Code Name Tequila Ch. 10

His cock drained, Carlos clawed at the side of the tub and pulled his head up out of the water, breaking the surface with a gasp for fresh air. Ria kissed his neck, "I'm sorry, are you okay?" she asked.

Carlos, still panting, nodded. "Yes, yes. That was amazing. I've never had my head held underwater as I came. It was an incredible feeling," he said. Ria smiled and kissed him.

The two lovers lounged in the tub until the water grew cold, and then carefully retreated to the bedroom to sleep. The last thing Carlos did before putting his head on the pillow was set the alarm for four AM, just five hours away.

* * *

The next morning the shocking buzz of the alarm awoke Carlos and Ria at four in the morning. They packed quickly and met their car at the hotel entrance. The car drove them across the border into Peru and towards Tacna, arriving with ample time to check in for their 6:55 AM flight to Lima.

While waiting for the flight, Ria told Carlos the story of how she came to be involved with the CIA and the operation with Cabo Blanco Racing to sniff out the Aguila Roja's identity. At the end of the story, Carlos whistled.

"That's impressive. You have handled yourself quite impressively for an amateur. That would explain as well why the Colombian DAS hadn't picked up on you being a potential employee of a security agency. Usually someone in your position would have a lot more training," he said, nodding appreciatively. Then the look on his face changed, and he raised an eyebrow and frowned. "Though, that does mean I got knocked around in the warehouse by an untrained amateur, which doesn't do much for my male ego."

Ria playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about your male ego. Trust me, last night you definitely proved that you can be manly," she said, patting her ass.

The loudspeaker crackled to life, announcing the departure of the LAN flight to Lima. Ria and Carlos boarded and both of them were asleep before the plane left the runway, tired out from yesterday's travel, last night's passion and this morning's early start.

The plane landed a little under two hours later in Lima. With six and a half hours before Fernandez flight was scheduled to land, Ria and Carlos prepared themselves for tailing Fernandez. They checked into a hotel and dropped their bags. Carlos rented a car and parked it in short term parking at the airport, ready to leave at a moment's notice. Carlos then stopped by the Colombian embassy and picked up a couple radio-transmitters with small microphones and ear pieces for Ria and he to keep in touch. Carlos also checked to see if Fernandez had any activity on his computer this morning, but nothing showed up.

Ria checked in with the CIA and let them know her present status, and that she had teamed up with Carlos to follow Fernandez. Black Oak reminded her to not give away too much information to Carlos. "You can never be sure what side of the fence the Colombians are going to come down on when it comes to drug smuggling," he said.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, they took their positions at Lima airport. Ria, her black hair covered by a blond wig and eyes covered with large sunglasses, waited at the arrivals area. Carlos was in the car. Both had their radio mikes and ear buds in place.

At a quarter to four Fernandez walked out into the non-secure part of the airport. As Carlos had stated, he stared straight ahead and made a bee-line for the taxis. "He's heading for a cab," Ria said into the microphone.

"I'll pick you up in front of the terminal," Ria heard in her ear, followed by the sound of the car starting. Ria, keeping 20 feet back, followed Fernandez through the busy airport. As he got close to the exit of the terminal, Ria sped up, closing the gap between them, until Ria was right behind Fernandez as he pushed out the door.

"Taxi, sir?" a man asked Fernandez.

Fernandez nodded at the man, handing him his bag and saying, "Avenue Republica de Panama, just by Plaza Fanning in Callao. You know it?"

The taxi driver nodded and led Fernandez towards a bright yellow Toyota Corolla, dented and old. Ria walked past the car. Once out of ear shot of Fernandez she said. "Beat up yellow Corolla. Going to Avenue Republic de Panama and Plaza Fanning in Callao."

Carlos responded. "Okay, I'm punching it into the GPS."

Ria kept walking until she was about 50 feet down the curb, where she stopped. Carlos pulled up and she hopped in the rented Chevrolet Corsa, pulling the ear bud out of her ear. They waited a moment until the Corolla carrying Fernandez drove past, and then pulled away from the curb.

"Callao is the port area. It's not far from here, actually. Should be less than 30 minutes," Carlos said.

Carlos, keeping a few car lengths back, followed the taxi. The taxi took the most direct and obvious route to the destination, proof in Carlos' mind that Fernandez was unaware of the presence of a tail.

