White Dawn: A Military Romantic Suspense Novel (10 page)

Halfway around the edge of the square,
she ran into her first Insurrectos. They were clearly off duty, for
they were laughing and thumping each other on the shoulder. All
three of them carried mugs of beer and were taking up most of the
space between the stalls, forcing people to step around them, or
move to one side while they passed.

Carmen stayed back behind them, slowing
down even more. If this was a typical small town market, there
would be a beer “garden” somewhere in the market. It would be a
roped off area where men could buy beer to offset the heat of the
day. Normally they were required to stay within the roped area
while they drank their beer, but the Insurrectos were making their
own rules.

There was a good chance that there would
be even more Insurrectos in the garden itself and Carmen didn’t
want to risk walking past it and being recognized by one of them.
So far, no one had called out her name. It was possible that even
if they recognized her, these locals would think it was simply
someone who looked like Carmen Escobedo. After all, what would the
daughter of the former President be doing wandering in this small
town market all by herself, right in front of Insurrectos?

If only you knew
.

At the appointed hour, Carmen made her
way back to the side of the square where the café was located and
with a last casual look around, she spotted Efraín, who gave her a
wide smile. The coast was clear, then. Satisfied, she went inside
the café and looked around.

There was a booth at the back, one of
the corner booths that could seat six people around the circular
table if necessary. A lone man sat at the table, stirring his
spiced coffee. He didn’t look up when she stepped inside, but his
was the only table with a single person sitting at it, so she
walked over to the table. “Can I share your table?” she asked.

He looked up. He was very English
looking, with clear skin and blue eyes and a mild tan. This was
Nemesis? He looked like a mild-mannered accountant.

“I’m waiting for someone,” he said and
gave her a small smile, as if he was sorry to disappoint her.

“My mistake,” she told him and dropped
her voice. “Unless you’re Nemesis?”

He relaxed and nodded. “Have a seat. Is
it just you?”

She shook her head. “The other one will
be here in a moment.” She slid onto the seat and moved around to
give Garrett room when he arrived and looked at Nemesis. “You’re
not what I expected.”

“Good,” he said flatly and looked up as
Garrett walked up to the table. His eyes narrowed as he took in
Garrett’s appearance. Without the hat, which he held in his hand
and without the beard, Garrett’s scars were very clear, the one on
the left cheek writhing up into a white spot where it looked like
the skin had been peeled away, layer after layer, leaving the
dermis exposed.

He sat on the seat next to Carmen,
putting her between the two, and placed his medical bag at his
feet, so the red symbol was facing out at the other diners. He
looked up as the waitress appeared. “Another pot of spiced coffee,
please,” he told the waitress.

Nemesis studied them both. “How good is your
English?” he asked softly, in English.

“I’m American,” Garrett said
shortly.

“I’m fluent,” Carmen told Nemesis. “I’ve
spent years in the States.”

“I know,” he told her. “I bring
greetings from your uncle. Directly from your uncle.”

Carmen caught her breath as pleasure
shot through her. “Really?” Then the questions surged. “Are they
all right? Is Minnie…did she…?” She pressed her lips together. It
wasn’t good to speak names aloud. But perhaps the single name among
the English would be missed.

“She’s fine,” Nemesis said. “She’s also
married.” His mouth quirked up into a one-sided smile. “And
pregnant.”

Carmen sat back, as relief washed
through her. It was so strong it felt like it was sucking all the
energy out of her as it passed out through her limbs. “She found
him,” she breathed.

“She did, indeed,” Nemesis said. He
paused as the waitress brought the second pot of coffee and two
more cups and left again. “I’ve been instructed to tell you that if
you want to go home, arrangements can be made.”

Garrett tensed, next to her, but didn’t
speak.

Carmen smiled at Nemesis. “Acapulco
isn’t home. There’s no place for me, over there.”

Nemesis gave her a small smile back.
“That’s what your uncle said you’d say. But we were uncertain of
your circumstances. There was the possibility that the big house
would be a haven for you. It’s good to know you don’t need it.” His
gaze flickered toward Garrett.

