CHAPTER 4
Gudron Roy
Ignacia and Carlos were silent as they headed down the long, lonely highway, following the trail to the desert. The same trail not one, but two of their men had gone missing on.
Initially, Perez had put his foot down, insisting Ignacia was not to attempt some kind of solo rescue mission, based on a wild and impossible theory about an invisible force. Whether it was simply a force, or something more tangible had been debated. Perez thought she was crazy, she knew that. Carlos seemed on the fence, but she also knew he would never admit to believing her in front of their boss.
“Santino’s on it,” Perez had told her. “I gave him his orders. Just wait for his report before you rush in, guns blazing.”
They had waited – a good half hour, perhaps more. Santino had not called back.
“This is crazy. I’m calling him,” Ignacia said. Glaring at her, Perez whipped out his own phone and started dialling. The three of them listened to it ring. Over and over and over again. Eventually, looking grim, Perez had hung up.
“Alright, you can go after him,” he’d conceded. “But not alone.”
Smirking, Ignacia had said, “Why don’t you escort me, Boss? You seem to think I need the supervision.”
Unsurprisingly, Perez had backed out. Some excuse about how it would be irresponsible for the head of the operation to leave the base because of a simple misunderstanding. With everything that could have incriminated their comrade burned in the wreck of his car, the military had nothing. Alejandro would be fine. Unless of course Santino had gone maverick again, and endangered the whole mission with his impulsive nature. Neither Ignacio nor Perez voiced this concern aloud. It just hung in the air, on the tip of everyone’s tongues.
“You go after them. Check if everything’s alright,” Perez instructed. “Keep out of sight unless strictly necessary. You may have to vouch for our men. The military will take some convincing. But you’re good at persuading people.”
He gave her wink as he said it, and Ignacia rolled her eyes. Their boss had taken an uncharacteristically optimistic view of the situation. Ignacia suspected it was not a lack of concern that made the mission unworthy of his time. Quite the opposite. He was afraid – afraid of the same ‘supernatural ghost shit’ he’d so casually mocked her for believing in. He of all people knew the kind of crazy sounding shit that was out there.
“Take Carlos with you,” he said as he sent her out the door. “I don’t want anyone else going AWOL.”
Carlos was riding shotgun as they drove down the dusty desert trail. He was tapping his fingers on the dashboard, sometimes glancing over his shoulder.
“You think we’re being followed?” Ignacia teased. “It’s what we might find ahead you should be worried about.”
“I’m not worried,” Carlos argued. “Just being vigilant.”
“Oh, yeah, sure. You were all big talk in front of Perez. Saying he should have sent you instead.”
Carlos kept tapping his fingers. He wasn’t allowed to smoke in the car, and Ignacia suspected he didn’t know what to do with his hands.
“I was talking about a simple in-and-out drug run. I didn’t sign up for any of this supernatural shit, alright?”
Ignacia didn’t get a chance to answer. Up ahead two wrecked cars came into focus. One was a military jeep – the other was Santino’s. It was lying on its side, the window glass sprayed on the ground around it.
Without another word, Ignacia pulled over and leapt out of the driver’s seat. Carlos followed, a little behind. As they came round the front of the jeep, she saw the cracked glass of the windscreen, and behind it two military officers; soaked in blood, bodies peppered with gunshots.
Ignacia sent Carlos to check out the decked car, while she wrenched open the jeep doors and checked the interior. Nothing. Not at first anyway. She crawled inside, scanning the seats for clues. Blood spots, here and there, but not enough to scare her. Her hands slid over the seats, until her fingers brushed something that didn’t feel like upholstery. She tugged it out of the crack between the seats and brought it up to the window. The daylight outside was still fading fast, but she could just make out the clumsily scrawled words of the note.
Ignacia, it began. She swallowed. Alejandro had known she would come looking for him. He’d always trusted her more than his male comrades had.
I’m alive. Santino found me, but we had to run. It’s after us.
There was no signature, but she recognized his handwriting. But the content of the note did more to scare her than it did to reassure. What was after them?
She knew what. Whatever Alejandro had run into, whatever the military were protecting. And whatever had rolled Santino’s vehicle out there. She began crawling out of the back seats of the jeep – when she heard an alarmed shout from Carlos.
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