Rendition Protocol Read online

  Moreno said, “An aerostat is a type of helium balloon that is lofted to elevate radar and other surveillance monitoring systems, Patron.”

  “Yeah,” Kyle said. “They’ve got some pretty cool shit.”

  “The intelligence community and the DEA seem to be very well aligned, do they not? A series of radar and listening devices maintained for the DEA. I’ll ask you again, Agent MacKerron. To what extent are the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the United States eavesdropping onto my island?”

  “Oh, man, I don’t know. Like I said, those military boys don’t ask for permiss—”

  “I don’t care whether they ask your permission or not!” Rojas screamed.

  “Dude, so hostile. I don’t work with those guys. I don’t know what they’re up to.” Kyle’s chin lowered to a rest on his chest. Then he popped up. “And besides, don’t you cartels just change up your routes whenever Uncle Sam is getting close? What’s the big deal, man?”

  Rojas shook his head and said to Moreno, “We have to assume we’ve been compromised. The timing could not be worse.” He turned on Kyle. “What’s the big deal, you ask? Changing routes is not a problem, Agent MacKerron. But this is a much bigger issue. I’m afraid you’ve gotten in way over your head and have no idea what is at stake. Now, tell me about the operations of the other cartel, Oficina de Envigado. How many people have they moved onto my island?”

  “Best I can tell, about sixty. But you know,” Kyle said as he looked through the haze of his stupor, “sometimes I lose count. Don’t take this the wrong way, but some of those guys look alike. Kind of hard to tell them apart,” he laughed.

  “Sixty?” Rojas said as he glanced at Moreno. “Were you aware of their numbers?”

  Moreno looked at the tops of his polished dress shoes.

  “And who have they moved into position to run the organization here?”

  “Well,” Kyle laughed. “It’s sure not a guy named Montes Lima Perez. Got his ass shot off and kicked all to pieces by a girl. Yeah, this girl—”

  “It just happened, Moreno said. “An informant at the Royal Police Force said he’s in the intensive care unit. Montes Lima Perez was number two on the island, their top security man.”

  “Someone is making a play?” Rojas said. “Trying to muscle in on their organization? Are you telling me we’ve got a third player on the island? Now, at a time like this? We can tolerate no disruptions to our plans. Everything is riding on our ability to keep things quiet.”

  “It’s too early to tell,” Moreno said with his palms raised toward Rojas. “We will have information about the girl within the hour. I’ve got a friend at Caricom’s Joint Regional Communications Centre.”

  “Hey,” Kyle said, “You like acronyms, right?” He turned to Moreno. “Tell him about the CIP and the JRCC,” the last syllable rolling off his tongue like a song.

  Moreno, whose expression never changed, said, “Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Programmes, or CIPs. JRCC is one of Caricom’s intelligence agencies. They monitor the movements of persons of interest, including those who may be a high security threat to the safety and security of the region. They’ll be aware of the girl and who she’s working for.”

  “Wonderful,” Rojas said, though his voice was showing telltale signs of a growing impatience. “I want to know who she is. I can’t afford to have a drug war in the streets, not now. We’ve got to keep everything quiet, or else . . .”

  12

  Flow of Drugs

  “I still don’t know how this isn’t in the hands of DEA. How did the US become alerted to the new flow of drugs?” Jana said.

  “Wow, when you make a decision, you really make it, don’t you?”

  As they got into the car, Jana’s eyes traced the horizon of the ocean in the distance.

  Cade started the engine and pulled out of the police station parking lot.

  “Where are we going, by the way?”

  “Safe house,” Cade said.

  “Safe house? What safe house? You’re an analyst at NSA, not field personnel. What the hell would you know about a safe house?”

  Cade ignored her.

  “Since Antigua is in play, Kyle has been down here,” Cade said, “recruiting people on the inside to gather intel against the Oficina de Envigado cartel. What we’re afraid of is that he got too close and his identity was compromised.”

