Threats and Plans
.
Chapter 23
Lee and Amanda were in the 5th informant's shop of rugs. Although Informant Alvaro Fernandez was the correct informant, they had also encountered a tattooed American in the shop, who now had a gun pointed at them.
Amanda's scared expression was not an act as she pleaded with the tattooed man, "Please, Sir, there is no need to point that gun at us! If you want our money, just take it and we will leave! We just came in here to get a rug for our den!"
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that!" the man spat out, totally unconvinced. He then yelled over his shoulder to Alvaro, the shopkeeper, "Fernandez! Check them for guns!"
Alvaro obediently came over. He did as he was told and after searching both of them, he was able to retrieve Lee's gun. He then handed it over to the tattooed man.
"Welllll, looky here!" the tattooed man sneered at Lee and Amanda, as he displayed Lee's gun for them to see, "Didn't know you needed a gun to shop for a rug for your den! What kind of suburbia do you two live in, anyway?"
Lee shrugged, "It's the kind of suburbia filled with ugly, brute IDIOTS!" he stated, pointedly looking at the tattooed man.
The man's face hardened, "A smart mouth, eh? You may want to keep that trap of yours shut!" he threatened. He then again turned to the shopkeeper, "Fernandez! Go put the 'closed' sign up on your business!"
When Alvaro hesitated, Lee snarkily stated, "Looks like your lackey doesn't think much about your dumb decisions."
"Shut up!" the tattooed man ordered and then turned to Alvaro, "Come on, man! Hurry up and get it done or else!"
Alvaro reacted quickly now and went towards the front door. As Lee and Amanda watched Alvaro turn the 'closed' sign over, they caught a quick flash of blue cloth from the outside window.
Pepita!
However, the flash of blue was gone by the time Alvaro closed the curtains and faced Lee and Amanda.
Alvaro looked apologetically at Lee and Amanda, "So sorry to you, my friends," he sadly explained, "The cartel gang, they have my family. I must do what they say or they will hurt them."
Lee now understood the shopkeeper's previous bizarre behavior of speaking English only, then Spanish only and so forth. Alvaro was trying to get them to leave the shop since the tattooed man had been listening. Lee looked at the tattooed man with disdain, "Mr. Fernandez has cooperated with you. Why don't you let him go home peacefully to his family?"
"I'd be a fool to let him go," the tattooed man stated.
"So you ARE letting him go?" Lee sarcastically asked.
"I told you...no effing way!" the man snapped, obviously not getting the put-down, "Fernandez has been quite helpful to the cartel these past 6 months and he will continue to do so if he wants his family to live!"
"Look, Pal, there's no need for this tough guy act," Lee claimed, "We can already see that the gun in your hand makes you the big bad wolf here. Just tell us what you want from us and be done with it."
The tattooed guy gave a malicious smile, "What I want is information. And I'd sure hate to mess up a good-looking face to get what I want!"
"Who, me?" Lee asked, blinking in innocence, "Gee, I didn't think you'd notice-"
"Not you! HER!"
Amanda looked wide-eyed, "If I talk, will you let us go?"
"We'll discuss THAT in the backroom," the tattooed man stated, gesturing with his gun towards the back, "Get goin', NOW!"
#
The four of them went to the backroom as the tattooed man ordered Alvaro to tie them up to the chairs. Lee was tied up first.
"Please, Sir," Amanda politely reasoned, as she was being tied up, "There's no need to be so mean and grumpy about all this! I know you're in a bad mood, but your mood should not dictate your manners. My mother taught me that."
"Your mother has never met me," Hector smirked, "And this isn't what I met by you'll be doing some talkin'!"
"Still," Amanda continued, "good manners are important in all situations, even in a captured situation like now. I think introductions are in order, so I'll start. My name is Amanda, and you are…?"
"This ain't no damn tea party!" the tattooed man impatiently blurted out.
It was Alvaro who spoke out, "His name is Hector!"
"Shut up!" Hector shouted back, and then angrily faced Amanda again, "Introductions aren't needed because I already know your name, Mrs. King! You're the one who killed my cartel brother, Ray Herrera!"
