Mercury Decending (Mercury Black Authority Book 3)

by Finian Blake

  Alex’s face lit up, “A perfect idea. With Laurita dead the in the event of my death letter would apply. As a matter of fact, I think that Seraphina’s letter should come to the surface in the Kremlin. I believe that the Generals’ treasonous actions should be known along with their location, but with her letter I would like to wait for a while. I don’t want a Spetsnaz team to show up while we are working. Anna sounded cautious, “If we cross paths that would be a disaster do you think that is wise?”

  “No, I seriously don’t think that they could put something together in under a week. They can show up when we are done and take the credit. With what we have and what we got from the General’s team, we can use all Russian equipment and make it look like a Spetsnaz operation.

  Lynn and Liliana were in deep conversation when Alex joined them.

  “Alex, Lynn was just explaining how you split things up. I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I did not expect any money.”

  “Laurita meant to kill all of us. She died instead, so ‘Mercury’ owes us and I am just collecting. So far, we have collected fourteen million plus the three that we found at the villa.”

  “Was that Pesetas?”

  “No, that was pounds.” Liliana’s eyes opened wide in disbelief as Alex continued. “I still have ten more stops to make. I need you to come with me. We will make the Roman bank our last stop.”

  “You were going to give me half!” Liliana was ready for the big cut in her share considering the amount of money involved.

  “I have found a few more people injured by her actions. I would like to cut you back to a third. I made you a promise, so I am asking your permission. Of course I will cut Anna’s end back to a third also. If I am wrong, you will go back to a half.” Her jaw dropped, Liliana looked at Lynn.

  “The new split will give you four million Pounds minimum and yes, he is serious. Liliana that is the way it works. I will pool the funds helping to convert them to a legal status. You will fly back to Barcelona living as Ramon’s niece. You will leave, with Alex tomorrow.” Alex was relieved that she would accept the reduction. He always made it a point to ask for what he wanted first.

  Sarah brought Vasyl and Hanna over to talk to Alex.

  Vasyl was first to speak, “We would like to apologize for our part in what happened this morning. Sarah said that we could be honest without fear of reprisal. We were contacted personally by General Orlov; you call him Victor. He told us that what we were doing was a matter of the utmost importance. We thought that it would be gathering intelligence. Victor was a colonel at the school when we were there. We have been living here quietly for twenty years. I guess things have changed in Russia. Now that we know that our control has defected, we are freelance and Sarah suggested that we stay here with friends like you. She said that you would help us.”

  “Yes, one can never have enough friends. You are already established here all that you have to do is keep quiet. Your wife Hanna seems to have hit it off with Beth and we can give you some contracts with Inn for food supplies. I can safely guarantee all of that. What else do you feel you need?”

  “When Victor finds out his mission has failed, he will send somebody to find us,” Hanna said nervously.

  “No problem we can give you a new identity. You can sell the farm to yourselves and nobody will look for you. We can make it known that MI has arrested you as spies so that nobody will even try. Between Sarah and Susan, we can arrange the whole thing. Feel free to discuss your needs with Susan and Sarah. They will take care of you.”

  “Alex, I believe that we will take you up on your offer,” Vasyl said. After seeing the setup at the Inn, they had no doubt that Alex could keep his word.

  “We don’t want to return to the farm. Victor may have sent somebody else.”

  “Why don’t you stay here tonight? You will be safe, and Susan will make the arrangements. I must get some sleep.” Alex claimed Anna and went to the guest cottage.

  In the morning, Alex claimed Liliana at Susan’s house. Rodger was doing a preflight on the Twin Otter.

  “Where is the first stop, Alex? You never told me.”

  “We are going to Zurich to do some banking.” The flight was smooth Alex had Rodger stay with the plane taking Liliana to the bank in Zurich himself, and were shown into the manager’s office upon their arrival.