  As the vehicle wove its way up into the Antiguan hills, Jana said, “You know I love Kyle like a brother, right? He’s always looked out for me. Saved my skin more than once.”

  “Hey!” Cade belted. “It wasn’t just Kyle who saved you last time. And now that we’re on that subject, you’re right, I’m not field personnel. I understand that. But I took a bullet for you last year, and to hear you tell it, I wasn’t even there. You may want to forget the past like it never happened, but it did happen, Jana. We happened. And you’re not going to pretend there was nothing. Dammit, I was in love with you. And I know you felt the same way.”

  “I don’t owe you anything, Cade.”

  “Owe me?” he almost yelled. “You don’t owe me? That’s bullshit. I’ll tell you what you owe me. You owe me an explanation.”

  “An explanation for what?”

  “We were in a relationship that was going somewhere, remember? Jesus. Who are you? I want to know why you left me.”

  “I told you, we’re over,” Jana said. “I’m no longer the girl you fell in love with. That girl is dead. She’s gone.”

  “That may be, but I want to know why you left me.”

  “Why I left you? I just finished saying—”

  “No, not why you ripped my heart out and stomped on it. Why you left me to bleed out after I got shot in that cabin last year.”

  Jana’s memory raced back to the scene that day, to the remote cabin deep within Wyoming’s YellowstoneNational Park. After she had been abducted by Rafael, Cade and Kyle had kicked down the cabin’s door. In the ensuing melee, Cade, Kyle, and the suspect had been shot. Once freed from her bindings, Jana had shot Rafael to death as he lay helpless on the floor.

  Cade continued. “If it hadn’t been for that park ranger, I’d be gone. When you went after Waseem Jarrah, you bolted out of that cabin without a thought in the world about whether I lived or died. It was then I knew. I knew you had left me.”

  Her hand trembled and the edges of her vision began to darken—the PTSD episode was renewing its fight. “I did what I did so I could stop Jarrah from detonating, and you know it. If I hadn’t bolted out of that cabin, he would have set off the nuke.”

  “I know that. But you didn’t so much as glance back at me, or consider the possibility that even if you were to stop Jarrah, that I might be dead when you got back.”

  “I’m not going to apologize for stopping the largest attack ever attempted against the United States.”

  “No one is asking you to. But after all we’d been through . . .” Cade allowed the thought to trail off.

  Jana looked out at the tropical foliage lining the roadside in an attempt to distract herself from the memories that had haunted her since that day. She switched the topic. “If Kyle’s been compromised, you know as well as I do that he may have been tortured.”

  “You’re right. You’re not the girl I fell in love with.”

  Silence permeated the air. It was Cade who finally broke it. “I might know what happened to Kyle. We’ve got to find him.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Jana looked at Cade through the corner of her eye as the car banked up another curve. “Wait a minute. You didn’t just come here to find Kyle, did you? Kyle believed I was in danger. You came here because you already knew he may have been tortured, and that puts me in direct danger. If he knew where I was, the drug cartel may find that out. You came down here for me. You came here to pull me out.”

  “Something like that,” Cade said. “But it’s not that simple. I didn’t come here to pull you out.”

  “Hold on,” Jana said as her
thoughts played forward. “I know exactly why you’re here. You’re not here to pull me out, are you? You want to use me as bait!” Her jawline clenched.

  The rainforest surrounding the roads began to form a tunnel over the roadway the higher the car climbed.

  When Cade did not reply, Jana continued. “In fact, you’re not here for me or Kyle.”

  This time Cade jammed on the brake and the car screeched to a halt on the quiet road.

  “I can’t believe you just said that. After everything the three of us have been through. You and Kyle knew each other from the Bureau, but Kyle and I go all the way back to undergrad at Georgia Southern. I trust him more than anyone in the world. And you? You and I were practically living together. I was in love with you, and now you think I’ve come down here to further my career? To say the words ‘that hurts’ wouldn’t do it justice. Kyle’s life is on the line, your life is on the line. But there’s a lot of other things at play here. It’s bigger than any two lives.”

