Lex talionis
Chapter 15. On the hunt
Adriana left the Safi building parking in her electric car, the beige SUV followed Adriana, and Darío followed the SUV at a distance.
It did not seem like Adriana was driving as if she want to lose her pursuers, or even aware of them; not like she was in a hurry either. After five minutes of driving, Adriana parked and walked leisurely a few dozen yards to enter what appeared to be an exclusive beauty salon. The SUV pulled up to the curb across the street. Darío stayed at the next corner.
"Well, she's not scared. Not if her reaction is to get a mani-pedi," Darío, puzzled. "I didn't expect this... Do you have a hat lying around?"
Jubal chuckled, but then became serious. "This doesn't add up to me," he mumbled.
Neither did to Isobel. Was this woman so clueless? In any case, it was strange for her to go there in the middle of working hours...
"Besides, I don't get it. Why haven't they tried already to capture her to get the information out of her?" Darío wondered, gesturing toward the SUV. Not that I wish that to her," he clarified.
"Assuming that's the case, Adriana Fresneda would have gone to a lot of trouble to make us all think that her sister and nephew were dead and that no one look for them," Jubal stated from the back seat. "I don't think she would give away where they were easily."
"That's true," agreed Darío.
"I think they've come to the same conclusion," Jubal added. "That's why they're just following her, to see if she makes the mistake of going where they are. Just like us."
And he was left ruminating on what the hell they were going to do to get rid of Juarez's thugs if Adriana finally led them to Sofia and Carlos...
In the passenger seat, Isobel had been making a suspicious expression. "Wait a minute..." she said, and suddenly leant forward, looking around the corner. "Darío, go to the back of the building, quick."
"What?"
"Trust me. Come on, come on," she urged him, patting the back of his seat.
Darío heeded her and turned the corner to the right, went around the entire flank of the block, and turned again at the next one. They entered a narrow alley that had several dumpsters.
"Park behind there. Turn off the engine," Isobel instructed.
"What's going on? Have the Juárez guys busted us?" Darío asked worried, looking in the rear-view mirrors.
Isobel was scrutinizing closely the entire alley. "No. Wait. Anytime now..."
Only a few seconds later, one of the back doors of the building then opened, giving way to Adriana. Tight pants and a leather jacket had replaced her tailored suit; she wore her hair up. She immediately put on a motorcycle helmet with dark glass that covered her entire head. Striding over, she hopped onto a high-powered motorcycle that was parked there, put it in gear and sped out of the alley.
Darío followed her as covertly as he could. "How did you know?" asked Jubal, genuinely impressed.
"I knew the trick," Isobel explained. "One of the white supremacist bosses in Alabama used it a lot to give us the slip. Only he used a pub. The guy would leave us watching the door while he went out the back to do all kinds of illegal activities.
Upon reaching the main avenue, Adriana turned left to avoid passing the SVU that was following her. Darío mimicked her, but he stayed wisely behind, moving into a different lane.
Adriana turned a corner, then another, first to the right and then to the left. She feigned to enter a larger avenue, but then continued straight ahead. Darío did not let that give him away and continued driving without making any sudden changes, so as not to attract her attention.
For a long while, Darío followed her with extraordinary skill and dissimulation. Jubal had to hand it to him, because it was not easy at all to follow a motorcycle that could maneuver through traffic.
Unfortunately, she wandered into a narrow, empty street. As soon as Darío entered it, they saw Adriana turn her head looking back. "I think she got us," he lamented.
He continued in her wake, anyway. Adriana then took a busy street and sped up immediately. Darío let out a curse word. He stepped on the gas, driving rather boldly, forcing the gaps between the other vehicles with accelerations and swerves. Jubal was holding to the handle over the window to keep from being thrown around. Isobel was doing the same; another hand also pressed hard against the dashboard.
In a show of recklessness, Adriana slipped in the narrow space between a station wagon and a delivery truck, barely dodging the mirrors.
"She's getting away!" exclaimed Isobel.