  “Noah, how are you today?” Liliana gave Alex a funny look. He squeezed her hand firmly to stop any comment. “I see that you made a withdrawal and a deposit yesterday. You made a transfer to another bank in the amount of three hundred thousand dollars. What are your plans for the rest of the money?” Gunther the banker was surprised that Noah remembered his personal account at the other bank. Noah had deposited three hundred thousand dollars in the account to get Guntur’s attention.

  “I need to transfer four point five million Pounds into a numbered account after we set it up and this lady will be the owner. I would deeply appreciate it if you would take a personal interest.” Noah stressed the word ‘personal’ heavily to insure Guntur’s unrestricted cooperation. “We will need a numbered account and a named account for this lovely lady.

  “That will be no problem. I will be happy to work out the details. Do you want a numbered account, to act as a hub? You can make untraceable deposits out of that into other accounts.”

  “Gunter that would be a perfect setup we will go with that.” Alex gave Guntur Lynn’s secure telephone number. “My accountant will fine tune our arrangements with you.” It took an hour to set up the linked accounts. Alex split her share between the numbered account and the named account. They transferred Laurita and Juan’s accounts into the hub account. Alex accessed both security boxes claiming gold, jewels and documents. The next stop was Geneva where they transferred the cash to the hub account in Zurich. The Roman bank in Italy was the last stop. It was Mooney’s primary account. They moved eighteen million pounds to the Zurich hub account heading back to the Inn with the contents of the security boxes. There appeared to be a few million in gold and jewels. Alex and Liliana settled down in the security center with Lynn to total the days take. The money in the hub account totaled 34 million pounds and the gold and jewels totaled 4 million Pounds.

  Anna offered some advice, “Knowing Laurita’s habits it would be wise to melt the jewelry down and run it through a fence since it could be hot. There is plenty here in gold and cash. Thirty-four million is a chunk. One third will be 11.3 pounds.” Anna turned her attention to Liliana. “Lynn will help you invest the money so the profits look legal and Ramon will help you blend in to the right groups. I would advise you to give Ramon a healthy contribution and Lynn will charge you the normal commissions.”

  “I don’t believe this! Eleven million Pounds is incredible. Keep the other third I can be happy with the eleven.”

  “Make your arrangements with Lynn. I have to take care of some business. She will exchange some of our established investments with your new investments value for value. That way it will look like you have had the money for a long time. I talked to Ramon and his sister will say that you have lived with her for several years.”

  Alex went to the secure phone and called Wanda. It would be nine AM in Chicago. He wanted some more information on the Generals.

  “Wanda, I did some checking around out here. It seems that ‘Mercury’ was running a separate deal with the Russian generals. They sent a raiding party out here. We have a lot of information, but I need to hear what you came up with. I have some addresses that will be hotter than a pistol. Be extremely careful asking around about them. It is a safe bet that they are toxic. Tony might have something that you can use feel free to use my name when you contact him. I will be out there in two or three days.”

  “They tried to hit you!” Wanda exclaimed. “It seems that they are nastier than I thought.”

  “They aren’t that smart. The General known as Victor sent them out cold and they screwed up to the max. They thought that they were after a bunch of whores, so they c
ame in sloppy. We managed to get some information from his team before they continued their journey.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “They were going to take their quest to the gates of hell and we sent them on a free one-way trip.” He detected a slight chuckle on the other end. “Here is what we were able to find out.” Alex recounted all that they revealed. “One thing that would be helpful is some photos of the buildings. Don’t linger just a few drive by passes. When their team does not report in they will go on alert, so don’t delay.”

  “I will get whatever can be had. Tony has been tapped by this group a few times. He lost a few assholes due to the Generals. He has been studying them for some time. I am sure that he can give you an ear full. At the very least he will be glad that you are after them too. The police have a few files on them and know who is doing the nasty jobs. It is hard evidence that is required. The Russian’s are not protected by any important politicians, but they do have a few judges. When their people go to court the cases are thrown out on the slightest technicality. I will get what I can on that front. I do know that they do not hesitate to kill. Several people have turned up missing,” Wanda ran out of information. “I will have more for you in three days.”