  “And there it is. You’ve come down here to use me as bait.” Jana’s hand shook harder as she began to realize she was no longer safe on the island, a place she had come to know as a bastion of anonymity, a place to hide. And the very people she trusted now saw her as nothing more than a bartering chip. Her body shivered.

  Cade began driving again. “Does the United States government want me to convince you to be used as bait in an investigation? The answer is yes. It’s the only way to draw the players out into the open. But as far as my career goes, I got in deep shit arguing against this plan. But in the end, I had to agree with them. There’s no other way.”

  “How very noble of you.”

  It was a stab in the gut and Cade gave up all hope of resurrecting their relationship.

  “When I said there’s a lot more on the line than you realize, I meant it,” Cade said. “Heroin flowing through Antigua is making its way all across the US. And this isn’t just typical heroin. It’s heroin laced with . . .” Cade stopped.

  “Go on,” she said.

  “It’s laced with fentanyl.”

  Jana thought back to the night Rafael had abducted her. He had drugged her with an aerosolized form of fentanyl in order to render her unconscious and kidnap her.

  “And the more that sells, the more kids die. Overdoses are at an all-time high. Then there’s the isle of Antigua itself,” he said as he waved a hand at their surroundings. “Like I said earlier, the cartels have been keeping violence to a minimum to avoid attracting attention, but if they get a foothold, the government here could lose stability. Then there’s DEA.”

  “What about them?”

  Kyle leveled a stern gaze at her. “Drug Enforcement is in this up to its ears. Even though Kyle was CIA, he was working hand in hand with DEA down here. And you know how Kyle is. He never met a stranger. He has a way of building trust in everyone around him. Apparently, DEA now practically consider him one of their own, on the same team.”

  Jana’s thoughts pinged from one side of her head to the other. I’m not just going to help find Kyle, I’m going to have to go undercover. I’m going to have to go deep, and there won’t be anyone to protect me. “Go on,” she said, though her breathing became erratic.

  “There’s more than just a little anger brewing. Over the last four days, every time I talk to DEA about Kyle, they bring up the name Kiki Camarena.”

  “Kiki Camarena?” Jana said as her eyes closed tight.

  “He was before our time, back in the early ’80s,” Cade said. “Kiki Camarena was a DEA agent working deep cover in Mexico. He disappeared. He had gotten way too far in. When he couldn’t be located, news of his disappearance made it all the way into the Oval Office. Reagan was so pissed off that he called the president of Mexico and threatened that if Camarena did not resurface, immediately, he would instruct the US State Department to issue a code-red alert for Americans traveling to Mexico. It would have dried up the Mexican tourism business within days. Not long thereafter, the body of Agent Camarena came forward. He had been tortured to death. It was the beginning of the United States’ drug wars into Mexico and Colombia. The gloves came off. Special-ops teams were inserted all over the place. They carried out a lot of raids, burned crop fields, and took no prisoners, and I think you know what I mean. When anyone in DEA so much as mentions the name of Kiki Camarena, it’s a precursor. They’re angry, they’re impatient, and time is running out.”

  13

  The Safe House

  The car pulled further up the hillside of Gray’s Farm Main Road, past the Old Sugar Windmill up to a small house overlooking HawksbillBay, a beautiful stretch of pinkish sand and turquoise water. The house was shrouded in tropical vegetation and trees that overhung from every angle. As the tires crunched across the gravel-like driveway of crushed seashells, Jana said, “This is your safe house? Well, you certainly know how to treat the ladies.”

  “It’s not that bad.”

  “Not that bad? Look at this dump. Christ, the little hut I live in is nicer than this. And that’s on a bartender’s salary.”

  “But it’s nice inside.”

  “Your plane touched down at the airport an hour ago. You went straight to the police station to argue with the cops until they let me out. You haven’t even been here yet.”

  “You never let a guy get the edge, do you?”

