‘D.B. Cooper.’ Colin spoke softly, knowing Ray would recognise the name.
Bert and Doc assumed quizzical looks as Ray slowly nodded and broke into a smile. ‘Yeah … I forgot about him. He’s one all right.’
‘One what?’ queried Bert.
‘A hijacker that got away with it,’ Colin told him.
‘How?’ The question hung in the air.
‘Joined as a passenger and pulled a gun,’ Ray told him. ‘He even got them to land the plane so he could pick up half a million dollars’ ransom money. Then he let the passengers go and got the crew to take off again.’
‘It happened in America,’ Colin took up the story. ‘Cooper jumped and neither him or the money have been heard of since. But the thing is,’ Colin made his point, ‘he never fired a shot. For all anyone knows he could have had a water pistol.’
‘There was another one,’ Ray started to speak.
‘I know about him,’ Colin interrupted. ‘But they found traces of blood on the tailplane fuselage and think he killed himself on the way out. No body was ever found though, so they never got to the bottom of the story.’
‘That’s true,’ Ray agreed. ‘If I remember correctly, it was a Boeing 707 he jumped from and you can’t make a safe side exit from that type of aircraft. The speed is too high, and they think he got swept back and hit the tailplane.’
Colin jabbed the table with a stiff finger. ‘The fact remains – they both took over a plane and got out of it without even firing a shot!’
Ray agreed with him. ‘I don’t think anyone’s ever fired a shot during a hijack, at least not in the air anyway. Believe me, no one will argue with an armed man on board a plane.’
‘So,’ Colin emphasised, ‘Even with replicas, no one will interfere with you. If the hijack’s set up right it’ll be a walkover – just like the two guys in America.’
‘You just said one of them got killed,’ Bert objected.
‘Nobody knows that for certain. And if he was killed it was because he didn’t do his homework properly.’ Colin argued. ‘Not because he lost control in the plane. But we’ve got Ray and he can keep us right on the finer points of jumping. Once I’ve convinced you and Doc to go ahead with this, you’ll be signing up with a parachute club. With what they’ll teach you, and Ray to keep you right, the job will be a scoosh case.’
‘There’s no question about it,’ Ray told them. ‘Get on board an aircraft with a gun, or anything that even looks like a gun, and a hijack’s a done deal. And from the way you’re talking I gather you don’t intend using genuine handguns?’
‘We’re not into shooting people, Ray,’ Colin reminded him. ‘And as you know yourself, guns are dangerous things. From what I’ve read and what you’ve just said, a dummy gun is just as effective as a real one in a hijack situation, except there’s no chance of shooting anyone. That’s the way we want it.’
‘Yeah,’ Bert’s voice was becoming more positive. ‘Yeah, that’s the way it has to be. And judging from what I’ve heard, it sounds all right to me. Okay, Colin. For three million quid, run it by us again, old son.’
Once again Colin ran through the broad outline of his plan. With each explanation he was becoming increasingly familiar and happy about it and now, with Ray on board, he knew the job was well within the firm’s capabilities.
‘As I see it,’ he concluded, ‘our biggest problem is getting the plane to the right spot for dropping the gold. That’s the reason we need someone with experience. We need the extra information Ray can give us about jumping under conditions out there.’ He sat back, knowing there would be questions.
‘What type of aircraft are we talking about?’ Ray asked. ‘Some of them can be very awkward to jump from, you know. That’s where the guy in the States came unstuck.’
‘It’s an old Dakota, a DC-3 I think they’re called,’ Colin told him. ‘Twin engine, and the passenger door is well clear of the propellers. I took special note of that.’
‘I know the plane – seen them on airfields. And you’re right about the passenger door; the army always used DC-3s for the parachute regiment until the Hercules plane came in. It’s a slow plane so there wouldn’t be any difficulty in jumping.’
‘Well, it’s about a 140-mile flight and they do it in just over the hour. So it must be averaging about 150 miles an hour, allowing for take-off and landing speeds,’ Colin told him.
‘You can jump at that speed if you’ve had experience, Colin. But you’re not going to get that kind of experience in a parachute club – more like Cessnas at seventy-five knots.’
‘We can’t expect to have it all our own way,’ Colin pointed out. ‘As long as it’s a reasonable risk we have to take it. You don’t make three million quid sitting on your arse!’
