Another short burst of painful LRAD sounds followed the command.
Shouting and scrambling on deck, the pirates scattered for what meager cover the damaged fishing vessel offered to get away from the debilitating sound.
“Who are you working for?” Carlo yelled again.
The pirates refused to reply and, their boat taking on water, The Sabre began to limp away from The Morning Star. Before long, the stolen craft was just a dot on the horizon.
“Good job men,” Vince said, congratulating Carlo and the team.
“Thank you. This is what we plan for,” Carlo said. “And a special thank you to the developers of the LRAD and to you for purchasing it. After the USS Cole was attacked in 2000, that weapon was designed, and we’re proud to have it for our own use.”
“What’s our next step?” Vince asked.
“We’ll report this incident to the Piracy Reporting Centre so they can warn other vessels in the area and try to retrieve The Sabre for its rightful owners. If the pirates return, we will sink them and their ship without warning, according to our policy.”
Vince and Carlo informed the Backer about what had taken place with the pirates.
“I’ll be in touch with my friends in Washington, and we’ll get to the bottom of this,” the Backer said.
Later . . .
Back on deck, Vince and Marla were once again lounging and trying to relax from the piracy ordeal. Vince held her close, comforting her and explaining what had happened. He omitted the part where the pirates planned on confiscating everything and kidnap everyone on board.
“Now where were we before we were interrupted earlier?” Vince said. “Oh yes. I remember now. I was saying how unselfish you were, and I was just about to ask you to marry me.”
Marla sat up, facing him. “Say that again.” She placed her hands on his arms and leaned toward him so as not to miss a word.
Teasingly, Vince said, “I think you’re unselfish, and.”
“Not that part,” Marla interrupted. “The ‘will you marry me’ part.”
Vince dropped down onto one knee, pulled a silver ring case out of his pocket and looked into her beautiful gold-colored eyes.
“I said I want you to marry me. I already asked your father for your hand in marriage, and he said ‘yes.’ Will you say ‘yes,’ Marla? Will you marry me?” He opened the ring case.
“Yes, I will marry you,” she said, her eyes misting over. Then she added softly, “You already asked my Dad?” What other surprises could this man have for her?
“Yes, I did,” Vince said. “I stopped by to see your parents on my way back from Niagara Falls. Your father and mother graciously agreed that I could propose to you. They are lovely people. I see where you get your sweet personality from. I stopped in to see Kelly, too, and told her all about us. Even if she may not understand, I wanted to tell her.”
“Thank you. That was so sweet of you to visit her.”
Vince took the diamond ring out of the box and placed it on the third finger of her left hand. The diamond flickered in its setting as it picked up the bright sea light.
“Perfect fit,” he said. He pulled her close and held her tight. He kissed her hair, her neck and her lips. “Marla, you mean so much to me, in a way you may not realize. I have always felt safe and loved by my parents, even after I was kidnapped as a child. They did everything possible to find me and deal with those responsible. I fell in love with you the first night I met you and you spoke about your sister Kelly, how much you love her, and how you joined the Theater Group just to get justice for her and for others who have been wronged. You did all that, regardless of the cost to you and the danger you were in. I love that about you. You are not only beautiful and smart but you make me feel safe and loved as no other woman has. I know you would do for me as you did for Kelly, and you know I would do the same for you, too. We are soul-mates, Marla; meant to be together. Two people who have the same love and devotion to one another and to family. Two people in love who will always be there for each other. No matter what. I am thankful to have you in my life.”
Tears streamed down Marla’s cheeks, and she hugged Vince tightly.
“Congratulations to both of you,” Jose, one of the Filipino stewards said. “I apologize for interrupting this special moment. Please, let me take some pictures of the two of you celebrating your engagement. My boss insists.”
The couple posed, and Jose took several photos. He took snapshots of them standing, sitting, holding the ring out, and close-ups of the couple smiling at each other. “I will have the prints on your pillow tonight,” he said to Marla. “Copies will be e-mailed to the boss and his wife.”
“Thank you, Jose,” Marla said. “I really appreciate that.” She held up the engagement ring for him to see.
“It’s beautiful,” Jose said. “I know you two will be very happy.” Then, in a more serious tone, he said, “May I have a word with you, Mr. Warren?”
“Certainly,” Vince said.
“I’ll be right back,” he said to Marla.
“Please excuse us,” Jose said to the newly engaged woman. He bowed politely.
She nodded her head and then stared at her ring. She couldn’t stop looking at it.
Jose and Vince walked briskly down a flight of steps and into the steward’s private quarters. They crossed the floor to the communications station.
“My boss wishes to have a few words with you.” He handed Vince a cell phone. “It will ring in three minutes. I’ll go up and tell Marla you will return shortly.” Jose bowed and closed the door behind him, leaving Vince alone to wait for the call.
The cell phone rang in exactly three minutes.
“Vince,” a strong male voice said. “Did she say yes?” The Backer was eager to hear the news.
“She did,” Vince said.
“Your mother and I are so happy for you.”
“Vince, darling, I am thrilled to hear your news,” his mother said into the phone.