Amanda looked confused, "Ray Herrera? Oh! You mean, FakeRamos!" she nodded knowingly and then looked sad, "I'm sorry he's dead, but he was a very bad man! And, by the way, Mr. Hector, I did NOT kill him… I couldn't have!" she claimed, "I don't even know how to use a gun! Now, I've often thought about taking some training, in fact, I've requested it, but between filling out all the required paperwork and raising my two boys, I-"
"-Silence! You talk too much!" Hector impatiently commanded. He then turned to Lee, "You an agent, too? "
"No. My name is Guillermo Francia," Lee calmly stated, telling him the Spanish version of Billy Francine, "I saw this woman by the side of the road. She needed a lift into town and seeing a lady in distress, I wanted to help, is all," he regretfully shook his head, "of all the bad luck!"
"Bad luck, indeed, 'cuz her distress is now YOUR distress," Hector gleefully told Lee, "and I'll deal with you later!"
Hector then turned back to Amanda and rattled off some names, "I know of Miguel Esteban, Rafael Ramirez, and finally, Fernandez, here," he recited three of five informants names, "these names I know. What are the names of the other two informants I do not have, and what towns are they cowardly hiding in? Tell me this information now!"
"Why do you want to know?"
"That's none of your damn business!"
Amanda knew she must protect the names of Luis Garza and Jorge Muñoz, especially since Jorge was Pepita's father, so she lied, "I...I can't remember!"
"Liar!"
Red-faced. Hector came over and hovered over Amanda. With his hand pulled back, it was obvious he was about to slap her.
Lee yelled out, "Don't you touch her! I WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED YOUR MAN, RAY HERRERA!"
Hector put his arm down and faced Lee.
"So you aren't the good Samaritan you claim to be!" Hector accused him.
"No, I'm not," Lee relented, "I'm an agent as well. I was the one who shot Ray Herrera and then buried him in a shallow grave at an old church yard. It's what he deserved!"
Hector knew Lee was telling the truth since his men had already discovered the grave, "So if you're an agent, YOU tell me the names of the other informants!"
Amanda's eyes begged him not to, but Lee wasn't looking her way.
"I would tell you if I could," Lee stated convincingly, "but Mrs. King was the one who drove to the locations and did the identifications. I was not involved. I stayed obediently in the vehicle," he confessed, giving her a look before continuing, "And as always, she refused to tell me ANYTHING, claiming this was her mission and she wanted to get the glory all for herself! That's how competitive she is!"
"What?" Amanda looked confused, but then quickly recovered to play her role, "I mean...I am NOT competitive!"
"Yes, you are!" Lee argued, "Don't you remember how we laughed, all the time, about how competitive you are?"
"I do remember that and I also recall that I had laughed longer and harder than you!" Amanda insisted.
"You see what I mean?" Lee whined as he looked at Hector, "Competitive!"
"I'm getting a headache from all this!" Hector complained, looking at the two of them, "And I'm tired of these games! I have a way of making you talk, Mrs. King, and it's much more painful than a gunshot!"
Lee narrowed his eyes and growled, "You touch one hair on her head and that will be the last day you breathed!" he promised.
Hector laughed, "All talk, no action, Amigo." He then instructed Alvaro to gag Lee. Fernandez had no choice but to remove a dirty handkerchief from his pocket. He placed it over Lee's mouth as Lee vehemently protested.
"Mmffffff..." Lee struggled against the tied handkerchief as Fernandez mumbled his apologies.
Then Hector walked over, bent down, and purposely spoke into Amanda's ear, although everyone in the room could hear him.
"Agent Lady-" he began.
"-actually I'm not really an agent...not yet, at least," Amanda corrected him, "I'm more like a trainee who-"
"-Whatever! Just...stop your yapping, or I'll forget about you revealing the names and shoot you now!" Hector yelled back in frustration.
Amanda stared straight ahead.
"You like talking, Mrs. King?" he asked in a smug tone, "I have something that will make you talk all the way to Sunday! It's called a cattle prod."
He smiled maliciously when Amanda's eyes showed fear, "I see you have heard of that tool! But it's not ANY cattle prod I use, oh no! You see, I have modified it so that it delivers a continuous strong current," he promised as he jabbed his fist on her side to simulate where the prod would go as she winced and tried to shift her body away, "and when you get zapped with it, your whole body will be twitching with agony, over and over again. Every nerve will feel pain after pain, one hundred times over, and it will seem like it'll never stop."
Amanda looked down on the floor and shakily stated, "I told you. I don't remember their names."
