“Good for him,” one of the policemen said.
Jaime and Megan noisily quarreled their way out of the park, pushing the baby carriage before them. The policemen turned their attention back to the men seated on the benches.
“Identification, please?”
“What’s the problem, Officer?”
“Never mind. Just show me your papers.”
All over the park, men were pulling out wallets and extracting bits of paper to prove who they were. In the midst of this, a baby began to cry. One of the policemen looked up. The baby carriage had been abandoned at the corner. The quarreling couple had vanished.
Thirty minutes later, Megan walked through the front door of the house. Amparo was nervously pacing up and down.
“Where have you been?” Amparo demanded. “You shouldn’t have left the house without telling me.”
“I had to go out to take care of something.”
“What?” Amparo asked suspiciously. “You don’t know anyone here. If you—”
Jaime walked in, and the blood drained from Amparo’s face. But she quickly regained her composure.
“What—what happened?” she asked. “Didn’t you go to the park?”
Jaime said quietly, “Why, Amparo?”
And she looked into his eyes and knew it was over.
“What made you change?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t changed. You have. I’ve lost everyone I loved in this stupid war you’re fighting. I’m sick of all the bloodshed. Can you stand hearing the truth about yourself, Jaime? You’re as bad as the government you’re fighting. Worse, because they’re willing to make peace, and you’re not. You think you’re helping our country? You’re destroying it. You rob banks and blow up cars and murder innocent people, and you think you’re a hero. I loved you, and I believed in you once, but—” Her voice broke. “This bloodshed has to end.”
Jaime walked up to her, and his eyes were ice. “I should kill you.”
“No,” Megan gasped. “Please! You can’t.”
Felix had come into the room and was listening to the conversation. “Jesus Christ! So she’s the one. What do we do with the bitch?”
Jaime said, “We’ll have to take her with us and keep an eye on her.” He took Amparo by the shoulders and said softly, “If you try one more trick, I promise you you’ll die.” He shoved her away and turned to Megan and Felix. “Let’s get out of here before her friends arrive.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“You had Miró in your hands and you let him escape?”
“Colonel—with all due respect—my men—”
“Your men are assholes. You call yourselves policemen? You’re a disgrace to your uniforms.”
The chief of police stood there, cringing under the withering scorn of Colonel Acoca. There was nothing else he could do, for the colonel was powerful enough to have his head. And Acoca was not yet through with him.
“I hold you personally responsible. I’ll see that you’re relieved from duty.”
“Colonel—”
“Get out. You make me sick to my stomach.”
Colonel Acoca was boiling with frustration. There had not been enough time for him to reach Vitoria and catch Jaime Miró. He had had to entrust that to the local police. And they had bungled it. God alone knew where Miró had gone to now.
Colonel Acoca went to the map spread out on a table in front of him. They will be staying in Basque country, of course. That could be Burgos or Logroño or Bilbao or San Sebastián. I’ll concentrate on the northeast. They’ll have to surface somewhere.
He recalled his conversation with the prime minister that morning.
“Your time is running out, Colonel. Have you read the morning papers? The world press is making us look like clowns. Miró and those nuns have made us a laughingstock.”
“Prime Minister, you have my assurance—”
“King Juan Carlos has ordered me to set up an official inquiry board into the whole matter. I can’t hold it off any longer.”
“Delay the inquiry for just a few more days. I’ll have Miró and the nuns by then.”
There was a pause. “Forty-eight hours.”
It was not the prime minister whom Colonel Acoca was afraid of disappointing, nor was it the king. It was the OPUS MUNDO. When he had been summoned to the paneled office of one of Spain’s leading industrialists, his orders had been explicit: “Jaime Miró is creating an atmosphere harmful to our organization. Stop him. You will be well rewarded.”