  “Tell Tony that the problem came from ‘Mercury’, and I will clean it up. Will this number still work in three days?”

  “It is your personal line to me. We will see you next week.” Wanda broke the connection.

  Alex needed to check with Susan on the logistics. He would need a full rescue package.

  “I need to ship some equipment, and most of it will not pass inspection. Do you still have connections through Everywhere Air?”

  “What are we talking about?”

  “We want to use something about the size of two D containers.”

  Susan shrugged, “That would be the same connection that ‘Mercury’ used to ship the equipment for the Russians. I am sure that we could do something. The size of the package would make the difference. Let me work on it. I still want to help you when it is time to hit the Russians.”

  “I need you here where you can work your magic. We still need to cover the home front, plus you can do much more from here. Lynn can cover us from here too. I will need to work the transfers and the secure line is perfect for that. I want to leave Edward here. You are going to have to care for Adam and Noah anyway. Alice insists on going home to graduate and work on the clinic. Anna and I can do nothing to stop her. Grace will not be a problem, but I still need to cover that area. Jeff and Cassandra are heading home too. They should be alright. Vladimir has a small operation in LA. His adoption agency doesn’t pose much of a threat. The main problem is in Chicago with Victor and Dennis. Their operation runs the gambit. They cover every type of criminal activity.”

  “Alex, they seem to be well organized. Will you be able to make a dent in their game?”

  “If we hit them hard, their operations will fold,” Alex said confidently. “They lost twelve men on the failure here. I am assuming that these men were some of their more advanced players. With the cheesy IDs that they are using, you can bet that they are keeping the help close to home. Their driver’s licenses would not hold up to any hard examination. Wanda is seeing what information she can put together on them. ‘Mercury’ is dead, so they can’t get the outside help from her again. I figure that they may be able to put something together in a few weeks, but I will hit them within seven days. If they want to find out what happened to their team they will have to contact Vasyl and Hanna. Put Sarah on creating some fresh papers for them and sell the farm to the new identity. The farm down the road from us is for sale. See if they want to trade. That would put them completely out of reach of the Generals. We can empty out their place and put a for sale sign on the property. If anybody asks MI is selling confiscated property and that will drive the generals crazy. Ask Vasyl and Hanna what they think of the idea.”

  “Alex, what are you going to do about Alice?”

  “That is the thing that is driving me crazy. She won’t take any protection with her. I wanted to send Nadia, but Alice vetoed that offer. She is determined not to acknowledge any threat. Anna can’t talk any sense into her either. We may just have to trust to chance.”

  “That does not sound like you or Anna.”

  “The one thought I had would be to stay as far away from her as possible,” Alex said. “I seem to be drawing all of the flack. By standing close to her we may make her a target. I am going to leave the whole thing for Anna and Alice to figure out. Mark is going to run the setup for our little expedition. We will have Frank, Suki, Tom, Brent and Ryan from the Inn, plus Anna, Sarah, Nadia and Angela with us. Mark is setting up sixteen auxiliaries to cover the Inn while we are gone. Three hundred Pounds a day for each auxiliary will draw in the good help. I want Jennifer, Nina, Lilia, Irina and Filipa to stay here, at the Inn while we are gone. Bring their families in too. Call it a vacation. I want the amount of exposed area reduced to a minimum.”

  “Alex they attacked my home, business and guests. I want to participate in settling this matter.” Susan was looking for a larger role in the upcoming operation.

  “You and Lynn are the key to our success. I need to have your help with logistics and finance. I don’t want to be out on the road and get caught without either. I also need your talent for analysis. Go over the information that we have. I want to find out who is looking for Vasyl and Hanna. That will be the best indicator as to what their intentions are when their team doesn’t respond. You need to protect the home front. It looks like they sent out their best people with their best equipment. The team used Everywhere Air to get their equipment here. We have an edge with you watching the gate. If they can’t move their equipment another attempt at the Inn will be out of the question.” Susan saw the wisdom in the move, but Lynn still wanted revenge for Susan and Shultz.