Darío had to brake to avoid smash into them, but he did not give up. He pulled sharply into the oncoming lane, forcing the oncoming cars to move to the right lane so as not to collide head-on. They avoided several of them but then they confronted a huge bus. To the horror of Darío's passengers, Darío then accelerated even more, and with this, he managed to squeeze into a tight space to his right at the last moment, again in the correct direction of travel. The bus horn whizzed past him at full speed, blaring resoundingly.
The maneuver had made their hair stand on end, but with it, Darío had almost reached Adriana.
When she saw their car again right there, seemed to panic. With a sudden turn, deliberately or not, she turned into a one-way street, jammed by a red light. Darío managed to make the curve, the tires screeching against the asphalt, but in the meantime, Adriana took the opportunity to slip through the stopped cars and reach the intersection. And they were left behind because Darío could go no further. After a second's hesitation, Adriana jumped the traffic light by veering to the left, causing several braking and horn honks, and was lost from sight.
Isobel hit the dashboard with the heel of her hand.
"¡Maldición!"
Darío put the car in reverse and accelerated to back up, but he was already behind another car, whose driver was seen clearly making a startled face until Darío slammed on the brakes.
"Hija de la-]" Darío cursed. "I'm sorry..."
"[It's not your fault]," Isobel tried to comfort him. "She was already aware that the SUV was following her. She was exceptionally alert."
Yet Darío seemed very displeased with himself.
"Don't you guys be upset," said Jubal, "I have the license plate number. Darío, with it would you be able to access the Traffic Department and get me the manufacturer's serial number?"
Isobel and Darío turned to look at him.
"And what do you plan to do with that?-asked Isobel, frankly intrigued.
"I have an idea," Jubal declared with a somewhat roguish smile that produced an effervescence within her.
With an unconvinced gesture, Darío looked for a free spot and parked; he pulled out his laptop.
While getting the serial number, Jubal called Kristen. "Hello. If I give you the make, model and serial number of a motorcycle, could you get the location of its GPS?"
"In ten minutes," Kristen replied without a moment's hesitation.
"And without the resources of the FBI...?"
This time there was a pause. "Give me 1 hour."
That made Jubal smile, pleased. Kristen was one of the most reliable resources he'd ever had. He provided her with the necessary data before hanging up.
But, when he raised his head again, he suddenly found the beginnings of fury on Isobel's face. A sour silence curdled inside the car.
"Was that Ian?" she asked through clenched teeth.
Darío looked at her, alert, as if ready to hold her. Jubal swallowed hard. "Kristen," he admitted flatly.
Fire erupted from Isobel's black eyes. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead on the spot.
·~·~·
She decided to wait for Kristen's answer, but Isobel did not comment further.
In the meantime, they walked to a small square nearby and bought something to eat at a street stall, sitting at one of the picnic tables nearby. To Jubal's uneasiness, Isobel remained silent and frowning, without even looking at him. He feared she stopped speaking to him for good. They ate in silence.
"So, Darío, have you always been an agent of the GN?" Jubal asked, trying to start a small talk because he didn't want to admit Isobel's anger.
He couldn't help but feel annoyed. Jubal understood that she didn't like that he had done things behind her back, he hated to do it himself, but… couldn't Isobel see past it?
"Yes, since I finished college. Well, before that, it was the Federal Police, and I've gone through several lower ranks, of course. My goodness, more than fifteen years ago now... And you?"
"Similar, but I've been in the bureau for more than twenty years-"
"So you're in contact with Kristen?" Isobel suddenly interrupted Jubal dryly.
He sighed heavily and decided to come clean. "Yes. She, Elise, Kelly and Hobbs... they..." Jubal confessed, running his hand over the back of his head guiltily much to his chagrin. "They helped me with the investigation last night."
Isobel's face turned to stone, but her eyes flared again. She looked through him as if he was not there. "I told you I didn't want to implicate anyone," she stated in a rasping voice that made Jubal want to grovel for forgiveness.
Anyway, before he could say anything, Isobel stood up, leaving what was left of her food, and walked a few steps away, as if she couldn't bear to have him near. Jubal would have found it hard to describe the stabbing that provoked in him. He went to follow her, but Darío stopped him.
