Sam turned south onto Route 53. “Fond-du-Luth Casino.”
She cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “A casino?”
“Yeah, why?” Sam put his foot down and quickly took the Tudor up to 65 miles per hour. “Are you feeling lucky?”
“Sure, but I still don’t know how we’re going to get my dad back. In case you’ve forgotten, he’s still being held prisoner by either David Perry or Rachel Murphy.”
“Don’t’ worry about it.” He shot her a glance, waggled his eyebrows up and down. “I’ve got a plan.”
Fifteen minutes later, Sam pulled up to main entrance of the Fond-du-Luth Casino. A valet in a tuxedo opened the door for him. The three of them climbed out the doors. Sam handed the valet the keys and a hundred-dollar tip. “Be sure to take good care of this grand old lady. She’s on loan from my father and he’s going to kill me if I bring her back with any dents.”
The valet handed him a ticket. “Yes, of course. We’ll take very good care of her.”
Sam and Tom entered the Casino.
Virginia stared at him, her mouth agape.
“What?” Sam asked without stopping.
“You’re just going to leave the car with the valet. Did you forget there’s the entire wealth of the Confederacy still inside the car?”
Sam shrugged. “Technically, the valet’s going to park the Tudor in the commercial parking lot and then leave it on its own… but no, I didn’t forget about the gold. How could I? It felt like I was driving a heavy boat the damned thing was so overladen.”
“Are you nuts?”
“Don’t worry about it. Besides, it’s been seen around here for the past nine decades. No one’s stolen the gold yet, so why would they start now? In fact, here’s probably the safest place for it. If we’d left it under guard somewhere, someone would be bound to get suspicious.”
Sam continued walking, moving with the determined stride of a professional soldier. Like a cargo ship, Tom sailed through in a similar manner, the big man leaving waitresses and customers alike, trailing in his wake.
Virginia asked, “So are you going to tell me what we’re doing here?”
“Not here,” Sam said, as he opened the back exit at the far end of the casino. “The marina across the road from here.”
“Okay, what are we doing at the marina?”
“Getting on a boat of course. Keep up with me, will you?”
Virginia laughed. “A lot of people changed after Afghanistan. Not you. You haven’t changed one bit since I first met you.”
Sam crossed the road, and started heading along the jetty until he reached the marina. A security gate blocked them from going any farther. He rifled through his wallet and removed a digital key. He swiped it on the security door. The light flashed green and the gate opened.
Sam raised his palms upwards and grinned. “Hey, what do you know, it still works.”
Sam walked to the last finger of the marina, where a sleek Blohn and Voss sports cruiser was tied up. On the transom of her carbon fiber hull were the words, Annabelle May.
He and Tom untied the mooring lines and stepped onto the splendid teak deck. Merely moments after Virginia boarded, the sports cruiser’s powerful twin MTU Rolls Royce engines started up. Sam casually went about the business of putting away the side fenders and mooring lines.
When he was done, Sam headed toward the bridge.
At the helm was a slim woman in her mid-twenties with facial features that betrayed a Eurasian ancestry. Slightly shorter than the average American female of this generation, she wore cargo pants and a light blue polo shirt. Her arms were toned and muscular suggesting a lifestyle that required regular exercise. Captain of the vessel, she maneuvered the large pleasure cruiser out of the marina with the adept agility of a seasoned sailor.
Once outside the narrow channel of the marina, she turned to face them, her striking violet eyes on Sam. “Welcome back.”
Sam smiled. “Virginia, meet my computer hacker, and probably just about the smartest person to ever live, Elise.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Virginia said.
Elise nodded. “Likewise.”
Sam looked at Elise. “Well?”
“Hey Tom, takeover while I show Sam why he pays me the big bucks.”
Tom took the helm. “Where am I headed?”
Elise grinned. “To Isle Royale, of course. We have a meeting. It would be rude to be late.”
