Code Name Tequila Ch. 08

"Are you leaving?" Marisa asked. This was not the first time Isabella had rushed off at the buzz of a text message. "Where are you always going? Why are you always running off?"

"I have work to do, important marketing work for the racing series," Isabella said.

"Now?" Marisa asked. She looked at the clock. "It's six in the evening. Can't it wait until tomorrow? Come and lie with me," Marisa said, patting the bed.

Isabella frowned. "I am sorry, Marisa, but I have responsibilities. I... I just don't think you'd understand. I'm going to take a quick shower, and then I have to go." Isabella came over and kissed Marisa on the head, and then went into the shower.

Marisa lay on the bed looking at the ceiling until she heard the shower start. Marisa turned over on her side and leaned on her elbow. There on the bedside table was Isabella's phone. Marisa grabbed it and called up the recent text messages.

"Need you now. Meet in usual place in Lo Prado. K."

The message was from a Chilean number that Isabella had labelled as "K - Santiago" Marisa copied down the number on a sheet of the hotel stationery, and the message.

"Lo Prado, what is that?" she said to herself. Isabella's computer was booted up and wasn't locked, so she quickly called up Google and typed in Lo Prado. Lo Prado was a neighbourhood in Santiago out in the west end.

Marisa closed the web browser, and then cleared the entry out of the cache and the history. She put the phone back where she had picked it up, and pulled on her jeans and t-shirt.

"So, Isabella, off to meet your mystery caller in Lo Prado? If you keep refusing to tell me who you are meeting, there is only one thing to do. I'll have to follow you out there," Marisa left the hotel room just as Isabella turned the water off in the shower.

* *

Pepe's car was a rusty Volkswagen Golf that had a tendency to cough thick black smoke out of the exhaust whenever he changed gears. In a city that had nicknamed itself after Manhattan and prided itself on being one of the most successful economies in South America, most people were driving new, well maintained cars. Pepe's pollution-spewing rust bucket stood out far more than Ria would have liked.

Ria put out her hand, screaming over the pounding dance music. "Ease up, you're too close. We don't want him to see us," she said.

Pepe, head bopping along to the electronic blasting from the stereo, yelled out, "what?"

Ria looked over at him and scowled. The stereo was probably worth four times what the car was. She grabbed the volume knob and twisted it down. "I said slow down, leave some distance between us and him."

Pepe nodded, and slowed down. He looked over at Ria, who was craning her head to the right and left, trying to follow the progress of Carlos' rental Peugeot in the traffic ahead.

"So, after we follow Mr. Sanz, maybe we could go out? I know a nice little place near my house with good food and good music," he said. Pepe reached out and put his hand on Ria's knee.

Ria batted his hand away. "Pepe, pay attention to the road. I think he's getting off, get over to the right."

Pepe frowned. He was starting to think that his chances of taking the beautiful girl around for his friends to see wasn't going to happen. It was just like all the other fancy women who stay at the hotel, they all make nice to Pepe until he books them on the sold out wine tour or gets them tickets to the Opera, and then they ignore him. Pepe sighed loudly.

Ria pressed her head against the window and watched as the blue Peugeot got off the main highway and onto the service road running along the highway. "Yes, he got off. Take this next ramp, Pepe," she said.

For a moment Pepe thought about driving on. He was sick of being bossed around by beautiful women, sick of taking orders. He didn't, of course. Just like every other time he gave in, and did exactly what she asked. "Stupid, Pepe," he scolded himself silently. "You do what they want, and they will never do what you want!"

Ria watched as Carlos' car came to an intersection and made a left turn. "Up there, Pepe, turn left."

Pepe frowned. "Why do you follow Mr. Sanz, Ms. Ortega?"

Ria leaned forward to try and watch Carlos' progress through the columns supporting the elevated highway beside them. "Ummm, he's my boyfriend and I think he's cheating on me," she said, distractedly.

Pepe sucked in a breath, puffing up his chest. "A beautiful woman like you shouldn't be cheated on. Maybe you need a new boyfriend, someone who would worship you, treat you like the goddess you are?" Pepe said, hopefully.

"Left here, Pepe. LEFT!" she said as Pepe almost drove through the intersection.

Pepe's chest deflated. He looked over at Ria, but she wasn't even looking at him, instead staring at the road ahead, and the cheating pig Carlos. Why do the beautiful women always go for the men that treat them so bad, Pepe asked himself.