“Thank you, Mom and Dad,” Vince said. “And thank you for the vacation. We are having a wonderful time.”
“You are most welcome, son,” his father said. “When will you tell Marla who I am? Now that you two are engaged, your mother and I want to meet her. She needs to know all about us since you are going to marry her and bring her into our family.”
“I will tell her about you this evening. I just wanted Marla to accept a proposal from me without her knowing who you are. I needed to be sure she was marrying me for me. Not because of who my parents are. I’ve waited a long time for someone like her. I was beginning to think it might not happen.”
“I understand, Vince.”
His mother said. “Congratulations. I couldn’t be happier for you. I can’t wait to meet Marla. We want to see both of you soon. I saw the photograph that you sent of her. She’s beautiful. I am so excited you are engaged.”
“I was thinking that maybe you and Dad could meet up with us in Rome tomorrow. After our visit at the Vatican. How does that sound?”
“It will have to be for dinner. About 8 pm,” his father said. “I’m meeting with the Italian Prime Minister earlier in the day. I’ll clear my schedule for the rest of the evening.”
“Perfect. Will you join us here on the yacht or somewhere in Rome?”
“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know,” his mother said. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom,” Vince said. “And Dad, you’re still my favorite Backer,” he said laughing.
“And you’re still my favorite son,” his father said.
“But I’m your only son,” Vince said.
“Yeah,” his father said. “But you don’t have to be my favorite, and you are.”
The two laughed at this ritual banter that they did about their only child Vince being their favorite.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” his father said. “We can hardly wait to meet our new family member.
After hanging up the telephone, Vince’s father turned t
o his wife and said, “Emma, I remember so well how we got started in this Theater Group.”
Emma’s face became stern. “I’ll never forget it, darling. Those days right before you started the Theater Group were the worst days of our lives. I thank God every day for the way it turned out.”
She thought about how they almost lost their son when he was kidnapped by a terrorist group which held him for an enormous ransom. For a few days, they didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
“If it hadn’t been for the Searchers we sent to look for him, we would have never known for sure who was behind it or where they were,” her husband said. “We knew Vince was being held by terrorists who were in it for the money they could get to help finance their cause, but we would never have been sure exactly which persons were directly involved. The people we hired saved our son’s life, and that singular event provided the impetus for our wanting to get justice. I will protect the Theater Group with everything I have at my disposal.”
“I’m behind you all the way, darling. The authorities did everything they could, and it was their behind the scenes negotiating that brought our son back alive,” Emma said. “But they were never able to capture the men responsible. As his mother, I wanted justice for what they put our family through. So help me, I could have pulled the trigger myself on each one of them who put our son’s life in danger. But thanks to the Theater Group you put together, we got our justice in a different way. And the terrorists’ political backers never knew what hit them. It was the Theater Group’s first Play.”
“And we got the ransom money back, too,” her husband said. “They can rot in that third-world prison where they are now, for all I care.”
“Let’s not talk about it anymore,” Emma said. “It only upsets us.” She leaned her silvery gray head on his shoulder. Her husband put his arms around her and they held each other tightly.
Later in the evening . . .
The yellow lights glimmered along the darkened coast of Italy as if in competition with the star-filled cloudless sky. The Morning Star was slowly moving north toward Rome. Marla and Vince were enjoying dinner on the top deck with the twinkling space their canopy.
“How will we get from the yacht to The Vatican?” Marla asked. The candlelight shimmered across her face, making her even more beautiful than ever. The diamond engagement ring danced bursts of color upon her hand.
“The Morning Star has a helipad,” Vince said. “We will be flown to The Vatican in the owner’s helicopter. There is also a hangar for small aircraft if we wish to use one of those.”
“This yacht has everything,” Marla said admiringly.
“I really need to take you on a complete tour of it soon. But let me tell you about what we are vacationing on,” Vince said. “It has its own submarine, gym, spa, screening room, swimming pool, ballroom, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It is fully staffed and stocked and exclusively ours for three full weeks.”
He smiled and raised his champagne flute in a toast. “To us,” he said.
“To us,” Marla said.
The engaged couple leaned in toward the table, wrapped their right arm around the other’s arm, and drank from the crystal stemware. Violin music strayed faintly into their private bliss as they lowered their glasses for lips to meet lips.
“Now, there’s something I must tell you about me and the owners of The Morning Star,” Vince said.
Back in Washington, D.C. in a restaurant . . .
“I’m sorry to say this, but we must start from scratch, Nelson. Allen as a mole proved to be a bust. What a waste. The only data he gave us of any value was a listing of two of the Theater Group’s committees. We know about the Recruiters and the Solicitors, all about them, but we still don’t know who they are, who the Agent is, and, most importantly, who the Backer is,” the Chairman said. “Even the description Allen originally gave us of the Agent doesn’t match his Niagara picture at all. The others who saw him there said he looked older and heavier than Allen first reported.”