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Sam and Virginia followed Elise to the navigation station, where her laptop was open. Virginia inhaled deeply. “Is that honest to God percolated coffee I smell?
Elise gestured to an alcove. Virginia poured herself a cup. “Anyone else?”
“Sure,” Sam said, dropping into a comfortable chair.
“No thanks,” Elise said.
Virginia wandered over, handed Sam his cup, sat down and hummed with pleasure at the first sip. On the computer monitor were two open audio files. One named Rachel Murphy and the other, David Perry.
Gulping hot, black coffee, Sam studied the screen. “You said you found it?”
Elise grinned. “Sure did. Child’s play. I thought you said these people were smart?”
Virginia looked at him, a vacant expression on her face.
Sam said, “I asked Elise to hack into Rachel Murphy and David Perry’s cell phones.”
“She tapped their phones?” Virginia asked.
“It’s surprisingly easy these days if the target uses a smartphone,” Elise said. “With landlines we need to tap specific telephone cables, but even then, we’re only really capable of eavesdropping. Whereas with smartphones it’s more like hacking a website. Once you’re in, you have control. I can issue my own texts from either of the cell phones, delete texts I don’t want them to receive, and even send digitally enhanced audio files.”
Virginia asked, “Digitally enhanced audio files?”
“Basically, we take a collection of the known audio files, or recordings of their conversations, and then use individual words to make them say certain things.”
“Like a mashup?” Virginia grimaced. “Wouldn’t they see through that in an instant?”
Elise shook her head. “Amateur versions, sure. But we can do something a little more professional here.”
Sam asked, “So what did you find?”
Elise said, “They’re retrieving it now for us.”
“Retrieving what?” Virginia asked.
Sam turned to Virginia. “Do you remember when we were in Dog Lake, Ontario and we first met David Perry, he mentioned his father had a small army of private detectives dig up information on Rachel Murphy’s involvement with organized crime?”
“Yeah, he said that his dad had a copy of every single connection she had with organized crime in New York.”
“Right.
“Yeah.” Sam looked at Virginia. “Well, it got me thinking, if David was telling the truth about that then it stands to reason that his father probably made some record of his own involvement in corruption and organized crime.”
“Why would he do that?” Virginia asked, crossing her legs.
“Because his way of life was all about leverage. Arthur Perry needed to know who knew sensitive information about his family business. That way he could control any vulnerabilities. More important still, he needed to have leverage over anyone who had something on him.”
Her intelligent blue eyes widened. “Senator Arthur Perry kept a database on every single person within his organization and any competing organizations – AKA Rachel Murphy’s New York operation!”
“Right. Find those dossiers, directories, and documents. Then we’ll shut down our adversaries, and get your father back at the same time.”
“But how will you do that?”
“Elise took an in depth look at the lives of Rachel Murphy and David Perry. It turns out little of what we’ve seen is true. Senator Perry told us that his son was a nobody who, though born into riches, never achieved anything o
n his own.”
“That’s not true?” Virginia asked.
“No, far from it. Turns out David Perry was the smartest of the Chestnut descendants. He went to Stanford University like his father and grandfather before him, but he didn’t fail or drop out as reported ---he was an A+ student. But he wasn’t the only gifted student that year. He shared the University Medallion for highest achievement in the field of Law with a woman.” Sam looked at Virginia. “Any guesses what her name was?”
Virginia frowned. “Rachel Murphy?”
“You betcha. It turns out that Rachel and David didn’t just go to Stanford together, they were lovers.”
“Seriously?” Virginia’s mouth dropped open. “Two star-crossed lovers from feuding families? It’s a modern day Romeo and Juliette, except David – the traitor – after what he did to us, is playing the role of Macbeth. Did David’s father know?”
“Yes. From what we can tell Arthur Perry hated the idea, but unable to suppress the relationship outright, he tried to use his leverage to make Rachel break it off. Three weeks ago, he threatened to reveal incriminating evidence proving her criminal involvement.”
