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swimming trunks that were on board, Bruce willingly and gratefully obliged.
Resting her head in her hands, Jody sighed, "This just gets worse and worse. Now what?" She
glanced back up at Tia, who was smirking.
"I think we have found our legitimate way out of this." She excused herself, rising from the table
and disappeared into the master stateroom. When she returned, she held the Trac Phone
Montgomery had purchased for her and she dialed a number from memory. Sitting back down,
she felt comfortable and confident enough to wink at the more than desirable woman across from
her, an action that caused Jody to develop an adorable rosy tinge. "Special Operations Division,"
she spoke into the phone and waited. "Yes. Javier Zamora, please." When asked to identify
herself, she used one of her operative aliases, one she knew Zamora would recognize
immediately. "Tell him it's Anna Santiago."
This made Jody sit up and take notice. She mouthed the word, 'Who?'
Reaching over, Tia patted Jody's hand. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she said, "Javier, ¿cómo
está?"
"Santa mierda," Zamora breathed, proceeding to communicate with her entirely in Spanish. "Do
you know how many people are looking for you?! What the fuck did you get yourself into?
Offing a streeter with agency heat?"
"Are you on a secure line?"
"Secure as it can get in this place. Where are you?"
"Let's talk business first. I'm calling in that debt."
There was dead silence on the other line. "You can't do this to me, T...Anna. I cannot get caught
up in your little problem. I know what I promised you, I haven't forgotten but you're persona non
grata around here. I know I owe you but let's be honest here...it ain't gonna be happening now."
He wasn't refusing her by choice, he was refusing her by necessity. His instincts of self
preservation had kicked in. "You would have to have a pretty powerful reason for me to stick my
neck out for you right now."
"I do. My neck is on the line. If you don't help me, I'm dead. Not only can you save my life here,
I have a career-maker for you, compadre. You know the top story on the news right now?"
"Yeah, the heiress thing. You got something on that?"
"You could say that. Actually...I have possession of a certain package."
It took Zamora a few moments to respond. "You - you what?" His tone was one of disbelief.
"You mean you actually have...the package?"
"Yes. But, Javi, I have some bartering power to get myself out of this jam -"
"Jam? Jam?! You call what you're in a 'jam'?" He laughed, incredulously. "You always were a
good one for minimizing things. Jesus Christ, Anna...I...I can't believe you are involved in any of
this. What were you thinking? Let me ask - is the package damaged in any way?"
Tia smiled, switching to English. "No. The package is perfect. In fact, I'm admiring its beauty
right now." She watched as Jody grinned back, blushed again and then looked away. Returning
to speaking Spanish, Tia continued, "She is alive and well and pissed off but not at me. Would
you like to speak to her?"
He was hesitant, confused. "No. So...you're not...uh...holding onto the package, awaiting
payment?"
"No. I'm keeping the package safe."
Another contemplative pause. "What about the prostitute in the car?"
"Unfortunate. But I didn't kill her and I can tie that incident in to this one."
"I knew you'd hit rock bottom but I still didn't think you'd resort to killing someone who didn't
try to kill you first. Not your style. So you've really got something for me?"
"Something big, my friend."
"Give me ten minutes and then I want you to call me at this number," he instructed as he
provided her with the number of his personal cell phone.
Snapping the phone shut, Tia triumphantly said, "We're in." She had no doubt Javier would come
through for her. The Drug Enforcement Administration agent and Tia became close, working on
a loose cannon project a couple years earlier and they had sporadically kept in touch. Agent
Zamora owed his life to Tia who, the day after the mission had been completed, noticed a laser
dot targeting Javier's head as they were leaving their debriefing in Bogota. She tackled him,
slamming him to the ground before a host of bullets, in rapid fire succession, pierced the building
sign they had been standing in front of, saying their goodbyes. Although there was never any
way to confirm her suspicion, Tia would always believe that she had also been scoped that day,
and had she not accidentally witnessed the intense, red, pencil eraser-sized spot marking Javier
for death, neither of them would have made it to their vehicles alive. Zamora pledged that he
owed her and however she needed to cash in on that, he would never deny her. Tia didn't like
people owing her and she advised Javier that she would probably never collect on the debt but
she never expected to be thrown into circumstances like this. Had Bruce not opened the book on
the drug issue, Tia would have still been trying to come up with a way to save them all without
Javier's help.
"You want to clue me in there, Anna?" Jody reached behind her, to the refrigerator, and pulled
out another beer for Tia and a champagne split for herself.
"Sure. In 2005, when I was in South America, just before my last assignment in Columbia, by
coincidence, I fell into a situation that allowed me to assist the DEA on a project called
Operation Flexión. It was a twenty-one month investigation that I came into on the tail end." She
pulled back the tab on the can and took a refreshing swig. "Operation Flexión was a task force [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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