Winding Roads {A Creative Writing Journal}

Cover Blown (W2R Round 3)

Orange Belt

One last deal, Diego thought and sucked in a sharp, deep breath, Last one, then you can finally get out and go home.

Muscle for the Escarra cartel lined the once abandoned dockside warehouse. Diego kept his gaze forward, resisting the urge to go for the Glock resting in its concealed holster. Instead, he used his twitching nervous hand to brush his dark bangs out of his eyes.

Someone had pushed the crates and cargo boxes along the edges of the building to make room for the drop. A man in a cleanly pressed dark suit held a briefcase, presumably full of the cash needed for the buy. Two younger men, barely older than teenagers, stood behind him on either side with their hands clasped in front of them with handguns loosely in their grip.

"Diego Garcia?" the man in the suit asked, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

He nodded and pulled out the brick of cocaine Fernando had sent with him.

"The rest of the shipment comes in on Thursday," he explained, and the man handed him the briefcase of full of cash.

Diego reached out to shake the man's hand when a familiar voice cried out.

"Police!"

............

"Jay, run!" Diego yelled and ducked as another bullet whizzed past his ear, causing his earpiece to go static. Of all the times to blow his cover...

The brunet agent only laughed as they both tumbled behind a stack of crates. Even amidst the rainfall of bullets flying overhead, his face remained lit with mischief. Jay glanced at Diego, finally noticing his annoyed glare, and he had the decency to look sheepish.

"You have the briefcase," he replied to the wordless question, "I thought you were done!"

"I had ten more minutes!" he snapped back and grimaced as the shouts blending with gunfire became intelligible. By the steady stream of Spanish curses, he sensed that the Escarra cartel had finally realized that they couldn't hide in one spot forever. He almost let a few choice words fly himself but quickly thought better of it. Jay's trigger finger propelled everything into action, and Diego needed to remain levelheaded for both of them.

The two agents shifted closer to the wall, and Diego kept the leather briefcase full of drug money clutched close to his chest. After over six months under deep cover, he finally had all of the evidence he needed to go after the head of the Escarra ring and put him away for good. But he first needed to make it out of the warehouse and back to the police station alive. He risked a glance around the crate closest to him, and beside him he heard Jay reload his handgun.

"Did you bring back up? Where's the rest of the team?" he asked.

"Almost here," he answered and sneaked a glance himself. Both agents cringed as bullets peppered the air above them. "They should storm in any minute."

"Why on earth did you come in alone then?" Diego shrieked.

"One, I'm a far faster driver than the rest of the squad combined, and you know it." He paused his explanation to fire a few shots at the enraged drug dealers.

They ran hunched over from the crates to a row of shipping boxes. The ping of bullets against metal rang in their ears as they shuffled from cover to cover, never staying in one spot too long and shooting at any gang members that strayed too close.

"What's your second reason?" Diego asked as he downed another shooter.

    "Louisa Escarra called me. Fernando set up the whole deal minutes before he called you to make the drop. He didn't want you to come back."

    "A set up? How long has he known?" And how did the drug lord's daughter get his number? That kiss didn't mean that much, did it?

  Jay shrugged and held a hand to his ear, finally receiving word from their superiors.

     "They're here! C'mon! They came in on the south side just outside the main loading dock, but they need us out first or risk accidentally hitting us when they come in to light the place."

  Diego sighed with relief and used his free hand to wipe the sweat out of his eyes. He glanced at the open loading dock, the summer sun's rays diffused through the heavy clouds bathing everything in a subtle gray light. They just had to make it out, and door stood, like what, ten yards away?

They could make it.

They had to.