Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(72)

Noah had been frequenting Eduardo’s for almost two weeks, waiting to see Ortiz put in an appearance. He knew that he’d been causing quite a stir in the city, because so many of the local criminal element had been showing up to meet him, to try to do business with him. At some point in the not-too-distant future, an awful lot of them were going to find themselves suddenly out of business, when all of their money disappeared. As far as Noah was concerned, Neil’s little program was one of the best tools he could’ve imagined in the war on drugs. After all, if you hit them in their money, it hurt worse than simply taking out a few of their employees. Every drug buy he made with Neil’s funny money program was likely to mean another big drug supplier closer to being out of business.

At last, his patience paid off. It was early afternoon on a Wednesday when Henrique Valdes came through the door. Henrique, he remembered from his briefing, was the chief bodyguard for Pablo Ortiz, and always came in ahead of his boss to make sure there were no police and would be no trouble. He looked around, spotted Noah, and cut his eyes to Eduardo.

“No problemo,” Eduardo said. Henrique had heard of John Baker, of course. He looked Noah over once more, then nodded and stepped out. A moment later he was back, followed by Pablo and a couple of other men. The other girls, who had been warned off of “John” by Felicita, swarmed to the table where they always sat, and Eduardo grinned when he realized he was about to sell many more of the watered drinks.

Tequila began to flow, and the old jukebox began to play. The music was loud, and most of it was at least a decade out of date, but it was fast enough for dancing, and so it wasn’t long before Pablo and the others had the girls up on their feet. If there was one thing Pablo Ortiz knew how to do, it was party, and Eduardo counted himself lucky that his Tio Pablo liked to drink so much. He was also glad that his uncle was always happy to patronize his establishment, and many of Pablo’s business deals took place there. That meant that the bar stayed busy, and was one of the main reasons that Eduardo was able to keep so many whores working.

Felicita also liked to dance, but just as she was keeping John to herself, the other girls had Pablo and his crew. If she tried to insert herself into it now, all she would do was start trouble, so if she wanted to dance, she would have to get John up off of his barstool.

“You want to dance with me? Come on, Baby, come dance with me,” she said, but Noah smiled and shook his head.

“I don’t feel like dancing, not right now,” he said. He nodded toward the group that was on the floor. “You can go dance with them if you want to, I wouldn’t mind.”

She looked over at Pablo’s crew and the girls they were dancing with, but frowned. “No,” she said. “I must stay with you, Se?or John. Us girls, we do not, how you say, steal from each other.”

Noah looked at her, then tossed his eyes over his shoulder at where Pablo and the others were dancing. “You really want to dance?”

Her eyes lit up. “Si! I really do,” she said, and then she tugged on his arm. Noah shrugged, as if cooperating with the inevitable, and let her lead him onto the dance floor. Henrique kept an eye on him as they approached, but he didn’t see any sign of danger, so he didn’t go to full alert. They were all dancing, just having fun. Who cared if a gringo joined in?

Within minutes, they were all laughing together, and since the big joke was how poorly the gringo was dancing, and he was laughing right along with them, Henrique figured it was a safe bet the man didn’t understand a word of Spanish. He kept an eye on Noah, just to be safe, but there was no sign at all that he presented any kind of problem to Henrique or Pablo.

Felicita and Ramona were dancing together, putting on quite a show. Pablo caught Noah’s eye and winked, and the American winked back.

“You’re Mr. Ortiz, right?” Noah asked, still grinning. “I hear tell you might be somebody I want to do some business with.”

Pablo grinned back. “And do you have money, with which to do this business?”

“I think I’ve got enough. All depends on what I’m buying, right?”

Pablo shrugged and stuck out his bottom lip. “What is it you are looking to buy?” Pablo asked. “There could be many things which I might wish to sell, and many things which I may not.”

Noah twirled Felicita before he answered, and let her dance away a short distance. “I’m looking for a couple of things,” he said. “I need cocaine, but if you don’t have the quantities I’m looking for, then I can also use heroin.”

Pablo burst out laughing. “Are you serious? These are not things in which I trade,” he said, “but I can help you to obtain them. However, the people I know will not be interested in selling small volumes. If you are thinking of less than seven figures, then perhaps you should go home.”

Noah smiled. “I think we’re on the same page,” he said. “I can handle those numbers. How soon can we put something together?”

Pablo shrugged, then looked over at Eduardo. “Nephew,” he called out. “Call Esteban, tell him to come down here. Tell him there is a man here who would like to do some business with him.”

Eduardo nodded, and picked up the telephone, but he was kicking himself mentally. He had known all along that John was a drug buyer, and had even toyed with the idea of making an introduction to Esteban, himself. If he had done so, he might very well have received a handsome finder’s fee for making the connection. Now, his uncle would get any reward, and he would be lucky to get a decent tip on the bar tab.