The Green Machine and the Big City

Ferdi's Green Machine












We spend the night at the bonfire. As expected Lou and Ollie are out of it. We leave them on the plane and meet with Ferdi and the boys at bonfire. Introductions are made and Jerry talks business for a few minutes. He sends me back to the plane to grab the beer.
When I return with the case, Ferdi’s boys crack one with us, then walk over to the plane and have a look. They have never seen a bird like Abby, not this old, not this big, on the air strip. By the looks of the land, Ferdi is a farmer and would only use the strip for a biplane or small Cessna or Piper. As it turns out there hasn’t been a plane land on this strip in five years.

We stand in a small group near the fire. It is dying down now, only stoked for our arrival. But the heat isn’t like the heat of the jungle, it is dry and harsh… and mystical. We watch while we guzzle the beer. Me and three of Ferdi’s boys are standing in silence, just listening to the crackling of the hardwood as it burns, the heat dancing in embered caverns within the structure of the fire.
One of the guys looks at me, and then quickly moves a finger to his ear. I now had the Walker behind my ear. I looked toward Ferdi and raised my eyebrows. The guy looks over and then back at me with a smile and a nod… it was cool.
The smell of that Walker stops all conversation as Jerry and Ferdi both walk up and we all share in a good smoke and some semi-cool beers. Then, like the tide, all the conversation is back. I am amazed. I can understand. Not all of it, but the words I can hear crystal clear are ones I understand.
The three men standing with me now are all brothers. They tell me their names, but I forget them before my eardrums stop vibrating. They want to see the inside of the plane. They dig Abby, they like her lines, her sound. I wave them on and we board her.
It smells like fuel, beer, and stale pot smoke. At least it doesn’t smell like piss. The way Lou and Ollie were partying before we landed you wouldn’t think they would wake up for anything.
One of the boys asks about the snoring Aztec, and the guy in the other hammock. “Quién es el tipo blanco viejo?”
I got it… he asked me “Who is the old white guy?”
“No joda con él, él es peligroso.” I shoot back. No way… I didn’t just say that. Hell this is some good weed.
The body in the hammock moves, “That’s right, amigo, I’m dangerous.” Lou says through the netting of the hammock, eyes closed, might even be asleep.
“El es apenas un tipo blanco viejo, un peso ligero.” I say to the kid. I am quite fluent when using a Walker.
Lou turns in his hammock and opens both eyes, “Remind me to kick your ass when I get up in the morning. I am not a light weight, but I am old, older, oh fuck it.” He rolls back over and closes his eyes.
I take the boys up to the cockpit and show them the view, then we all go back outside. I know with all the gold on board that this is where we will be sleeping tonight.

It isn’t long before the boys and Ferdi retire for the night. We are left with a dying fire and a couple of fold up camp chairs from Abby’s hold.
“Ferdi says we can borrow his car to head into to town tomorrow. The financial district is about twenty some odd miles east from here. We have to go through some shitty parts of the city to get there, but we’ll get there.”
“One of them driving us?”
“Nope, I don’t want to involve Ferdi’s boys in case it gets dangerous.” Jerry takes whats left of the Walker and sparks it back up. It is getting too small to hold, so I get up and grab a needle nose pliers from the tool box.
“The business district will be swinging by nine o’clock, so we should try to be there and get this shit over with.” Jerry takes the pliers and pulls a nice hit off it.
“You think it might get rough?”
Jerry looks over his shoulder in the direction that Ferdi and the boys headed. “We have a few hundred pound of gold, Jake. That’s a couple of million dollars worth, even if it is seventy five cents on the dollar.”
He stops as though he just heard what he said. A couple of million dollars worth, that’s in American money. That is money to die for… literaly. “I don’t know what the fuck we are doing here.”
“Jerry, these are businessmen, right? I mean it’s not like we are going to be dealing with some fucked up druglord. These guys handle transactions like this all of the time I bet.” It didn’t sound all that convincing to me either.
“I just want to get this over with and head back to El Corazon. I just wanted to trade Nester’s gold in for gas and supply money, now we are hauling the shit to this God foresaken place. The fucking law is worse than the criminals up here.”
We both stop talking and let the dying fire calm us. It was just the long day and beer talking. Just the weed and paranoia. Everything would be better in the morning.

