Terry Neale - Jo-el

As soon as we were back in San Francisco Sally showed me a message from Cathy Vogel at CNN. The gist was they were delighted to have me on their prime time show tomorrow night. I needed to meet with them as soon as possible to sort out the details, preview the questions I’d be given and do all the sound check stuff. I told Sally to write back. ‘Cathy, I need ten minutes, there will be no questions, seven P.M. eastern tonight. If you’re not interested, I’ll call FOX.’ I thought that would fester enough.

“I have a couple of very nasty specimens who make a lot of money from human trafficking. Neither of them get their hand dirty.” Sally begun. “Felix Roal Espinoza is fifty-two, a Mexican national, with fake passports for the US and Europe. His main residence is north of Acapulco, he’s there right now. His net worth is around four hundred million US dollars. He kidnaps girls in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico and ships them to eastern Europe and various Middle Eastern countries. He never sees any of the misery he creates. He has a wife and three children, two boys and a girl, between twelve and eighteen.”

“Okay, sounds perfect, who’s the other one?”

“Rudi Yerchenkov, Russian, forty-three, four residences in Moscow, London, Nice and Grand Cayman. Same profile, he takes girls from various ex-Russian Republics and ships them to Europe for prostitution. Net worth, more than one hundred and fifty million US. He’s in Nice right now. No family, likes to sample his merchandise himself, usually four or five at a time. There’s four with him in Nice.”

“What’s the time in Nice and how’s the security?”

“It’s almost ten in the evening, Yerchenkov is at his villa with the girls, he’s in the living room, he’s naked with a drink in one hand, one of the girls is giving him a blowjob. There’s two body guards outside the door with semi-automatics and two in the grounds.”

I grimaced. Not something I wanted to see. “I think I’ll let him finish up before I ruin his day. What’s Espinoza up to?”

“He’s in his study looking at papers, he has six bodyguards, two are with him in the study, the other four are around the house. He also has two bodyguards for his wife and one for the children.” Sally stopped and stared at me, waiting for instructions.

“Now my question is, how should I approach them? The hologram is safest but I feel like a wimp doing that, I just worry about the shield. Those semi-automatics have a lot of fire-power.”

“Or I just freeze the weapons,” Sally added.

“How can I test the shield, Sally?”

“Why not go with the shield, if they start firing I’ll freeze their weapons and at least you’ll see if the shield works.”

I smiled at Sally, she knew exactly what I was thinking. I stood up and changed into Jo-el. “Wings or no wings, what do you think?” I flashed the wings on and off a couple of times. Sally motioned with her hands like she didn’t care.

“They’re both going to freak out whatever, I assume you’re going to bounce straight into his study?”

“That’s my plan. Scare the shit out of them.”

“Go with the wings, then they’ll know straight off who they’re dealing with.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this. First freeze those two bodyguards’ weapons and then bounce me right in front of his desk.”

“Wimp!” Sally said.

In one second I was standing in front of Espinoza, my wings spread wide, a scowl emblazoned across my face. Espinoza let out a gasp and jerked his chair back away from the desk, dropping the papers he was reading. He was speechless for a moment, his eyes piercing, inflamed, staring wildly at me. The elegant office was decorated in dark woods, it oozed wealth. He spoke first, in Spanish. I heard in English.

“Who the fuck are you?”

The two bodyguards were already standing, mouths gaped open. In the corner of my eye I saw semi-automatics. I could see the concern in Espinoza’ eyes fade when he saw the guns pointing at me, he regained his composure and shunted his chair back toward the desk.

“I asked you a question?” he blurted out.

Now did I go with the obvious cliché or try something new.

“I’m your worst nightmare,” I said, it just felt so right. I always wanted to say that, and if the shoe fits. Not sure I said it with the right tone or emphasis. It didn’t come out like I would imagine from Clint Eastwood. I made mental note to practice the line. Maybe it got lost in the translation.

I saw Espinoza press something under the desk. I presumed a panic button to call the other bodyguards. Time for me to focus on the present. This wasn’t Hollywood.

“The other four guards are on their way. I’ve frozen their weapons.” Sally informed me.

“How’d you get in here?” Espinoza shouted at me. He glanced at his bodyguards as if to say ‘how the hell did you let this guy get in here’. He hadn’t seen my dramatic entrance, pity, he would have been impressed.

“Mr. Espinoza, my name is Jo-el. I’m here to inform you that your human trafficking enterprise is shutting down.” I brought my wings into my body.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You heard what I said. As of today you are going to close up shop.”

“And what makes you think I’m going to do that?”

“Because if you don’t I’m going hurt you.”

He didn’t like that. Probably not used to being physically threatened. He stayed sitting trying to figure out what was happening. The door opened behind me and the other four guards came in, guns at the ready. They took up positions alongside the other two guys making a semi-circle around me.

Espinosa viewed his army and smiled. “I think it’s time for you to leave.” He said.

I should have figured out the dialogue a tad before rushing in. Oh well, too late now. I also realized that as soon as these guys were aware that their weapons didn’t work they’d rush me.

“Sally, better activate the shield, these guys are going to rush me very soon.”

“Way ahead of you, big-guy.”

Don’t you just love a woman that’s got your back.

“Tell your goons to vamoose, I don’t want them to get hurt.” I said, trying to keep a straight face. Wonder how that translated?

I think Espinosa was becoming a tiny bit annoyed. He nodded at the guard on his left and said, “Manny, knee.” He pointed at my right knee.

Manny, aimed his pistol at my right knee and pulled the trigger. I flinched, but delighted to report that nothing happened. Manny kept pulling the trigger, then he shook his weapon, which I’m sure is right there on page one of the manual. Espinosa was fuming, I think he was planning some nasty stuff for Manny in the not too distant future. Espinosa shouted at the guards. “Shoot this fucker in the knee.”

Happily, none of the weapons worked otherwise my legs would have been shredded. After a little while Espinoza got the message, quick on the uptake these traffickers.

“Get him out of here!” he shouted.

Two of his men came at me with fists. They shouldn’t have swung quite so hard; their knuckles were badly damaged when they struck the shield. I didn’t feel a thing. Sweet.

The other four guys leapt at me, literally. They crashed into the shield and fell to the floor, but they didn’t give up, they tried again. Kicking and hitting, but to no avail. From where Espinosa was sitting it must have looked bizarre.

Eventually they gave up and backed away nursing their wounds. I still hadn’t moved. Suddenly Espinosa drew a Glock from his desk and fired it at me, when the bloody thing went off it scared the bejusus out of me. But I didn’t feel a thing, unluckily Manny did, the round ricocheted off the shield and struck him in the abdomen just below the heart. Blood spurted out of the wound immediately, the carpet was ruined, I read it in Espinoza’s eyes.