Page 47 of Running Scared
“Cartel guys are like any other employer,” Birdie said, coughing behind a grimy hand.“Except his employees carry guns and it’s hard to dispose of bodies out here.Barrera wants his guys to not think about rebelling, he’s got to not treat them like chickens waiting for the axe.”
“But he’s not going to let them get too fat and happy either,” Marcus concluded, and Birdie nodded.
“I heard alothiding out under that fucking supply truck.Dean, you were spot on about the two Russian guys on the heater for fucking up.They came back with us—I could hear their hard-soled shoes ringing on the floor of the canvas-covered truck, for fucks sake.The truck pulled in, the guys got out, and they had a fuckingescortto go see Gael Barrera.I wouldn’t put odds on those guys making it through another night, you know what I mean?”
“But they’re alive now?”Dean asked.
“Yeah.There’s a sort of… well, it’s not quite a jail.It’s more like a controlled barracks.Our guys were put in there, under guard, and the bitching was loud and in Russian.The whole compound could hear it down the hall.”
“Too bad they made you, me, and Bailey at the hospital,” Marcus said with an unhappy glance at Dean.“It would be great if Barrera took them out himself and thought he was done with it.”
Dean nodded.Their plan, such as it was, was contingent upon the family—allof the family—being separated from the military part of the compound.
“Bird,” Dean said, feeling the pain of this in his gut.He and Marcus had hard lines—and he was pretty sure Birdie did too.“Is there any way to take the whole compound out without putting the family in danger?”
Birdie grimaced.“I can give you about eighty percent,” Bird said frankly.“But for us to really cripple them, all it would take would be to use the C-4 on the antiaircraft gun and the computer station.Once we take out their surveillance, their computing power, their infrastructure—I’m saying.It took ten years to build this shit up.”
But the Russians.And their information….
Dean started to pace.“Marcus,” he said slowly, reaching out absently to touch the file cabinet, “what would be the one thing that would make Gael Barrera focus on somebody besides the witness to the Bratva hit?”
“I don’t know.A carpet bombing by the US military?A turf war with one of the other cartels?”
Dean felt it then, the tingling sensation that came withit.The idea that was going to solve all their problems.Theit.
“Maybe Bratva breaking out their two hit men and blowing up the antiaircraft array?”
Marcus and Birdie stared at him.
“Why in the fuck would they do that?”Marcus asked in disbelief.The hit men had fucked up—Bratva would as soon cut them loose, particularly since their partnership with Sangrino de Corazón was going so swimmingly.
“I don’t know, comrade,” Dean replied in Russian.“Why would they?”
Marcus’s face went blank, which meant he was rapidly assimilating everything Dean had just said.In Russian he replied, “I haven’t the faintest idea.But I think it should happen.”
“Da,” Dean said, his mind darting around like a million fish.In English he said, “Bird, we’re going to need some cartel uniforms and some AK-47’s.You’re in charge of the C-4.Marcus has the bags.Blow up the computers, the antiaircraft array, hell, even the weapons.Everything in the northeast quadrant of the compound, go for it.But if you so much as see a doll or smell a diaper—”
“Abort, abort, abort,” Birdie said, nodding like this was a crapton of relief.“What’s our exfil?”
“Well, I assume you’re going to leave the hangars alone?”Marcus asked.
Birdie grimaced.“I’d love to fly out of here, but we’d have to get to the planes, and taking one of the fucking Jeeps would be really goddamned dangerous.”
“Suggestions?”Dean asked.
Marcus closed his eyes, and Dean knew he was running Birdie’s map through his head.He opened his eyes and said, “Two things.One is a Jeepwouldbe dangerous—it would leave our heads and faces exposed.”
“We know this….”Dean made go-on motions with his hands.
“It would beperfectif our two Bratva boys escaped in a Jeep, you think?”
“Oh my God,” Dean said, and just like the tingle meant he hadit,the shudder meant Marcus had put the cherry on top ofitand turned it into the sundae of his dreams.“They’ll be so busy chasing the damned Jeep—”
“They won’t even realize we’re the ones in the plane,” Birdie finished on a cackle, and they all took a collective breath.
“So,” Dean said.“Where does everybody eat or gather?”
“There’s a mess hall toward the center of the compound,” Birdie said.“From what I heard, Barrera eats there at night, talking among the troops, that sort of thing, and then he retires to the civilian villa, where he plays daddy dearest with what is probably an entire fucking romper room of kids.”