"Then you're in for quite an agony, Mrs. King, because your body will continue convulsing, even after I have stopped the torture. And if you continue not to talk, your insides will eventually melt into a gooey liquid, as you scream out in pure torment. And soon after that, your screaming will subside as well, since your throat will have completely disintegrated. Do you understand what I have in store for you, Mrs. King?"
Amanda turned away, not wanting to hear anymore.
And as Hector watched her reaction to the horrid imagery, he smiled triumphantly.
"Mmffffff! Mmffffff!" was all Lee could say.
#
Back at the Agency, Billy was getting worried.
The last time he heard from Amanda was after she had visited the town of Nexco to identify Informant #3. She was about to head out to the town of Mayorita, and if that identification #4 went well, she informed him that she would be traveling to the city of Reymosa for identification #5.
At least he could take comfort that Lee was now traveling with her,
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Any recent news on Lee and Amanda?" Francine anxiously asked him as she stepped inside and shut the office door behind her.
"Not a word since the last time. Sorry."
"Welllll, I have a bit of good news," Francine stated, as she sat, "I just checked with the tech boys and according to Amanda's tracker, they seemed to have arrived at the town of Reymosa, which is their final identification. So that's good news, right?"
The scowl didn't disappear from Billy's face, "I wish it were so, but I'm not so sure."
"Why would you say that?"
"I'm wondering what had taken them so long to reach the town. Did they have trouble at the 4th destination?"
"There does seem to be a bit of a lag," Francine agreed, as she reached over and handed Billy a file, with graphics and a map included, "according to the tracker, Lee and Amanda got stuck somewhere in the Sierra de Soconusco mountains on their way to Reymosa. Somehow, they must have realized their mistake and turned back around and eventually headed over in the right direction."
"Sierra de Soconusco mountains?" Billy repeated, looking unsure, as he viewed the graphics and then the map that was enclosed in the file, "why would they go all the way over there? It's like making a big loop around! Why hadn't they gone directly from destination #4 to #5?"
Francine shrugged, "Beats me. But at least we know they made it to the fifth destination."
"-but, soon, we won't know more than that," he sighed, "That delayed mountain trip they took cost precious time. Amanda's tracker is about to go dim on us."
Francine looked alarmed, "You mean the tracker won't be working for much longer?"
Billy nodded, "'Fraid so. The tracker will be operational for perhaps one more day; a day and a half, at most."
Francine defeatedly sat back in the chair, "And then we won't know where they are or what happened to them!"
Billy looked glum, "It's a possibility."
"Can't we do something to help them?" Francine rhetorically asked.
"Short of sending them help, I don't know what else we can do. I don't want to risk sending out additional agents if the tracker goes blank," Billy murmured, deep in thought, as he tapped his pencil on the desk.
The room was quiet except for the precise thrumming of the pencil.
When suddenly, the tapping stopped.
And a smile appeared on Billy's face.
"Billy?" Francine questioned him, then smirked, "You've got a plan, don't you? Are you planning to send them some help, after all?"
The smile was still on his face as he slowly nodded, "Yes! In fact, I'm planning on sending them the best we have!"
Francine had never seen him look so excited.
Quickly opening the center long drawer of his desk, Billy rifled through the items until he found the key he needed. Then with the key in hand, he reached down and unlocked the bottom drawer of his desk.
Francine tried to look over his desk to see what he was getting out, "What have you got down there, Billy? A hundred -year -old bottle of Scotch? Wads of money? A magic wand?"
"Something even better," Billy answered, as he reached in and brought up a stack of passports, "I think it's time I find out what the hell is happening with my agents in Mexico!"
He busily began going through the pile of tiny green booklets.
She looked incredulously at him, "You aren't actually planning on going down to Mexico yourself, are you?"
"Why not?" Billy rhetorically asked, tossing another passport aside to look at another, "I have some vacation time coming and I heard Mexico is lovely this time year!"
He continued rummaging through the stack until he found the passport he was looking for, "...A-ha! Here it is! My favorite cover: William Rosemel, IFF's top writer!" he looked pleased and then over to Francine, "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"In the mood for some travel and intrigue?"
Francine had the biggest grin on her face as she immediately made up her mind, "I will be, just as soon as I retrieve my IFF camera-person's passport and dust off my suitcase!"
.
.
Please review