“Sue, I’m so sorry I snapped at you back there. Work…I’m under a lot of pressure, and there are things going on at home. I’m sorry you had to take the brunt of it.”

She smiles wanly. “I understand. We all have problems like that, here and there.” Sue’s face brightens up. “Someday, I’m sure you’ll look back on this and have a good laugh, am I right?”

I head to the doors.

“No, Sue, you’re very wrong.”

CHAPTER 14

PELAYO ABBOUD makes a slurping sound with the straw and the last of the Coca-Cola, and passes the empty bottle over to Casper Khourery, who cocks his head a couple of millimeters, a gesture just large enough so Pelayo knows what’s next.

“Ah, yes,” he says. “One more errand to undertake. Are they ready?”

Casper nods and takes the lead, still holding the empty glass Coke bottle with the straw sticking out as they maneuver their way across the filthy basement, cluttered with construction materials, pallets of packaged food and drinks, and boxes of open tiles and polished wood. The air is hot and muggy, pierced with the sound of hammering, power tools buzzing, and shouts of construction workers.

They head down a wide corridor, freshly installed Sheetrock on either side, little metal screw heads still visible. There’s a pallet with empty Coke bottles in open wooden crates, and Casper withdraws the straw, puts the bottle in with a little clink, then drops the used straw on the dirty floor. A few more meters and there’s an open door to the right, which they both enter.

The two men who successfully kidnapped the two Americans are sitting on a large black folding table, both wearing gray jumpsuits. When Pelayo comes in, the two men stand up, looking intently at him and Casper. Pelayo nods, gives them a slight smile. No need to overdo it, for these two men have grown up in blasted and destroyed areas of the Middle East that Pelayo doesn’t even want to think about.

“Gentlemen…Amir, Hakim, you’ve done exactly as you were hired to do,” Pelayo says. “My thanks once more.”

The older, harder one—Amir—says in an accented voice, “We would like to depart now. After we are settled.”

“But of course. Casper?”

Casper leaves and then quickly returns with two gym bags, each marked by the blue-and-yellow insignia of the El Tigre football club. Amir steps forward and there’s a small knife in his hand. Not bad. A good man with a good knife can close in on any armed man and slit his throat before a trigger is pulled. Amir is prepared and suspicious, a good man to hire.

“You…open them up. Show me what’s in them.”

Casper looks to Pelayo, and he nods. Both bags are unzipped, displayed, showing mounds of banded American one-hundred-dollar bills inside. Amir says something sharp, and Hakim comes over, takes the bags, examines a few sample bands, smiles and laughs.

Amir takes one of the bags, and Hakim takes the other.