Ever Hayes - Redemption

Lazzo insisted they’d have radioed our location in for sure now. Drones would be on the way shortly. We followed a trail off Shelf Road for a mile or so and dumped the truck at the base of Grouse Mountain, continuing east on foot. The sun was setting as we crossed Wilson Creek and hurried across the rocky terrain south of Straub Mountain. We made it to the base of Brind Mountain just before the first of three drones flew overhead. We were too exposed. There’s no way they missed us. A whole lot more troops would be on the way soon. By morning, this whole area would be swarming.

We could only assume they’d been tracking Lazzo’s radio call and didn’t trust him to turn himself in. Not sure what else he has to do to prove his loyalty. The Libyan commander seemed intent on not giving him any other options. This was an unexpected and unwelcome tweak to Lazzo’s plans, and he wasn’t handling it well. He had to be thinking about his family. If the Libyan commander doesn’t trust Lazzo to deliver, can Lazzo trust his word? Or is Lazzo’s family already dead too?

A web of roads converged at the Skaguay Reservoir a mile or so ahead of us. Our goal was to get past the reservoir and up into the canyons before stopping for the night—or before they could cut us off.

Commander Boli returned to Puerto Rico on August 6. The helicopter landed on the roof. The tiny red light went off on the camera in the corner of Eddie’s cell. The commander came alone—no squad of men with him. He wasn’t in a good mood, but this time there was no venom in his voice—no hatred in his eyes. He spoke calmly. “Your brother… he tells me that you don’t read the note. He tells me you don’t know what he’s doing.”

Eddie resisted a sarcastic retort. Instead he just listened.

“If that’s true, then you don’t lie to me. You don’t know my plan, do you?”

“I don’t,” Eddie finally answered. “I don’t know anything.” It was the commander’s turn to listen. “If this is about the note—if the note had the information on it that you thought I knew—well, General Roja told me not to read it. I gave it to Lazzo. I did not read it. Next thing I know I’m being shot over and over again, but not by real bullets. Rubber bullets. Next thing I know I’m knocked out. Next thing I know I’m here. I don’t know why I’m alive. I don’t know why you don’t kill me. You beat my wife. You—”

“We had a plan—Lazzo and me. I thought you knew everything. Your brother he says he tell you the truth, but he don’t tell you what I think he tell you.”

What the hell? “What? What truth?”

“It don’t matter now.” The commander waved his hand casually around in the air. “I know now you don’t know. I keep you alive for your brother. I meet with him before you go Buena Vista. He and I talk. He tell me Americans have information on bunkers, on missiles—important things. Powerful things. He says he will get that information for me. Then he don’t do it. He and you… you blow up Roja’s men. He gets in a boat with you to escape. I send your wife to trap you. Roja gives your brother the note. Your brother leaves for Hawaii with Americans, and I think he played me for fool. He’s not coming back. I was going to kill you then. But Lazzo calls me and tells me he has the note from you… from General Roja. He tells me he will get what I want, but he must continue with the Americans to Hawaii. He tells me of a man named Danny who has the book with codes, with American hideouts, with all I need for Hawaii and Colorado and everything. I must have that information at all cost.” The commander paused to see if Eddie was still with him. “So I promise him… you know? I offer him his family and your family if he bring me this book.”

“Wait, you and General Roja—”

“It don’t matter.”

“But—you two hate each other.”

Boli’s glare silenced Eddie. “Sometimes. But it don’t matter. Now I think your brother is dead. I think he died two day ago. He kidnapped Danny’s sister and brings her to America, but his plane gets shot down. But he is not dead. It is not his plane that gets shot down. It is the American’s.”

“So Lazzo is alive,” Eddie asked, bewildered—trying hard to follow the commander’s story. “But the American is dead?”

“I speak to him yesterday, yes. Lazzo is alive.”

“But Danny is dead?”

“No. Maybe. I hope not. His plane, it was shot down. But maybe he not dead. If he is dead, you are also dead. So I wait and see.”

Eddie understood that much. His life hinged on Danny getting Commander Boli the book. Everyone’s seemed to. “So why did you come here—to Puerto Rico?”

The question caught the commander off guard. “Consider it apology. I was wrong about you. Maybe both of you.”

There had to be more to it. He wouldn’t come here to explain himself—and definitely not to apologize. He was here for something else. “What do you want from me? You’re not going to let me go, are you?”

Commander Boli shook his head. “No. But I promise you brother I don’t kill you until he bring me the book… if he bring me the book. I need you for—how do you say—the proof of the life. That is all. But I bring you bread and wine. My apology.”

He left the cell without another word. Eddie tried in vain to get him to come back, to get a few more answers, but the commander disappeared, and an hour later Eddie heard the helicopter lift off. What did he actually come here for?

Eddie tried to process the entire ridiculous conversation. Boli’s English was terrible. Eddie reasoned Boli had spoken to him in English so the other officers upstairs watching wouldn’t understand. But the camera was off, wasn’t it? So why would it matter? Why not just use Arabic? Or is his Arabic worse? Doubtful.

Whatever the commander’s reasons were for anything he’d done, he had actually answered several of Eddie’s questions. First of all, Lazzo was still alive. But Boli had indicated he and Lazzo had a plan Eddie knew nothing about, going all the way back to when they were working in Intelligence in Denver together. Lazzo knew our families were alive all the way back in Denver? Why didn’t he say anything? And now Eddie was being kept alive as insurance to make Lazzo follow through on his plan with Boli. That is what the cameras must be for… to show Lazzo live feeds of me and our families. Their families. Lazzo’s family must be here. His wife and baby? And my daughters?

Eddie heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He moved over by the bars, curious as to who was coming. He glanced up at the camera, but the red light was still off. Why is it still off? The soldier who had always been nice to him came around the corner and approached the bars. He glanced up at the camera and quickly handed Eddie a folded piece of paper containing something solid before he continued down the hall. Eddie heard him say something in Arabic to someone. Is there a guard down there? Is that why Boli used English? Eddie moved over under the window and pretended to be looking out at the ocean while he casually glanced down at the piece of paper. It was a rudimentary drawing—a map—of what had to be the prison. He could easily identify the stairs and his cell and a chain of cells moving on down the hall. There was a red circle in his cell and black circles in most of the other cells, but there were two other cells with red circles. Two in one—one in the other.

There were a series of X marks on the paper too. Six to his left, one three cells down from him—around the corner, and another three more cells down—between the two cells with red circles. Then there were four more Xs at the end of the cells. Guards? Does this mean there are twelve guards? Finally, there was a series of numbers scribbled across the bottom. “38.72527, -104.94581.” What the heck? Are these supposed to mean something?