M.I.A. Hunter: Miami War Zone (23 page)

Del Rio made a gesture that indicated the slitting of a throat. There was a hopeful grin on his face.

"Exactly," Blanco told him.

W
offord
knew he was in the Everglades. And that was all he knew.

His hands had been retied in front, and he had been hauled from the warehouse in the back of a car. After quite a journey, he had been taken from the car and carried down a rough wooden dock. There were three airboats at the end of the dock.
Wofford
was thrown onto the floor of the first one.

The airboats were by far the best way to travel in the Everglades. They had flat bottoms and could skim over the surface of the shallow water and even over the surface of most of the land masses they might encounter, though "land" in the 'Glades was a relative term. Sometimes something that looked pretty solid was really just a mass of roots, dirt, leaves, and grass that was only loosely held together.

The airboats were powered by aircraft engines for the most part, and propelled by huge propellers in the back, shielded by wire cages. A rudder in back of the cage controlled the direction.

He was almost deafened when the uncovered engine was started. Then he was forced roughly to the bottom of the boat by the acceleration.

There were others in the boat, but
Wofford
could see mostly their feet from his prone position. They were sitting on wooden benches, and they had all fastened their seat belts before the boat started. Airboats have a tendency to bounce around a lot, especially when running over obstructions in the water.

They stayed in the open water for a while. He could see the sky above and only an occasional tree branch. Then they turned into an area of ten-foot-high
sawgrass
, which went whipping past the boat at amazing speed. The men sitting on the benches leaned in to avoid getting cut.

He was sure that they must be talking, but he couldn't hear them over the roar of the engine.

They came into the clear, then hit something with the prow.
Wofford
bounced up and landed on the bottom again. The boat shuddered as it passed over whatever more-or-less solid mass had been in their path. Tree branches thrashed at the side of the boat.

After that they went through a series of left and right turns, through grass and more trees, through open water again, then more grass.

Finally the boat came to a halt in the middle of a sea of grass, the engine cut back to an ear-popping idle.

One of the men above
Wofford
was yelling, yelling so loud that
Wofford
could hear him in spite of the ringing in his ears. It occurred to
Wofford
that the others might be having difficulty in hearing also.

"You sonofabitch!" the man yelled. "I thought you said you knew where you were going!" The voice was coming from another boat, so there were several.

"I do!" someone yelled back. "I know my way around in here just fine. But I don't know where this place is you're telling me about, and I ain't exactly up on
findin
' places by map coordinates. Now you just let me think about this for a minute."

"Think, my ass! You either find us that place, or you're gator bait!"

"I wouldn't talk that way if I was you, mister," the second voice said. "Tell the truth, I don't think you and your boys could find your way back to where we started from in six weeks. Hell, in a year."

The first man didn't say anything.

"So you better just relax and get hold of yourself. I'll find where you want to go a whole lot sooner than that. But if anything happens to me, you'd best remember that I ain't the only one who'd be gator bait. Wouldn't anybody in any one of these boats see downtown Miami again."

"All right, all right," the first man said. "Forget it. Take your time. It's just that I'm in a hurry."

"Don't worry. I'll get you there. I bet that
fella
you got tied up there ain't in such a rush."

"Forget about him. I'm paying you damn good money to find a place and take me there. Not to ask questions."

"I didn't ask no questions. That ain't my way. And I'll earn my pay. Just keep your britches on."

Enrique
Feliz
kept his britches on, but his impatience burned within him, eating at his guts.

T
he D.E.A. had men who knew the 'Glades, but Stone couldn't go to them. He could locate them through his Fort Bragg connections, but he didn't want to be tied in to Williams in any way. He wanted someone he could trust and someone who could keep his mouth shut.

After talking to Fort Bragg on the telephone, Carol thought she had finally located the right man. "He's someone's second cousin, or something like that. Anyway, he's supposed to be reliable."

"We'll try him," Stone said. "You guys ready?"

"Right,
Sarge
," Hog growled. He and Loughlin were outfitted with the same weapons that they had taken to Crazy Charlie's.

"Good. Hog, you take the car. You know what to do. Loughlin and I will go in by airboat. We'll have a guide, but we may need you to do the locating. This place is bound to be well hidden."

"I'll do what I can," the big East Texan assured him. He left by the front door.

"What about us?" Loughlin asked.

"Is there still someone watching this place all the time?" Stone asked Carol.

"I'm sure there is. We never see him, but that's the way it should be."

"Get him in here," Stone demanded. "We need to use his car."

The car was parked two blocks away. Stone sent the watcher to fetch it while he and Loughlin talked about their objective.

"We want Jack
Wofford
," Stone reminded the Brit. "Nobody else matters a damn. I don't care if we kill everybody there. And if they don't have
Wofford
, well, we level the place. In fact, we do that even if they do have
Wofford
. We don't want it ever to be used as a drug lab again."

