The Rules of Silence Read online

  Macias stared at him. This guy was something. “You have an idea?”

  “No, not really. Drugs, sex, those things. But the important thing … not something he can cover up. That'll be the thing, you know, the twist of the knife.”

  “That may take a little while to develop.”

  “That's okay. When it happens, he'll know. Maybe that will even be better. He thinks he's rid of me and then … ughhh. ”He made a gesture of knifing someone in the stomach with an underswinging thrust, holding, then twisting. “But for sure, the thing is, I want it to be a very shameful thing. ”He turned back to the window, looking out. “That pendejo really pissed me off. Shit. ”He turned again. “And I want pictures. I can send him those pictures for years. ”He turned back to the window.

  Macias said nothing.

  Luquín gave it some more thought. He turned around and wandered in Macias's direction.

  “Never go away, Jorge, ”he said, almost to himself. “That's the best torment of all. Hell, I just put it on the damn calendar and forget about it. When the date rolls around I just do it, whatever it is. For them it's worse than just the memory of something terrible. That fades with time. But knowing that I'm going to come back, sometime, some way, and remind them of it with a fresh approach, hell, they can't stop worrying about that. That's real torture. The anxiety consumes them like a fucking disease.”

  Macias had never heard Luquín talk like this before. What was this? Did he know something after all? Did he suspect? Was he trolling for a reaction from Macias that would tell him something about his suspicions? If ever Macias had to have himself under control, it was now. The fact was, Luquín could not know what Macias had decided to do, because aside from talking to Cain, the betrayal was entirely within Macias's head. He hadn't uttered a word of it to anyone. There was only the telephone call, that's all. Macias knew that Luquín was capable of playing mind games, and he cautioned himself not to be drawn into them.

  “You think about it, ”Macias said, and he turned up his glass and finished his soda to cover his discomfort. “Whatever you want to do. ”He looked at his watch. “Later tonight I'm going to meet with my people. That will take a couple of hours. Is there anything you want me to know before I do that? This will probably be the last time I'll see them personally before this is over. I want to make sure they understand what we're expecting.”

  “And what are we expecting?”

  “If Cain pays ahead of schedule, as we hope, I want to release most of these people quickly. Having them here is only a risk. Whatever you decide about Cain's wife can be handled separately.”

  “Of course, Cain hasn't yet told us what he is going to do.”

  “No, ”Macias said, crossing one leg over the other and putting an arm on the back of the sofa, doing his damnedest to seem relaxed. “And what if he changes his mind and doesn't pay up immediately?”

  But Luquín didn't answer. Though he was looking at Macias, the slight smile on his face belonged to other thoughts.

  “This, ”Luquín said, “is a lot of money, Jorge. You are going to be a very wealthy man.”

  “Good, ”Macias said.

  Chapter 45

  When Burden returned to the rental house, he was hot and tired, and his jeans were wet to the knees. He had already released the three-man encryption crew that had helped them decipher the messages picked up by the Beechcraft, and all that remained were Romolo Calò's three men and his own surveillance van crew of three.

  One man was sitting in the van monitoring the LorGuides and their yellow and green dots representing the human and vehicle moles Titus had managed to put in place. The rest of them were on the humid and airless screened porch, lying about listlessly like Bedouins, trying to get through the late afternoon heat. Pieces of paper, maps, and photos were scattered everywhere as they had been trying to work out the logistics of what they needed to do.

  Burden got an RC out of an ice chest, opened it, and walked onto the porch. He sat with his back to the wall, put the can of RC on the floor, and unbuttoned his shirt without saying a word. Everyone looked at him. He took a long drink of the soda.

  “Recent developments, ”he said, and proceeded to tell them what had just happened.

  Calò whistled softly under his breath.

  “So, essentially, ”Burden said, “Cain thinks Macias has just sold out his boss. I have to say, I agree. More important, Macias himself has given us the answer to the problem of how to isolate Luquín in the house. Follow me, Calò, and see if my count is the same as yours.

