“The pilot wants to get out of hauling contraband as soon as he finishes with this operation. He wants to go straight. All the backcountry strips in and around the Everglades he’s familiar with. Should he not be able to get into the strip we planned, he knows the other airstrips in the area where he can land. He knows everything coming and going. There’s no substitute for experience in this business.”
“The compensation I’ll pay him is more than generous.”
“You know, I might have trouble getting to the point, but your problem is that you don’t listen sometimes. I’ll say it again: there’s no substitute for experience.”
“Don’t lecture me about what you perceive as my faults. Understood.” His voice was raised. It was almost raised to the point that Hewlett might be thrown out of the restaurant by Li. The couple with the family looked over at Hewlett and Rosario arguing. Lee gave them a baleful look, and they turned away.
“There’s no way we can find a pilot with his experience in southern Florida; there’s no way we can find a plane that can handle that amount of cargo on a small strip like the one he’s got. There’s no one we can find that’s better; there’s simply no plane that we can find that’s better. The amount we’re hauling, for god’s sake, is worth more than some of the Latin American countries we’ll be flying over. Hell, if we pull it off, we could buy and sell a few Latin American countries. “
The waiter brought out Rosario’s omelet and orange juice, and as quickly as he came, he left. The omelet looked like the crescent moon he’d just seen in the park before walking to Mort and Saul’s. The office was a smoke-free environment, and when he had the itch to smoke, he’d sneak out and go to the park, where he’d sit on the park bench and light up. For years he’d given up smoking. Since Rosario had come on board, he found that he was smoking a pack a day. Tonight when he looked at the Surgeon General’s boxed warning on the cigarette pack about smoking being harmful to one’s health, he smiled to himself. More harmful fates could befall a man.
Picking up the Tabasco bottle, Rosario splashed the blood red sauce on the omelet. Silently, he took a bite of it. Having tasted it, he wasn’t satisfied. Splashing more Tabasco sauce on it, he took a large bite of the omelet.
“You expect me to give you the go-ahead on spending that kind of money for someone to bring in product?” He spoke with his mouth agape as he was chewing the omelet, small, yellow flakes of egg falling onto his napkin, the corner of the red napkin tucked into his collar.
“Yes, frankly I do. Look, Mr. Rosario, you told me to find the best pilot and the best plane to get the job done. That’s exactly what I did. I’d rather not be spending this kind of money, but there you have it. I did exactly what you wanted me to do. So don’t complain to me.” As he got these last words out, he stood up to leave. Li, like a Doberman that has suddenly sensed that his master has been threatened, rose when he saw Hewlett rise.
Rosario, who had just bitten into a morsel of his omelet, made a motion with his hands, the knife in his left hand and the fork with the morsel of omelet in his right hand, a motion as though pushing down spring-loaded toys, physically insisting that they both sit down. “It’s alright, Li.” A small piece of green pepper was stuck between his teeth. “Now, Paul, sit down. Please, sit down. We’re all civilized men here, aren’t we?” Slowly, Paul eased back into his chair. He was being spoken to as one speaks to a child. A trickle of sweat ran down his forehead and he felt the dampness of the collar of his polo shirt. “You’re being prematurely testy here. Have I ever said ‘no’ to you?” Now he seemed like a wounded father.
“As a matter of fact, you have.”
“C’mon, Paul, when have I said ‘no’ to you?”
“You said ‘no’ when I told you I wanted out. I still want out. I want out of this circus as soon as possible.”
“There’ll come a day when you can walk away, but right now you’re too valuable to our organization. You’re way too valuable. I can’t trust Townsend to make the right decisions like I can you. Slow down. You’re working up a sweat over nothing.”
“Am I?”
Rosario smiled. He reached for a toothpick from the dispenser on the table and picked at the piece of green pepper that was stuck between his lower incisors. He picked at the small morsel in his teeth. He didn’t bother to cover his mouth as he extracted the piece of pepper. With a flick or two, the morsel was gone. “There’ll come a day when you can walk away from all this, but not now. I can’t replace you. Besides, why would you want to leave? You’re making half again what you were before I came along.”
“When you can replace me, will you let me go in peace?”
“I will. You have my word on it.”
“Will the organization leave me alone?” In his heart, Hewlett knew they never would, no matter how much he wanted out.
“So long as you’re not a threat to them or me.”
“You know I’m not,” Hewlett paused. “How’d you know how much I was making?”
“There’s not a whole lot we don’t know about you. There’s not a whole lot we don’t know about all of you or your partners or your investment firm. That’s just the organization’s way of keeping people in line. Now you don’t want to step out of line, do you?” He took a bite his dwindling omelet and looked Hewlett squarely in the eyes. “Do you?” Whenever he looked Hewlett in the eyes, one seemed to be askew just a hair. Be it the right one, or the left one, he couldn’t tell. He noted that it was most pronounced when Rosario seemed tired. Short, a runt of a man, a crippled by a gimpy walk and a lazy eye, he could just imagine the cruelty that accrued as other schoolchildren taunted him during his formative years.
Hewlett just shook his head.
“Now is there something else I can do for you?”
“No. You know the only thing I want from you, and you won’t give it to me.”
“Oh, Paul. You’re as indispensable as a doctor to a patient who’s just had a heart attack. When I can replace you, I’ll let you go. Not before then. Are we clear on that.”
Hewlett nodded his head. “In the meantime, what do I tell Davis? If you don’t believe me, ask around. Ask Townsend. You might run into a couple of pilots who say they can do it from the list of pilots who’ve hauled for you in the past, but this time, they have no idea what they’re getting into in Colombia. Or the Glades for that matter. Skeeter Davis is special; Davis’ plane is special.”
“Listen, Paul, some of this product is practically pharmaceutical in quality. It’s so pure that it’s in crystalline rocks. You know how much that’s worth? Street prices will sky rocket. It’s of considerable more value than you thought when you spoke to Davis. That’s just between you and me. On the street, cocaine like this goes for one hundred and ten dollars or one twenty. I’ve even seen men of rather meager means cough up one hundred and thirty for it. For this kind of coke, I’ll gladly pay the man. I’ll pay him eight hundred thousand, but that’s it. And he’s not going to get any percentages. I’ve got another big haul coming up I could use him for. I’ll pay him just as much for it. With all that from two hauls, he should be able to retire a wealthy man. I’ll guarantee he can walk away from all this, but not until then. But to help pay for it, I’m going to pay you a point less. For both hauls. That’s what happens when you make decisions without consulting me first.”
“There was no way of consulting you. He gave me an ultimatum. You’re giving me an ultimatum. Just what am I supposed to do? You told me to go with the best, and I did.” In reality, though, Hewlett didn’t mind being on the losing end of things. He could care less about missing a point in the pay-off; what he wanted, what he dreamed