Page 107 of The Perfect Stranger

Chapter Thirty-Six

“You shouldn’t be in here. You’re breaking protocol.” I heard an unfamiliar voice.

“I’m not leaving,” Nina said, firm and assertive.

“It’s been three days.”

“Please… just leave!”

A hand gripped mine tightly before I faded back to nothing.

“So let me get this straight…” another unfamiliar and doubtful voice sounded, “…the same Luis Santos who is South America’s kingpin, was responsible for the La Balsa genocide?”

“Yes. I’ve told you four times already.” Nina sounded exasperated.

“And that’s why Suárez became one of them? To get revenge, his heritage being from La Balsa?”

“Yes!”

“Desertion carries a punishment, Ms. Cross. And so does drug trafficking, no matter the affiliation. You do realize that Antonio Suárez became an enemy of the state when we failed to uphold his commitment to Special Forces.” The same voice had returned.

“You don’t consider saving the La Balsa people from a murderous cartel honorable? You don’t consider two years infiltrating a cartel to take out their leader a sign of commitment?”

There was silence.

“Antonio became an enemy of state well before he had even left the country. He knew what Chief Delacroix and Hanson were really doing, and so he was forced on extended leave.” Nina’s thumb traced agitated circles on my hand. I wanted to touch her in return, but I couldn’t will my body to move.

“What do you know about counter-terrorism?”

“Enough. Antonio told me everything. Look into Chief Delacroix’s history, I’m sure you’ll get the gist of the corruption taking place. It’s not like his history of fraud wasn’t in the news or…”

“Countless laws have been broken, Ms. Cross.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit.”

“You saying you crossed the border yourself, means you breached US jurisdiction—”

“What part of this are you not understanding? There were cartel men hunting us down. I wasn’t planning on hanging around to let them do to me what they did to Garcia! My own chief wanted me dead.”

“And you crossed the border without coercion from Antonio Suárez?”

“Antonio Suárez didn’t need to coerce me into anything. I wanted to…”

“Can you explain your relationship to Mr. Suárez?”

“Yes, I can.”

“Well?”

“Well, it’s really none of your business, and completely irrelevant to the case. What is relevant is why we decided to take on Los Santos. Both our fathers had been killed by Luis Santos. My partner had been killed by rival cartel members. The Santos family were killing people, and everyone was turning a blind eye to it all. An entire jungle population was almost eradicated by a rebel army working for Santos, and the Colombian government simply didn’t care enough to stop it. Of course we did something.”

“Did you have any intention of transferring the real funds from the Cuban account?”

“Really? That truly is a silly…”

“You have nothing on Antonio. He committed no crime in the US, other than not returning from his leave. Leave that he was forced to take while his and my chief worked hand-in-hand to profit from terrorism.”

“That’s a mighty accusation.”

---