Sepulchre

By Jay Harez

Crime within the dangerous world of Mexican cartels is common. However on Dia de los Muertos two men plan a history making robbery of millions of dollars worth of marijuana from their criminal boss. An urban warehouse serving as the depot for transferring cargo comes under siege by mercenaries, police and the military as word of the wealth inside spreads. Leaf, Fetus, a mysterious driver and an anthropologist are caught between the killers outside and an impossible horror inside.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jay Harez
• Release date: Mar 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310923081

Jay Harez

Jay Harez was born in Texas. During his early twenties he traveled extensively throughout Mexico and the United States. The majority of the stories he writes are loosely based on the places he has been and the people he has met along the way. His experiences in Mexico were the most influential and second only to his love of history for source material. Great writers such as J. MIchael Straczynski, Wilbur Smith, Garry Jennings, Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard, and Aaron Sorkin have had a significant influence on his characters and overall style. Jay is a comic and graphic novel reader from childhood where he was introduced to writers like Warren Ellis, Allen Moore and Frank Miller. Jay lives in Austin, where he enjoys scotch, plays chess and travels whenever opportunity permits.

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SEPULTURE

By

Jay Harez

Copyright © 2016 by Jay Harez. All rights reserved.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Accomplices

Arrival

Guest

Seige

Perimeter

Exodus

Dawn

Epilogue

ACCOMPLICES

The two men sat at a table on the sidewalk sipping lukewarm beer. The Captain made eye contact with the man across from him.

This is very risky, said the Captain.

Although both men wore dark sunglasses, after years of such meetings the Captain felt certain he was looking into the other man’s eyes.

This is not easily done, the Captain added.

Amigo, it is done all the time, said the other man. He seemed annoyed now. Besides now that we have discussed this venture, what are your options?

Sometimes the two met for business, sometimes just for the other’s company. Each trusted the other within reason, meaning the consequences for total trust and total mistrust were equally severe in their line of work, so each man stayed within the margins.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Captain, the other man continued as he set his beer aside. "We are not here to discuss if you want to participate. We are here to discuss the terms of your participation."

The threat was more than implied and in no manner veiled. Worst case scenario, the Captain was a liability; at best, now that he knew of the endeavor, he was a loose end. One way or another in the next few moments, the Captain would be neither.

I will participate in your scheme, but I know in my heart that this is a doomed undertaking, said the Captain in response.

ARRIVAL

Listen to me Fetus. Leaf paused to take a drag from one of his Newport Red 100s. Boss Soberano is not someone whom with to fuck, Leaf said looking exasperated.

I wouldn’t. I know that. I not sayin’, I’m just sayin’. Jesus! Fetus tried to respond indignantly, but it came out feebly.

The two had been in the cab of the truck for just over two hours and it was almost three o’clock in the afternoon. Fetus looked at Leaf with confusion. Earlier he had asked Leaf if he thought Boss Soberano would send him to school, college to be specific. He couldn’t understand why there was a problem talking about it.

Fetus hated being called ‘Fetus’. People called him that because despite being almost twenty-three he looked fifteen. Leaf was the only person that ever took any time to talk to him so he didn’t mind it so much from him. It was the other people who worked at the farm. The men, the women, even the children called him Fetus. He was tired of it, but they were the only family he knew.

I remember when they brought you to the farm, Leaf said.

‘Oh God here we go again,’ thought Fetus.

After the massacre at that private school your father could not be found. Boss Soberano knew what would happen in an orphanage to someone as small as you so he brought you to the farm and raised you among his other bastard sons, Leaf said.

I’m surprised I wasn’t found in a wicker basket floating down the river, Fetus said.

The backhand came so fast that Fetus felt it before he saw it.

Goddamit don’t you dare blaspheme, you little shit! Leaf took another draw from his cigarette and looked more tired than Fetus had ever seen him.

The blow left Fetus temporarily seeing little tracers. His nose wasn’t bleeding yet, but he could smell the coppery aroma of a burst vessel. Because of his size Fetus had had to fight most of the other kids his age and younger at the farm. He had been hit before but it hurt worse coming from Leaf.

Sorry, I…. Fetus stopped talking as he felt the tears coming. He knew that crying would just make it worse. He didn’t live in a world where crying was acceptable for males.

Fetus lived on a two-hundred acre marijuana farm in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He had been there since the cartels had attacked his school, just like Leaf had said. Fetus knew he would probably work there all his life and that he would probably marry one of the girls who worked and lived on the farm. He might even marry one of the whores that visited