"They'll never stop. You know that," he continued through ragged breaths. "After I'm gone more will come."
"How did you find us?" She had other ways of extracting the information, but time was of the essence.
"I told you, Mr. Fuentes tracks his packages." He smiled. It was the same smile he'd given her when he first saw her walk in through the doors of the Nogales Police Department. The glaring difference this go round, his bright white teeth were now painted with his blood.
"The girls, like the one in that house and everything else the Fuentes family claims as their own, are monitored. It didn't matter that you ditched the van at that mission parking lot, though it would have been a lot easier had you not. It would have saved us a lot of time. We were tracking the van, not the package. Once we realized what'd you done, we activated a different tracker."
"Where is it?"
Munoz shrugged. "I don't know. Some doctor puts them in."
"Then a doctor will take them out," Ernesto said walking up on the man with his frying pan weapon still at the ready. The seventy-seven-year-old looked ready for another round.
"What are you going to do with me now?"
"Don't worry. If what you said is true, and Mr. Fuentes tracks his packages, then I'm sure someone will be along to find you soon enough." Hatch walked away, back towards Ernesto's house.
"You're already a dead woman! Do you hear me? A DEAD WOMAN!" Munoz called out.
The black hole swallowed Munoz as Hatch walked into the light. She thought about the words. There was more truth to that statement than he’d ever know.
Twenty-Five
They filled up Ayala's yellow Nissan, just as it started to sputter its final protest. Hatch gave an uneasy smile, still unnerved from the gun battle they'd narrowly avoided at the hand of the pan-wielding hero in the driver's seat. A man who, by his own admission, was accustomed to covering the violence of the world but unaccustomed to experiencing it firsthand.
"See, I told you we'd make it." His voice still quivering as the adrenaline dump he'd received during his moment of triumph had begun to recede within his system. Homeostasis would be reached again, but only after he'd crashed. The trick in combat was to keep the crash from happening before the battle was fully won. And they were still far from done. After filling up, they set off toward the Solarus Juice plant.
Ernesto and his wife Josephina had loaded their small Jeep with supplies, as much as they could comfortably fit and still leave enough room for Letty. The trio headed off in the opposite direction of Hatch and Ayala. It hadn't taken Ernesto long to find a doctor in his inner circle willing and able to find and remove whatever tracking device was implanted in Letty. And hopefully keep the cartel's henchmen at bay.
It was as good a plan as they could muster in the time they had to create it. With Letty's information, Hatch knew this next stop might be their last chance to recover the abducted teen.
With two hours to go until they reached their destination, Hatch realized she’d lit a fuse when she started the fire that burned down the aptly named club. And once lit, she feared it wouldn't end until the cartel had their pound of flesh. She felt the bright sparkle tail of the fuse chasing her now, and as she looked in the rearview mirror for headlights, Hatch half expected to see glowing embers chasing close behind them.
"You look worried," Ayala said.
"I am. This might be my last chance to save her."
"Our last chance," Ayala corrected with a smile.
"You know that I couldn't have gotten this far without you."
"If this is going to be one of those 'I can go it alone' speeches, you can just save it. I'm in this until the end. Whatever that means. And trust me when I say this, I understand what's at stake when I say this to you." His face warmed. "Daphne, you can get it out of your head that you're doing me a favor by leaving me behind. Because you're not. This is my home. I may not be as tough or skilled as you, but I am damn well not going to sit down and let the cartel, or anybody else for that matter, sell a little girl into slavery if I can help it. And without question, this is something I am willing to give my life for, just as readily as you."
"Partners it is."
"I just wish I'd brought Josefina's pan with me."
"You were really brave back there. The way you and Ernesto took out those two guys was nothing short of amazing. It's going down in my book as one of the coolest endings to a hostage standoff that I've witnessed in a long time. Plus, you saved my life."
"Seemed like you had things well in hand. Ernesto and I just sped it along. I'm just glad it didn't end in a shootout. I think even those men we hit with the frying pan would agree with that one."
"Not when the cartel learns of their failure. All we really did was prolong the inevitable. I'm just holding out hope that we can put a little bit of time between us and whoever else they send."
Her last statement ended their conversation as both occupants of the little yellow Nissan hummed along the darkened roadway.
"You know, you never really answered my question back there." Hatch broke the silence with a change in topic.
"Which one?"
"At your cafe, when I asked you why you did this, why you help people and put yourself out there with so much at risk."
"I did answer you."
"You told me that wonderful story your father told you about the seed and the boulder. That's true. But you never really answered."
"This is true. Let me see if I can remedy that for you as best I can. Maybe you could rephrase your question?"
"What specific moment in your life put you on the path you're on now, one where you're willing to risk everything, including your life, to save people you don't know?"
He smiled broadly before answering. "You say I don't know these people, but I do. Just as you do. As my father said, at our most basic essence, we are all human. We are all the same. And therefore, I feel a sense of connection with everyone. I may not always understand the reasons for why they do what they do, but I have to believe, at the very core of human nature is goodness. With that said, when people ignore the goodness in their heart and do harm to other people, I agree there needs to be people like you in the world too. Your purpose comes from a place few can understand. But I'd try, if you're willing to tell me."
Hatch thought about the defining moments in her life that had led her here. And the point and purpose it had given her life. In a lifetime of defining moments, one stood out above the rest, one responsible for permanently redirecting the trajectory of her life. The devestating nature of her father's death at the young age of twelve had forever changed the course. All things led back to that morning in the mountains when the gunshot stole her father from a young Hatch.
"My father was shot and killed." Hatch left out the details because those details got people killed. It was the reason she left Hawk's Landing. And indirectly why she was here, with the pan-wielding-peacock man.
Hatch refused to burden Ayala, or in any way connect him to her past. The results could be life altering. Hatch was still looking over her shoulder for the people who might never come or might already be on their way. It was a torturous way to live. But she had no choice in the matter, and much like Munoz had resigned himself to his fate, Hatch had done similar with hers.