Carlos' car slowed. Ria put her hand out and braced it against Pepe's chest. "Stop the car, NOW!" she said.

Pepe slammed on the brakes. His heart leaped from his chest with the touch of the beautiful woman. He was always telling his friends about the women who stayed at the hotel and slept with him, lonely wives whose husbands worked too much, horny daughters dragged away on family vacations and sexy single women looking for some famous Latin American heat. The truth, which Pepe barely liked to admit to himself, was that he had never touched a woman in that way. He longed to, so much. He saw them by the pool in their bikinis, and could barely contain himself. It always ended like this, though, the woman off with some asshole who didn't even care for her, let alone have the capacity to love her.

Ria walked at Carlos' car pulled into a parking lot by a warehouse. "Pull in this lot over here," Ria said, pointing to a parking lot between two warehouses.

Pepe looked around. "I don't think Carlos is here to cheat with a woman. This is all warehouses for stuff to fly out of the country," he said.

Ria looked around, and said to herself. "This must be where they offloaded the shipment from Vegas." Ria leaned into the car. "Pepe, stay here. I'll be back soon, and then we can go out and grab some food or something, if you want, okay? But you have to stay here and stay out of sight."

Ria closed the door of Pepe's car, and sprinted across the street until she was safely in the shadow of the warehouses. She made her way quickly but silently down the street towards Carlos' car. She was half-way to the spot where he turned in when she saw him make a dash across the street to the other side. She pressed herself into the shadows and watched where he went. He ran down the side of a building and disappeared from Ria's sight.

Ria looked up and down the street and scanned the buildings around her. She didn't see anyone watching, so she sprinted across the street and made a beeline for the building Carlos had run down the side of. She stopped at the corner of the building, and peaked around. She saw Carlos at the about half-way down, crouched behind a dumpster. She also saw a couple of large men close to the end of the building, they were both holding rifles.

Ria ducked back under cover. Ria ran over to the other side of the building and peaked around. More men near the end of the building. She counted them. Four of them, three with rifles. She went back to the other side and peaked around the corner again. Carlos was on the move. The two men with rifles had walked down to the end of the building and were facing away from Carlos, so he was making a break for a door on the side of the building.

Ria broke into a run. She sprinted down the side of the building, keeping her eyes fixed on the men with the rifles. She saw a whiff of smoke rise above them. Ria ran full out, hoping that they men would at least finish a full cigarette before turning back around.

Ria came up to the dumpster. She looked towards the door. This was the last place she could take cover. If she kept running, she wouldn't have a place to hide if the men turned around. She figured it would take her 5 seconds to make it to the door that Carlos had gone in. She kept sprinting.

1 second...

Another puff of smoke above the guards, one of the men leaned back and shook with laughter.

2 seconds...

The guard that was laughing made a movement with his arm, like he was swatting away a fly or perhaps flicking away his cigarette. Ria looked at the distance to the door and hoped that it was a fly.

3 seconds...

The second guard dropped his hand to his side. Ria saw a flash of red near the man's foot, embers flying off the end of a cigarette hitting the ground.

4 seconds...

The laughing guard held up his weapon, examining it in the late afternoon light. The second guard lifted his foot and stomp down on his cigarette butt.

5 seconds...

The guard who stamped out his cigarette stretched his hands in the air, yawning in a big breath of fresh air.

The laughing guard started to spin around. His head pivoted towards the alleyway Ria was running down. He put his foot down, and then quickly looked down as he lifted his foot. The guard saw a string of pink bubble gum strung between the sole of his shoe and the ground. He batted at it with his rifle tip until the gum fell away.

6 seconds...

The laughing guard caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up, but the alley was empty. He wrote it off to his imagination.

* *

Ria crept through darkened corridors. There was a warren of little offices that lined the side of the warehouse, though all seem abandoned. Ria would occasionally catch glimpses of a large space off to her left, and shipping containers, like she had seen in Las Vegas.

She had lost Carlos. She couldn't be sure if he had headed out towards the open space, or was hidden somewhere in the dark office space she was in. She strained to see into the blackness, but her eyes just couldn't adjust to the dark. She tentatively took a few steps forward. She heard something behind her. She started to twist around to see what it was, but something grabbed her and held her in place. An arm wrapped around her torso and arms, locking them uselessly by her side. A second arm wrapped around her head and covered her mouth, stifling any scream.

