By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
Rufino had been awake for hours. The fear of being caught by the Taiwanese was becoming a handicap. It was filling his mind – his every wakening thought was about dying. Every sound and every person who looked too long in his direction became a danger to him. If he were Edgar he could go to the States, or if Paulo he could return to Nicaragua, but his home was Costa Rica, and he had no other place to go.
The worry that was keeping him awake this night was a terrifying concept that was born out of desperation. The only idea he could come up with was to meet with Tai and cut a deal. Rufino knew the odds were against his ever getting a word out of his mouth before Tai killed him, but he saw no other way out. It was that or wait to be killed on the street one night.
The sun coming through the window found him still awake. He stumbled to the bathroom and turned on the water in the shower. Once the water was warm he stepped in and let it flow over him as a yellow stream of piss ran down the drain.
He dressed in his best clothes and expensive cologne, and then walked to the corner soda and ordered a coffee. He thought about having something to eat but wasn’t sure he could hold it down.
He pushed his empty cup away and left a handful of change on the counter. He walked the three blocks to the warehouse, where, standing at the gate, it was all he could do not to turn and run. Everybody was coming to work and he was allowed to enter with the crowd. As the others headed to the warehouse, he peeled off and opened the door to the office building.
The Tica behind the desk looked up as he entered. “May I help you?”
Rufino’s mouth had gone dry and his voice squeaked when he said, “My name is Rufino Gamon. I need to speak to Mr. Tai. It is very important.”
She looked at the book in front of her and asked, “Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but he will see me if you tell him I am here.”
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Tai doesn’t see anyone without an appointment.”
“Mr.Tai thinks I’m dead. How do you think a dead man makes an appointment? Now please tell him I’m out here.” Rufino’s voice had regained itself.
She looked unsure but was afraid not the let someone else deal with the problem. She told Rufino, “I will tell him. Please have a seat over there.”
He watched her make the call but before he could find a seat the door going back to Tai’s office flew open and two men with guns rushed toward him. He quickly put his hands on his head and dropped to his knees.
They pulled him to his feet and shoved him against the wall. They ran their hands over his body looking for any weapons. He had the foresight to leave the little pistol in the hotel room. Finding nothing, they headed him back the way they had come with one man on each of his arms.
His plan wasn’t looking too good at that point. The two men bum-rushed him down the hallway and through the big doors at the end. Once in front of Tai, they put him on his knees with a gun to the back of his head.
“You are like a cockroach, Rufino. What does it take to kill you?”
“Mr. Tai, I come asking forgiveness, and to propose a way that I might make amends.”
“The best way you could make amends would have been to die at sea. You brought a spy for the D.E.A. on to your boat and allowed him to place a tracking device on one of my shipments. What kind of forgiveness can you expect for that?”
“I know and I’m filled with sorrow and anger. My sorrow is for letting you down, but my anger is for that rat that did this to you. Let me live and I’ll kill him.”
“Are you saying the American is the spy?”
Rufino looked and felt surprised. “Who else?”
Tai hadn’t known the American had been on the boat, but it made sense. “If this is ture, then it is not just the American you will need to kill. It is also the French woman. I have put up with her for too long. You kill them both, you live. You don’t, you die. I want it done in one week.”
“It will be done. You have my word.”
“I don’t need your word. It will be done or I will have your life, as worthless as that is.”
“I will need a few things.”
Tai spoke to the man holding the gun, which he removed from the back of Rufino’s head. “Go with my man, he will get you anything you need. Remember, you have one week and not a day longer.”
Rufino was pulled to his feet and rushed out of the office. Over his shoulder he shouted, “Thank you, Mr. Tai, you will not regret this!”
Rufino walked out of the gate carrying a bag with a blasting cap and a bar of C-4. It was Friday, and if Charlie and the French bitch were true to form, they would come to town and eat seafood tonight. By tomorrow morning Rufino would be a free man.
Roberto, the Nicaraguan, came through the gate that morning behind a Tico dressed in a suit and smelling like a whore house. Once past the guard, Roberto moved to the other side of the work crew to get away from the smell. He kept patting his pocket that held the camera. He was reassured each time he felt it. Because of it, no one went to bed hungry the night before.
Inside the warehouse, Roberto put on his rubber gloves and moved to the long table where the fins were washed and placed on drying racks. Other tables were for fish, which were cleaned and shipped to markets throughout Costa Rica. The fish were not the money maker, but it gave the Taiwanese an air of respectability. Roberto liked working on the fins. He had started at a fish table, and standing in fish guts all day was not fun.
Their break came at nine and most of the workers went outside to get away from the smell for a few minutes. Roberto wandered past the pallet area, where three rows of square pallets, stacked ten high, faced a loading table, which sat on the floor and spun around. He spotted a metal beam behind the pallets that was in a straight line with the loading operation. It was a tight fit but he squeezed through the opening between the pallets and, reaching as high as he could and struggling to steady his trembling hands, stuck the camera onto the beam.As he came out of the pallets one of the supervisors appeared. “What are you doing back there?”
Roberto smiled and held up a coin. “I dropped it.”
“Get back to your workstation, break time is over.”
He was trembling more after placing the camera than before he did it. But there would be food on the table for the next couple weeks and that was something to look forward to.
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
No comments:
Post a Comment