Echo (The Remote Traveler Series Book 3)
Page 34
“We have to be careful,” Winnie said with genuine concern which surprised both Rhonda and Cherry. “I knew that something like this would happen. Reid told Molly that she thought the ‘Old Fart’ was doing something. If this gets out, he will be ruined. His district is so conservative he will lose his seat. Which doctor did you call?” Cherry let Rhonda continue since she was on a roll.
“We have a special doctor that we pay very well for his discretion,” Rhonda continued. “He is one that Paul Valiant uses all the time because of his disregard for facts about sensitive back ground information.”
“How is it that you have such a close relationship with Director Valiant,” Winnie asked.
“Both Cherry and I hold the highest security clearance that this country has,” Rhonda explained softly. “We both worked under him not long ago and we were keepers of the secrets.”
“Is that how you got into the governments checkbook,” Winnie waved her arm around indicating the property.
“The only government money involved in this project is the fee that we are paid to maintain backup records for the NSA,” Rhonda said. “We have crossed paths with Senator Belight, because he is the subject of some extremely sensitive records. We know him for the scumbag that he is.”
“And what incident put him in those records,” Winnie pressed.
“That is a ‘beyond secret issue’…” Rhonda started to say when she was interrupted by a weak voice from over her shoulder.
“Fucking ‘A’ right…” Marvin said weakly. “You promised.”
“That’s right Winnie,” Rhonda said in a patient tone unflustered by the interruption. “We hold true to our promises even when we make them to a piece of shit like the Senator.” Marvin held out both hands with the middle finger extended toward the three women.
“Screw that nosy bitch,” Marvin rasped hoarse from his screaming. Winnie stormed out of the room sorry that she had shown any concern for the old degenerate. Rhonda took a little white pill from the aluminum foil forcing it under his tongue picking up her cell phone.
“Mary Lee you need to continue your patient’s treatment,” Rhonda broke the connection not waiting for an answer. She took Cherry by the arm leading her out of the room.
“He could lose his mind,” Cherry protested.
“Now, that would be a real loss,” Rhonda’s venom was obvious. Cherry nodded in agreement as she allowed herself to be guided out of the room.
Paul and Felicia were in awe of the image of their design as it was displayed as a working model on the 70-inch screen. Boris was pointing out small eddies as the digital water moved through the model.
“How did you get all of this,” Paul asked incensed by the thoroughness of the mockup.
“Wayne Haggard had Salvador Ardent use a cloning laptop that William McLeod unknowingly brought in to download the complete computer files from your company. You hired William from Ardent computers, so all that Salvador did was to give him a parting gift,” Boris pointed out. “William knew nothing about the ruse.”
“So you have all of our designs,” Felicia screeched.
“And your financial records plus every other record that was on that computer along with the sex videos that you and Paul made for giggles,” Boris added lewdly. “That ‘Maid’s costume’ didn’t hide that birthmark on the back of your leg.” Felicia blushed furiously and Paul flushed with anger.
“Well, if I had any doubts about those bastards deserving what they got, I don’t anymore,” Paul raged.
“Then you won’t mind claiming Wayne Haggard’s stake in Titan / Hall shipbuilding,” Rhonda stated more than asked as she pulled Cherry into the room.
“We didn’t…” Felicia began.
“Somebody has to claim it,” Rhonda interrupted. “If you don’t claim it somebody else will and you will have to deal with a mystery partner.”
“We are not going along with this just for the money,” Paul insisted. “This is something that happened outside of our influence and we are cooperating not participating. We will go with chance and gamble on a new partner.” Rhonda nodded to Cherry.
“I am glad to hear that,” Cherry laughed. “We were buying your stock as fast as it hit the market through subsidiaries around the world, and we own 65% of the Titan stock along with 38% of the Hall stock for a little over 51% of the new stock. We want you as senior partners so we will sell you five percent of the new stock.”
“Why…” Felicia asked dumbfounded by the generous offer.
“We need your cooperation to make this work, and unwilling partners spell disaster.” Cherry said brightly. “You have a gift for invention and we want your future talent not just what you have produced so far.”
“But why senior partners…” Felicia pressed.