Ria opened her mouth, and then bit down on the arm. She heard a soft grunt from behind her, and felt her captor's grip loosen slightly before it clamped down harder. She chomped down again, but this time her captor didn't react.

Her captor pulled her down the hallway. She tried kicking at whoever held her, but her legs flailed at air. She was dragged over a raised threshold, and then flung from her captors grasp. Ria bounced off a nearby wall and slumped to the ground. She heard a muffled thud, and suddenly a light shone into her face.

"Who are you working for?" a voice asked. Ria recognized it as Carlos' voice. She couldn't see him, she could see nothing except the single beam of light shining in her eyes.

"I could ask you the same thing, Carlos," she retorted. Ria started to stand up.

"Don't move, I have a gun," Carlos said. Ria froze.

Carlos moved closer, the light increasing in intensity. "Now, answer me, who are you working for?"

Ria squinted at the light, saying nothing. Carlos took another step, the light now within a few feet of Ria's face. The beam was bright and intense, and Ria could feel the heat of the light on her face. Carlos forcefully said, "I swear to God, I will shot you if you don't tell me who..."

He never got to finish his sentence. Ria's leg kicked out and made contact with his stomach. He doubled over. Ria wrenched the flashlight from his hands and smashed the heavy handle down on his head. Carlos, dazed, staggered and sprawled out on his stomach. Ria shined the beam on him.

"Where is that gun you were talking about?" she asked, looking at the floor around him and seeing no weapon.

Carlos looked up and started to say something, but Ria, kicked him in the side of the head. Clutching his head, he rolled over on his back. Ria lunged down and straddled his chest, trapping his arms helplessly beneath him. She reached down and grasped his throat with one hand while holding the flashlight above his face with the other.

She squeezed his throat, choking off his air supply. "Now, let me be the one that asks the questions. What do you do for Fernandez?" she said.

Ria released his throat. Carlos sputtered and coughed. "Fernandez, I don't work for... GAWK." Ria had closed her hand around his throat again.

She moved the flashlight a little closer. "Let's try this again. I know you are working for Fernandez. What I don't know is what your role is, or how close Fernandez is to the Aguila Roja. You need to start telling me those things if you want to keep breathing," Ria said.

Ria released Carlos' throat. He gasped for breath. "I swear, I don't work for Fernandez. I don't work for the Aguila Roja. I work against him."

Ria smashed the flashlight down on Carlos' forehead. He yelped. She closed her fist around his throat again. "Listen, we can do this all night. If you have a choking fetish, then maybe you'll like this. Otherwise, I think you'll find the increasingly longer periods without air in your lungs to be bothersome. Now, again, what do you do for Fernandez?"

Ria released Carlos' throat. He gulped in air. "Okay, okay. I admit it. I work for Fernandez," he said, defeated.

Ria smiled. "Doing what?" she asked.

"This," Carlos said. Ria felt Carlos' legs fly up and wrap around her neck. He jerked them back to the ground. Ria was thrown up off Carlos' chest and smashed down onto the concrete floor. Carlos' legs started to squeeze around Ria's throat.

"I don't know who you are, or what you are doing here," he said. "But I can't have to following me around." He tightened the grip of his legs around her throat. Ria started to feel faint, her peripheral vision going black.

Just then, from outside the room Carlos and Ria heard someone yelling. "Ms. Ortega, please, help me! Ms. Ortega, some men have me, please help me!"

Carlos let off the pressure on Ria's throat. "Who the hell is that?" he asked.

Ria, gasping, replied, "Pepe, the Concierge from the hotel. He's the one that drove me out here."

"The Concierge from the hotel drove you here? Who the hell do you work for?"

* *

Right after Ria had left him, Pepe had waited in the car as she had asked, happy in thought that Ria would return and he could take her around for his friends to see. Even if he didn't get to sleep with her, at least being seen with a beautiful woman like that would help his reputation.

After a few minutes, doubted started to creep in. It was obvious Carlos wasn't here for an affair. There was nothing around here but a bunch of warehouses. Pepe thought it over. Ria would find Carlos. They would make up, and leave together. Pepe would go home alone.

