Desperate Rendition - Chapter 8

Taylor steered the stolen car westward. Bonnie kept insisting she had a place to go, but as they started to get to the outskirts of Caracas, and then out of the city, Taylor became less sure. With the airports off limits, he was a little unmoored, but just wandering the jungles with a mass murderer didn’t seem like the best option they could choose.

Maddeningly, she just kept telling him to drive. The outskirts of Caracas gave way to rougher terrain, dusty roads winding through sparse vegetation. Neither spoke much outside of Taylor’s complaints.

The further they went, the harder it was to see as they took small roads, although he was being generous to say that. Dirt tracks in the jungle were more like it. It would have been precarious in the daytime, but with the sun down, it was almost impossible to navigate.

As Taylor was about to say “screw it” and turn around, Bonnie pointed to a dirt track branching off the main road. “There. Take that.”

Taylor grumbled but complied, guiding the vehicle down the rutted path. An abandoned farmhouse came into view, its weathered boards bleached gray by years of sun and neglect.

“Pull around back,” Bonnie instructed.

Taylor parked behind the structure, hidden from the road, although anyone just stumbling across this place seemed incredibly unlikely. Bonnie got out and just walked up to the side door, produced a key from her pocket, and let herself in. Taylor followed, hand near his weapon, wondering what the hell was going on.

Inside, the farmhouse was musty and dim. Bonnie flicked a switch, and a generator hummed to life, illuminating the space. Shelves lined one wall, stocked with canned goods, water jugs, and ammunition boxes. A battered couch sagged in one corner.

“Safe house,” Bonnie explained, collapsing onto the couch in a cloud of dust. “Set it up as a fallback.”

Of course she did. Taylor did a quick sweep of the house, checking windows and exits, but as expected, the place was buttoned up tight.

“What’s the plan?” Bonnie asked from the couch when he walked back into the main room, eyes half closed as she leaned her head against the wall. “I need some rest before we keep going.”

Taylor leaned against the wall, considering their options. “We keep moving overland. Try to get out through another city, maybe push as far as Colombia. With luck, the senator’s reach doesn’t extend beyond local. I know he’s rich, but paying off half a continent seems a bit of a stretch and a good way to get caught.”

Bonnie nodded. “Fine. Wake me in a few hours. There’s food if you’re hungry.”

“Not so fast. Tell me more about the Casall hit. I want details, cause this is way beyond what I signed up for.”

Bonnie sighed, pushing herself upright on the couch. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Everything. Start from the beginning.”

“I’m not sure what else I can tell you that I haven’t already. Ellsworth was careful. Used cutouts and go-betweens to reach me. Wanted Casall gone, but clean. No messy bullet holes or ‘accidents’ that’d raise eyebrows. The money was right, so I got to work. Spent a month shadowing Casall. Learned his schedule down to the minute. It helped that the guy was a creature of habit.”

Taylor gave a small gesture of understanding.

“As jobs go, it was actually one of the easiest I’ve ever had. Casall already had a bad heart and was on some pretty serious medicine for it, so that was my in. I reached out to some labs I knew and had them look at the medicine he was taking and then had another one whip up some look-alikes; Same size and color and even mostly made of the same medication, but with a few counter-indicated ingredients that would not only neutralize his pills but turn them deadly. I even had it checked out to make sure the factory that made these pills had lines with these same chemicals, so if anyone worked out what caused the heart attack, it would lead to cross contamination. A lawsuit for the company that made them but … fuck em. You have to admit that’s not bad, right?”

“You realize how that sounds, right? You’re proud of how you murdered someone.”

Bonnie just shrugged. “Tell me you never took pleasure in a good shot, even if it ended up blowing a guy’s head off. Don’t get all prudish on me. I was doing my job.”

“That’s not even a little the same.”

“Whatever,” she said, waving a hand. “So Cassell had this maid, Jenny, I think her name was. Sweet girl really although she owed a ton of money to bad credit card debt. She also really hated her job. Cassell might have been a man of the people or whatever, but after watching him for a while, I can tell you he was definitely an asshole. So I approached her on one of her days off, told her I was a private investigator looking into him for possibly cheating on his wife, which he was definitely doing, and I needed to get proof. I offered her a stack of cash to get me into his room so I could ‘plant some bugs.’ She bought it, turned off the security system one day by ‘accident’ and snuck me into the house. I put in a cheapo bug, just in case anyone looked into her story, and switched out the medication in his bathroom. The best part was I put the fear of god in her afterward, about how she’d just broken the law, and I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but she was in as much shit as I’d be if anyone found out what was happening. She was a nervous wreck for days.”

“What’s the point of that if you’re just going to kill him?”

“Because it guarantees her silence. People will do a lot of things out of fear, but they’ll do even more out of relief. When he kicked and it was ruled a heart attack, it meant she was off the hook. No one would be looking into her. She probably thought she’d won the lottery, getting away with it and getting to keep the money. Like I said, I’m good.”

It was well thought out. Taylor had to give her that. Despicable, but the planning behind it was solid.

“If you were good, you wouldn’t have all these people trying to kill you.”

