Hunters by Matt Rogers (books for 5 year olds to read themselves .TXT) 📕

was a short beeline down the private road in this gated community, and then they were out the front of César Vásquez’s mansion.

For the first time Violetta noticed Vásquez’s house was set on a sloping hill, so they had to crane their necks to stare up at the bright lights.

King said, ‘You want to go in and get her? You know the place.’

‘I’ll need you,’ Violetta said. ‘I don’t want that old freak getting any smart ideas. And Alexis isn’t going to be in any condition to—’

She cut herself off as Vásquez’s front gate rumbled open, revealing a defensive line of his security standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder, protecting the estate.

King tensed up, his good hand on the wheel, wondering if he’d miscalculated and it’d all come crashing down because of a final betrayal from César Vásquez.

Then the line of guards parted in the middle and Alexis stumbled through.

She still wore her cocktail dress, half of it blood-soaked. Her hand was bandaged tight, with a crimson oval in the centre of the white cloth. But the bandaging was expertly done, applied by a medical professional. Maybe Vásquez had a doctor on hand. Her face was bruised and battered and her hair was everywhere, but she took great care in each foot she placed on the gently descending driveway. She made it through the gates and slumped in past the open frame of the jeep, dumping her weight on the seat behind the driver’s.

King twisted. ‘He let you go?’

She wiped a bloody smear off her lip, then nodded, her eyes half-closed. They still blazed green, but her energy was subdued.

She said, ‘I spooked him. I passed out briefly, but when I came to, he was hovering over me like a servant. I kept it together as best I could. Made requests, and his head of security patched me up. The guy was a combat medic in the military. Then he sent me on my way. Didn’t think about laying so much as a finger on me.’

The silence was strange. King could sense the disbelief radiating off Violetta.

Violetta said, ‘Spooked him how?’

‘He had a prior business arrangement with Antônia,’ Alexis said. ‘And by that I mean some kind of blackmail. Apparently she made it clear to him what her skillset was like, showed him videos of what she’d done to people who didn’t make her happy. Between him and Torres, she had most of the wealth in this country in her back pocket. But when I killed her, it mortified him. Turns out you do something utterly insane in front of someone, they don’t want to mess with you. He saw me catch the knife with my hand, then kill someone he thought was untouchable. After that … it was easy. He would have done anything I asked.’

King said, ‘Surely he knew he could kill you there.’

‘I’m sure he thought about it,’ she said. ‘I doubt he thought it was worth the risk in the end. He knew I had backup out here.’

‘Did he know the state of your backup?’ Violetta said, gesturing to King, who could barely keep himself upright in the driver’s seat.

Alexis gazed at him. ‘I may have left that part out.’

King drove away from Vásquez’s place as the gates closed on the legion of security. He wanted to be as far from this cursed street as possible. There was nothing here but death and misery.

On the way out of the gated community, Alexis said, ‘Are we in danger?’

King tried to think, but that proved difficult. After a while he said, ‘I don’t think so. I think it’s done. There’s no one left to come for us.’

‘Opal?’ Alexis asked. ‘Topaz?’

Violetta said, ‘Taken care of.’

‘So that’s it.’

King said, ‘Now it’s just Slater.’

In the rear view mirror he saw her swollen brow furrow, which must have caused pain, but she couldn’t seem to stifle her concern despite the physical consequences.

She said, ‘What do we do? Did we plan that far ahead?’

King said, ‘It’s not good. Eventually Vásquez’s hold over the President will fade. The U.S. will apply pressure. Inconceivable pressure. Eventually El Salvador will cave. For now it’s a stalemate, but I’m sure the secret world wants Slater and Alonzo more than they’ve ever wanted anyone. They’ll be fully prepared to wait it out.’

‘So it’s just a matter of time before they storm in and take them?’ Alexis said, her face paling. ‘Why did we do any of this in the first place?’

‘Because it was our only option,’ King said. ‘The only safe haven we could find in Manhattan. If Slater got Alonzo out and didn’t do this, they’d tear the city apart looking for them, and they’d find them. This bought us time. Which right now is more precious than anything else.’

‘They’ll have that tiny consulate surrounded,’ Violetta said. ‘Cordons, constant surveillance, snipers across the street. They’ll have every entrance covered.’

‘I know,’ King said. ‘They were never getting out on their own.’

‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ Alexis asked from the back seat.

‘I planned for this.’

‘What plan?’ Violetta asked.

King remembered what Will Slater had done for him in the Russian Far East, deep in an abandoned mine on the Kamchatka Peninsula many years ago.

He hadn’t told them this part.

Only Slater, briefly, before the man departed for the cartel-owned airfield.

He’d kept it secret because it was the most dangerous part of it all.

Violetta pressed him. ‘Jason?’

He said, ‘I’ll need your talents.’

‘For what?’

‘Finding who I’m looking for.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘The weak link.’

She stared at him. Like, Could you be any more cryptic?

He said, ‘And get Slater to send us all that dirt he has on Texis. We’ll need to make a stateside trip of our own.’

104

Two days later…

For the most part, the consulate staff had treated their unwanted guests with respect.

Slater sat in front of his borrowed laptop in the tiny back room that comprised his living and sleeping space and noted from the digital clock in the top corner of the screen that it was six-thirty in the morning. This somewhat surprised him.