by Finian Blake
“I promised Frank and Fran that I would call them for dinner,” Ralph said. “I will be right back.”
“Don’t bother. I asked them not more than five minutes ago. They had other plans.” Ralph and Frank stopped at a drink apiece going to their rooms. Noah had several drinks. The incident in the tunnel finally caught up with him. He shot two men in the airport tunnel at noon in front of more witnesses than he could count. After an hour and several drinks, Noah excused himself hurrying to his room. He sat down on the bed shaking for almost an hour. Finally, Noah stood up stripping as he headed to the shower. He let the hot water run over his body until the shaking stopped. Finishing his shower drying slowly. The sheets felt crisp against his skin and he was asleep before eight o’clock.
Four o’clock came early. Noah dressed and went down to the lobby. As usual, he was the first one down. Pouring a cup of coffee from the hospitality center he walked out to the drive. Bob pulled the van up to the curb motioning Noah over to the passenger door.
“You left these in the truck.” He handed Noah two thirty eight revolvers. “I thought that you did not like guns.”
“Right, I do not like guns. I prefer not to use them however I did not say that I wouldn’t use them.” Noah checked the safeties and slid the two revolvers in his bag. Frank and Fran walked up behind him. They looked fresh and ready to go.
“Good morning Noah. Is everything ready?”
“It will be as soon as our engineer is ready.” Noah could see Ralph walking through the lobby. By the time Noah went over to the phone bank, Frank was coming out of the elevator. It is time to go. They reached Everywhere Air, in ten minutes. Bob opened the big rollup door driving through to the Ark. The crew went about their business preparing the Ark. Frank and Fran fired up the aircraft systems as the engineer did his walk around. Noah checked the load. Bob waved the Ark off the parking spot at exactly zero five hundred. As Bob climbed back in the van, he felt sad as the van pulled clear of the Ark. He knew that he would not see Noah again. Not that he thought anything would happen, however Noah made it a point to close out all of his business with Bob and that was a poor sign for his return.
9
LAST RUN
The Ark took to the still dark sky flying toward the rising sun. Noah was heating the frozen breakfasts and making the coffee. The crew was tired, but they were in a good humor. Noah served the meals to everyone. With a tail wind all the way to DC the flying was unusually smooth and the Ark was in DC area 40 minutes early and was on the ground by two thirty. Noah looked for Joe as soon as they were parked, “I want a four-man security team on the Ark full time until we leave I want two sets of eyes on it full time. Service the plane as soon as you can get the contractors out here. Here are the fuel sheets. After the service, sweep the aircraft with a dog and seal it. If anybody goes on board I want to know who and why.
“It sounds like you don’t trust someone.”
“Let me put it this way. If they have a government ID, I would especially want to know, because I have a feeling that I am being set up. Let me give you the security fees. I think $2,000 should do it. We will need to access the plane at zero-four-forty-five tomorrow morning. If there is any change, buy your crew lunch.”
“It will be a good lunch. We’ll take top care of the Ark. See you in the morning.”
Noah went up to the front with the crew. The van was not there yet.
When the van arrived the crew loaded up for the ride to the hotel. At the desk Noah insisted on four rooms adjoining on another floor. The crew went to settle into their rooms. Noah went up to his usual room and no sooner had he closed the door, than Buck knocked on the adjoining door.
“I lost two agents in the LAX airport tunnel. They were shot in the face with a shotgun at close range with 20 people within 50 feet and nobody saw a thing. What the hell happened?”
“Those were your men? I thought that they were contract killers. There is a contract out on me. If I knew that they were yours, I might have returned them.”
“I have two dead agents,” Noah had no sympathy.
“You don’t have two stupid agents anymore. They were dumber than a box of rocks. If it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else.”
“What do I tell the agency?”
“Tell the agency that you sent two agents after a ‘friendly’. You did not give them the right information and when they chased him down both men got shot.” Noah paused a minute. “Do you remember when I told you that I would not return any stupid contacts? I explained that was not a threat.”
