Code Name Tequila Ch. 12

"Hello Don Pico," Carlos said. "You are on speaker. Both Ria and I are here."

"Good morning, you two," came Don Pico's voice from the phone's speaker. "I trust you had a good night. Fernandez had a quite night last night, staying in the hotel and ordering room service. However, he has just called down to the front desk to request his car from the valet. Sorry to interrupt your morning, but if you are interested in following him, you'll have to get a move on."

"We'll get dressed and get on our way right now," Carlos said, hanging up the phone. "No time for showers, I'm afraid. We need to get on the road."

Carlos and Ria dressed quickly and headed down to the underground parking garage. Carlos had the car keys in his hand, along with a note from Don Pico. "It is an Audi," Carlos said. "Don Pico says it is parked in space 25."

Carlos and Ria walked through the parking garage, looking for space 25. Carlos suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Oh, Don Pico. I could kiss you," he said.

Ria looked around, confused. "What?"

Carlos pointed towards space 25. "That is what. Don Pico got us an Audi R8."

The R8 was white and sleek, low to the ground and curvy. Carlos climbed into the driver's seat, settling into the black leather seat, while Ria settled into the passenger seat. Carlos started the car, and the parking garage was filled with the low growl of the 4.2 litre V8 engine. Carlos pulled his Apple iPhone out of his pocket and connected it to the R8's Bang and Olufsen stereo using the built in MP3 jack. Carlos pressed some buttons on the phone, and the car filled with the sound of Busy Child by The Crystal Method.

"Ah, this is good driving music," Carlos said, reving the engine. "Ready to go?"

Ria nodded. Carlos put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking spot.

Carlos stopped the Audi half a block away from the Hotel Torre de Oro's parking garage. Don Pico sent a text to Carlos' phone giving details on the car Fernandez was driving, a silver Hyundai Sonata.

Carlos and Ria waited in the Audi, the engine giving off a low growl while it idled. The hotel's parking garage entrance opened, and Fernandez's silver Sonata pulled out. Carlos put the Audi in gear and started to follow Fernandez.

The Audi handled well as Carlos drove through the streets of Panama City. Carlos accelerated quickly away from the lights, the car quickly getting up to the speed limit in just seconds. Carlos was able to take corners quickly, the all wheel drive on the Audi giving excellent grip.

Fernandez drove the car out of the city and inland. After about 30 minutes, Fernandez signalled a left turn. Carlos slowed the Audi, and turned to Ria smiling. "Looks like you'll get your wish after all," he said. Ria looked at his quizzically, so Carlos pointed to the sign marking the road.

"Miraflores Locks Visitor Center."

"Looks like you'll get to see the lock after all," Carlos said.

Fernandez parked his Hyundai in the parking lot, and made his way towards the visitor centre. Carlos parked the Audi and waited for Fernandez to start to mount the steps up towards the building.

Ria put on her blonde wig and sunglasses. Carlos put on a hat and sunglasses. Neither was much of a disguise, but Fernandez had continually shown that he was unaware of tails, so both felt confident in following him into the Miraflores lock.

Ria and Carlos walked into the building. There were rooms with displays off the main entrance hall, but Ria spotted Fernandez already out of the building on the other side, near the lock. Ria discretely pointed at Fernandez. Carlos nodded.

Ria and Carlos paid for entrance to the centre, and walked through the building and outside. Fernandez had gone to the right and was standing by the lock wall. Ria and Carlos turned left and took a seat at some tables set up outside a small café.

"Grab us a couple of coffees as cover," Carlos said lowly. Ria nodded and walked into the café, ordering two coffees. After receiving the order, she exited the building and looked over to see Fernandez still standing alone.

Ria sat down opposite Carlos, who was facing towards Fernandez. They sat silently sipping their coffees while they waited. A number of people were milling around, but none of them approached Fernandez. They were all tourists, waiting for a ship to come through the lock.

After ten minutes, a small, willowy man in a pair of beige slacks and a blue linen shirt walked out of the main building. The man looked in both directions, and then made a beeline for Fernandez.

"Here we go," said Carlos. Ria took off her sunglasses, pretending to clean them, but really using them as a mirror to watch the action.

