The Meeting

Water Taxi in Puerto Barrios. This is how our contact arrived.



With the scuba tank for sharing air and an underwater flashlight we were able to take a closer look at the Sea Ray on the bottom. The electronics are gone. Radar unit, radios, depth finders, anything like televisions and stereos... all gone. There are two staterooms, both in a shambles aside from being underwater. You can see that the room had been tossed, everything opened, contents floating in the room with our self created current as we move about.

Lou motions to me for the flashlight. I hand it to him and he shines it in an open closet and then reaches in and picks at something. He really works it with his free hand and then pulls out the flat piece of wood that made up what looked like the back of the closet above the drawers. The panel reveals a couple of pistols, clips, a banded stack of currency, and what looks like a couple of passports. I reach up and take a hit of air and he does the same. Then Lou shines the light behind me in the small stateroom and pans the room, settling on a net-type laundry bag that is waving in the current. He wiggles the light on it and I retrieve it. We stuff the booty in the bag and move back to the main salon. Lou points to the regulator and then puts his thumb and forefinger together... short time... small amount of air. We both take another hit of air and then make our way out of the yacht and up to the silhouette of the Morgan.

Blanco hauls the bag up and then gives us a hand onto the boat.
"Yeah, Whitey, that boat was stripped bare." Lou tells him, picking the laundry bag up off of the deck. He holds it up like it is full of store-bought goldfish and looks in through the netting. "We got us a couple of nice guns, a stack of money, and some identification." He looks at me as he drops the bag to his side. "You know, I've spent most of my life just getting by. I meet you and now I have more money than I know what to do with."
"How much is it?"
Lou takes the bag into the cabin and we follow. He dumps the contents onto the table. "Fifty thousand." He tosses the stack of money to me and I turn it over in my hands, then I hand it Blanco and he does the same.
"Parta que arriba tres maneras," Lou tells him. Blanco tears the strap off and starts dealing bills into three piles.
I pick up one the passports and look at the picture. A bushy silver haired old man stares back from the picture, "Arnold Menton" I say outloud as I read the name and then look at the address. "Glendale Arizona..."
"What?" Lou sets one of the pistols down and reaches for the passport, "Let me see that."
I pick up the other one and look see the same picture, but this one has a different name, "Arturo Montoya from Belize bares a striking resemblance to old Arnold, don't you think?"
Lou takes the Montoya passport and holds it side by side to the Menton document, then drops Montoya back on the table, holding on to Menton.
"This name is the same name that is on Naomi's documents." He looks at Blanco. "Hey Whitey, how long has this boat been down here?"
Blanco thinks for a second, "Una semana, quizá un día o dos más."
"One week, maybe a day or two more," Lou translates as he stares into the picture. He turns to Blanco, "Get us out of here, Whitey, now."

We pull anchor and raise the sails. There is decent wind and we will make better time under sail than with the diesel. Lou has a sense of urgency that has yet to be explained.
"So, what's the deal?"
"Are you serious?" He grabs Menton's passport, "That yacht on the bottom was sunk from underneath this guys feet, that's what. They were looking for something but didn't find it. This guy's body isn't on the boat, but Whitey heard that he had been executed."
"Wait, how do you know they didn't find it? What they are looking for, I mean."
"Because we have it. This is the same guy that owned Naomi. The same guy that Bear questioned about the stones. The same guy that probably spilled the beans to the guys that took the boat. The same guys that followed us. The same guys that we... I blew out of the sky in Costa Rica." He sees the same fear in my eyes that he is masking in his. "Ahhh, now you understand."
"Unfortunately."

We make good time back toward the marina. I go back to our bunks and have the urge to see the diamonds. Not that I don't trust Blanco... but I don't trust anyone but Lou at this point. I look in his stash and find nothing but weed and pre-rolled Walkers. My heart jumps. They are gone.
"Lou... will you come back here please."
I wait for a moment while he pulls the slide back on the pistol he has been cleaning and lets it snap back into place. "Yeah, coming."
When he comes back he sees the look on my face. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"They're gone."
"What is gone?"
"The stones. They aren't in your bag."
"You rifled my bag?"
"Well, no... with all that was happening I just wanted to check on the stones. And they are gone. As in not there, as in... "
"Relax, the stones aren't gone. They've been with me the whole time."
My mind processes this for a moment. "But what about when we went down to the Sea Ray, all you had on is what you are wearing now. Is there a secret pocket or something in those?"
"Well, no."
I take a moment longer, then... "Oh you sick fuck."
"Safest place for them for now."

