That Night in Cartagena

"I'm drinking the last bottle I have, but if you can wait a minute or two, I'll have more.

I picked the phone and punched the button for room service. When room service answered, I asked them to bring up six more bottles of scotch, then hung up the phone. About two minutes later, there was another knock on my door. I took the little basket with six mini bottles of scotch from the guy and added my tip to the room charge. When he was gone, I turned to Renata.

"This should be enough to put us both asleep. Do you need ice or water?"

Renata said just straight was fine, so I poured her drink and then handed her the glass. She sat down on the bed, took a sip, and then started talking.

"Why did you save us? I've been trying to figure that out and I can't. You didn't know who we were or why we were there, did you?"

"No, I didn't, but I've seen enough of how the cartels operate to know what was probably ahead of you. Since it was the Bolivian National Guard who brought you there, I figured it wasn't a pleasure trip. The reason I took out the third man was I knew he'd kill you if I didn't kill him and I couldn't let that happen. I don't really know why other than that. It wasn't part of what I was supposed to be doing.

"By the way, you were doing a pretty fair job of saving yourselves before I got involved."

Renata frowned.

"I can't figure that out either. The only thing I'd ever shot before that day was a paper target in training. I remember thinking I had to do something to protect my girls. I didn't think about the fact that the men were people. They were just...well I don't remember thinking anything about what they were other than they were a danger to us. I just pointed the pistol and fired at the man I'd kicked. As soon as my girls got out of the way, I did the same thing to the other man. I think I should feel bad about what I did, but I don't."

I shrugged.

"If you hadn't, you probably wouldn't be alive and neither would Felicia and Maria. That's nothing to feel bad about. It's the same with the two men on the machine gun on the back of that truck. They had me pinned down. If you hadn't killed them, we'd probably all be dead. We didn't have enough ammo to fight them for very long."

Renata drained her glass and then asked for another drink. While I was pouring it, she kept talking.

"Another thing I don't understand is how you knew about the boat and the airplane and how you got everything done here so we can leave Colombia."

I sat her drink on the table beside the bed and then sat down beside her.

"Renata, what I do for a living is work for a company that does certain jobs for a few US Government agencies who can't legally put their people in other countries. I can't tell you most of the details, but the fisherman and pilot both work for my company. They brought me from Cartagena to their fishing shack and from there, I walked to where I found you. They were also my way out of Colombia.

"What has happened today is just what my company can do if it's warranted. There are times when a person like myself needs what they are doing for you and your girls, so they were already set up to do it. All I had to do was explain your situation and they took care of everything else. I didn't really do anything."

"Yes you did", she said. "You made us feel safe. I haven't felt safe since my husband started criticizing the government. He tried to keep us isolated from that, but the government of Venezuela uses everything they can to break up any resistance. I knew if he was arrested, we would be too."

She drained her glass then, and I asked if she wanted another drink. She shook her head.

"No, I'm pretty relaxed now. If I drink another, I won't be able to do what I want to do."

I smiled.

"What's that?"

Renata put her hand on mine.

"When I told you my husband was just a friend, that's what I meant. I...well...a woman needs to feel like a woman and not like just a friend. She needs to feel safe and she needs to feel that she's attractive and that a man would like to...that a man finds her to be desirable. I haven't felt that way in a long, long time.

I thought I knew where Renata was going with this. I didn't really object, but I figured it was just the emotional toll the last few days had had on her. When I told her that, she shook her head.

"No, Andres, it's not just what's happened over the last few days. It's what hasn't happened since before Maria was born. These last few days of traveling with you just made me remember how much I need to be with a man to feel safe.

Renata moved her hand from my hand to my arm, and then to my chest.

"I've not felt safe with a man until you, but I still don't feel like a desirable woman. I saw how you looked at me at dinner. I think you were thinking the same thing I'm thinking. If we did that, then I'd feel attractive and desirable."

When I asked Renata if she was sure, she just smiled, pulled the belt on the white robe open, and then shrugged it off her shoulders. She was naked, and I hadn't seen naked look so desirable in longer than I could remember. Her breasts were two sensuous globes with dark brown nipples and nipple beds that begged to be nuzzled and kissed. Her mound was a mass of black hair that hid everything. That made me want to explore that hair until I found out what was under it.

Renata didn't give me a chance to say anything. She just pushed me back on the bed and started unbuttoning my shirt. When she had all the buttons undone, she pulled it open and then rolled on top of me. As her big breasts flattened out against my chest, she kissed me.

Actually, it wasn't really a kiss. It was an open-mouthed invitation for me to fuck her until she couldn't take anymore. Renata moaned a little when our tongues touched, and after that, she kept kissing me until I had to gently push her away so I could breathe.

When I did, she sat back up and started unbuckling my belt. I stopped her, stood up, and took off the rest of my clothes. When I finished, Renata rolled over on her back to give me some room beside her. When I lay down, she rolled over on her side, pulled my hand to her left breast, and then started kissing me again.

Now, I'm no saint. When I did my tour in Germany, a couple of us took a week's leave and went to Amsterdam. We walked down the street and window shopped for some entertainment. Mine said her name was Verena and she liked American soldiers. She was great though it was obvious she was faking it.