“That’s just some bullshit. I can’t believe his people were so stupid as to let it slip. I go out of my way to not know who I’m working for, or at least not letting the target know that I know who they were, for this very reason. People who want someone killed and are willing to pay for it get very paranoid. It’s honestly what ends up getting them killed.”

“Fine. The other thing I still don’t get is why me? There are other people you had to know weren’t compromised. I mean, you trust the justice department enough to go into witsec, which suggests you don’t really think he can get someone inside law enforcement to come after you. So this ‘I know you’re not on the take’ doesn’t fly. At least not completely.”

Bonnie shrugged. “I still think he can get to people, but once I spill and enough people know about it, the people inside the government he could buy off will be too worried about it going public. Also, the person in government protection who blew the whistle ending up dead would lead to a ton of investigations, so I think they would abandon him. Before I can give my story … that’s another matter. They’re more likely to want to get me out of the way to keep any of that going public. So until I was with a states attorney and a bunch of witnesses, putting my story on tape, I didn’t want to give anyone in the federal government my location. Even if they wouldn’t go after me themselves, giving Ellsworth my location would be easy for them. You tracked me before, came closer than anyone else ever has. I figured if I chose you, I wouldn’t have to give up my location and risk compromising myself. And you proved how good you were.”

She gave him a smile that, for her, was probably incredibly genuine.

“You don’t think you’re going to convince me you’re not a psychopath do you?”

“You don’t always have to be an asshole, you know. I’m here, putting my life on the line, finally doing the right thing. Give me a little credit. You know, it’s not the glamorous life people imagine. Always looking over your shoulder, never letting anyone get close. Gets lonely after a while.”

“Give it up. You’re never going to get sympathy from me. Get some sleep. I want to be out of here first thing in the morning.”

She shrugged and laid her head back against the wall, closing her eyes. Taylor had the distinct impression that his words had actually stung a little, and that maybe she’d hoped for a different response.

They were up with the sun early the next morning, which was probably for the best. Had he been forced to keep driving these back roads through the night, he would have gotten turned around and ended back up in Caracas or crashed into a tree.

And Bonnie wouldn’t have been much more of a help. She had this one out of the way hide set up, and one on the other side of town, but that was it. An hour to the west and she was as uninformed as he was, and the path she’d taken them on had gone pretty deep into the backroads of Venezuela. Getting to a major road that would lead them west either to another city with a big enough airport or Colombia was tricky. Bonnie did have a portable GPS system with her, but that was only minimally helpful, as it couldn’t actually tell them if the tiny dirt road they were on led back to a major road.

So they’d been forced to wait until daylight, which meant if the mercs were looking for them, it gave them a head start.

Taylor had spent a lot of time leading up to sunrise thinking about what to do next. The closest city with an international airport wasn’t all that far. Valencia was maybe two and a half hours or so by car, and was a viable option. Taylor thought it unlikely the Senator would have bought off the local police in multiple major cities on a precaution and even if he’d realized they’d fled town and guessed which one they were heading to, it seemed even less likely he’d have time to put his fingers on the scales of this one before they could get to the airport and onto a plane.

The timing actually made Valencia a more reasonable destination, since there was a chance, although a very small one, that after they escaped Caracas Ellsworth might panic and just try to buy off all the locals at every possible city they might flee to. That would, however, take time, which meant it was more possible the further away they got, making the further away cities a larger possible risk. That also made the Colombia border somewhat of a problem, although figuring out which crossing they were taking would be tough.

That was assuming Ellsworth didn’t just try and buy off the government itself, which would give him the reach to not have to deal with individual cities, although with the added risk of someone in the US figuring out what he was doing.

Then there were the mercs, who were certainly hot on their heels. They were the opposite problem. The closer a city was, the more likely they’d have to deal with the mercs who would try and intercept them short of their destination or possibly stop them there. Considering all the gunfights they’d ended up in with the local police, Taylor would bet they’d try and stop them short.

If he had to pick, Taylor would deal with the mercs over paid off police or army, so they opted for Valencia.

Of course, they were so deep in the backwoods that two and a half hours was more like four, with the first hour just bouncing around small dirt road to small dirt road trying to drive roughly north, with the hopes that they’d hit a major road.

They finally got back on the road that would take them to Valencia and finally started making good time. It was too much to hope for that their luck could continue, however, as Taylor rounded a bend in the road and saw a line of cars ahead, piling up at some sort of checkpoint.

“Shit. How the hell did he get to the army so fast?” Bonnie said, her hand going to the gun sitting in the middle console.

Taylor reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping it.

“These are locals and there are dozens of guys up there. You’re not going to be able to shoot your way out of this. We also don’t know if they’re bought off by Ellsworth or even looking for us at all. If they aren’t looking for us now, shooting our way through a government checkpoint is a good way to get them to start. Let’s just see what this is first.”

Bonnie made a noise and it was clear she didn’t really buy that, but she took the gun and slid it under the seat all the same. Taylor followed suit, just in case they were forced out of the car and frisked.