"No," Pepe said to himself. "It is time to be a man. I will go out there and tell Ms. Ortega that she deserves better than the cheating, lying Mr. Sanz. I will show her that she needs a real man, and I am a real man."

Pepe got out of his car and walked towards the warehouses he had seen Ria run off towards.

* * *

Carlos let Ria out of the choke hold. They agreed that no matter who they were working for, the biggest problem both of them had right now was that Pepe was giving away the fact they were both here and putting them at risk of getting caught. "We can figure out later who the hell each other is, and then I can decide if I'll kill you," Carlos said.

Ria and Carlos crept out of the office, and down the hall. "Ms. Ortega, please, help me!" they heard Pepe cry. They moved towards the sound. The two guards had pulled Pepe into a small office, and had him sitting on the floor, guns to his head.

One of the guards turned to the other guard. "Go and get Fernandez and see what he wants to do about this guy," the guard said.

The second guard nodded and started to walk out. Carlos pressed himself against the wall, and waited until the guard was fully out the door. Then he grabbed the guard's gun and simultaneously brought his elbow down on the guards shoulder. The guard howled with pain and let go of his gun, which Carlos quickly flipped around and pointed at the man's chest.

"Back in the room, slowly," Carlos said. The man walked backwards slowly into the room. Carlos looked over the guard's shoulder at the other guard, his gun still pointed at Pepe's head. "You better drop that weapon unless you want your friend here to get it," Carlos said.

The guard dropped his gun, and at Carlos' instructions kicked it over to Ria.

Pepe looked up and nearly wept. "Oh, Thank God, Ms. Ortega. I thought they were going to kill me," he said, voice cracking.

Ria didn't look a Pepe, instead keeping her eyes and muzzle pointed at the guard. "Pepe, why didn't you stay in the car like I said," she asked. Pepe shrugged, looking over at Carlos holding a gun on the guard. No point in trying to steal away a woman from a man with a rifle.

Carlos jammed his gun into the chest of the guard. "Where are the weapons going?"

The guard laughed. "Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? You have just signed a death sentence for yourselves."

Carlos smashed the butt of the rifle onto the guards nose. Blood started to stream from his nostrils. "Where are the weapons going?" Carlos asked again.

The second guard stepped forward, but paused as Ria gestured towards him with the gun. "We don't know anything. We just guard the materials while they are here. Come on, man, you think they'd tell us anything."

Carlos grabbed the guard with the bleeding nose, throwing him out into the hall. "March, towards the door you came in. Make any sudden movements, or yell out, and I'll put two in the back of your head," he said.

Carlos motioned for the second guard to follow. He did. Carlos walked behind them, gun trained on their backs. Ria helped Pepe up, and they followed Carlos out.

"What now," Ria whispered to Carlos.

"We can't let the guards go, they have seen us. If Fernandez knows I am following him, or you are following him, then its the end for both of us. We'll take them to a safe location, and I'll have someone pick them up," Carlos said.

The guards reached the door, and turned slowly to walk out it.

"Pick them up? Who?" Ria said.

The first guard, with the bleeding nose was already outside. The second guard suddenly reached to his right, and from a dark alcove beside the door, pulled out a pistol. He raised it and fired.

Carlos, Pepe and Ria scattered, finding cover around corners or in offices in the darkness. The guard let off two more shots, wood splintering on the walls where the bullets landed.

The guard ran out the door. Carlos jumped up. "Come on, we can't let them get to the other guards," he said, running towards the door.

Ria jumped up and followed. Carlos sprinted out the dor. As she reached the door, she looked back and saw Pepe following her. "Pepe, stay in her until it is safe to come out," she said, before running out the door.

Carlos raised his rifle and aimed at the guards rounding the corner at the end of the building. He found his aim and fired a second too late, the guards had already disappeared. He sprinted down towards the end of the building and Ria followed.

From around the corner, they heard an engine start up. Carlos skidded to a halt. "Shit, they have a car, find cover," he said, turning and heading back towards the front of the building. Ria followed a few steps behind him. "Make for the dumpster, we can take up a position there," he said.

A Toyota 4Runner squealed around the corner. Carlos switched the rifle to semi-automatic, turned around and let a burst of rounds off. The bullets bounced harmlessly off the bullet proof skin of the SUV. "Crap, bullet proof. Make a break for the car," he screamed at Ria.