A soft voice at the other end of the line began speaking, and Lantz sat upright in bed, his heart beginning to pound. “Yes, sir.”
He listened for a long time. Finally he said, “Yes,. sir. I understand. I’ll be on the first plane to Buenos Aires. Thank you, sir.”
He replaced the receiver and lit a cigarette. His hands were trembling. The man he had just spoken to was one of the most powerful men in the world and was going to pay him fifty thousand dollars to deliver a message. It would be fun going back to Argentina. Harry Lantz loved South American women.
THE 747 arrived at Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires at five the following afternoon. Harry Lantz felt a surge of excitement as he stepped out of the plane, but the blast of hot air startled him for a moment. Of course, he realized. It’s summer here.
Yes, it was good to be back. Siesta was over, and the streets were crowded with people. When the taxi arrived at the Hotel El Conquistador, in the heart of the fashionable Barrio Norte sector, Lantz paid the driver with a million-peso note.
“Keep the change,” he said. Their money was a joke.
Harry looked up an old friend. No one had ever .heard of Neusa Mufiez. Harry Lantz began to feel he might be on a wild-goose chase.
It was at the Pilar, a small bar in the barrio of Floresta, that his luck suddenly changed. It was a Friday night, and the bar was filled with workingmen. It took Lantz ten minutes to get the bartender’s attention. Before Lantz was halfway through his prepared speech, the bartender said, “Neusa Muez? S(. I know her. If she wishes to talk to you, she will come here maana, about midnight.”
The following evening Harry Lantz returned to the Pilar at eleven o’clock and took a place at the bar, watching the room gradually fill up. As midnight approached, he found himself getting more and more nervous. If she doesn’t show up, he thought, I can kiss the fifty grand good-bye.
He wondered what she looked like. She had to be a stunner. He was authorized to offer her boyfriend, Angel, a cool two million dollars to assassinate someone, so Angel was probably up to his ears in millions. He would be able to afford a beautiful young mistress.
The door opened, and Lantz looked up expectantly. A woman was walking in alone. She was middle-aged and unattractive, with a fat, bloated body and huge, pendulous breasts that swayed as she walked. Her face was pockmarked, and she had dyed blond hair. A hooker down on her luck, Lantz decided.
The woman looked around the bar with vacant, listless eyes, then pushed her way over to Harry. “Wanna buy me a drink?”
She had a heavy Spanish accent.
She looks like a fat cow, Lantz thought..And she’s drunk. “Get lost, sister.”
“Esteban, the bartender. He say you are lookin’ for me, no?”
“He must have made a mistake. I’m looking for Neusa Muez.”
“Si. Yo soy Neusa Mudez.”
But the wrong one, Harry thought. “Are you Angel’s friend?”
She smiled drunkenly. “Si.”
Harry Lantz recovered swiffly. “Well, well.” He forced a smile. “Can we go to a corner table and talk?”
They fought their way across the smoky bar, and when they were seated, Harry Lantz said, “I’d like to talk about-”’ “You buy me a rum, s(? A double.”
Lantz nodded. “Sure.” When the waiter left, Lantz said, “I want to meet with Angel. I have a little present for him.”
She studied him. “St? What kin’a present?”
“Two million dollars.”
Their drinks arrived. She downed hers in one gulp. “Wha’ for you wanna give Angel two million dollars?”
“That’s something I’ll have to discuss with him in person.”
“Thais not possible. Angel, he don’ talk to nobody.”
“Lady, for two million dollars-“
Neusa Mufiez struggled to her feet. “I tol’ you, he don’ talk to nobody. Ad16s.”
“Hey! Wait a minute! Don’t go.”
She looked down at him with bleary eyes. “What you wan’?”
“sit down,” Lantz said slowly, “and I’ll tell you what I want.”
She sat down heavily. “I need a rum, huh?”
Harry Lantz was baffled. What kind of man is this Angel? he wondered. His mistress is not only the ugliest broad in all of South America, but she’s a lush.
Lantz did not like dealing with drunks. On the other hand, he hated the thought of losing his fifty-thousand-dollar commission. He summoned the waiter and ordered the drink, then smiled and said reasonably, e Neusa, if I can’t talk to Angel, how can I do business with him?”
“Ess simple. You tell me what you wan’. I tell Angel. If he say sf, I tell you s(. If he say no, I tell you no.”
Lantz distrusted using her as a go-between, but he had no choice. “You’ve heard of Marin Groza?”
“No.”
He patted her fat hand. “Angel will know who Groza is. You just say Marin Groza. He’ll know. The people who sent me want him blown away. Killed.”
“Oh. I’ll ass’ Angel. Wha’ you say the man’s name is?”
He wanted to shake her. “Groza. Marin Groza.
“Yeah. My baby’s outa town. I’ll call him tonight an’ meet you here tomorrow. Kin I have ‘nother rum?”
Neusa Muez was turning out to be a nightmare. How could a man who was supposed to be as smart as Angel get hooked up with such a rum dummy?
THE following night Harry Lantz was seated at the same table in the Pilar, intermittently chewing peanuts and his fingernails. At two a.m. he saw Neusa Muez stumble through the door and make her way over to him.