"Give her a moment," he advised.
Jubal reluctantly complied. "It's always the same. Why doesn't she ever let anyone help her...?" he wondered, exasperated.
"Tell me about it," Darío replied.
"Tell you? She trusted you," Jubal complained, sounding just bitter. "It is to you who she turned to in the first place." He was embarrassed about it, but it still stung that Isobel had not resorted to him from the beginning.
"Ha," Darío then said without a trace of humor, "All these years have gone by since she saved my ass without letting me ever help her in any way. Ever. It's just that she literally saved my life, you know?" He added, really hurt. "I'd do anything for Isobel," he declared vehemently. But… nothing. Until now. She must have felt really desperate..." he reflected, dismayed.
That meant it was not personal, but it still clawed inside Jubal even more. That even under the most extreme circumstances would she have wanted to count on him... Jubal realized he was angry. He stood up to go talk to her.
He could not find enough calm to do it, his mind was in turmoil, and it made him hesitate.
No. It was not new for Isobel to have trust issues. Jubal remembered that last night he had realized that it wasn't that she hadn't wanted to come to him and the team, but that she was trying to protect them. The anger inside Jubal began to dissipate.
He walked over to where Isobel was standing. She did not acknowledge his presence, as she tried to control her heavy breathing.
"I gave them only the essential information," Jubal clarified as if the conversation was not even interrupted, in a soothing tone. I only asked them to help me find out who the owner of Purple Castle Inc. was.
Isobel slowly turned her face towards him, her aloofness replaced by an openly angry look. For a moment, Jubal thought it would almost have been better if she had continued to ignore him.
"And do you really think they won't be able to rebuild everything from there?" Her cold voice contrasted with the fire in her eyes.
Chewing on his frustration, Jubal held her gaze. "May be. But we needed the help," he said firmly.
Isobel studied his face. Jubal's demeanor showed no boastfulness, but there was no regret either. "Now they will have to lie to the ADIC for us," she began to argue more heatedly without being able to help it. "Vargas will go after them. The risks do not pay off-"
Jubal could not control himself and cut her off. "We are doing this to stop Vargas. I've weighed the risks," he assured her with conviction. His pained tone rose in volume. "Why do you still not trust my judgment?"
Struggling not to lose her composure, Isobel exhaled sharply through her nose and faced him fully. "Because just yesterday," her voice was rising too, "you told me we were in this together, and the first thing you've done," she controlled her tone suddenly, but that only made it sharper, "is to do things on your own."
That left Jubal speechless. Meanwhile, the disappointment in Isobel's eyes ripped through him like a tornado.
She turned around and strode back to the car.
·~·~·
Darío and Jubal joined her shortly thereafter.
With the intention of having another talk with Adriana, they returned to the beauty salon. They were hoping that she would come back. They parked far away from the beige SUV, which was still posted there.
The rest of the wait passed amidst an insufferable silence. Jubal looked desolate in a barely contained way. Darío had asked him in a low voice, but had only elicited a shake of his head. For her part, Isobel seemed simply too angry to speak.
About half an hour later, just as Jubal was beginning to feel anxious about the long time was taking, he received a location on his phone, along with a text from Kristen: "Sorry for the delay, I had to ask Ian for a little help. The bike was parked there for twenty minutes. And right now it's on its way back to Monterrey." Jubal replied with a brief but effusive, "You guys are amazing."
They looked it up on the internet. The location was about fifty miles southeast of Monterrey, on what appeared to be an inaccessible country state near the small town of Agua Dulce in the Municipality of Montemorelos. Not a bad place to hide someone.
A while later, Adriana walked out the front door of the salon, back in her office attire and heels. She got into her car and drove off. But then the driver of the beige SUV waved out the window and another black SUV followed her first, before the beige one joined the motorcade.
Darío hesitated. "With this escort, it seems difficult to follow her and make contact without attracting attention," he observed.
Isobel, frustrated, had to agree with him. That last half hour of waiting for nothing...
"Maybe it's time to take a look at that estate," said Jubal.
~.~.~.~