Brian pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and turned it on. He had turned it off when he had boarded the flight. Once it completed the startup sequence, he hit the keys to call Tom Beamish.
“Brian,” Tom said cheerfully when he saw who was calling. “How were the Olympics?”
“Tom,” Brian replied. “There’s been an incident and I need your help. How quickly can I get my hands on two million dollars?”
Tom immediately sensed the seriousness of the situation, even though he had no idea what was going on. “Consider the money available right now,” Tom said. “What’s going on?”
“The boys have been kidnapped along with a bunch of other people in Brazil. They’re demanding a ransom of one million dollars for the release of each prisoner.”
“Where do you want me to send the money?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know yet. The FBI is recommending that we not pay the ransom at this point. I just want to make sure the money is available at a moment’s notice if we decide to pay the ransom.”
“I can have the money sent wherever you want within a matter of seconds. Just say the word and I’ll get you whatever you need.”
“Thanks Tom,” Brian said as he hung up the phone.
Tom sat in stunned silence at his desk. He had known both of those boys since they were born. “Melanie,” he yelled to his assistant whose desk was just outside of his office. “I need two million dollars pulled from Brian Baxter’s portfolio and placed into our company’s trust fund.”
“Did you say two million?” Melanie asked. “Will he be coming into the office to sign the paperwork?”
Tom headed out of his office and stood at Melanie’s desk. “I’ll sign the paperwork,” he said. “Just make it happen – now!”
Melanie swallowed hard. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew something big was happening. A few minutes later she brought the paperwork into Tom’s office. She watched him sign his own name on the line where the investment advisor signs and then felt the colour drain from her face when she saw him sign Brian Baxter’s name in the client section. Mr. Beamish was normally such a stickler about getting the proper paperwork and signatures and this was way out of character.
“I want the money there within the hour,” Tom said.
*** Chapter 15 ***
The sun was barely up but it was already quite steamy underneath the large moldy tarp. Eric had dumped the few remnants out of the plastic first aid kit and was now using it as a cup to bring water to each of the prisoners. “We have to keep drinking water,” he said to the Girards as he passed them the water. “If we don’t stay hydrated in this heat, we’ll die.”
“Thanks,” Sylvia said. She took a small sip herself and then put the plastic container up to her husband’s mouth encouraging him to drain the contents.
Eric took the container back to the water pail, filled it again and took it over to Michael. Michael no longer had a glazed look on his face as he seemed to have recovered somewhat from the ordeal they had been through.
“How’s Chip?” he asked Eric.
“A little better, but his leg still looks pretty bad. I think it may be infected because I think he’s running a bit of a fever.”
Next, Eric took the container filled with water over to an older couple who were huddled together on the ground. “I’m Eric,” he said as he knelt down to give them the water. “It’s important that you keep drinking.”
“Thanks,” the lady said as she helped her husband drink the water. “I’m Anita Taylor and this is my husband Owen.”
Owen looked like he was about seventy years old and was looking quite frail and pale. “How are you doing Owen?” Eric asked.
“I’m alright,” Owen said as he pulled himself up and shook Eric’s hand. Eric felt his hand being squeezed quite firmly but he could tell that Owen was mustering all of his strength to do it. “We’re from Texas and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let these bastards get the best of me.”
“Owen, remember your heart,” Anita said. “He’s already had a couple of heart attacks and I was worried that trek through the forest was going to cause another one,” Anita said to Eric. Although they were old, Eric sensed that this couple were as tough as nails, as long as they had each other for support.
When Eric walked back over to the water pail to fill the plastic container again, two young people walked over to join him. “We need some water as well,” the young man said.
“I’m Eric,” he said as he handed him the plastic container and watched him down the water in a single gulp. He handed the container to the girl who did the same.
“I’m Jacob Davis,” the young man said, “and this is my sister Emily. Is there anything we can do to help?” The two of them barely looked old enough to be out of high school, but they didn’t seem frightened at all. “Our father is a General with the U.S. Marines and we’re sure our father is planning to rescue us as we speak.”
“I hope you’re right,” Eric said. Eric doubted the U.S. Marines would be organizing a rescue mission in Brazil, but didn’t want to dampen their spirits. “We just have to take care of each other until this ordeal is over, so just do what you can.” Eric watched as they walked over to sit with the Taylors. Eric sensed the most valuable asset of these two kids would be their positive attitude. He wished he shared their confidence that everything would turn out okay.
Eric continued his deliveries of water to the German couple, the four Japanese tourists and the two Australians. “I hate to be crass,” Lucas Williams said, “but where are we supposed to go to the bathroom?”
“I have no idea,” Eric replied.
He headed back over to Maria who was now cradling Chip’s head and patting his forehead with water trying to cool him off. “Could you ask the guards where we’re supposed to go to the bathroom?” Eric asked Maria.
“Okay,” Maria said. “I’m also going to ask for some food, some fresh water and a doctor. Your brother has a pretty high fever and he’ll die unless he gets some antibiotics.”