"Got it," Loughlin snapped. "I've added the explosives to my pack. When we leave, there won't be much left. I promise you that."

"Good. That's the way I want it."

Stone turned to Carol. "You're our communications link. If anything goes wrong, we'll let you know. You tell Rosales. Be sure he knows the whole story. Sooner or later, his men will get in there. I just hope we can save them the trouble."

"You will," Carol told him. There was no trace of doubt in her voice.

"I just hope that Jack's there. That he's still alive. That we can bring him out."

Loughlin grinned wryly. "I'm glad you're not hoping for too much."

"It's what we came for," Stone reminded them. "Anything else we get out of it is gravy."

"Like breaking up the major drug ring in Miami," Carol said.

"Yeah," Stone said. "There's that."

W
offord
was jerked up and out of the airboat. In the dense growth in front of him he could make out a twelve-foot chain-link fence topped with razor wire. Armed figures moved among the trees, and a concrete building painted in camouflage colors squatted far back among the trees.

He knew immediately that he was at the site of a drug lab, but he didn't quite know why he had been brought there.

One of
Feliz's
men grabbed the rope that bound Jack's hands. "C'mon," he snarled. He gave a quick, hard jerk, and Jack was pulled forward, stumbling over the thickly grown ground.

Jack had seen photos of Enrique
Feliz
, and he knew who his captors were. He also knew that the Colombians supplied the cocaine that the Cubans sold. He wondered if he was part of some deal between the two factions of the drug world.

Wofford
and the Cubans were met at the gate by guards carrying Uzis.
Feliz's
men were also armed, but the guards told them to stack their weapons outside the gate.

Feliz
did not want to comply with the order. "You got guns. We should have the right to equal protection."

The leader of the guards didn't argue. "If you want in,
señor
, put down the guns. It is a simple choice. Otherwise, you can go back to your boats and leave this place."

"Fuck,"
Feliz
grunted. He turned to his men. "Put '
em
down."

The weapons were laid on the ground, and the Colombian guards opened the gate in the fence.

Feliz
,
Wofford
, and Ramón Flores were allowed through. The gate began to swing closed.

"Hey!"
Feliz
yelled angrily. "What the hell is this?"

The leader of the Colombian guards looked at him. "I was told to allow you and your prisoner in, along with one advisor. That is all. The others may wait outside the gate."

"Bullshit!"
Feliz
roared. "I don't go another step without at least two of my men!"

The guard thought about it, then relented. "All right. But only two. And we must search them for weapons."

Feliz
agreed, and two more of his men were allowed inside. The others stood near their weapons. "If anything goes wrong in here, I want you to kill everyone you can see!"
Feliz
yelled at them.

They nodded in understanding.

Feliz
followed the guard into the building.
Wofford
, Flores, and the other two Cubans were right behind.

They were not taken to the lab itself. Instead, they were led directly to the office of
Jesús
Blanco, who was there along with del Rio and Gomez.

The guard posted himself by the door, his Uzi at the ready.

Blanco performed the introductions. When they were finished, he said, "It is a pleasure to meet you at last,
Señor
Feliz
. I still do not understand why you wished this meeting, however. I assume that it has something to do with this man here." He waved a hand at
Wofford
.

"That's right,"
Feliz
told him. "And that's not all. I wanted you to know that the shooting last night wasn't my idea. We didn't have any part in it. It was Mafia guys, trying to set us up. They wanted to make you distrust us, so they could get on your good side and get back in the action. Hell, I'm just surprised they didn't try it before now."

"I see," Blanco said coldly. "And how do you intend to prove this?"

"It's not something I can prove, exactly. But you won't be dealing with the Mob anyway. Their two top men have been taken out." He held up his hand, showing the stitches. "I took one of '
em
out myself."

"And who is this, then?" Blanco inquired, looking at
Wofford
.

"That's my little gift to you."
Feliz
smiled. "Your very own D.E.A. agent."

"H
ow much longer?" Stone yelled, trying to be heard over the roar of the aircraft engine and propeller that shoved the airboat along.

The pilot, Tim
Congrady
, throttled back the engine. "Depends," the big, rawboned man said. "From what you tell me, this place might not be easy to find, even if we get pretty near the right location. And I guess you want to sneak up on it quiet as you can."

"That's true, but time's important. We may already be too late."

"Don't worry,"
Congrady
assured him. "I been
goin
' back in these 'Glades for as long as I can remember. If anybody can find that place, I can. It may take awhile, though."

"We may be getting some help," Loughlin reminded them.

"Right, but I don't see anybody yet,"
Congrady
said. "I remember there used to be a big ol' island of some kind or other around these parts years ago. Used to be a moonshiner had him a still back in there."

"That sounds like the place we might be looking for," Stone said. "Can you find it?"