Tallboy is talking to his opposite number in the enemy camp, but practical issues force a polite, even genial tone. War will resume as soon as they have fixed the glitches. “I know, the technology is never as advanced as they claim, there are always problems. How good is your satellite link? I mean, you’re on the top of some stone age hill in the Andes, right? I’m in the middle of a modern city, so most likely you would be the one with the problem, right? Okay, lets do another trial run.”

The giant screen, hung on the back wall of the warehouse, is joined to a box of technological tricks from which a dozen cables emerge. A Sony digital movie camera points at an empty gurney. When a technician flicks a switch, the screen fills with a kind of energetic fuzz, billions of pixels in some chaotic state.

“Tell me something,” Tallboy says into his cell phone, “you got rain over there? Looks like rain on the screen. No, wait, okay, we’re receiving you. Shit, you weren’t supposed to start yet.”

Lacking Tallboy’s finesse, the Columbians have already pointed their camera at Hercules Lee who is tied to a chair and gagged and looking very sick.

“Is Samson linked in to this?” Magnus asks Tallboy.

“Sure,” Tallboy says, looking worried.

“Better bring in the kid brother,” Magnus tells Tallboy.

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