Maria walked slowly toward one of the gunmen. “Ele precisa de um médico e alguns medicamentos ou outra coisa que ele vai morrer.”
The guard walked over to look at Chip with his rifle raised to shoot anyone who approached him. He could easily see that Chip was getting closer and closer to dying.
“Precisamos também de um pouco de comida, água fresca e um lugar para ir ao banheiro.,” Maria said to the gunman.
“Você pode ir ao banheiro por baixo do rio, mas apenas dois de cada vez,” the gunman replied, holding up two fingers as he said it.
“He said we can go to the bathroom down by the river, but only two people at a time,” Maria translated for the group.
Lucas and Oliver Williams were the first to go, with one of the guards watching their every move with his rifle raised, ready to shoot them if they tried to make a run for it. When the two Australians returned, Sylvia Girard helped her husband to his feet and they headed down by the river to do their business. All of the others took their turns in pairs.
“I may have a way for us to escape,” Greg whispered to Michael as they walked down the hill toward the river. Greg secretly showed Michael the scissors he had taken from the first aid kit and hidden in his pocket. “I think I can cut through the chicken wire surrounding the complex with these.”
“Don’t do anything to get us killed,” Michael warned.
When they returned to the camp, Greg showed Michael how he had already cut through several links of the chicken-wire fence that surrounded their complex.
However, there was also barbed wire to get through. “There’s no way those little scissors are going to be strong enough to cut through the barbed wire,” Michael said.
“I don’t think we have to,” Greg said. He pointed to a break in the barbed wire fence. It looked like it was one long piece of barbed wire, but was actually several pieces that had just been connected together. “All we have to do is untwist these connections,” Gre
g said pointing to the places where they had been joined together.
“Let’s ask Eric and Maria what they think,” Michael said.
“I’m not sure we can trust Maria,” Greg said. “I think Maria and the tour guide might be in on the kidnapping. For all we know, she joined the tour so she could be part of their plan to lure us rich people onto the tour.”
Michael had wondered what had happened to the tour guide. She had quickly vanished during the chaos and wasn’t one of the hostages. But Michael had no doubts about Maria. “She’s not working with the kidnappers. She’s the only reason some of us are still alive.”
“Well, I know she’s poor and I bet she’d do anything not to be poor for the rest of her life.”
Michael headed over to discuss the plan with Eric. He mentioned Greg’s suspicions about Maria and the tour guide working with the kidnappers.
“Yeah, I was wondering about the tour guide as well,” Eric said. “She didn’t seem surprised at all about the roadblock.” Eric glanced over at Maria who was continuing to tend to Chip. “But there’s no way Maria is working with them.”
Michael nodded his agreement and they both headed over to discuss the plan with Maria. “Well we can’t all make a run for it, but we might be able to sneak one person out of here to go get help without them noticing,” Eric said.
“Help is a long way from here,” Maria said. “We’re in the middle of the rainforest. You’d have to trek several kilometres before you found anyone who could help us.”
“I’m sure I could make it,” Michael said. “I run over ten kilometres every day, but I don’t know which way to go. I’m afraid I’d get lost in this forest.”
“Just follow the river,” Maria said. “Follow the river until you come to the waterfall. After that, just head through the forest directly toward Pico da Tijuca. That’s the highest peak in the forest so you should be able to see it from anywhere. When you get close to it, you should come across some hiking trails which should lead you to a place to get help. There are usually guides leading tourists on hiking tours all around that peak.”
“The guards watch us like hawks,” Eric said. “We’ll need a way to distract them so that Michael can slip away.”
“Just leave that to me,” Maria said.
*** Chapter 1 6 ***
“We’ve just heard from the Brazilian police that the kidnappers have announced where they want the money transferred,” Detective Mitchell announced to the group. “The account was just created about twenty minutes ago and they indicated that the money must be in that account by 9:00 p.m. tonight for the prisoners to be released.”
“I thought we had seven days to pay the ransom,” said one of the men from the back of the room. He couldn’t hide the panic in his voice.
“That’s the final deadline,” Detective Mitchell answered. “They say that hostages who have their ransoms paid by 9:00 p.m. tonight will be released within forty eight hours. There will be a different account used tomorrow and a different one every day after that until the final deadline. However, we don’t recommend that any ransoms be paid at this time because we still have not received proof of life for any of the prisoners.”
Brian didn’t know what to do. He approached Detective Mitchell. “What would you do if it was your children who had been kidnapped?”
“I honestly don’t know,” the detective answered. “If I knew we’d be assured of getting them back, I’d pay the ransom in an instant. But sometimes the kidnappers simply kill the prisoners after they get the money to eliminate any witnesses. I don’t mean to be cold, but they may already be dead. That’s why I think it’s important that we not pay any ransom until we know they’re still alive. At that point, we can negotiate the exchange of the money for the prisoners and not just give them the money hoping they will honour the deal.”
Brian hung his head and walked out of the meeting room into a long hallway. Detective Mitchell hated having to be so cold in these types of situations, but he knew the statistics and had to follow the most logical plan. He nodded to his partner to go check on Brian.
