Paradise Gold: The Mafia and Nazis battle for the biggest prize of World War II (Ben Peters Thriller series Book 2)

by Robbie, Vic

  ‘You must abort the operation.’ Steegan extricated a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow. ‘Immediately.’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Look, I know how you must feel,’ Steegan said, ‘and after that dreadful tragedy at the end of last month, many would wholeheartedly support your actions. By sinking the USS Reuben James and killing another 115 of our sailors, you can see what that bastard Hitler is doing. Sending a message to Americans that we’re not safe anywhere, not even on our own territory. Jeez. I reckon if people knew what you were planning they’d give you a medal.’ He paused to regain his equilibrium. ‘But not one of your ragbag band of mercenaries must set foot on the island.’

  ‘Could be difficult at this stage...’

  ‘The other day Winston Churchill gave a speech at his old school over in England. Harrow, I think it was, in which he said never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Jeez. I admire that man.’

  He was confused. Steegan appeared to be giving him mixed messages.

  ‘Not one shot must be fired.’

  ‘But–’

  ‘Is that clear?’

  ‘I’m not going to take your word for this. We’re too far down the line to pull out now. Lives will be at risk if we do. I need to speak to Senator–’

  ‘Sssh, no names.’ Again Steegan put a finger to his lips.

  ‘He hasn’t been taking my calls.’

  ‘Would be hard for him.’

  He flashed him a look.

  ‘Dead. Killed in a car crash.’

  ‘I hadn’t heard.’

  ‘You wouldn’t. Suppressed for reasons of security.’

  ‘Then who…’

  ‘You’re point on this now. And the buck stops with you.’

  ‘I–’

  ‘The powers that be,’ Steegan raised his hand high above his head to illustrate their authority, ‘considered sending in the Marines. Now they have changed tack and your operation conflicts with their strategy. If you were successful, it would hand control of the island to the Free French leader De Gaulle. And they now don’t want it to happen because both FDR and Churchill dislike De Gaulle and think him to be a glory seeker. They’ve decided to let the status quo continue for the time being. Although the island will remain under constant surveillance.’

  ‘Impossible.’ He shook his head and worry swamped his face. ‘I can’t stop it now.’

  Steegan knitted his eyebrows and swallowed hard as if he had tasted something unpalatable. He gave out with a long, low groan. ‘You’ve no choice. You must stop it for all our sakes and especially for your country, and for that matter for yourself in particular. I‘ve got to stress here again for the record I have no knowledge of what you’re planning, but the order is clear you must abort immediately.’ His voice was rising and it sounded as though he were reading a prepared speech. ‘Your plan is no longer viable.’

  His use of ‘your’ reinforced the feeling he was on his own. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘For your situation?’

  He wondered did he really want to hear this.

  ‘If the operation is halted now, it will disappear. It won’t be in any records as though it never happened.’

  ‘That would leave me in a bad situation with The Mob.’

  ‘Your own personal problem, I’m afraid,’ Steegan said with a tortured smile.

  ‘And if I can’t stop it?’

  ‘Papers have been passed to the FBI and a warrant will be issued for your arrest.’

  ‘What have I done?’

  ‘Illegal involvement in espionage and putting America in danger of being involved in a war, not of its making. As you’re aware, in our laws only the Congress can declare war – and no war has been declared. Plus the small matter of conspiring with racketeers to invade a sovereign country for personal gain.’ He paused for it to sink in and then added: ‘In my book it adds up to treason.’

  His mind raced as he attempted to work out the time difference between New York and Martinique and when the operation was due to start if it hadn’t already. It came down to whether he feared The Mob or The State more. ‘I was trying to do my duty as a good American.’

  ‘Bullshit. You wanted to save your own sorry neck. There always has to be a scapegoat – one of the rules of the game.’ Steegan shrugged.

  ‘The Mob…’ His voice trailed off as he imagined himself back on Long Island with Paradiso holding a gun to his head.

