Lex talionis
Chapter 17. Haunting ghosts
"Gracias," was the first thing Adriana said, in a trembling voice, after crossing the front lawn and entering the house.
It was a spacious and luxurious two-story villa, recent but of colonial design. Large windows overlooked the back garden with a swimming pool.
"[What are you doing here?]" She looked at the three of them before stopping at Jubal. "[Who is he?]" She asked Darío.
Her adrenaline must have been running low because she was shuddering slightly. Although she was doing a better job of controlling it, Isobel understood her well. It had been a really intense gunfight. Darío also seemed still a bit frantic. She admired Jubal who, at least apparently, only looked especially alert.
Darío introduced him to her, stating his first and last name, his status as an FBI Special Agent.
From the dismayed way she looked at him, Isobel knew that Adriana remembered Jubal's name from that morning's talk, that she had been told this man had nearly died twice at Vargas' hands.
"What now? "Jubal asked, also turning to Darío. "Could it be that they decide to leave?"
Darío's expression was very skeptical. "If they are who I think they are, I doubt it."
"Let's find out," proposed Adriana anxiously.
She led them into a room furnished as an office. There she slid open the wooden doors of a large sideboard, revealing several monitors, which turned on as she moved a mouse on the desk. The images showed all the angles covered by the cameras on the wall and others located on the outside of the house, pointing toward the garden. Some in addition watched the interior.
At the entrance, the five men were grouped between the two SUVs. One of them, a guy with huge sideburns and a tan face, walked up to the front gates camera and started talking.
"[Hey, you in there!]" came the muffled shout of someone from outside the wall. Adriana clicked and the audio from the intercom reached them. "[We only want Adriana Fresneda. If you guys hand her over it will be very lucrative for you. We'll pay you triple what she pays you.]
Adriana immediately turned toward them, reaching for the gun in her waistband and nervously pointed it at the three of them. Jubal and Darío drew and took aim out of pure reflex.
Isobel, however, raised her hands. "[Put the gun down, Adriana, we are not going to hand you over]" she assured her. Her stomach twisted because a little voice inside her pointed out: no, not to them....
Ominous thunder sounded in the distance.
As a demonstration, Darío holstered his weapon, walked over to the desk, and activated the mic. "[We're three law enforcement officers, pendejo, and there's backup on the way]," he said as reply.
There was a pause. Adriana relaxed a bit and lowered her gun. Jubal imitated the gesture, averting his aim but not his eyes off her.
"[It's better to be law enforcement officers alive who look the other way than law enforcement officers dead. If you get out of the way, we'll spare your lives]," the voice on the other side of the speaker replied.
Darío did not even deign to answer that. "[You'd better leave before our reinforcements arrive.]"
"[You don't want to make enemies with El Patrón, hijos de la chingada!]"
"Did he say El Patrón?" asked Jubal in a low voice.
"Yeah, Darío was right. They are Juárez's men," Isobel replied.
Curiously enough, Adriana did not seem surprised but increasingly frightened.
"You don't want to be here when four squads of the Guardia Nacional arrive, cabrones!]" Darío retorted to those outside, showing guts.
On the screen, the man with the sideburns pulled out a phone and made a call.
"I think he's asking for instructions," said Isobel.
Irritated, Darío looked first at Adriana's gun and then at her. Somewhat embarrassed, Adriana made an ostensible gesture to put away her pistol. Jubal sheathed his and the two of them approached to look at the screens.
The one with the sideburns was nodding, as obeying orders.
"[Come on, come on… Lárguense a la rechingada]" Darío muttered, tense. "Get the hell out of here."
However, when the guy hung up, he went to the trunk of the beige SUV, opened it, and started pulling out and handing out more automatic weapons.
"No, it doesn't seem like they're leaving, no," Darío said. "I think they are going to breach".
The four looked at each other in alarm.
Darío took out his cell phone. "I'll call for those reinforcements."
The thunder was approaching. The sky had become so dark that it seemed a sudden and premature sunset. Adriana had to turn on the lights in the room.
Jubal leaned toward Isobel. "I'm going to contact Maggie," he told her quietly. She pursed her lips in displeasure but nodded, just once, firmly.
Meanwhile, Darío was already talking to the GN headquarters there in Nuevo León, reporting that he had been involved in a shootout while off duty and needed immediate support.
