Ballistic(112)

“No!”

Court hesitated. “Will you try to mind your manners?”

“No! I mean, yes! Yes!”

“Okay, stop the bleeding. You’ll be okay.” Gentry stood slowly on shaky legs, crossed the room to a shelf, and grabbed a towel and a roll of electrical tape, threw them both to the man who, in his writhing on the floor, missed it and had to scramble after it on his elbows, screaming and crying and cussing all along.

Court slid the tactical pants onto his naked body slowly, still dazed and slowed by the electric shocks. Hanley pulled an undershirt off another guard and handed it over.

In another minute they were heading up the stairs.

They made it to the front of the warehouse; it was eight o’clock in the evening, and they encountered no one else on the property other than some dogs fenced in a long kennel. DLR was long gone by now, Court knew, and with him Laura Gamboa. Looking around briefly, he saw barrels of acid lined up against the wall. In the top of the liquid human hair floated. The only remnants of the former guests of this death house.

He and Pfleger staggered out the door together while Hanley hotwired a car in the street. Within minutes they drove out of the neighborhood in a stolen Ford station wagon. Hanley was at the wheel; Court’s continued muscle spasms prevented him from driving. Pfleger was in the trunk; Court had used the rest of the electrical tape to bind Pfleger hands behind his back. As they approached a busy intersection, Matt scanned the street signs. He said, “Okay, I know where we are. Tepito. Bad part of town, but not too far from civilization.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’ll find a place to talk in a minute. Then you can take the car. I’ll catch a cab to the embassy. DLR’s men are going to learn about what happened if they don’t already know. You don’t want to stick around the capital for long.”

They drove in silence for the most part; Jerry’s occasional groans and cusses in the trunk were audible but muffled. Gentry worked on getting control of his muscles; his arms and legs felt weak and rubbery, his abdominal muscles ached, and his back and neck throbbed in pain. There were electrical burns on his back, his butt, his wrists, and his ankles. He wore pants that were too short and a white T-shirt that was too small. There was just a trace of blood on the collar.

Court’s feet were bare.

He carried the Bersa Thunder .380 semiautomatic pistol with a fresh magazine he’d retrieved from the pants pocket of the dead apprentice torturer. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was small and concealable. As Court’s mind fought for control of his body, he reserved a portion of his thoughts to work on a plan, and that growing and evolving plan would necessitate a low profile. The MP5s and even the big Berettas the federales carried on their hips would just not do.

The Bersa was wimpy, but it was very easy to conceal.

Hanley had retrieved a Beretta for himself just in case they ran into either narcos or street thugs while making their escape.

Court was surprised when Hanley pulled up to a bodega on República de Ecuador and hopped out of the car without a word. He returned in less than a minute with a bottle of tequila in his hand. He pulled back into traffic and jabbed the bottle between his legs, unscrewed the cap, and took a long swig.

He offered it to Gentry.

“No, thanks.”

“It will help your muscle cramps. Take it.”

Court accepted the bottle, took a tentative swig, winced, and then took a longer gulp. He fought down the shot, then passed the bottle back to Hanley. “If you’d picked up a six-pack of Tecate, we could have had a party.”

Matt swigged, laughed, and swigged again. “Nah, booze is efficient. No time for beer, Violator.”

Finally, Hanley pulled the sedan off the road, down a callejón towards the back of a construction site. He found a ramp that led down to a covered parking lot below a hotel that was only half completed. He jumped out to move a pair of orange barrels out of the way, and then he proceeded into the dark lot.

They parked the car, and Gentry popped the trunk so Jerry could get some air. They left a car door open for light and walked around to the back. Pfleger was on his back with his foot propped up. He looked up, terrified, at the two American spies staring down at him in the low light.

“Please don’t kill me. I swear I will do whatever you—”

Hanley took another long pull on the tequila bottle. “Shut up or I’ll shut the trunk.”

Jerry stopped talking.

Hanley took Court by the shoulder, walked him over to the corner of the garage, still within the low glow of the Ford’s interior lights. Together they stood; Court took the bottle and drank some more tequila, hoping like hell it would mute the shakes in his muscles.