  “From our surveillance run last night, it seems that there are six of them staying in the house. Luquín, his bodyguard, Roque, and their driver. They use the black Navigator. Macias, his bodyguard, and their driver travel in the blue Navigator. We needed to get these last three out of the house, which would leave a driver, Roque, and Luquín at the house.”

  “That leaves the two guards and the driver in the Pathfinder, ”Calò said. “When Macias leaves, they'll probably come into the neighborhood close by to be ready to move in if Luquín should need them. So, we have three problem spots: Three armed men in Macias's car, that's including Macias. Three armed men in the Pathfinder. And nobody to cover their surveillance van. ”He looked at Burden. “We're short by one crew.”

  Burden said, “You're just going to let the surveillance crew go?”

  “And keep the van.”

  “Okay, then, I'll get Gil to put together a team to take care of the surveillance van for us.”

  Calò nodded. “And then what do you want done with Macias himself?”

  Burden squeezed the sides of his RC can in and out, making a little popping sound, the only sound in the room besides the roaring of cicadas in the cedar brakes just outside.

  “He disappears, same as the others.”

  Calò nodded.

  “One other thing, ”Burden said. “One of the Navigators, I don't care which one, needs to be left at Luquín's house after all of this is done.”

  “Fine, ”Calò said.

  No one asked him what was going to happen at the house, who was going to take care of the driver left there with Roque and Luquín, or what would become of Roque and Luquín themselves. But Burden's silence about it was enough to kick an imaginative mind into high gear. There were a few glances around the room, but Burden, preoccupied deep within himself, either ignored them or was completely unaware. It didn't matter either way. The matter would go no further.

  In Burden's small world, men and women with secrets were the accepted norm. It was what made them who they were. But a rare few were profoundly enigmatic, even to their peers. They were granted unusual trust and latitude in their personal mystery because of their nearly legendary reputations. The impending events at the clifftop house on Las Lomitas were the kinds of things that fed those mythologies.

  Burden stood stiffly and stepped away from the group of men. Staring out into the hot woods, he pulled out his cell phone to call Gil Norlin. The high temperature was bringing the essence out of the sap of the cedars, filling the dying day with an aromatic fragrance. When he was finished with his conversation, he continued to stand with his back to the group, lost in thought.

  Pacing back and forth in front of his men, Calò ignored Burden while he reviewed yet again the details of the coming operation, which was now only hours away. Again they explored the huge number of possibilities that could be applied to a basic scenario that evolved very quickly. The algebra of a specific tactical operation with limited personnel was minutely explored, theories were proposed, attacked, adjusted, and restated. Then attacked again. The unknowable variables were always there, impossible to eliminate. The suddenly unexpected was the only thing they could count on for sure. The rest of it was rehearsed with a fierce concentration.

  At a certain moment, when a fine point of a maneuver proposed by Baas was being shredded by the doubts of the others, Calò turned and went over to stand by Burden. There was nothing to look at, just the woods.
/>
  “Did you get Gil?”

  “He's going to get back to us. He doesn't think it's a problem, but he'll confirm it with you as soon as he can. I gave him all the particulars about the van and its crew, but he's going to want to get it from you, too. You can tell him where you want the thing delivered.”

  “Good, ”Calò said. Silence. “This isn't one of the simplest ones.”

  “We didn't have enough time, ”Burden said. “I'm sorry it had to be like this. ”It wasn't an apology; it was a regret. He reached up and touched the rusty screen with the rim of his RC can, rubbing it along the wire with a tiny thrumming sound. He touched it again and then dropped his hand to his side, holding the can against his leg.

  “It's one of the human curses, ”he said, “being afraid of time and what it can do to us. About a hundred years ago I heard an old woman say—she had just become a widow— that Time was a whore without a conscience. She gave herself to the damnedest people and denied herself to the saints. It was a vivid if kind of confusing aphorism, but I think I understand what she was getting at. ”He thought about it a moment. “But, in the end, it seems that Time treats everyone the same after all: Sooner or later she runs out on all of us.”

