Ch 2, Snowblow

Pote really liked the grand pool at their Madagascar resort, especially when he could do laps undisturbed by others early in the morning and when his lungs didn't want to choke him. He was very proud to have tossed smoking out the window a year ago. The recollections of hardly being able to swim in the lake where Kelly Anne had been submerged in the water after they car having been run off the road, still made the hairs on his neck stand up.

Just then he realized that someone was standing over the pool edge waiting for him to get to the end of the lane. Then came Kelly Anne's voice: "I reviewed all loading manifests last night as you started snoring and I couldn't fall asleep!"

Pote brushed the water off his face, mumbled an apology and then gestured for her to go on.

"The liquor and the food deliveries all tie…whatever is happening is not in the restaurants." Kelly Anne had squatted by the poolside and now got up impatiently: "When are you going to be out of here? I want us to visit the expansion construction site."

"Isn't James there with Alina, the lawyer?" Pote said surly. They had come on the same flight yesterday, but James had run off to the office to a meeting with that Alina and had left them at the hotel. Kelly Anne, who hated to sit tight when something was bugging her, had made calls and written emails, until finally a clerk had appeared with a stack of loading manifests and a bottle of champagne, complements of the hotel operations manager. Pote had enjoyed the alcohol alone as Kelly Anne avoided drinking unless it was a special occasion. Sacrificing one of her kidneys to get James out of prison had had some positive consequences! Pote thought and smiled secretly.

An hour later they parked at the dusty improvised parking lot next to the construction site to be informed that Mr. Valdez and Ms. Alina Alicante had gone to brunch where they'd review the contact that was to be signed this afternoon. No surprises there! Pote thought grimly as Kelly Anne kept talking about going to the storage facility alone to check the newly arrived material: from cement bags and brick pallets to construction steel beams. He pushed the thought of James and the lawyer out of his head as it kept giving him nasty premonitions.

"I myself don't understand much about construction…as it was always James who dealt with things…", Pote was saying as she interrupted him: "I was the one ordering things for James when Teresa was preggo…I know what I'm looking for! Come with me…Let's get the documents of the most recent order and look around!" and off she went in her low heel loafers, worn exactly for the occasion.

They had walked around for more than half hour after having received the loading documents from the clerk on shift, the only person manning the facility. They had been informed that all four cement trucks had been loaded very early in the morning and had left, while all other construction workers had been called on site.

Kelly Anne was dressed down but even that could not stop her from making faces as the dust and the dirt settled on their clothes and their hair. She kept brushing her jacket with her hands as she finally pulled short and said: "I don't get it. The discrepancy I showed you was only about 100 kgs in that last delivery. It's not a lot for this shitload of cement…but still…and there's a delivery every week…so it's 400kg!"

"Let's see behind the panel where the glass is stored!" Pote said and started walking. "I don't get why they'd order glass panels when the building has one floor ready only! This only keeps our money tied!"

The glass panels were over 50 and made the walking around them tricky, but Pote kept squeezing as he was certain there was a pallet offloaded in the back. Kelly Anne made disgruntled noises behind him but kept following.

"I was right!' Pote exclaimed as he finally made it and stood in front of a pallet in a dirty white cover.

"What is this?" Kelly Anne touched it and upon inspection of her hand, realized the cover was clean and soft.

"I dunno…One way to find out!" Pote grumbled and before she could respond, he had taken out his pocketknife and was making a cut in the cover with an expert hand. "Puta madre! It better not be what I think! Carajo!"

As his curses kept coming out in a whisper, he pulled out a pack that looked very much like a brick of coke and cut through it.

They both stared dumbfounded at the snow-white powder as it fell off the knife blade to the floor.

Carlos Bustamante twisted his moustache and smiled at his reflection in the mirror just as there was a knock on the door and he yelled 'adelante'.

Alina Alicante opened the door in the next second and he thought she had had no intention of waiting for his response. They had been working together now for a year and he had been very eager to employ her cunning personality once she had been recommended, but it seemed that after he had placed her with the Swiss bank, she had started behaving like a friend and not like an employee around him. And Carlos believed in hierarchy and order.

As she spotted the moustache she made a curious face.

"You like it?" He turned full face to her.

"Hmm…Let's say it's interesting!" She smiled. "You didn't tell me on the phone that you have taken steps to …ahh…look more like him!"

"I have decided to speed up the plan." Carlos sat at his desk and started pulling out documents that needed to be reviewed by her as the bank's lawyer.

As Alina sat across from him and kept silent, he went on: "I will sow discord on all levels in his immediate and extended family to throw him ..and all of them for that matter….off their game. When they have issues, they won't be looking for the product, and we need to make several deliveries to ensure our Shanghai friends trust us."

Alina adjusted her hair, bit her red lips and asked: "What's my part in this advanced plan?"

"I have you continuing your work…on Valdez…do whatever you want to him…with him…I don't care…but make him make Mendoza suffer…suffer badly! Got it?" Carlos' voice was a level up as every time he spoke about his 'plan' he got angry.

"I won't mind getting in the sack with this one…He looks like he's worth it!" Alina had smiled her most seductive smile and was making googly eyes at him.

"Knock yourself out! And so that you know your sleazy tricks don't work on me…" Carlos looked the other way with a face that showed disgust.

Alina also made a face and said with a serious tone: "That's because you have allowed your hatred to get the better of you! You're obsessed and …can't feel a positive emotion!"

"Don't judge me!" Carlos' eyes flickered at her.

"I'm not!" she raised her voice too. "I care that you are allowing the past to continue hurting you!"

"Well…you should stop caring!" he got up and nervously walked to the window. Then said with his back to her: "I hate him for leaving my mother pregnant…and I don't care if he knew or not…He married her and should not have left her to work for Vargas…And then when I was a teen Vargas's sicarios killed my abuelo and mi mama…He was with the United cartel still…I hate his guts!"

Alina slowly walked to him, stood by him and squeezed his arm: "I know…you've told me. But they got killed because they were working for the Jimenez cartel and Vargas was at war with them! And your father most likely does not know you exist!"

"Doesn't matter!" Carlos looked at her sideways: "Because of him and because of Vargas, I have been alone since I was a teen…And it was Javier Jimenez and later Boaz Jimenez who took me in and made me a man…and he…this pendejo who made me…and Mendoza killed them both! I hate their guts and they're paying for it all!"

Alina squeezed his shoulder again: "You have sisters. One of them is very young…You're going to be hurting innocents…"

"Since when do you care about innocents?" Carlos really looked annoyed. "I have planned to have the older one hooked up on the blow…to make her more pliable when time comes for her to act….And to make you happy…I will leave the younger one out of the plan for now. How's that?" he snarled.

"Better!" Aline walked back to the chair and sat down taking the file of documents that were there for her review.

She lifted her head in surprise when he said: "There's one more culprit who I have included in the plan. The last Jimenez 'El Tiburon" was hung from a bridge some years ago when the Fioto cartel destroyed the Jimenez Cartel to take over its territory and to kick the Chinese out of Mexico. She, pinche puta… is on my list too. I just have to make her show her face out of her precious hideout in Medellin!"