Todd Merer > Quotes

“past is the future present. Our life springs from the pure joy of being among Those Who Know More, of being one of the believers who follow The One Who Knows Most of All. We are lovers and also warriors. Long ago, when the whites came, we repelled their cruelties and resettled in remote Tayrona. When they followed us, we killed so many, they left us alone for the next half millennium. Forty years ago, the whites returned to the Sierra. They enslaved the other four families. Then they moved against us. So many of them. First the drug traffickers. Then the guerrillas, who spoke of good but did evil. Then the paramilitaries, who wanted the guerrillas’ treasures for themselves. Then the government soldiers, who were the worst of all. We fought them all. One day,”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“You need four things to tell a story: a beginning, a middle, an end, and you can’t be dead.”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“I’d been leaning back with my feet atop my desk, but now my soles hit the floor. Courtesy of my ex-wife, Spanish is my second language. “Good morning to you, Doctor,” I said, standing. Colombians call lawyers Doctor.”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“Shit! Someone else was looking to trade time for Uvalde. I’d hoped my guy Fercho had the exclusive dirt, but apparently, he was in a rat race to deliver the general. And if Fercho lost, I’d get no bonus . . . Then again, Fercho would likely win, it being a long shot that L. Astorquiza—probably the alias of an angry young man in Bogotá’s bohemian Candelaria neighborhood—would have the proof, or the cojones, to go public against a monster like General Uvalde.”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“chief was an exception. He was a career prosecutor. He’d taken the subway to law school and now was riding the rails toward Main Justice. A hard case who trusted nobody. In that respect, we were alike. “Fucking you would be fucking myself,” I said. He eyeballed me, parsing my obscenities. I understood his concern. Was I expressing a shared worry . . . or mocking him? “We’re in this together,” I said. “I want this to happen as much as you do.” “I bet you do.”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“You okay, Fercho? They put you on meds, or what?” “Nah. Just that you see all kinds of things when you’re locked down in an eight-by-ten. Another thing I keep seeing? The prosecutor in New York saying yes to my giving them General Uvalde for the deal we want.”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist

“Nevada de Santa Marta, the northernmost Andean range in Colombia. Things happen in Colombia. Like the Logui being manipulated and murdered by assorted bad actors: right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas, narco-traffickers. I feel the Logui’s pain. Not that the Logui reveal their feelings. They simply observe that there are two kinds of people:”
― Todd Merer, The Extraditionist