David Lindsey - The Rules of Silence

“No, I don't have to be civil, ”Titus said. “What do you want?”

There was a bottle of wine on the table that Macias had ordered and was already drinking, and he poured some in the other glass and pushed it an inch toward Titus.

“Drink it, ”he said. “It might make this a little easier to do.”

Titus did, taking in Macias as he turned up the glass. He was disconcertingly handsome, a neat haircut, manicured nails, a close shave around a perfect mustache. His shortsleeved shirt revealed a trim build with muscular shoulders and arms.

The tables around them were filled with people, but Titus hadn't noticed a single one of them. Macias had chosen a table well situated for a quiet conversation. He took a drink of wine, too, and his smile fell away.

“Permit me, please, ”he said, and just above the edge of the table he produced a small black device the size of a cell phone and pointed it at Titus. It threw a thin red horizontal bar across Titus's chest. Macias slowly moved it down Titus's body to the top of the table, then moved the device below the table and finished going down Titus's torso to his feet. Macias looked unobtrusively at the dial on the instrument.

He nodded. “Very good, ”he said, and put the device away. “I have a proposition that is very straightforward and simple: You deposit ten million dollars into a certain account in the Caymans, and I will give you Cayetano Luquin. You can stop him and save forty-four million at the same time. And, of course, you will save lives.”

For the second time, Titus was caught off guard. Where was the interrogation he had been cautioned about so much? Where was the wily measuring of words, the calculated reading between the lines? If Titus said yes, would that be the end of it? Would they stand and walk away?

He remembered Burden's instructions: Just keep Macias there as long as you can. Say whatever you have to say. Just keep him there until you hear from Kal.

“Why are you offering me this deal?”

“I make more money this way.”

His response was blunt and easy, as if the answer were obvious, like cutting a better deal on a new SUV.

“And I'll be doing you a favor, too, won't I, ”Titus added, “by getting rid of that son of a bitch.”

Macias tilted his head to one side in a shrug. “That would be true, yes.”

“Let's say I'm able to do that, ”Titus proposed. “The money, get rid of Luquin. How do I know one of his people won't come after me and carry out Luquin's threats? How do I know you won't come after me later?”

Macias nodded. “First of all, no one is going to do anything for Tano Luquin after he's dead. He does not inspire that kind of loyalty. There will be many people who will be sorry that the cash flow has been stopped; but no one will be sorry that Tano is dead.

“Second, I can easily imagine how angry you are about what has happened to you. And I can easily imagine how much you have learned from this experience. With your money and with what you've learned, I can imagine, too, that you will create your own guarantee that this sort of thing will never happen to you again. There's no warranty that I could give you that would be more assuring to you than your own determination.”

“That's no comfort to me.”

“That's only because you don't understand the risks from my side of the enterprise.”

“And how will you ‘give’me Luquin? ”Titus asked.

“We can work out the details, ”he said. “But first, are you interested in the proposition?”

“It's possible. But I have to know the details first.”

“Why the details first?”

“I've never done business with a killer before, ”Titus said evenly. “I'm going to be very cautious.”

Macias's face was immobile. He didn't like Titus's choice of words. A dew of perspiration appeared in the creases on either side of his mouth.

“And how would you get the money to me? ”Macias asked in turn.

“I can do it with a phone call. The same way I did the other ten million.”

“When?”

“In the morning. You'll get confirmation from your bank within an hour of my call.”

Macias nodded again. “When I get the phone confirmation about the money, I'll tell you precisely step by step how to do it.”

“Not good enough.”

Macias studied him a moment. “I know you have someone working with you. I don't know what's going on there. I have to protect myself.”

“Well, we seem to be at an impasse, then.”

“What would you propose? ”Macias asked. “As a compromise?”

“Look, ”Titus said. “You've seen me give Luquin ten million already, like I said I would. And I'll put it in your account, too, just like I say I will. But the only thing I've seen from your side of this deal has been lies and death. Now you tell me you're willing to give up Luquin. Well, tell me how he's protected-exactly how. You don't do that it makes me think you're going to screw him-and me-and skip out on both of us. So my feeling right now is, fuck you.”

Macias studied Titus again. He was trying to reconcile this hard stance against what he'd heard over the bug. But, of course, the moment he'd contacted Cain with his proposal to sell out Luquin, Cain's situation had shifted radically. What Macias was seeing here was how quickly Cain's competitive mettle came to the forefront when he saw even the slightest opening. Macias might have more to deal with here than he had expected.

Macias drank quickly from his glass, weighing the upside, the downside. He was smelling the $10 million, and more important, he was thinking what life would be like without Cayetano Luquin breathing down his neck and not actually having to do anything about it himself. But Cain was right, of course; he needed something to believe.

“What does it matter to you how he's protected, ”Macias asked, “if you are only going to turn the information over to the police?”

“Did I say I was going to turn the information over to the police?”

“What is this, then? ”he asked cautiously and with an amused smile. “Your own personal vengeance? But this is such a Latin thing, Mr. Cain.”

Titus could feel himself trembling from the high-voltage energy produced by the adrenaline pumping through him.

“Did you really think I was going to watch that man kill my friends and steal my money, and then let him go? He told me that if I didn't do what he said, he'd haunt me the rest of my life by killing my friends, my family. Well, I did what he said, and he killed people anyway. ”He paused. “Or rather, you did it for him.”

The smirk stiffened on Macias's face.

Titus went on. “Did he really think… I was going to let that happen without any kind of response? Fifty-four million dollars. If he thinks that kind of money is going to enable him to get certain things done, to buy certain information, to have people killed, what makes him think it won't do the same things for me? Does he think I'm an idiot?”

Titus had no idea that he was going to say all of this, but suddenly as he looked at Macias several obvious ideas converged. The advantage that Macias had over everyone-first, with Luquin over Titus; and now, working only in self-interest, over Luquin as well-was based solely in his willingness to simply disregard the rules by which everyone else in society agreed to play. Even the trust that Luquin had put in Macias, twisted though it was, had its own rules of order. And now Macias was ignoring even those corrupt boundaries.

But what really infuriated Titus was that Macias apparently assumed that Titus would continue to obey the traditional rules of society, that Titus would not resort to Macias's own lawless tactics, even though not doing so would put him at every conceivable disadvantage. The condescension of that presumption suddenly struck Titus like a lightning bolt. What in the hell had Titus been thinking about?