Fernandez and the thin man exchanged a few words before both turning and walking towards the building. Carlos stretched, faking a yawn, and then stood up, downing the last of his coffee. "Ready to go, sweetheart," he said in English, adopting a Southern USA accent. Ria stood up and nodded, turning to leave. Neither Fernandez or the man paid any attention to Carlos and Ria. The two men entered the building, walking quickly.

Carlos and Ria walked towards the main building. Through the windows they watched as Fernandez and his companion walked straight through the building and out the front entrance. Carlos and Ria followed.

Fernandez and the other man exited the building and walked down the steps towards the parking lot. Carlos and Ria walked out of the building and walked halfway down the steps. There they paused, and Carlos took out a map from his pocket and pretended to consult it, like a tourist trying to decide what to do next.

Ria and Carlos watched as the men approached Fernandez's Sonata. The willowy man broke away and walked towards a small Nissan hatchback, from which he pulled out a small gym bag. He walked back to join Fernandez at the Hyundai.

Fernandez opened the trunk of his car, and pulled out a briefcase. The willowy man quickly opened the case, looked inside, and shut it again. Fernandez looked quickly in the gym bag, shuffling through the contents, before nodding and closing the bag. The two men shook hands, and parted.

Carlos folded up the map he had been pretending to read. "I'll follow Fernandez in the car, you grab one of the taxis from the taxi rank down there and follow the other guy," he said.

Ria and Carlos walked down to the parking lot. The willowy man was just getting into his car as Ria hopped into a taxi. Carlos winked at her as he shut her door, and quickly made his way towards the Audi. Fernandez had already started up his Hyundai and was driving towards the exit.

Ria handed the taxi driver two twenty dollar US bills. "Follow that Nissan hatchback discretely and there will be another forty dollars in it for you," she said.

"Yes, ma'am," the taxi driver said, starting the car up and putting it in gear.

Fernandez drove out first, with the willowy man following him out of the parking lot. Fernandez made a left turn out of the visitors centre, heading off in the other direction from Panama City. The willowy man turned his Nissan Hatchback right onto the main road, heading back towards Panama City. Ria's taxi followed the Nissan. As the taxi accelerated down the road, Ria looked behind her to see the Audi R8 turn left, heading away from Panama City. Carlos quickly closed the gap between himself and Fernandez's Hyundai.

The taxi driver kept close to the willowy man's Nissan on the main highway, but as they entered back into the city the taxi driver started to fall back and hide in the traffic as he followed the willowy man's car. The willowy man drove through town and down towards the water. Eventually he pulled into a parking garage in an office building just a block from the water.

Ria gave the taxi driver two more twenty dollar bills. "Where are we," she asked.

"Mirabella," the cab driver said, stuffing the money in his pants pocket. "Lots of companies around here. Shipping, banking, insurance."

Ria thanked the driver and jumped out of the taxi. She walked up the staircase towards the main entrance of the building under which the willowy man had parked. Ria looked through the main glass doors of the building. The lobby was well appointed, with marble floors and a large staircase leading to the upper floors. The walls were covered with rich, dark wood, and small alcoves held classical looking statues of naked women in marble. There were two security guards sitting behind a desk just behind the main doors, and a old woman in a shapeless dress and head scarf cleaning the banister of the main staircase with an old rag.

Just then, the willowy man exited a staircase, carrying the briefcase that Fernandez had given him at the Miraflores Locks. He walked towards a set of large wooden doors on the other side of the lobby. Ria looked over and read the sign beside the doors. "Banco Pacifico y Atlantico de Colombia y Panama," the sign read, the Pacific and Atlantic Bank of Colombia and Panama. The willowy man entered the wooden doors, and they shut behind him.

Ria walked down the stairs and around the front of the building. All the windows of the bank had curtains blocking them, so she couldn't see in. She signed and walked back up the staircase and into the lobby. As she opened the door, she pulled two twenty dollar bills out of her pocket.

The security guards stood quickly as Ria walked into the lobby. "Can I help you," one of them asked. The other guard looked on intently, and the cleaning woman looked up from her dusting.

Ria quickly caught the eye of the cleaner. Ria glanced quickly down at her left hand, and then turned towards the guards. "Is this the headquarters of Trans-Allied Shipping?" she asked. As she did, Ria held her left hand out behind her, waving the two twenty dollar dills so that only the cleaner could see them.

"No, ma'am, I am afraid there is no company by that name in this office," the guard replied.