‘Well, even amateurs would be safe enough up to about 150 knots,’ Ray admitted. ‘But at higher speeds the risk of an accident increases.’
‘How long does it take to learn to use a parachute?’ Doc asked. ‘I’ve never even seen one before except on the telly.’
‘It’s nothing,’ Ray turned to him. ‘I still do a bit of weekend instructing with a club over Aldershot way. We have people come along in the morning, they do a couple of tandem jumps in the morning and by the middle of the afternoon they are making their first static-line jump. Nothing to it. Some of them make two or three jumps on their first day.’
‘It’s as easy as that?’
‘You’d skate it, Doc! You too, Bert,’ Ray confirmed with a positive nod.
‘Okay,’ Bert turned to Colin. ‘We’ll agree that learning to parachute is easy enough, but there’s a lot more to this job than just jumping with a parachute.’ He stubbed out his cigarette and immediately lit another, a sure sign that he was thinking hard. ‘We’d have to force the pilot to fly us to the spot where we want to dump the gold and that means he’d be able to pinpoint the area for the coppers. They’d be onto us in minutes.’
‘No danger!’ Colin argued. ‘I’ve told you about the police out there, and they’re not trained for anything like this. We’d be moving off within ten minutes of hitting the ground and be miles away before they could even begin to react. A jump ahead of them, so to speak.’
‘When you say, “dump the gold”,’ Ray looked at Bert. ‘D’you mean just sort of … toss it out the door?’
‘Well, yes. I thought that was the idea. Get it into a couple of sacks, chuck it out and follow it down in parachutes.’
Ray shook his head. ‘Couldn’t be done,’ he said. ‘At a terminal velocity of over 120 miles an hour it would splatter all over the place. In the meantime you’d be floating about in the sky in your parachutes and landing miles away from the gold. You’d be lucky to ever see it again, and it would take hours to gather in even if you did find it. Believe me, Colin, just chucking it down is a no-no.’
‘Well, we’re here to discuss problems and ideas, aren’t we?’ Colin appealed. ‘That’s what this meeting is all about.’ He turned to Ray. ‘You’re the expert. How would you handle the drop?’
‘No options.’ Ray’s voice was confident. ‘The gold would have to go down in ‘chutes the same as us. That way it stays together on impact and we land right beside it. Which means we can clear the DZ – sorry, that’s the drop zone – more quickly.’
‘Good. Good.’ Colin was nodding. ‘That makes a lot of sense.’
‘I’m still not happy about the time element,’ Bert said doubtfully. ‘I don’t know much about Ghana, but I’m willing to bet that there’s not a lot of roads out there. Once the pilot gets the word out it wouldn’t take long to set up roadblocks, even if the police are crap. I’d feel a lot happier if we could keep the pilot from knowing where we jumped.’
Colin wagged a finger at him. ‘I’ve got ideas about that.’
‘So?’ Three pairs of eyes focused on him.
‘We supply our own pilot.’
‘Fuck me!’ Bert threw his arms in the air. ‘Be reasonable, Colin. First we have to learn t
o parachute. Now you want us to learn how to fly a fucking aeroplane!’
‘You don’t have to learn to fly anything,’ Colin told him. ‘Nor Doc. You two will be busy doing your stuff with the parachute jumping.’ He sat back, pleased with himself. ‘But Ray here, he’s already an expert in the parachute department. He’s the one that can learn to fly.’ Colin clapped his hands together, almost in applause for himself. ‘Fuck me,’ he said, ‘he’s even got a bit of experience.’
Three pairs of eyes settled on Ray.
‘What do you think about flying a plane?’ Colin asked.
Ray took on a quizzical expression as he leant his head to one side. ‘Learn to fly, you mean?’
‘That’s right,’ Colin nodded.
‘Well,’ Ray rubbed his chin. ‘I’ve seen enough of flying to know there’s no big mystery about it; some of the private pilots I’ve met were as thick as two short planks. So yeah, I’m pretty sure I could learn to fly all right.’
‘Good!’ Colin turned to Bert and Doc. ‘So that’s it.’ He was triumphant. ‘You two get on with the parachute jumping and Ray joins a flying club.’