“They had families. How do I tell their families?”
“Tell them that daddy was sent out with the wrong directions and he died in the line of stupidity.” Noah was getting pissed. “Buck why in the hell did you send them after me? I am doing what the government will not claim. No one at the top wants to know what the hell I am doing. Why are you sending people to find out what nobody wants to know?” Buck had no answer. “Tell the families that daddy died because you were stupid.” He could see Buck was starting to lose it. “Do you want this last run or not? I would just as soon not do it.” Noah tossed Buck an envelope with two hundred twenty thousand dollars in it. “If you feel that bad about it give them some of your cut. It is yours $220,000 as promised.” Did Buck have the recorders off or did he just forget? People ignore things when they were pissed.
“We must have the last run. You contracted to deliver three loads of weapons to that clearing and so far you did two loads. We need that third.” Buck had the question that he was dying to ask. “What about the money from the rebels? Our contact wants to know where that is.”
“Tell your contact the nine million went to Maria. She stashed it in LA somewhere. Maria did not trust me and she took the money with her and disappeared for half a day. I do not know whether she buried it or hid it with friends.
“How are we going to recover it,” Buck asked.
“I guess you should have thought of that before you had me kill her. She may have had a map on her. I will give you the coordinates. You can look her up.” Noah was starting to enjoy this. “Did you watch the movie?”
“Yes I did. That was pretty gruesome. You killed her while she was taking a dump that is cold. There was shit all over the inside of the box.” Buck had a look of disgust on his face.
“Send the Coast Guard out to the gulf and have them look for that box.” Noah really wanted to grind it into Buck. “Maybe you can find a map with shit on it. She did have an extra box in the Ark with her maybe she slipped it in with the arms, so Jesus may have it in Nicaragua right now. You might have your contact pump him for information. It looked like she was doing a good job of pumping both him and his brother.”
“His brother found him messing around with Marcel and shot him. Juan committed suicide and Marcel is in command.” Buck suddenly realized that he had sent nine million dollars into limbo.
“Maybe your contact has the money and plans to keep it. Nine million in cash is a big incentive to become dishonest.” Buck was on the edge of losing it. He watched Noah do it to Creed and would not let Noah do it to him. Buck was going to have some fun with Noah when he got to Nicaragua, and the others were not worth messing with. Noah kept the game to himself. MI-5 warned Buck against doing any ops in the UK, not wanting any more of their operations compromised. One more screw-up and MI-5 would launch a formal complaint through channels. Angie’s husband screwed everything up. Buck would have to wait until after Noah crossed the finish line, and then it would be his turn to have fun.
Noah knocked on Frank’s door. It took a few minutes for him to answer.
“Round the crew up, we will do an early dinner. I’ll get us a table.” He secured a table for five near the back of the restaurant. The crew came down together ordering to the max. It was seven o’clock before they left the restaurant. Noah went back to his room. He turned on TV and left his room with the Television still playing and walked up to the third floor with his bag knocking on Fr
ank’s door. It took a few minutes for Frank to answer. “Noah I thought that you would be earlier. I was talking to Fran to kill some time.”
“I hope that you do not mind me camping out tonight. I was going to suggest that you double up with Fran.” Frank looked surprised inviting Noah into the room.
“Why would you ask that?” Frank was trying not to tip his hand.
Fran caressed Frank’s cheek, “Noah knows and I believe everyone else knows. We will not be surprising anybody.” Fran appreciated the effort, but it was time to stop playing games.
“Let’s settle in.” Fran and Frank went through the adjoining door going to bed. Noah turned in.
When Noah awoke he went down to the desk and had the desk clerk call two cabs. He waited by the desk to be sure that they did not call Buck. When the cabs arrived they went down to the lobby and straight to Everywhere Air to find that Joe was waiting in the office and the security detail standing tall at customs. Noah gave them a bonus of a hundred dollars each. Noah hit Joe up for the use of the secure phone dialing a seldom used number.
