by Finian Blake
“This weather was supposed to pass by to the North, but it took a sudden turn due east. This is supposed to turn to a tropical storm in the late afternoon. I am afraid that we will need to move in doors. There are only a few guests, so that will not be a problem.” Terri ran into the lobby looking like a drowned rat. Her brightly colored flower print shirt was plastered to her breasts with her thick black hair matted around her shoulders.
“I very much wanted an outdoor wedding. Our plans are ruined.” Adam took hold of her arm and walked out into the rain.
“We make love in the shower. Let’s get married in the rain, right here.” He pointed to the spot that they were standing on. The guests and minister can stand under the canopy. Rain or shine I am here for you tell me what your thoughts are?”
Terri broke out laughing, “I say rain or shine I am here for you.” It was raining so hard that Adam could not see Terri’s tears. She had no idea that a disaster could be so romantic.
“Let’s do it right away before it gets worse. I want Francesca and Frank to be here. We will do it before they leave. Tell Robert what the changes will be. I will round up the guests and get them down here. We will get married as soon as the minister arrives. We can dress up fancy for the wedding.” Terri started to walk away. Adam remained rooted to the spot, watching her walk away. “Why are you still standing there?”
“You look perfect, a living and breathing work of art.”
Adam went to the lobby door and called Robert over. “We moved the time of the wedding up. Would you call the minister and tell him that we want to get married as soon as he can get here? You better have him bring his rain coat. We still want to do it outside.” He was not going to question Adam’s request, so Robert picked up the phone.
“Hello this is Robert the happy couple wants to get married as soon as possible. Yes, they mean right away, as soon as you can get here. Oh, they still want to do the wedding outside. That is correct. Bring your rain coat and umbrella. Thirty minutes from now. They will be ready.” Robert looked at Adam. “He said he will be here at six thirty. Have everybody ready.” Adam called Susan’s suite.
“What do you mean now? We have to get ready. You two are a perfect match. You deserve each other.” Susan was completely caught off guard.
Adam Offered, “Well don’t worry about taking a shower. You can do that while we get hitched. Doing your hair is not a worry either, and you can skip the make up too.”
As the Minister pulled up Robert met him under the lobby awning telling him to leave the car under the awning. The ladies wore matching linen blouses, short skirts hose and high heel sandals while the men came down in dress shirts and wash pants. Terri was dressed in a long linen dress with some very sexy lingerie underneath which her soaked clothing did not hide. Before they started Adam took the minister off to the side pulling a package wrapped in cellophane out of his pocket handing it to the Minister.
“This is for you and the church both Terri and I appreciate your indulgence.” There were three banded bundles of cash in the wrap. He looked at the bundles they were one hundred dollar bills, $10,000 to a bundle. The Minister was going to use his rain gear but reconsidered deciding to match the wedding party.
“God bless you my son! Shall we begin?” He slipped off his rain coat stepping out into the rain with the whole group. Everybody was soaked to the skin in seconds. It was like getting married at a wet t-shirt contest. Robert’s wife held the minister’s bible as she stood under the canopy taking pictures of the ceremony which covered the basics. Knowing the ceremony by heart the minister did not bother referring to his bible. Adam had Robert’s wife get as many different angles as she could, offering to buy her a new camera if hers was ruined. The lingerie was showing through the thin linen dresses of the women and Adam wanted the pictures on the mantle of their new house. Adam had agreed to meet everyone for the wedding dinner inside latter in the day with the minister excusing himself due to prior commitments.
Adam took Terri back to the Honeymoon Suite slipping out of their wet clothes. He pulled Terri out onto the patio easing into the hammock. Terri eased on top of him. The rain was warm and there was not much wind. Terri looked at his cast.
“Your cast will get soaked!”
“It’s too late to worry about that.”
“You made a promise to Robert, no more outdoor sex!”
“It’s raining nobody will see us!” He pulled her to him with his good hand and kissed her. “Terri, get on top I want to do what I do best.”
“What is it that you do best,” Terri was curious.
“Screw up.” Terri was going to hit him but she could not figure out where to do it. Terri climbed on top and put her full concentration into not damaging him while making love in the warm rain. When they were through, Terri rolled over next to Adam. They were not expecting the applause that followed. Lynn, Suki, and Susan were standing in the room in their soaked clothing. Susan held up a room key. We wanted to give Terri her key back. We knocked, but nobody answered.”
“You could have cleared your throat!”
“We couldn’t our hearts were in them,” the three women answered in unison.
Terri looked at Adam.
“We should have sold tickets!”
POSTSCRIPT
Marcel climbed out of her third bath. She washed with soap twice and with this bath, Marcel used rose scented bath salts. She hated the jungle and everything about it. Juan and Jesus were crude barbaric people and she hated everything about them. Spending three months pretending to care for them, would have been too much if it were not for being paid 250 one-ounce gold coins. She spent three days soaking in the tub trying to get rid of the jungle grit. The thought of having sex with those two brothers made her skin crawl but there were certain compensations like seeing that miserable bitch Maria in that box. That Noah was a cold blooded bastard shooting Maria while she was taking a crap and she had no doubt that he wanted to kill her too. The look in his eyes told her the whole story.