‘I’m happy enough with that,’ Ray agreed. ‘But I’m not going to learn to fly a DC-3 at any old flying club. More like Cessnas and Pipers – small single-engine jobs.’
‘You don’t have to learn to fly a DC-3,’ Colin told him. ‘You only need to be able to hold a course and alter the speed. Most of the hard work in flying is done during take-off and landing and you wouldn’t be doing any of that.’
Ray was smiling. ‘Yeah,’ his head nodded approval. ‘I like it!’ He leant forward enthusiastically. ‘From what I’ve seen, I don’t think I would have a problem holding a plane on course.’
‘And since we’d have our own man at the controls, the pilot could be tied up in the passenger cabin. He’d have no idea where we dropped the stuff,’ Colin pointed out.
Bert deflated the rising enthusiasm. ‘And the minute he gets back into the cabin he just has to find a landmark and radio in our location.’
‘Aye,’ Colin tapped fingers against his glass. ‘That’s one of the problems we’ve got to get sorted out.’
‘We could destroy his radio,’ Ray suggested. ‘Then he couldn’t report anything until he landed at an airport.’
‘And the nearest airport would be about fifty miles away,’ Colin muttered.
‘That would be about fifteen to twenty minutes’ flying time,’ Ray made the calculation for him.
‘Not long enough!’ Bert objected. ‘Nowhere near long enough! Even if the cops are a bunch of geriatrics, they could have us surrounded within an hour. Remember,’ he jabbed a warning finger in the air. ‘We’d be heading in their direction.’
‘As I see it,’ the reasonable tones of Ray’s voice cooled things, ‘the longer we can control the plane, the more time we gain on the ground.’ His observation was met by nods from the others. ‘So we have to come up with an idea to keep the pilot out of the cabin after we jump.’
‘But what about the plane?’ Bert demanded. ‘It can’t fly itself, and there’s no way I’m leaving it to crash. That’s definitely not on!’ He waved a hand in absolute dismissal.
‘But the plane can fly itself,’ Ray stated emphatically. ‘Automatic pilot! I’ve seen some of the pilots setting them when I’ve been doing my dispatcher. I can make a point of finding out how they are operated. Even get on board a DC3 and see the real thing. If I can learn to set the automatic pilot …’
‘Now you’re talking!’ Bert’s voice sounded out encouragingly. ‘That’s the way we’ve got to think, otherwise the whole thing is just not on.’
‘And what Ray says is the answer,’ Colin came back at him. ‘If we can keep the pilot out of the cabin for a specific length of time after the jump, we’ll have all the time we need.’
‘Get that and I’m happy,’ Bert nodded. ‘How do you feel about it, Doc?’
‘I like it,’ he replied. ‘We get that extra time you’re on about and it’ll be a doddle.’ He turned to Ray with a grin. ‘You’re a real bag of tricks, mate.’
‘Initiative, they call it, Doc. Initiative.’ Ray grinned back at him, pleased at his easy acceptance into the group.
‘Okay then,’ Colin addressed Bert and Doc. ‘Ray here can put you in touch with a parachute club – the sooner the better. Get in as much practice as you can before the big event.’
‘Yeah,’ Ray agreed. ‘Most of these clubs are weekend affairs and it can be difficult to accumulate jumps, but there’s a full-time parachute school up Nottingham way at a place called Langer. They do top-class professional training seven days a week so you should be able get in plenty of jumps.’ He turned to Colin. ‘What about you, you signing up too?’
‘Not me!’ Colin laughed. ‘You won’t catch me leaping out of aeroplanes. No, seriously,’ he sobered up. ‘I’ll be the man on the ground. I’ll be spending the next few weeks setting things up at my end. But there’s still a lot of details to be sorted out before I go back. And you’ll have to make a list of what we’ll need by way of equipment.’
‘How long before you have to head back?’ Ray asked.
‘There’s a ship picking me up at Lagos this coming Friday, so I’ve got four full days left here.’
‘Let me think about it. I’ll need to sort out the best type of ‘chutes for us, and then there’s the other odds and ends we’ll need. I’ll be able to give you a full list by tomorrow. Wednesday at the latest.’
‘That’ll be fine. Just as long as I know what you’ll be sending to me.’
Ray made a vague gesture with his hand. ‘About the flying lessons, Colin. I don’t have the money for that myself.’ He seemed slightly embarrassed at the admission.