"[Don't worry]," Isobel tried meanwhile to reassure Adriana, who was looking at the screens understandably very agitated.
The guy with the sideburns was manipulating something in the trunk. The central screen displayed an alarm message: "Signal inhibitor activated".
Darío's call stopped in the middle of the sentence in which he was reporting where they were. Jubal had only managed to send Maggie a 'We're in trouble'. The message with the location never made it out.
"They cut us off," said Adriana in a choked voice.
The four reached for their weapons, but on the screen, Juárez's men did not spread out, but instead looked down the road.
Jubal used the pause to think for a moment. "Is there any other way out?"
"A tunnel that starts in the kitchen leads under the pool house, and then outside, three hundred meters to the south," Adriana answered in fairly good English. "But where would we go without a car after that? It's almost 15 miles of very rough terrain from here to El Pastor..."
"All right, let's leave that as a last resort," Isobel decided.
"I think they're waiting for their own reinforcements," Jubal opined. "Five against four is not a favorable enough number."
As if to confirm that idea, two vehicles entered the rural road. Two pickups. Seven more men got out of them. Also armed with assault rifles.
"Magnificent. Three per head. How thoughtful," joked Darío.
A loud clap of thunder rumbled practically above the house, announcing the beginning of a torrential rain mixed with hail. It fell with such force that it seemed to be pelting gravel against the shingles and windowpanes.
The visibility became very bad in the images. Adriana changed something in the settings and surprised everyone by switching to thermal imaging. It was not for nothing that BaluarTec manufactured security devices.
"Wow... Like 'Predator'," commented Jubal.
It was perfectly apparent that the attackers were taking shelter in their vehicles. Isobel sighed in relief and allowed herself to smile at the reference to Jubal. "How much ammo do you have?" she then said, checking her magazine.
Her wrist complained and she couldn't help a grimace, which did not go unnoticed by Jubal.
"One and a half chargers," he reported, looking worriedly at her.
"I have three bullets left," said Darío with vivacity. "My other magazine is in the car. Hey, that's not so bad. One for each of the ones I'm up against. I just need to have very good aim."
Adriana failed to stifle a short gasp of laughter and Jubal chuckled.
Isobel made a face of benevolent patience. "I'm almost the same," she said fatalistically.
"I think I can help with that," Adriana interjected. She pointed to a gun rack behind her in the corner of the office.
While Adriana opened it, Jubal watched with concern as Isobel cradled her left hand. "Are you alright?" he asked in a low voice.
"Yeah, it's nothi-," Isobel interrupted herself when she saw Jubal's ironic look and a tilt of his head that reminded her of their promise just a little while ago. "OK. I sprained my wrist earlier when I fell."
Jubal nodded and took her hand gently to examine it. He tried a few moves carefully.
"It doesn't look broken. Too bad my first aid kit is in my backpack, in the car. We'll find something to bandage it with."
"What about your shoulder?" she asked.
"Oh, it's fi-," Isobel's raised eyebrow made Jubal relent. "I could use something for the pain."
At his sincerity, Isobel's gaze softened with the beginnings of a tender smile, exerting on him an irresistible attraction that took his breath away. Jubal sighed. "Miss Fresneda," he began to say, still staring at Isobel's face in awe.
"Please," she replied somewhat shyly, "you guys saved my life. Please call me Adriana..."
Turning to her, Jubal nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Okay. Adriana. Wouldn't you have a bandage?"
"And a painkiller?" added Isobel.
The two exchanged meaningful glances.
·~·~·
In the gun rack, Adriana had some extra magazines that were compatible with their weapons, spare bullets to reload them, another spare pistol and... two -very illegal for a civilian- FX-05 rifles.
"Automatic weapons at home? Really?" said Darío in surprise.
Adriana turned to him. "[If your sister were married to the head of the Durango cartel, you would have them too]," she replied irritably.
He raised his hands in a defensive gesture and amused expression. "[Under these circumstances, I have no intention of complaining]."
Their gazes lingered a few seconds too long. Darío began to smile lopsidedly. Adriana turned away with exaggerated nonchalance. Isobel was able to recognize the gesture. Miss Fresneda was apparently less immune to her friend than she had seemed at first.
"Okay, let's see. First they have to go in," Isobel tried to focus them all, herself included.
"They will climb the wall or break down the gate," said Darío.
"Aha. Sooner or later they will get in. But once inside, our goal is to get them where we want them to go," stated Isobel.
