Blind Fear by Brandon Webb

Author:Brandon Webb [Webb, Brandon & Mann, John David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

50

As a rule, Cal avoided lying to the boss. Doing so could be hazardous to one’s health. There were dozens of people who could attest to that. If they still had jaws to talk with.

Plus, he believed in telling the truth. Cal still went to confession every week, and he had never once had to squeal on himself for telling a falsehood. A record that to Cal was a source of some personal and professional pride. When he said something, he meant it. His word, as the saying went, was his bond.

Lies by omission, on the other hand, he considered a gray area.

Such as not mentioning to his wife their son’s plan to move out of the house this weekend and in with his girlfriend.

Or the conversation he’d just had with his boss.

Apparently Venezuela was nearby but holding off “until tomorrow.” Which meant they were holding off, period, until they judged conditions safe for them to move.

This was a problem. The Venezuelans’ merchandise made up a critical percentage of the total shipment. The rest of the cargo, collected from a handful of other sources, was already assembled at the dock, ready to load and go. But they couldn’t move without Venezuela. And Venezuela wouldn’t budge. They would keep sitting down there to the west, off the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, pretending to drop fishing nets and circling back to check on them, until they were certain the coast was clear. That, in this case, not being a figure of speech.

Cal had to get the Coast Guard to stand down. The only way to do that was to resolve the issue with the two children.

And Paco wasn’t responding to his texts.

That was his lie of omission. No need to let the boss know his man hadn’t reported in for a full thirty-six hours.

El Rucco was viewed by all as a force of nature, remote and terrible, a force that could reach out and touch anyone, anywhere, anytime. A god, basically.

By everyone but Cal.

Cal was the only person on earth who knew El Rucco’s true identity. Or at least, since Sunday night, the only person with that knowledge still breathing oxygen. To Cal, El Rucco was very much a human being, and one, like Carmelina, to whom he saw no reason to give unpleasant news when it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

Even gods could get in pissy moods.

Still, he couldn’t just sit around waiting on Paco. Which was why he was now in his car, driving down into the heart of the rain forest, a pair of binoculars sitting on the passenger’s seat next to him.

He took PR 191 about a third of the way into the heart of the forest, stopping when he reached Yokahú Tower.

The Yokahú observation tower rose seventy feet from the ground, to an elevation of nearly sixteen hundred feet above sea level. Still less than half the height of Pico El Yunque, but tall enough to command a serious view. On a clear day you could see all the way out to the Virgin Islands from up here on the tower’s crenellated roofline.

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