“This is Hermes, Mercury Black Authority, I have a problem.” Noah gave a quick rundown on Buck and the situation. “Have Mercury check the backup recordings. This whole operation is being undercut, but we are moving ahead. See what you can do about Buck and find out if Creed is still involved in this. I think that he is trying to run some kind of an extra operation in the UK. MI-5 is really pissed.” Noah hung up without waiting for an answer.
The crew fired up the Ark’s systems and performed the checks. By five AM the plane was being guided off the spot and they were flying past New York City when the sun came up. The Ark was in Halifax by eight thirty with fueling going as planned, so the Ark was back in the air by nine. The flight to Manchester went smoothly with the Ark landing by seven PM. Customs met the trip insisting on a full clearance. Noah did not object knowing that there was nothing on board to worry about. Susan called up to the flight deck and Noah extended a hand to help her up the ladder. She was in her standard attire of a jacket, three quarter length skirt and her knee length high heel boots.
Susan sat down across from Noah, “It seems that there are no breaks on this trip. I had a demand from the Foreign Office that we do a full inspection of the Ark.
Noah frowned, “I expected as much. Somebody is pulling the strings and I think that I have an idea who is doing it.”
“Who do you suspect,” Susan asked.
Susan saw a flash of anger in Noah’s face, “He was a government asshole named Creed that was supposed to be pulled off this mess on the first run. He was one of our recently departed Frank’s bosses.” Susan laughed at the mention of Frank’s name.
“What is the laugh for,” Susan was thinking about the trick that the women pulled.
“Angie claimed the body. Frank’s parents wanted it, but she is his current wife so they released his body to her for burial. We selected a plot somewhere in the UK. Lynn visited every kennel in town to make a collection and before closing the coffin Angie filled it with dog shit sealing the coffin. We made a real healthy personal donation for the undertaker to allow it. Angie’s darling husband Frank will spend the rest of eternity in deep dog shit. We buried him under the name George A. Hole.”
Noah could not stop laughing, “I thought that was just an expression.”
“Speaking of crazy assholes,” Noah proceeded to tell Susan about Buck and Creed. He told her his idea for doing the return trip. “Here is the generals contact information. Have him meet us at exactly eighteen hundred three days from now. I also need you to call this number and tell Frank and his partner to meet me in Barbados four days from now with a Lear Jet. It is the number for the two Franks that just quit. Tell both of them $20,000 each plus the rental of the Lear.”
“So you have two contracts to finish. What happens after that?” Susan’s legs were spread so that he could see a green silk triangle at the top of her legs.
“Hold that thought.” Noah retrieved her case and opened it. “She looked at the 200,000 Pounds inside. “If you distract me I will distract you.” Noah continued. “I would like to retire right after I die. The only thing is that Noah will have to go.
“What are you doing with Terri? She is family and I do not want her hurt.” Susan was on one hundred percent serious mode. “She is fully involved.”
“Right now put her down as the next of kin on our deal in your head. If we are officially linked before I die she will be a target. They will go after her to get to me.”
“Lock the Ark up. I hired some of my driver’s friends as security. The boys are all former SAS. They do not want to work every day but they like the potential for action. I started to use them as drivers and security at the Inn. They take care of the girls as if we were the Royal Family. I will make your calls for you, but before I take you back to the Inn come up to the office.”
“I will be up in a few minutes. I want to talk to the gentlemen.” Noah said as Susan left for her office.
“Good evening gentlemen. How are you doing tonight,” Noah asked.
“We are doing just fine sir. How are you?” Mark said.
“Bone tired, I could use some quality rest. You gentlemen are welcome to use the crew lounge on the Ark to get out of the weather,” Noah offered. “There is a hot water tap for tea, and some recliners to relax on. I am not worried about things coming off as much as strange stuff going on.” Noah pointed to the door to the bay. “I shut the power to the bay off so that is the only way in. I told Susan that I would pay you. I will pay each one of you 100 pounds a shift to cover it?” Noah gave them two thousand.
