In A Fix - Mary Calmes Page 0,29
exhaling. “Tell me who goes into business with ex-members of a radical environmental group hiding out in Mexico.”
More pictures for us to look at, this time in black and white. “This man,” he answered, pointing to a face in profile that could easily have been stamped on coins. He appeared regal, handsome. He was older and distinguished, and his bespoke suit fit like a glove. “His name is Ruben Suárez, and he heads a new arm of the Sinaloa cartel in Sonora.”
“New arm?”
“Yeah. As in Cartel Sonora: La Generación Nueva.”
“Catchy.”
He grunted.
“So he’s up and coming.”
“He’s emerging as the new guy to watch out for there in Sinaloa.”
“And what will make him the one-and-only guy?”
“According to the DEA, the Gulf, Sinaloa, and Tijuana cartels own most of the smuggling routes into the US.”
“That’s old news, isn’t it? I bet that’s on Wikipedia.”
“It is, but for the most part it’s still true.”
“But what does this have to do with––” And then it hit me. “Oh crap.”
Dallas’s smile was big as he waggled his eyebrows at me.
“What?” Brig asked almost frantically.
“To stay under the radar, your sister’s eco-terrorist cronies were cooking meth, which I can only assume Suárez knew about.”
“He took a small cut, yes.”
“But at some point, during one of Lane’s trips out there, I’m guessing Suárez got wind of who she is.”
“That’s the report we got from our agent inside,” Dallas confirmed, yawning. The man really needed some sleep. “Which is why you haven’t seen her in a while.”
I saw Brig putting it together. “I have been trying to get ahold of her, but my calls kept going to voice mail. I had no idea she was in trouble.”
“Which is precisely what Suárez wanted,” Dallas told him. “Thanks to our agent, we found all of this out before you could be contacted.”
“Cut to the chase and tell me what’s going on,” Brig pressed.
“The situation is that Suárez now has your sister, and he’s going to use her ties to you to move their product,” he summed up. “And double bonus, he now has something that he can bring to the table.”
“I don’t––”
“A new way to move their product,” I informed Brig, making my voice as gentle as possible since I knew I was giving him horrific news. “You have to figure that Suárez is going to use Lane as a surefire way to impress the guys higher up the food chain by putting you, meaning Stanton-Downey, in bed with a drug cartel.”
“Jesus Christ,” Brig moaned, dropping his head into his hands.
When I turned to Dallas, I found him studying me. I didn’t say anything, instead giving Brig a quick pat of encouragement. It felt odd, but I wanted to let him know I was there. “Tell us what’s going to happen now,” I prodded him.
“Well, Suárez is a smart guy, so he knows that Lane has no power at the company. He knows that it’s you, Brig, not her, that he needs long-term.”
“Sure,” he said, his voice bottoming out as he lifted his head to meet Dallas’s gaze.
“He also knows that as soon as you get wind of this shitshow, you’re going to do everything in your power to shut it down.”
Brig nodded. “Of course.”
“That leaves Suárez with no other card to play than to use what Lane’s done to try and blackmail you into a deal he believes you won’t refuse. He knows that since your company is legit, you have access that he doesn’t,” Dallas explained, scrubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms before refocusing his gaze on Brig. “You even have a foreign-trade zone that he’d love to get his hands on.”
“He wants me for my access.”
“Yes, he does.”
“He knows my company is a safe bet,” Brig said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers on top of his head, “because I follow the letter of the law.”
Dallas lifted his eyebrows in agreement.
“But now that my sister’s made me complicit, this Suárez has something on me.”
“He has Lane, not you.”
“That’s semantics. The bottom line is, if the board hears about this, I won’t ever get the chance to be CEO.”
“It’s not going to come to that,” I assured him. “Because Special Agent Bauer is going to make sure that when this goes down, the optics paint you as a hero.”
“How?”
“I suspect it will play out something like you noticed that your sister inadvertently helped her old friends move drugs, and you not only stopped her but also caught the supplier. All the DEA needs