The taxi stopped a few blocks south of Plaza Fanning on Avenue Republica de Panama in front of a nondescript, three story commercial building. Carlos pulled the rented Corsa into a parking lot across the street and shut off the engine. Fernandez had the taxi driver bring his bag into the building. A few minutes later the taxi driver exited, got in his cab and drove away.

"Obviously he is planing on staying for a bit," Carlos said. "Run over there and see if you can find out what is in the building. I'll wait in the car in case Fernandez reappears."

Ria stuck the ear bud back in her ear, exited the car and ran across the street. As she approached the building, she gave it a quick once over. There was no obvious signage on the building. She looked in the front entrance, two large glass doors. A security guard was sitting behind a desk looking bored. In front of him Ria could see a small building directory.

Ria opened the doors and walked in, walking with a strange gait as she held her thighs tightly together. She stood in front of the guard, crossing one leg over the other. "Is there a toilet in this building I can use?" she asked.

The guard shook his head. "No public toilets," he said.

Ria hopped slightly and groaned. "Oh, come on, please. I really need to go!" she said. She flashed a bright smile at the guard and batted her eyelashes.

The guard looked around and sighed. "Okay, but make it quick and don't tell anyone. If they find out, I'll be in trouble," he said. "Go up to the first floor and it is right by the stairs."

Ria thanked the guard and walked up the stairs. Entering the women's washroom, she checked that the stalls were empty and then spoke into her microphone. "There are two businesses in the building. FTS Pan Allied Shipping and Forma Terra Marine."

"Okay, that's good. Come back to the car now," he said.

"Okay, I'm coming back," Ria said.

Ria walked out of the toilet just as a man was walking up the stairs. He walked towards a door with a security badge reader. He swiped his badge and opened the door, holding it open for Ria. Ria nodded and smiled at him and walked through the door. The man walked in and wandered down to his left, so Ria turned right and walked in the other direction.

Ria walked through the office. It looked like any number of offices around the world. A number of small glass-walled offices and meeting rooms surrounded by cubicles. Ria walked through the office casually, but quickly examined any items that would give her a clue to the business. There were numerous pictures of large container ships on the walls, as well as charts of shipping routes.

Ria ducked into a photocopier room, and not seeing anyone said into the mike, "It looks like a shipping company, though that was probably obvious from the name."

"Where are you?" Carlos asked. "Are you IN the office? Jesus, get out of there!"

"Just a moment," Ria said. She exited the photocopier room on the other side of the office. Along the far wall was a number of portraits. She quickly examined them. They were the officers of the company - chairman and CEO Andres Torres, CFO Pedro Ferdinand, Executive-vice president of Risk and Security Jesus Villaroya and Tilsa Chiappini, Director, Legal Affairs

Ria turned and walked away from the portraits along the other side of the building. Walking past a glass-walled meeting room she saw Fernandez meeting with both the CEO Torres and CFO Ferdinand. Not wanting to attract attention, she didn't slow down, instead just getting a glimpse of the meeting in progress. A number of papers were scattered over the table the three men were sitting at.

Ria said into the mike, "Fernandez is meeting with the CEO and CFO."

"Ria, seriously, get out of that office right now," Carlos said. Ria pulled the receiver out of her ear and shoved it down her shirt.

Ria walked a little further along, and saw a larger office, this one labelled as the office of Chairman and CEO Andres Torres. Sitting outside the office was a woman at a desk, obviously Torres' personal assistant. Ria strolled up to her. "Excuse me, Mr. Villaroya asked me to see if he could get some time with Mr. Torres this afternoon? When will Mr. Torres be out of his present meeting?"

The personal assistant looked at her computer. "He is scheduled to be in his present meeting for the rest of the afternoon. I can schedule some time for Mr. Villaroya tomorrow morning at eight?"

Ria nodded. "That would be excellent. I'll let Mr. Villaroya know." Recalling the false name that Fernandez used to cross the border and book the flight, Ria said, "Is that Mr. Francisco Suarez that Mr. Torres is meeting with?"

The personal assistant nodded. "Yes. He has invested heavily in the company in the past few months. He now has a 30% share of the company, and is currently negotiating for a larger stake. Though, of course, don't tell anyone. It isn't public knowledge yet."

"No, of course I won't. Thanks again," Ria said, turning and walking out the door and to the staircase.

After descending the staircase, she passed the security guard. He looked at her, and at his watch.

"Sorry," Ria said. "I had drunk a lot of water today, so it took a long time to go to the toilet." Ria pushed the door open and exited the building.