Colin’s hand went up. ‘Sorry, Ray. We should have settled that earlier.’ He turned to the other two. ‘The flying lessons come out of the kitty.’ He took their agreement for granted. ‘And Ray can draw living expenses when he’s off work.’ He turned back to him. ‘You can keep on with Eddie part-time if you like – that should throw you a few extra quid, okay?’
‘Yeah, that will suit me fine, Colin. And guys,’ he looked at each of them in turn. ‘You can rely on me. I won’t let you down.’ His chin jutted defiantly, still a little embarrassed at the open-handed treatment, but daring them to laugh at him for his little speech of affirmation.
*
On Wednesday they were once again settled in Bert’s living room, listening as Ray referred to a notepad, reading out his requisitions.
‘Okay, we’ll need two twenty-four-foot emergency ‘chutes to drop the gold. They’re designed to take about 250 pounds weight, but that’s for landing a body safely. They can handle a lot more if the load is equipment or,’ Ray tilted his lean face to grin at them, ‘gold bars. Then we’ll need two twenty-six-foot ‘chutes for Bert and Doc. The low-porosity double ‘L’ type are best. That’s the basic model you’ll be using when you join a club and you should be familiar with them by then. The other ‘chute,’ he looked up, ‘the one I’ll be using, is a more advanced Ram-Air type.’
‘We don’t want any scrimping on the gear,’ Colin warned. ‘Everything depends on us having good equipment.’
‘This stuff is ideal for the job,’ Ray insisted. ‘The emergency ‘chutes will take up less room than the standard type and are still more than adequate for the gold. On top of that, they’ll fit into small duffle bags and we can pack our personal ‘chutes into decent-sized hand-baggage.’
‘What about crash helmets?’ Colin asked. ‘They’re pretty massive, surely?’
‘Yeah, they gave me a problem at first,’ Ray agreed. ‘But we can use the old-fashioned crash helmets track cyclists used to wear; they’re made of leather and fold into nothing.’
‘I told you you’d earn your money,’ Colin grinned at him. ‘What other ideas have you come up with?’
‘Well, there’s the problem of opening the emergency ‘chutes. Static lines are the usual thing but they’
re too bulky for us. I decided on using KAP automatic openers – they’re operated by a mechanical timer that throws out the canopy. Czech made – good stuff!’ Ray appeared to have thought of everything. It was an impressive, confidence-building display of knowledge.
‘So all you’ve got to do now is buy the gear and air-freight it out to the address I’ve left with you and we’re in business,’ Colin said when Ray had completed his report.
‘I must admit,’ Bert said, ‘it’s starting to look good.’ He turned his pugnacious, bulldog look on Ray. ‘I only hope this parachuting business is as easy as you’re making out.’
‘You’ll love it Bert; you and Doc both. I bet you keep it up for fun when this is all over!’ Ray grinned back at him.
‘We’ll see,’ Bert muttered.
‘Now, what about yourself?’ Colin turned to Ray. ‘Made any enquires about flying lessons?’
‘There’s umpteen clubs, Colin. Some of the bigger ones put you through a full PPL – that’s a Private Pilot’s Licence – in just three weeks! I’ll have no problems.’
‘Well, you know what’s wanted. Just stick in and learn all you can. We need all the aces we can get for this job. And remember,’ he stressed, ‘you’ve only got about five weeks to prepare.’
*
On Friday morning they met once again for a final discussion before Colin left for the airport. He addressed them as they settled into chairs.
‘Everything’s going smoothly and you’re all booked for the fight trip.’ He turned to Ray. ‘It was a good idea of yours to make your own travel arrangements. Now there’s nothing to tie the three of you together – good thinking.’ He smiled, already appreciating Ray’s contribution to the firm. ‘Ray has the business of buying the gear well in hand and by the time you arrive in Ghana I’ll have everything set up. All you’ve got to do is get there as unobtrusively as possible. Mix with the crowd, but don’t let yourselves get too pally with anyone in case they miss you later on. As long as you don’t get involved with a group you should be able to slip away without anyone noticing. And remember, from the moment you arrive in Accra you’ll be run off your feet. You won’t have a minute to spare until it’s all over and you’re sitting at the fight.’
Ashanti Gold Page 13
