Traffic (Complete two-hundred pages) (Moving to Kindle Vella in 30 Days! )

23

BORDER

AT THE BORDER THE AUTONOMOUS POLICE CAR pushed him on through without question and he paid for the car to take him to the airport. From there he flew from Tijuana to Mexico city. Having used his Mexican passport, the second he landed he knew his time was running short. They would know where he was.

Mr. Golem would be out for him.

Jack came to the Hospital De Jesus. The time was night again.

He approached the lobby and rather than speak to anyone and check in, Jack thought he might try to simply pass the front desk staff unannounced. But quickly the nurse at the front desk stopped Jack. "Perdón, Señor. A quién estás visitando?" Excuse me, Sir. Who are you visiting?

Jack turned on his heel and looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. "Err--" but Jack remembered to catch his repose coolly. He summoned his Spanish. Easy. "Mi novia." My girlfriend.

But this attempt seemed futile as the nurse reviewed him head to foot. He was empty handed. No flowers? "¿No flores, Senor?"

Jack turned red and looked at his empty palms. "¡Soy un tonto!" I am a fool!

"No." The nurse shook her head. "Eres un cabrón." You are an asshole.

Jack could hardly disagree. "Gracias." Thank you. Rolling his eyes Jack turned on his heel again to search for Penelope. But the nurse whistled at him.

"No se le permite ver a los pacientes." You are not permitted to see the patients. The woman gave him a hard look that compiled a mountain of threats.

Jack was taken aback but was not about to let some nightshift nurse tell him what he could and could not do. "¿Oh, si? ¿Y por qué es eso?" Oh yeah? And why is that? He started to walk backward toward the patient room and the woman could tell he was not about to take her seriously. But she needed no backbone for the challenge once she turned her eyes behind the wall and said something quietly that summoned footsteps. A security guard with a skull tattoo on his neck and a gun at his hip met her at her side. They both looked at Jack with serious looks that said, "We know you're not from here pal, but you're making a mistake if you take one more step."

Jack stopped. He knew he could take them both but not without causing a commotion that would draw attention. For Mr. Golem to catch him here so soon would be an embarrassing note on his espionage career and would get him killed regardless. Okay, said his face. "Comó veo mi novio?" How do I see my girlfriend.

The nurse looked at him with dubious sympathy and gestured him over with the patronizing wave of her finger. "Inicia sesión, cabrón." You sign in, dumbass.

Jack complied and stepped over to the front desk. She gave him a friendly wink of truce and he passed her a halfhearted smile.

In Spanish she offered, "Tough day?"

He nodded, allowing himself an authentic frown. "Tough week."

He looked up after signing in and she passed him a clipboard to fill out.

"Fill this out over there and come back when you're done."

Jack did as she said and nodded to the fat and friendly security guard with the gun and the mustache that reminded him of the Pillsbury doughboy and sat down to fill out the paper. It was basically a compliance notice to follow visitation rules and he signed and dated at the bottom. Returning to the desk he handed her the paper reluctantly and she smiled and asked the question finally. "Who are you here to see?"

"My girlfriend," Jack repeated.

The nurse rolled her eyes with friendly sass. "No shit, Sherlock. What's her name?"

Jack had wanted to avoid telling anyone why he was here. He had wanted to look for Penelope himself and leave. That'd be it. No drama. Invisible. But this woman demanded her name and the deputy looked at him with a waiting eye that insisted he act normal. Jack felt his throat grow dry but he stared at the nurse intently and mustered the courage quickly to say her name. "Penelope."

The nurse's eyes opened a bit wide. Maybe sympathy, maybe surprise. Jack didn't know. But he could tell she recognized the name and her expression was not that of a normal nurse. But because she didn't answer him vocally perhaps she had no clue about who Penelope was and was merely waiting for her last name. "Ramirez," Jack finished.

The nurse was suddenly animated again as though breaking out of a trance and looked at her computer. She started typing. The fake kind of typing. And Jack felt the dark cloud falling over him again. Although this time, eyes were on him. He looked over. The security guard was eyeing him hard. Either with sympathy, or fear, or protection.

"Sorry, I don't see a Penelope Ramirez in our system." The nurse looked up as if that would be enough to send Jack away. And if this were yesterday she'd be right.

But she was dead wrong today.