Page 85 of Hellbent

Also, he’d had to detonate it.

Now he used a simple portable RF jammer in his back pocket, no bigger than a pack of cigarettes.

Within minutes he believed that Benito was not an undercover agent for Van Sciver and that his plight was real.

Benito swallowed. “When my wife pass, I don’t know how to cook, how to do anything.”

“Mr. Orellana. I’m here about Xavier.”

“She would have known how to talk to him. But I am working so hard. Even right now my friend, he cover for me at the restaurant. I have too much month at the end of the paycheck. I am working three jobs, trying to provide for Xavier. But I lose track of him. There just wasn’t the time to earn and to also … also…”

He was at risk of breaking down.

“Mr. Orellana,” Evan said. “What did Xavier do?”

Benito swayed on his feet, his eyes glazed, far away. “There is a gang where I come from. They kill anyone. Women, children. They are so bad that the government, they make a prison just for them in San Salvador. The police do not even go in. Instead they keep an army outside. The gang, they run this prison on their own. They are…” He searched for the right words. “They are the people you would least want to anger in the entire world.”

“MS-13,” Evan said. “Mara Salvatrucha.”

Benito closed his eyes against the words, as if they held an evil spell.

“It is the most dangerous country in the world,” Benito said. “For a young man, there is nothing but gangs and violence. A hand grenade, it sells for one dollar there. When Xavier was born, we came here for a better life.” Now tears fell, cutting tracks down his textured cheeks. “But it turn out they came, too.”

“And Xavier joined them?”

“He hasn’t been initiated yet,” Benito said. “I know this from my friend. His son, he is one of them. There is still hope.”

“Initiated?”

“Blood in, blood out. You kill to get in. They kill you before they will ever let you leave.” Benito wiped at his cheeks. “I am running out of time.”

“Where is the gang’s headquarters?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where do I find Xavier?”

“I don’t know. We fought last week. He run away. I haven’t seen him since. I lost my wife, and now I can’t lose him. I promised her. When she was dying, I promised her I would take care of him. I did my best. I did my best.”

“I don’t understand,” Evan said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Don’t let them make my boy a killer.”

“No one can make someone a killer.” The words were out of Evan’s mouth before he saw the irony in them.

“Yes,” Benito said. “They can. They will.”

The philosophical point was lost on Benito and not worth arguing.

“I promised I would meet with you,” Evan said. “But there’s nothing I can do here.”

“Please,” Benito said. “He is a good boy. Help him.”

“I’m not a social worker.”

“You can convince him.”

“Convincing people isn’t part of my skill set.”