Brian was staring aimlessly out of the window at the end of the hallway when Detective Johnson came out a few minutes later. “How are you doing?” Detective Johnson asked him. “Is there anything I can get you?”
“Just get my sons back for me,” Brian said. He sat down on a padded bench that was in the hallway. “Would you pay the ransom if it was one of your kids?”
The detective sat down on the bench beside him. “I’m not married and I don’t have any kids, so I’m probably not a good person to give advice.” He paused before continuing. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of kidnappings in Brazil. The Brazilian government discourages the payment of ransoms as a way to discourage these economic kidnappings.”
“What do you mean, economic kidnappings?” Brian asked.
“Those are kidnappings that are just done for the money, without any political motivation whatsoever. They’ve been going on for years in some South American countries like Columbia and Brazil. Columbia used to have the most economic kidnappings of any country in the world so they enacted some laws forbidding the payment of ransoms, hoping that it would stop them. It did help a bit, but now these types of kidnappings are quite common in other countries like Mexico and Brazil. There’s no law against paying ransoms in Brazil, but they discourage it.” The detective paused before continuing. “Detective Mitchell has to follow FBI policy but to be honest, if it was someone from my family, I’d seriously consider paying the ransom. Don’t tell my boss I said that.”
“Don’t worry,” Brian said. “It’s nice to know that you think of them as people and not just as another case.” Brian gave a heavy sigh. “But I think your boss is right in that as a group we shouldn’t give them any money until we get some indication that they’re still alive.”
“I understand,” Detective Johnson said. “You have to do whatever you think is right.”
When Detective Johnson went back to the meeting room, he headed over to another couple to try to console them. The FBI had requested that family members of the U.S. kidnap victims all come to Houston to make it easier to manage the situation. “Mr. and Mrs. Porter, how are you holding up?”
“I’m Kevin and this is my wife Lisa”, the man said as he shook the detective’s hand. “We’re not doing so good. We don’t have the kind of money to pay the ransom, not even close. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
“We should have gone with Michael to Brazil,” Lisa said. “We went to Beijing to see him compete in 2008 and to London in 2012. It cost us a fortune for those trips and we should have borrowed the money to go watch him compete in Brazil. But Michael said it was okay for us not to go because he didn’t think he would win a medal this time.” She shuddered as she took a deep breath. “But then he wins the gold medal and we’re not even there to be with him to celebrate. And now we may never see him again.” She put her hands over her face and started to rock back and forth.
“Don’t give up hope,” Detective Johnson said. “The Brazilian police are working to try to find where they are being held and we hope to be able to rescue them without paying any ransom.” He put his hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “But it’s probably a good idea to start figuring out a way to pay the ransom if it comes to that. Who manages your son’s sports career?”
Kevin gave the name of his son’s agent. “But he’s not under contract with anyone right now. Michael had a small contract with Nike after he won the medals in the last two Olympics, but that expired. He was in negotiations for a new contract but they wanted to see how he did in this Olympics before signing him again.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Detective Mitchell who was waving at his partner to come speak to him. “Don’t worry. I’m confident we’ll be able to get your son back to you safe and sound,” Detective Johnson said as he headed off.
* * *
“How many people do we still have on the ground in Brazil?” General
Davis said into the phone. The General knew that the United States had a lot of marines working undercover in Brazil assisting with security for the Olympics, with the full knowledge and support of the Brazilian government. The General also knew there were even more marines there that the Brazilian government knew nothing about.
“We’ve already started pulling our people out now that the Olympics are over,” Captain Walmsley replied on the phone, “but we’ve still got a few there.”
“I need a fire team ready for a mission,” the General said. “There’s been a kidnapping of about twenty people and they’re being held somewhere in the rainforests around Rio. Two of the hostages are my kids.”
“I understand sir,” said the captain. “What do you need?”
“I need satellite surveillance of the area so we can find out where these bastards are hiding,” the General said. “And I need the fire team ready to go once we locate them.”
“Yes sir,” the Captain said.
“And Captain,” the General continued, “this is off book.”
“Understood sir,” the Captain replied.
After he hung up the phone, the General called his ex-wife. He was more afraid of making this call than he had been in all of his years of combat.
“Hilary, it’s Bill,” he said when she answered.
“I hope you’re calling to explain why I haven’t received my alimony cheque yet, and don’t tell me the cheque’s in the mail,” Hilary said. “I’ve heard that excuse too many times to count.”
The General took a deep breath before saying what he had to say. “It’s about the kids.” Hilary immediately sensed that something was wrong. “The kids have been kidnapped in Brazil along with a bunch of other people. They kidnapped all of the people on the tour bus they were on.”
Hilary gasped. In a matter of seconds she went from shock to worry to anger. “I told you they were too young to be travelling on their own!!!” she screamed into the phone. “But no, you assured me that everything would be secure and that there’d be nothing to worry about.” At that point, she broke down into uncontrollable sobs.
The Legacy Page 8
