One Rough Man - Brad Taylor [98]
“I can do that. You got anyone you want killed right now, or is this it?”
Standish punched his secretary’s buzzer. Get him the fuck out of here.
59
The next morning at 0815 we were both in the lobby of the embassy, with the same Marine flipping through the clearance sheets. Ten minutes later, after checking the massive amount of rosters at his disposal, the lance corporal turned to me and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but you’re not listed.”
I asked for the number to the office and called up. Getting Eric, I was told to hold fast, and he’d come down to me. I hung up the phone, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Something’s up. I think we’re about to get the blow-off.”
Eric exited the elevator and walked over to us with a big smile.
Shit. This is going to be bad.
“Hey, I guess you didn’t get the word. The meeting’s off.”
Seeing me scowl, he said, “Hold on, now, it’s not my call. My bosses in D.C. told me to cease and desist. Even the guys you brought down left last night.”
“Fine. Got it. At least tell us what you found out from Guatemala.”
“Well, the guys in Guatemala couldn’t get to the Petén region for a couple of days. They were set to go when HQ stopped that as well. They did make some phone calls and found out that there was an expedition, which ended badly. Of course, they couldn’t confirm anything. All they could find out was that one boy apparently was consumed by some sort of ancient curse and another disappeared after the expedition. Nobody knows what happened to them for real.”
What the hell? Why would they have been called off? “So, preliminary investigation concurs with what we say, but it’s not worth following up on? What’s up with that?”
I knew Eric was just the messenger, and that he didn’t like giving us this news. He continued in a calm voice. “Pike, please, all we have is that some sort of ‘ancient curse’ caused the disappearance of a boy. If we ran after every rumor like that, we’d be spending all of our time chasing Bigfoot.”
“Okay. Fine. I’d like you to send a cable out to that effect. Can you at least do that?”
Eric shook his head. “Pike, I’d really like to help, but we’ve done more than we should have already. I’m not going to send out any more unsolicited cables. If HQ asks for clarification, I’ll do so, but I’m not sending anything else out on your say-so.”
I turned and walked away before I did something I’d regret, not even bothering to say good-bye to him. Jennifer caught up with me outside.
“What are we going to do now?”
“Nothing. We’re getting on a bus to Belize City and going home. We’re done.”
I said the last two words with more force than necessary, causing her to look up sharply. I covered up the slip, speaking softer. “Look, this is over. Nobody cares and we can’t do anything with it by ourselves. We gave it our best shot and got further than I thought we would. Let’s just get home and see if we’re going to be arrested for murder. We’re in enough trouble already without pushing this any further.”
“Well, I just don’t think we should quit.”
She saw me start to react and held up a hand. “Wait—before you go into asshole mode—hear me out. We believe that these guys are up to no good. Nobody else does, and maybe they’re right, but what if they’re not? Can’t we do something else? You’re the expert. Have we exhausted all our options?”
I thought about what she said, feeling a little slimy that I wanted to continue more for the sense of mission than saving anyone’s life.
“Well, if you want to foot the bill, we can go to D.C. and contact Kurt again. We don’t have a lot, but we do have a few things he hasn’t seen. We can give him the e-mail addresses for further tracking, get a real translation of the initial message, and tell him that the superficial investigation in Guatemala supports what we said. Is that what you want to do?”
This isn’t right. I’m convincing her to chase shadows so I don’t have to go back to my boat. So I don’t have to face my life. If she’s dumb