Back in the car Ria told Carlos what the personal assistant had said to her about Fernandez buying up a large percentage of the company.

Carlos frowned. "You took way too big a chance there. You could have easily been caught." Ria gave Carlos a hangdog look, which just made him shake his head.

Carlos pulled out an Apple iPhone and connected to the secure Colombian security forces network, DASnet. "Let's see what we can find on Mr. Francisco Suarez's investment in either FTS Pan Allied Shipping or Forma Terra Marine." Carlos pulled up the public company records of the two organisations. "Forma Terra Marine is a wholly owned subsidiary of FTS Pan Allied. FTS is listed on the BVL, that's the Bolsa de Valores de Lima - the Lima stock exchange. Yes, there have been a number of large purchases recently. Not only a holding company owned by Francisco Suarez, aka Andre Fernandez, but also a number of other large purchases. In the past 3 months more than 60% of the shares of this company have changed hands. That's incredible. Not only that, but it looks like Fernandez is purchasing shares in other shipping companies across the Americas. His holding company has been acquiring shares in companies from Colombia, Panama, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, USA and Canada."

Ria raised an eyebrow. "Why? To ship drugs and guns?"

Carlos frowned. "Maybe, but they already have a supply route with the racing series. Perhaps they are looking to get another route, but the size of the investment would suggest that they are securing the control of a majority of the trans-American shipping traffic. Basically, if it goes north-south in the Americas, they are buying it up. That capacity is well above any needs for a simple drugs-for-weapons trade."

Carlos disconnected his iPhone from the DASnet and looked up at the nondescript building in which Fernandez was meeting. "What are you up to, Mr. Fernandez?"

* * *

An hour and a half later, a yellow taxi pulled up outside of the building. Fernandez exited the building and climbed into the cab. The taxi pulled away, and Carlos started up the car and followed. The taxi drove into the centre of Lima, eventually depositing Fernandez at the Doubletree El Pardo in the Miraflores part of Lima.

Carlos parked the car a block down from the Doubletree and placed a call. Having known Fernandez's hotel arrangements in advance thanks to the key logger on his computer, Carlos had arranged to have a couple Colombian DAS agents pick up the surveillance on Fernandez from the point he checked into his hotel.

"He's at the hotel now. Do you have him?" Carlos asked.

"Yes," the agent said. "He's just checking in."

"Okay, send me a text once you know what room he is in, and let us know if he makes any moves. We'll pick up the surveillance tomorrow at seven," Carlos said.

"Okay, will do," the agent replied, and hung up.

Carlos nodded at Ria. "Now we have the evening to finally catch up on our sleep," he said.

"One more thing I need to do," Ria said. "Can I borrow your phone?"

Carlos handed Ria the phone, and she punched in the phone number of the personal assistant to the CEO of FTS Pan Allied Shipping, a number she had read off the phone when talking to the woman and committed to memory. As she expected at almost seven a night, she got the woman's voicemail. After the tone, Ria said, "this is the office of Mr. Villaroya. Mr. Villaroya will not need to see Mr. Torres tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, so you can free that time up. I hope this doesn't inconvenience Mr. Torres too much. Thank you."

Ria hung up and handed the iPhone back to Carlos. Carlos looked at her quizzically. "I figured if Villaroya didn't show up for the eight o'clock meeting, that might make people suspicious. However, a cancelled meeting just gives a busy CEO an extra hour in his day. He'll be so happy to have some time to himself, he probably won't even follow up on why the meeting was cancelled," she said. 
Carlos nodded in agreement. "Butterfly, you are a natural spook, do you know that? You were born to spy." Carlos started up the Corsa, put it in gear and pulled away from the curb.

* * *

Carlos had booked himself and Ria into a room at the Crown Plaza, just a 10 minute drive away from the Doubletree. Unlike the massive suite last night, Carlos had just booked a regular room in Lima. "Have to keep some sort of control on my expenses," he said, shrugging, as they surveyed the room.

Ria was still impressed. The room was bright and warm, with large king sized bed that after the early start and long day, seemed very tempting. Ria opened up a vanity to find a TV set and small stereo system. She flicked on the stereo and soft classical music played softly.

Carlos looked at his iPhone. "Fernandez is checked in, room 415. He has apparently asked the concierge to make a reservation for one person at a nearby steakhouse, so I guess he's dining alone this evening."