  Steegan flashed him a look suggesting it would be Armageddon if he failed. ‘If this gets out, it’ll bring down a lot of people at the highest level. Our fellow Americans don’t like our politicians playing war games behind their backs, and this would only confirm what many think already that their politicians are as bad as the criminals.’

  ‘So what will happen to me?’

  ‘If there’s a trial, it’ll be behind closed doors. The sentence? You’ll be an enemy of the State. You may be executed or just locked away in solitary for the rest of your days.’

  He struggled to his feet, his mind churning with the possibilities of the actions he could take. He had always dreamed of retiring to Martinique and living an idyllic life in Saint Pierre safe in the knowledge the volcano wouldn’t blow for at least another hundred years. But it seemed his own volcano had already blown its top.

  ‘You’d better get moving on this,’ Steegan said. ‘You’ve no time to lose.’

  Steegan proffered a hand he was surprised to accept. And Steegan placed his left hand on top of their clasped hands as though he were sealing a deal, and the insincerity of the gesture made him feel ill. His thoughts scrambled, he stumbled towards the door and ran down the steps of the brownstone. He turned left and walked briskly, and before long his pace picked up until he was jogging and, with Steegan’s parting words reverberating in his ears, he broke into a sprint.

  ‘Be careful out there. There are some who will do anything to stop your story reaching the wrong ears. And I mean anything.’

  ~

  Even the Mafia had a day off now and again Durant supposed as he reached the enclave he’d twice before visited in different circumstances.

  A guard at the gate gave him and his car a cursory glance and waved him through, and the butler was also in mufti and open-necked shirt. If he hadn’t known differently, he might have thought The Mob were off plundering pastures anew. The butler showed him into the sitting-room and served coffee while he waited for Rovicco to appear. There was an air of calm in the big house, like the morning after a heavy party, and it felt almost comfortable and safe from the storm about to engulf him.

  He thought he’d been forgotten when Rovicco swept into the room, dressed immaculately as he always was, with a look of anticipation on his smiling face. ‘D D, you gotta news for us? Better be good.’

  ‘We’ve a problem,’ he said as he took the man’s outstretched hand, shaking it without conviction.

  Rovicco’s face darkened and he dropped Durant’s hand as if he had leprosy. ‘I donna like problems.’ He pointed him into a seat and pulled up another opposite him. ‘Give it to me straight.’

  He recounted his meeting with Steegan although he didn’t mention his name and wondered why he hadn’t as he would have liked to have seen him amongst the high grasses of Long Island. Not asking any questions, the Mafia man listened and he could tell behind his emotionless expression the wheels were turning.

  ‘So why tell me? Whadya want us to do?’

  ‘Can you get a message to your men to abort the operation?’ he said quickly as if the faster his delivery, the more reasonable it might sound.

  A wave of irritation swept across Rovicco’s face. ‘How could we? You’ve been in charge of communications.’

  He continued, attempting to distance himself from his responsibilities. ‘If you were able to pull your men out it’d be seen as a failed coup by local Resistance fighters. And America and your organisation wouldn’t be involved.’

  ‘You
know if our men stood down they’d be captured by the Nazis and executed.’ Rovicco breathed in. ‘You’re asking my people to be sacrificial lambs because America no longer has the fuckin guts to go through with it?’

  He said nothing.

  ‘And there’s one other big factor.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The gold. We’ll still expect our share, no matter what happens, and I’ll hold you personally responsible.’ Rovicco leaned back in his chair with the threatening look of a loan shark knowing his client can’t pay.

  He realised his debt to The Mob was mounting by the minute.

  ‘There’s one much more important issue here,’ Rovicco added. ‘You assured us we gotta agreement with your people regarding the boss’s future…’

  He didn’t need to finish as Durant stretched out his arms in an attempt to reassure him. ‘Perhaps we still can honour that.’ Sometimes it was easier to lie.

