After hanging up that phone Jack immediately picked up the other one and rang the main house. It was answered after a few rings, and Sergio was only too happy to go get Ramon. After a quick conversation with him the situation had been explained, and Ramon and Hector were on there way to see him, both excited as school boys. This would be their big pay off, and things were going to come off soon.
Jack pulled himself up and made his way into the living room. He patted his hair down sleepily, trying to look like he wasn't as exhausted as he felt. Even though he had had over 12 hours of sleep too. He pushed those thoughts out of his head as he thought about how fast he could get things moving now. He could be home in a week, back in LA, free of this place.
The bothers arrived shortly afterwards with sheets containing statistics from the tester for Jack to check over. Jack could see the excitement in their eyes, and for a moment felt pure hatred and disgust. They were only thinking about themselves and the money they would make from this, had they even thought about the billions of innocents who would die? Of course not, Jack thought. They're too greedy to even consider that.
Jack nodded his head to himself as he read, while he cringed inside. The kill rate had been modified, making it work faster. He could not mess up now, if he failed, the consequences would be catastrophic. He knew he had a good chance of stopping this from getting out of hand, but experience also told him that there was a good chance it would all go wrong and the virus would somehow be released. He knew he couldn't let it get that far. Once the Salazar's had possession of it he had to take it and go. He couldn't let it get to the stage of other potential buyers, anything could happen at that point. Although that would allow C.T.U to take down more potential terrorists he knew the risks were too much. He would have to act fast to keep this under control.
Jack gave his approval of the statistics, and explained to the two men about the modification, the advanced kill rate. They weren't to interested in this, until Jack explained that they could up the going price by at least 15 of its current value. This they liked to hear. They decided to wait for Amador to call Jack back in case he suggested something which he would need to confirm with them. That and the fact that the two were bursting with excitement, and wanted to be there when the ball started rolling.
Fifteen minutes later and the phone rang. It was resting on the table, and Ramon reached over and snapped it up, passing it to Jack. Jack had to try hard not to laugh at the two of them, both on the edge of their seats, too consumed by their greed to understand the real risks of what they were doing. If they had examined this thing from both sides they would have realised that the risks ultimately outweighed the benefits. Every US officer would be after them. But that was the least of their problems, because Jack would be bringing them in soon himself. He could picture them in the interrogation rooms back in LA. They would be devastated.
Jack answered the phone coolly, showing Amador that he was the one with the control in this conversation. Had Ramon or Hector handled this personally, they would already be jumping through his hoops. After a brief conversation Jack flipped the phone shut and grinned to the two men. It was hard to pretend that he held the same amount of excitement as them, but he had to pull it off or they would be very concerned. He was going to get a big pay off out of this too....
He explained that they would met Amador in fourteen miles south of the compound, in three hours time. Amador would have the place secured, but they were permitted to send a small team of backup with them, to get rid of any worries about being set up. There Ramon would transfer the money into a bank account for Amador, through his equipment. The going price was 200 million, so they would have to sort out their funds now so they could make an easy transfer of one final sum through to Amador. Once that was verified, they would be given a case containing all of the notes and important information on the virus. After a cautionary 24 hours period, they would meet again in the same place, where they would be given the virus.
Hector was concerned that Amador wouldn't give them the virus and instead run, but Jack and Ramon convinced him otherwise. It was the unspoken code, Ramon said, for crooks like them to be even with each other. Otherwise they would get nowhere. Jack was slightly nervous about this inside. If Amador did screw them, he would be in big trouble. Not just with the Salazar's, but both sides of the law.
Ramon set off to work right away, calling different people gathering all of their funds into one large account, while Hector poured the three of them a drink. Once Ramon was satisfied the funds were ready, Jack said he would prepare a small team of 4 men to go with them, and arrange another of 8 to take up positions further back, in case they did meet resistance. The look on Ramon's face told him something was wrong, and when he asked, Hector busied himself in the kitchen.
Ramon told Jack that he couldn't take a team, he was still too unwell. This made Jack angry and he questioned Ramon, but knew that he was right. He was annoyed at himself, what if something happened now and he missed it, what if everything went down now and he lost the virus? He agreed, somewhat reluctantly, on the grounds that he could come along after the 24 hour period. 'I'll even wait in the car.' He assured Ramon, who eventually caved in. He knew how much this meant to Jack, and maybe he would be stronger tomorrow if he had another session with Gregory today.
The men left after two hours, to get to the location in good time. Jack watched out of the window as the car drove off, then the van which followed. He couldn't help but curse his injury, he should be there making sure it all runs smoothly. What if Amador wouldn't deal with them because he wasn't there? He hoped that if he was suspicious he would have the sense to ring and check everything was okay with him. He didn't want anything to slow this down, even though it was the speed of it that was keeping him on the sideline.
Jack stayed put next to the window, looking out into the now dust filled air, wanting o be in the car with them. He needed to see what was happening first hand so he could get an read on Amador. If he thought something suspicions was going on he could have more men ready tomorrow to make sure it goes the way they want it to. The brothers were too consumed by there excitement, they wouldn't even consider watching Amador.
Distracting him from those thoughts was the new car which pulled up right outside. He looked out and had to smile as he saw Gregory get out, caring a large black bag. Well, he thought, the brothers obviously contain some intelligence between them. They sent Gregory now so I will be preoccupied while they are gone.
Despite the gravity of what was going on right now he allowed himself to let out a slight laugh as Gregory came in. He could do nothing about the virus until tomorrow, so the best thing he could do right now was try and get better. Gregory helped him through to the main room, where they started with the same moves as last time, only more repetitions this time. Jack found it hard but pressed on, he had to be able to move about tomorrow or things would go wrong.
After they finished the leg curls Jack questioned which other exercises would be the best to do, in his free time. Gregory explained that he was to do only basic ones, like the ones they had practised. He should not do any strenuous ones or he would risk causing further internal damage, so press-ups and other similar ones were out of the picture. He also stressed that he should do the minimum amount. If he did too many, he could cause himself more work in the long run. He was however, pleased with his ability to walk, and left him a single crutch to help him along. It was clear he had been doing it a lot despite his warnings, so the least Gregory could do was help him. It was clear Jack was going to do as much as he could to get back on his feet.
The rest of the afternoon passed by in a haze, as Jack was too tired to do anything after his session. Now had nothing to do his mind slipped once again to the drug, but he decided to stay away from it until tomorrow had passed. He couldn't allow the chance for someone from C.T.U to see what he was on, and he couldn't risk the Salazar's not letting him go if they suspected he was high.
He decided to take a short nap to get his strength up for the brothers return. He had to get every detail possible from them to help develop his plans. As he drifted off to sleep his thoughts were of tomorrow, and how he would be able to obtain the virus and get away from the Salazar's at the same time, without calling his cover either. He realised that he needed to ring Tony first thing in the morning so they could have teams ready to respond to the situation. He would also need help with the extraction of the virus, he couldn't do it alone.