4

He hung up!

Snake, sitting in traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, still couldn’t believe it. John Vanduyne, M.D., supposedly this loving, devoted father, and he hangs up on the guy who’s holding his daughter. What the hell was he up to?

Snake had to admit he’d been rattled for a moment after the line went dead. He’d told him. Either you dose your pal or you don’t. What’s it going to be? And Vanduyne went and hung up on him.

After being so high last night, barely able to sleep, that had brought him down. He’d known this guy was going to be a problem.

Maybe it had been some sort of a reflex. After all, he’d verbally pole-axed Vanduyne with what he had to do to get his kid back. He had to smile. Hell of a choice, wasn’t it. Here was the stuff myths were made of: Choose between your old buddy, the leader of the free world, and your kid. Something almost cosmic about that. And Snake was calling the cosmic tune.

Except Vanduyne wasn’t dancing the right steps. Another example of the guy’s instability. He was a wild card.

But Snake knew just the thing to get him in line. He’d have Paulie take care of that…

Right after he met with Salinas.

Snake patted the audio cassette in his jacket pocket and swallowed. He’d be walking a very thin line in the next hour or so. This meeting had to be handled just right.

5

“And so, Miguel, how did the good doctor take the news?” Carlos Salinas sat behind his desk, leaning back in his enormous leather chair.

His suit was charcoal gray this morning. A small, amused smile curved under his mustache.

“Not well,” Snake said. He felt like pacing but forced himself to remain seated. He and Salinas had the office to themselves. No sign of Gold this trip. “We shook him up pretty good.”

“And you did not have to explain to him about his friend’s previous reaction?”

“Nope. He seemed to know all about it.”

“Bueno. So, how do things stand at this moment? He has agreed to our ultimatum?”

Snake debated telling Salinas the whole truth—about Vanduyne hanging up on him—but held back. He didn’t want Salinas to have the slightest doubt that he was in complete control.

“He’ll do it, but he’s a bit shell-shocked right now. I’ve decided to send him a little persuader to get him focused. By tomorrow morning he’ll be falling all over himself to get some of that chloramphenicol into Winston.”

“Excellent!” Salinas slapped his weighty thighs. He was grinning now. “Miguel, I am so very glad I put you in charge of this matter.”

You may not be so very glad in a minute. Snake thought. He cleared his throat.

Here goes.

“Speaking of’this matter,” he said, “it’s much bigger than I’d ever imagined.”

Salinas’s eyes narrowed. “I hope you are not going to ask for more money. We have a deal—”

Snake raised his hands, palms out.

“Absolutely not. A deal is a deal. No. What I’m saying is, this matter is so big that you might not want me around after it’s over and done with.”

“Yes,” Salinas said slowly, nodding and smoothing his mustache. “I can see how you might fear such a thing. But it is not my way.”

“Trouble is, I don’t know your ways. We haven’t known each other that long.”

“Miguel, if I killed everyone who did a job for me, I would have been out of business a long time ago.”

“Right, but this isn’t some routine pick-up-and-deliver gig. This is major league. This is the biggest thing you’ll ever do in your life, or I’ll ever do in mine. I just don’t want it to be the last thing I do in mine.”

“It is not you I am concerned about. Paul Dicastro and Poppy Mulliner, however…” It didn’t surprise him that Salinas knew their names— he seemed to know everything—but it bothered him.

“I can see how they’d be considered a liability. I just don’t want to be lumped in with them.” Salinas was staring at him—like a cobra eyeing a mongoose.

“I have a feeling that all this is leading somewhere.”

Snake reached into his pocket and pulled out the cassette. He leaned forward and placed it on Salinas’s desk.

“What is this?”

“Recordings of some of our conversations.”

Salinas’s smile was tight and grim. “That is impossible.”

“Because you have a bug jammer?” Snake said. “It worked on the tape I made of our first meeting—I got nothing but hiss. So I went out and found a filter that eliminated the interference.” He pointed to the tape. “I believe you’ll find your voice quite recognizable. Especially during last night’s conversation, when you explained the ultimate purpose of this endeavor.”

“Mierda!” Salinas turned a deep red as he slammed his fist on the desk and let loose with a string of curses in Spanish.

He won’t kill me, Snake told himself. I’ve got the kid, I’m hooked into Vanduyne. He needs me. He won’t kill me.

Across the desk, Salinas closed his eyes and calmed himself. Then he opened them and glared at Snake.

“I am insulted. We made a deal.”

“And I made a deal with my people that I’m probably not going to be able to hold to. Things change, right?”

“And you intend to blackmail me?”

“Absolutely not. I’m on that tape too, you know. I’m the guy who did the snatch and told Vanduyne what the ransom was going to be. The last thing in the world I want is for anyone to hear that tape. What I do want is to make sure that you have an ongoing interest in my good health. I’ve got a dozen copies and I’ve—”

“Twelve tapes! Chingate!” Actually only four more: another in his jacket, one hidden in his house, one in his safe-deposit box, and one with a lawyer. If Salinas found those, Snake wanted him to go crazy looking for the rest.

“They’re all safe. But if something happens to me, they go to the FBI, the DEA, the Secret Service, and so on. I know you folks own a lot of people, but when this shit hits the fan, nobody’s going to want to be downwind.”

Salinas continued to glare, saying nothing. Snake was sure he knew how difficult it would be for the feds to get a conviction on the basis of an audio tape, but at the very least they’d shut down his money-laundering business and make his life a nightmare. So Snake tried to mollify him. Even though he was protected now, this was not a man he wanted pissed at him.

“Hey, look. I can understand how you feel. You took all these elaborate, state-of-the-art precautions against anyone eavesdropping or bugging you, and you wind up on tape anyway. But this could save you in the future. Technology’s always changing. You’ve got to stay on the cutting edge if you don’t want someone to get the drop on you.”

Salinas said nothing, but he seemed to be cooling.

“And look at it this way: Knowing I’ve got this kind of life insurance will let me do a better job. I mean, I’m already juggling the kid and Vanduyne, and soon I’ll be dodging the entire federal government. I don’t want to have to keep looking over my shoulder wondering what you’re planning for me too. That could be very distracting.”

Salinas continued to stare. But no question, the rage was fading from his eyes.

Snake leaned forward and put on a smile. “And tell me the truth: If positions were reversed, wouldn’t you do the same thing?”

A little smile from Salinas now, and then a nod. Snake felt his muscles relax. You silver-tongued devil, you.

“I suppose you are right,” Salinas said with a sigh. “I cannot hold it against a man that he protects himself. And you are right. I will learn from this.” And then he frowned. “But I am hoping that you do not wish to extend the coverage of life insurance to your two helpers.” Snake thought about that. Here was a chance to save Paulie and Poppy. He’d be pushing it, but he had Salinas over the proverbial barrel.

And then he thought about the aftermath. Paulie and Poppy rich and getting stoked every day. One of them sees the story about Vanduyne and his kid getting wasted, how he was our dead or deathly ill President’s personal physician… wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to put it all together.