They got in line, inching closer and closer toward the soldiers. Bonnie seemed like she was about ready to crawl out of her skin. For a stone-cold killer, she was very anxious. Taylor would have thought someone like her would always be completely cool under pressure.

They finally got to the front of the line where a burly guy with some kind of rank insignia on his shoulder and a thick mustache stepped in front of them, holding up a hand to stop them.

Taylor pulled the car to a stop at the checkpoint and rolled down his window as the man walked around to the side of the car.

“Documentos, por favor,” he demanded, hand outstretched.

Taylor handed over Bonnies forged passport and visa and his very real ones issued by the state department on very short notice at the request of Director Solomon. It wasn’t that big of a risk, because it was unlikely Ellsworth had been involved in setting up something like this so quickly and even less likely that he would have known that Taylor existed, let alone was involved, but he was still nervous. A diplomatic passport was not something they’d see at a random checkpoint in the middle of nowhere, and was going to raise some red flags.

Which meant if he wasn’t on anyone’s radar before, he almost certainly would be now.

“¿Estado Unido? ¿Departamento de Estado?” the man asked, looking at the passport before switching to english. “Americans?”

Taylor opened his mouth to respond, but Bonnie cut him off, her voice taking on a sweet, excited tone that sounded nothing like her.

“Oh, honey, tell him about your job!” she said, leaning across him. “My husband here works for the State Department. We just got married last week, can you believe it?”

Taylor wasn’t sure what the hell she was doing, but she’d already committed, so all he could do was smile and hope she wasn’t about to screw them.

“I’ve always wanted to see more of South America,” Bonnie continued. “So when John suggested we combine his work trip with our honeymoon, I just couldn’t resist! It’s all so beautiful and exciting.”

“Congratulations on your marriage,” the man said in a thick accent. “But why are you traveling this road? This is not a typical tourist route.”

“Well, to be honest, we got a bit turned around. I wanted to see some of the ‘real’ Venezuela, you know? Not just the touristy spots. I guess we wandered a bit off the beaten path.”

She laughed, the sound light and carefree. Taylor marveled at her ability to switch personas so effortlessly. It was almost unnerving.

“We should have stuck to the main roads,” Taylor said.

The soldier was looking from their documents to them and back again. His face was surprisingly hard to read.

“And what exactly does your husband do for the State Department, señora?”

“You know what? I’ve never really been a hundred percent sure. All I know is it’s lots of meetings and paperwork.”

“I’m a financial assistant with the export trade mission,” Taylor said, glad he’d at least looked at what Solomon had set up for him, and thankful it didn’t just say ‘FBI.’

She smiled at the guard and placed her hand very high on Taylor’s thigh, rubbing her thumb in small circles as she looked at him like he was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. It was all Taylor could do not to jump out of the car seat. The soldier looked down, clearly catching the move and seemed to relax a bit, which was probably why she’d done it.

The man stared at her a moment longer before handing their documents back to Taylor.

“You should be careful, señor, señora. There are dangerous men in the area. Russians, I think. Or something like that. They had big fights with police in Caracas. Now they run out here, causing trouble in the countryside.”

He had guessed right. The mercs picked out the next most likely destination and were trying to intercept them, and being clumsy as hell about it. They could deal with that. He hoped he had been right about Ellsworth’s limitations, but these soldiers not having them flagged was not the same as Ellsworth not buying off anyone else. Local police would always be easier to purchase, and it was entirely possible the police in Valencia were bought off, even though these guys weren’t.

“Oh my,” Bonnie gasped, her eyes wide with feigned shock. “That sounds awful! Honey, did you hear that?”

Taylor nodded, trying to match her feigned concern. “We’ll be extra careful, sir. Thank you for the warning.”

“Good. Please be careful. It would not do to have Americans kidnapped. You need to go back to a major city where it is safer.” He waved them through.

“We will,” Bonnie chirped, blowing a kiss to the soldier. “Thanks so much!”

Taylor pressed the gas as the soldiers blocking the car moved out of the way, easing past the checkpoint. As soon as they were away, Taylor picked Bonnie’s hand off of his thigh and pushed it back toward her.

“You are something else.”

“Please,” she said, her entire personality shifting back. “Fooling guys like him is easy. You just have to give them something to look at. What are you so annoyed about? It worked, didn’t it?”

She wasn’t wrong. It had worked. Taylor wasn’t sure why he was letting her rub him the wrong way. He already knew what she was and he knew why this job was important. Her being a sociopath who could lie like that shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise.

And yet it was.

“You know this means we’re going to end up running into these guys before we get to the airport?” Taylor said, switching subjects instead of engaging. “Causing problems almost certainly means setting up their own checkpoints or stopping cars to try and find us. We haven’t seen all that much traffic and this is one of the bigger side roads. There’s a good chance they’ll find us before we make Valencia unless they are completely incompetent.”

“They are pretty bad at their jobs.”

“They’re just undisciplined. They managed to track you down several times while you were waiting on me.”

“You lead them to me one of those times.”

“Yeah, but not the rest. I’m just saying, we’re probably going to end up running into them again.”

“Then we’ll deal with them.”

“Yeah,” Taylor said. “I guess we will.”