Tijeras looked at her. Then at the bullet.

Afterward, Tijeras asked her: “What was on the drive?”

Carolina, La Pelinegra, rodeó la curva sin temor. Los culioneros perdieron la guerra, y la chiva se quedó sin motor.

The story spread through the truck stops and brothels. La Pelinegra is riding with the Culioneros. La Pelinegra navigates the blind curves. La Pelinegra once stabbed a highway patrolman with his own pen. Half of it was lies. The other half, worse.

She smiled. “Then you’ll have two bullets.”

Carolina – La Pelinegra – Culioneros – ChivaCuliona

That’s how the burned USB drive was labeled. I found it wedged behind the back seat of a wrecked 1980s Chiva bus—the kind they call ChivaCuliona in the mountain passes, because its ass hangs low, overloaded with sacks of coffee, illegal whiskey, and sometimes people who’ve crossed the wrong man.