The Black Ice Score p-1

by Richard Stark

  “And where’s the Colonel?”

  “Still in Tchidanga,” Gonor said, and explained, “our capital. He is not entirely trusted, and if he were to attempt abruptly to leave the country he would probably be hung from a handy lamppost.”

  “We have lampposts in Tchidanga,” Formutesca said. “We’re very proud of them.”

  Gonor said something to him in that other language, quick and quiet, and Formutesca suddenly looked sheepish. In English Gonor said, “Happily, we learned about our Colonel’s plans in time. Dhaba will be three years old on the first of June, and ostensibly in celebration of that fact Colonel Lubudi intends to travel to New York and address the United Nations.”

  “They’ll let him out of the country then?”

  “He won’t be traveling alone,” Gonor said dryly. “And you can be assured his luggage will be thoroughly searched, perhaps several times.”

  Claire said, “Would the Colonel put up with something like that?”

  Formutesca told her, “None of it will be happening out in the open.”

  “On the surface,” Gonor explained, “we are all very happy and trusting toward one another.”

  Claire said, “Why?”

  “Foreign investment,” said Formutesca.

  “European and American business concerns,” Gonor said, “tend to pull out of African nations at the first hint of trouble. Which is only natural.”

  “Not only is insurrection hard on factory buildings and equipment,” Formutesca added, “but revolutionary governments tend to nationalize everything they can get their hands on.

  “Whatever we do,” Gonor said, “must therefore be done with utmost discretion. None of us dares hint in public that we mistrust our president. None of us dares make a public move to stop his preparations for retirement at national expense. We can only try to learn his plans and keep them from happening.”

  Parker said, “His money’s in New York. If I’m the specialist you’re looking for, you want someone to steal the money back for you.”

  “Not exactly,” Gonor said, “but very close. We didn’t merely want a thief; we wouldn’t ask a thief to take the risks of safeguarding our national honor for us.”

  Parker nodded. “Besides, he might not turn it over to you when he got it.”

  “Also a possibility,” Gonor said. “So what we have been looking for is a planner, the sort of individual who organizes large-scale robberies.”

  Parker said, “You want me to plan the job?”

  “Yes.”

  “And who does it, once I plan it?”

  Gonor gestured at himself and at Formutesca. “We do. Four of us from the mission.”

  “Have you ever done anything like it before? Any of you?”

  Gonor shook his head. “No. But we are willing to learn.”

  “You’re amateurs who”

  There was a knock at the door. Parker saw Gonor and Formutesca tense. He turned and opened the door, and it was the other two. They came in quickly and one of them spoke to Gonor, who shook his head.

  Parker said, “Gone?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “He scares easy,” Parker said. “That’s the second time today.”

  “Hoskins is a cautious man,” Gonor said.

  “So am I,” said Parker. “And so far I don’t like what you’re up to.”

  Gonor frowned. “Why not?”

  “You want me to train you to do something you don’t have any experience at. You’ve gone around talking loose talk to a lot of wrong people, telling bees all about this pot of honey you know about. So there’s Hoskins buzzing around, there’s this other bunch buzzing around who are they, anyway?”

  “I’m not sure,” Gonor said. “They trouble me, in fact. Three white men? Unless they are from Karns

  but I don’t believe Karns would have sent me to you and then sent others to tell you not to help me.”

  “They had accents,” Parker said. “Faint accents, maybe something like yours.”

  Formutesca said something, very fast. The other two looked excited and said things. Gonor shook his head, looking angry, and snapped something back at them. Then he turned away, saying, “I don’t like his being involved.”

  “Who?” Parker said.

  “General Goma,” said Formutesca.

  “Yes,” said Gonor. He turned back to Parker. “You see,” he said, “Dhaba was formed from parts of two former colonies. There were certain white factions who wanted to retain control through front men, primarily through General Goma, who was the other candidate in our first election. But Goma’s connection with the whites became known and he was defeated.”

  Formutesca said, “There was a rumor around for a while that he was building a mercenary army, going to take over anyway, but nothing came of it.”

  Gonor said, “Nothing could come of it. Mercenary armies take money, and General Goma has none. His white supporters are former colonists, and of course most of their valuables stayed behind in Dhaba. Without money, General Goma is no threat.”

  “So he’s after the diamonds too,” Formutesca said.

  Parker said, “Diamonds?”

  “The Dhaba unit of currency,” Gonor said, “is the basoko. It is not a hard currency, of course, and Colonel Lubudi naturally didn’t dare ship large amounts of it out of the country. In the first place, a great quantity of basoko in the world markets would attract attention to itself. In the second place, if his defection created a sufficiently large dislocation in his wake, the basoko could quickly become valueless.”

  “You can’t retire on yesterday’s currency,” said Formutesca.

  “So what he did,” Gonor said, “was convert basoko into real property and then reconvert that into diamonds, doing most of his conversions in South Africa.”

  Parker said, “Who has the diamonds?”

  “The Colonel’s brother-in-law, Patrick Kasempa. He is married to the Colonel’s sister, making him the one person in the world the Colonel can fully trust.”

  “They’re here in New York,” Parker said, “and they have the diamonds.”

