Soy Alícia Sierra

26. Escape Rope

My dear readers, here I am again at last. Thank you for your constant support and patience. And thank you always for your kind comments, they mean the world to me!

***
Madrid, February 2020

Alícia couldn't remember the last time she had checked her phone. The only person she would have liked to communicate with was never going to write or call anymore. She was filling up a plate with the food from her neighbour when her attention was caught by the screen flashing with an incoming call. Though her first thought was to turn the mobile off and put it away, her annoyance was immediately replaced by a combination of surprise, curiosity and satisfaction the moment she saw the number and recognised it only too well.

Leaving her plate half full, the redhead took the call before it rang a second time on the other side of the line. "Missed me, have you, Alfonso?" Her smirk could almost be felt by the man. "Or should I say Colonel Prieto?"

"Alícia-"

She didn't let him speak. She knew they must have a serious situation; they wouldn't have called a nearly 7-month-pregnant woman just to ask about her well being. Still she couldn't waste the opportunity to taunt them. Pride emanated from every single of her pores. "A ver," she began while pacing the living room under Comisario's scrutinising gaze. "Murillo wasn't available this time?"

The 'situation' was at the same time so serious and so exhilarating that Prieto managed to ignore her scornful comment and jumped directly to the point. "Lo tenemos."

Taken aback by his declaration, Alícia didn't even try to hide her excitement. "No me jodas!" The baby must have felt it too, given the sharp kick the redhead felt throughout her entrails, leaving her no choice but to let herself fall on the couch. "After all this time the mastermind just fell into your trap?" She looked for a more comfortable sitting position, to no avail. "Or was it luck?"

"It's Aníbal Cortés," Prieto explained and, for the second time that evening, could almost touch her emotions across the line.

This once it was disappointment, which however only lasted until she realised that catching one of them could be just as good or even better than finding the head of the band; a weaker member would be easier to break and could give them all the information they needed to find the rest, including the boss. "Where was he?" she asked absent-mindedly, her brain already focusing on something entirely different.

"In the Caribbean. He was on vacation that bastard," Prieto laughed forcefully. "Found two weeks ago in one of the islands of the Guna Yala archipelago in Panamá."

The gears working inside Alícia's head were so loud that she didn't hear what Prieto said next. She was already envisioning thousands of plans, strategies, mind games to get to that littlest detail that the boy might not even know was important but would bring the professor straight to her, served cold on a plate. She didn't even know yet what exactly the colonel wanted from her. As if it really mattered.

"Within one second Europol intercepted the signal of a satellite phone he was using. In 50 seconds they contacted CNI and less than a minute later they woke me up. My wife was not happy, I tell you."

Of all he was saying Alícia only registered his typical forced laughter before he made a brief pause. Because she didn't say anything he went on telling about their successful - well, not entirely successful operation, of which he was very proud in any case. "CNI contacted the Panamean police and they put on a whole circus, with patrol boats and all. Cortés tried to use a rocket-launcher against them, the stupid boy, but he didn't stand a chance against those agents," Prieto laughed again, now heartily. His voice assumed a more serious tone when he proceeded to talk about the less fruitful part of the operation. "We managed to locate Silene Oliveira too, but she had time to run away. She tied her phone to a dog, can you believe it? That hija de puta."