  ‘We don’t deal in perhaps.’ Rovicco’s eyes narrowed to piercing needles of light. ‘We gotta agreement and my people ain’t goin to be happy about this. It may be they say go ahead with the operation and take whatever gold we can.’

  He shook his head. ‘I’d advise against that.’

  ‘Fuck you,’ Rovicco said and then added with a sour smile. ‘Don’t forget where you stand. You still owe us big time, and you’ll have to answer to Paradiso.’ He jabbed a forefinger at Durant. ‘Now, get outa my sight.’

  49

  Fort-de-France, Martinique: Tuesday, November 18th, 1941

  It might have been the whisky or his disturbed night in the cell at the Fort, but Ben fell asleep trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his mission. And he didn’t wake until he felt a hand shaking his shoulder.

  ‘You need to come with me,’ Ronnie whispered, a frown on her face.

  ‘What time is it,’ he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

  ‘Just after 2 am,’ she whispered.

  It was still dark and the tree frogs were in full voice and he wasn’t in a mood to listen to their mating music as Ronnie drove her small car out of the parking lot. There was no sign of the Citroen and its two occupants. When he asked Ronnie where she was taking him, all she said was: ‘You’ll find out soon enough.’

  Thick cloud had turned the night as black as coal. In the car’s headlamps, he could see only the winding road lined by foliage as they climbed high into the hills behind Fort-de-France. She turned and smiled in the darkness and all he saw was the whiteness of her teeth and the sparkle in her eyes. ‘I was more successful than I’d hoped,’ she said.

  If she were taking him to meet Raymond, he wondered what he could say to the Resistance leader that would convince him to risk all to save Natalie. Was what he was doing just a futile gesture to salve his conscience? He was going round in circles so he gave up torturing himself, deciding there was no point in second-guessing Raymond. They turned off the main road and bumped down a farm track for several minutes before coming upon a farmhouse surrounded by the bustle of people preparing for some type of operation. There were local men loading materiel onto the backs of trucks and he saw several Americans, whose accents were definitely from the New York area. Most of the men, locals and the Americans, were dressed similarly in camouflaged combat gear and some of them had bandoliers of ammunition over their shoulders or around their chests.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ he asked.

  Ronnie shrugged her innocence unconvincingly. ‘Follow me into the farmhouse,’ she ordered.

  She opened a large oak door and stepped into the darkness and as he followed her in two large men emerged from the shadows. They took hold of an arm each, patted him down, and removed his gun and the map of the Fort.

  ‘Come,’ another man ordered and they dragged him deeper into the farmhouse, going down a long corridor before it opened out into a farmhouse kitchen with two men sitting at a massive table. Raymond looked up immediately and the other got to his feet with a hand outstretched. ‘Hey, you dumbfuck, what are you up to, eh?’ Paradiso patted him on the back and ushered him into a chair alongside Raymond, who just sat and stared at him with suspicion.

  ‘You know this guy?’ Raymond asked.

  ‘We’re old friends,’ Paradiso said and turned back to Ben. ‘Okay, I know we’re both on the same side so I guess I can trust you. What are you doin here, eh?’

  ‘I want to get Natalie out of the Fort before that bastard Nazi kills her,’ he said turning to Raymond.

  ‘Jeez,’ Paradiso interrupted. ‘The dancer from the club. You into her as well as the other broad, eh? What have you got, man, eh?’

  Raymond ignored him. ‘You were naïve if you thought I’d mount a rescue operation for just one woman.’

  He felt as if the ground had been pulled from beneath him and there was nausea in the pit of his stomach. ‘If you can’t help, give me back my gun and I’ll go in myself.’

  Raymond shook his head as if he were an imbecile.

  ‘Even if it’s just to put her out of her misery…’

  ‘You dumbfuck,’ Paradiso chimed in, ‘you tryin to get your fuckin head blown off, eh?’

  ‘You wouldn’t get near her,’ Raymond added, ‘and in the circumstances we can’t let you have access to any firearms.’