  “Yes.”

  “They have guards around the place?”

  “They are well protected,” Gonor said.

  Parker shook his head. “What you’ve got here,” he said, “is a very sloppy setup. The diamonds are well protected, there’s other groups also after them, and you’ve got people like Hoskins hanging around. You’ll never do it without making noise and trouble, and you probably won’t come out of it with the diamonds in your possession.”

  “With a professional to lead us”

  “No.”

  Gonor looked at him. “You won’t help us?”

  “You can’t behelped,” Parker told him. “There’s too many elements involved. The only thing for you to do is go to this Colonel and tell him you know what’s up and that he won’t get away with it.”

  Gonor shook his head. “We couldn’t. If he knew we were aware of his plans, he would have no choice but to try to kill us or escape or both.”

  Formutesca said, “With your help, we could get the diamonds.”

  “No. Aside from everything else, you have a pigeon in with you.”

  Gonor frowned. “A what?”

  “A squealer, he means,” Formutesca said. “An informer. A traitor.”

  Parker said, “The three that were here before, the ones you said are working with this General Goma, they got here beforeyou, which means they knew your plans; they didn’t just follow you to me.”

  “Hoskins”

  “Hoskins followed them,” Parker said. “They probably talked to him when he was working for you and found out he wasn’t any threat. But since then he’s kept tabs on them, which is how he got to me. Because the only name he knew for me was the one I’m registered under, but the other three knew me as Parker. That could only come from your crowd.”

  Gonor said, “Yes. We must have someone in our group trying to safeguard himself in case Goma shou
ld win.”

  “It looks that way. It also looks like they’ll get to the diamonds before you do.”

  Gonor shook his head. “No. They’ll let us do the stealing and then try to take the diamonds away from us. Because I am the only one in the group, Mr Parker, who knows where Patrick Kasempa and the diamonds are.” He looked around at the others, then back at Parker. “There is no point in continuing this discussion,” he said, “until we have removed the traitor. If you will excuse us now, we will call on you again at a later time.”

  “All right,” said Parker.

  Gonor said something to the others and headed for the door. The others followed him, Formutesca stopping for a second in front of Parker to say, “It isn’t really as sloppy as it sounds. And we are not the total amateurs you take us for.”

  “That’s good,” Parker said.

  They went out. Parker shut the door after them, turned to Claire, and said, “Pack.”

  6

  “They’re back,” Claire said.

  The Miami sun was straight overhead. They were having lunch in a glass-walled restaurant, the air inside cold and dry. Outside, pink and white cars with chrome slid by.

  Parker looked at her. “Who’s back?”

  She nodded at the street. Parker looked that way, and through the glass he saw three men, black, short, dressed in slacks and short-sleeved shirts, standing out there. They were in a little cluster and they seemed to be talking to one another, but the one in the middle was looking directly at Parker. It was Gonor.

  Claire said, “I thought you talked to Handy.”

  “I did.” He’d called Handy before leaving New York and told him not to give his address to the people from Dhaba any more. But here they were.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll be back,” he said, and got to his feet and went out of the restaurant. The air outside was like dirty dishcloths. Parker walked through it to the three men, Gonor in the middle. Formutesca on the left, one of the other two from the first meeting on the right.

  Gonor was keeping most of the self-satisfaction from his smile. “Very hot today, Mr Parker.”

  “You put a tail on me.”

  “I’m afraid so, yes. Mr Formutesca here followed you when you left your hotel in New York.”

  Formutesca was letting all his self-satisfaction show. “We thought we hadn’t made a good impression on you,” he said, “so you might decide to go away. And that’s what you did.”

  “We were determined,” Gonor said, “to correct that impression. Keeping track of you was, you will admit, not sloppiness.”

  Parker nodded. “So?”

  “You will also notice,” Gonor said, “that we are one less than previously. We found our traitor.”

  “You sure he was the one?”

  Gonor’s smile contained a small hint of delicate savagery. “We’re sure,” he said.

  Formutesca said, “He told us all about it before we were done.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He isn’t,” Formutesca said.

  Parker looked at him. Behind the humor Formutesca looked tough. Behind the impassivity Gonor also looked tough. The third man, younger, looked strong and willing.

  Gonor said, “We had hoped to bring you news of Hoskins’ removal as well, but he seems to have disappeared for good this time.”

  “He’ll be back,” Formutesca said. “But probably not for a while.”

  Parker said, “That general and his colonist friends”

  “General Goma.”

  “They know you found out about their man.”

  “That won’t make any difference,” Gonor said. “They won’t move against us until they believe we have the diamonds.”

  Parker turned and looked at the restaurant. Claire was sitting in there on the cool side of the glass, watching. She nodded when their eyes met. He turned back to Gonor and said, “Why follow me? I gave you a no up in New York when I left.”

  “Because you had the wrong impression of us,” Gonor said. “If you say no to us after we have corrected that impression, of course we will no longer bother you.”

  “We want to give you the proposition first,” Formutesca said. “We never got to that in New York.”

  “You want me to plan your heisting the diamonds.”

  Gonor frowned. “Heisting?”