As they talked, Jubal, who had already taken the painkiller, was bandaging Isobel's wrist with extremely careful hands. It was causing her some trepidation, and not because he was hurting her. She was trying to disguise it but, judging by Darío's amused expression, without much success.
The flash and rumble of lightning and thunder continued outside.
A plan began to take shape: try to get the attackers into the house, so that they, through various distractions, could use the tunnel that led to the pool house, then get to the van, and shoot off out of there. If, in the process, they would manage to reduce the number of their enemies, so much the better. Because they surely would be pursued.
After finishing bandaging Isobel's hand, Jubal was admiring the defiant gleam in Isobel's eyes as they discussed it, when he saw her look past him and her face go white as a sheet.
They breached!, he thought frantically and turned, drawing his gun.
The air had left Isobel's lungs as if she had been punched in the diaphragm.
There, in the gloom of the corridor, pale and haggard, a flash of lightning had revealed Sofía, wrapped in a vaporous robe. Little Carlos was peeking out from behind, clinging to her skirt. Both of them had appeared to Isobel in her dreams before, and often lately, but she had never seen them while being awake. Her mind lost grip on reality and began to fall into an infinite void.
She failed to notice that Jubal, mouth open, was lowering his gun in astonishment.
"Adriana," Sofía called, her voice sounded a little hoarse, but normal, not like as it came from the other side of death.
The aforementioned, who was refilling a mag with bullets, turned her head sharply.
"Sofía!" gasped Adriana, not surprised, but terrified. "[I told you to lock yourselves in your room!]"
Sofía approached and Isobel's knees gave out. Showing good reflexes, Jubal rushed to her side and caught her just in time before she fell off, wrapping his arm around her waist and holding her against him. Isobel instinctively clung to him.
"[There were shots, Adriana]" Sofía protested, frightened "[I didn't know what was going on...]"
"[All the more reasons not to go out!]" There was a tinge of hysteria in that exclamation. She glanced sideways at Jubal and Isobel, apprehensively.
"You're alive…" was all Isobel managed to say, lost in Carlos' huge dark eyes.
Alive. Right there. The possibility existed, of course. Jubal had been arguing for it all day, but she realized that the idea had not really sunk into her until then.
"I am sorry. So sorry," Adriana murmured with red eyes full of guilt.
Their deaths no longer weighed on her and Isobel took a deep breath. It was as if she hadn't been able to breathe for an entire year. Between that and the gleeful smile on Jubal's face, they nearly made her chest burst. After a couple more warm seconds than was necessary to make sure her legs were supporting her again, he let go and respectfully stepped back. Although, actually, she would have preferred him not to.
"The van," Darío said then.
Jubal looked at him blankly. "What?
"The van," Darío repeated. "That's why you didn't come back on your bike," he turned to Adriana. "You wanted to get them out of here."
"Juárez was on the trail. This place was no longer safe. A whole year. No, more than that," she lamented, shaking her head in frustration, "I've kept them hidden. Safe from Juárez. Safe from-" she looked at Sofía and interrupted herself.
"But how did you know Juárez was after them?" asked Jubal.
"Miguel Rojas warned me," replied Sofía, also in correct English but with a strong accent. "He loves Carlos. He knew that in Antonio's absence, and after forcing him to kill Felix, El Patrón would go after his other son too. Miguel didn't want anything to happen to Carlos... Poor Miguel," murmured Sofía.
Jubal could not help but find it strange to understand this peculiar feeling of sympathy for that murderer, because after all El Patrón had forced Miguel to kill while on the other hand he had saved the lives of Sofía and her child.
"I thought I had them safe," Adriana continued, and Sofía's gaze filled with a leaden resignation. That year of confinement certainly must have been difficult for them. "But about four days ago, Ambrós called."
"The chauffeur..." Jubal remembered.
Closing her eyes, Adriana nodded. "He asked me for more money. He had run into Juárez and wanted to get out of the country. I immediately set in motion the plan to send Sofía and Carlos away from here. I guess they managed to catch him after all..."
"And when were you going to tell us?" Darío asked exasperated. "How were we going to get them out if we didn't even know they were here?"
"I don't know! Soon. Before Juárez men would breach," Adriana shook her head, "I've been too slow. Too slow," she looked at her sister and the little boy with tear-filled eyes. "[I should have gotten you out of México sooner, Sofía. Yesterday. The day before yesterday. No, months ago. But I didn't want]" she knelt down next to Carlos and Sofía imitated her, "[to never to see you again...]" She embraced them.
