by the drug cartels, what was that all about?”
“Meaning what?”
“Okay. Did they send you? Or maybe you’re part of-maybe even running-one of the cartels, and decided it would be smarter to get me out of town than to kill me, which would cause all sorts of public-relations problems?”
“Fuck you!” Pena exploded.
“You expect me to believe that you’re one of the two honest cops in Mexico?” Castillo pursued.
“Goddamn you! We’ve been friends since we were twelve,” Pena said, coldly furious. “How could you even ask me something like that?”
“Hector Garcia-Romero”-Castillo paused until Pena acknowledged the name-“he’s been Dona Alicia’s lawyer for thirty years, maybe longer, and he’s in the drug business up to his ears. Why not you?”
Pena met Castillo’s eyes and was quiet a long moment.
“How the hell did you learn that about Garcia-Romero?” Pena then demanded.
Castillo shrugged, signaling that Pena was not going to get an answer.
“Okay, you sonofabitch,” Pena said. “I came here the first time to keep you alive. I didn’t think-I still don’t- that you knew what the hell you were getting yourself into.”
“I take that as meaning: ‘Yeah, I’m one of the two honest cops in Mexico.’ ”
“There’s a few more than two of us. Now you tell me what the hell’s really going on around here.”
“Take a look at this, Juan Carlos,” Castillo said, and handed him a copy of
“What am I looking at?”
“What do you see?”
“A picture of some guy who laid a bunch of money on the Magoffin Home,” Pena said, then looked at Castillo. “Is that what you mean?”
“You didn’t recognize Felix Abrego?”
“I’ll be goddamned,” Pena said after a second look.
“The other guy is the FBI SAC in El Paso,” Castillo said. “The people who whacked the DEA agents and my friend Danny Salazar and kidnapped Colonel Ferris. .”
“Your
Castillo nodded. “We went back a long way.”
“So you were Special Forces, too? Not a military attache?
“You said, ‘too,’ ” Castillo said, smiling. He shook his head, then asked, “How did you know Danny was Special Forces?”
“After we became friends, he told me.”
“You were friends?”
“Yeah. We were friends. Is that so hard to believe?”
Castillo hesitated a moment before saying, “Now that we’re now telling each other the truth, no.”
“Danny understood how things work here.”
“And how do they work here?”
“Like I told you the first time I was here, the bad guys are winning. Anybody who thinks the drug cartels can be defeated is a fool. The best that me and people like me-and the other three or four honest cops-can do is fuck them up from time to time. Danny and I hit it off right away, when I first met him. .”
As Pena spoke, Castillo glanced at Max and thought:
“. . and believed me when I told him how things are. After that, from time to time, I used to slip him information. Between us, we caused the bad guys to lose a lot of money.”
They locked eyes for a moment.
“One of the reasons I wanted you out of Dodge, Carlos-aside from keeping you alive-is that I didn’t want you getting in the way of my dealing with the guys who whacked him.”
Castillo’s eyes narrowed. “You know who the sonsofbitches are?”
Pena nodded. “The Zambada cartel. They used to be in our special forces. The cartel’s run by a really nasty guy named Joaquin Archivaldo. I was surprised that Joaquin was in on the whack/ kidnapping-he likes to keep his distance-but he was, and I think I know why. And so was his number two, another nasty guy by the name of Ismael Quintero.”
“How are you going to deal with them? More important, if you know who they are, why haven’t you locked them up?”
“Because if I did, they would escape within two weeks and then come after me with even more enthusiasm than they are coming after me now.”
“So how are you going to deal with them?”
“How do you think, Carlos? Just as soon as I can set it up so that somebody else gets the blame.”
When Castillo didn’t reply, Pena said, “Am I shocking you, Carlos?”
“He’s wondering what will happen to Colonel Ferris,” Svetlana put in, “after you eliminate these people.”
“That, too, sweetheart,” Castillo answered, “but also why Juan Carlos wants to take these people out.”
“Because Danny trusted me, and because he did, now he’s dead. Somehow Archivaldo found out what Danny and I had going-I may have done something stupid, or he just put two and two together-and decided to whack him. And once he decided to do that, he figured, ‘What the hell, I’ll try to get my old pal Felix out of Florence while I’m doing that. And then I will go after Juan Carlos Pena.’ I’m not going to let him get away with either one.”
Castillo exchanged glances with Svetlana.
“Tell him, Carlito,” she said.
“Tell me what, Red?” Pena asked.
“Everything,” Svetlana said. “Tell him everything, Carlito. Or I will.”
Castillo looked at her for a long moment.
“You have the floor, Podpolkovnik Alekseeva,” he said finally.
It took Svetlana about five minutes to tell Juan Carlos everything. At first there was a cynical expression on Pena’s face-“I recognize bullshit when I hear it”-but it changed as she spoke, and when she was finished, he nodded, as if in approval.
“Okay, Red,” he said. “I now believe you were an SVR colonel.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Which leaves us where?” Juan Carlos asked. “What do you want from me?”
“To make up your mind whether you’re going to help us or not,” she said.
“It looks like I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“I hope that’s because you think we’re right,” she said.
“As opposed to what?”
