The United Cartels of America, Season 6 (Queen of the South)

Part 3 - Steep Slope

"After those first five weeks, after the end of boot camp, the sergeants eased up with us ...ever so slightly!" James's hand scratched his beard as he nodded: "I mean they didn't shout at us quite so much...They started treating us like soldiers...if you know what I mean!"

Alina smiled at him from across the desk: "I know...they started to take you seriously!"

James chuckled and went on: "I like boot camp. Can't deny it. I was certain that if I failed, I was at the wrong place..." his voice trailed off as Alina noted not lifting her eyes from her monitor:

"But you most likely excelled....and went on to learn about war!...At least that's what happened to me!"

Now her gaze was fixed on him as she went on: "How to make war...how to win it. I have to admit though that in my case...there were some stupefyingly boring classroom lessons...like simulating different ways of being killed!"

James nodded absent mindedly: "You mean CBRN?"

"Yep...chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear. It's baffling how the human brain had invented so many tools of destruction!" And she smiled at him again.

"Did you as reservist practice the whole routine of putting on protective gear, pulling it off, cleaning and wiping the poisons and other muck that might be thrown, dropped or sprayed on you?" James was smiling and shaking his head. "Because we also dug countless trenches, curled into the fetal position to train, even turned a training room into a gas chamber to practice inside...with the gas on..."

Alina had cocked her head at him, and her face was pure curiosity as he went on without noticing her getting off her chair and leisurely sitting on the couch beside him. His mind seemed to have been transcended into the past as his voice was a notch up, full of excitement and pressure:

"We took off our gas masks, put them on again, took them off. If you weren't quick about it, you got a mouthful, a lungful. But you couldn't always be quick, and that was the point, so eventually everyone sucked gas.... The exercises were supposed to be about war; to me they were about death. The whole motto of Army training was death. How to avoid it, but also how to face it, head-on!"

His eyes got back into focus as he looked at her and said: "Did you ever deploy?"

She slowly shook her head 'yes', then cleared her throat that sounded like it was stuck and almost whispered: "My unit was deployed out for a week when NATO sent forces to assist in the demolition of captured facilities...I saw what was left of the bombing...but never saw action myself."

Their eyes met for a little while and then Alina added: "Tell me more about your time on the front lines?"

James turned to take his unfinished coffee from the side table, took a sip and made a face. They had taken coffee to go after the brunch and working for more than an hour on the construction details had resulted in his coffee getting undrinkably cold.

He put the cup back on the table and said: "The Taliban were ...ahh...little devils...You simply couldn't find them... Terrain was too rugged, too remote...Mountains and deserts combed with tunnels and caves...It was like hunting goats. Or ghosts better yet. You had to get the bird's-eye view and hence the chopper flying unit had the best tech stuff and the most interesting times!"

And as she kept looking at him tenderly, he let his mind wander back in the military years of his youth that he had shoved in a compartment of his brain long time ago and had thrown the key away.

"The Taliban had no air force, not one plane...We and the British owned the air. We had drones and high-tech equipment to recreate the area and prepare possible battlefield scenarios!"

"I didn't know you flew!" Alina exclaimed and let her hair fall around her pretty face.

"I didn't!" James answered hastily. "One thing I didn't get to do. They determined that my skills were in another area!"

She had moved closer and cocked her head at him: "Sharp shooting." He explained.

"I always had 100 out of 100...and stood no chance to be sent in the air...but I was interested, truly!" and as he smiled with the recollection and looked at her, she moved closer in one fluid movement and her mouth found itself on his.

===

Teresa's eyes filled with tears, and she made an effort to control her voice, but she doubted she had succeeded as Pote's voice came through the receiver: "I am not a light person...but the door was slightly open and the moment I saw them, it cut me like a knife...carajo...and I left!"

"So, James didn't see you?" Teresa managed to say.

"My peripheral didn't register any movement for a few seconds...I had to leave, Teresita! I have been having these nasty feelings about this woman...I couldn't hold my mouth the other day before we left...and the look on your face when you spoke about Phoenix killed me..." Pote's voice choked.

Teresa was heard taking a deep breath: "Tell me more about the coke you found!"

Typical stone wall going up! Pote thought. I have to get this cabron and cut his balls off...and the puta...I should pull all her hair out!

After he had described in detail the coke, the test to approximately figure out its purity and his and Kelly Anne's retreat back to the main office building, Pote sighed heavily and asked: "What are you going to do?"

"Get on the next flight this evening...and come see for myself!" Teresa said, her voice sounding calm and composed.

Pote though couldn't control his as he said: "All I wanted was to tell this cabron what we found...to see if he had any suspicions...and he......he..." Pote couldn't finish as Teresa interrupted him: "You know James is a very serious man. I would hope everything has an explanation!"

Pote was able to silence his grump of disbelief as a thought came to his mind: "She...this puta Alina, had texted Kelly Anne to see her at the office to discuss something with the foreign workers' permits...but I went instead because Kelly Anne had something in her eye from the dusty warehouse...then I was planning to find him to talk about the coke...never expecting that he'd be in her office...on her couch...carajo!"

Teresa felt silent for a few seconds, then said: "You still tell him about the coke...and about what you saw. I want to know his reaction!"

"But...he'd have a chance to come up with a story!" Pote mumbled.

"Nah...When he knows that I know, he'd have no option but to tell me the truth. And the truth might not be what it appears!" Teresa said.

===

Teresa sat heavily on the bed, head down, shoulders slumped.

Did she believe herself that the truth might be something else and not that her husband was having an affair? They had been together over 20 years and their relationship was as good as ever. Why would he do that? When did he stop loving her? Maybe he didn't. Maybe it was that woman pushing him...because despite some gray hair on his temples, he looked more than 10 years younger than he really was. While she...looked not as before! Or so she thought. Kelly Anne had done botox twice but had not been successful in convincing Teresa to try it! Maybe that had been a mistake...or maybe it was her fears with a grain of vanity! Carajo!

Teresa hated this line of thought, making her doubt herself and wonder if the happiness they had shared over the years would ever come to an end.

Could she really trust Pote over James? She had made this mistake before. But Pote had seen him kiss the Alina woman. He wasn't blind now, was he? And on top of this, there was coke in the picture! Again! Que mierda, carajo!