McDonald Array - Divide and Conquer

“Mrs Fox?” inquired Sergeant Martinez.

“Yes,” she offered tentatively, conscious of exactly how the door must have looked.

“Would you mind coming with me, Ma’am?”

“Why?”

“Your son!’ said Sergeant Martinez.

Katie Fox’s face fell, fearing the worst.

“No, no, he’s fine. I’m going to take you to him!”

Katie rushed from the house and jumped into the open door of the cruiser. “We just need to pick up Sean, he’s over there,” she said, beaming from ear to ear.

“No problem,” he smiled, shutting the door and hitting the send button on the text message he had already drafted. The smile was a very warm smile, a smile that had just received a cash boost of $50,000 dollars into its pension fund, courtesy of Juan Cortes of the Los Zetas cartel. Sergeant Hector Martinez had survived the last ten years because he knew who had the power and the money. The small house by the beach was listed at $4.5 million, Cancun wasn’t the cheapest place to live but with the money he had made over the last ten years and stashed offshore, it was a steal.

He sprinted out of the empty house just in time to see the taillights of the police cruiser. He rushed across the road, bursting into Katie’s house, almost removing the door from its hinges.

“Katie!” he shouted, over and over. Nothing, the house was empty.

Luis caught up. “What? What’s happened?” he asked panting.

“The reason Juan didn’t answer! He was waiting to hear his guys had snatched Katie!” Sean punched the wall in frustration. “Fuck!” he screamed.

It was almost 3pm, just over two hours until James would be killed. His mother would survive as long as Sean delivered the contacts, not that she’d want to. Sean wasn’t certain but the loss of James might tip her over the edge. He had failed, allowing Juan the extra leverage had put him in the driving seat. He could show how serious he was by carrying out his threat knowing Sean would still deliver in order to save Katie. Otherwise, he may have had to back down and agree to a change of timeline. Katie changed everything. Luis was right, Juan was smart. There was however one thing that Juan hadn’t factored into his little masterplan. Sean!

Sean tightened the strap that held the Ka-Bar knife holster against his thigh. He cocked the MP-5 and chambered a round, just as he had with the Gyurza. Sean had found the Russian pistol surprisingly good and had opted against the Glock.

“Describe the ranch again!” he instructed Luis as he snapped more ammo to his belt. The CIA packs had held enough gear to start a small war, which was just as well as it seemed from Luis’ description it was going to take at least that to pull off the rescue of James.

As Luis eventually finished describing the list of defenses, Sean couldn’t help but feel he should just strip the gear off and forget the whole idea. It seemed El Jefe had covered every angle. That was of course if Sean could even trust what Luis was telling him. Ultimately, Luis was only playing ball with Sean in order to retrieve the drug trade that had dwindled since the untimely demise of Sean’s lookalike. As the contacts that would save his life with his uncle neared, Sean trusted him less, according to the law of diminishing returns. For Luis there was less and less to gain from pleasing Sean and more and more from pleasing El Jefe and now Juan.

“OK, I’ll come in from the South East wall and will have a few seconds as the sentries patrol behind the white Barn. And James is housed in the small outhouse to the West of the White Barn?”

“Correct,” nodded Luis.

“You know what you need to do?” asked Sean.

Luis nodded.

“Say it,” said Sean.

“I am to arrive at the ranch at 4.45 and transport Juan and my uncle to the secret meeting. I am instructed that we have to leave immediately and will receive communications on the way. I have to inform them that we are being monitored and if we try to communicate or alert reinforcements, the meeting is off. I am to tell them these are the dealer’s instructions and not yours. I’ll try and uncover where Katie is and using the code, let you know when you call. We go to the airport and meet the dealers at 6 pm unless you find Katie first and if that’s the case I drive and meet you at alternate B. Plan B, you kill my uncle and Juan and I meet the dealers myself.”

The last part of the plan was all Sean could think that would convince Luis to give his uncle and Juan up. To say he had jumped at the chance would have underplayed his eagerness to be the boss. It would also prevent a void in power, something Iraq and Afghanistan were perfect examples of why you don’t want to leave somewhere leaderless.

“Our chances?” asked Luis confidently.

“To be honest,” he thought out loud, shaking his head. “Not good.”

Luis laughed, which surprised Sean.

“Better than I expected,” he said, explaining his laugh.

Sean remained silent. He had lied. There wasn’t a chance in hell the plan would work.

Sean and Luis synchronized their watches. It had taken them just over an hour to negotiate the tunnel under the Rio, another one of Los Zetas’ supply routes. From there, a short hike to the nearest road and with Luis’ scary contacts, a ride into Nuevo was secured with little effort. Sean kept his head down and the weapons well hidden in their packs. Once they had secured their own ride, Sean had started to kit up in the back.

“Four thirty, in 3, 2, 1, check,”

“Check,” said Luis in time with Sean, having been well trained in time checks over the previous hour.

“Pull over!” ordered Sean. “Right, you’re on your own from here!”

Luis nodded.

“And remember one thing.”

“Yes?” asked Luis, nervously.

“Screw me and I will hunt you for the rest of your very short life. And trust me what your uncle would do to you would pale into insignificance!” smiled Sean and with his pep talk over, he disappeared into the shrubbery at the side of the road. The ranch lay just over a mile away and James’s life was ebbing away.

As the final police crime scene unit pulled out of the drive, Katherine turned and walked back towards the Governor’s office. As she entered the room, she could see he hadn’t moved. Just as he hadn’t over the previous three hours. The glass of whisky she had poured for him, remained grasped in his hand untouched, as he sat in his sofa staring at the empty fireplace. How on earth she was supposed to get him to Moscow in forty-eight hours, God alone knew. He had always been immune to her womanly charms and was the sole reason she had taken Nicole as her lover. If she couldn’t have him, she’d have the only thing that kept him from her. It helped but she had to admit the fact he didn’t want her, made her want him all the more. None of this was helping work out how she would get him to Moscow but with an extremely high sex drive, she was going to need to replace Nicole somehow and soon and discretely. She had to leave the option open for the Governor just in case.

“How are you Rick?” she asked, extracting the glass carefully from his hand.

“I can’t believe it!” He shook his head in despair and a tear trickled down his cheek.

She took him in her arms and sitting on his lap began to rock him gently. She knew Nicole used to do this for him. She had done it for Katherine.

He rocked gently with her and soon the sleep came, just as Nicole had said it would, before joining Katherine for one of their wonderful love making sessions. How Rick had never guessed, she’d never know and with Nicole up for trying a threesome, he had no idea what he had missed out on. But anytime Nicole had broached the subject with him of them trying something different, he had shot it down before she had a chance to try. They had thought of letting him walk in on them but Nicole had worried that rather than join in, he may have stormed out and never gone back.