“She’s free to leave if she wants. No
one signs a contract with me,” Garrett said stiffly.

“Is she a good soldier?” Nemesis
asked.

“Yes.” His response was flat and without
hesitation. Carmen looked at him, surprised.

“Then I suggest you hang on to your good
soldiers. You’re going to need them,” Nemesis said. “Can you get
hold of a short wave radio transmitter?”

“Probably,” Garrett said, sitting back.
“Codes?”

“Very good,” Nemesis replied. “Here.”
But he didn’t move. Instead, Garrett pulled his hand out from under
the table. There was a flat square object in his hand, which he
placed on the seat between them and opened one-handed. He glanced
at the open page. Carmen could see rows of letters, in pairs.

“Is there a schedule for changing
codes?” Garrett asked.

“Random and rotating,” Nemesis said.
“After acknowledgment, your first code pair is the page
number.”

Garrett nodded and closed the book and
slid it into his jeans pocket.

“Don’t use the Internet anymore,”
Nemesis added. “It’s too insecure and too many people know about
it. The general population can use the chat group to report in.
Their observations are useful. But real data must be coded from now
on.”

“Something is going to happen?” Carmen
asked carefully.

Nemesis nodded. “Very soon,” he added.
“I’ve spent the last four days meeting groups like yours. Everyone
is on the same page now and with the others at the big house
poised…we’re waiting.”

“Waiting?” Garrett asked.

“For Serrano to make his move.”

Garrett smiled. It was a knowing
expression. “You’re waiting for him to flinch.”

“Exactly.”

Garrett glanced around the café, making
it look casual. “He may be flinching already,” he said quietly and
dipped into his medical bag. Then he straightened up and placed
something between Carmen and him. He kept his hand over it. “Give
that to him,” he told her.

She slid her hand underneath and paused
to adjust to the weight. It was heavy and cool to the touch.
Metal.

Silver.

Her heart thudding, Carmen let her gaze
flicker around the room to see if anyone was watching them. Then
she put the bar in her lap, then picked it up with her other hand,
all while keeping her gaze up and around. She didn’t look at
Nemesis as she put the ingot on the seat next to him.

His hand came down over it instantly.
“Where did you get it?” he demanded.

Carmen looked down at the seat. The
ingot had disappeared.

Garrett told Nemesis about the train
they had hijacked, the armed guards and the box of silver, using
lots of idioms and metaphors. Even if anyone did understand English
in this café, the chances were good they wouldn’t be able to follow
the jargon and slang.

Nemesis sat very still for a while,
staring at the table top. Carmen sipped her spiced coffee, which
was excellent, and waited.

Finally Nemesis shook his head. “This
could be something,” he agreed. “It marries up with information I
got from one of the
Nuevo Sevilla
groups.”

“The Insurrectos have reopened the
silver mine on The Big Rock,” Garrett said, using the English
rendition of
Las Piedras Grandes
, so it wouldn’t catch
anyone’s attention.

Nemesis nodded. “The smelter was damaged
in the first wave of fighting that broke out on the rock.
Sabotaged. So now the Insurrectos are bringing silver into the city
to work it. They’re using the original, small test smelter on the
grounds of the university. There are any number of reasons why they
might want to get their hands on stamped ingots of silver.”

“They’re already taxing the people to
death,” Carmen said hotly. “They’ve hiked basic taxes up fifteen
percent in the last few weeks. Why would they want more?”

“Bribes. Persuasion.” Nemesis
shrugged.

“And to back international loans,”
Garrett said.

Nemesis leaned forward and dropped his
voice. “The top dog needs to prove to the world that Vistaria has a
viable economy. If he can do that, then he can get loans, invite
investors, support local businesses…it will stimulate the economy
in a way that will make Vistarians think he’s doing good, because
money and goods and services will start to flow. It will entrench
the Insurrectos like dried concrete.”

“Except it’s all propped up by smoke and
mirrors,” Garrett said, his voice flat, even angry. “Six months, a
year from now, the economy will collapse through its own weight and
they’ll all be even worse off than they are now. Vistaria will be a
country mired in national and international debt and with no
economy to pay it off with.”