“We may need you to buy up stock in other companies, that have related interests,” Cherry joined in. “Several of our associated companies bought your stock and we supplied the money. We sometimes need to be invisible until the purchase is complete. No laws were broken because no company held more than five percent of the stock. You were busy with your inventing and Titan was busy trying to steal your invention, therefore neither one of you noticed what we were doing.”
“You mean that Wayne Haggard could have pulled this off,” Paul said sounding somewhat panicked.
“He did the front work and Salvador arranged the sneaky shit,” Rhonda proclaimed. “Cherry and Boris did the blocking that kept you alive to have this discussion.”
“I think that you may count on our discretion in this matter,” Paul said somewhat shaken nodding toward Felicia. “What about Senator Belight and his assistant Reid?”
“Reid is not a problem, but Marvin is a complete wild card,” Rhonda said. “However the fact that Salvador actually tried to kill him will tip him in our favor and Senator Ransom is convinced that this is a matter of National Security, so she will go along with us since Salvador tried to kill her too.”
“And you are going to just give us the five percent,” Felicia scoffed.
“No you are going to build us a small container freighter with your new twin turbine engines at cost. It should have a rating a rating of 200 TEU’s, two cranes that house roll compensators and a minimum range of ten thousand miles.” Cherry read the look on both Paul and Felicia’s face, so she pressed on. “We will of course cover the expenses and for the five percent you will kick in your profit. Boris will help you work out the control issues which you are still having problems with. The ship should be driven by thrusters not propellers and we will also require accommodations for fifty crewmen.”
“With our design you should be able to run the ship with about six people and 240 TEU would be more in keeping with the size ratio that would work best while still maintaining a relatively shallow draft allowing for a high freeboard which would give you just over 11,000 tons of capacity for a small but extremely fast freighter,” Paul smiled at his conclusion. “A ship like that would be the perfect smuggler if we weren’t using it for a test ship.”
“Of course it would be equipped with all of the latest toys, for demonstration purposes and testing,” Rhonda said in an exaggerated tone. “It would also have to keep up with all of the fleet types.”
“Naturally…” Paul agreed dreaming of a 340-foot Freighter with an 80-foot beam. Felicia was already formulating her toy list imagining how she’d fit twin turbines in the engine spaces. Felicia was already at the computer terminal that Boris had assigned her playing with the idea of all ‘laughed at’ innovations that she could test without building a physical model.
Fyodor was relieved to find that his flight to Moscow was a commercial flight which gave him hope that his indiscretion had not been discovered. When Uri had called he had thought that the FSB had found out about the half a million dollars that he had paid to Crasher to take out Four Diamonds Security. He was in first class on the direct flight to Moscow listed as a VIP. About a half hour from landing the Flight attendant came by with a last of
fering of vodka and caviar. The vodka was excellent and the flight attendant had given him the whole container of caviar which he attacked wolfishly. Fyodor watched out the window as the plane maneuvered for its landing. Some invisible hand grabbed at his chest feeling like a vise and in less than a minute Fyodor had expired causing the woman across the aisle from him to start screaming which the flight attendant did nothing about until the plane was taxing on the ground. She placed a blanket over poor Fyodor allowing the woman to continue screaming since she thought it was a nice touch. The medics pronounced him dead. They made sure he was dead in the ambulance.
The private phone rang in Paul Valiant’s office on the direct line from the head of the FSB.
“This is Paul Valiant,” He slurred having had more than a few drinks waiting for the call. “I hope that this is my friend Uri.”
“This is indeed your friend,” Uri said with a somber tone. “I do have some bad news for you.”
“I hope that you are not going to disappoint me on that issue with Fyodor,” Paul said blandly.
“Unfortunately, I must,” Uri said with a touch of melancholy. “I was unable to even talk with him. It seems that he had a heart attack on the aircraft just before landing. We had no chance of interrogating him.”
“Then you don’t know what happened to the quarter million.”
“No that will always be a mystery here,” Uri coughed.
“I believe that we might be able to find what happened to it. I believe that I will see you in person just after I have an answer,” Paul offered.
“Those were State funds and I would like to reclaim them,” Uri whined playfully.
