Rage Of The Assassin by Russell Blake Page A

minutes.”
    “I’m not going to nag you, but…”
    “I know, Romero. I already made an appointment to go in tomorrow morning.” She watched him move into the dining room. “I don’t suppose there’s any way you could take a day off, is there?”
    He laughed bitterly. “That’ll be the day. They just stuck me on a task force to close the barn door after Aranas, who’s probably halfway to Aruba by now.”
    “Well, you are the foremost expert on the man. I mean, you’ve even met him…”
    “Which is why I know this is completely pointless. I mean, come on. Somehow the staff of our most secure prison missed that someone was excavating a tunnel almost a mile long directly under the facility, and I’m supposed to catch the mastermind who’d evaded arrest for twenty-something years? Ridiculous.” Cruz sat down at the table. “But I haven’t told you the best part.”
    “How hungry are you?”
    “My stomach’s growling, but I probably shouldn’t eat too much.”
    Dinah entered the dining room with a heaping plate in her hand. “Starting first thing tomorrow.” She set it down in front of him and pulled a chair free.
    “What about you?” Cruz asked.
    “I’ve been nibbling. Besides, I’m not hungry.”
    “Are you taking vitamins? You might be anemic.”
    “Every morning.”
    The extent of Cruz’s knowledge of feminine disorders exhausted, he turned to the chicken, which tasted even better than it smelled. He cleaned his plate without speaking, and Dinah nodded when he put his fork and knife down and sighed.
    “You were going to tell me the best part?”
    He patted his stomach. “Guess who’s heading up the task force?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Not you?”
    “No. Why have an experienced authority on cartels direct things when you can call in the big guns?”
    Dinah’s voice softened. “That bad?”
    He nodded. “Worse. Godoy,” he said, his expression souring.
    “I thought he was out of your hair permanently?”
    “So did I. But the good news is that I think he’s being set up to take the bullet when we fail.”
    “You’re that sure you won’t be able to track Aranas?”
    “I’ve said all along that a guy like Aranas doesn’t get caught unless he wants to. I haven’t changed my opinion. The man’s obscenely rich and wildly smart. We might as well put a fortune teller on staff, because he’s as gone as you can get, and my bet is we never see him again.”
    “At least you’re optimistic.”
    “It’s a complete sham, but I got sucked into it, and now I have to hand off real investigations to Briones while I sit in meetings with a dolt who couldn’t find his ass with both hands.”
    Dinah nodded sympathetically. “Can’t you just have him killed or something?”
    “Don’t give me any ideas.”
    “Seriously, just refuse to work with him. They’ll choose you over him.”
    “I tried. They’re not taking no for an answer.” He pushed back from the table and checked the time. “Besides, if I’m right, he’s going to be the piñata who gets all the blame in the end, so I have mixed feelings about reporting to him. On the one hand I want to resign, but on the other I want to see him burn, publicly humiliated and gone once and for all. He’s a menace. You should have heard him today. I’d forgotten how much I hate that cockroach.”
    “You want some dessert?” she asked. “I have flan.”
    “Not really on my diet, is it?”
    “I think it’s diet flan. You burn more calories digesting it than you take in,” Dinah said with a straight face.
    “Then I’d be a fool to refuse, wouldn’t I?”
    She smiled. “I’ll be right back.”
    When she returned, she had a small portion for herself and a jumbo helping for Cruz, which she placed in front of him. He ate it with relish, and when he was done, grimaced. “I did it again. I ate too much.” His gaze rose toward the ceiling. “Why, God, do you do this to me?”
    “Somewhere there are starving children. Don’t be an