“Fernando!” the pregnant woman screamed, but the prisoner did not respond to her. He managed only to groan and whisper, “Water…please.”

“No, you can’t drink now!” said El Oso.

“I’m so thirsty,” the prisoner said, his voice fading.

“He can’t drink now or he’ll die!”

“He’s going to die anyway,” said another guard. He laughed as he forced metal beads down the prisoner’s throat-electrodes that would make the voltage cut like lightning through his insides.

“Swallow!” the guard with the beads ordered.

At the turn of the dial, the current flowed. The prisoner’s entire body tensed and then quivered. There was suddenly a bizarre symphony of party music on the radio, howling from the guards, and the blood-curdling screams of a dying man.

“You animals!” the woman shouted through tears, but she was no longer watching the torture of her husband. She remained on the floor, grimacing. El Oso assumed that she simply couldn’t bear to look, but the pained expression told more than that.

“My water just broke,” she said as she slumped onto her side, sobbing.

The guards stopped laughing. The prisoner lay utterly motionless. The pregnant woman was wailing. Party music continued to play in macabre fashion.

“Shit, now what?” said the man with the metal beads.

“Quick, help me carry her,” said El Oso. “Let’s find the doctor.”

chapter 36

T he moment Jack came through the door, the silence in the mobile command center didn’t seem natural to him. He understood that negotiations were in many ways a strategic game of chess, but some of the best chess players he’d ever seen-the old Cuban men in Little Havana-could talk beisbol, order espresso, and argue politics, all while contemplating their next move. Some could even engage in a simultaneous game of dominoes. To be sure, a hostage situation was no game. Still, Jack was beginning to fear that Sergeant Paulo might be overanalyzing things.

He also sensed more than a little tension between Paulo and Alicia. “Did I interrupt something?” said Jack.

“No, not at all,” said Alicia.

“Come right in,” said Paulo.

Each of them had spoken in a tone that was a bit too upbeat, voices that tried too hard to convince Jack that nothing was wrong. Jack said, “I can come back in a minute.”

“No,” said Paulo. “We need to do this now. Ready?”

Jack nodded, then realized that it was a dumb-ass thing to do when speaking to a blind man. “Ready,” he said.

Jack was definitely picking up some added stress in Paulo’s voice. Perhaps it was Theo’s outburst about explosives that had changed the lead negotiator, or at least affected his demeanor. Jack was about to say something about it, but Alicia was already dialing up Theo’s cell. Whatever it was, it seemed that Alicia was even less inclined to discuss it than Paulo.

The hollow sound of unanswered rings echoed in Jack’s ear-five times, then a sixth. Another ring and the call would go to voice mail, but finally Falcon picked up.

“Boom,” he said.

Jack gathered himself and said, “That’s not funny, Falcon.”

“Swyteck, is that you? Can’t say I was expecting that. What happened? Is my friend Paulo afraid to talk to the mad bomber?”

Jack glanced at Alicia, then at Paulo. He should have simply said “no,” but Jack couldn’t help himself, at least not when part of him was wondering the same thing. “Our only fear over here is that you might do something really stupid. You should be afraid of that, too.”

“You got my necklace?”

“First, we need to talk about your coat. More specifically, about what’s under your coat.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Are you wired with explosives?”

“Come on. That’s ridiculous. Where would I get a bomb?”

“My friend Theo says you have one.”

“Your friend Theo’s an asshole.”

“Maybe. But he’s not a liar.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Most of the time that’s true. But every now and then he nails it. Here’s how we can settle this real quick. Theo’s cell phone has a camera function.”

“A what?”

Jack realized that a guy who’d been living in a car for over a decade might not know anything about camera phones. “Trust me, the phone takes pictures. Theo can explain how to use it. Take off your coat, snap a picture of your torso, and send it to us.”

There was silence, and Jack took some comfort in the fact that Falcon didn’t immediately tell him to take a flying leap.

“Anything else?” said Falcon.

“Yeah. We want the coat.” Jack didn’t want to explain why, but Falcon could probably guess that they wanted to examine it for traces of explosives.

Falcon said, “So, let me get this straight. First you tell me that if I let everyone talk on the phone, you’ll give me food and my necklace. I try to keep up my end of the deal, and your friend screws everything up. Now, to get the same food and necklace that you promised me before, you want me to start snapping photographs of myself and give you, literally, the coat off my back. Is that what you’re saying?”

“I’m just trying to do what’s fair for everyone.”

“Like hell. You keep changing the deal, and I’m tired of all this stalling.”

“The coat changes things.”

“Not for me it doesn’t. If you get more, I get more.”

“What do you want?”

“I want my damn necklace. And I want Alicia Mendoza to bring it to me.”

Jack glanced at Paulo, not sure how to answer that question. Paulo picked up Jack’s hesitation, scratched out a message on a scrap of paper, and slipped it toward him. It read: NO WAY…But never say never.

“That’s a tall order,” said Jack. “I won’t lie to you. It’s going to be very, very tough to pull that off.”

“Tough my ass.”

“Seriously. For starters, I’ll have to track down Alicia.”

“If you’re telling me she’s not there with you, I know you’re lying.”

Jack didn’t respond, but it was obvious that his bluffing needed some improvement. “If Alicia is going to get involved, I’m sure I’ll need to get clearance from Mayor Mendoza himself.”

“That’s easy. Your dad’s the governor of Florida, right?”

“Used to be the governor.”

“He’s still a politician, just like Alicia’s father. Those guys are always sucking each other off. You get your old man to call her old man, and you make it happen, you hear me?”

“I can try, I guess. But I can’t make any promises.”

“This is going to be easier than you think, Swyteck.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Here’s a little incentive for her. Tell Alicia that if she blows me off again this time, then we’re going to have to call the doctor.”

It took Jack a moment, but then he deciphered what Falcon was saying. “Threatening the hostages is a very bad tactic, Falcon. SWAT is just looking for a reason to bust down those doors.”

“I’m not threatening anyone, you idiot. Just be sure to tell her exactly what I said. She’ll know what I mean.”

Jack looked at Alicia, who gave him nothing in return. It wasn’t clear that she understood what Falcon was saying. But it wasn’t clear that she didn’t, either.

“All right, Falcon. I’ll be sure to pass along your exact words to Alicia. But I can tell you right now, I’ll need some serious time to work on this.”

“How much time?”

Jack looked at Paulo, whose instincts again told him that Jack needed guidance. He held up six fingers. Said Jack, “Six hours.”

“You got one,” said Falcon, and the call was over.