“You’re Mr. Ortiz, right?” Noah asked, still grinning. “I hear tell you might be somebody I want to do some business with.”
Pablo grinned back. “And do you have money, with which to do this business?”
“I think I’ve got enough. All depends on what I’m buying, right?”
Pablo shrugged and stuck out his bottom lip. “What is it you are looking to buy?” Pablo asked. “There could be many things which I might wish to sell, and many things which I may not.”
Noah twirled Felicita before he answered, and let her dance away a short distance. “I’m looking for a couple of things,” he said. “I need cocaine, but if you don’t have the quantities I’m looking for, then I can also use heroin.”
Pablo burst out laughing. “Are you serious? These are not things in which I trade,” he said, “but I can help you to obtain them. However, the people I know will not be interested in selling small volumes. If you are thinking of less than seven figures, then perhaps you should go home.”
Noah smiled. “I think we’re on the same page,” he said. “I can handle those numbers. How soon can we put something together?”
Pablo shrugged, then looked over at Eduardo. “Nephew,” he called out. “Call Esteban, tell him to come down here. Tell him there is a man here who would like to do some business with him.”
Eduardo nodded, and picked up the telephone, but he was kicking himself mentally. He had known all along that John was a drug buyer, and had even toyed with the idea of making an introduction to Esteban, himself. If he had done so, he might very well have received a handsome finder’s fee for making the connection. Now, his uncle would get any reward, and he would be lucky to get a decent tip on the bar tab.
Still, he made the call. It was never wise to fail to do what Tio Pablo told you to do.
Noah and Felicita were invited to Pablo’s table, and a couple of the men pulled another table up to the first so that they could all sit together. Pablo had Noah sitting to his left, and leaned over so that he could talk to him quietly.
“So, please, tell me,” he said, “is it only for the drugs that you come to Juarez?”
Noah smiled down at the small girl beside him. “That was what brought me here,” he said, “but it’s not the only reason I stay. This little Mexican beauty might be part of that, but there are other things that I’m interested in, as well. I’m just not sure where to look for them.”
Pablo’s eyebrows went up a quarter inch. “And what might be these things that you are looking for? Perhaps I may know where to find them.”
Noah looked into his eyes, and his smile started to fade. He forced it back into place a moment later. “I’ve heard stories about you,” he said. “There are rumors floating around that you can get anything at all. Up until lately, I thought that meant in the way of drugs, but now…” He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “What would you say if someone asked you if you knew where to acquire something very special, but very, very dangerous?”
Pablo smiled, and everyone at the table, except Noah, recognized the smile as the most dangerous one he ever used. It generally meant that someone was soon to die.
“I would say that there are some questions that should be asked very softly,” he said. “But, if I am asked in the right way, then it is likely that I would be able to say yes.”
Noah sat there and looked at him for just a moment, never letting the smile slip for a second. “I don’t know how to ask softly,” he said, “so I’ll just ask bluntly. I have a client who is interested in obtaining the necessary materials for making a small nuclear device. Would you be able to put me in touch with a source of such materials?”
Pablo Ortiz stared at Noah for a long moment, keeping his own smile firmly in place. At last, he licked his lips. “You ask a very dangerous question,” he said. “How am I to know that you are not an American federale? An American agent, sent here to try to entrap me?”