Payback in Panama by Noel Hynd

Author:Noel Hynd [Hynd, Noel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Crime, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9780310413271
Google: EuN3qhbBxQYC
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2013-10-21T11:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

With great enthusiasm, the man known as Antonin Debray was out to the Zona Rosa on the second night of his stay, a Saturday. When he didn’t like the first club, he moved along to the next. All the top spots were situated right beside each other. The pink zone was also one of the safer areas of Bogotá, but Debray packed his weapon anyway.

In several places, Debray ingratiated himself, dancing with young girls and middle-aged women who equally were knockouts, many of them on their own hunt for men with European or American passports. He considered taking one or two back to his hotel, if they were willing, but, in an odd gesture of morality, decided not to: he was involved with a young woman already back in Europe and found little appetite for romantic games tonight.

On his third night, keeping an active book of personal reviews and notes on the various bands he saw, he ventured beyond the Zona Rosa and hit the discotheques located on Calle 94 and Pepe Sierra Avenue. These were among the most popular venues in Bogotá. They played an eclectic mix of reggae, salsa, hip-hop, and funk. The crowds were friendly and the cover charges were reasonable, less than two American dollars.

Because most clubs and bars closed at one a.m., Debray found, the after-party scene in Bogotá was huge. These rambling raves could cost anything from a hundred to twenty thousand pesos, but they were popular and well attended among young revelers of the city. So Debray tagged along, more to get a handle on the city and what was going down—the rumors, the scuttlebutt—than anything else. He passed himself off as a foreign businessman, which was truthful to a point, there to make some deals. He fell in with a crowd of Brits one night and spoke English with them, some French another night. It never ceased to amaze him how much strangers would tell him if it afforded them the opportunity to show off their ability in another language.

Most parties lasted until dawn. There were a great deal of drugs in use—it was Colombia, after all—through no one forced anyone to partake. So Debray kept clear of that territory. Being arrested here would be messy.

All this time, Debray was also more than careful to watch his back, on guard for anyone who might be following or tracking him. By the time he saw the sunrise three mornings in a row, he was convinced he was clean and that he was not under any surveillance.

So from a public phone at noon on the fourth day, he contacted a prearranged local number, one not unrelated to the parcel that had been delivered to his hotel room.

“Debray aqui,” he said. “Todo va bien.”

There was a pause. Then the voice of a young man answered abruptly in Spanish. Debray assumed it to be Vicente. “You like Caribbean? I suggest Club Caliente,” the young man said. “Esta noche, a la medianoche.” Tonight at midnight.

“How will I know the right place?” Debray asked.

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