“And what would you do with all that money?”
“Leave the country. Start a new life someplace safe.”
Carlos laughed again and shook his head.
“A nice thought, but let’s be realistic. We’re wasting our time here. Let’s go home.”
For a moment Ramon looked like he was considering it. Then something changed in his face as he stared out the windshield.
Carlos turned his head and watched an SUV come speeding down the drive from the Morales place. It slowed at the road and then just sat there, waiting.
“What the hell?”
That was when the pickup trucks came into view. They came from the south. There were two of them, and packed in their rear beds were narcos. In total there were probably two dozen of them. The pickup trucks’ taillights flared red as they slowed, giving the SUV time to jerk forward onto the main road. It sped north, the two pickup trucks directly behind it. They watched the three vehicles for several long seconds until the taillights started to fade.
Carlos said, “Where the hell are they going?”
There was a beat of silence, and then both men answered at the same time.
“La Miserias.”
Carlos reached for the cell phone in his pocket.
Ramon said, “What are you doing?”
“I’m calling it in.”
“Calling what in?”
“You saw exactly what I saw. They’re planning something bad.”
“We don’t know that for a fact.”
“Bullshit we don’t.”
“And what are you going to tell them when you call? How are you going to explain us being here?”
This made Carlos pause.
Ramon said, “I don’t like it any more than you do, but calling it in might get us in trouble.”
Ramon didn’t bother adding that there wasn’t much the police could do anyway. If Morales and his narcos were up to no good, the police weren’t going to be able to stop them. They would just show up later to clean up the mess.
Carlos said, “Fine. But let’s get out of here. I’m exhausted.”
Ramon settled back in his seat, placing his head against the headrest, and stared out the windshield at the house on the hill.
“Let’s give it a couple more minutes. Morales was probably in that SUV. If the Devil plans to attack tonight, he’ll do it soon.”
Fifty
La Miserias sits about a mile north from Fernando Sanchez Morales’s house. It’s just past three o’clock in the morning when we pass the town on the main road. I glance at the town as we pass, see that it’s dark and quiet, and issue a quiet sigh of relief.
Nova doesn’t bother glancing at the town. He has no connection to it. He leans heavily on the accelerator, the car’s small engine doing everything it can to keep up.
After all this driving, after all this time, we’re almost to our destination, but maybe it won’t matter. Maybe the Devil will have struck by now, or maybe the Devil won’t strike at all. The priest said Alejandro was wounded, that he may not have much time left, and so maybe he’s already been taken out of the game, bled out in some room where his body won’t be found for days.
Headlights splash us, bringing me up out of my thoughts.
By the look of it, three vehicles are coming our way. It’s not an uncommon thing—we’ve passed a lot of traffic on our way here—but it’s the way they’re tightly grouped together that raises a red flag. I keep an eye on the three approaching vehicles until they’re close enough to make out.
At the front of the pack is an SUV, followed up by two pickup trucks.
The backs of the pickup trucks are full of men with guns.
Because of both of our speeds, I see all of it in a flash, but it’s enough to send a tinge of dread through my body.
I twist in my seat and watch out the rear window at the receding taillights. Just as they approach La Miserias, each of the taillights starts to glow an angry red.
“Turn around.”
“What?”
“Turn around! Those were narcos, Nova. They’re going to attack the town again.”
Without any further prompting, Nova slams on the brakes and twists the wheel, pulling up on the emergency brake as he maneuvers a quick one-eighty.
I pull out the Glock. It’s fully loaded, but I check the magazine anyway. Fifteen bullets.
Nova says, “We got any extra firepower?”
“Nope.”
“What about extra ammo?”
“Nope.”
“Goddamn it, Holly.”
“What do you want to me to say, Nova? I wanted to make sure the town had as many weapons as possible in case this happened.”
We’re almost to the town now, the car doing nearly seventy miles per hour.
“Kill the headlights when you pull in. Maybe we can mow some of them down with the car, take their weapons. They should be carrying Kalashnikovs. That enough firepower for you?”
Nova says, “I guess we’ll see.”
He makes the turn and kills the headlights as we tear down the unpaved road toward the center of town.
Even without the headlights, we can see the three vehicles ahead of us because they still have on their lights. All of them have stopped, and the narcos have jumped down from the truck beds.
One of lookouts on the roof blares an air horn while another starts firing down at the narcos.
Because the narcos don’t give a shit about being careful, they open fire wildly, spraying the closest homes, shattering windows and tearing through walls.
A pair of narcos is closest to us. Their focus is on shooting at the houses so they don’t hear the car until it’s too late. Nova runs right over them and then slams on the brakes. I have my door open and am jumping out before the car can even make a complete stop.
I go for headshots and manage to drop three of them before other narcos turn and start firing back at me. I dive behind the car to take cover. Nova has gotten out of the car, too, and he’s grabbed one of the fallen narco’s rifles. He’s taken cover
