6

LATER THAT AFTERNOON, Jack waited at the parking lot of the United International Terminal at LAX with an attractive young Chilean woman who this week was using the name Maria Vasquez. Today she had dyed blond hair, which she wore in a knot at the back of her head. She dressed simply, in a plain blue shift, so as not to call attention to herself, and unless she was looking around for spies or for Karl Steinbach’s people, she mostly kept her head buried in a mystery novel. But right now she was reading Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a book that fascinated her and seemed to have everything to do with her current life.

“You’re sure you’re going to be all right, Maria?” Jack said. She nodded and looked at him with her soulful brown eyes. “I’m fine.” Jack took her hand and felt a surge of affection and admiration for her.

“Before you go inside, I want you to know that I can still get you into Witness Protection, if you want to reconsider. New name, new face. Whole new life.”

She smiled and shook her head.

“No,” she said. “Like I’ve told you before, Jack, I know of other people who did that and it didn’t work out well at all. They had to live in places they hated, where they had no family . . . and the jobs they had to take were not anything at all like what they were used to.”

“True,” Jack said. “The Program’s not perfect. But as long as people have gone along with our rules, we’ve never lost anybody yet. What happens if Karl decides to come after you? You know he has the money and funds to track you down.”

Maria sighed. “Then I will defend myself, with the help of my friends and family in Chile. They will watch out for me, Jack.”

Jack felt a twinge of fear for her.

“Listen, Maria,” Jack said. “Steinbach said it the day we busted him. He has a long reach. He’s got people under contract to hunt you. Now that he knows you helped me set him up, he won’t give up.”

“I know,” Maria said. “But he doesn’t know my new name. He doesn’t know which country I’m going to, and he doesn’t know my friends, either. Where I am going is a small town in Chile. Controlled and run by my cousin Tito. We know everyone who works there, who drinks in the bar, stays in the hotel. It’s kind of like your Old West, Jack. Anyone new who comes into that town is big news in about five minutes. If they are at all threatening, I will know about it immediately. And the threat will be . . . eliminated.”

Jack shook his head.

“I hope so.” He laughed ruefully. “You are such a goddamned stubborn woman.”

She smiled and patted his hand, as though she was comforting him.

“Yes, I am, Jack. That’s the one thing Karl never counted on.”

Jack laughed and nodded in agreement.

“You’re right,” he said. “He had no idea who he was playing

with.”

Suddenly she looked sad. Her beautiful smooth face nearly caved in.

“When I worked for him as his assistant, I could take everything. His abusive ways, the fact that he hit me once in a while if a shipment was late . . . or if we had trouble with the officials, but when he . . . when he struck out at Hector, that was the end.”

Jack nodded and remembered the circumstances. Maria Vasquez was a secretary/assistant to Karl Steinbach. She knew whom he paid off to get his blood diamonds. She also knew whom he wanted to deal with, and if she liked you, she could get you right into Karl’s inner circle. Jack had been working undercover for six months, trying to set up deals with Steinbach. But he got nowhere until he managed to get close to Maria Vasquez at the El Tropical Restaurante in Sierra Leone. It was there that he met her, and there that she confided in him that she wanted to strike back at Karl Steinbach for killing her cousin, Hector Rodriguez. She had no proof of the murder. Steinbach was always careful to give himself plausible deniability when he had someone “disappeared.” But Maria knew. Hector had a wild streak, talked too much, and made the mistake of taking one of Karl’s women away from him. That was enough for Karl. One day Hector had been taken into the jungle, tied to a tree, and devoured by wild animals.

That was how Karl dealt with traitors. It wasn’t enough merely to kill them, you had to make them suffer, serve as an example to any other fools who might want to set themselves against him. He and his kind specialized in revenge.

Jack had cultivated Maria, listened to her growing hatred of Steinbach, and when the time was right, had turned her, made a deal for her that she wouldn’t be prosecuted for her part in earlier diamond capers.

It was Maria who had vouched for him, Maria who got him in tight with Karl. And if Karl found her, it would be Maria who would be tied to a tree somewhere, covered with honey, her entrails hanging out . . .

But it was also her choice. If she didn’t want to go into the Witness Protection Program, there was nothing Jack could do about it.

Besides, Jack could understand it. She’d been used to a life in South Africa and, before that, Peru and Chile. She wouldn’t be happy living as a saleswoman in some godforsaken Midwestern town or down south in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where the latest members of the Witness Protection Program were planted.

She was a gambler, not unlike Jack himself, and she liked to live life close to the bone.

Maybe she’d be fine down there. With a new name, and maybe after a year or so, with a new face (Maria was considering having plastic surgery), she’d be untraceable.

Jack hoped so, anyway.

Just then they heard the announcement over the speaker. “United International Flight to Santiago, Chile, will now begin preboarding.”

Maria Vasquez looked up at Jack and smiled, but there was sadness in her eyes.

“You know, Jack?” she said. “There was a time when I thought . . . really thought we could have made it together.”

Jack kissed her on the cheek.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know what you mean. But, in the end, we’re too much alike.”

“You think?” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” Jack said. “You and me . . . we’re both addicted to life in the fast lane. That doesn’t make for much of a marriage. In fact, that’s the one thing I’m still a little worried about with you.”

“What?” she said, standing and gathering up her leather handbag.

“This town you’re going to down there. Zato? I wonder if it’ll be big enough for you?”

She smiled. Touched his cheek with her hand.

“That’s where we’re different, Jack. This whole thing with Karl, losing Hector, seeing all the hatred and killing and ugliness in the diamond business . . . that’s cured me. I mean it. Maybe it’s made me old before my time, but I can’t think of anything I’d rather do now than go back there to my small town. Perhaps I’ll marry and have children. That sounds like something real. You know, real friends, real family. People you can always count on. And they can count on you. After the lies and hustle of the diamond-smuggling business, that sounds exciting to me.”

Jack smiled and hugged Maria tight. “You know that if ever you need me, I’m right here for you.”

“Yes. I know that.”

He let her go and looked into her tearful eyes.

“Anything,” Jack said. “Anything you need. Don’t hesitate to ask. You have my numbers.”

“I do.” She wiped away the tears from her cheeks. “I am going to miss you, Jack.”

“Me, too,” he said. “But who knows? Maybe we’ll meet again.”

“If it’s fated,” Maria said with a sad smile.

Then she kissed him on the cheek, turned, and got out of his car. He watched her go through the shadows of the parking garage, out into the light, and her new life in Chile.

As Jack started his car, he silently wished her well.

But somehow, he doubted that her future would be a happy one.