We hit the marina and tie up. We don't leave the Morgan, but drink a few brews while Lou cleans the guns. "This is an officer's model Kimber forty five. A pretty expensive weapon. I'll keep this one." He looks at me for any objection. I have none. "But this one is yours, Jake, Springfield Armory officer's model, same caliber. Nice taste old Arnold had. The only ammo we have is what is in the clips. We need a box or two."
I can only wonder what trouble he expects to get into where we are going to need a box or two of ammunition.
"Oh... we're in plenty of trouble right now, forget what we are going to get into later."
"Will you stop that, what are you now... a mind reader?"
"No, but I can read your face pretty easily. Let's look at the timeline for a moment. I think that this guy Arnold was into these diamonds by accident, kind of like us. A little piss-ant boat like that Sea Ray, a plane like Naomi, hell... these stones look like they are priceless. If they were his for real then he would have a boat like Bear's just to run him to shore from his BIG boat. No, this guy either stole them or stumbled on them. The guys who they really belong to, or were intended for are the guys that probably followed us. They probably tracked old Arnold down after Bear was through with him and then tried to get the answer out of him. They searched, stripped, and sank his boat... then came after the plane when he told him that is where they were. I don't quite know how Bear fit's in with this, but if the guy stumbled onto these stones was dealing with Bear on another transaction, maybe he gave up the stones during interrogation, but didn't specify exactly on the plane they were."

I listen and questions pop up during Lou's brainstorm. "Wouldn't the guys in the plane have tortured the old man until he gave up the stones or died with the secret?"
"That's entirely possible. He told Bear they were in the plane because Bear practically admitted that they tore that plane apart."
I look at Lou and he looks at me. Blanco stares our way with those rabbit eyes and freaks the hell out of both of us. He holds the stacks of money out to us.
"One each," He says with that deep voice.
Lou slaps the clip in the Kimber and pulls the slide back, jacking one into the chamber. He nods toward the other forty-five and I pick it up and do the same, chambering a round and then safetying the weapon. I tuck it into the back of my shorts and pull my shirt down over the top.

Up on deck, Blanco makes a ready deck, coiling lines and stowing sails. Lou and I lend a hand when needed, but we have the meeting on our minds. It is almost four in the afternoon, and although we didn't specify a time for our meeting, we told Bear we wouldn't arrive until late afternoon. A local ferry boat motors by, packed to the gunnels with tourists and traders from Punta Gorda in Belize just up the bay. As it passes I think I see a familiar face.
"Hey, Lou, is that Agaki?"
Lou turns but the boat has passed. We look at the thirty or so people, and then we see him turn and look right at us. "Yep, that's Agaki." Lou gives him a hearty wave. When Agaki waves back weakly his hand is crimson with blood. There is a scream, then another. Agaki collapses into the crowd.
"Shit... "
We leap off the boat, guns drawn, and race to the spot where the water taxi is docking. The screams continue, the crowd of people are leaping off the twenty-five foot boat as it tries to tie up. A deck hand and now the captain are hovering over the top of Agaki, his blood soaked clothing that had been held tightly to what looks like a knife wound is now in a pile near the pooling blood in the bottom of the boat.
"AGAKI... We're here, buddy, we're here with you." Lou sees his lips move, but no words come out.
Lou looks up at me, "Get a doctor."
He looks at the captain, who would surely know better than me where to find a doctor in this town. "Obtenga a un médico." The captain rushes off of the boat and sprints up the dock.
Lou puts his ear right next to Agaki's mouth. He listens to the breathless information, then turns to me. "They stabbed him when he got on the taxi, in Punta Gorda. Bear's yacht is at anchor off of one of the small islands just north east of the big island."
Just as Lou finishes translating, Agaki takes in a deep breath and then lets it out. He never draws another.
"Awe crap... " I take his wrist and feel for a pulse. Agaki is dead. "Motherfuckers, they killed him."
"We are in some deep shit." Lou turns and looks back at the crowd of people that had disembarked. He looks at me and then gestures for me to come closer. "I think they are in that crowd of people."
"His killers?"
"Yeah, it makes sense that they would want to see who he was coming to meet. We would have found him dead or alive. I think they wanted us to find him dead."
"What now?"
Lou looks at the crowd, which seems to be dispersing now. "I think we better not leave with them watching us. We will need a diversion, and the cover of night." He looks down at Agaki and then stands. We climb up on the pier. "Loco should be up at the club. Let's find him. Maybe he can help us get out of here tonight without these guys knowing where we're going or how."