David Lindsey - The Rules of Silence

“The car's bugged, ”Burden said, “and so is Cain. So we know where he is at every moment. He swallowed it, Jorge, so don't worry about taking all of his clothes off and shit like that. I know you have an escape plan. I know you're planning on dumping the car, so go ahead and do that. But leave Cain with it. Alive. If you do that, you live. Anything else, you don't.”

“Yes, I know. You've already made that point. ”Macias's mind was racing. Shit. Shit. The one thing that sounded too neat here was Cain swallowing a bug. Why would Burden tell him that? It seemed to Macias that if it was true, it was the sort of thing you'd want to keep secret. Why else would he swallow it? So why would Burden say that? Because once Macias dumped the car and Burden's people lost visual contact with Macias, then Burden wouldn't have any idea where Cain was. Burden was trying to make Macias believe that he had no choice except to leave Cain with the Navigator. But Macias wasn't buying it. Not that part of the deal, anyway.

Other than that, how the hell was he going to make sure they would let him go if he did what Burden wanted?

“This is a delicate moment, Garcia. Do something to make me believe you will do what you say.”

“I need to talk to Cain to make it work.”

Macias froze.

“Just hand him the phone, ”Burden said, sensing Macias's instant suspicion. “I need to calm him down, Jorge. You don't understand, yet, what you're dealing with there.”

Macias tried to sort it out, his mind stumbling over itself. He was losing the thread here, getting confused, trying to anticipate all the traps, and afraid he wasn't seeing even the obvious ones.

“Hand him the phone, Jorge. He'll hand it right back to you.”

This was a fucking mistake, Macias thought, but he had to make a decision fast. The car was flying down the highway. Soon they were going to have to turn off.

“If you don't do this, ”Burden said, “it's not going to work. It's all over.”

Macias had every reason in the world not to believe this.

“He wants to talk to you, ”Macias said, handing the phone over the seat to Titus.

Sweating, his nerves fraying, Titus reached out, touching Macias's hand as he fumbled for the phone being handed over his shoulder, repulsed at the feel of the other man's flesh.

“Yes.”

“Titus, ”Burden said, “in just a second you're going to hand the phone back to Macias, so I'm going to talk fast. Do you know about the gun?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, while I'm talking right now take the mole off your arm and put it on the gun without letting him see. Then let him have the gun when he asks for it. I told him you'd swallowed a bug, and that we know where you are at all times. He needs to believe that. I'm going to try to get him to leave you with the Navigator in exchange for letting him go. Quickly, what did he go back to Luquin's for?”

“Laptop.”

Macias snatched the phone from Titus with a slap to the side of the head that was so hard, it caused him to swerve off the highway and plow along a hundred yards of the median before he regained control and got back on the pavement.

“You're a goddamned idiot! ”Macias screamed into the phone. He was rattled and furious.

“Listen, Jorge, ”Burden said slowly. “We want to be very careful here, okay? Remember, he lives, you live. Anybody dies, everybody dies. ”He was stretching it out, giving Titus time to switch the mole. “When my men brought you the car at La Terrazza, they jammed an automatic down in between the seats by Cain's right side. He's already found it. It's ready to fire, safety off. I told him to let you have it when you reached over the seat to get it.”

“I'll blow his head off, Garcia, ”Macias yelled, “I've got it to his head right now. I'll fucking shoot him!”

“Damn it, it's no trick, Jorge.”

Macias kept the phone to his ear and spoke to Titus.

“What did he tell you?”

During Macias's exchange with Burden, Titus had carefully peeled the mole from his right arm with his left hand and was now pressing it into the scored handle of the pistol. He was still shaken from the blow against the side of his head, but he managed to move his hand slowly away from the gun to the bottom of the steering wheel as he answered.

“He said not to use the gun that's in the seat here. He said to let you have it.”

Macias calculated the time they'd spent on the phone. Burden really couldn't have said much more than that. He screwed the muzzle of the automatic into the base of Titus's skull and slowly reached over the seat. He found the handle of the gun, jammed between the seats, and slowly brought it out. There was a suppressor on it.

“Now what? ”Macias said into the phone.

“Okay, you see how this is going? ”Burden asked.

“Yeah, I see.”

“We just want to bring this to an end, Jorge. If we get Cain back safely and in one piece, then you get a free pass. You're lucky this time. Very, very lucky.”

Macias knew that Burden was speaking the truth, about this one thing, anyway. He had this little opportunity solo por suerte. Every moment counted now. He'd kept glancing out the rear window. He hadn't seen headlights at a consistent distance, which meant that they probably were locked on to them with a tag, like they said. They didn't need somebody up close. If that was the case, then, that distance between him and whoever was back there-he wasn't stupid, he knew there was somebody back there-that distance was his opening. His only opening. And his next move had to be done in that space, and in absolute privacy.

“What about it, Jorge? Have we got a deal? ”Burden asked him.

“Yeah, we've got a deal.”

“Okay, now it's your turn to make us believe you, ”Burden concluded. “When you drop him with the Navigator, you've got to put him on the phone so we know he's alive when you leave. We'll keep talking to him until we get to him. When we've got him, you're in the open.”

“?Hecho! ” Macias said, and punched off the phone.

He hesitated a second, calculating, going through the mental paces of what lay before him to make sure he didn't miss a step that would throw off his timing. Then he punched in a code on his cell phone and immediately pushed the time elapse feature on his watch, setting it for forty-five minutes.

Free pass. Yeah. Did Burden think he was so scared that he'd lost his mind? No fucking way was he going to give up Titus Cain until he was safely out of this mess… and maybe not even then. He'd have to see how it went. But in the meantime, maybe the lie would buy him a little time.

“Jesus, ”Norlin said.

Burden could feel him looking at him. They were close in the van, their eyes jittering over the screens.

“That, ”Norlin said, “was a ballsy call.”

“You mean heartless, don't you, ”Burden said without looking at Norlin. “You could've said heartless.”

“No, I mean ballsy. If you're wrong… then it was heartless. You've almost got everything you wanted, Garcia. More than you expected you'd get. You could've let it go.”

“And I probably would have-if he hadn't gone back for that laptop. But if he risked his life for it, then I want it.”

“Even if it cost Cain his life?”

“Cain is one life. God knows how many lives that laptop could save.”

“What if it can't? What if it can't even save one?”

“You're acting like Cain's already dead. Look, if Macias believes that Cain's swallowed a bug, then he'll leave Cain with the car because he's got to isolate himself. If he does that, I want Calo to be able to get to him.”

“That's a damned big if.”

Burden said nothing, ignoring Norlin, his eyes fixed on the monitors.