  Chapter 46

  Macias called back in exactly twenty minutes as he had promised. The conversation was quick and brittle. They would meet at La Terrazza, an Italian restaurant on Loop 360. Quarter to eleven. Macias didn't give Titus time to negotiate anything later, but luckily it was within Burden's preferred time frame anyway. The line went dead.

  For Titus, the next few hours passed in a complex mixture of grim anticipation, frantic preparation, and busywork to keep from thinking. From his office, he finally dealt with one of the things he had dreaded the most. He put in a call to Carla's daughters.

  After that, he also called Louise Thrush. Both calls were excruciating. When he hung up the phone, he was wringing wet with perspiration.

  He got up and went down the hallway to the kitchen, where Rita and Janet had been making sandwiches.

  Rita looked at him expectantly as he walked in, but he said nothing. He passed up the sandwiches sitting in a tray on the island along with glasses of iced tea and got a bottle of Scotch out of the pantry, put ice in a tumbler, and poured a drink.

  “How did that go with those calls? ”Rita asked, trying to make the question sound nonprovocative. The waiting was like attending a terminally ill friend; there was simply no way to get away from it. It had to be done, and you had to pretend not to be depressed or afraid or you wouldn't be any good to anyone. It was an exercise in the suspension of normal emotions.

  He sipped the Scotch. “Actually, it was terrible, ”he said. “The twins”—he shook his head—“Leslie cried inconsolably. She just couldn't stop. I don't know what I said to her. Tried to be comforting. I don't know. Lynne was quiet and polite, almost as if she weren't affected at all. Something's changed deep inside her. She's not going to let anything, or anyone, comfort her.”

  He went to the Scotch again.

  “And Louise? ”Rita asked.

  “Bless her heart. She wanted to review the funeral service. The songs, the scriptures. The order of things. She wanted to talk … you know, about Charlie. I took a lot of time with her. She needed me to do that. ”He paused. “And I wanted to … for her.”

  He shook his head again, then turned and walked out the kitchen door to the veranda. At Kal's request, all the landscaping lights had been turned on, but the lights on the veranda were turned off. Titus took a momentary refuge there, the glow from the kitchen windows falling in puddles on the flagstones. He caught a whiff of honeysuckle on the night air.

  But the respite was brief. His cell phone rang.

  “This is Ryan. Can you come on over to the cottage? We need to start getting you ready.”

  “Okay. ”Titus went to the kitchen door and stuck his head in. “Rita, we're getting things ready to go.”

  Everyone was there except Burden: the three bodyguards; Herrin and Cline, wearing headphones and watching the screens and listening to transmissions; and Rita and Titus.

  “We all need to be on the same page here, ”Kal said. “Here's what's set up. ”He was showing the strain. He and Ryan had been working nonstop to coordinate what needed to be done in the cottage with what was happening with Burden's people. Since Macias's phone call, the cottage had felt like the control tower at DFW. Plans were made and changed in a swirl of perpetual motion. Everyone had a job to do, and they had just enough manpower to cover the operation without a single person to spare.

  “We've got about an hour, ”Kal said, “before you need to drive away from here. García will be mobile the whole time, watching the dots on the LorGuides. There are three groups of Macias's people who need to be dealt with. García has a tactical group from out of town covering two of those. Gil Norlin has quickly pulled together a couple of people to handle Macias's surveillance van. All of them will be in communication with us, each other, and García in his van. And they'll all have LorGuides, too, so they can watch each other's progress.”

  Kal wiped his mouth. The pressure was bringing on the nervous tics. He was pacing around the room, occasionally referring to a clipboard.

  Titus made a mental note about the tactical group from out of town.

  “What about Luquín? ”Rita asked, looking around as if she wondered why someone weren't addressing the most obvious target of concern.

