The Kiss after Midnight (The Midnight Trilogy) by Marvin Amazon Page B
Authors: Marvin Amazon
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body and grimaced at the thought of the things Antonio’s men had done before murdering him. If only he had not pursued Penélope that night, but how was he to know? He’d only done what came naturally to him. Besides, he wouldn’t have traded the few hours they spent together for anything in the world . But why Chris? I’m so sorry, man. It’s my fault you’re dead.
He lit his third cigarette since Annabel had left, his stomach still rumbling. He wondered how much longer she would be, certain that his stomach would give way soon. He eventually rummaged through the suitcase and changed into gray jogging bottoms and a matching hooded sweatshirt. He turned his laptop on to check Facebook but remembered Annabel’s warning about contacting people.
He was reaching for the power button when a thought came to him: He didn’t know much about the people hunting him. He opened numerous web-browser windows, searching for any information he could find on The Dominguez Criminal Organization and its country of origin, Tirianna. He searched the internet and collated information from newspaper archives and public encyclopedias. He also found autobiographical excerpts written by Tiriannan scientists, politicians, and army generals back in the ’70s and ’80s.
He knew as much about Tirianna as he did about countries like Uruguay and Venezuela: what he’d learned when not asleep in geography class. After nearly two hours of intensive online reading, he understood much more about the people searching for him.
Tirianna was a Central American country of no more than fifteen million residents, with Capetína as its capital city. It was located between Costa Rica and Panama and had gained independence from Spain in 1850. A communist country until 1988, it had maintained stability many years before, with a flourishing supply of wild plants and rare animals.
When the cocaine boom began in the mid-1970s, most exporters sought coca—the plant used to produce the drug—from South American countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. With the industry growing into the hundreds of millions of dollars in a short span of time, numerous cartels around the world grew in size and influence, leading to the glamorization of cocaine by the early ’80s.
With Tirianna still growing coca leaves in abundance—unbeknownst to the Colombians and the Mexicans, the other key traffickers—then-President Carlos Esparza assigned his inner circle to hire a group of scientists to study Tirianna’s coca plants. A reason was not given for his authorization of the study. Some theories suggested that he wanted to personally become a major player in the drug trade, using his political influence to his advantage.
Most declined the offer, reluctant to become embroiled in the industry in any way. One scientist, however—Enrique Dominguez—agreed to undertake the task as long as he could secure the services of his younger brother, a convicted small-time cocaine pusher in the United States.
The Tiriannan government agreed, and in 1981 thirty-five-year-old Faustino Dominguez returned to Tirianna with his wife, son and three daughters. Being a biochemist like his brother, he studied the plants intently and made a stark discovery: The coca leaves that grew in Tirianna had nearly four times the alkaloid found in those grown in South America.
With such potent plants, the brothers realized that, after the production of cocaine, it was possible to “cut” the cocaine significantly by adding stimulants to increase volume and still export a product much more powerful than that sold in the United States.
The brothers agreed not to share their discovery with their superiors. Instead, Faustino invited many of his acquaintances in Tirianna to assist in the large-scale production of cocaine.
In the two years that followed, the Dominguez brothers began an operation outside the knowledge of the government and made millions from cocaine sales, slicing off a huge chunk of
He lit his third cigarette since Annabel had left, his stomach still rumbling. He wondered how much longer she would be, certain that his stomach would give way soon. He eventually rummaged through the suitcase and changed into gray jogging bottoms and a matching hooded sweatshirt. He turned his laptop on to check Facebook but remembered Annabel’s warning about contacting people.
He was reaching for the power button when a thought came to him: He didn’t know much about the people hunting him. He opened numerous web-browser windows, searching for any information he could find on The Dominguez Criminal Organization and its country of origin, Tirianna. He searched the internet and collated information from newspaper archives and public encyclopedias. He also found autobiographical excerpts written by Tiriannan scientists, politicians, and army generals back in the ’70s and ’80s.
He knew as much about Tirianna as he did about countries like Uruguay and Venezuela: what he’d learned when not asleep in geography class. After nearly two hours of intensive online reading, he understood much more about the people searching for him.
Tirianna was a Central American country of no more than fifteen million residents, with Capetína as its capital city. It was located between Costa Rica and Panama and had gained independence from Spain in 1850. A communist country until 1988, it had maintained stability many years before, with a flourishing supply of wild plants and rare animals.
When the cocaine boom began in the mid-1970s, most exporters sought coca—the plant used to produce the drug—from South American countries such as Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. With the industry growing into the hundreds of millions of dollars in a short span of time, numerous cartels around the world grew in size and influence, leading to the glamorization of cocaine by the early ’80s.
With Tirianna still growing coca leaves in abundance—unbeknownst to the Colombians and the Mexicans, the other key traffickers—then-President Carlos Esparza assigned his inner circle to hire a group of scientists to study Tirianna’s coca plants. A reason was not given for his authorization of the study. Some theories suggested that he wanted to personally become a major player in the drug trade, using his political influence to his advantage.
Most declined the offer, reluctant to become embroiled in the industry in any way. One scientist, however—Enrique Dominguez—agreed to undertake the task as long as he could secure the services of his younger brother, a convicted small-time cocaine pusher in the United States.
The Tiriannan government agreed, and in 1981 thirty-five-year-old Faustino Dominguez returned to Tirianna with his wife, son and three daughters. Being a biochemist like his brother, he studied the plants intently and made a stark discovery: The coca leaves that grew in Tirianna had nearly four times the alkaloid found in those grown in South America.
With such potent plants, the brothers realized that, after the production of cocaine, it was possible to “cut” the cocaine significantly by adding stimulants to increase volume and still export a product much more powerful than that sold in the United States.
The brothers agreed not to share their discovery with their superiors. Instead, Faustino invited many of his acquaintances in Tirianna to assist in the large-scale production of cocaine.
In the two years that followed, the Dominguez brothers began an operation outside the knowledge of the government and made millions from cocaine sales, slicing off a huge chunk of
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