Morning comes with the smell of coffee. Lou is up and back from the main house with coffee for the two of us. We had fallen asleep in our chairs and now sat in the smoke of the smoldering ruin of last nights bonfire.
“They got breakfast going in there. Ollie is on his second plate.” Lou says as he delivers our coffee and then turns to go back to his breakfast.
I look down at my lap and see the M-16. Lou must have set it there for effect when he and Ollie went in search of breakfast. You can’t just leave a plane full of gold unattended. I guess he thinks that a sleeping man with an M-16 is more of a threat than one without. I make sure the safey is on and then set it aside.
The coffee is most excellent.
“As soon as we are done with breakfast, we should get the car and get going.”
“Yeah, breakfast.” Jerry took a long sip from his coffee.
We could smell whatever it was that they were cooking. Jerry takes the M-16 and places it inside Abby’s cargo door, grabs the padlock out of the tool box and then slides the door closed and locks her up.

Ferdi’s car is an old 58 chevy four door. After breakfast we go to the little town up the road, an outlying suburb of Mexico City, to pick it up. He had lent it to another friend of his. We walk the mile or so into town.
Once we had the car fueled up, it was time to get down to business. We load the gold into the trunk, as far forward a we can. Ollie sits in the front with Jerry, and Lou and I are in back. Along for the ride are three 9mm from Ollie’s gym bag. I don’t know why we didn’t have four, but the other two weapons are rifles. Too hard to conceal, so we left them in the plane.
No one talks, not a word. It’s one thing to just be driving around in Mexico City when you are three white guys. You stand out like a sore thumb. It’s another thing altogether to be strapped and riding around, and then there is the gold. It was enough to keep you focused. It was a good thing Ollie looked like the kind of Mexican you wouldn’t want to fuck with. He just sits there looking mean. It works well.
Jerry and Ollie talked back and forth. My hyper translating from the night before is gone and I am just another ignorant tourist. Lou is jumping in from time to time, understanding everything. He has been in the business district to the very building we were going to, but flew in each time and didn’t know the way by car. Ollie has been to the city many times in the past and is the best of us to manage the map and directions Ferdi had written over breakfast.
“Give me your phone.” Lou has a business card out of his wallet.
I hand him the phone and he dials the number. The connection is made and some receptionist answers. Lou rattles off some spanish until he is talking to his connection.
“Cooper, you son of a bitch, what are you up to?” He pauses and then smiles, “That’s right, that’s right… fine brother, how ‘bout you?”
We turn a few corners and now we are getting into the newer part of the city. A few high rises start to spring up and before long we are in the business district. There are some beautiful modern buildings, and then there are the old churches and adobe structures sprinkled about.
“I am here to see you.” Lou pats Jerry on the shoulder, “Up here on the left.” “Yeah, Mike, I’m here. Hey, I have a transaction I need your help with.” Lou points to a parking lot next to the building he had referenced, “Just find a spot here.” “Yeah Mike, we are here. We’ll meet you in the lobby.”
Jerry shuts the old green monster off and we all breath heavy. Jerry turns in his seat. “Lou, why don’t you and Ollie go in first and make sure that everything is ready before we haul all this heavy shit in there.”
Lou nods and tells Ollie the deal, then they both get out and head in to the building. Jerry and I are sitting in this car with a couple of million bucks worth of other people’s gold in the trunk. That is trust. Not that it would even be considered, but I get the feeling that if we screwed Lou out of his gold, he would hunt us down and skin us. He just has that look in his eye.

It is fifteen minutes later when Lou and Ollie come back out of the building. While we were waiting, Jerry and I hide the smaller of the 9mm automatics on our persons. Seven shots is all I have, and it will probably take a couple for me to hit what I am aiming at. I am much better with the rifle.
“Come on, we gotta get up there.” Lou ushers us around to the back of the car and we unlock the trunk. Ollie takes two of the bags, I grab the third, and Lou grabs his bag.
“You packing?” Lou looks at me.
“We both are. One of you should take the other pistol.”
Ollie sets his bags down and goes in the car under the front seat and retrieves the third pistol. When he stands he tucks the piece in the waist of his jeans up front and then covers it with his shirt.
“Well, let’s get some money, boys.” Lou heads off and we all follow. Jerry says something to Ollie, who offers him one of the bags he is carrying. If it is as heavy as mine we better hope there is an elevator in this joint.