refresher.â
âAnd my ability to play piano, sir?â
âThatâs for a party weâre throwing. Donât worry, thereâll be a nice bonus for you.â The Colonel smiled again, lots of teeth. âA little surprise, if you will.â
âYes, sir.â
âDo you know what we do here, son?â
âNo, sir.â
âWe provide a secure place for influential and well-connected people to relax, away from prying eyes, while we train their security people. Now, considering your résumé, and the fact that you come with high recommendations, I would assume you know something about security.â
âYes, sir, I do.â
He gave me the big smile, like in the photos. âDo you consider yourself a badass, Harper?â
âA badass? No, sir. But I did qualify as marksman in basic, sir.â
He chuckled. âYou ever hear of Colombia, son?â
âYes, sir.â
âHonduras?â
âYes, sir, Iâve even played for the ambassador, sir.â
âOutstanding.â The Colonel studied me, perhaps for the first time. After a long moment, where the only sounds were the shush of the ocean beyond his window, he said, âOh, and you might want to keep in mind, son, that if you give us any reason to terminate your contract, we do not use lawyers.â He went back to his camera and said, âSee Kelly. Heâll get you squared away.â
âYes, sir.â
âAnd donât listen to anything Kelly says. He wonât like you, so get used to it. No appreciation of the finer things. Not a man of culture. He didnât want me to hire you and heâd send you home if he was the boss.â The Colonel looked up and smiled. âBut he isnât the boss.â
âNo, sir.â
âIâm the boss.â
âYes, sir.â
The Colonel stopped smiling. Heâd apparently used up his shine quota for the day.
âNow, youâre excused. And close the door on your way out.â
I went back to see Ren. âThanks for warning me about his name.â
âI like to get you off to a good start, you know. But donât worry; heâs not the real boss. Now Iâll show you where to sleep, okay? Get your shit.â
I followed him across the lobby and up the staircase to the second floor.
âWe got a couple other new guys. One, Ramirez, is a Chicano like me. The otherâs Anglo, like you. Most of the Latinos here are Cubans or PRs. Donât get âem mixed up, okay?â
Ren still had that dime in his ear. âOkay.â
âThereâs a big difference. All Cubans want to do is kill communists and Democrats, which to them is the same thing. You could trust a Cuban with your sister. Serious, man, because they only get a hard-on for Fidel. But donât take showers with the Ricans. They like the white boys.â
âWhat about Chicanos?â
âHey, you can trust us with everything but your car, man.â Ren laughed and his teeth were perfect.
We walked to the end of the corridor and up a smaller stairway that ran to the top floor. Here, Ren unlocked room 303, pushed open the door, and said, âThis is your room. Thereâs a bathroom down the hall.â
The air was hot enough to bake a ham.
âItâs the low ceiling. Traps the heat,â Ren said. âYou can open the window, but then the mosquitoes get in.â
âWhat about screens?â
âIâll see if I can find one tomorrow.â
âAre all the rooms like this?â
âJust the third floor. For us peons, man. But you got a phone hookup here, so you can plug into the Internet, you know, for the porn.â
âDial-up? I have to use dial-up?â
Ren shrugged. âHey, itâs the third world.â
âWhere do the guests sleep?â
âSecond floor. The rooms there, man, areââRen smoothed the air with a gliding palmââ rico . And with the guests,
Y. S. Lee
Kristen James
Dennis Debney
Glenn Ickler
Catherine Reef
Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Mukul Deva
Philip S. Donlay
D. J. Butler
Sue Grafton