Second novel from the R.M. Dolin, WHAT IS TO BE DONE, trilogy, Copyright 2021
Trophic Cascade – SYNOPSIS
A man’s been stabbed, a woman murdered, and given SYMPATICO’s violent history with MIGUEL, JAKE assumes the worst. Rushing to her room, he’s relieved she’s there but embarrassed by startling her coming out of the shower. ARMANDO and MARCOS are dispatched to Miguel’s ranch but to work through the multiple layers of inter-agency law enforcement barricades, Armando must call in many favors. What they learn is the murdered man is one of the Texans that was at the Al Azar earlier that day and the murdered woman, like Sympatico, was trafficked up from Bolivia.
Agent ALVAREZ arrives in Albuquerque to investigate subversive activities, but Jake and his cohort of Americans for a New America (ANA) have countermeasures in place that protect them for now, even though his presence causes them to once again delay launching their coup. Things are starting to get back to normal when PADRE crashes an ANA meeting to announce he’s opening a half-way house for human trafficking victims. Sympatico continues her slow but steady recovery but the constant threat of what Miguel might do leaves her unsettled. While helping in the distillery, Jake tells Sympatico the story of how he came to New Mexico with Emelia and talks about how life should be lived in the present, which is ironic given he lives in his past. He tells her about Padre’s halfway house encouraging her to work there; he also encourages her to consider going out with either DARIO or CHANCE, but she’s not willing to consider such things.
On his return from giving a lecture about the impact of Hugo Chavez on South America, Padre joins Jake and ARMANDO at the Al Azar for a drink that morphs into a discussion on the role of evil in human history. Jake questions why Bishop Abbadelli allows one of his priests to play in a Salsa band, so Padre tells the story of the ‘Trumpeter of Krakow,’ and how he made the bishop cry when he played the Hejnal Mariacki for him and the bishop declared such a gift from God was meant to be shared. When Padre plays the mournful trumpet solo for Jake and Armando, they both struggle to hide their tears.
Sympatico’s first day at Padre’s halfway house is filled with excitement and a sense her life is finding peaceful purpose. Meanwhile, Miguel confronts Jake at the Armando’s bar, the Al Azar, demanding Sympatico back and is about to throw down until Dario intervenes. When news of what happened reaches THERESA, Jake’s tasting room clerk, she engages the Mexican underground to help Sympatico quickly return to Bolivia. While drinking bourbon in the courtyard with Jake, CHANCE, Jake’s new assistant distiller, fabricates a story about what happened in Worland, Wyoming and why he’s on the run. Jake knows it’s a lie but it’s not for him to judge.
With threats escalating, the ANA debate their obligations to the world, while furthering plans to bring down Miguel’s operation and deal with Alvarez who’s been using the murdered Texan as a pretext to snoop around. Miguel learns about Padre’s halfway house and fears Sympatico may go underground, so he makes an attempt to snatch her, but Jake arrives in time to stop him. This causes Miguel’s boss, RAMON, to fly in from Mexico to handle matters himself. He worries about Alvarez since the feds don’t usually meddle in his operations.
On an otherwise quiet afternoon at home, Sympatico is attacked by a wild pack of dogs. QUANDO, Jake’s playful Labrador, does what he can to protect Sympatico, but he’s outnumbered. Rushing from the distillery, Jake battles the dogs shooting five with his pistol while Dario gets the sixth with his rifle. Dario, a former Navy Corpsman, treats everyone’s wounds, and while Jake’s sedated, he talks nonsense about his severely wounded hero dog. Jake insists on sleeping beside Quando on the dining room floor and when Sympatico wanders into the living room later that night and sees her two heroes she realizes she’s where she’s supposed to be and sleeps on the floor beside them.
As Jake readies his crew for the upcoming three-day Albuquerque wine fiesta, he tells Sympatico the story of how he and Emelia met at a sidewalk café in Paris. On the first day of the festival, as Jake’s crew sets up their tent, Jake bumps into Padre, whose at the festival to perform with his salsa band and to promote his latest social justice cause, “Padre’s for Peaceful Protest.” Midway through the day, undercover cops arrest Jake and Armando for allegedly over-serving alcohol to a festival goer. When shown incriminating evidence, Jake sees it’s an Alvarez plant and finds a flaw in the evidence leading to their release. With that distraction dispatched, Jake steps away from his tent to watch Padre perform. He invites Sympatico but she chooses to wander around the festival area first unaware Miguel and Ramon have men trailer her. Miguel exploits an opportunity to grab Sympatico and is likely to succeed until Jake, Dario, and Chance rush to her rescue. In the mayhem that follows, Miguel manages to get away with Sympatico who he takes to Ramon’s Albuquerque compound. Ramon explains to Sympatico that everything he’s prepared to do can be avoided if she’ll sign over the $150M settlement her murdered Abuelo won for the Bolivian Miners against corrupt corporations, but Sympatico would rather die than betray the Miners and their families.
At an emergency ANA meeting the Tracker App that MARCOS and the Sandia chapter of the ANA developed is able to finds Miguel’s location and a rouse to split Miguel and Sympatico away from the rest of Ramon’s men is planned. Dario leads the mission and unavoidably kills one of Miguel’s men. With Sympatico safe, the ANA use their cyber skills to compel Marcos to dismantle Ramon’s operation while the ANA free Ramon’s trafficked captives. Padre starts the process of returning the girls to their homes utilizing the Mexican underground. Padre pressures Jake in Sympatico’s need to go as well, causing Jake to confront what losing Sympatico would mean. Now that Sympatico’s finally free and can make her own choices, she wants to stay with Jake and build a life working at the halfway house. While neither will admit it, the intense bond Jake and Sympatico share cannot be broken. With all this drama behind them, the ANA are finally in a position to launch to start their revolution, you know, the one no will notice, but that’s won’t start until the final book in this trilogy; RAINMAKERS OF REVOLUTION.
Dr. Dolin previously worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with research in the areas of Truth and Trust, he was the Los Alamos liaison to Homeland Security for incident response in the aftermath of 9/11, and he owned New Mexico’s first distillery, all of which qualifies him to tell this story. In addition to publishing over 100 technical papers, Dr. Dolin has written five novels, two nonfiction books, one cookbook, and a plethora of poems. Dr. Dolin’s novel writing method is to use poetry for character development and as a springboard for storytelling, as such, it is possible to enjoy his stories in both novel and poetry form.
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