“It will work perfectly. You can rest easy,” Mark said smartly, “have a good evening Sir.”
Noah hurried to Susan’s office. She was just hanging up the phone.
“Frank seemed quite happy to meet you down in Barbados. I will need to call the general tomorrow. It will be too late down there tonight.”
“I would like to stop for the day. Or at least wrap my hands around a glass of whiskey.”
Susan smiled warmly, “There is someone that would like you to wrap your arms around her.”
“Let’s not keep her waiting.” They loaded in Susan’s new Jaguar XJS. “Nice car.”
“Well I…,” Susan started.
“Don’t explain. I know of at least 150,000 that is your personal money and now you have 200,000 more. As a stockholder, I believe our Chair should have a corporate car. I really do like the car. How does it run?” Susan threw the car in gear jumping on it as the smile spread across her face as the Jaguar leaped forward. She drove reasonably through town only opening it up as soon as she hit the open highway and they were back at the Inn in no time.
“MI-5 wanted to get our story on the events of the past few days. They have sent two interviewers out here to get our story. It has been requested that you do not leave the country until they have their interview. They want an interview with Angie too. The interviewers are here in the Honeymoon Cottage.”
“It is only half past seven. Let’s start now. They can get some answers tonight and ask some follow up in the morning.” If this was going to go down, Noah wanted to change the initiative.
“I will see what they will do.” Susan picked up the phone. After a few words, they agreed to see him. “I will walk you down.”
“These two talk softly but they are no push over’s. I am just your company’s hired agent, right.”
“Absolutely, you are putting us up here to fill the cottages until you open. It is business only.”
“Remember they want answers that fit not necessarily the truth.” Susan knocked on the door and one of the interviewers answered.
“Susan, I knew that you could talk someone into chatting this evening. My name is Eve and my associates name is Tom. Please come in, we have a few things that we need to clear up, please have a seat.”
Noah wanted to set the tone, “Thank you for your courtesy. I know you could have done this d
ifferently. Would you like to question us separately or together?”
“It makes no difference.” Noah knew that this was a beauty show. They wanted answers that fit so this would not be hard line.
Noah jumped in before they could ask their first question. “Since this initiated with me I believe that I should lead off.” The interviewers accepted Noah’s offer. “I am not CIA. I am a private contractor hired to deliver restricted technology oil drilling bits to the Russians, pick up Russian weapons and deliver them to Nicaragua.” They were somewhat upset that he brought the weapons illegally through the UK however the in-bond status insulated the Brits. Eve was happy to find out that the United States was the next stop. At least the weapons did not come directly from the UK, nor did they leave the aircraft. Noah outlined the connection between Angie’s husband and the arms deal. He would leave the rest of Angie’s involvement to Susan. He moved on to Creed and Buck mentioning Creed’s bizarre behavior. Noah left out the contract on Maria, since neither Creed nor Buck would mention the contract on her anyway. Noah added just enough to provide a story.
They exchanged a few more comments, and switched to Susan. As a matter of record, Susan was a contracted agent for Everywhere Air. Her job was to arrange services for a number of occasional air carriers. It was also known that she was formerly employed by MI-5. Susan also outlined her association with the U.S Embassy and how she arranged the diplomatic pouch to Tehran. The interviewers already had the police report and pictures. They agreed with Susan not to interview Angie unless they needed clarification. Susan went on to explain the assaults last week. Eve and Tom stepped into the next room.
“Do we have enough for a story?” Eve knew that was here to produce a plausible story and leave.
“I think we can put together a report.” Tom was not quite happy. “I want to find out one thing for real.” Tom walked back in the room. “Mister Body do you have a security clearance or a name associated with your activities?”
