Page 90 of Prisoner of War
Téra blinked, absorbing this. Then she wrinkled her nose. “Eeyuuuwww, my own brother?” She spun and threw herself at Duardo, holding him tight. “I knew you weren’t dead. Iknewit.”
Minnie slipped from the cabin, the air too stifling to bear. She climbed up to the deck and found Calli standing at the big wheel, the wind ruffling her blonde hair. A pair of pilotlights on either side of her illuminated the little wheel deck. She looked quite comfortable behind the wheel.
“Oh don’t worry,” she told Minnie. “We’re running under a direct wind—no tacking. Nick will take over when we get to the tricky stuff.”
“Some honeymoon, huh?” Minnie said.
“It has the virtue of being unique.”
“I can’t believe you shot Soto. Right between the eyes.”
“Practice,” Calliassured her. “Nick has had me doing target practice every day since we landed in Acapulco.”
Minnie crossed her arms. “Yeah, but that was big round targets with bull’s-eyes. Soto was living, breathing animal. I won’t call him human, as I don’t think he qualified, but he was alive.”
“He was about to shoot you. It was a no brainer.” Calli shrugged. She looked at Minnie. “Duardo told me about thesoldier you dealt with in the foyer off the balcony.”
Minnie shifted uneasily. “I had to,” she said softly. “It was him or me.”
Calli nodded. “We’ve all been doing things we never thought we’d be able to do. Look at your father.”
Movement sounded behind Minnie and a hand touched her back as someone squeezed passed her. The boat was a small one and the deck cramped by sheets, the wheel and more.
Nick stepped behind Calli and looked over her shoulder at the compass set before the wheel. “Come around ten degrees, to due north.”
She adjusted the wheel and the boat moved obediently.
Duardo slipped past Minnie and she jumped, startled by his appearance. Her heart jumped too. He glanced at her and looked away and she realized that he felt as awkward as she.
“What I can’t figure,” Nick saidto Duardo, as if he was picking up a conversation they had already started, “is why they tried to assassinate Zalaya at all. He was Serrano’s key to keeping everything under control.”
“It was Torrez who tried to kill Zalaya. He was a rejected lover and resented it,” Duardo said.
“No, it was Serrano who arranged it,” Minnie said and they looked at her, surprise on their faces. She shrugged. “Serranowas paranoid from the beginning. He hired Zalaya to protect his back from all the conspiracies he imagined going on around him. He had the roof of the walkway dismantled so he could see who approached the palace...everything to him was a plot to get him. In the end it was Zalaya himself he came to suspect and had to kill.”
“Why?” Nick asked sharply. She knew he was not disagreeing with her butasking for more information.
“Zalaya has a reputation for violence, evil tastes and horribly effective methods. Plus a head for intrigue. Yet in the last few weeks, Zalaya was getting less than spectacular results. Serrano complained of it—curious holes, he said. Then I came along and screwed things up. That’s when the holes became neon signs that even Torrez noticed. You played the part well,Duardo, but you weren’t quite ruthless enough and that was your undoing.”
Duardo looked doubtful. “Serrano relied on Zalaya too much to get rid of him.”
Minnie shook her head. “He was grooming Torrez to take over. It was Serrano all along. Not a rejected boyfriend.”
“Then my use as Zalaya is truly at an end,” Duardo said.
“God, you weren’t thinking of going back in there, were you?” Calliasked, startled.
“It was worth considering.” Duardo replied.
“You can’t,” Minnie said flatly. “You have to come back to Mexico. Nick is going to need your help taking back Vistaria.”
Nick looked astonished. “How did you know I was going to say that?”
“It’s perfectly obvious,” she said truthfully.
They were all looking at her now. Calli said softly, “You’ve changed!”
Minnie grimaced. “Yeah.Zombie girl has gone.”
