Iris Johansen - Stalemate

"We did our best," Nekmon said. "We thought we'd put him down for a good two years after that time. He became a damned phantom. And after he turned to selling weapons we would have had to deal with that little battalion he kept around him. You said yourself it was better to watch and wait."

"Because I need that damned woman's body. I should have burned it and scattered the ashes to the four winds. I won't have it surface and spoil the sweet deal I have with Armandariz. I still need him. It's not every man who has an army at his command."

"May I suggest that need may be obsolete? You have enough money to move your operations to another country."

"Another country? Are you mad? Here I'm king. I take what I want and who I want. If I go to another country, I'm only considered a lowlife who must be crushed." He smiled grimly. "I do the crushing here. No one stands in my way."

"Only a suggestion."

"That's the trouble with you, Nekmon. You settle for the safe berth. That's why you'll always be working for a man like me."

"There's only one Ramon Diaz. There's certainly no one like you."

The asshole was flattering him, Diaz realized. Or maybe he was insulting him and thought he wouldn't catch the drift. Nekmon with his college education and his smooth ways was beginning to annoy him. He was valuable on the accounting end and he was an excellent front man, but he could be replaced.

But not right now. He needed no change in the men around him while he was dealing with Montalvo. The bastard was getting too close.

"Should we send someone else to check out Duarte?" Nekmon asked.

"If you haven't heard from him, he's probably captured or dead. Can't you do any better than that?"

"There's a possibility I may be able to lure someone in Montalvo's camp over to us as an informant. I've been working on it for some time. He's been holding out for more money."

"Then give it to him." He frowned thoughtfully. "My sending Aquila and Duarte to Montalvo may act as a trigger. He'll know that I suspect something is going to happen and am trying to find a way to dodge it. He may not realize that I know about Eve Duncan but it's going to put a burr under his tail to bring her that fucking skull."

"If he doesn't have it already."

"He doesn't have it. If he had it, he wouldn't have waited years to make a move. I've been watching him like a hawk since I found out he got that son of a bitch to dredge up her body." His scowl deepened. "That body is somewhere near here. I know it. That bastard didn't have a chance to get far before I found out he was dealing with Montalvo. No, Montalvo knows where she is but he hasn't got hold of her yet."

He stood up and wandered over to the high arched window to look out at the rolling hills of coca lying before him. Such a sleepy, sunny scene. Nekmon would never know the thrill it gave him every time he stared up at those hills. There was more power invested in one of those fields of coca than most men would know in a lifetime of wheeling and dealing. The power to destroy, to twist minds, to lift a sucker to the heights and then take it away if it suited him. The fact that drugs had made him a very rich man was only secondary. It was the power that counted.

And he wasn't going to let Montalvo take one bit of that power away. He'd beaten him once. He'd beat him again.

"You're going to do nothing?" Nekmon asked.

Yes, he'd definitely have to replace Nekmon at the earliest opportunity. "I didn't say that. You'll increase the surveillance of the compound. You'll make sure that the security here is tight."

"And?"

He smiled. "Why, we'll wait and watch and scoop him up when he tries to retrieve his beloved bride."

The bedside clock read 6:35.

Eve shook her head to clear it of sleep. She'd slept as if she'd been drugged, not Joe. The moment her head had hit the pillow she'd been lost to the world.

The skull.

She swung her feet to the floor and headed for the bathroom. Montalvo had said that he'd be leaving at eight. She had to get downstairs right away. He might leave early and she had to-

She stopped short. Why was she in such a hurry? Why did she have this sense of urgency to see him before he left?

She slowly went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Her entire being was alert, wired, expectant.

Expecting what?

And then she knew.

And there wasn't much time.

She quickly stepped beneath the spray.

Thirty minutes later she was running down the staircase. The first floor was a turmoil of activity. Men dressed in khakis and trail boots, all fully armed, were everywhere. She caught sight of Soldono near the front door.

"Where's Montalvo?" she called from the landing.

"Outside on the ramparts, I think," Soldono said. "He's been in and out all afternoon." He gave her an appraising glance. "You look surprisingly healthy considering that blow to the noggin you took. When I first saw you lying underneath Quinn, I thought you were dead."

"I'm okay." She passed him and went through the front door. It was almost dark but there were lanterns everywhere and she caught sight of Montalvo almost immediately. He was coming down the steps from the rampart talking to someone behind him.

"Montalvo."

He smiled as he turned to look at her. "Ah, you've come to bid me good-bye. Do you have a favor to give me as I ride into battle?"

"No. That's not why I came."

His smile faded and he gave a sigh. "I was afraid of this. I was hoping that you were too wounded and light-headed to react in the most characteristic manner for you. Evidently my hopes were to no avail."

"I'm going with you."

"Not possible."

"I'm going with you."

"Eve, we're moving fast and you'd get in our way."

"I'm not saying I want you to give me a gun and let me go after that bastard Diaz. I'm not stupid. I leave the fighting to those who are trained to do it. But I'm going to be there when you dig up that skull."

"No!" Soldono was standing behind her. "Eve, this is foolish. You'll get yourself killed. Why would you insist on going?"

"It's a matter of trust." Montalvo's tone was mocking. "The trust she does not have in me. Isn't that correct, Eve?"

"Of course it's correct. You spun me a fine tale of a lost love and a monster who sits in his castle like a fat gargoyle and smears his poison on everything he touches. What if you're lying? What if you have this skull hidden away somewhere and you take your men out and come back a few hours later with the skull? Only maybe it's not your wife's skull. I've been lied to before. Maybe the reconstruction is to be of someone else. Or maybe this body is buried somewhere else other than Diaz's territory and I'm violating a grave. How do I know?"

"A matter of trust," he said. "Catch-22."

"I won't do that reconstruction unless I'm at least marginally certain that you've been telling me the truth."

"How marginally?"

"I want to see the cemetery for myself. I want to see that castle you said Diaz lives in that towers over the village. I want to see you dig up that skull."

"Eve," Soldono said protestingly. "It's a mistake."

"I've made a lot of mistakes lately." She stared Montalvo in the eye. "But I won't compromise my ethics because of gullibility. That's one mistake I won't make."

She heard Soldono mutter a curse behind her but she ignored him. This was between her and Montalvo.

"You can't keep up with us," Montalvo said. "You could hardly get out of bed yesterday."

"Then find a way to make sure I will keep up. Use your ingenuity."

"You won't change your mind?"

"I won't change my mind."

He was silent a moment. "You'll slow us down. That won't matter going in but it could be fatal getting out."

"I don't want anyone dying because of me. Position me somewhere so that I can see what's happening. Once I see the skull in your hands you can send me back ahead of your team. Then you can move at your own pace."