Page 39 of Hidden Falls

Lei tugged her small overnight bag off of the carousel at the airport in Mexico City twenty-four hours later; her last-minute departure had meant many time-wasting layovers and plane transfers. She’d had to check the bag containing her weapon, but it was worth the hassle to have her gun at hand, as long as she ignored signs posted in Spanish advising that firearms were illegal to carry in the city limits.

Lei would not get caught, that was all.

Near the exit from the baggage claim, Lei pulled out of the flow of departing passengers and ducked into the shelter of a potted palm in a giant, glazed ceramic pot. She took a moment to make sure her phone was connected to the foreign country continuation of her service contract. She then texted Stevens that she’d arrived safely at last. “It would have been better for me to wait a day to get a direct flight,”she texted him.“All this lost time. What a waste.”

A few years ago, Stevens had gone overseas as a private contractor, training police officers in a foreign country, and had nearly been killed. Since then, they’d agreed as a couple that they would minimize that kind of risk, but each of themcoulddo this kind of work and travel if they wanted to as long as they stored their location and travel info in a shared app and checked in daily.

If they didn’t, the other partner was free to hunt them down wherever they were in the world. Stevens hadn’t asked for details once he sensed she didn’t want to tell him about the case or the situation, but he deserved her travel and location info for safety.

Lei thrust her tiredness and anxiety aside. She’d made a decision to come to Mexico and help Harry; now she needed to follow through so she could get home as soon as possible.

Her phone finally hooked up to local servers and beeped with incoming messages. One of them was from Harry: a simple pinned location and a time. Lei tightened the straps of her backpack, picked up her satchel, and headed to the curb outside the baggage claim area.

The sun was bright and hot. Dust swirled around Lei as busy traffic flowed to and fro. Vendors hollered in Spanish to get her attention, though airport security held them back from the immediate areas.

Lei glanced around and located the taxi area. She crossed the street to a cement island where they were lined up and stopped in front of the next vehicle in line. The low-slung, black-and-white sedan reminded her of a recycled law enforcement ride. The driver grinned at her over the seat as she tossed her bags in back and got in. “Where to, miss?”

“Oh, good, you speak English. Palacio Nacional, please.”

He nodded and put the car in gear.

Lei fumbled for a belt, but there wasn’t one on the cracked leatherette seat patched with duct tape. She hung onto the armrest as the taxi swerved onto a road where directionality seemed more of a suggestion than a rule.

The chaos of the traffic around the airport settled as the taxi drove into the city proper, passing through an area of urban sprawl interspersed with big box stores. Lei craned her neck, enjoying the sight of brightly painted villas and office buildings decorated with murals. They entered an older section of the city, and the red terra-cotta roofs and stucco work of the older architecture were striking. Many of the houses enclosed flower gardens glimpsed through lacy wrought iron gates and boasted bright window boxes spilling blossoms.

The mood seemed as bright as the city streets; Lei began to relax.

She hadn’t known what to expect, having seldom been outside of the United States.

“Take me to the marketplace,por favor,” she told the cabbie as they reached the imposing, colonnaded building of the Palacio Nacional. The section of online map Harry had pinned showed a large open plaza near the city’s main government building, famous for its interior murals by Diego Rivera.

“Plazuela del Marqués?”

“Si.”

She paid with an app but tipped the driver in pesos she’d bought at the airport. He let her off at the corner of a grassy square surrounded by the tents and stalls of vendors hawking everything from baskets to barware. Keeping her bags close, Lei moved through the crowds around the vendors’ tents as she walked out into the open grass of the plaza.

Families were picnicking and children flying kites in the wide-open park as Lei made her way to a central medallion of low, trimmed bushes surrounding a central water feature. Seated on the parapet of the fountain, wearing a deep-brimmed sun hat andhuaracheson her feet, was Harry, smoking a cigarette.

Lei approached her friend with a sense of relief—Harry was where she’d indicated she’d be. The pressure and stress of the last twenty-four hours seemed to engulf Lei suddenly. She sat abruptly beside Harry and dropped her bags. Harry didn’t speak either, presumably scanning the area for anyone who might be following them. Lei hadn’t noticed anyone paying attention to her, but was too tired, suddenly, to care; she hadn’t been able to sleep on the planes.

“I don’t think I was followed,” she said at last. “I took a taxi from the airport.”

“Good.”

“What’s going on, Harry?” She met her friend’s somber gaze at last. “This is a lot, for me.”

“I know.” Harry tapped her cigarette on the edge of the fountain, her full lips tucked into an expression of regret. The ash disappeared into the water. “And I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I didn’t really need the help.”

“You got my message about hiring Sophie’s extraction team, right? If you have any idea where Malia is, that might be the way to go.”

“I know where she is.” Harry’s lashes swept down to hide her eyes. “And it’s somewhere I can’t get to, even with the best extraction team on the planet.”

“Well? I’m too tired for this cloak-and-dagger crap.” Fatigue made Lei’s voice sharp.

“You wouldn’t know the name of her kidnapper if I told you, but he’s a powerful man. Lives in a fortress outside the city.” Harry took a deep drag of her cig. “He’s a major player in the drug trade.”

“Okay. Wind it back. How do you know all this?”

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