  “Yeah, García's got someone covering him, too, ”Kal said quickly, and moved on. “There's one mole sensor left, ”he said, stepping over and handing it to Titus. “Use it, don't lose it.”

  Titus peeled it off its clear sheet and put it on the inside of his right arm, at just about the spot you'd insert an IV.

  “We're going to put a ticker on your Rover, ”Kal continued, “but they'll assume it's there. Still … ”He shrugged. “They want you to get to La Terrazza early, go on inside to the courtyard, and wait. That'll pull Macias in to you and, maybe, separate him from his driver and bodyguard at the Navigator.”

  “Then what? ”Titus asked.

  “Have your conversation. Come home.”

  Titus nodded. “How long do I keep him there?”

  “Until we call you. One of us, or García.”

  “Then I take the cell phone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The encrypted one?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about a wire?”

  “Useless. He'll check; he'll find it.”

  Again Titus nodded. This all sounded too slick.

  “Listen, ”he said, looking at both Kal and Ryan, “I know I don't know a damn thing about what's going on here, or should be going on here, but this just doesn't feel quite right. This just seems a little too neat.”

  “It seems neat, ”Ryan said quickly and with unexpected candor, “because we're not telling you everything. The details. A lot of shit's going down, but you're not going to be a part of all of it. It's not your job. You don't need to know. ”He paused. “And you shouldn't know.”

  “The point is, ”Kal added, wiping his mouth, “those other guys don't know what's going on at your end, either. And they don't need to know. But everybody's got to do their thing right if this operation's going to succeed. If you don't hold Macias at La Terrazza long enough, you could be jeopardizing what the other guys are doing. They've got to have the time they need. Everybody knows what the others are doing, in general, so we all understand the rationale for our own responsibilities. But beyond that, you're not any different from anybody else in not knowing all the details.”

  “Okay, ”Titus said. That made sense. Shit, he guessed it made sense. “Look, at least give me some idea of where the situation is most critical. When is something most likely to go wrong here?”

  Kal nodded at him. “The moment you drive out those gates at the bottom of the hill, from that point on something's likely to go wrong. It's that damn simple. Every moment of every operation is the most cri
tical. You can never—ever—kid yourself about that.”

  Titus stared at him. But just in case he was having any doubts about it, Ryan spoke up again.

  “That's no bullshit platitude, ”he said. “That's the message of salvation.”

  Titus and Rita stepped outside and stood at the head of the allée. The landscape lights illuminated the beginning of the long double row of laurels until they converged into the sloping darkness.

  “That was sobering, ”Rita said, referring to their brief tutorial inside. “Okay, Titus, I'm going to be following this every step of the way in there with the rest of them. I insisted. We've already talked about it. But the moment you're in the clear, you call me.”

  “Yeah, I will, ”he said. He was suddenly humming with adrenaline. He was aware of a kind of giddy anticipation, but at the same time it was mitigated by the things that weren't said. The stuff he had to read between the lines. It seemed absolutely impossible that Burden and this loose collection of people who seemed underprepared and short on time would be able to do what he knew Burden wanted to do. But they were going ahead with it. He wondered if this was the way it always felt for these people. Or if every operation was different and carried with it a different set of emotions. Was it an unending stream of never-repeated episodes? Was that the juice that kept these people in this business?

  “Titus? ”Rita had taken his arm and pulled herself to him, close. He could smell her, not her perfume, but her, a far more compelling fragrance. He put his arms around her.

  “Tomorrow it'll be over, ”she said. “And we'll have our lives back. I believe that.”

  “You know, I do, too, ”he lied. He didn't believe it because he knew they'd never have their lives back. Not the way they had been, anyway. But they might be free of Luquín, and right now he thought that would be worth any amount of lying and killing. That appalled him even as he thought it, but he wasn't going to pretend that he had moral scruples about what was about to happen.

  The door to the cottage opened and Kal stood on the threshold.