LogCartel: La Vida Coca-Jason-3

Game log for the 2017/11/26 session of Cartel: La Vida Coca, as taken by Jason

Around Colorado Springs, Santiago's phone starts ringing. It's Ortiz calling, because he wants to reroute the merch to Trinidad, and then go to Albequerque to see who killed the Sinaloa man there, and enforce order before Juarez gets in.

Yolanda finds that the gossip around her has grown pretty unmanagable, what with having to run off right after her house blew up. That will make a person conspicuous.

That night, we deliver the machine guns to the Sinaloa folk in Trinidad, who will complete delivery. We hunker down for the night and go to Albquerque early in the morning, arriving around lunch time. We have a contact at the Black Mesa casino, name of Flo, and Santiago goes to check in with her. She manages the kitchen at the $9.99 buffet, and talks to Santiago in her office while the rest of the crew "enjoy" the food. She gives Santiago an envelope containing room arrangements. Santiago leans on her to prove her loyalty, and she gives him the number for Javi, the local law enforcement agent who was supposed to take our money to look out for Clint (the dead Sinaloa guy here).

Over at the bar, Daryl talks to Maria, trying to convince her that she should give him a little head start before killing him, should Santiago ever order him killed. She laughs at him and tells him he worries too much, which is not at all the same as promising him a head start. Santiago gets a quick bite and then the move on. During the ride over to our rental, "Shady Lane Villa," Santiago briefs everyone on what's going on. It turns out to be a trailer park, next to a manufactured home tract.

The manager of Shady Lane is a fat Russian named Dimir Dova. Santiago tells Yolanda to deal with him. It turns out that the five of us are all in one rental trailer, rent for which is due weekly on Fri. Ours is unit 29. Daryl searches for bugs while Diego looks for a way to get comfortable.

Santiago decides to have Daryl go get his van, and also pick up Diego's crew after they cross the border and bring them up. Maria and Yolanda will brace Javi, and Diego will look for Sinaloa men in town.

Maria goes looking for a cop bar, and finds it just down south on the interstate. They start drinking cheap cocktails and looking for a way in.

Diego hits the street to find dealers and try to suss out the networks here. The street looks to be Bloods and Crips, along with the usual skinny kids selling dope out of cars. He makes a buy just to get in. He ends up paying $20 for a pointer to a street corner where he can supposedly get cocaine. He doesn't see someone but he plans to come back.

Eventually a couple older guys who don't look like cops buy the ladies drinks. Maria's already sick of this shit and tries to convince Yolanda to play sexually available, to lure in men. They're bickering over it when a cop-looking younger guy (chubby, Mexican-American, high and tight) comes over and offers to buy them drinks so they can stop bickering. Maria mentions that she doesn't like beer, so he sets them all up with shots, and toasts to divorce. They're lucky - this cop turns out to be Javi. She asks about his job, he says he works narco, and she gets him talking about work more. He invites them over to his booth, to meet his partner, Duane. Maria tells Yolanda that they should go with Javi, if only to get away from the older guys at the end of the bar. They order some apps and hang around a little longer, while Maria texts Santiago that they made contact. She also gets a picture of Javi and sends it to Santiago. After a few more shots, Duane suggests that everyone should go up into the mountains, see the view of the city, enjoy the sights. Maria asks Javi for his phone number, and then they take a cab home.

Daryl is experiencing extreme gastrointestinal regret at a roadside rest stop, and then heads for El Paso.

Diego keeps looking around town, trying to profile the criminal activity.

Maria and Yolanda return to the trailer and report. Santiago tells Maria to back up into the hills and do recon, so she knows the terrain where she might be killing people.

Diego looks for empty street corners, or other signs of a badly operating network, and otherwise starts mapping the network from the bottom up.

The next day, Maria follows up a jeep trail up into the mountains, and when Javi calls, she tells him that she's going up in the mountains and he should meet her. Santiago is also there, waiting. Javi arrives and is surprised that she ever found a place like that. Almost as soon as he's out of the car, she introduces him to Santiago. He immediately divulges that the Juarez guys made a deal with the Crips. There had been some low grade trouble for months, but it got out of control real sudden like. He also provides four corners and names of guys who deal there. He also names some people who he thinks might be working for Juarez, Gagny and Galeney. Santiago asks how to get criminal information laundered and passed on to him, and Javi says to go through Scooter at TGI Fridays. He draws a map of town and territories he knows of. The Crips are trying to do favors for Juarez to get the best supply terms, and they might be playing with the Zetas too.

Someone knocks on Yolanda's door whule she's on the phone to Daryl. It's the landlord, back for some reason, asking for a security deposit. She promises to check the rental agreement and bring the deposit by in the afternoon. He lets that pass by and says he's there for her company. She's busy. He won't leave without the money, though he's happy to come back and see her later. Her phone rings again, but this time it's Father Jim. She tells Dimir that it's her priest, at which point the closes the door in his face, and he goes away.

She assures the priest that she and Daryl are trying to figure out what happened to the house, and the gossip is a bigger problem than the house situation at this point. He tells her she needs to come home and be in the community to work everything out. She tells him she's on a family business errand, and he starts digging into her family busines. She fakes a phone problem and hangs up.

Daryl tells his sister Candace that they won't be home for Thanksgiving. He tells her that he and Yolanda spent a weekend in Vegas, but while they were gone, she left the stove on, and something happened to burn the house down. They need the holiday time to work on the house. She's pissed since she wanted brotherly support for the holidays. She says something about her husband, Harold Penice, getting Daryl a job. He has a job! WTF!? Eventually he tells her he'll be in touch and will call on Thanksgiving but he has to go now.