Ria nodded, rummaging through her luggage. She pulled out a one-piece bathing suit, black and sleek like the Olympic swimmers used to wear before technology invaded even the humble bathing suit. "I am going to go down to the pool and take a dip," she said.

Carlos nodded, flopping on the bed, remote control in hand. "That's cool. I think I'll just rest up here for a bit. Unless you have a burning desire to go out, I figure we can just order up some room service tonight and make it an early one. We have to be up by six so we can get to the Doubletree and pick up Fernandez tomorrow at seven."

Ria nodded, changing into her black bathing suit. "That's fine with me. I won't be long. I just want a dip to freshen up and wake up a bit."

Ria put on a bathroom and a pair of sandals, and made her way down to the pool. Ria quickly showered, letting the cool water run over her tired body. She entered the main poll area. The pool wasn't big, certainly not large enough to do laps in. However it was empty other than for her and decent enough for a soak.

Ria slipped into the warm water and floated on her back, her arms and legs outstretched to give her buoyancy. She started up at the lights on the ceiling and let her mind drift. Less than 3 months ago she was working on a fishing charter in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, flirting with fat white men in an attempt to maximize the paltry tips they gave. Now she was floating in the pool of an executive hotel in Lima, Peru, working for the CIA on the trail of one of the worst drug lords and gun runners in recent memory.

And to top it all off, she'd met an interesting, sexy man. "Carlos," she said to herself, closing her eyes and picturing him.

Instead of Carlos, though, Robert Chambers popped into her head, the American agent who had first found her in Oaxaca, Mexico and who she had last seen almost a month ago in San Diego, California. "Strange," she thought. "I wonder what made him pop into my head?"

She thought of Chambers for a moment. Theirs had been a strange relationship, especially seeing as the first day they'd met, he tried to kill her. When Black Oak first assigned Chambers to work with Ria, she could feel the anger and tension from him, but over time they grew to be friendly, and then became friends, and finally two days before she left for Argentina, became lovers.

Since then, though, they'd had no contact. She had tried to get Black Oak to pass on some messages to him at first, but never heard any replies. Ria couldn't be sure whether that meant that Black Oak never passed on the messages, or simply that Chambers didn't bother to respond. Either way, she eventually had put Chambers out of her mind. Until that moment in the pool, when suddenly he jumped back into her head.

"I wonder where Chambers is right now?" she wondered.

What Ria didn't know was that at that exact moment, on a container ship off the coast of Chile, Robert Chambers was sitting in a small cabin on an uncomfortable bed wondering the exact same thing about her.

* * *

After a half hour of soaking in the warm water of the small Crown Plaza pool, Ria returned to the room. Carlos was asleep on the bed, the TV tuned to a reply of a football match between Colombia and Paraguay. Ria went into the bathroom, slipped out of her swimsuit and took a quick shower. She dried off and slipped on the fluffy terry-cloth bathrobe. Coming out the bathroom, Carlos was awake.

"Hey butterfly. Have a nice swim?" he asked.

"Yes, I did. How was the match?" she asked. "Riveting?"

He laughed, aware that she must have seen him sleeping. "Colombia is a great country in most respects, but our football needs some work," he said. "So, are you hungry after your exercise?"

"Definitely," Ria said. "I just realized that we didn't eat lunch."

Carlos held up the room service menu. "Feel like a Peruvian speciality?" he said.

Ria opened her eyes with mock horror. "Please don't say you are going to order Guinea Pig!" Ria knew that Peruvians were fond of Guinea Pig as a dish, and had even seen a travel show recently where they showed a painting of the last supper that hangs in the Cathedral of Cuzco where Jesus and his disciples are breaking bread and sharing a roasting Guinea Pig.

Carlos laughed. "No, something a little more palatable, I hope. Lomo saltado. It is sirloin marinated in soy sauce, stir fried with onions and tomatoes. It comes with both rice and French fries, apparently."

Ria nodded. "Okay, sounds good, though you can have the French fries. One serving of carbs is enough for me." She patted her stomach. "I need to watch my figure, after all."

Carlos laughed and picked up the phone, ordering two orders of the lomo saltado and two Pilsen Callao, one of the local beers. Carlos and Ria lay on the king sized bed, snuggling and watching the football as they waited for the food. The snuggling was interrupted twice as Carlos jumped up and swore at the TV each time Paraguay scored. The game wound down just as the food arrived with Colombian losing two-nil.