Virginia nodded, it was all coming together.
“David found out and decided to do the same thing his grandfather did – topple the head of the family and take his place as the boss of a newly organized crime family. A joining of Murphy and Perry. Kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of his father who had him on a tight leash by controlling his finances, then integrate the two businesses into one.”
Elise sighed. “But to do that, they would need Senator Arthur Perry’s um, Leverage Records.”
Virginia bit her lip. “So Elise, what did you find?”
“I’ll show you.”
“This was a message I spotted about three hours ago, when the three of you escaped Minnestra.” Elise pressed play on an icon of David’s cell phone.
It read: What went wrong? Sam Reilly escaped. You were supposed to kill him. RM
David then wrote back: He got away. You’ve still got Virginia’s father. Sam will negotiate. The Confederate treasury is still ours.
Elise said, “This is where it got interesting. You see, I looked into the Meskwaki Gold Spring. Previously, shipments would only pass through the secret tunnel every month or so. But three weeks ago – the same time David Perry attempted to make a bit extra from his father’s company – someone started to make dives of the J.F. Johnson every night.”
“I thought that was strange, too,” Sam said. “Then Tom pointed out that inside the hull were potentially hundreds of barrels of Prohibition era rum that would fetch a small fortune. We wondered if that was what the divers were searching for.”
Elise smiled. “Sure, but they might make a million or two if they’re lucky, but nothing to warrant the risks they were taking. Particularly when you think about the fact that David Perry planned to usurp his father’s throne and an illegal kingdom worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
A wry smile formed on Sam’s lips. “So what were they looking for inside the Meskwaki Gold Spring?”
“I’ll show you,” Elise smiled and scrolled down to the next set of messages. “First, I set the hook with Rachel Murphy, by making her think that Sam Reilly had found the Leverage Records.”
Sam smiled. “How could you possibly achieve that?”
“Easy.” Elise stood up and began to pace up and down the room. Sam and Virginia, entranced, followed her movements. “You see, I knew Murphy had deep financial ties with senior members of the New York Police Department. I had no idea how deep the network went, but what I did know was that the two detectives who were there when Virginia found the drug dealer’s money – which turned out to be Malcolm Bennet’s son. They were also the same people who kidnapped Virginia’s father. So we know they were both involved, and highly trusted by Murphy.”
“You hacked their phones?”
“Yeah. Then I sent Murphy a single message from Detective Eric Greentree’s cell phone. It read: Sam Reilly knows about the Leverage Records. He’s retrieving it tomorrow. Murphy of, course, replied immediately that she would make sure they were no longer there to be taken.”
Awed, Sam and Virginia both stared at Elise.
Elise paused, gave them a wry grin. “I deleted both messages before Greentree had the chance to read them.”
Sam laughed. “You set Murphy up to convince David to retrieve the documents?”
“Yeah.” Elise dropped back into her chair. “Pretty simple. She called him and explained the situation. David sounded confused, telling her that it had taken him three weeks to find the Meskwaki Gold Spring. She asked why he didn’t retrieve the document then, but he warned her that Sam Reilly and Tom Bower were inside the tunnel with him. It would have been too difficult to retrieve the underwater safe, while they were down there with him.”
Sam turned to Virginia. “With the Leverage Records we’ll know every single step of their operation, with enough information to arrest potentially hundreds of people, and close down the entire system. More importantly, we’ll be able to locate where they’re keeping your father.”
The room went silent while they all contemplated the current fortune of Virginia’s father.
To Elise, he then said, “When will they make the dive?”
“Ten p.m. tonight.”
Sam grinned. “Tom and I will be there by 9:30.”
Chapter Seventy
Submerged underwater, with a strong sense of déjà vu, Sam and Tom waited inside the wreck of the J.F. Johnson. Sam reflected that it felt like they had come full circle.
