Blood of the Assassin

CHAPTER 29





When Briones entered the command center at seven-fifty, Cruz let him get settled and deal with his stack of inbound reports and messages before calling him into his office and pouring him a cup of coffee. Briones looked as though he’d gotten about as much sleep as Cruz, which didn’t bode well – this investigation would be a marathon, not a sprint, and it wouldn’t do to have everyone exhausted by the time the big day arrived.

Cruz told him about the call and the conclusions he’d come to, and Briones was visibly shaken and furious.

“The penalty for selling out your colleagues should be death. Especially if the information leads to disastrous consequences, like yesterday. It’s a straightforward transaction – they’re being paid to furnish data that results in you or your loved ones being killed. I say an eye for eye,” Briones seethed.

“I appreciate the sentiment, and I don’t disagree, but none of that will help right now. I can’t trust anyone. That was made abundantly clear, and was actually smart of them. If I’m isolated, then I’ll be less effective. They know their psychology.”

“So what are you going to do? We obviously can’t just sit around and twiddle our thumbs while an investigation that we both know is going to go nowhere meanders with no results, sir.”

“I haven’t figured that out yet. But I wanted to enlist your support. You’re the only one I completely trust. The others...I mean, I trust them, but not with Dinah’s life. We have a leak. Multiple leaks. And I can’t take the chance that one of the men out there isn’t part of the problem. There’s someone on the cartel task force that’s feeding them info – although I question how high up they are. If they were part of the top tier, we wouldn’t have had any success with operations like the meth lab sting. They would have been warned and gotten everything out of there before we had a chance to take it down.”

“It could be someone who is in the command chain, but not privy to the operational decision making...”

“Exactly. But I can’t be a hundred percent sure...and I can’t afford to dilute this team’s focus on stopping the German. That’s still got to be the priority for them. But I need to come up with something better than just sitting around waiting for the next phone call...”

“The only good news in any of this is that we don’t have anything active planned against Los Zetas right now. So it won’t be doing much to play along and claim that you’ve intervened against any raids. You’ll have the benefit of appearing to be doing exactly what they’ve demanded, without actually cooperating.”

“I suppose that’s a bright spot. But I can’t say it’s much of one.”

They sipped thoughtfully on their coffee, and then Cruz turned to business. “What progress have we made on Rauschenbach? Do we have anything?”

Briones took him through the long list of preventive measures that had been put in place, and updated him on the data collection process. The results weren’t reassuring.

“Then we don’t have anything more than we did when we were alerted to this.”

“I’m afraid not, sir. Nothing has come back from immigration, either. He hasn’t entered the country yet, at least not in any traceable way.”

Cruz leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, then out the window at the city’s sprawl. “Oh, he’s here. It’s only a gut feeling, but he’s in the country by now. There’s no way that a professional would leave things to the last minute. And our captive assassination expert, El Rey, agrees. When we were out at the site, he made it abundantly clear that it would take significant planning to pull this off. I believe him.”

Briones looked troubled for a moment, then cleared his throat, his expression turning sheepish. “I’m sorry, sir. I completely forgot. Yesterday, he came by and wanted to see you. You were on the call with headquarters dealing with...with Dinah’s kidnapping, so I didn’t want to interrupt. I told him that he could talk to me, but he wasn’t interested. Said he needed to talk to you because you had been to the site with him. With everything that happened, it just...I’m sorry. It slipped my mind.”

Cruz waved his hand. “That’s understandable. Frankly, I’m not sure I would have been much good yesterday. But did he give you any hint what he wanted?”

“No. He just repeated his contempt for our approach and said he would talk to you, and nobody else. He’s really a complete prick.”

“Yes, he is that. But he’s also very good at what he does.”

“Which is kill people for money.”

“Yes. Or at least that used to be his vocation. Before he turned over his new leaf.”

“Do you believe any of that for even a second?”

“It doesn’t matter what I believe. But for the record, yes; I sense that he’s out of the game. He’s made enough money to last ten lifetimes, and this has afforded him a chance to start fresh without having to look over his shoulder every day. So yes, I think he’s done with the cartels and the killing. I can see it in his eyes.”

“Maybe, but he’s still a killer. And he’s still part of that world, even if he’s switched the sides he’s working for. Now he’s just CISEN’s killer,” Briones spat.

Cruz’s hand stopped with his coffee mug halfway to his lips, his eyes with a faraway look in them, and then he slowly put it back onto the table top and steepled his fingers. Briones was working himself up into another indignant froth, but then hesitated when he saw the expression on his Cruz’s face.

“How did you leave it with him? With El Rey?”

“I...well, I suppose I told him that you would get back in touch with him once you had a free moment...”

“And that was the totality of what you discussed? There was nothing else?”

Briones suddenly found a spot on his boot of considerable interest. “He wanted to know why you were too busy to see him.”

“And?”

“I told him about the attempt on your life.”

“Nothing else?”

Briones looked away. “The kidnapping might have come up.”

“Might have?”

“Now that I think about it, I’m sure I mentioned it, because he was concerned that all of this would render you ineffective – that it would distract you from finding the German. He’s very critical, and felt your mind wouldn’t be fully engaged...”

Cruz rose and began pacing. “Looks like he was right about that. But I wonder...”

“What? You wonder what, sir?”

Cruz slowed and then paused in front of the window, peering out at the surrounding buildings as if seeing them for the first time. “Nothing... Lieutenant, if you don’t mind, I need to make a few calls. Let’s plan on resuming this discussion in an hour.” Cruz sounded suddenly distant.

Briones stood and finished his drink, then placed the cup by the machine. “Of course, sir. In an hour. Are you...going to call El Rey?”

“Among others. Now, not a word to anyone. Remember that everything we’ve discussed has to stay in this room.”

“I understand. It’s between you and me, sir. I get it.”

“Very good. Please close the door behind you.”

Briones did as instructed, and then walked slowly to his desk. He knew his superior well enough to know that something was brewing. But he wasn’t thinking clearly if it would in any way involve the assassin. The irony being that El Rey’s big concern was exactly that – that Cruz would be so preoccupied with his missing wife that it would color his judgment.

Whatever he was considering, Cruz had Briones’ sympathy. That he was functioning at all in light of the kidnapping was a kind of small miracle and a tribute to the captain’s fortitude. Briones knew and liked Dinah, and her being stolen from Cruz in that manner by the cartel, especially in light of what had happened with his family years before, the horror that had become a cautionary legend for its viciousness and cruelty...

It was too horrible to contemplate.