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“Listen, just—”
“No.” Smiley looked past Bolan and rolled her eyes as if she couldn’t catch a break. “We got trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Inspector Federal Israel Raymondo Villaluz.”
“Is here.” Bolan gathered.
“Yup.”
“Is he a problem?”
“Well, he did sign over Cuah Nigris to me and Mole. Quite reluctantly, I might add.”
“And we lost Cuah.” Bolan sighed. “Has he spotted you?”
“Not yet.”
Bolan ushered Smiley to the opposite row of beds and pulled the privacy curtain. He peered out the crack between the sheets of fabric. Inspector Villaluz was as tall as Bolan but lankier. He wore gray slacks and a gray suit coat. His dress shirt was starched blinding white and cinched at the throat with a turquoise and silver bola rather than a tie. He carried his Resistol straw cowboy hat in his hand. Pancho Villa himself would have admired the man’s mustache. The five-fingered comb-over crawling across his balding was comical. Bolan made him pushing fifty and definitely old school federale. “Give me the low-down on Villaluz, quick.”
“He’s about as good as Tijuana federales get. I’m not saying he’s clean. Word is he hasn’t paid for a beer or a meal in Tijuana in twenty years, but word is also he isn’t in anyone’s pocket. He’s a ‘peace and quiet or I crack heads’ kind of cop. That’s his problem. He hasn’t kissed his superiors’ asses, and he hasn’t bent over for the cartels. He’ll never rise higher than inspector.”
Bolan watched Villaluz squint around the observation-recovery ward. He was obviously looking for them. There was no tough-guy swagger or bluster about him. He smiled and spoke to a nurse who was clueless as to where Bolan and Smiley had gone. Bolan made Villaluz for a man who was polite until it was time to not be polite, and then relaxed and enjoyed the violence. “You got anything else?”
“He’s also a gunfighter. Real Dirty Harry type. They call him in when things get rough.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Smiley spread her hands. “His nickname on the street is Dos Armas.”
Bolan smiled. “Two Guns?”
“Yup.”
“I think I’d like him.”
“Yeah, well, he isn’t going to like you. After losing three of the Barbacoa Four in custody? The federales put Villaluz and the team he got to pick himself in charge of babysitting Cuah.”
The shit storm was definitely on the horizon. “And then his superiors forced him to hand Cuah over to us.”
“You got it. Still want to meet him?” Smiley asked.
“Definitely.”
“You know I knew you were going to say that.”
Bolan shrugged. He pulled back the privacy curtain and made a show of solicitously examining Agent Smiley’s wound. Within seconds heavy cowboy boots drummed the linoleum toward them and stopped. The soldier turned. Anger passed across Villaluz’s face, but he was looking at Smiley’s wound. Bolan noted that the Mexican agent didn’t like seeing women hurt. Up close he noted the broken nose and scar tissue around the eyebrows that bespoke a former boxer. Villaluz spoke the easy, smoothly accented English of a man who had worked the U.S.-Mexican border all his life.
“Agent Smiley, allow me to express condolences on behalf of myself and the Agencia Federal de Investigación for the loss of your men.”
“Thank you, Inspector.”
The man seemed sincere. He turned sincerely cold as he gave Bolan a hard look. “I have not met your companion. He is with your DEA?”
Smiley threw one out blind. “He’s associated with the Justice Department.”
“Ah.” Villaluz looked Bolan up and down again. “May I ask in what capacity?”
“I was called in to facilitate the transfer of Cuauhtemoc Nigris into U.S. custody,” Bolan said.
A lot of rejoinders clearly occurred to Inspector Villaluz, but he kept it simple. “And?”
Bolan didn’t bat an eye. “I failed.”
It wasn’t the obfuscation Villaluz had expected. “I see.”
“Three of the Barbacoa Four died in Mexican custody,” Bolan continued. “The fourth died in mine. You and I need to talk.”
