Retribution Road by Jon Coon (e reader comics .TXT) 📕

She set her secure phone on the bedside table and fell immediately to sleep.

It was dark when the phone awakened her. It took a moment to shake off her deep sleep. She hesitated before answering. She pushed the receive button and said, “Hola.” There was silence and then the connection was broken.

She fought back the panic. The silence on the other end of the call was the worst message she could have received. She got up, ran to the bathroom, dropped to her knees, and heaved the roast beef and rye. She flushed. The handle of her door quietly turned and the door pushed open against the chair and the chain. She grabbed her bags and ran to the double doors connecting the room next door and closed both behind her. She listened at the door, and when she heard the first room door crash against the chair, she opened the adjoining room’s door and peeked into the hall.

As the two men shoved the door into her vacated room, she dashed out of the other into the hall and to the nearest exit.

On the street, with no car and without a phone she could trust, she hurried through the crowded streets between the skyscrapers and ducked into a small restaurant. She took a table in the back and ordered coffee.

She opened her not-so-secure phone, took out the SIM card, and crushed it beneath her heel. She opened her wallet and counted the cash: less than two hundred dollars after paying for the room she could no longer go back to. She had credit cards she was afraid to use and debit cards for ATMs that were no longer safe either. Caldera’s network, his money, gave him unlimited access to her data. At least that was what she believed. “Tom, where are you? Don’t you know how much I need you?”

Tom had tried to call her numerous times with instructions for her extraction. Everything was arranged, but her number was inactive. He stood in the hangar with Gabe, who was still examining the Garmin and visualizing the tools he would need to retrieve the memory chip if they were able to find the second sub.

Tom interrupted Gabe’s train of thought. “Maria’s in trouble. I can’t reach her, and I think someone has tapped into our network. I’ve got our IT guys on it, but they’re not helping. She could be anywhere. I don’t know what to do.”

“Anyone you can reach out to?”

“If the cartel has tapped our phones, anything I put out there is only going to make matters worse. If he’s got this phone tapped,” he said, holding up his super-secret secure cell, “we’re dead in the water. He might even have people in NSA, God forbid.”

“Sounds like Maria’s on her own until she can figure out a way to reach us.”

“Even the phones at the ranch are out. And I haven’t a clue when we’ll have service again.” Tom ran his hands through his still-damp gray hair and shook his head. “Maybe we’re not going to win this one. Maybe Carol was right. Maybe I’m just an old fool jousting with windmills.”

“We just saved Baytown, the refinery, and hundreds of lives. That never would have happened without you. Don’t give up now. We’re not on our own.”

“I hope you’re right. But it sure doesn’t feel that way right now. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this alone.”

Chapter 34

SEBASTIAN AWOKE IN THE DARK. It was after ten, and he’d slept for several hours. His head pounded, and he suspected the CO2 level was on the rise again. He got up from his foam mattress on the deck and checked on Eduardo, who was in the bunk beside him. Still breathing, but with a deep rattle accompanying every breath. It wouldn’t be long now.

Sebastian took a small flashlight from his pocket and used it to see his watch. It was time.

He called to Cristóbal to turn on the dim lights, and there were groans in the dark before the lights came on and the crew began moving.

“The scrubber . . .” Cristóbal said.

“I know, and that’s the end of the Baralyme. We’ve got to get to open water where we can run on the surface.”

“But the planes and the—”

“No choice now. It’s cat and mouse and we’re the mouse. We’ve got to run the engine and charge the batteries. We’ll watch and dive when we have to hide. We just won’t be able to stay long.”

“Whatever you say.”

“We can’t stay here, that’s what I say. Crawl us out of here and let’s get in the channel.”

The electric engines purred to life and the sub slid out from under the barge and, moving only inches above the clay bottom, eased deeper into the channel. They heard patrol boats passing overhead, but their low profile and silent running was enough. In an hour they were out of the channel and entering the Baytown offshore oil field. They brought the sub up to periscope depth and ran to the nearest platform that appeared unmanned.

They surfaced beside the platform, opened the hatch, and turned on the fans. Sebastian climbed out on deck with a walkie-talkie and up onto the platform. He mounted the stair to the upper deck and made a sweep with his binoculars.

“It looks clear. Get everyone on deck. We’ll stay here a while.”

“I think Eduardo’s gone,” Cristóbal said. “What do you want us to do with him?”

“Find something to weight him down, and we’ll give him a sailor’s funeral like we said.”

“Good. We don’t need him stinking up the cabin. I’ll do it.”

“Okay. We’ll take turns on watch. You can see plenty from up here, and we all need fresh air and some rest. I’ll take the first watch, and then send someone up in four hours. It would be good to wash down the sub. Get rid of the smell and make sure to dump the bucket. We’ll stay here as long as we can