  “Lynn you can do what you do best. Attack them financially. Find out if they have any legal funds and hit them hard as only you know how to do. Start by going after that adoption agency. Do anything that you can to keep them distracted.”

  Alex went to Russian hill to consult with Mark at the gun club. Alex found Mark with an array of weapons laid out on the floor.

  “I want to keep Russian weapons exclusively in the game. That will leave a question as to who pulled the raid. I was able to come up with some Russian plastic explosives, detonator cord and detonators. I located several 9 mm Makarov pistols and silenced them. We have our Dragunov and AK 74 units silenced. All of the shell casings and slugs are Russian military, plus I found a supply of handcuffs and leg irons of Russian manufacture.

  “That will be a nice touch. These are Generals that are listed as defectors. There will at least be a question as to the origin of the operation. We may have to take out several targets. We may not be able to retrieve all of the equipment and then we may want to leave it behind.”

  “How much space will this take up?”

  “With the footwear you should need two D containers. That would easily fit in a van.”

  “What do you mean with the footwear Mark?”

  “I found a supply of Russian used shoes and boots. It seems that their former owners will not be using them. If we leave any foot prints they will be Russian too.”

  “With all of the Russian gear, Susan might pass off the shipment as classified material and have it flown into Washington DC as a ‘Black’ diplomatic shipment.”

  “What about ‘Mercury’? You took her out.”

  “I know where her secure phone is. We can make the arrangements from there, so that it looks official. The request will come back to Susan from ‘Mercury’ instead of her originating the request. Susan knows the ropes,” Alex pressed. “We need to take Liliana and Ramon back to Barcelona anyway. We are the only ones that know ‘Mercury’ was taken out. I can get to DC, pick up the containers and drive them to Chicago. With two drivers we can be there within 24 hours. Taking the interstate we will only have to sto
p for gas. Get things packed up. We will make the arrangements. The team can fly into Chicago, and they will not be associated with the gear if something goes wrong. I will start things moving. Frank and Francesca are through touring the Continent and they will be back here tomorrow. They can take Grace, Alice, Cassandra and Jeff back to LA with them. I will have Francesca drop Sarah off in Chicago. Wanda can pick her up at Palwaukee airport. She and Sarah can go over the intelligence while we travel. Have the team fly out commercially on separate airlines. I will have Wanda make arrangements for hotels and transportation. Raoul will finish Liliana’s identity back in Spain. Susan and Lynn can fly to Barcelona with me, and we can go through Juan’s place one more time for a final inspection. There may be something that we missed. She can ask for some MI specialists to help with the search. I am sure the Brits would love a look at the inside of that black operation.” Alex decided to leave for Barcelona in the morning. Anna prepared Sarah, Alice, Cassandra and Jeff for their return. Susan inspected the containers for shipment marking the containers as a high security shipment for a laboratory in Maryland arranging for secured delivery. Francesca and Frank arrived that evening.

  In the morning, the Lear Jet departed for LA. Alex, Anna, Lynn, Susan, Liliana, and Ramon departed for Barcelona with six MI agents. When they landed, they went directly to Juan’s place. They formed into teams going through the mansion with a fine tooth comb. Lynn found three shoe boxes with a note taped to the outside of the boxes. YOU CAN HAVE SOME REAL FUN WITH THESE! It was signed Lady Pain, Lynn lifted a Rhinestone shoe out of a box, and her hand started to bleed. Lynn threw the shoe back in the box.

  “This bitch was seriously twisted.” Lynn found a few more stashes of blackmail evidence including more film. Everybody got together in the pool house to watch two reels of film. It was different from the other snuff films. Susan noticed the different surroundings. The back ground looked more like a ‘cheesey dungeon set’ and most of the women were pregnant. Anna spotted one woman directing the activities.