In the War Zone of the Heart by John Lantigua

Author:John Lantigua
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arte Público Press
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

The captain went below, put on a sleeveless T-shirt and reemerged. Apparently, he didn’t discuss real business bare-chested. They walked down the road to the motel and made their way through the overgrown garden to Mr. Chu’s cabana. Willie knocked, and moments later the wooden door swung open. He and Correa stepped into the air-conditioned room and the door quickly closed behind them.

Since Willie had last seen him, just minutes before, Mr. Chu had acquired company. Two young Chinese men, probably in their twenties, were also in the motel room. Willie had seen a black SUV parked outside and had assumed it belonged to a guest in another unit. But now he figured it belonged to the two young fellows. Maybe Willie had been right. Maybe he had been followed all the way down the Keys highway from Miami, not by police but by these two individuals. Now the question was why.

Mr. Chu sat on the edge of the king-sized bed. The two youngsters flanked the door behind Willie and Correa blocking any escape. Correa looked at them, from one to the other, and then scowled at Willie.

“You didn’t tell me they were Chinese.”

He obviously had an issue with the ethnic identity of his prospective clients.

For a moment Willie forgot the whole ruse of the fishing expedition.

“What’s the difference? They are still people trying to reach freedom, and they are willing to pay.”

Mr. Chu had taken off his shades and had his dark, almost-black eyes fixed on Correa.

“You don’t understand, Mr. Cuesta. Your friend here thinks Chinese people are very different from other human beings.”

Willie was confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean he believes that Chinese people really are like fish and that they can swim for long distances through the ocean without the danger of drowning.”

Willie still didn’t understand that, although apparently Captain Correa did. He suddenly bolted toward the door, but the two young men blocked his way. A struggle ensued but ended quickly when one of them caught Correa right in the diaphragm with a short, piston-like punch. The captain gasped, emitted a gust of alcohol-laden breath, keeled over, hit the floor hard, moaned, held his gut but didn’t move.

Willie jumped between the kids and Correa. One of them squared up as if he was ready to do the same to Willie, but Mr. Chu held up a hand, said something in Chinese and the kid relaxed.

“Mr. Cuesta, I want you see to something.”

A black briefcase lay next to him on the bed, and he took a folder from it. He opened it, removed several newspaper clippings and laid them on the coverlet. Willie craned over to study them. They were cut from a paper in the city of Naples, Florida, about two hundred miles away over on the Gulf Coast. They all concerned the same story, which had occurred about a year before. Would-be immigrants from China were being smuggled into the US at night, apparently from somewhere in the Caribbean, when a Coast Guard helicopter spotted the boat.

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