David Lindsey - The Rules of Silence

Macias watched them head into the sun. Shit.

He glanced back at Luquin, who was sitting on the other side of the pool at a table in the shade of the trees. He was smoking and was focused intently on the screen of his computer, as if he were gazing at the center of the universe, sending and receiving encrypted messages through Rio, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Beirut, Monaco. He had hardly stopped to eat. He had slept little. He was irritable. He was as volatile as nitroglycerin and even more difficult to handle.

But everyone involved in this one was on edge. It was dangerous running something like this in the States. There was a lot of pressure because everyone was getting paid double his usual fee, and because of that, Luquin expected superhuman performances from all of them.

As Macias watched, Luquin suddenly straightened up in his chair, his eyes locked on the small screen. Macias stopped hearxing anything that was being said to him over the cell phone. Luquin leaned closer to the screen as his expression hardened.

“I'll get back to you, ”Macias said. He closed the cell phone and had started around the pool when Luquin suddenly bellowed a curse and jumped to his feet. He snatched up the laptop from the table and flung it into the air. It whiffled into a high arc, still open, the screen lighted with its last message, and then plummeted into the exact center of the pool, where it hit the water with a soft slurp and fluttered slowly to the bottom.

Macias stopped. Luquin glared across the water at him, his legs apart in a combative posture.

“Goddamn it, ”Luquin barked, “get me a computer.”

Macias broke into a sweat as he went into the house and snatched a laptop from the dining room table. As he headed outside with it, his mind ran through all the places they'd anticipated glitches, trying to guess what might have caused Luquin's outburst.

“I don't believe this guy, ”Luquin said. His voice had returned to a conversational volume. His fury had gone underground. Now you needed to be afraid of him.

Macias set the laptop on the table, opened it, and hit the power button. Then he went around to the other side of the table so that he could watch Luquin's face. Luquin finessed the keys, his fingers barely making a sound as they whispered over the little gray plastic squares.

They waited for the secure site to materialize, and then Luquin pulled up the message that had caused his outburst. He turned the laptop around and shoved it at Macias.

“That pinche cabron, ”he said, smiling, his voice languid in disdain.

Macias looked at the screen.

I have the $10 million ready for Cavatino, but I'm not putting it through until I talk to you again, face-to-face. We have to understand something. I've done nothing to disobey your instructions. If you're going to kill people even when I follow your directions, then I'll keep my money and you can go to hell.

Macias couldn't believe his eyes. Cain had just kissed off another life or two. Macias could feel Luquin looking at him over the top of the computer screen, waiting for a response.

“Well, at least you know he hasn't got anyone advising him, ”Macias said. “Nobody in the business would have let him do that.”

Luquin said nothing. His eyes drifted away from Macias and held in the middle distance, seeing nothing.

“So what is he doing? ”Luquin asked.

“Maybe he can't handle the killing. Maybe he's going to freak out.”

“He doesn't do that. Maybe he hasn't seen enough killing, that's what I think.”

This was Luquin's big gamble, jugar el todo por el todo, all or nothing, and he had pored over psychological profiles of Cain as if he were a professional psychiatrist. From these documents Luquin had created his own understanding of Cain's psychology that allowed him to anticipate Cain's reaction to every pressure that Luquin applied even before he applied it. This, however, was a kink in the plans.

But Luquin's impatience with this surprise was only that, impatience. In Luquin's mind, his superiority was firmly established. Cain might make a sudden move that required a sudden reaction, but it was only a momentary diversion.

“This is an interesting development, ”Luquin said. “Defiance? After knowing he was responsible for his friend's death?”

“But he thinks the killing was unjustified, ”Macias said. “Maybe he doesn't think he's responsible at all. He thinks you're out of line.”

Luquin slowly pulled a cigarette out of the pack on the table in front of him, as if a quick move would make him lose his train of thought. He lighted it and stared out into the heat.

“Maybe, ”Luquin said, thinking. “This guy is a complicated mixture, a pussy with brass balls. ”He laughed. “Yeah, that's a good description. I'm just surprised the balls came into play at this point. After a little more pressure, maybe. But I thought the first killing would knock him off his feet, that it would take him some time to recover. Then, maybe, I'd have a tough time with him. ”He smoked, nodding to himself. “Yeah, this is interesting.”

Macias watched Luquin. This was interesting for him, too. Normally, having a target show this kind of defiance would already have resulted in an order for a swift, brutal death, but for some reason, this time, Luquin was not so predictable. This time he was willing to exercise a little patience, even if it was capriciously granted. Still, for him to show any at all was extraordinary. Maybe Luquin wanted the money even more than he wanted to make a machismo point with Cain. Luquin's greed was legendary. He wanted those millions.

But there was more to it than that. Though Macias was not directly involved, and Luquin never spoke to him about it, Macias knew that something bigger was at stake. Luquin was once again doing business with some of his old friends in the Middle East. Business in Mexico.

Macias wasn't officially in the loop, but he knew more about this than Luquin believed. Not much went on in Mexico that Macias didn't know about. And the strange activities of his old compadre Luquin were no exception.

Even by Luquin's standards, this Middle Eastern business was insanely dangerous. No wonder Luquin was volatile sometimes and uncharacteristically pliant at others. He was playing a game of snakes and ladders, jugar a la vida.

“Can that be done? ”Luquin asked, shifting his eyes to Macias. “A safe meeting with this cabron?”

“It can be done, Tano. But are you sure you want to do it?”

Luquin cut his eyes at Macias. “Fear. And flexibility. Huh? This requires a brutal hand… with a delicate touch now and then to give him hope. We have to be flexible, Jorge. We've never done it in just this way before. We have to be… sensitive to the possibilities. The blade here. A blessing there. We do what we have to do… for sixty-four million dollars, huh? You can do this? No problem?”

“Sure, we can do it. But we have to control the logistics. And we need to make him think that we need time for you to fly in for the meeting. We don't want him to know you're close by.”

Luquin thought a moment. Then he reached out and turned the laptop around and started typing.

Okay. One meeting. Wait for instructions. You would do well to meet your deadline for payment tomorrow.

Luquin turned the laptop around again and showed his message to Macias.

“I'll contact my people and start setting it up.”

“Send it, ”Luquin said.

Macias tapped the key, and Luquin shoved back his chair and stood. He wanted to see the laptop in the water. He walked over to the pool and stopped, the toes of his loafers almost over the edge. He looked in and there it was, sitting at the bottom like a single eye in a man's forehead. He smoked, and the smoke was whipped away in the breeze that blew along the cliffs above the lake.