She really enjoyed telling Juan that Jesus raped her. Marcel was sorry that she did not have a camera to capture the look of rage on Juan’s face. Setting things up perfectly Marcel teased Jesus into tearing her clothes off just before Juan came back. In a rage Juan shot Jesus in the head with Juan feeling so bad that he held the gun up to his head threatening to commit suicide. All she had to do was to squeeze his hand making it look like she tried to stop him. She managed to kill both brothers within minutes of each other and nothing would reflect back on her. Marcel walked over with her camera taking several pictures before the others got there being careful to get the exit wounds. Marcel would keep a few of the gruesome pictures in her security box for a souvenir to remind her about asking for more money the next time, if there was one.
Marcel would have left the jungle then if it were not for Buck and Creed coming down from the United States. They were coming in with three helicopters to put an end to that bastard Noah and his crew. They offered her two hundred fifty gold one ounce coins to set Noah up. The trap should have worked perfectly with the plan calling for the helicopters to ambush the Ark while it was on the ground killing, as many of the rebels as they could. She would then lead the soldiers to the arms cash and take credit for the whole operation. She could then claim to be the national heroine which would gain a blind eye to her illicit operations from the current regime. There was a clearing a few miles north east of the road. They would be over the Ark just as it touched down. The three gunships would shoot the shit out of them before they knew what happened.
She steered everybody miles away while they brought in the helicopters the night before and made sure that nobody ventured in that direction but they made her stay an extra week with those dirty peasants to get this done. The rebels actually treated her like a leader after Jesus and Juan were dead. If it had not been for the extra that they were paying her she would have been out of there days ago. The extra money and the political gain made the grime, sweat and bugs wort
h tolerating.
The drop was a disaster from the beginning it was a day late and two hours earlier in the morning than planned, causing Marcel to sleep in the jungle for another night to keep the rebels from scouting that area. She staged the rebel force at the end of the road so that the helicopters should be able to kill ninety percent of the rebels when the ark landed. Marcel had to sleep with the bugs in the muddy clearing an extra day because Noah could not tell time with a calendar. When the plane called in she drove to the clearing. Those arrogant assholes Buck and Creed told her that a woman would just get in the way. Whom did they think set this whole thing up? She would have loved to see Noah get shot full of holes, but not at the price of being shot herself. She drove her truck out to the road swearing revenge on those two asshole Gringos. After shooting up the Ark they were going to rake the rebels with sixty millimeter gun fire from the helicopters and then go after their camp with rockets using the maps that she had given them. If it were not for her they would not have been able to get within thirty miles of that clearing and they sent her off in a pickup truck to sit on the side of the road to wait like a pleasant annoyance.
The plane flew over much too high for a landing on the first pass and when it came back again it was off course for a landing dropping its whole load on the clearing catching the helicopter gunships still sitting on the ground. There were only three survivors and with no hospital they would die a few days later from their burns. Buck and Creed were unrecognizable since they were sitting in the center of the target area with the Jet ‘A’ fuel burning them beyond recognition. She knew where they would be sitting in the helicopters since they made a big deal about sitting next to the pilots and now they would be sitting in hell. They would not let her take a truck by herself so she gathered up the first load of survivors and left before the rebels could show up. Some of the ammo cans landed within a few yards of her and the ammo in the clearing cooked off with the fire causing many secondary explosions. She was covered in blood and charred flesh from head to toe. Marcel was thankful that it was not her blood. Sixty seconds difference and she would have been with them. They brought her straight back for debriefing without even giving her the chance to clean up. The only map of the rebel camp burned with the assault force allowing Marcel the additional bargaining power to salvage some of her influence. Marcel was still going to push for a blind eye from the government on her other illegal activities, but she would let them stew while she put her prize in the safety deposit box.
Maria’s brother was the officer in charge back in Managua and he was extremely handsome. That was the kind of man that she could get interested in. He was the first born son in a family with money and power. He was everything that she found desirable rich, handsome and of good family. With this coup she could snare him easily. He did not have to know that she set his sister up for a hit, something like that would probably kill the relationship. How could that miserable bitch ever fall for that sweaty stinking Jesus? He was nothing but a peon looking more like a native than an educated man. Maria’s family should be glad to be rid of her.
After the debriefing her first stop was at the spa for a long steam bath. They did a full pedicure and manicure painting her finger and toe nails with blood red polish. She even provided them a few drops of her blood for a match. Marcel wanted the red to remind her of the blood that she had claimed from them. Marcel had the spa do a full body scrub. She asked Maria’s brother Luis to arrange a charter flight to the Cayman Islands and he did it without an argument for free.