Sam waited behind the first hatchway that led into the lower decks of the shipwreck, while Tom was stationed all the way inside the ship’s bilge. They were well prepared this time. Having been through this game of cat and mouse enough times to know how to win it, they weren’t taking any more chances. They each had a pair of military grade bolt-cutters, to prevent either of them from becoming trapped. They were both armed with a sharp knife and a pneumatic hand-held spear gun.
Watching the hatchway through infrared night vision goggles, Sam waited silently in total darkness. He was a predator, fully expecting and prepared for his prey to come to him.
Right on time, he spotted two dive lights – presumably Murphy and Perry’s. They used sea scooters. Careful not to kick up the silt, they still moved quickly. They stopped, and locked the hatchway, as David Perry had done last time.
Sam followed the divers as they progressed through the wreck, descending down into the lower two decks, through the locked door, and down the hatchway into the bilge.
Inside the bilge the twin sea scooters whirred as the divers raced to the opposite end of the old secret cargo hold from the ship’s Prohibition days. The two divers reached a barrel that had been turned on its side. There were small handprints in the silt over the top of the barrel.
Sam watched as one of the divers untwisted the fake lid, before retrieving a small sealed box. It appeared to be made of plastic, and small enough to fit into someone’s hand. Sam was expecting something larger, but actually, this made sense. Everything Senator Arthur Perry knew about every aspect of his company, could now be kept on a single 1Terabyte Flash Drive.
Smiling much like a crocodile waiting by a waterhole, he watched the first diver place the storage device within his or her dive vest.
A moment later, the two divers squeezed the twin triggers of their sea scooters and raced out through the cracked hull of the J.F. Johnson and into the subterranean cavern of the Meskwaki Gold Spring.
“After them!” Sam yelled through his dive radio.
Tom came out of his hiding place. “I’m on it!”
Sam squeezed the twin throttles. His scooter whirred into life and he shot forward, and through the opening.
On the other side, his world opened up into the cavern. Through his night vision lens, he searched his new environment. He had a clear line of vision through the crystal-clear waters of the M
eskwaki Gold Spring. But up ahead, there was no sign of the diver’s lights.
Sam swallowed hard. Where did they go?
Sam’s heart raced, his thoughts went blank. Where did they go?
An instant later, he heard the blast of a shark-stick being fired.
The propeller of Sam’s sea scooter whined and tore itself to pieces, bringing him to a standstill.
Chapter Seventy-One
David felt a sharp burning pain in his left thigh.
Adrenaline surged throughout his body. His heart hammered in his throat and his chest tightened. He glanced at his leg. Sam Reilly had shot him with a spear gun! He squeezed the trigger throttles and his sea scooter shot through the Meskwaki Gold Spring.
Next to him a second sea scooter raced.
After fifteen minutes and nearly a mile, he reduced his speed, and they began their gradual decompression section of the dive.
He scanned the area behind them. His two pursuers had remained on board the J.F. Johnson. He switched on his flashlight and shined it at Rachel. He felt his heartrate ease as the light confirmed that she was unharmed.
Safely ascending, they slowly reached the surface of the Meskwaki Gold Spring. The subterranean cavern was alight with the green sparkle of glowworms.
David removed his facemask and dragged the dive gear to the water’s edge. He was breathing hard with the pain and exertion.
Rachel wrapped her lithe arms around him in a fervent embrace, “We did it!”
“Yes, we did.” He hugged her back. A moment later he tried to step on his injured leg and stumbled from the pain.
She swore. “You’re injured.”
“A little. That bastard, Sam Reilly, shot me with a spear gun.”
“Are you going to be all right?” she asked, concern in her voice.
“I’ll live. We just need to get the flash drive somewhere safe.”
“We can help with that.” A voice from the dark commanded. “Now hand the flash drive over.”
David looked up. Surrounding them, weapons drawn, were more than thirty members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Ironclad Covenant (Sam Reilly Book 10) Page 26
