A voice that was born south of the border and sounded like every bordello and back alley in the world said, “Then you won’t do it. That’s too much money.” The voice paused. “Hombre, do you think I’m that rich? I don’t have money like that, and I can’t get it. This operation won’t produce it. Cut your price in half and we have a deal.”
“Three quarters of a million.”
“Bastardo. Hijo di Puta.” The words carried no anger or belligerence. In fact, they were good natured. “Bien. Done. But you bear all responsibility for delivery. If it fails, you must make good.”
“Done for me as well. Let’s go upstairs to the map room. I’ll show you how the deliveries will be made.”
Emily froze. She heard footsteps coming from the room. Her glance at the door on the other side of the room told her she couldn’t get to it without being caught. She stayed where she was.
The door next to her opened all the way. She was on the fortunate side of the door. It opened in front of her, hiding her from the two men.
Reynard and Ernesto walked through the room. She saw Reynard’s head twitch and a hesitation in his stride, but he kept going. She remembered her perfume.
After they went through the door, Emily took her shoes off. She knew another way upstairs and a means of getting close enough to the map room to hear.
She bound out of the room, turned to her right and ran up four flights of stairs. She slipped into a room next to the map room. She saw immediately that the walls were too thick to hear anything and there were no doors connecting to the other room.
She stepped to the window and opened it.
She looked down and the scene swirled before her eyes. She moaned, “Why did it have to be heights? I hate heights.”
The ledge along the side of the building was only a foot wide. She stepped out into thin air. The view was delightful. She could see all the way to the ocean. She could also see every foot of every floor directly below her. She inched along the ledge, being careful not to step in the bird droppings littering the ledge.
Inside the room, Reynard drew a faint line on a map from Los Angeles down the coast of Mexico to Columbia, out to the Caribbean then back . “We pick up the product in Colombia and make stops in the Bahamas, Bimini then back through the canal and up to these Mexican cities. This is the biggest cargo I have ever heard of. Seventeen tons of heroin. The danger is extreme.”
“Yet, you will do it, will you not?”
“Yes. For that amount of money, I will.”
Emily inched along the wall outside in the open air. The window in the map room was closed. She had to get right next to it to hear.
The wind came up suddenly and blew against her from the side. She leaned and tried to recover. Unfortunately, her flailing arm struck the side of the building and pushed her out into space.
She didn’t hear the window open. She felt a hand grab her arm and rescue her.
Reynard pulled her into the room. “What have we here?”
She looked at his face. It wasn’t the face of the man she loved. It was hard and cold.
He said, “A spy from the police.”
Ernesto said, “Who is she, my friend?”
“My curator.” He ran his hands over her body starting with her neck. “Are you hiding any listening devices or guns, my little girl?” He pressed his hands around and under her breasts then down her chest. She felt him touch the gun in its holster and move on. He was sliding his hands down her hips and legs when he stopped.
Emily had been looking out the window at freedom and safety. When his hands stopped, she looked down. Ernesto held his own gun at the back of Reynard’s neck.
Ernesto said, “My friend, I am not so easily fooled. You agreed to a price far too low to be of any value and agreed to replace the cargo if it were lost. You weren’t going to make that trip were you. You work for the police. Both of you.” He pulled a phone from his back pocket and pressed a number. He said into the phone, “It is as I feared, Raoul. It is a police trap. Bring the car up to the front. I will lead my two captives out to the curb. I may have to kill the others in the house. Don’t worry if you hear loud noises.” He closed the connection and gestured with his pistol. “Up. You will walk ahead of me.”
Reynard got to his feet. He looked at Emily with profound regret. “I’m sorry about this.”
“It’s not your fault.”
Ernesto’s voice interrupted them. “Stop. I am not an idiot. You searched the woman. I don’t trust you. Get on your knees.”