“Besides, the mine isn’t theirs,” Carmen
said hotly. “It belongs to Astra Corp.”

“I don’t think the top dog cares about
that,” Nemesis told her.

“Spoils of war,” Garrett added. “If it
comes out he’s using the mine, he’ll claim it was nationalized when
he freed the nation from the Loyalist yoke.”

“Astra Corp paid billions for those
mineral rights,” Carmen said. “It was going to keep Vistaria on its
feet for years.”

“But
that
Vistaria already had an
infrastructure,” Garrett pointed out. “The stimulation to the
economy was real and sustainable. It just hadn’t kicked in properly
when the Insurrectos took over. Now, there’s no industry, no
businesses at all and no one has any money. An economy propped up
by a nationalized mining industry that uses military labor instead
of local labor will topple because even though the silver is
floating corporate loans, nothing flows back to the people.”

Nemesis smiled in a way that held no
mirth at all. “But it will look very good on paper.”

“But why would the ingots have been
going
back
to The Big Rock?” Carmen asked. “Surely they need
them in the city, or to be shipped out of the country, to show off
to the corporations they want to tap?”

Both men were silent, looking at each
other.

“To make it
look
like the mine is
fully functional,” Garrett said, as if he was finishing off a
sentence that hadn’t been spoken.

Nemesis nodded. “Fly in the money men,
show them around. Everything squeaky clean and running
smoothly.”

Carmen put her cup down. “Not just the
money men,” she added softly. “Diplomats and politicians, too.”

“Mexico,” Garrett said flatly. “They
need them as allies now they’ve alienated the States.”

The silence that gripped the table was
thick with tension.

Nemesis leaned forward again and dropped
his voice. “You took one shipment from them. I guarantee a
replacement shipment will be arranged. You need to stop that train,
no matter what.”

“We could blow the line,” Garrett said.
“Slow them down.”

“Not certain enough,” Nemesis said
flatly. “They could fly it down if they know the tracks are
compromised.”

“They don’t have any aircraft left,”
Carmen said.

Both men looked at her.

“How do you know that?” Nemesis
asked.

“I spent nearly twenty-four hours
studying the back of the palace, about six weeks ago. There used to
be a fleet of helicopters and a small Cessna kept there, for anyone
to use as needed. They were all gone. The army had a small fleet of
helicopters, too, but they were all brought down and destroyed in
the first wave of the revolution.” Carmen grimaced.

“The Insurrectos stole all the
ground-to-air missile launchers from the bases, before the fighting
broke out,” Nemesis added.

Garrett’s brow rose. “So they can’t take
it by air.”

“Road?” Carmen asked.

“I’ll worry about the road,” Nemesis
said. “You worry about the train. If the groups in the city hear
anything about a shipment, I’ll get word to you.” He glanced up and
around. “Time to leave.”

There were five Insurrectos hovering
outside the café, reading the menu in the window.

Nemesis got to his feet. He had no pack,
no bag. He must have put the ingot into one of his jacket pockets.
It was a very ordinary leather jacket, with tabs and zippered
pockets. It didn’t seem to be hanging lower on one side.

The Insurrectos pushed in through the
door, making the little bell chime, just as Nemesis reached it. But
he didn’t back up. Instead, he seemed to melt around them and to
one side. He slid into an opening between them, through the door
and out, in about four steps. It looked like he had flowed right
through them, invisible. None of the Insurrectos even looked at
him.

“Third cup,” Garrett said softly.

Carmen picked up the cup Nemesis had
been using and held it between her knees, below the level of the
table.

Garrett turned on the seat so his whole
body was facing her. It put his back to the Insurrectos.

“Keep your gaze down,” he said, his
voice a murmur. “Don’t meet their eyes.”

Her heart was thudding, abrupt
adrenaline overload making her feel a little sick. She shook her
hair forward, so her features were partially disguised and looked
down at her coffee.

The Insurrectos were looking around for
some place to sit, but nearly all the tables and booths were full.
There were only tiny tables-for-two left.