“Yes, I believe I would like that very much. Agent Smiley, I gather you want to stay close to Agente LeCaesar?”
“At least until some backup arrives. I owe him, and he made enemies tonight.”
“Well, I will tell you, the food for the yanqui visitors in the cafeteria here is bad and the coffee is worse. The staff cafeteria is much better. I know many of the doctors and staff here. I will see about getting us something decent to eat. It is Sunday morning, I suspect they will have menudo.”
They followed the inspector to the elevator and went up four floors. Villaluz spoke a few words to a nurse and took over a medical conference room covered with Aztec murals. Within moments steaming bowls of tripe soup, baskets of tortillas and urns of coffee appeared. Smiley tucked in like a she-hyena with manners. Bolan took her hunger as a good sign. They shared a few moments of quiet save for table noises. Out of pride Villaluz wouldn’t bring even a despised guest to someplace he wouldn’t eat in himself.
Villaluz regarded Bolan with hospitable suspicion. “You like menudo, señor?”
“You have to look for it in the United States, and look just as hard to find a good bowl.”
“Ah.” Villaluz had no problem believing one couldn’t get decent menudo in the United States. “You prefer the broth red or green?”
Villaluz was playing chess. Bolan swiped a tortilla through his soup and wolfed it down. “Clear.”
“Ah.” The inspector nodded at the wisdom of the statement. “Simple is best.”
“Inspector, I’m very concerned that the cartel knew our route.”
“I am very concerned about that, as well.” Villaluz let some reproach creep into his voice. “However, I was not consulted on Señor Nigris’s extradition.”
“I concede the point, and it’s regrettable,” Bolan said. “However, three of the Barbacoa Four died in Mexican federal custody. We only came in after Señor Nigris demanded extradition to the U.S. in exchange for his testimony.”
“Yes.” Villaluz eyed Bolan archly. “You acceded to the request of a known cannibal.”
“Actually it was your Federal Investigation Agency that acceded to his request.”
Villaluz’s face soured. “I concede that point, and I assure you I find it regrettable as well.”
“Inspector, I believe you and I are on the same side.”
“No, actually you are both from the northern side.”
Bolan sighed inwardly as he sought a way to salvage the situation. “You come with a very high reputation, Inspector Villaluz.”
“Thank you.” The inspector accepted the compliment, but it didn’t seem to engender any sense of obligation on his part. “However, I am afraid I do not even know your name.”
Bolan nodded toward Smiley and shook his head. “Neither does she.”
Smiley shrugged helplessly. “It’s true.”
The inspector was momentarily caught off guard.
“But you can call me Cooper,” Bolan said.
“Very well. Let me be direct. I believe you are some sort of yanqui paramilitary, Señor Cooper. A specialist, brought in to help bring in Cuah Nigris alive. But by your own admission you have failed. Your mission is over, and I think it would be best if you filed your after-action report in the United States, or at the CIA station in Mexico City if you must remain within our borders. But I believe you will find that you have worn out your welcome in Tijuana. I think you must be a brave man, and skilled, but my superiors are not pleased with this evening’s activity, and to be honest, neither am I.”
“I can see how you might feel that way, Inspector. So let me be equally frank. An international DEA counternarcotics operation got compromised in the worst way possible. Our informant is dead, and so are eight veteran agents. As far as I’m concerned, my mission has just begun.”
Villaluz’s color began to rise. “Señor Cooper, you—”
Bolan threw his changeup. “However, as I said, you come with a very high reputation, and I realize we took over your operation, over your objections, and we dropped the ball. Fact is you walk heavy on the streets of Tijuana. I’m a yanqui of unknown origin, and you must suspect I have access to assets and resources you don’t, and vice versa. I suggest we pool them.”
Villaluz leaned back in his chair, remeasuring Bolan. “An intriguing offer, but I am not sure my superiors would approve.”
“Then don’t tell them.”
Villaluz blinked.