"Oh sorry, my mistake," Ria said, turning towards the door as she stuffed the bills back into her pocket. Ria walked out of the building, taking a glance back to the cleaner. The cleaner was watching her leave, so once Ria was out of view of the guards, she motioned for the cleaner to follow.

Ria walked down the steps and stood on the sidewalk. Thirty seconds later, the old cleaning lady shuffled out of the front doors and down the steps. Ria handed her the $40, and told her that she should take the rest of the day off, as long as she gave her the headscarf and dress.

The cleaner shrugged, and pulled off the dress there on the street. At first Ria was afraid that it would draw attention, but was happy to see that the cleaner was wearing street clothes underneath. "I wear the dress over my clothes so my clothes don't get dirty," the cleaner explained, handing Ria the dress. Ria slipped it over her head and let it fall over her clothes. Ria took the cleaners head scarf, and put it over her head. Finally, the cleaner handed Ria the rag she was dusting with.

Ria watched as the old woman shuffled down the street, and then turned towards the building. Adopting a shuffling gait that approximately the old woman's walk, Ria walked back up the stairs and into the building. The guards looked up from their TV screens, but on seeing the hunched figure entering, turned back to their monitors.

Ria used the old woman's rag to wipe down the door handles and door jamb of the bank. The guards remained uninterested, so Ria turned the handle and opened the door. The guards didn't raise their heads, so Ria walked through the door and let it close behind her.

Ria walked forward into the bank. The room was large and long, with two rows of desks spaced every 10 feet or so. The room was very dark with all the curtains closed, lit mostly by desk lamps on the desks. Ria shuffled along the thick carpet, keeping her head down, but raising her eyes to scan the room for the willowy man. Ria spotted him sitting at a desk about half-way down the room.

Ria felt into the pocket of the cleaning woman's dress, and felt something plastic. She pulled it out, and on seeing that it was a garbage bag, unfolded it. Ria shuffled from desk to desk, emptying the trash bins beside each desk into the plastic garbage bag. The bankers sitting at the desk and their customers paid no attention to Ria. They were all involved in high financing banking, moving around millions of dollars. The cleaning lady was nothing more than part of the background, nothing more than moving furniture.

Ria finally approached the desk with the willowy man sitting at it. The man had put the briefcase on the desk and opened it. The banker was now flipping through the stacks of paper in the briefcase. Ria approached the desk. Neither the willowy man nor the banker bothered to look over. Both were entranced by the contents of the case. Ria reached down to pick up the bin beside the desk, casting her eyes up to the briefcase. She caught a quick glimpse of the papers in the case. In a large and official looking font were the words "Republic of Mexico" and "Government Bonds." Ria saw that there were many of the bonds in the briefcase. Obviously Fernandez had paid the willowy man a large amount in bonds for whatever was in the duffle bag.

Ria shuffled on to the next desk, emptied the bin into the garbage bag. The willowy man continued to speak with the banker. Ria turned to leave, walking back towards the large wooden doors.

"Excuse me," Ria heard a voice behind her say. Ria kept walking.

"Excuse me, cleaning woman. Excuse me," the voice called more loudly. Ria increased her shuffling, but was still a good twenty feet from the door. Ria quickly glanced to her right and left, and could see that now the people in the office were looking up at her.

Suddenly, Ria felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Excuse me, but you forgot this one," the voice said. Ria turned around slowly, keeping her head bowed down to hid her face. A man held out a half-full garbage bin. Ria opened her plastic garbage bag, and the man dumped the trash in.

"Thank you," he said, turning to walk away. Ria shut the garbage bag and turned towards the door, shuffling as quickly as she could until she was safe again, outside the building.

* * *

Ria had quickly ditched the old woman's disguise and had paid for a cab to wait at the curb until the willowy man drove out of the parking garage. The man drove his Nissan through the centre of town, towards the north and away from the water.

After 20 minutes, he pulled into the parking garage of a small apartment block. The apartment was on a quiet, tree-lined residential street with a few low rise apartment buildings and some walled houses.

Ria paid the taxi, and took a seat on a bench across from the building. Ria contemplated her next move. The apartment block was 4 stories high, and through counting the windows on the building, Ria figured that it held about 10 apartments on each floor. 40 separate apartments, any one of which the willowy man might have entered.