"[No, Adriana]," Sofía denied. "[I could have left, but I didn't want to leave you.]"
All three sobbed softly.
"We're not going to let them hurt you," Isobel declared in a firm, courageous voice. "We have a plan. Let's follow it. I swear to you, and I think I speak for all three of us, that we will do everything in our power to get you to safety."
"Of course," Darío confirmed in a grave tone.
Jubal reached over and stroked Carlos' head, surely, Isobel thought, remembering her children, whom he might never see again...
"Everything is going to be fine," said Jubal.
His hand seemed to have a fatherly soothing effect on the boy, who wiped his face with the cuffs of his sleeves and stopped crying with a shaky sigh.
"Let's go. We have to get ready," Isobel managed to say despite the lump in her throat. "I don't think we have much time left."
Rising to her feet, Adriana looked Isobel in the face with eyes filled with equal parts fear and courage. And she nodded.
·~·~·
While Sofía and Carlos went to get dressed in something more suitable and to pick up some things, they finished setting up barricades, placed the distraction devices around the house and laying out all the weapons on the kitchen table.
And so they sat in the office in front of the screens, waiting. Outside it was still pouring rain outside, although it had stopped hailing.
The silence was unnerving.
"I'm almost waiting for them to play 'A degüello' to us..." murmured Darío. Adriana chuckled at his dark humor, but mostly to release tension.
"What is that?" asked Jubal.
"A military bugle call," she explained. "It literally means "to cut the throat" and was traditionally used to order of to give no quarter, but it is mostly famous because the Mexican army played it during the entire siege of El Alamo.
Carlos, hugging his mother, looked at the adults with growing unease. He seemed like he understood English too well. Sofía rubbed his arm while rebuking Darío and Adriana with her eyes. Both had the decency to seem contrite.
"Don't worry, it's just a joke. We'll be safe before you know it," Jubal assured the boy with a warm smile, and Carlos breathed a little easier.
Nevertheless, Isobel remained really serious. After a few minutes, she stood up and walked over to Jubal.
"Please, can you come with me?" she said discreetly, "I want to talk to you for a moment."
Isobel walked out of the office into the adjoining living room. He followed her, a little worried. They moved away to a place where the others would not hear them.
"This... This looks very bad, Jubal," Isobel began.
"Don't say that. We're going to get through this. You'll see," he tried to cheer her up.
"If Juárez men realize that Sofía and Carlos are here, they won't show mercy to anyone."
She was scared. Understandably so. Jubal was too. "We have a plan. And it's going to work," he stated clinging to his optimism like a lifeline.
Fear clutched Isobel's chest. It was like watching him die in her nightmares but a hundred times worse. She covered her face for a moment with one hand, then looked him straight in the eye.
"I'm so sorry. The last thing I wanted was for anything bad to happen to you. To anybody. And now..." She could not finish the sentence but the words hung in the air: We will all surely die.
The sense of doom almost crushed Jubal. He hadn't even been able to talk to Abby and Tyler before... And despite everything, that Isobel was finally overcoming her walls to unburden herself to him somehow took some of the weight off.
Meanwhile, she lowered her head, feeling more tormented than ever. "You shouldn't be here. Why did you come?" Isobel lamented. "I don't deserve what you've done for me, that you risk your life for me..."
"What?" That took Jubal completely by surprise. "What do you mean, you don't deserve it? Why do you say that?"
Holding back her tears as best she could, Isobel raised her eyes. She hesitated once again whether to tell him about that, but she could not keep it to herself any longer. Not after what she had agreed with him earlier that very afternoon. Not with the enemy literally at the gates.
"Jubal, my mistakes were the cause of Rina's death. And now you're going to die too. You shouldn't help me, you shouldn't trust me. You should… hate me," she stated bluntly and point-blank.
Jubal's consternation for Isobel multiplied exponentially. It seemed inexplicable to him that she could be so ruthless with herself. And yet, his inner Rina pushed him to consider it. He didn't hate her, of course, but should he be… mad at her?
Months ago, he had to admit that for a while, yes, he was. But only because he felt devastated and had to direct his anger at someone.