Diego's been out and about. When he checks in, Santiago and Maria fill him in on what Javi told them. Out and about, someone mistakes him for an illegal and offers him work. Diego indicates he doesn't do blow jobs, but the guy assures him it's just unloading pallets. The guy gets a finder's fee if he can bring in a new worker to the guy who needs the unloading done. It's not love at first sight. He ends up getting hired, though at rock bottom wages. Time to stack the pallets.

Yolanda asks Maria for help with the Dova problem. She offers Maria a favor to be named later if she'll take the deposit over to the landlord. Maria says she'll do Yolanda's job when Yolanda does her job, and puts a gun on the table just to make it clear what job she means. Yolanda isn't feeling that eager. Maria also reminds her that violence against the landlord is not compatible with the current mission.

Daryl calls home and reports in, including the good news about Thanksgiving.

Once he arrives, bringing Diego's buddies, we order pizza and have a staff meeting in the trailer. We're all united in our desire to do violence, but finding a smart way to do it eludes us so far.

Daryl starts cooking, so that we can put product on the street ASAP. Dova detects that something's going on and turns up with a baseball bat. Daryl thinks fast and realizes he's dealing with a drunk Russian, who would back down in the face of superior force, but who thinks his cousin Gregoriy is a valid threat. Daryl's heard enough and jumps Dimir, giving him a vicious beating and not taking too much punishment. Unfortunately he gets the upper hand by hitting the Russian in the face with some flammable solvents, which will need to be replaced. Daryl then drowns him in the drainage ditch and slinks silently away. Of course, the guy is burned, so if anyone investigates in time, they're going to wonder how he burned and then drowned.

Daryl then calls Santiago and says he'll pick the boss up, so they can talk in the van. They agree that Daryl will get the hell out and cook elsewhere, and Diego will get his crew the hell out, while the three of us in the trailer will say we say Dova arguing with some black guys in blue.

Maria and Diego are out hunting. They find the people Javi named, who should still be loyal. The first is Chuck, a guy who uses little kids to handle the retail. Maria sneaks up on him in a bathroom and sticks a gun in his kidney. She tells Chuck that the cartel is back and business is starting up again. Chuck says that he needs to be free of a Zeta sicario named Migi. He drives around in a big white Escalade. Maria tells Diego what she learned. Diego has seen a white Escalade driving around, though it might not be Migi's. Maria tells him to strt taking license plate numbers of Escalades driven by Mexicans.

Roberto, who got Diego the job, shows him tonight's huge pile of pallets.

Around dawn, someone finds Dova's body, and very soon, it's all lights and flashers everywhere. Santiago suggests that instead of having everyone tell the same story, Yolanda tells them about Dova and the Crips, while Santiago and Maria never saw or heard anything. When Officer Jones knocks, Yolanda plays dumb at first, then tells the story about the black figures in blue. When asked, she gives her name. He goes off, talking into his microphone. Maria tells Santiago about their conversation.

By lunchtime, Diego's still at work, Daryl's still cooking, and the other three are in the trailer. Two cops knock on the door, one of them being Officer Jones again. He introduces Detective Zamora, who immediately takes over the conversation. He wants to come in, she wants them to come out. Santiago comes out and insists that he's not an illegal. Yolanda starts crying about some sort of family drama with her husband, and her house burning down, and needing a new place. Officer Jones feels very sympathetic and Zamora doesn't really want this in his life, but he does want to confirm her story. They're a little uncertain about it but it holds together and Yolanda's distress seems genuine.

Daryl drives the RV back to town, and makes a delivery to Diego.

Diego is tired, sick of work, and out of product. Sadly, Maria picks him up and insists on his help finding people to kill. Diego is absolutely no help - he's dead on his feet and distracted by the rush from Daryl's coke. They hit what they thought was a friendly corner, and before they have a chance to process the situation, several cars turn up, including a white Escalade. Diego, so high he's not in contact with the ground no more, jumps out of the car and opens fire with Maria's SMG, hosing the hell out of the entire area. Some people die and most people hit the deck, but Diego takes return fire that leaves a messy wound. Maria jumps out after and opens fire with her shotgun, but shotgun fire can't suppress people properly, and she takes an equally painful and messy wound. With Maria providing some covering fire, Diego moves behind the car and continues to engage targets. The cover from the car means he takes a little frag but no serious damage. Maria wants to kill Migi in particular and tries to relocate for a better angle, but she gets pinned down. At that point Diego's crew get their act together and unass the vehicle, which means that the balance of power is beginning to shift. They can all hear sirens in the distance, so Diego shoots at the gunman pinning Maria down. He flat kills that bastard but takes a nasty, bloody wound, and he's going to need medical attention real soon now. Maria takes aim at Migi and blazes away. He drops, and his guys throw his body in the van and drive off. Diego hops back in the car, along with Maria and his gang, and they bug out. Their ride looks like Swiss cheese and they both need immediate medical attention, but they've evaded pursuit.

Maria calls Santiago for help, and Santiago, relying on cartel directions, sends them to a vet named Renquist. The cartel can trust his discretion because he's a fiend for our cocaine, but he's not used to treating humans, so this could get weird. Santiago sends Yolanda to supervise and pay Renquist. He's got Maria stabilized and feeling absolutely no pain, and possibly some pretty strange other feelings. Diego is still under, and between Renquists' lousy bedside manner and the adrenaline wearing off, the other halcones are feeling a little restless. Yolanda arrives just in time to try to calm shit down.

Once everyone is ready to move, they need to dispose of the bullet-riddled car, and then get everyone home. Yolanda disposes of the car by rolling it into a mountain lake. Of course, if the cops ever find it, there will be fingerprints...

Maria then runs the halcones back to the motel, and returns to the trailer early in the morning. Diego is going to miss work. Daryl is back at the trailer, as is Yolanda, and Santiago is trying to figure out what's next.