mixture of fury and fear. He was back in the streets of Juárez, hunting her down with a team of ex special forces operatives. Their fixer led them into a trap. Amonite killed all the others, but dragged Nathan to her torture chamber, from which he barely escaped alive.
‘Nathan?’ Cedric said. ‘You okay?’
Nathan flicked open the folder. There were photos of Amonite coming out of a pub. A poorly painted sign saying the White Lion hung loosely above the door.
‘I saw them kill her in Mexico,’ Cedric said. ‘You were there too. You saw her. We weren’t dreaming.’
‘I never trusted the Mexican police,’ Nathan said. ‘They could have replaced her with someone else. Easily done.’
‘But what’s she doing here?’
‘Pretty obvious, isn’t it? She’s expanding the Front’s empire. Is this the pub where that killing took place the other day?’
Cedric nodded. ‘The Met’s drugs squad had it under surveillance. They’re after Tony Maxwell, a big-time crack dealer in north London who runs dozens of houses. Amonite walked in, shot everyone except Tony, and left.’
‘And the Met just let her go?’
‘They didn’t know who she was. They didn’t realise there’d been a shooting until Tony stumbled out and ran off.’
Nathan grunted. ‘Bloody useless.’
‘They’ve put someone else in charge of the investigation now. Steve Willinston. A good copper. Takes no crap from the scroties. You should speak to him.’
‘Okay, chief.’ Nathan didn’t react to his boss’s uncharacteristic use of police slang. ‘What about those samples from Colombia? Are the test results back?’
‘Soon.’
Cedric got up and left the room. Nathan went to his desk. There was an email from Caitlin.
Did you get the promotion?
Nathan had forgotten to raise the issue. Cedric hadn’t mentioned it either. He deleted the email and searched the Soca database for Steve Willinston’s phone number.
‘Soca needs help catching baddies?’ Steve said after Nathan had introduced himself.
‘I’m trying to nick Amonite Victor.’
‘That’s like trying to catch the invisible man.’
‘Look, we need to meet up. Where’s the best place to start?’
‘Tony Maxwell. If anyone knows about Amonite Victor, it’ll be him.’
They arranged to meet next day.
Nathan stared blankly at his computer screen, feeling numb inside. An email popped into his inbox with the headline ‘Drugs and Development: Caught in a Vicious Cycle’. It was an article from The Guardian by Nick Crofts, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne. Crofts said 2011 marked the 50 th anniversary of the global war on drugs. Nathan blinked. Fifty years? And what was there to show for it? Just massive corruption, unprecedented levels of violence, whole countries devastated, and new groups such as Front 154 popping up on a regular basis.
He read the article. Crofts argued that conflict, poverty and the drugs trade were intricately linked through a vicious circle: poor development fuelling conflict, which fuels the drugs trade, which generates profits that fuel conflict, which fuels poverty. Croft called for drug control agencies to look beyond the simple realities of drug production to the social and economic factors behind it.
Nathan filed the story in his file entitled ‘the case for legalisation’, alongside the recent front cover story in The Economist about how the drugs war was devastating Central America. He leaned back in his chair and looked around the office at his colleagues typing away or speaking on their phones. Was all this just a massive waste of time and money?
He turned back to his computer and searched for more information on the Front. There was an article on the New York Times website that the Front was extending its web of influence to the Caribbean. An anonymous source from the US Drug Enforcement Administration
‘Nathan?’ Cedric said. ‘You okay?’
Nathan flicked open the folder. There were photos of Amonite coming out of a pub. A poorly painted sign saying the White Lion hung loosely above the door.
‘I saw them kill her in Mexico,’ Cedric said. ‘You were there too. You saw her. We weren’t dreaming.’
‘I never trusted the Mexican police,’ Nathan said. ‘They could have replaced her with someone else. Easily done.’
‘But what’s she doing here?’
‘Pretty obvious, isn’t it? She’s expanding the Front’s empire. Is this the pub where that killing took place the other day?’
Cedric nodded. ‘The Met’s drugs squad had it under surveillance. They’re after Tony Maxwell, a big-time crack dealer in north London who runs dozens of houses. Amonite walked in, shot everyone except Tony, and left.’
‘And the Met just let her go?’
‘They didn’t know who she was. They didn’t realise there’d been a shooting until Tony stumbled out and ran off.’
Nathan grunted. ‘Bloody useless.’
‘They’ve put someone else in charge of the investigation now. Steve Willinston. A good copper. Takes no crap from the scroties. You should speak to him.’
‘Okay, chief.’ Nathan didn’t react to his boss’s uncharacteristic use of police slang. ‘What about those samples from Colombia? Are the test results back?’
‘Soon.’
Cedric got up and left the room. Nathan went to his desk. There was an email from Caitlin.
Did you get the promotion?
Nathan had forgotten to raise the issue. Cedric hadn’t mentioned it either. He deleted the email and searched the Soca database for Steve Willinston’s phone number.
‘Soca needs help catching baddies?’ Steve said after Nathan had introduced himself.
‘I’m trying to nick Amonite Victor.’
‘That’s like trying to catch the invisible man.’
‘Look, we need to meet up. Where’s the best place to start?’
‘Tony Maxwell. If anyone knows about Amonite Victor, it’ll be him.’
They arranged to meet next day.
Nathan stared blankly at his computer screen, feeling numb inside. An email popped into his inbox with the headline ‘Drugs and Development: Caught in a Vicious Cycle’. It was an article from The Guardian by Nick Crofts, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne. Crofts said 2011 marked the 50 th anniversary of the global war on drugs. Nathan blinked. Fifty years? And what was there to show for it? Just massive corruption, unprecedented levels of violence, whole countries devastated, and new groups such as Front 154 popping up on a regular basis.
He read the article. Crofts argued that conflict, poverty and the drugs trade were intricately linked through a vicious circle: poor development fuelling conflict, which fuels the drugs trade, which generates profits that fuel conflict, which fuels poverty. Croft called for drug control agencies to look beyond the simple realities of drug production to the social and economic factors behind it.
Nathan filed the story in his file entitled ‘the case for legalisation’, alongside the recent front cover story in The Economist about how the drugs war was devastating Central America. He leaned back in his chair and looked around the office at his colleagues typing away or speaking on their phones. Was all this just a massive waste of time and money?
He turned back to his computer and searched for more information on the Front. There was an article on the New York Times website that the Front was extending its web of influence to the Caribbean. An anonymous source from the US Drug Enforcement Administration
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