Then Jess died, Maggie came close, and a psycho tried to kill Isobel in her own home. Everything changed. That's when Jubal realized how unfair he was being, how stupid it was to treat like that the people he cared so much about, and he went back to taking care of his team, his children. And also Isobel. What she allowed him to, of course, which was not much. Just silly things, like throwing her a birthday party...
"No," he said, shaking his head slowly, "Don't say that."
"Why? It's the truth," Isobel insisted, pressing a fist against her chest, more aware than ever of that dagger she had stuck inside her.
"Isobel," said Jubal softly, "you are no more responsible for Rina's death than I am. If I had put the scarf on differently, she would still be alive." It still hurt him to acknowledge that. "Also if the bullet had hit an inch to the right. We were pieces in a cascade of dominoes. You were just one more piece"
"Stop playing it down, damn it!" Isobel cut him off, exclaiming in exasperation but not raising her voice. He was giving her no choice but to say it in plain English. "Rina was the woman you loved and she's dead because of me!"
Oh-, Jubal thought he understood. So it was that all along... All that affection he had sensed from Isobel was just about... guilt. Jubal's heart plummeted, making him suddenly aware of how high his foolish hopes had raised it. The fall was brutal. The impact had left him speechless. Even Rina was uncharacteristically silent.
Jubal swallowed hard and pushed all that pain aside to try to ease Isobel's, which was no less deep, but he could not help but feel an overwhelming sadness.
He was going to grab her by the shoulders, but held back, not feeling entitled to touch her. Instead, he looked into her eyes. "No. That's not true," he said with determination. "Vargas was to blame for Rina's death. Because he was the one who made the decision. No one else did. Only him."
Isobel's feeling of vertigo was indescribable. As if something had thrown her into the air. She had not realized until that very moment how badly she had needed Jubal to tell her that. However, relief soon turned to despair.
"I don't- I don't want you to die too. You shouldn't be here-" she repeated.
"Maybe," Jubal interrupted her. "But I have no regrets. As long as you were here, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but here... with you," he assured her with a resigned conviction and an eager warmth in his eyes that left Isobel completely disarmed.
She could do nothing to restrain herself. Suddenly, she took Jubal's face in her hands and kissed him impetuously on the lips. His own responded immediately to the sudden, secretly longed-for sensation, but the rest of his body failed to react before she released him and pulled away abruptly.
"Sorry- I'm sorry. I shouldn't..." Isobel stammered, looking at him with wide eyes, unable to believe what she had just done.
"What? You are sorry...? "Jubal asked, puzzled and breathless. She kept backing away, deeply embarrassed. Jubal was torn by every inch. "Come here," he gasped. And he strode toward Isobel as he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him. He captured her mouth with irrepressible eagerness. Isobel was stunned. Just for an instant. Then she kissed him back, holding to his neck, entwining her fingers in his hair and clinging to him as if her life depended on it. Jubal pulled her tight against him.
At first, there was more fear of letting go of the other -of losing each other- than desire in that desperate embrace, but it wasn't long before something fiery began to ignite between them. Isobel invited him in and Jubal deepened the kiss without a moment's hesitation.
Darío peeked through the gap in the office door. "Really!? Now!?" he exclaimed, openly annoyed.
Isobel and Jubal pulled apart with a start. Behind Darío came Adriana with an intrigued expression.
"No, no. I get it," Darío said ironically, "I'd be happy to do that with Isobel. Or with you, while we're at it," he added, looking cheekily at Adriana. She frowned at him, though she blushed, nonetheless. "But I don't find it quite the right moment, d'you know what I mean?" he protested then, rather exasperated.
Terribly tense, Jubal and Isobel didn't answer. They were too busy trying to not look at each other and to process what had just happened.
Without warning, the lights went out, leaving them in the gloom caused by the storm.
"They cut off the power," said Adriana.
"Yeah, it hasn't completely stopped raining yet, but they're getting ready to breach," Isobel declared, finding it very disturbing that the Juárez cartel was copying FBI procedures.
The four of them hurried back to the office.
"But the cameras…" Jubal observed as the images continued to appear on the screens.
"I have a UPS and an emergency generator for essential systems," Adriana explained.
"Really? Chido..." approved Darío.
Isobel sighed with relief. Without the cameras, her plan would have been considerably more difficult to execute. "Besides, they do not know that," she said enthusiastically. "That gives us a great advant-"
A loud explosion interrupted her mid-word.
~.~.~.~