Dark ranch country. Nothing. I'm braking hard. I've got to stop…”
Titus was startled back to the moment. Slow down? Was Macias just going to shove him out on the roadside?