Over the years, there had been other women too. Some were because it was part of the job. Others were because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Most didn't really participate other than to quietly lay there. None of them were like Renata.

Renata made love with her whole body, and she was trying to make it good for both of us. If she wasn't moaning into my mouth when I stroked the nipple that had stiffened under my fingertip, she was rubbing her mound against my thigh while she nibbled at my earlobe. She seemed to respond to every touch to her smooth soft skin.

She caught her breath when I stroked down her back to her hip and then gently squeezed that cheek. She caught her breath again when I separated her cheeks and then softly stroked between them until I felt hair on my fingertip. Just pushing that fingertip in until I felt the soft, puffiness of her outer lips caused her to jerk her mound against my thigh and murmur in my ear, "Make love to me, Andres."

I was trying to do just that, but it wasn't me making love to Renata. It was both of us making love with each other, each causing the feelings of the other to first stir to life, then become a deep need, and finally to become a raging desire that could only be stilled in one way.

That way came after Renata had raised up and straddled me. She draped her heavy right breast over my face and shuddered when I sucked her swollen nipple, then reached between us and stroked my rigid cock a couple of times.

I couldn't see what she was doing because her breast was right in front of my eyes, but I could feel it. Renata moved around a little and then I felt her stroking my cock head through the coarse hair on her lips. That hair was wet and as soon as she'd separated it, she eased down. I felt my cock head slipping between her puffy lips and then the sensation of it opening the tight spot just inside those lips.

Renata moaned a little when my cock head went through that snug spot, then raised back up a little, shuddered, and then pushed back down. As my shaft slipped through that snug spot, I couldn't stop myself from pushing up. Renata sagged into her arms and moaned again, then kept impaling herself until she was sitting on my legs with my cock all the way inside her.

The feeling when she started riding my cock was the same feeling I'd felt before. It was wet warmth surrounding my shaft and cock head as the little ripples of her passage sent waves of sensations to my brain. What was different was the way she reacted.

The other women I'd been with had usually just stayed still until the orgasm hit them. A couple had been more active, but not by much. Renata seemed to be doing everything she could to excite us both to the point of giving in to what was inevitable. I knew I was getting close to that point. She let me know she was too when she bent over and started rubbing her clit against my shaft with every stroke. I could feel the little button and feel the shudders Renata was making when she pushed down and back, and I could hear the way she was starting to pant.

It happened when I changed nipples. I sucked Renata's other rigid nipple a couple times and then gently pinched it between my teeth. Renata gasped, then let out a little shriek, and then started bobbing up and down over my cock. It wasn't just up and down either. It was down, then a hard rocking of her body that pushed my cock just a little deeper inside her, and then a shudder when she raised back up.

Those shudders were doing some incredible things to my cock and I tried to slow her down, but Renata just gasped and then murmured, "Oh Dios, estoy allí". As second later, she cried out and rammed herself down over my cock and then started shaking hard enough she fell down on my chest. That put me over the edge. My cock spurted three times and she was still writhing around on top of me. That lasted for what seemed like a long time, but I didn't mind. I just put my arms around Renata and held her close until everything stopped except the occasional clenching of her passage around my cock.

Even when my cock slipped out of her, Renata didn't try to get up. She just put her cheek against my chest and lay there until she stopped breathing hard. Then, she kissed me, just a short kiss, and said "Thank you Andres".

It was about eleven when Renata went back to her room. She said it would look bad if she wasn't there when her daughters woke up. I could understand that, but I didn't want her to leave. I wanted her to stay there, right beside me, until we woke up in the morning. Don't ask me why because I didn't know at the time. I wasn't to figure that out until three weeks later.

The flight from Cartagena was just a routine flight. Even going through US customs wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. We took different lines, me in one and Renata and her daughters in another. While I answered the officers questions -- no I wasn't bringing in any fruit or vegetables, yes, I'd gone to Cartagena on my vacation to take in the sights, and no, I didn't mind if he searched my bag -- I heard Renata answering the same questions in English with just a trace of a Spanish accent.

When they walked out of US customs, I saw four men in black suits meet Renata and her daughters. After some conversation I couldn't hear, the four men escorted Renata and her daughters out the door of the airport. I figured that was the last time I'd see any of them.

After a week to rest up, I got another assignment, this time in Peru. The customer -- I figured it was State -- wanted to know what progress China was making on the mining operations they'd taken over in Peru. I spent a week taking pictures of mines, mine trucks, and the environmental devastation that was causing.

When I got back, had turned over all my information, and was taking a couple weeks off, I started thinking about Renata again. The first day was wondering how she was doing. The second day was wondering where she was. By the third day, finding her had become an obsession. It was then I realized the reason.

I tried to play devil's advocate with myself. What did it matter to me where Renata and her daughters were? I'd done my job and brought them back with me. I was sure the US Government would do its job and protect them.

Then I started thinking again about how well the cartel intelligence networks work. It's not trained agents. It's just guys on the streets with nothing to do but sell drugs and watch for people the cartel wants to find. They'd found people before and the end was usually a funeral assuming the body was even found. I had no doubts that if the cartel wanted to find them, they eventually would. That's when I realized Renata was more to me than just a woman I'd saved from a situation that would probably have ended up with her and her daughters tossed somewhere in Venezuela and forgotten. I couldn't let that happen.

