Mark didn\u2019t like late night arrivals at any airport especially in Mexico City where some people get hyper when they see a gringo. He should\u2019ve been ready when a young man rushed up and in Spanish said, \u201cHere, Se\u00f1or, come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTo a place with no lines and low taxi fares.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTaxis are the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cCome on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMark was exhausted, and the man had his bag, so he followed. In a minute they were alone and climbing stairs to an obscure side exit onto a dark street where some men stood while others waited in unmarked cars.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe best fares.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe whispered to a man in a car and then told Mark, \u201cFive hundred pesos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThat\u2019s forty dollars. Look, I\u2019ve been to Mexico City many times. I know what\u2019s fair to go downtown \u2013 two hundred fifty pesos, maximum.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThree hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cGive me my suitcase.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe other men were watching. He pulled the suitcase away but Mark grabbed it and walked fast, almost ran, back to the side entrance to the airport. Do things right, he warned himself, making a long walk to the official taxi window. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhere are you staying, se\u00f1or?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMark told him, and bought a nonnegotiable and fair ticket he took the other direction, toward a line of labelled taxis in a well-lit area he knew.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHola,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n
\tThe taxi driver, a husky fellow, grunted. Once they got on a main street \u2013 fairly wide but not a freeway \u2013 he accelerated and took it up to a hundred, a hundred twenty, a hundred fifty kilometers per hour \u2013 ninety mph in what must\u2019ve been about a forty-five zone. Mark was too tired and scared to simply ask, \u201cCan you please slow down?\u201d Instead, he gripped the right side of his seat with that hand and prayed the driver\u2019s focus on the road and strong two-hand grip on the steering wheel would keep them alive. <\/p>\n
\tHis next trip to Mexico City Mark arrived late and exhausted and went through the appropriate procedures but there weren\u2019t any other passengers when he entered the side door of a van first in line. Usually in Mexico he rode up front. The man got in and started driving rapidly, jerking left and right hand turns on back streets near the airport, and a car pulled behind and followed, and then another. Unseatbelted, Mark flew back and forth across the bench seat as the driver, buckled in and stable, continued to speed on a sinuous path. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhere are you going?,\u201d he shouted, and groped the door for a handle he couldn\u2019t find.<\/p>\n
\tEvery time the driver approached a main street he said, \u201cCerrado\u201d \u2013 closed \u2013 in response to the yellow barriers blocking all entrances, and yanked the taxi another direction. In a short time that felt long to Mark the horn sounded from the car behind, and the driver stopped on a deadend street and both cars pulled up beside the van. The men jumped out and one opened the side door to the van, shoved a pistol about a foot from Mark\u2019s head, and said, \u201cGet out, don\u2019t talk, and get in the trunk,\u201d which the other car driver opened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mark didn\u2019t like late night arrivals at any airport especially in Mexico City where some people get hyper when they see a gringo. He should\u2019ve been ready when a young man rushed up and in Spanish said, \u201cHere, Se\u00f1or, come with me.\u201d \u201cWhere?\u201d \u201cTo a place with no lines and low taxi fares.\u201d \u201cTaxis are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,122,555,33,161,44],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n