The Good Soldier (41 page)

I clenched my fists and tried to draw my arms upward, and was even less successful than I'd been at shrugging.

The smile faded from Burnett's lips and he leaned back, feigning a hurt look. "You've got to get past this, Jack. You and I, we should be friends. When it comes down to it, there's little difference between us."

I turned my head toward the window and said nothing.

Burnett stood and grabbed something off the nightstand. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a needle filled with clear liquid. He bent over me and slowly lowered the needle toward my forearm.

"What the hell is that?" I said.

He said nothing.

"Burnett," I said. "What the hell are you doing?"

He plunged the needle into my arm, striking a vein and releasing the venom into my bloodstream. A burning sensation worked its way up my arm and through my chest. Spread to my neck, then my head.

He turned his head to look at me, and said, "This is going to ensure that you sleep all night, Jack. And then tomorrow, it's going to make you cooperative."

I felt my senses dull, but managed to reply. "What's tomorrow?"

He pushed himself back up and walked to the door, then turned around to face me once again. "You'll find out in twelve hours, give or take."

I didn't know if he cut the lights off or if the curtain in my head had been pulled over my eyes again, but the room went pitch black.

They stuck Sarah and me on the rear bench seat of the Escalade again. The same two men sat in the middle seat, the skinny guy in front of me, the heavier guy in front of Sarah. I figured they did that so the big guy could come at me with momentum behind him if I gave him enough reason to do so. If he'd been placed in front of me, he'd have to loop around, giving me the advantage. Of course, it wouldn't matter now, not with handcuffs restraining me.

"Let's go," Reece said to Pablo, who once again sat in the driver's seat.

Burnett and another man were in the car in front of us. I could see the tops of three small heads bouncing as the car made its way down the driveway. I assumed the heads belonged to Christopher and the little girl. And another child I wasn't aware of.

For twenty minutes we drove. I wasn't familiar with Miami or its surrounding areas, having only passed through a couple times over the course of my life. But I was certain that the areas we drove through weren't popular tourist attractions. Old worn down buildings lined the streets. A mix of people filled the sidewalks, white, black and brown. They all looked poor, even the ones dealing drugs, a remarkable sight to kick off my final three hours.

It was nine a.m. and I had convinced myself that by five after twelve, I'd be dead. Sarah, too, I assumed, in some sense of the word. She'd either be lying next to me with no pulse or breath, or lying next to Burnett, her soul ripped from her body. I wondered if he'd kill one of the kids, perhaps two, leaving only his son alive. The only question I had was how many of the men I could take down with me. There were six of them. I'd already beaten Pablo mentally. The skinny guy wouldn't pose a problem, nor would the heavy one. I only saw the man riding with Burnett from the back and for a few seconds. Not enough for me to judge. Burnett didn't scare me. Reece concerned me. He had some sort of law enforcement or military training, which meant he knew how and where to hit. He also had size and strength on his side.

We turned off a four-lane road into an industrial complex. Corrugated steel warehouses lined the road as far as I could see.

I turned to Sarah and spoke for the first time since midnight.

"Are you OK?" I said, feeling stupid that of everything I could say that was what I chose.

She nodded.

"They didn't hurt you last night did they?" I asked.

She shook her head, but her face betrayed her. Her bottom lip quivered, slightly, only for a second. Her eyes glossed over. She blinked and looked away. I knew at that moment that they'd gotten to her last night. One way or another, they broke her spirit. I hoped that they hadn't damaged her physically.

"What happened?" I said it too loud.

"Shut up," Reece said. "Or I'll have them shut you up."

The heavy guy grinned and lifted his eyebrows a couple times, taking too much pleasure in the thought of attacking a man restrained by handcuffs.

I brushed my left leg into Sarah's. She looked at me again, forcing a smile. I nodded in return, hoping she could read my mind. Because if she could, she'd know that I had plans to make sure every one of these men paid for what they'd done to her. They'd pay with their lives, but not before suffering by my hand.

