“He said they must have seen him right before the crap hit the fan. He’s on the run because they tore the wires from under the hood of his pickup. He saw of them terrorizing his other friends at the day labor camp. So he ran into the brush and is moving away from there as quickly on foot as he can.”
I asked Hondo, “You carrying?”
“Two, and I brought you a second.” He pointed at the glove compartment. I opened it and saw my Kimber. So now I had both my Sig and the Kimber loaded to the gills with big fat rounds. I was ready. I didn’t have to ask Hondo, because he’s always ready.
The full moon glowed in a cloudless night sky. The landscape had the color of a new nickel, and we could make out rocks and brush. Juan’s last call said he was near a big cemetery, hiding in a cluster of boulders on a low ridge south of it. The two black guys weren’t far away, and they used flashlights to stay on his tracks.
I used Google Maps to figure out where he might be and saw the Oakwood Memorial Park and Cemetery. A small draw ran southwest of it and the southern bank rose in a high, rock and boulder covered ridge.
We took a road that snaked through the rocks. Hondo drove with the lights out and the windows open for sound.
“There,” Hondo p
ointed. A flashlight beam winked on and off a hundred yards ahead of us, near the edge of the boulders. Hondo eased forward, keeping the Mercedes idling quietly.
We stopped fifty yards later and eased out of the car, making sure to kill the overhead light before we opened the doors. We crept forward, looking for movement and stopped a short distance later. Flashlight beams flickered again, and two of the beams moved up and down as if someone held them while running.
Hondo yelled, “Juan!” I flinched because he scared the heck out of me. Hondo’s voice is loud when he wants it to be.
A few second later I said, “Listen, someone’s running this way.”
We waited until the person was close and we could see him in the silver light, then Hondo used his indoor voice and said, “Juan, over here.”
The figure changed direction and came our way. That’s when I saw two more figures thirty yards behind the solo runner, coming fast.
Juan reached us and Hondo motioned him to move behind. We waited side by side as the men advanced. When they were ten yards away and had slowed to a walk, Hondo said, “You want to do the honors, tell them we’re here?”
“Love to.” I had a pistol in each hand, and Hondo held one, and his flashlight. Hondo flicked on the beam and bathed them in light. They stopped and squinted. I stepped forward so they could see me, and I pointed both pistols at them as I said in my best Scarface accent, “Say hallo to my leetle friends.”
That stopped them. Their pistols were in their holsters. I said, “You can’t have him.”
The biggest one, and I mean like three hundred pounds big, said “Your ass is gonna be in big trouble for this, Baca. You and that psycho Hondo Wells, too.”
How did he know our names? It was dark and we surprised them. I said, “You guys want an autograph or something? What are your names by the way? We can exchange phone numbers and friend each other on Facebook, maybe Snapchat. You know, stay in touch.”
“You’re not funny, but you and your friend are targets now, along with the wetback.”
Hondo spoke up, “Remember that I’m psycho? Get out of here before I go all Travis Bickle on your asses. You’ve got five seconds.”
The big one almost stayed too long, because I knew Hondo wasn’t fooling. Hondo’s finger rested on the trigger, not beside it.
At four seconds, the big guy and his partner turned and stomped away into the night. Hondo kept the light on them until they were at a safe distance. He flicked off the flashlight and said, “Let’s go before they call reinforcements.”
As we got in the car and Hondo drove away from the rocks, I said to him, “That was because we watched Taxi Driver at the theater Monday night, wasn’t it? The Travis Bickle thing.”
“Seemed to fit the situation.”
Juan spoke from the back seat, “The Taxi Driver, weeth Roberto DeNiro? That wass a good one.”
I said, “You’ve seen Taxi Driver?”
He smiled and nodded, “In English. I see many English movies, to learn more of the language. I learn the cursings very quick.” Then he added, “I saw you two een one not too long ago. You were soldados, soldiers. You din’ last too long though. Couple of minutes. The outer space aliens, they keel you pretty fast.”
Hondo said, “What do you know, we have a fan.”
I said, “Do you have some place you can go that would be more safe than your labor camp?”
Juan said, “I have nobody here. Everyone is in Cuernavaca, muy lejos, very far.”