Ghost Sniper

24

With the moon on the rise, Vaught and Paolina were still stranded on the streets of Mexico City, where they found themselves unable to abandon the dozens of motorists injured in the smashup. The tunnel fire had burned itself out, but only the very worst of the injured had been taken away in a pair of ambulances. The rest were still on the scene, with no professional medical personnel to look after them. The city’s emergency services were stretched beyond capacity, and it was easy to imagine that it might be days before the ambulances returned.

Initially, Vaught had insisted that they get back on the move for Toluca, knowing Crosswhite would be worried about his family, but Paolina refused, contending that their help was badly needed there and that Toluca was too far to walk anyway. Very few civilians had remained on the scene after the ambulances had first arrived, most of them fleeing homeward to check on their own families.

Cellular service was knocked out along with electrical power to that part of the city, so without the moonlight, it would have been dangerously dark. Sirens wailed far in the distance where damage to the city had been worse, and flashlights bobbed in the darkness along the street. Many of the burn victims were moaning, and a few children were crying. The cab driver was in great pain, but he was so thankful to have been saved from the burning taxi that he barely complained at all.

Local shopkeepers had donated a limited supply of food and bottled water early on, so there had at least been something to eat before it got dark.

Valencia had found a Rottweiler puppy to play with, so she was content for the moment, but Vaught had no idea where the animal had come from.

He was well aware that this would be a good time to make a break for the US Embassy, confident that none of Serrano’s people would be watching now that the city had been ripped asunder, but the idea was a nonstarter. He couldn’t abandon a pregnant woman in the midst of such chaos any more than he could abandon the crash victims, now that he’d taken responsibility for them.

“This is bullshit,” he muttered in English, and felt a little better about it.

“Do you have a signal yet?” Paolina asked, standing beside him with a bottle of water.

He checked his phone and shook his head. “It could be weeks before they get service restored.”

“I need to find a blanket for Valencia. It’s getting cold.”

“Stay here with the others,” he told her. “I don’t want you wandering off in the dark.”

He set off across the street, where he saw a light on in one of the local shops. As he drew closer, he could hear the hum of a generator.

“Hello,” he said through the locked gate.

A man in his twenties appeared from the back clutching a pistol. “What do you want?”

“Do you have a blanket I can buy?”

The man went into the back and returned a minute later with a beat-up brown blanket. “Two hundred pesos.” Approximately thirteen dollars.

Vaught could see the blanket wasn’t worth five bucks, but he was dealing with profiteering now, and he knew it, so he didn’t complain. He took the bill from his wallet and handed it over. The second he took possession of the blanket, he could smell that it had been taken from a dog’s bed.

He returned to the crash scene and gave it to Paolina. “It’s not the best, but it will keep her warm.”

“It stinks!” she said.

“Paolina, there’s not exactly a lot I can do about it. We have to make do. Give the Red Cross time to show up.”

She made a pffft sound and knelt to wrap the blanket around Valencia’s shoulders.

Valencia said the puppy was hungry and asked if there was any food for him.

“He’ll be okay,” Vaught said compassionately. “We’ll get him some food in the morning.”

“Can you go back over there and buy us something to eat?” Paolina said. “I don’t think those other people are going to bring us any more.”

“I’d rather not go back over there,” he said.

“But it’s the only shop with a light on.”

“I know, but the guy has a gun, and he’s not very friendly. Besides, he’s gonna charge five times what the food is worth, and we—”

“You’re worried about money?”

“No. I’m worried about the gun. It’s not a gun he got legally, so he’s probably a professional criminal, and we don’t need trouble.”

She let out a frustrated sigh and sat down beside her daughter.

“Hey, you know what, Paolina? The earthquake isn’t my fault.”

“No,” she said, looking up at him. “It’s your fault we’re not at home now with my husband where we belong.”

“Yeah? How do you know your house didn’t cave in? You might have been killed, for all you know.”

She pulled Valencia close. “Leave me in peace, Chance.”

“Mommy, this blanket smells bad.”

“I know, baby, but it’s the only one Chance could find. We’ll get a clean one tomorrow.”

Vaught picked up a jug of water and went to check on the burn victims. One of the women was burned badly on her arms and hands, but there had been no more room in either of the ambulances. She was sitting against a tree in the median, and though she was in a good deal of pain, she was bearing it like a stoic.

“Do you have any aspirin?” she asked. “Anything for pain?”

Vaught remembered seeing boxes of aspirin in the glass case in the shop across the street. “I’ll see if I can get some.”

He gave the others some water and then went back to Paolina. “I’m going to buy these people some aspirin.”

“What about the guy with the gun?”

He dropped the water jug beside her. “I thought you didn’t care about him.”

“Just be careful,” she said quietly.

“How sweet,” he muttered, walking off.

Vaught stepped up to the gate again and called inside. This time an older, meaner-looking guy came out of the back.

“What do you need?”

“Two boxes of aspirin,” Vaught said. “We’ve got a lot of injured people across the street there. A lot of them are burned. And three loaves of bread.”

The man set the stuff on the shelf attached to the cage door. “Five hundred pesos.” This was a little over thirty dollars.

Vaught was tired and annoyed, so he wasn’t as accepting of the situation as he should have been. “Do you have to take advantage like that? I told you there’s a lot of people hurt over there. The other shopkeepers were very generous.”

The guy crossed his arms and stared at Vaught. When he did this, his shirt rode up, exposing another pistol tucked into his belly.

Vaught put the bill on the shelf. The guy took it and shoved the stuff through the opening in the cage.