Ghosts of Havana (Judd Ryker #3)(21)
“Take it easy, Craw,” Brinkley said, holding his palms up.
“We can go in and out,” Alejandro said. “We can do it. Just like pirates.”
“Pirates don’t drive minivans, dammit!”
Alejandro was about to reply when he heard the first shot.
Booosh!
PART TWO
THURSDAY
16.
U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
THURSDAY, 7:11 A.M.
I don’t think we’ve had a crisis like this since the 1980 Mariel boatlift!” The commentator sitting next to the studio anchor adjusted his round tortoiseshell glasses and made a face of feigned exasperation.
“Well, I think it’s worse than that, Wolf,” interrupted a voice from a box in the corner of the screen. “I think we’ve got to go back to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Bay of Pigs in 1961. I mean, to have innocent American citizens captured in international waters—kidnapped, really—and then to have them paraded on television like that, it’s really shocking. It’s an act of unprecedented hostility from the regime in Havana.”
“Is this unprecedented?” asked the anchor.
“We have to remember that, despite the diplomatic thaw and the reopening of embassies, Cuba is still a one-party communist state,” said the commentator in the studio. “I just don’t see how our negotiations with Cuba can continue now. The State Department is in a real bind. The Secretary had staked a lot on continuing to negotiate with Cuba. But that’s all coming to a screeching halt.”
Landon Parker paced around his office as the television blared.
“The Secretary of State really looks weak,” said another voice on the screen. “Melanie Eisenberg has been leading the negotiations. Critics have attacked her for making too many concessions to the Cubans. And now this. I just don’t know what the administration is thinking.”
“If you are just joining us now, we are covering the unfolding crisis in Cuba,” the anchor announced. At the bottom of the screen CAPTURED IN CUBA! was flashing in bold red letters behind black bars. “We’ll be covering this unfolding drama out of Havana as it happens. This is a special early-morning edition of The Situation Room. Only on CNN.”
Parker pushed the intercom button on his desk. “Call the Ops Center and get me the Chief of Mission in Havana.”
“If you’re just joining us now,” Wolf Blitzer continued. “Here’s what we know. Around five-thirty last night, a distress signal was sent out to the U.S. Coast Guard by a private American fishing boat reporting they were under attack by a Cuban naval vessel. Contact was lost with the fishing boat several minutes later. This morning, four men who appear to be American citizens were shown on Cuban state television. We have this brief clip.”
On the screen, four middle-aged men, in handcuffs and orange jumpsuits, were shown being led by a uniformed soldier from a gray concrete-block building and hustled into a van with blacked-out windows. They marched in order: a tall Caucasian with wispy blond hair, a muscular black man with a shaved head, and a pudgy Hispanic with a goatee. The fourth man, pale white, was shorter and skinnier than the others, his arm in a sling and his shoulder heavily bandaged.
“The missing vessel is The Big Pig, a fishing boat registered in the state of Florida to one Alejandro Cabrera of Rockville, Maryland. CNN is still confirming if Cabrera is one of the detained men. We are also seeking confirmation of the identities of the other men shown in the video, but we believe they are all from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and were on a fishing trip. Their last-known location in the Florida Straits is an area popular for bonefishing. I’m turning now to our correspondent in Miami. Christina, what else do we know?”
“Thank you, Wolf. At this time, we don’t have much more on the exact timeline of events or the identities of the men. We don’t have any information about their condition either. However, from the clip broadcast this morning on Cuban state television, it is clear that one of the men has been injured.”
“CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has examined the video and told our producers that the bandages visible on the fourth man are consistent with a gunshot wound. Do we know if there were shots fired, Christina?”
“We don’t have any information about that, Wolf. The U.S. Coast Guard spokesman at Miami Beach Station did not release any details to me beyond confirming that an SOS message was received by the Coast Guard in Key West from a private fishing boat in the Florida Straits at approximately five-thirty p.m. last night. The Cuban government has not responded to CNN’s requests for further information about the incident or the detainees. We are also waiting for a statement from the State Department.”
“Fuck!” Parker hissed to himself.
“Do we know why the Cuban government would do this now, just as relations with the United States seem to be going so well? Why would they capture Americans and parade them on TV? What would they have to gain?”
“We don’t know what the Cuban government is thinking, Wolf . . .”
Parker snatched the remote control off his desk and flipped the channel to Fox News.
SOCCER DADS DETAINED IN COMMUNIST CUBA scrolled across the bottom of the screen, with a shot of the same four men.
“Fuck!” he shouted again, and threw the remote control across the room. “Where is the goddamn mission chief?”