“That’ll be all,” I rumble, tone as sinister as I’m feeling.
Kent high-tails it out of my office, and I don’t take a breath until I can hear that he’s far enough away. My fist clenches and releases, eyes closing while I stow my fury.
Don’t let this ruin your mood. You’re seeing Angelito soon…
He’s yours. Youhavehim, locked up and away from the world. Away from anyone and anything that could attempt to steal him from you.
You hold the only key. No one else can get to him.
Ever.
Back to work I go.
I consider calling Alexander, but decide against it for now. I’m really trying to hold off on bringing him into this until I feel it’s absolutely necessary, because he comes with his own demanding attitude that I’m not in the mood to deal with unless I have no other choice.
Heading down to the command center we’ve set up in the dining room, I meet with Equino and Pedroia, where we discussplans and tactics for getting Jonathan to surrender. And how to do so without anymore of our men falling prey to the slasher-boy-assassin.
“It’s a slaughter every time we even try to push west,” Equino whines, and I have to fight not to roll my eyes.
“He’s just a kid,” Pedroia argues. “One little fucking puta with a knife! How is this even an issue we’re discussing right now??”
“Well, what do you suggest, genio?” Equino mutters.
“Drive-by?” Pedroia suggests. “Just spray-n-pray?”
“Yea, we tried that. He slashed all of our tiresandwe lost four men.”
Pedroia sighs. “Fine. What about grenades?”
“Tried it. He grabbed one and stuffed it into the exhaust pipe of the Humvee and the thing blew the hell up.”
I press my lips together.
“And the RPG??”
“Thought we had him… Turned out to be one of our own men he’d kidnapped and dressed up to look like him.”
A snort bursts out of me, and they all turn to stare.
“What?It’s funny.” Standing up, I rub my eyes, pacing to the front of the table, where the map of the island is laid out. “You see the problem, right? You’re fucking sloppy.”
“But we’ve—”
I throw my hand up. “Not your turn to speak. He’s apsycho, not a soldier. You can’t come at him with your military tactics and heavy artillery, because he doesn’tcareabout rules, or combat, or fuckingaccess points. He has one objective, and that’s staying alive, so that he can get back here. Offense clearly isn’t working, but our defense is tight. We just need to gethimto go on the offensive.”
They all share a look, nodding subtly.
“You have a plan?” Pedroia asks, hopeful.
“There’s something I’m working on,” I tell them. “In the meantime, let’s focus on the prison. Get eyes on the crash site, hold steady at the main entrance, and cover that fucking armory.”
“They have it heavily guarded…” Equino mumbles.
“So then fucking watch it and wait for an opportunity to strike,” I growl.
“None of this would be a problem if you’d just let us nuke the damn place,” Hernandez chimes in. “We have enough TNT to blow them all to Hell! Let’s just—”
“We will not be blowing up the prison,” I snarl.