The Chairman was disgusted and threw a folder onto his desk. “The only member of the Theater Group we know for sure is Allen. And he’s not with them anymore. Got some cushy job in Paris. Took his family, sold his home and moved overseas. After all the money we deposited in his account for his testimony, he flies the coop. And with everyone’s blessing.” The Chairman leaned back in his chair. “What is your take on all this?”
“We lost a large sum trying to find out who this Theater Group really is,” Nelson, the other task force member said. “Allen told us why they do it, but he didn’t know any of the other people involved. He didn’t know anything for sure except that there are Recruiters and Solicitors. According to him, he wasn’t able to learn anything else. The information the Agent gave him was skimpy, sterile, and nothing that we didn’t already know. Before he left the country, Allen testified that he knew absolutely nothing else. He clammed up.” Nelson took a long drink of his draft.
“The Agent and the Backer must have known we were on to them and that Allen was the mole. They must have,” the Chairman said. “If the Agent would have trusted Allen, he would have given him a lot more than he did. It’s either that or Allen was stringing us along the whole time. And I don’t want to believe that. I’m not even going to offer that as an excuse. After all the time and money bankrolled for this investigation, our heads would roll if anyone suspected Allen was a double-agent.”
“What I want to know is who cleaned out Allen’s home?” Nelson said. “When he and his family returned from Niagara Falls, all the Theater Group information was gone. Everything. Allen’s personal and professional computer files, both the hard copies and the documentation on his computer, were gone. We don’t know how that could have happened. The timing was too good for it to be a coincidence.”
“It had to be the Theater Group,” the Chairman said. “I don’t know anyone else who would have benefited from that. Do you?”
“No, I don’t. But Allen’s neighbors didn’t see any vehicles at their home and no suspicious activity. No one can pull off something like that without someone seeing them. I don’t care what anyone says. There’s usually some clue left behind. Some trace that someone was in that home. But there was nothing. I don’t get it. Who are we up against here?” Nelson said. “Nobody has that much power at their disposal.” He was disgusted. He was also worried about who their adversary was. If the Agent and Backer could accomplish all that, what else could they do to this investigation? What could they do to him personally?
“The only thing I learned for sure is that the Backer is a female. What worries me the most is she was able to get the original task force disbanded. It’s not even to be talked about within the agency. And she and her supporters got Allen that position in Paris. I just know it. I want her,” the Chairman said, slamming his fist on the table.
“I’ll stay with it as long as you want me,” Nelson said.
“It’s possible that there is someone other than the Theater Group that somehow is involved here,” the Chairman said. “Now that I think about it, maybe the Agent and the Backer aren’t the ones who sabotaged everything. We’re in Washington, D.C. Anything goes here.”
“True,” Nelson said, entertaining the thought of a third player in the mix. “I’m just surprised you’re willing to entertain that possibility.”
“I know how this town works. There may be connections but no one can be trusted. Everyone has an agenda, and they’ll throw you under the bus first chance they get to save their own necks or cause. We’ve got to look at every possible scenario. It’s up to us, Nelson. You and I are the only persons allowed to work this secret task force. We answer directly to the Vice President. Do you understand? There’s to be no discussion of this with anyone. It’s not even Top Secret. It’s way above that.”
“I understand,” Nelson said. “Where do we start?” He hadn’t a clue what to do or when to do it. It seemed like a daunting task, and he was in way over his head.
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�How many billionaires are there?” the Chairman asked. “Don’t tell me. I’ll tell you. Several hundred all over the world. And the number goes up every day. We’ve got a big job ahead of us. Every one of them is going to be scrutinized. By the time we’re done with this, there won’t be a secret in any of their lives we haven’t heard.”
“How much can the two of us do?” Nelson asked. “We’ll need some outside help. This job is too big for just you and me. We’re good, but we’re not that good.” He was beginning to obsess about the enormity of their mission. Two guys in a small office in D.C. couldn’t possibly complete this task alone.
“You had better be that good, because I hand-picked you. I told them you were the best. And the fate of this task force and its outcome is in our hands. We can’t let the Theater Group continue to operate like they have. It would cause a lot of law enforcement issues if word of their Group’s activities gets into the wrong hands and publicized. Court cases would be thrown out all over this country if this got out. I can just see it. Defense attorneys would claim that any aberration in their case was due to the Theater Group. Judges and lawyers would be tripping all over themselves doing damage control. They’d be nullifying trial outcomes, throwing out evidence, canceling criminal sentences, releasing the prisoners and suing everyone and anyone. It could unseat the President if the opposing party finds out that the Theater Group was able to circumvent the legal system and squash any threats to its agenda. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to happen tomorrow, but somehow, someday, we’ll break the Theater Group.”
“I must be frank with you,” Nelson said. “I know you think I’m the best, but I don’t even know what direction to go with this now.
“I’ll be leading the way,” the Chairman said. “You’ll get your assignments from me. Most importantly, we can only trust each other.”
“I’m ready to continue,” Nelson said. “And thank you for believing in me that I can handle something this sensitive and important.” Feeling overwhelmed and under-equipped, and knowing his below-average past job performance, he questioned his place in the investigation.
Justice and Revenge Page 16
