All The King's Men by David Archer

Author:David Archer [Archer, David & Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

I was dressing after a late breakfast of eggs and bacon in my room when my cell rang.

“Mason—”

“Are you watching the news?”

“Good morning, Bill. What am I supposed to be watching?”

“It’s breaking now. Go to CNN. I am going to get off the line because you’ll want to call your boss.”

I switched on the TV and found CNN’s breaking news. The view was from a chopper circling over a villa which was partially engulfed in flames, billowing smoke across a wide valley. You could just make out fire trucks trying to douse the flames. A voice was saying, “Facts are woefully thin on the ground. The Sinaloa Cartel is not talking, and the Mexican government seems to have been taken as much by surprise as the cartel has. One thing we do know is that this is one of a number of residences belonging to Ismael Mario Zamora Garcia, the notorious head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“However, whether he was actually at the villa when it was struck is not clear. Some sources, who understandably wish to remain anonymous, say that Zamora had traveled south to Mazatlán, but others state categorically that he had returned in the same day and was at home, mourning the loss, just the day before, of his right-hand man, Francisco Gallardo.”

They cut back to the studio. The anchor, frowning at the camera, asked, “Are we looking at an escalation of the conflict between—” But he was cut short and put his hand to his ear. “Pete, I am just hearing, this has just come through, several bodies have been recovered from the terrace at the villa, and one of the bodies, badly mutilated, has been identified as that of Ismael Mario Zamora Garcia.”

“Yes, I am hearing the same thing. What is still not clear, though, is exactly how this strike was carried out. It seems to have been some kind of rocket, but…”

I switched off the TV and called Nero. It rang once and he said, “I am watching it now.”

“This is not a stunt. This is punitive. Somebody is sending a message.”

“I agree. But there is little point in sending messages to people you have just massacred. This message was not for Sinaloa.”

“No, the message was for the US government and administration.”

“They have not finished. The message is not complete. You know who is next.”

“General Mike Ustinov. I need to get to Calgary, fast. We should pull him into protective custody. I don’t want to call him. Aside from the fact that he’s probably in the mountains hunting, he won’t be cooperative. I need his address, and I need to know where his cabin is.”

“Agreed. Go and get him.”

“Sir, do you know who is doing this?”

“I have some ideas.”

“Care to share.”

“No. I must make some inquiries.”

“I’ll need the Valkyrie—”

The Valkyrie was what we had taken to calling ODIN’s Gulfstream G 500, which had a range of over five thousand nautical miles and could remain airborne for up to ten hours solid.

“I assume this is some misnomer for the company jet.

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