Lista de Sentenciados by John Tures

from Escalating Chaos: a Pistol Jim Press series

Lista de Sentenciados by John Tures

The last thing she expected to see was her own name on the list.

Her eyes widened. Lista de Sentenciados was a kill list, marking those to be terminated by the secret police.

And there she was. The name, Leticia Montero, just below a member of the political opposition—a union leader and colonel. Well, that escalated quickly, she thought.

She looked back at the case officer and Enrique, her fellow assassin. Pure professionalism prevented her from giving anything away.

“Everything okay, Miss Montero?” said Lieutenant Ricardo Apodaca, who gave out the kill orders just seconds ago.

“Yes, señor,” Leticia winked. “Everything is going to be okay. I just need to fix my lipstick.”

Enrique nodded, eyes scanning his own lista negra—as others called it.

“Hey, Leticia,” he said. “This is your list. You must have gotten mine…”

But he didn’t finish the sentence. His partner already drew her Beretta. A single shot from her silenced weapon made Lieutenant Apodaca look up from his newspaper. With the cough of the pistol, Enrique’s body hit the wooden floor followed by a sickening thud. Ricardo gawked, the gun now pointed at his heart.

“Wait… Leticia… maybe we can… make a deal,” he stammered.

“Who assembled this list?”

Ricardo trembled as he plucked the pencil stub behind his ear and jotted down several names on the back of a request for evidence form.

“Gracias,” she said, pulling the trigger.

The case officer slid awkwardly off his swivel chair, and he gave her an incredulous look with a massive wound on his chest.

“B-but you were supposed to spare me!” he gasped.

“When did we make that arrangement?” she replied innocently, her expression a smirk.

As he stared blankly at the ceiling fan, she pulled out her cell phone.

“Yes, Colonel Zaragosa,” Leticia said. “I have the names. I already took care of two of them.”

“Great job, Agent Montero,” said the colonel. “But how did you uncover the conspiracy?”

She smiled before replying. “You could say I just made the list.”

Bio

John A. Tures started writing sports for an El Paso Texas newspaper, played records as a radio DJ in college, and worked on foreign policy in Washington DC. He’s a LaGrange College professor in Georgia, writes columns for newspapers and magazines and has published several short stories in various genres. He thanks his writing group for the idea.

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