The next day, I went to the company office and asked to see my supervisor. When I walked into his office, I closed the door behind me and then sat down at his desk.

"Jerry, that woman and her two daughters I brought back from Venezuela...what happened to them?"

He said he didn't know, but assumed they were in the US someplace. I asked him to find out, and he shook his head.

"Andres, you know I can't do that. In the first place, I don't have access to that information. It's also something that just isn't done."

I nodded.

"Yes, I know, but you can get it. All you have to do is make a few phone calls. Remember that guy who was second in command of a cartel, the one who is now in prison. I damned near got my ass shot off getting you enough information that the DEA could arrest him and put him away. Then there's the semi-load of underage girls hidden behind a wall of cargo I tagged so the Border Patrol could recognize it. I didn't ask for anything extra for either of those jobs or for any other jobs I've done. Today, I'm asking. I want you to make those calls."

Jerry frowned.

"Andres, I can make that call, but you should know that if I do, your job will be in danger. Right now, those women aren't associated with you or with the company or with any government agency. Nobody even knows they exist. If anyone made the connection from them to you to the company to the US department that hired us, either the House or Senate would start asking questions, questions the department that hired us would rather not have to answer. They might insist that I fire you before that connection can be made. It's happened before."

I'd considered that possibility and decided I needed to be thinking about a change anyway. I was forty-five and I was starting to feel the effects of those missions. It wasn't bad yet, just the occasional sore back or my right knee that sometimes popped when I went from sitting to standing, but it was only going to get worse.

I didn't have to decide right away. I was pretty well paid for the work I'd been doing and I hadn't been able to spend much of it. I didn't have a home and I didn't own a car. I basically lived on my company credit card by staying in hotels and using company vehicles. I also had my pension from the US Army.

Almost all of my pay had gone into my bank in CD's, and those CD's now amounted to just shy of a quarter of a million. I could live on that for a long time before I needed to find something else to occupy my time.

I nodded to Jerry.

"I'm well aware of what this could mean. Make the call."

It was just before noon when I drove my rental car into Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and I was impressed. Somebody in some department of the US Government had actually used their brain. Devil's Lake was a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere and about as far from South America as you could get and still be in the United States. It was so small no drug dealer could have set up operations there because everybody in town would know everybody else. Any strangers would have immediately been under suspicion.

The business district consisted of a Post Office, a grocery store, a hardware store, two bars and a diner. I passed all those places and instead, followed my GPS directions to "Fisherman's Lodge", a small privately owned hotel on the shore of Devil's Lake, the lake that gave the town its name. I'd booked a room there for a week.

The woman at the desk had her back turned when I walked up. I cleared my throat and Renata turned around, then put her hand on her chest and grinned.

"Andres? I didn't think I'd ever see you again. They said nobody could find us here. How did you?"

I smiled.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you at dinner tonight if you're free. Felicia and Maria too. What I need right now is my room."

At dinner that night, I learned what had happened to Renata and her daughters after they arrived in El Paso.

Renata didn't know where they'd been taken. All she knew is one of the men called her by her full name and said they would take her someplace safe. They put her and her daughters in a black minivan with the windows tinted so dark she couldn't see out.

"I didn't know who they were and they didn't say, but I wasn't afraid. You said there would be people at the airport to take care of us, and I'd never seen anyone in a cartel dressed in a suit and tie. They always dress to fit in with the other people.

"I don't know where they took us, but once we were there, they showed us to a room where they said we would stay for a few days. Nothing happened the rest of that day except for lunch and dinner. A man in a suit and tie would come get us and take us to eat, and then take us back to our room.

"The next day, a different man came and got us and took us to three separate rooms. In my room was a man who looked like he was older than I, and he asked me a lot of questions. He wanted to know all about my husband and the people he'd worked with in Caracas and anywhere else. I told him everything I knew, just like you said I should.

"He wrote down what I said and then asked me about what had happened after we were arrested. I told him everything about that time too. Then, he showed me some pictures of men and asked if I remembered if any of them were there. I recognized the man who killed my husband, and when I pointed to the picture, the man frowned. He said the man was Hermosa Menendez and that they'd heard about his crimes before. He said we were lucky that he hadn't killed us too.

"After that, he thanked me for what I'd told him and then asked the first man to take me back to our room. Felicia and Maria were already there, and they said they'd been asked the same questions and had looked at the same pictures.

"After dinner that night, a different man came to our room and said we should get ready to leave. They put us in another minivan and took us to the airport, but not to the main terminal. They took us to the part where companies keep their planes and put us on a jet a lot like I saw the man in Cartagena get into.

"When we landed, it was at an army base. We got out and were met by four more men, this time dressed up like cowboys. They brought us here and said we could stay here as long as we wanted and that we'd have jobs so we could earn some money.

"That's about all I know. I'm the person who makes reservations and meets our guests. Felicia and Maria help the maids clean the rooms after the guests leave. That's what we've been doing for the last three weeks."