Hunter felt better hearing that news. “Okay. I’m going home, unless you need something else from me.”
Lincoln said, “We’ll be in touch. Good work, Hunter.”
The compliment surprised her. “Thanks.” She watched them get in the plane and leave the airport, keeping it in sight until the plane was only a speck in the sky. She drove home and made a tomato and romaine salad topped with tuna from a can. She sat on the couch, eating it while flipping channels on the television. Afterward she cleaned her equipment for work, taking extra time on her pistol. She also cleaned the little five shot Airweight and loaded it to be ready for her next run. She thought about the Japanese man, Hiyoki. He comes at me again, I’ll be ready, Hu
nter thought.
~*~
Hiyoki sat by the swimming pool in a lounger, sipping Earl Grey tea as his Segundo approached. “You needed something, Jefe?”
“Yes, who are the best sicarios in Mexico and where do they work?”
“Best? Like the most professional, or the meanest?”
“Good shooters, ones who don’t miss.”
“That would be the Sanchez brothers and some of their cousins, down in Sinaloa, in Culiacán.”
Hiyoki said, “Who do they support?”
“Right now, nobody. When Chapo Guzman was shipped to the United States, they lost their boss. The others don’t like ‘em, so they’re outcasts now.”
“Good. Contact them, tell them I want to talk, face to face, and for them to come here, to the hacienda.”
“Hiyoki, these are very bad men, and not very stable up here,” he tapped his temple.
“Contact them.”
Segundo rubbed his lips with his hand, “Okay, but I’m going armed while they’re here.”
Hiyoki surveyed the looming mountainside near him and spotted several mule deer high up on the slope. He sipped his tea, watching the animals as he thought through all the intricacies of his plan to rid the field of those in the way. The thought that brought a small smile to his face was of the sicarios taking care of that damned Kincaid woman. She was like a cat with nine lives, but those lives would all be used up after his new men arrived and hunted her down.
Hiyoki finished his tea, rose from the lounger and went inside, feeling better about things. His Segundo met him in the living room area and said, “They are coming. I contacted Rolando Sanchez and he said he brings his brother and four cousins. They will be here tomorrow evening.”
“That is excellent.”
“Is there anything else, Jefe?”
Hiyoki made a shooing motion with his hand, “Go.” Once alone, he went to his computer desk and turned on the Mac Pro before sitting down. He adjusted the chair until it lifted to where he liked it, then he let his fingers work the keys.
A video played, showing a large flock of starlings flying over a recently plowed field, moving in their beautiful, synchronous flowing patterns called murmurations. He smiled. His drones now flew like that. Other scientists had tried and achieved limited success, but his work, developing practical equations in critical transitions and applying them to a phase transition, then utilizing the key number of seven as a baseline, he had done it, and better than anyone.
If he still had all his small drones, the narcotics world would be his. But now he had only two hundred eleven of them left. Number two hundred twelve was scattered in pieces in the Marfa cemetery after Kincaid used a shovel on it. The remainder were destroyed in the government’s attack, along with most of his supply of sarin, and his machines and equipment to make more were also destroyed. Thinking of it made him red-faced with anger. We were warned, he thought, I received the call so we had time. Then my Segundo drags his feet like nothing is urgent. Hiyoki almost left to hunt down his Second.
But he stopped himself. He had enough to carry out one attack, and the cartel meeting was very soon. Take it one thing at a time, Hiyoki thought. Hit the bosses at the meeting, then the meddlers, clean the slate. It would all work out in his favor. That would be first, then the others would fall. He called his Segundo back to the room.
“Yes, Jefe?”
“Are we ready for the meeting?”
“Yes, I’m double checking the location again.”
“And?”
“It will be at the hunting lodge, as we heard, on the flanks of the Madera Del Carmen Mountains. They are arriving today, with the meeting tomorrow.”
“Are we in place?”