The Aegis Conspiracy: A Novel. Galen Winter

in an exclusive Sucre neighborhood. It was the place where he kept his mistress. His bodyguard, a well-armed man who seldom left his side, was waiting for him in the hallway. The bodyguard was a large and powerful man. He shielded Montoya as he left the apartment and told him he had neither heard nor seen anything to disturb him while he kept watch at the hallway door.

      Together the men took the elevator to the ground floor of the building. They unlocked and walked through the ornate wrought-iron gate that protected the interior of the building from thieves. According to the report of the Sucre police, the man presumed to be Montoya’s chauffeur, his face obscured by a black felt hat, hurried around the automobile and opened the door to the back seat.

      When Montoya and his bodyguard approached to enter the car, the chauffeur pulled a weapon from beneath his jacket and killed both of them. Then he calmly walked into the gathering crowd and disappeared. Montoya’s real chauffeur lay dead on the floor of the front seat. No one was able to give a description of the man who killed them.

      Shortly after the death of the Montoya, Nathaniel Peabody stepped from the Aerolineas Argentina flight and entered that part of the Miami International Airport where United States Customs officials check passports and occasionally review the contents of luggage being brought into the country. Minutes later, Den Clark, his baggage transferred to the Delta flight to Washington, emerged from Customs.

      A few days later, a courier from Washington delivered a thick envelope to the American DEA Office at La Paz. The envelope contained a comprehensive report. It described the operation of the Bolivian drug trade from the collection of coca leaves grown in Northern provinces, through laboratory processing and on to warehousing and shipment out of the country. The report identified national and local politicians as well as Bolivian army Drug Enforcement officials who were in Montoya’s pay.