Page 81 of Prisoner of War
“I could give you my home phone number, but I’m rarely there. I answer my direct office number when I’m here, but you can also trust my executive associate to reach me wherever I am.” He gavethe number. “If you can spare the time to give me an update when you have news, I would like it. Carmen is dear to me.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Nick promised and disconnected the call. He sat back in his chair.
“Oh God, Zalaya has Minnie,” Calli breathed. “Nick, what does that mean? Will he use her as a bargaining chip, as you said he would?”
Josh pushed his hand through his hair and it trembled.“I could stand to know more about this Zalaya whom you two seem to fear so much. What will he do to my daughter?”
Nick opened his mouth to speak and closed it again. The crease between his brows deepened.
“The truth, please,” Josh added quietly. “I’ve had twenty-five years of my daughter’s excesses. I can stand much without buckling, but I would prefer to be braced for those possibilities.”
Nick nodded. “Very well, then. Zalaya was once in the Vistarian Army and he reached the rank of colonel before deserting his post, about ten months before the Insurrectos took over the island.”
“Why did he desert?” Josh asked sharply. “To join them?”
“Ultimately, yes, I believe that was his intention but Duardo outed him before he was ready.”
Calli’s eyes widened. “Duardo knew him?”
“They wereboth posted at Pascuallita,” Nick said. He sighed heavily. “I hate relating this story, you know,” he confessed to both of them, his expression sheepish. “Zalaya was inside our security systems, trusted with the most sensitive information because he had a brilliant mind for intrigue. What we didn’t know was that he was already working for the Insurrectos and was systematically milking every vitaldrop of information from us and passing it along. I know Carmen likes to blame me for the three-day coup—”
“And me,” Calli said softly.
“Yes, but it was Zalaya’s leeching that weakened us. They knew exactly where to hit us—and when.”
“What did Duardo have to do with it?” Calli asked.
“He was the Officer of the Day that day and grew uneasy when the security courier from the city was ten minuteslate. The courier was one of our most trusted and reliable and was usually early, not late. Duardo investigated. He learned that the dispatches she carried included new security encryption codes. This had been something set up by Zalaya. As we had grown more aware of the major leaks in our security he had suggested that we use unexpected methods of sharing encryption codes, including sendingthem via human couriers. Zalaya’s idea had been hailed as brilliant in its simplicity. It was ironic that the man proposing the idea was doing so because that would make his job of stealing the codes much easier.”
“But why steal them that way and tip off everyone that the enemy had them?” Josh asked. “They’d just get replaced with new codes.”
“Zalaya banked on no one knowing they had been stolen.”Nick shook his head. “He is the most audacious son of a bitch you’re likely to come across. He waylaid the courier as she arrived on base and somehow got her to his office, where there was a photocopier. It’s only because Duardo followed his hunch and acted so quickly that Zalaya’s plan failed. Duardo walked in on Zalaya as he was attempting to extract from the girl the combination for thelock on the diplomatic pouch. He had stripped her, tied her up and was using a scalpel and bleach.”
Calli moaned, covering her face with both hands. Josh’s face grew whiter, but he nodded. “Go on,” he said hoarsely.
“It was messy,” Nick finished. “Zalaya shot the girl through the temple, though the doctors say it would have been a mercy for her. Duardo was shot in the leg, but one of the roundshe fired as he was lying on the ground ricocheted and sliced open Zalaya’s back. Zalaya escaped off base, trailing blood. He disappeared into the mountains north of Pascuallita. That blood trail gave us our first solid lead into the location of the Insurrectos’ base.”
Calli took a deep breath, calming herself. “That is the incident that got Duardo invited to General Blanco’s ball, which Minnieand I attended.”
“That’s right,” Nick confirmed.
“Duardo would not speak of it. He tried to pass it off as nothing, a small thing, he had simply helped defend Vistaria and the details would bore us.” She grimaced.
“I don’t understand. How did Duardo figure out it was Zalaya and so quickly?” Josh asked.
“Everyone entering or leaving the base after hours is supposed to report to the Officerof the Day. Zalaya did not and Duardo noted the omission. When the courier was late, he tried Zalaya first.”
“He must have been suspicious of him,” Calli said.
“He was following a hunch,” Nick agreed. “Duardo was a fine officer, honorable, supremely talented and with a shining future—he was everything that Zalaya was not and they both knew it. There was no love lost there and Duardo never trustedZalaya the way the upper echelons did because Zalaya was careful to show his superiors only his good face.”
“And this man has my daughter?” Josh whispered hoarsely. “God, I don’t even know how to begin to brace myself for what may come.” He buried his head in his hands.
Nick studied the top of Josh’s head and glanced at Calli’s pale face. “You are right, both of you,” he said, throwing downhis pen. “The time for waiting and bracing ourselves for what comes at us is over. Enough is enough.”
Josh looked up, hope in his eyes.
“For your sake, Josh,” Nick said. “For Minnie and Carmen. For General Blanco and for Vistaria. Let’s do something about it. I’m damned if I’ll sit and wait for Zalaya to call the shots. Not anymore.”
“But, the money. Resources...” Calli breathed.
Nick smiled.“It’s a matter of scale,” he said. “We’ve been thinking in the wrong scale. We don’t need an army. We just need us.”