“Do you have an account that you need to ‘RETURN’ them to,” Paul asked carefully. “The best that I could do would be half since there was a lot of damage.”
“I will give you the number when you are sure of the location.” Uri laughed. “I would prefer all of the funds, but ‘half’ would be better than nothing,” Uri whined playfully.
“Then I believe that you will see me in Luxemburg in five days.” Paul said brightly.
“Yes, in five days,” Uri said excitedly.
Paul slammed the phone down exclaiming, ‘SOLD’. He and Uri fed each other’s retirement accounts knowing that their respective governments would cut them off at the ankles someday.
Marvin passed out again and the three conspirators rolled him back into bed noting that he shot his load a second time.
“We are not doing shit to drive him crazy,” Blake complained. “The rotten old pervert is getting his rocks off on this. Just look at the smile on his face. He is so far gone that he is immune to this shit.”
“Let’s go again,” Marvin begged. “I haven’t had a nut like that since I raped Reid over my desk.”
“You didn’t even notice that I was really a woman,” Blake screamed.
“Who cares,” Marvin said callously. “A nut is a nut.”
“We are never going to make this simple son of a bitch crazy enough to forget last night,” Molly complained.
“Screw those assholes they tried to kill me,” Marvin flared. “At least you are trying to screw me into submission.” The trio made a hurried move for the door.
“Hey what about me,” Marvin protested. Mary Lee tossed him a tube of KY.
“Do it yourself!”
DISCLAIMER
This is a fictional work. As a fictional work certain situations mentioned in this book may bear a resemblance to real life situations. The author claims no participation in or direct knowledge of any illegal events described in this book. To the best of the author’s knowledge the countries, companies, organizations, agencies, and persons described in this book have not participated in and have no knowledge of any of the events described in this book.
FINIAN BLAKE
THE MERCURY AUTHORITY SERIES
BOOK ONE CONVOLUTED JOURNEY
An expert in deniability, Hermes receives contracts to deliver arms and restricted technology to groups that the government cannot authorize. He assumes the name Noah Body. Once he receives his assignment he is on his own. Noah must make the deliveries with minimal official help. Using various identities, he moves around the world making friends and enemies, while trying to complete his contracts using resources from his shadowy past in order to succeed.
BOOK TWO COMMANDEERED
Hermes assumes the name Adam Furst. He has promised his new wife Terri that he will go straight. Noah has invested his profits from an unauthorized arms deal in an exclusive hide away run by a former British Agent named Susan. Life is promising and their investments are paying off, however after two years his former employer ‘Mercury’ wants him to run a load of arms to Afghanistan. A threat to Susan and Noah’s wife Terri tests his intention to start a different life.
BOOK THREE MERCURY DESCENDING
Hermes assumes the name Alexander Chalenger. He is told by Mercury that he must clean up some problems from his last mission. As he prepares to take on this task a voice from his distant past causes him to reflect on his origins. He finds that he must deal with his past life before he can clean up his errors.
THE REMOTE TRAVELER SERIES
BOOK ONE: THE REMOTE TRAVELER
Edward Chalenger is the primary subject for a remote viewing project with little chance of success. When the project succeeds beyond expectations it is realized that no secret is safe from his view and a sweeper team is dispatched to eliminate everybody involved causing Edward to use his new to protect his family.
BOOK TWO: THE SWEEPER FILE
Senator Marvin Belight decides to examine ‘The Sweeper File’ knowing that he may be mentioned in blackmail evidence contained in it. He gets a member of the justice department to look into the file covertly putting the Chalenger family in jeopardy once again. Edward Chalenger and his wife Layla must use their new found talents to save their family once again.
BOOK THREE: ECHO
Four Diamonds Security has just launched its new computer security division ending up with a no bid contract with the NSA to back up sensitive data. All of its competitors will go to extreme lengths to make sure that they fail their test. “All is fair in love and business”.
BOOK FOUR: ARTEMIS
Built as a black ops ship from the keel up the ARTEMIS receives its first assignment before she finishes her sea trials. Her crew must stop a revolution in a small Islamic country. In the process they discover a hub for a worldwide human trafficking operation. Critical decisions will put the whole Four Diamonds organizations at risk.