Solomon waited until Ramona closed the office door behind her before he made the call. He spoke in English, “Get to San Angelo.” He told the listener what room Ike was in, and that Hunter Kincaid was close by, and he mentioned Suretta as the one hunting them. The voice said something back to Solomon.
He replied, “Play it by ear when you get there. You know who to get with, and where to locate the children after that.” He hung up, satisfied things would be done, and be done very soon.
Chapter 11
Suretta met Solomon’s four men from Mexico at the parking lot of the Sunset Mall off Loop 306, on the western edge of San Angelo. She looked them over, saying to the lo
ng-haired one with the Indian features, “You, what’s your name?”
“Sandoval.”
“No first name?”
“No.”
“You’re Indian?”
“I am Otomí.”
“And you have the tools?”
He opened the small pack on his hip and took out three syringes. “These are ready.”
“Good. You will go with me.” She turned to a short, powerful man with wide shoulders and a deep scar on his cheek, “And you, how are you called?”
“My name’s Diego Luna, from El Paso.”
“What do you carry?”
“My knife.” He pulled it from an almost hidden scabbard in his pocket and showed her a thin, glittering blade the size of a letter opener. He shaved the hairs on his forearm to show its sharpness. “It goes between the ribs very easy.”
She nodded. “You come. The other two can wait here in town unless I call. Keep your phones ready. This will take no time.”
They drove across the town and parked in the hospital lot. Suretta led them into the building and to the elevators, pushing the button for the second floor. When they exited, the floor appeared empty of people, except for a single nurse at the nurse’s station. She didn’t look up but kept her head centered in front of the computer screen, a frown on her face.
As Suretta and her two companions walked by, the nurse looked up and Suretta smiled and made a little wave, but continued walking. The nurse turned back to her computer.
She said, “It’s the next to last room on the right.”
Sandoval removed a syringe from his belt pouch and took off the safety cap, leaving the bright silver needle exposed, ready to inject the blue liquid inside the barrel.
Ike rose from his bed, feeling better but still a little queasy, a little dizzy, but not like before. His head hurt like a mother, though. Definitely going to be a bruise there. He slid his feet into the hospital-provided slippers and thought he felt good enough to walk down the hall, maybe take a look around. Before he started, Ike picked up his phone and re-tied the gown’s strings to help hold the back of his hospital gown together so he didn’t moon some little old lady. He smiled at the thought.
Stepping into the hall put him a foot in front of a surprised Sandoval still holding the syringe. “Whuh!” Sandoval said in surprise.
Ike spotted the syringe and moved before the Otomí reacted, grabbing the man’s forearm and pushing it up so the needle pointed toward the man’s neck, and then pushing with his body weight to send the needle into the man’s skin, where he pushed the plunger with his palm, forcing all the fluid into the Indian.
Suretta and Diego reacted a half-second later, but Ike already raced the short distance down the hall and into the stairwell door, pushing it shut behind him.
Suretta said, “Get the door open and find him. I’ll go down and get in front of Ike.” She lifted the dying Indian by the armpits, drug him to a nearby janitorial closet and slid him inside, putting his quivering body behind a rear shelf of cleaning materials and papers. He gave a death rattle as she put him down, and she checked Sandoval’s pulse. None. She rose and left, locking the door behind her.
Diego jiggled and worked the knob until it opened, and he hurried down the stairs, hearing Ike’s slipper-covered feet padding on the concrete floor one level below him.
Suretta ran to the elevator, hit the button, and the door opened. She stepped inside and hit the button for the ground floor. As soon as it opened she sprinted out the doors and down the hall to the lobby, which caused the nurse to look up in alarm. Suretta ignored her and shoved open the front doors in anger, causing one of the glass barriers to crack down the center.
Ike felt dizzy, and his breath came in gasps, but he knew better than to stop. He looked left and right, then took the emergency exit at the end of the hall that went straight outside. He still had his phone and tried to dial Hunter as he ran. Missing the first time, he slowed, and got her on the second try.
“Hey, Ike.” She said.