"Too many apartments to try and determine where he is," Ria thought to herself. "Perhaps I could find a resident, and ask if they know the man, but neighbours in an apartment block in a large city like this probably aren't really that friendly with each other."

Ria took out her phone and called up CIA headquarters in Langley, getting CIA analyst Jarvis Cleethrope on the phone. "Jarvis, do you have access to financial and government systems in Panama?" Ria asked.

"Potentially, depends on the systems. What are you looking for?" Jarvis replied

"I am trying to find out the name and address of a man. He is a customer of the Banco Pacifico y Atlantico de Colombia y Panama, and lives in an apartment on 72 Este in the San Francisco area of Panama City. Male, probably early 40s, thin and tall," Ria said.

"Hmmm, it'll take me a while. I can check with the Panamanian's for a list of names of people who have filed income tax from that address, but the bank might take a while. I don't see any moles listed on the system from inside that bank, so the computer whizzes on the 3rd floor will need to see if they can hack into the system. Usually quite hard to do with banking," Jarvis replied.

"Okay, thanks. Let me know if you find out anything," Ria said. Ria hung up the phone, and was about to leave when the front door of the apartment block opened up and the willowy man walked out. Ria sat back down on the bench and waited, watching the man walk down the street towards the main road. Ria watched until the willowy man turned the corner, and then bounded up and walked quickly down the block.

Ria turned the corner, but the man had disappeared. "Damn it," she said under her breath. Ria walked along the street, peering in the windows of the shops along the road. Ria walked past a small bar and restaurant, and saw the willowy man sitting at a table within the bar.

Ria entered the bar and sat down a few tables away from the willowy man, facing him. The man was slouched in his chair, eyes cast downward. The waitress walked over to the willowy man's table with a bottle of Atlas beer and two shots of white liquor, either tequila, vodka or white rum Ria figured. The man quickly drowned the two shots of liquor. He looked up and caught Ria's eye. Ria smiled at him, but the man quickly looked back down at his table.

The waitress came over to Ria's table, and Ria ordered an Atlas beer. "What is the man over there drinking?" Ria asked, pointing at the willowy man.

"Shots of vodka," the waitress replied.

"Buy him one from me," Ria said. The waitress nodded and walked away, returning a moment later with the beer for Ria. The waitress then walked over and gave the shot to the willowy man. He looked up confused, but the waitress said something to him and pointed at Ria.

The willowy man looked over at Ria suspiciously. Ria smiled at him and nodded. The man looked quizzically at the shot for a moment, but then downed it.

Ria stood up and walked over to the willowy man's table. "Mind if I sit down," Ria asked.

"I'm not in the mood for company," the man said, taking a swig of him beer.

"That's fine," Ria said. "We could just sit silently and drink."

The man shook his head. "I don't have any money to spend on company," he said.

Ria laughed. "I'm not a prostitute. I'm just looking for someone to drink with."

The man looked up for a moment, and then shrugged. "Whatever," he said. Ria pulled out a chair and sat down.

"I'm Ria," Ria said, extending her hand.

The willowy man took a swig of his beer. "I thought we were going to sit silently," he said, leaving Ria's hand extended without shaking it. Ria brought her hand down, and took a sip of her beer.

The willowy man took a long slug of his beer, emptying the bottle. He motioned to the waitress to bring another.

"You look like you could use some cheering up," Ria said. "You know, I'm really good at cheering people up."

The willowy man stared into his empty beer bottle, waiting impatiently for its replacement. "And how would you propose to cheer me up," he asked.

"You know what they say. Fuck the pain away," Ria said.

The man looked up at Ria, shocked. Then he shook his head and frowned. "I don't think you are my type," he said.

"I can be any type you want," Ria replied.

The waitress set a fresh bottle of Atlas down in front of the willowy man. He took a swig and swished it around in his mouth before swallowing it down. "I'm not interested in girls," the willowy man admitted.

Ria smiled and pulled her chair around closer to the willowy man. "You might be interested in a woman like me," she said. Ria grabbed the willowy man's hand, and pushed it down her pants. She felt as the man's hand softly ran over her cock and balls.

"Ummm, wow," was all the willowy man said.

"So, what do you think? I promise it'll be a lot more fun than spending the afternoon drinking your troubles away," Ria said.