  He slammed a fist on the table in frustration and two of the guards stepped forward, carbines at the ready, but Raymond waved them away. ‘I can tell you this. We’re about to mount an operation at the Fort. If there’s an opportunity to save Natalie we’ll take it. I can’t promise anything more.’

  ‘What’s happening?’ He was beginning to see a glimmer of hope.

  ‘We know you’re an American agent, but we don’t know who you’re working for?’ The Resistance leader showed a spasm of irritation.

  ‘Whoah,’ Paradiso broke in, ‘are you sayin this dumbfuck is a US agent, eh?’

  ‘No doubt about it.’

  ‘For Christsakes, is he FBI, eh?’

  ‘Doubt it,’ Raymond answered. ‘They’re not allowed to use agents outside of America? And in the present situation if it was discovered there was an American agent here in Martinique heads would roll in Washington.’

  ‘So who, eh?’

  ‘It could be any one of several agencies all with their own agendas…’

  ‘I could screw the truth outa this dumbfuck.’ He grabbed Ben by the collar.

  ‘We haven’t time now. We need to be ready to move within thirty minutes.’

  ‘If he’s one of those isolationists who don’t want America in the war he could fuck up the whole operation.’

  ‘What the hell are you two talking about?’ He tried to sound calm, but inside his guts were in turmoil as he thought of Natalie.

  ‘Are you workin for that dumbfuck, Durant, eh?’

  ‘No, no, I only met him once.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Raymond said. ‘Although radio traffic from New York suggested there’s an American agent on the island whose mission is to assassinate Admiral Robert. We can’t allow that to happen. It would mean the Germans bringing in more troops and, as you know, they’re very successful at putting down the locals.’

  ‘Look, I’m not here to kill anyone. I just want to rescue Natalie, and she doesn’t have much time.’

  ‘I’m intrigued.’ Raymond moved closer and clasped his large hands together on the table. ‘The Nazis know you’re an American agent and, according to my sources inside the Fort, you were about to be executed by a firing squad. So why did they set you free?’

  He studied Raymond’s face as he formulated an answer. His father had told him when in doubt tell the truth. ‘I said I’d met you and I believed you trusted me and I would contact you for help to free Natalie.’

  ‘I see,’ Raymond said and unclasped his hands. ‘So what do they expect in return?’

  ‘I said I would set up a meeting with you and lead them to you.’

  Raymond seemed unsurprised and nodded slowly as if he had expected that answer. ‘So you put the
woman before me and my people?’

  ‘No, I just want to free her.’

  ‘I understand, but the needs of an individual have to be sacrificed for the greater good,’ Raymond continued, getting to his feet.

  ‘I should warn you there were two of their men following me.’

  ‘Really, we’ve been following you since you left the Fort, too.’

  ‘Don’t worry about them,’ Paradiso snorted. ‘They’ve been taken care of.’

  ‘What about Natalie?’ he persisted.

  ‘In due course,’ Raymond said. ‘In due course.’

  ‘The fact you’ve agreed to see me must mean you considered helping?’

  ‘Not really.’ Raymond winced. ‘If you’re a rogue American agent we can’t afford to have you running about free.’

  He understood his reasoning and was beginning to accept any hope for Natalie was disappearing fast.

  ‘You’re coming with us and if you step out of line Paradiso or one of his men will shoot you.’

  Paradiso gave him one of his biggest smiles, suggesting they were still old buddies. ‘Don’t worry we’ll look after you, and if we have to kill you, we’ll do it clean.’

  ‘Why are you going to the Fort?’

  Raymond shook his head. ‘You’ll see when we get there.’

  ‘Oh, what the fuck,’ Paradiso said. ‘It can’t do any harm now. We’re goin to settle some scores with those Nazis.’ He took out his Colt and placed it on the table.

  ‘Then–’

  Raymond answered Ben’s question. ‘Once we’ve done what we need to do we’ll look for the woman if she’s still alive.’