So, in essence, that report had more holes than a slice of swiss cheese and concealed more facts than it actually “reported.” Still, it was my story, and I was sticking to it.
“It’s come to our attention that sensitive cartel data was stolen out from under Santiago’s nose, most likely in the form of a thumb drive. It’s made Santiago extremely unpopular with the big cartel bosses in Caracas. We’ve heard there may even be a power grab coming, which would be…” Vince hesitated. “Dangerous. And inadvisable.”
“Inadvisable for who? Is America getting involved in drug cartel politics now?”
“Of course not. But better the devil you know, as they say.”
I grimaced, even though he couldn’t see me. That saying characterized a lot about my last few months with Vince, with me hanging on and hoping our relationship could get back to what I’d thought it was, and him… not.
“Let’s just say it would be inconvenient for everyone should that data end up in the wrong hands and further destabilize things in the region,” Vince went on. “My colleagues and I would react very unfavorably.”
Right. I knew a threat when I heard one. And if Vince had known me half as well as I’d once believed he did, he would have known I never backed down from a threat. “I’m not sure what you think that has to do with me. I’m no thief, nor is anyone on my team. We were there to rescue a tourist from Gustavo Santiago—”
“See, that’s funny, because airport surveillance saw Gustavo Santiago—the real Gustavo Santiago—arriving in the United States a full ten days prior to this incident. So I imagine the man your associates dealt with wasn’t actually Gustavo, but one of his men impersonating him.”
“Not my problem. We got the tourist back, so—”
“Funny thing about that tourist. Buckshot ‘Buck’ Nutter of Frogpole Lane, Licking Thicket, happens to have been the lead developer of Horn of Glory, and I do believe HOG Corporate is one of Champion’s clients. That’s a heck of a coincidence.”
Mother. Fucker.
“That… is indeed a coincidental coincidence,” I said breezily, though my palms were starting to sweat.
“And yet you’re sure that he just happened to be kidnapped on a snorkeling trip for no reason whatsoever? And you don’t think it’s possible that Mr. Nutter isn’t an innocent victim but the man who stole that sensitive information from Gustavo Santiago?”
I thought of the surveillance footage from the plane that Hux had shown us a few weeks before—footage that showed Buck Nutter unwrapping a Horn of Glory Horn which he’d somehow gotten rid of by the time we brought him back to the Champion offices for a debrief—and an idea formed in my mind. A wackadoo, one-way-ticket-to-bad-choices idea that was so ridiculous I was almost positive it was true.
Had the whole world lost its damn mind?
What would possess a man like Gustavo Santiago to take cartel data and put it on a $10 hunk of plastic that yodeled when the battery ran low?
What in all the hells would make Buck Nutter, a man who’d already been kidnapped, held prisoner, and threatened by Gustavo Santiago, steal a Horn full of sensitive data that was bound to get him killed?
Vince’s call had officially gone from being the worst part of my day to being the worst part of my year.
But was I going to tell him that the DEA should be looking for a stolen Horn and not a flash drive, and that Buck was probably exactly the culprit they were looking for?
Oh, fuck to the no.
Especially not when Champion Security had, in effect, been driving the getaway plane. And especially-especially not when the theft involved HOG Corporate, Champion’s biggest client.
“Nope!” I said shortly, crossing my fingers under the table. “As far as I can see, there’s no connection.”
“Hmm. Well, according to his sister Kandi, no one has seen ‘hide nor hair’ of Mr. Nutter since he left town the day after you got back from Venezuela,” the Bearer of Bad News continued relentlessly. “He ended his relationship with his girlfriend, a Ms. Kellie Tuffy, also of Licking Thicket, just over a week ago via phone call, which was a, quote, ‘rat-bastard thing to do to a woman who’s wasted her prime husband-hunting years on a man.’ End quote.”
Shit, damn, sod it all.
After Riggs had asked Carter about the Horn that Buck had shown him, I’d had Hux try to contact Buck directly, but he’d been unreachable, so I’d let it go. I’d told myself not every open loop had to be closed when I’d known better. I knew better.
And now Buck was in the wind.
“I can say for certain that I haven’t seen him since the day we brought him back.” And then I added, “Too bad your guys were so slow in putting all these facts together, huh?”