Page 72 of V-Day
Rubén considered Zapatero. “One guard, young enough to start at shadows, and a simple lock? I figured it out, yes. It was you who dealt with your team? I’ve found bodies everywhere on my way around the house.”
Zapatero shrugged. “They were all brainwashed and couldn’t see the truth.”
“What truth?” Minnie demanded, moving to stand beside Téra.
Zapatero glanced at his raised hands. “Can I lower them?”
“No,” Rubén and Téra said together.
“What truth, Colonel?” Minnie repeated.
“I was second in command at Pascuallita base,” Zapatero said. “Serrano pulled me out of there with instructions to come here and kill everyone in the house. Women, children, convalescing soldiers. Anyone with a pulse.”
Téra’s belly cramped.
Zapatero looked at Rubén, as if it was him he was trying to convince. “That isn’t war. It isn’t how war is supposed to be,” he said. “I lost my taste for Serrano’s brand of war when he told me his plans to abduct the family of Loyalists and extort them into doing what he wanted. This, though…it soured my stomach.”
“So you came over anyway,” Téra murmured.
“I warned the Peña boy more of Serrano’s thugs were coming for his family, before we left. I’m glad I did. On the boat ride over to here, the men Serrano had assigned to me were describing the different ways they planned to do the work,” Zapatero said. “Most of them were just old enough to shave, yet their souls were already blackened by Serrano’s values. That was when I knew I would not do it.” Zapatero dropped his hands. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
Rubén considered him. “You let everyone think I was working with you.”
“I had to, to keep suspicion from me,” Zapatero said. “While I was moving around the house, taking care of them, they focused on keeping the unreliable double-agent contained.” He shrugged.
Rubén lurched forward. “You let Téra think I was an Insurrecto spy.” His punch was a heavy one, with his whole bodyweight behind it and Zapatero staggered back. His head rapped against the wall behind him, and his knees buckled. He sank to the floor, his hand to his jaw.
“Asshole,” Rubén breathed. “Where is Adán Caballero?”
“In the kitchen,” Zapatero said, his voice muffled. “Cuffed to the range.”
Rubén reached into his pocket and pulled out a handcuff key and held it out behind him. “Someone release him.”
The women grabbed the key and ran up the stairs, heading for the kitchen.
Rubén took Téra’s rifle and held it out. “Four of you take the Colonel down to the cellar. Lock him in the furnace room and guard the door. We’ll figure out what to do with him later.”
Four women came forward. One took the gun and put it under her arm with a competent air and pointed it at Zapatero.
He rose sluggishly to his feet. “Which way?” he asked the lady with the gun.
She jerked the gun toward the interior of the house and he moved up the steps. He had his hands up again.
The other three surrounded him, herding him.
“The rest of you,” Rubén told the room, “except Minnie, because she shouldn’t lift heavy things. Please take the bodies and put them on the gravel out the front of the house. We’ll deal with them later.”
The women bent over the two bodies. Between them, they carried the bodies through the glass doors and onto the deck, then up to the path which ran down the side of the house to the front.
It left Minnie standing alone. She raised her brow. “And do you have orders for me, Captain?”
“You might turn your back for a moment,” he told her.
Minnie smiled and turned.
Rubén put the crutches aside and drew Téra into his arms. “You broke out,” he murmured.
“I was pissed as hell. I wanted to kill you, Rubén.”