  “Montes Lima Perez found that out the hard way.”

  “That’s just cold,” Cade replied. They got out of the rental car and Cade looked across the roof at her. “Want to tell me what really happened? Perez didn’t attack you, did he?”

  Jana spoke through gritted teeth. “If I want a man to put his hands on me, I’ll let him know.”

  “Let him know? Two compound fractures and two GSWs? That’s what you call letting him know? I’ll ask again, and I want the truth this time. He didn’t attack you, did he? Tell me what happened.”

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll go back and tell the lieutenant to arrest you.”

  “Like I give a shit,” she said, though they both knew that was a lie. Jana exhaled. “Fine. It was a Monday night. I had the night off and went to a local club. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy. He asked me to dance, we danced. He bought me a drink, we drank.”

  “I didn’t know you had a thing for Latin guys.”

  Jana ignored the statement. “I told him I had to go, but he followed me outside. Said he wanted to make sure I got home safely.”

  “And you believed that crap?”

  “Of course I didn’t. I’m not an idiot, and I knew that look in his eye. I knew what he wanted. I just didn’t want the same thing.”

  “You’re walking alone at night with a guy you don’t want to spend the night with, and you just happen to turn down a dark alley?”

  Jana went silent.

  Cade continued. “See, this is where your story gets a little hazy to me. How did you happen to walk down that alley when you knew full well this guy might try something?”

  “Cade, I didn’t know he had a criminal record. Certainly not one that included sexual assault.”

  “Go on.”

  “About halfway down the alley he pulls me close to him and starts to kiss my neck.”

  “Did you tell him to stop?”

  “God. It’s like I’m being interrogated. No, I didn’t. You happy now? But when I finally did, that’s when his hands started crawling all over me. And then I—”

  “You can stop right there. You lured him, didn’t you? You lured him down that alley.”

  “I did no such thing.”

  Cade couldn’t help but notice she had broken eye contact. He walked around the car and squared off in front of her. “I checked, Jana. The cops may not have picked up on it yet, but the walk from the club back to your place does not include that alley. You went out of your way to bring him to a dark, secluded place, didn’t you?” He paused a moment, waiting for an answer. When one did not come, he continued. “You know what I think? I think you can�
��t get past your ordeal with Rafael. You had a gut feeling that this guy Perez was bad news and you figured you’d teach him a lesson, like the one you taught Rafael,” he blurted as he leaned over her. “You went off on him, didn’t you?”

  “What the hell would you know about my ordeal with Rafael?” she replied, almost yelling. “You didn’t show up until the last minute. And you don’t know me!” she said as she shoved him backward. “You don’t know what’s going on inside my head.”

  “What I know is that you’re not the girl I fell in love with. That much is perfectly clear. What I suspect though, is that you decided a long time ago that you would never again be a victim, so you found yourself some training. Christ, look at your shoulders and arms. Look at how you broke Perez into pieces. The guy must have seventy pounds on you.”

  Jana looked away.

  “And at that nightclub, once you got a bad feeling about Perez, you decided you’d test him on it.”

  Her head snapped back. “Yeah, I decided to test him,” she said with a steely look in her eyes. “And my gut was right on point. He was a thug dressed in a nice package, and I taught him a lesson. He won’t be forcing himself on another woman ever again, that’s for sure.”

  “Not now that you shot his balls off.” Cade shook his head. “Tell the truth. The broken bones came first, didn’t they? And then the smashed face? And while he writhed on the ground, you shot him, twice.” Cade crossed his arms. “Not so different from what you did to Rafael back at the cabin. So what do you have to say now? What am I supposed to think? That you’re not a loose cannon?”

  “What I do has nothing to do with you,” she said.

  “It does now. The only thing we have in common is a past. A past and Kyle. Kyle needs our help, and I have to know you’re not going to lose your shit again if things go sideways.”

  She poked a sharp finger into his solar plexus with just enough force to get his attention. “I am in complete control.”