Page 31 of Under Control

“Yes. Mr. Iglesias, I presume? I’m afraid your thugs didn’t give me a reason for this invitation.” Even speaking was painful, every movement of his mouth pulling at the bruises on his face.

“The reason, you asshole, is that you called customs on our operations,” Iglesias said. “But guess I shoulda expected that. You’re one of them major hypocrites. Happy to walk around the law, bend it, but forget about ever snapping it.”

Tracht kept his expression controlled, but the new information startled him. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. I delivered the container to your lackeys. After that, it was out of my hands.”

“No! You called up customs. I know this because I have contacts there too, and apparently they were all happy about a hot tip they got.”

That could only have been done by one person, and Tracht cursed himself for not considering that Espinosa might go behind his back. The throbbing behind his eyes got worse. “I see. Whoever the anonymous tipster was, it was not me. Are you sure you can trust everybody under your employ? Perhaps one of them—”

“Cut the crap,” Iglesias said, sitting down on the seat across from Tracht. “We both know it came from you.”

“No, we both don’t know that,” Tracht answered. He did wonder if he’d have better luck using Espinosa as a scapegoat. He didn’t particularly want to find a new Chief Officer, but at this point she was too much of a liability. On the other hand, keeping her around might entice her to keep quiet for longer.

“Heard about that too, that you try to deflect with words,” Iglesias said. “I thought I’d give you a chance to explain yourself, but if you aren’t going to play nice, then I won’t either.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” Tracht said. “I did my utmost to ensure that the container was delivered to you, all of its contents intact.”

“That’s why it was all dented, huh? And I don’t for a second believe that accident crap you tried to sell me. I didn’t really give a shit if you’d seen as long as I got the goods, but now I don’t have the goods. So you see my problem? You clearly knew what was inside. And you clearly sold me out.”

“I did no such thing. Whether you choose to believe me or not is entirely up to you, but it’s the truth.” Tracht wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and sleep, and he knew he had to be in really bad shape if he considered doing just that with Iglesias sitting right there. “You’ll forgive me for not being a better conversationalist. I feel unwell after the rough treatment.”

“Yeah, you’re gonna feel extra bad after what I do to you next.”

The dark smile Iglesias gave him was not very assuring—Tracht had seen that expression often enough in the mirror.

Chapter 10

The warehouse was three levels down, somewhere where Alex would never have known to look. Good thing he had Espinosa with him. She tried to run just once, but one kick to her legs and she changed her mind. Alex was half tempted to kick her again, with enough force to make her really feel the steel-toed part of his boots, but he did need her to help him find Tracht.

“This is the place. But I doubt we’ll find anything. After the raid—” Espinosa said, pointing to the warehouse.

It looked like all the others, except its doors were wide open. A few streets over, Alex saw some dock workers lingering. A short guy, a blond guy, and a red-headed lady.

“Yeah, fine, I get it. You’re way smarter than me. But I gotta tell you, even when people caught my brother conning them, he usually had info and money stashed in a bunch of different locations. One person figuring him out never did us in too badly.”

Alex grabbed Espinosa’s wrist and pulled her along towards the workers.

“Yo!” he shouted to them. All three of them stared at him funny. “What happened here?”

“You all right, ma’am?” the short dude said to Espinosa.

She pulled her hand away from Alex and stood taller. “Yes, sorry about that. My… my boyfriend is very protective of me. Doesn’t want me alone in these dangerous parts.”

“So what’re you doing down here then?” the blond asked.

“We work with one of the ships. We intended to look at possible warehouse rentals, but…” Espinosa trailed off. “Could you tell us what happened here?”

“Pff, everybody knew it was going to happen. This place has always been shady.” The red-head gestured towards the place. “They’d been doing a lot of night work and never had job openings. If you know the business, you know that’s weird.”

While Espinosa talked to the three, Alex looked around the area. The muted lighting made it hard to make out a lot of details. One of the windows had been smashed, and the street had some serious scrape marks on it. That’d be a bitch to get repaired.

He was afraid this would be a dead end, until he noticed movement in the nearby alley. Coming back so soon after a raid was a bad, bad idea, but if you had something stashed inside, you might take the risk.

“We gotta get going,” Alex said to Espinosa. “Thanks for the info.”

He took her hand and started walking pointedly towards the alley. “Keep quiet, don’t leave my sight,” Alex whispered to her. She nodded curtly.

The alley itself was even more poorly lit, but he could make out the faint outline of an open window. Alex pointed to it and saw Espinosa nod. When he motioned for her to go first, she hesitated, but thankfully she went ahead. Alex boosted her over and then followed.

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