I felt my body pull to the left and nearly toppled into Sarah. The car turned between two buildings, then turned again. We were now behind the last row of warehouses, a stretch of buildings that buffered the decrepit part of the city from the warm waters of the Atlantic. How many kids in those neighborhoods felt they had nowhere to go and saw these waters as a barrier, white capped waves pounding at them, keeping them away from a better life? The undertow existed solely to sweep away their dreams.

We rolled to a stop. I glanced between the four men in front of me and saw Burnett's car stop as well. Beyond his car was a large white semi-truck with no cargo container or trailer attached. Burnett stepped out of the car and walked to the semi. He reached into his pocket and fished around for a moment. Pulled his hand back out and dangled a key, which he inserted into the truck's driver side door. The door opened and he climbed into the cab. A minute later his feet emerged and he hopped down onto the pavement. He appeared to be empty handed, but I knew he hadn't gone in there for no reason. He turned toward our vehicle, smiled, and gave Reece a thumbs up.

Reece pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. He placed the phone next to his head and waited. His eyes shifted and focused on the heavy guy, and I figured someone had answered the phone. "Bring it around," was all he said. Then he tucked the phone back into his pocket and opened his door.

Burnett met Reece halfway and the men spoke. Burnett was animated while he talked. Reece used his hands to shield his eyes from the sun. What kind of person in law enforcement heads out without sunglasses? After a few minutes, Reece returned to the Escalade.

"Everyone out," he said.

Sarah stepped between the two men in front of us. The heavy one made her step over his lap to get out. He smiled. She didn't.

I bit back the rage that started to build inside. I had to save it for the right moment, which was sure to come soon.

Both men reached for me and pulled me out of the seat. They pulled me forward, and then pushed me through the open doorway. I managed to twist my body on the way to the ground and landed hard on my side. Better than landing on my face, I figured. Fire spread through my right hip, and I worried for a second it had been broken. As quickly as I'd hit the ground, they pulled me back to my feet and forced me to walk. My hip wasn't broken, but it hurt like hell.

Reece took over at that point. He wrapped one hand around my elbow, while the other held a gun that was loosely aimed at my stomach. He led me over to where Burnett stood.

"Jack," Burnett said. "Glad you are here to see this."

I said nothing.

Burnett arched an eyebrow and nodded toward Reece. Reece let go of me and started walking toward the roll up door cut into the building. He pulled a set of keys from his pocket. He knelt in front of the door and inserted the key into a padlock. It unlocked with a loud click. He stuffed the lock into his pocket, then lifted the door up and over his head, his arms stretching as high as they could and then pushing one last time to send the door atop the railing.

Burnett nudged me in the side. "What do you think?"

I scanned the forty-by-forty space and shrugged at the sight of dozens of boxes.

"Uncuff him, Reece," Burnett said. "He's going to do all the heavy lifting."

I turned my head to the left, then the right, trying to figure out where he wanted the stuff moved. The semi had no container, and there was far more here than could fit in the trunks of the vehicles we came in. Unless they were planning multiple trips, that is. I quickly shook that thought from my mind. They weren't going to drive this stuff away. Burnett was a missing man. The last thing he needed was to be found carting around all these boxes, not to mention his son, who was also missing.

An engine approached from behind. Its deep roar was easily distinguishable as not made by a car.

"That's my getaway car," Burnett said with a chuckle.

I waited a beat, then looked over my shoulder and saw the boat pull up and two men jump onto the pavement. They began to moor it to weathered and splintered wooden posts. The water must have been deep at that spot, because the boat was big, at least fifty feet long. It was the perfect getaway car. A half hour or so and you'd be in international waters. Freedom, in more ways than one.

"Pablo," Burnett said. "Take the woman and put her in the car with the kids. Take them around the other side."

"What're you doing with them?" I said.

"Insurance, Jack," Burnett said. "You do what I say and they'll be all right."

Something about his smile told me he was lying. But I wasn't ready to test him. Not yet.

The sedan pulled away. I was left standing with Burnett, Reece and the heavy guy.

