Chapter 8
The helicopter blew leaves and debris from the helipad while
Nick, Matt and Dane ducked their heads and fought the airflow. They lunged into the back of the chopper
single file. There were two sets of seats
which faced each other. Nick and Matt
took the seats directly behind the pilot and Dane took one of the seats across
from them. The pilot handed Matt three
pairs of headsets and Matt handed one to Nick and one to Dane.
Once their headsets were in place,
Nick pushed a button on the side of Dane’s set and said, “Can you hear me
okay?”
Dane could hear Nick through his
headphones very well and he said, “Yes,” probably too loudly, compensating for
the roar of the rotors.
The pilot twisted around in his seat
and patted Matt on the shoulder, then pointed to Dane. “Strap him in.”
Matt leaned over and pulled the
proper harness from behind Dane and secured him into his seat, giving a short
tug on the end strap until he was satisfied.
Nick slammed the door shut, then
gave the pilot a thumbs up.
The helicopter slowly lifted from
the ground and immediately began wobbling back and forth.
“It’s going to be a bumpy ride,” the
pilot said through the headset. “I can’t
get over these clouds.”
Dane grabbed the bottom of his seat
with a death grip and Nick held up his hand.
“Relax,” Nick said gesturing to the
pilot. “Jason’s the best helicopter
pilot in the Bureau.”
“There’s only two of us,” the pilot
said and Dane watched Nick and Matt try to suppress a grin.
Dane’s stomach began to churn and
the pilot raised the chopper high enough to turn it toward the ocean and step
on the gas. And that was before Dane
even began to think about where they were going.
“So,” Nick said, “let’s back up and
start from the bar. You were having
drinks with a friend and then what happened?”
The chopped bounced like a pickup
truck on a dirt road. As the nose of the
chopper headed south over the shoreline, rain pelted the windshield. Dane could see the road he was driving on
when he began to flee the Border Patrol.
“What’s going to happen to my car?”
Dane asked.
Nick looked disgusted. “Really?” he said. “That’s a concern? Your car?”
It forced Dane to think about where
he was going and the plan they had devised to capture the Mexican in
Tijuana. A plan that sounded very
dangerous and even life threatening.
Dane shrugged. These guys always had a way to make you feel
like your problems are so inconsequential to their overall agenda.
“So?” Nick asked. “The bar?”
The chopper seemed to bounce higher
and once it was over the ocean, it turned left to go south. Dane found his hand clenching his midsection.
“Well,” Dane said, “I was having
drinks with this guy.”
“Where was your friend? The guy you came with?”
“Oh, um, he left with a girl,” Dane
said, avoiding the word prostitute at all costs.
Nick circled his index finger as if
to say, “Go ahead.”
“Okay, so I was having shots of
tequila with this guy.”
“Which guy? Reynoso?”
“No, it was a different guy. He was the one who asked if I wanted to make
a quick ten thousand dollars.”
“What did you say to that?”
“I said I wasn’t about to have sex
with a mule.” Dane cracked a smile.
Nick rolled his eyes and circled his
finger again.
“Well,” Dane added, “that’s when I
asked what I had to do.”
“And?”
“He told me I just had to drive over
the border with a package in the trunk of my car and they would pay me when I
made it over.”
“Uh huh.”
“So I asked what kind of a package
and he told me I wasn’t allowed to ask questions. That was part of the deal.”
“But you knew it was something
illegal, right?”
The helicopter jerked upward, then
dropped down twenty feet like a giant hand was trying to push it into the
sea. Dane’s throat tightened with
anxiety.
“I don’t know what it was,” Dane
said with as much innocence as he could muster.
“Of course not.” Nick deadpanned. “Go ahead.”
“So after a few more shots, the idea
of a quick ten thousand dollars sounded appealing.”
“What did your friend say about
that?”
Dane had forgotten about Jeff. Suddenly aware that he might be in
trouble. “I didn’t tell him. He was going to spend the night.”
“Nice friend,” Matt chimed in.
“Well, I didn’t know,” Dane said,
clasping his seat. “The bar is walking
distance to the border. I figured he
would call me in the morning.”
Nick and Matt both looked at him
with sympathy in their eyes.
“Wait,” Dane said. “You don’t think he’s in danger, do you?”
With a somber expression, Nick said,
“Only if he’s still alive.”
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