Marcel laid out her most feminine undergarments and her most provocative dress using her finest red silk under garments and a low cut red silk dress with a skirt that would move with the slightest breeze. She finished her bath, pinning her hair back with several gold and ruby clips carefully applying her make up being sure to use the bright red lipstick and for the first time in months she felt truly feminine. She put on her most expensive hose topping it off with flame red Iguana skin high heel sandals. When Marcel went down stairs to the car she felt full out sexy. The car that picked her up in front of her building was driven by an officer. As she swayed her hips walking down the steps the driver did not attempt to hide his appraisal. He looked her up and down with that ‘oh my god’ look and after months in the jungle, she loved it. She rewarded him with a flash of leg up to her hip as she moved to the center of the back seat where the driver could not help but see her. They pulled up in front of military headquarters and a guard opened the door for her with a crisp salute. She rewarded him with a flash of her shapely legs up to her panties. Marcel laughed out loud when she heard the officer trip on the stairs when a breeze lifted her skirt. She went directly to the Generals office putting on a provocative wiggle, turning heads where ever she went and when she sat down in front of the General, she flashed him too.
“The President is out of the country. He would like to thank you personally for your service when he returns. In the meantime, I would like to give you my personal appreciation for your service. Would you care for some lunch?” From his vulture’s stare she was sure that he would like to get very personal. The General was rich and powerful, but he was old and ugly. Marcel knew that she was a beautiful woman that exercised immense influence, so she could hold out for handsome and well connected too.
“It is too early for lunch. I have just arrived back in Managua and need to catch up with some personal business. Thank you for your kind offer, perhaps another time.”
“We have need of patriots like you. Please, let us get together soon. Here is the payment for your services. 250 gold ounces from the President and the same from the Americans as agreed upon. I will have my adjutant help you to the limousine with it.” The coins were packed in a medium size metal box. Marcel opened the box, each ounce was wrapped in a protective sleeve and gave off that shine that only gold could give. She was very pleased, but made no pretense of trust. Marcel counted them out examining the mint mark on each coin as a matter of business. As she counted the General praised Marcel for what she had done for Nicaragua. If it had not been for her he would have had to deploy thousands of troops in a jungle, and not achieved a tenth of what she did with her body. His adjutant walked in the room and picked up the 32-pound box for her return to the car.
Marcel put a little extra sway in her walk, knowing his eyes would be on her laughing as the Major tripped when he reached the stairs giving her a particular satisfaction. As she left the building the wind once again caught her skirt blowing it up and exposing her fancy under things with her enjoying his look of pure lust as he backed out of the car. Marcel was not going to let this box out of her sight and she had him load it next to her legs of the floor of the car. She had demanded a motor cycle escort for the limousine to provide security. The driver told the escort where they were heading since she had told nobody of her plans until now. She realized that secrecy was her best security. They pulled away from the building going directly to the airport.
Marcel felt a pang of regret that she was not able to touch the several million that Maria had access to. She would have paid to interrogate Maria. She knew many painful ways to get information from the unwilling, ways that would take days. Marcel was stumped about a way to dispose of Maria, and Noah performed much better than she anticipated. He killed Maria in front of twenty or thirty people and not only got away with it, they never noticed. This bastard was good and she would have to press hard until she had his secrets. Nobody even looked for Maria and except for Creed and Buck they still weren’t. She wondered if Noah hadn’t killed her for the nine million. There was no doubt in her mind that she would have. If she had not been told that Noah would do something Marcel would never have seen what he did. Killing someone while they were taking a crap seemed unusually cold. She knew that she would never see him again nor did Marcel want to. After the way that he dealt with Creed and Buck it bothered her that Noah was still out there.
The ride only took twenty minutes with the escort. They pulled in the security g
ate and directly up to the waiting Lear Jet. The driver opened the door removing the 32-pound box walking with her to the aircraft door. The pilot helped him stow the box securely. The pilot introduced himself as Ralph and introduced the stewardess as Francesca. The stewardess was a good looking woman. She spoke in an educated Spanish with very little accent. Francesca’s jet black shoulder length hair was half covering her face. She wore a starched pale blue blouse which was buttoned to her collar bone. Her mid-length uniform skirt was dark blue wash and wear. There was something familiar about her, but Marcel could not place what it was.
“It will be about ten minutes before we takeoff. Would you care for a drink before we leave?” Francesca offered warmly.
“Yes I would love a vodka martini, if you have decent vodka on board.”
“We have Grey Goose or Finlandia Vodka. Both make a good martini.”
“I would prefer Finlandia Vodka.” Francesca walked to the rear of the cabin.
“I have a lemon twist, green olives, or would you prefer it naked?” Francesca handed her two slips of paper while she was talking. “We need your signature on the customs paper work would you mind signing by the X.” Marcel hating details signed the papers without looking.
“I like my martinis naked. How do you like yours?” Francesca handed her the martini. Marcel took a large drink savoring the familiar taste. It had been a long time since she had a decent martini.
“You look familiar. I swear I have met you before.” Marcel quickly downed the rest of her martini passing the glass back to Francesca.
“That was a good mix another one for me.” Francesca complied with her request as Marcel continued. “It has been a long time since I have had one of these. I am getting high already.” It was time to close the door. Francesca delivered the second martini as Ralph fired up both engines. He requested a power run up before takeoff and was directed to the opposite end of the airport. He performed a slow taxi in order to give Francesca sometime to work on Marcel. He did not want a sudden turn in flight to ruin things.