"Start moving the boxes, Jack," Burnett said.

I wondered what the boxes contained. No point in asking Burnett, he'd never tell me. The bad guys only do that in the movies. I jammed my finger into the tape that sealed the flaps of the first box I came to. I wedged my fingers into the tiny slit and pulled back. The tape ripped off and one of the flaps lifted and fell to the side. Inside the box, I saw wads of cash, sealed in plastic wrap.

"Money?" I said.

"In that box," he said. He pointed at random and added, "Drugs in some of the others. Gold in a couple. Been amassing this stuff for a while, you see. I knew there might come a time I'd have to bolt. You know if things, uh, caught up to me, so to speak."

"You sold kids," I said. "Stole them from their parents and shipped them overseas."

"Not all of them," he said. "Hell, some of them are in better situations than they were in before."

"That's bullshit and you know it."

He made no attempt at rebuffing me.

"How's a man like you get involved in this?" I said.

"Money. Power."

"You have those things."

"They promised me more."

"Who's they?"

He laughed. "Agent till the end, eh, Jack?"

"And according to you, my end is near. Why not tell me who's behind this?"

"I'm not going to do that, Jack."

"We're going to get them. Frank will keep working this until the whole thing collapses, bringing you down with it."

"You're never going to shut this down. It's bigger than you, Frank, or the SIS. Ya'll might make some strides over here with the FBI, and overseas with the CIA, but I can assure you, I've got men in both agencies that will squash it. That's why no one ever got anywhere near close to us until you stuck your damn head in the way."

"It won't go away, Senator," I said. "Like Pandora's box. Once it's open, there's no going back."

Burnett got to his feet and walked in a semicircle in front of me. Back and forth, he went for a minute without saying anything. Then he stopped and looked past me, toward the boat or perhaps beyond, to a spot somewhere over the Atlantic.

"I'm coming back, Jack. Eventually my boy is going to come around and accept me as his father. Once he does, well, then it's a matter of time until he'll say whatever I tell him to say." He smiled and his eyes lit up. "Then it's a matter of getting back into the country. An anonymous tip will do the trick. Someone will send a group of Special Forces to rescue us. By the time they reach us, I'll have vanquished our captors. I come back to the U.S. a hero and adopt the boy I grew close to while held captive. He'll call me dad, and he'll mean it. But no one will know the truth but us. Should be enough to draw the majority vote."

I shook my head. "You're doing all this for political gain?"

His smile faded and he narrowed his eyes. His expression became quite serious.

"I'm doing all this to make my country a better place," he said.

I stood up and kicked the box to the side, then took two steps forward. We were only a foot or so apart. The smug look on his face faded, and I noticed his arms and shoulders grow tense.

"If that's what it's coming to, kill me now," I said.

He laughed, slow at first, then it built up. "Your time is coming, Jack. First you need to load my boat or the woman and the kids die."

I felt a hand on my back. It slid along my shoulder until it reached my collar, at which point I felt my body pulled backward, away from Burnett.

There were more boxes than I had anticipated. The room opened up to a second room, which contained roughly half the amount of cargo. For two hours, I made the trip from the warehouse, across the pavement, and onto the boat, where I loaded the cargo below deck. Reece kept a gun on me while I was in the warehouse and on the pavement. The men in the boat kept their guns on me, taking turns going below with me while the other stood at the top of the stairs. The process repeated itself over and over.

It was only a matter of time. Someone would get tired, look away and make a bad move. I was sure of it.

A half dozen boxes remained in the second room. They were bigger than the others, probably six feet long and three feet high and wide. I bent over the first and wrapped my hands around it until the tips of my fingers scraped the concrete floor. I slid them under the box and started to pull. Damn thing had to be a hundred and fifty pounds. It crossed my mind that there might be a human body in the box. Sweat dripped down my face and slid off my nose and chin and jawline, splattering on the box and proceeding to roll down to the floor.

I heard footsteps from outside the room. Two sets approached at a steady pace. Perhaps time was up.