Bolan pulled out a business card with nothing but a number on it. “They don’t have to know. But if you call that number, you’ll have access to all the resources I can provide toward the case of Cuah, whether I’m removed from the situation or not.”
Villaluz took the card and stared at it warily. “My own…secret Uncle Sam?”
“Something like that.” Bolan nodded. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.” Villaluz tucked the card away. “You may ask.”
“Is my leaving town a suggestion or an order?”
The inspector considered. “It’s a suggestion, for now, but do not expect much in the way of cooperation with the state or local authorities here in Tijuana.”
“Fair enough.”
“Let me say—” Villaluz frowned as his cell rang. “Forgive me.”
Bolan watched the inspector’s face as he took the call. He said very little, and Bolan could tell by Villaluz’s body language it wasn’t good news.
“You need some privacy?”
“No, thank you.” The inspector thanked his caller and clicked his phone shut. “As you know, any good policeman has his own intelligence network.”
“Of course.”
“I, of course, have put my machine into motion listening for any aspect of the Cuah Nigris case.”
Smiley pushed her plate away and stifled a belch with the back of her fist. “Cuah’s dead.”
“Yes, that is true, and now a woman I happen to know in the Tijuana’s fire department dispatch has just informed me a fire has been reported at the city morgue. Does this not strike you as an interesting coincidence, Agent Smiley?”
Smiley pushed away from the table. “Let’s go.”
“No.” Bolan rose and checked the loads in his Beretta. “We’ll never get there in time to do any good.”
Villaluz stood and broke open a heavy, snub-nosed Colt .38. “Your associate is right.”
Bree drew her weapon. “So why are we drawing down, then?”
Bolan pushed his weapon’s selector to 3-round burst mode. “If the bad guys just took care of loose ends in the morgue, then our main concern is keeping Mole alive.”
Villaluz donned his cowboy hat and tipped it at Smiley. “And you, señorita.”
“Oh, well, thanks.” Smiley checked her pistol. “I should have thought of that.”
“It’s the brain damage.” Bolan said.
“Hey!”
“Stay behind us. Stick close.” Bolan nodded at Villaluz. “Inspector?”
“Sí, the observation ward is on the first floor.” Bolan and Villaluz fell into formation as they left the medical conference room. Doctors and nurses scattered to get out of the way of the two large, armed and grim-faced men as they strode down the hall. Smiley had to run to keep pace. “Hey! Wait up!”
A braver than average nurse stepped toward them as they entered neonatology. “Sirs, this area is—”
Villaluz held up his badge. Bolan held up his gun. “Staff elevator, where?”
The nurse gawked and pointed to the door down the corridor. Smiley caught her breath as they reached the elevators and Bolan punched the button. “How likely do you figure?” she asked.
The inspector scowled. “Agent Smiley, there have been two gunfights in Mexican hospitals this year. After what has happened this night nothing would surprise me.” The elevator pinged and they stepped inside the car. Bolan glanced at the Colt Marshall in Villaluz’s hand. “Heard they call you Two Gun on the street.”
The inspector lifted his coat to reveal an identical revolver in a cross-draw holster. “It is faster to draw a second gun than to reload the first. It is perhaps the most important thing my father ever taught me.”
Bolan nodded. Villaluz Senior sounded like a man to be reckoned with.
Villaluz smirked at the machine pistol in Bolan’s hand. “Yanquis and their big guns…”
The elevator door opened to the sound of screaming. Doctors and nurses were running in different directions down the halls. A worst-case scenario came through the wide double doors that led into the observation ward. Six Hispanic males walked in three by three. All six wore trench coats, which were open, revealing body armor. All four men carried submachine guns. For just a second before the doors swung shut, Bolan saw the dead bodies littering the floor, testifying to the fact that civilian casualties weren’t a problem for the enemy. A crowd of doctors and nurses stampeded down the corridor like sheep before a pack of wolves.
“Everybody down!” Bolan roared and fired a 3-round burst into the ceiling.
