“I’ve made a little adaptation,” Ziggy said, holding up a scalpel and a tube of Gorilla Glue. “There’s a GPS receiver and a battery inside. Quad band and operates over 2G, so it should work pretty much anywhere you might end up. There’s a prepaid SIM, and the battery ought to last for four, maybe five days.”

Milton wondered how safe it would be to wear the boots, and how easy it would be to detect the addition that Ziggy had made. He doubted that he would get through airport security if they x-rayed the boots separately, but that wasn’t standard these days. He could put them into hold luggage, too, he decided. The risks, if there were any, were that the device would be discovered by López or whoever came after him. Milton thought the risk was low, and, he had to admit, knowing that his position could be tracked was reassuring. He had no idea where he might end up, and whether he would need backup.

He unlaced the brogues and slipped them off. He put on the boots and laced them up.

“Thank you,” he said.

37

Milton called an Uber and sat quietly in the back as the driver made his way through the streets to the club. He was a little nervous, but did his best to put it aside. López would be expecting the same confidence as before, and presenting anything else—especially given what had changed in the interim between the last meeting and now—might be taken as a sign of guilt.

That might be dangerous.

Ziggy was staying back in the apartment to provide operational assistance, and Hicks would be nearby in the event that Milton needed backup on the ground. It was difficult to know how López would react to seeing him again. There was nothing to link Milton to Jackson’s difficulties; by the same token, it would have been impossible for López to miss the fact that his business partner had been arrested within a day of the man who was pitching for his business learning that the existing relationship was a problem.

On the other hand, a vacancy had opened up. Milton would offer López a way to fill it, but he was not naïve enough to think that the cartel would not react badly if it suspected that it had been played.

* * *