  Formutesca grinned at him. “Stealing,” he explained, then said to Parker, “I went to M.I.T. Mr Gonor learned his English in school.”

  Gonor was irritated. “M.I.T. is a school,” he snapped. Then to Parker he said, “The proposition is this. We will pay you twenty-five thousand dollars, plus expenses, to plan the robbery and train us to perform it, the money payable on the eve of the robbery before we do it and yours whether the robbery succeeds or not.”

  “You don’t want me along.”

  “Not unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Gonor said. “Which would be, of course, your decision. If you feel your physical presence during the robbery will be necessary, we will pay you an additional twenty-five thousand dollars. At the same time as the first.”

  “You’ll give me the layout?”

  “Naturally.”

  “What if I look at it and decide it can’t be done?”

  “We’ll pay your expenses up to that point,” Gonor said, “and thank you for your opinion.”

  Parker watched the traffic. “Where are you staying?”

  Gonor grimaced. “At a place called the Sunrise Motel.”

  “For colored,” Formutesca said, amused.

  “If I call at eight o’clock tonight,” Parker said, “it means yes. If I don’t, it means no.”

  “Fair enough,” Gonor said. “We’ll hope to hear from you.”

  Parker nodded and turned away and went back into the restaurant. The air inside was too cold for comfort now, chilling the sweat on his face and back. He sat down at the table and Claire smiled knowingly at him, saying, “You’re going to do it.”

  “Maybe,” Parker said.

  “They got your interest,” she said. “You’ll do it.”

  “Maybe,” Parker said.

  7

  Claire said, “What time is it?”

  They were in their room. Parker looked at his watch and said, “Five to eight.”

  “Are you going to call?”

  “You want me to do it,” he said.

  She nodded. “Yes, I do.”

  “We don’t need the money.”

  “I know. But we will in six months, and what you’re offered in six months probably won’t be as good.”

  He shook his head and walked around the room trying to think. “Good?” he said. “What do you mean, good? We don’t know whether it’s good or bad yet, we don’t know where the diamonds are, what the security is”

  “You know what I mean,” she said.

  “You think it’s a good cause,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t do things for good causes.”

  “I know,” she said. “So you do it because of the money, and I’ll be glad you’re doing it because it’s a good cause.”

  “I couldn’t say yes for sure at this point,” Parker said. “All I could say is I’d look at it.”

  “I know. You have to be interested, too; it’s never just the money.”

  He knew she was wrong about that, that at times he’d gone into jobs for the money and nothing else, but it was true that it helped to have work he could take an interest in. And it would be interesting to plan a job for amateurs, to take the specifics of the situation and make them work in his favor. The part of him that took pleasure in professionalism, in craft, was already half involved in this project, anxious to find out the rest of the details.

  But there were things against it too. They wereamateurs, no matter how tough or how willing. And they hadspread the news around a little too much, so that the job was complicated with Hoskins and General Goma and the ex-colonists and who knew how many others.
r />   There was a silence as he paced, thinking about it, until Claire said, “And I’d like to come along.”

  He stopped and frowned at her. “What do you mean, come along?”

  “It’s in New York, isn’t it? That’s where you’ll have to be while they’re getting ready.”

  “You don’t want to be part of it.”

  “No. But we could live together during it. It wouldn’t be like the times when you’re doing it yourself.”

  “I might have to,” he said.

  Sharply she said, “Why? That isn’t what they want to hire you for.”

  “It might be necessary, it might not.”

  “What, lead your troops into battle? All they want is a teacher and a planner.”

  “I’m telling you it’s a possibility.”

  She bit her lip, hesitated, then made a half-angry shrug of dismissal. “All right. Even so.”

  “I wouldn’t want you part of it,” he said. “Not present during the meetings, not anything.”

  “Neither would I,” she said. “But we could be together in between times.” She smiled, saying, “Besides, my shopping trip was interrupted. It’ll give me something to do.”

  Parker walked over to the window. The hotel’s shadow stretched across the sea, and the sky at the far horizon was already black with night. Behind him, Claire said, “It’s eight o’clock.”

  “I know.”

  39

  “You want me to look up their number?”

  What could he lose? He’d look at their situation. “Sunrise Motel,” he said.

  Two

  1

  “Come in,” said Gonor. “This way.”

  Parker followed him through the apartment. The furnishings were new, discreet, anonymous and expensive, with all the earmarks of things purchased by a hired decorator at stores with the notice in their windows: TO THE TRADE ONLY. As they went through, on one wall Parker saw a rough-textured painting of Negro dancers in front of some kind of yellowish hut, and on another wall there was a carved ebony mask, but aside from these there was no indication that the occupants of this apartment were Africans or had ever heard of Africa, so that finally the painting and the mask blended in with the rest, looking like just two more items that had caught the decorator’s eye.

  The sitting-room they wound up in was done in quiet shades of green and gray and had windows overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park. Formutesca and the third man from Miami were sitting on the green sofa to the right. An older man, very black and with thick white hair, was standing at the window looking thoughtfully at the park as though seeing something else. He and Gonor were in Western dress, Formutesca and the other man in the red robes of their first meeting.