the status quo, and they had won referendums to keep it that way in six decades of votes on the subject. There were those who wanted Puerto Rico to become the fifty-first state of the United States and join the republic.
And there had always been a Puerto Rican independence movement.
Since the 1800s there had been those who had wanted to kick out the Spanish colonizers. When the United States had invaded the island during the Spanish-American War, there had been those who had wanted to kick out the Yanquis. That had been mollified a great deal when Harry S Truman gave all Puerto Ricans American citizenship. Still, there had always been those who sought, and sometimes fought, to gain nation-status for the Caribbean island. The Nationalistas were the smallest of the three political affiliations, but they had always been the most vocal.
They had also been the one to turn to violence.
Until recently it had always been small-scale, and most of even the most ardent of those who dreamed of Puerto Rican independence shunned violence as a means to achieve it. Now, times seemed to be changing. It had begun with rumors that the U.S. military was storing nuclear weapons on the island. Political activists had begun protesting outside U.S. military bases and Puerto Rican police stations. The actions by military policemen to round them up and take them away from the bases had made news worldwide. When a protestor had been shot trying to break into Fort Buchanan, the protests had broken out into street-rioting in the capital. Tear gas and rubber bullets had been used and the rioting and looting had gotten worse.
Then people had started to die in earnest.
Anyone who opposed the closing of the bases or independence for Puerto Rico was branded a traitor. There had been a number of high-profile kidnappings, and street violence disguised as political statement had become endemic in the capital and was spilling out into the countryside. Police had become a popular target, and it was common knowledge that many Puerto Rican police were sympathetic and were not prosecuting or investigating to the best of their abilities. The United States was loath to send in armed troops or hordes of federal police. The Puerto Rican governor had called out the National Guard, and many of them were very reluctant to take action against rioters or demonstrators. Many had thrown down their weapons and joined them.
There were many in the U.S. congress and senate who believed that the U.S. should wash its hands and let the island commonwealth go. The FBI had very strong leads that Puerto Rican organized crime had a very strong hand in everything going on, but when a car bomb had gone off outside their San Juan office and two of their agents had been killed, they had been forced to admit there wasn’t much they could do about it without massive reinforcement.
Puerto Rico was turning into a powder keg, and it was almost to the point of being a “retake the island or let it go” situation. The President was willing to consider Puerto Rican independence, but had stated categorically to his cabinet he would not allow the U.S. and Puerto Rico’s long association to be severed by the sword of domestic terrorism rather than the ballot box.
He was unwilling to send in the 101st Airborne Division. Instead he fell back on the services of a patriotic American.
Mack Bolan had boarded a plane.
He turned and sized up the man beside him. Puerto Rico might be a commonwealth of the United States, but it was also a Caribbean island with an overwhelmingly Latin culture. Corruption among the police was endemic. Inspector Noah Constante had a reputation as an ass-kicker. He had a lot of arrests, a lot of convictions and a sleepy aura of relaxed violence about him. Bolan suspected that if Constante had been a cop on the mainland he would probably have been brought up on police brutality charges dozens of times. He was a man who got things done and specialized in homicide. That told Bolan that if Constante was corrupt, the inspector was much more likely to receive favors and bribes from local businessmen and politicians rather than criminals. That was one reason why Bolan had requested him.
“Beheadings say gangsters. I think gangsters did this,” Bolan said.
“Well,” Constante said, giving a very Latin shrug, “there is no reason why a man cannot be a gangster and a patriot.”
Bolan tilted his head at the bodies. “You consider whoever did that a patriot?”
“Whoever did that is murdering, rapist scum.” Constante’s black eyes stared long and hard at the dead military policewoman’s corpse. “I happened to have known Miss Corporal Carson. She was a good cop. I am afraid I cannot let this stand.”
“So tell me, who’s the most powerful gang in Puerto Rico?” Bolan knew the answer, but he wanted to gauge Constante.
“That’s easy.” The inspector shrugged again. “That would be La Neta, which means the truth. They formed in Río Piedras Prison in 1970, supposedly to stop violence between inmates and promote solidarity between the Puerto Rican gangs, but they have since, how would you say…evolved, beyond their original charter.”
“What else can you tell me about them?” Bolan asked.
“They often promote themselves as a cultural group. Since their inception they have always promoted independence for the island. Like all successful prison gangs, they spread out beyond the prison walls. They have taken over many of the street gangs and established ties with others. They have always had a reputation of silencio.”
Bolan raised an eyebrow. “Silence?”
Constante frowned. “Not exactly.” The inspector sought for a translation. “It is not the word they would use, but you would understand their reputation much more as tranquilidad.”
“Quiet,” Bolan said.
“Yes, quiet. Make no mistake, La Neta is a violent street gang. Disrespect or action taken against one of their members or affiliates is seen as an attack on all members, and they will violently defend their turf. However, they have established the unusual tactic of not drawing attention to themselves, and when they do, it is as a patriotic organization—Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans. Often they put money into their local barrios, in community projects. They will provide beer and food at fiestas and march in parades wrapped in the Puerto Rican flags. They let other gangs draw attention to themselves as gangsters, they let others establish reputations for violence and killings, for being bad men, and when the inevitable crackdown comes? La Neta is waiting, in silencio, to move in and take over their turf or swallow up their organization.”
Bolan eyed the inspector shrewdly. “What about ties to political groups?”
“As I have said, señor, La Neta is strongly patriotic. They have long associated themselves with the Los Macheteros revolutionary group.”
Bolan had read a dossier on “The Machete Men.” For years they had been on the violent, extremist end of the independence movement. Bolan surveyed the headless corpses. “That look like machete work to you?”
“Indeed.” Constante sighed. “However, I must say that is a tenuous, indeed, metaphoric lead at best.”
The inspector had a bit of the poet about him. Bolan found himself liking the man but not immediately trusting him. “Like I said, this looks like gangster work, parading as politics, and that’s where I’m going to start my way up the food chain.”
“You know much about gangsters, then?”
Bolan played a card and posed a question of his own. “Tell me, Inspector, did you ever see the movie The Untouchables?”
“‘They pull
