ignore the sky-high profits generated by the drug trade. There was no such thing as having too much money.
Besides, the narcotics trade was vital in developing contacts in all layers of New Orleans society. Remarkable, how many of the city's wealthy elite craved illicit drugs.
Product was power, and Paz moved plenty of product. That required muscle and guns, and he had plenty of both of them, too.
Earlier today, from his hideout at the abandoned Jiffy Pump gas station, Paz had set the wheels in motion to gather his death squad for action.
Why had Beltran betrayed him? For his own personal profit, no doubt. That was how Paz's mind worked. Nobody did anything unless there was something in it for him.
What was in it for Beltran? Was he simply following orders from Havana, reflecting an abrupt and murderous turn against Venezuela?
Not likely, not with all the free oil and free money they were getting from Caracas, thanks to Chavez's genuine admiration for Fidel Castro and the irresistible opportunity to stick it to Uncle Sam by siding with communist Cuba.
So where was the heat coming from? From Beltran himself?
It was possible; it was possible. Beltran was a deep player; not even his own ostensible masters in Havana could know all he was into.
He and Paz were joined at the hip in a number of illicit operations: narcotics, first and foremost; but also gunrunning; espionage and sabotage operations; smuggling of priceless pre-Colombian artifacts and relics; and contraband shipments of oil and gas.
Maybe Beltran got greedy and decided to X-out Paz and keep all the profits for himself. Maybe he'd sold out Paz to the American Mafia, New Orleans branch, a competitor in the drug trade. Or to a rival Latin American drug cartel.
Why the betrayal? Paz would ask him, should Beltran be taken alive. Not a top priority for the Colonel from Caracas.
Whatever the reason, Beltran had committed a capital crime for which there could be only one penalty.
Cross Martello Paz, and die.
Now, as evening came on, the Colonel had his murder team in place, staked out on a rise several blocks away from the Supremo Hat Company.
There were two vehicles and eight men. The men were all stone killers; Colonel Paz being the stoniest of them all.
He scanned the building through a pair of binoculars. There were two men on the roof. They tried to keep out of sight, but the parapet was low and they couldn't help but skyline above it from time to time. A couple of others were posted around the structure at street level, on the corner, and in the parking lot at the rear of the building.
Paz lowered the field glasses. The approaching storm had brought on a premature dusk. He would unleash the strike in an hour or so, when the gloom had deepened to provide his death squad with the cover of darkness.
13. THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 5 P.M. AND 6 P.M. CENTRAL DAYLIGHT TIME
An unusual gathering was massed at the Playsquare Day Care Center, located about an eighth of a mile from City Hall. It had been commandeered by Susan Keehan and her EXECPROTEK contingent.
The modest neighborhood featured office buildings tenanted mostly by mid-sized legal firms and insurance agencies. The day care center was in a two-story building fronting the north side of a vest pocket-sized park. Ordinarily open on Saturdays, it was closed today because of the storm threat.
Several SUVs and dark-colored, late model cars were parked in front of the building.
The nonprofit day care center was owned and operated by the Keehan Humanistics Fund, one of many charitable facilities it maintained in the city. Susan's Free Raoul Action Squad was temporarily perched at the site, using it as a staging area. A place where they could wait for final word from the kidnappers as to where and how to deliver the ransom money in exchange for Garros.
The abductor chief was impatient, eager to move fast. He'd told them during his most recent call that he'd be giving them their instructions within an hour or so, definitely no more than two hours.
The day care center had been chosen by Mylon Sears. It was centrally located with easy access to all parts of the city. A business zone on a Saturday, it would have been quiet and depopulated even if not for the hurricane warning. There weren't a lot of civilian types around to gawk and wonder about the heavy security detail.
The day care facility, a KHF asset, could be used without question. Today, now, it was deserted, save for a sole caretaker.
He liked his job and was easily persuaded to sit tight and mind his own business; one of Sears's men kept him under watch anyway, to make sure he didn't make any outside calls to his wife or friends to report the exciting news that Susan Keehan herself was in the building, thus spreading the word and attracting attention.
Susan, Sears, and the rest of the security squad sat and waited.
So, too, did Jack Bauer and Pete Malo sit and wait, in their SUV parked at the southeastern corner of the park opposite the day care center. Other CTU operatives were posted at key intersections in the area, maintaining the lowest of low profiles.
Mylon Sears was no fool; he and his men were professionals, and would be quick to detect a too-heavy presence of watchers. For the same reason, no CTU helicopters had taken to the skies above the area; that would have been another tip-off alerting Sears that he was under observation.
Yet Sears would also have been suspicious if no attempts had been made to follow him, in the aftermath of the abduction and triple murders.
Earlier when the Keehan convoy had first left the Mega Mart building, it had been tailed by a couple of unmarked CTU vehicles. Their purpose was to be discovered in the act of shadowing the convoy.
Sears, ready for the eventuality of tail cars, had roving chase cars of his own in the area. He put them to use, blocking intersections along the route, physically obstructing the shadowers with 'stalled' vehicles and faked traffic jams to thwart pursuit.
Satisfied that he had eluded the tail cars, Sears continued on his way in confidence.
Jack and Pete had the Flea bugging device planted on Susan Keehan. Since Sears stayed right beside his client, they knew what he knew the moment he knew it, including the convoy's planned destinations. That enabled them to proceed to the locales in a roundabout way without being observed by EXECPROTEK spotters, first at the bank and later at the day care center.
The Flea continued to remain operational and undetected, sending a steady stream of chatter to their transceiver set.
Now, as the agents waited, a message came in from CTU Center. Since they were continually monitoring the Flea's output on the transceiver's speaker grid, they used secure, scrambled cells to maintain contact with the Center.
Jack took the call, while Pete stayed on top of the Flea stream. The Center operator said, 'We have a positive ID on the driver of the Paz hit team.'
The audio came in through the cell, while a corresponding video feed appeared on the SUV's dashboard monitor screen.
A photograph appeared of the dead driver, a man with a potato face, meatball nose, and jug-handle ears. The monitor went to split-screen, one window depicting a full frontal face and another a profile view.
Jack's eyes narrowed with interest; the feeling that he'd seen that face before but couldn't place had irked him, and he was intensely interested in the solution of the mystery.
The operator said, 'The subject was identified by Interpol.' Interpol, the international police organization
