The Gypsy Queen: A Matt Preston Novel (Matt Preston Series Book 3)

by Paul Shadinger

  I called the Admiral and explained I had both Ralph and Melissa with me and they needed a place to hide out for a while. He told me to switch the microphone over to the pilot so they could chat. I took off the headset and went back to be with Ralph and Melissa.

  I took a seat facing them. “Admiral Orchard is making arrangements right now for a place for the two of you to hide out for a while. With MacDonald dead and Roberts gone, I think this will blow over soon and the two of you can work out ah… well, whatever you want to work out.”

  Ralph grinned at me. “See, I just knew you could solve this and bring Melissa back to me. The guys think you walk on water, I know it’s a fact now!”

  “Not to burst your bubble, but I solved this to save my ass. MacDonald had a contract on me as well as Melissa and for all I know, they might have had one on your ass too.”

  Both of them murmured a very subdued thank you.

  “I have some questions I’d like to ask. Okay?” I looked at Melissa. “Tell me about the business card. Why would you give out your phone number if you were on the run?”

  Melissa laughed. I noticed she was getting red in the face as she started to explain. “The card is for other programmers. It was a perk provided by Jack Roberts’ group. The deal was you call the number and the address for the apartment was the code. You were supposed to give the number and then you would be connected to my phone mailbox. Ralph and I had been making love for the past couple of days and then that one last time at the airport…” Both of them were turning red now.

  “I told you about, you know… how difficult it was for me … to climax and all?” Now I think I was turning red. “Well, the airport was the best ever for me and I was a little fuzzy after our interlude and I forgot to tell Ralph how the card worked. I just stuffed my panties in his pocket along with the card. I wasn’t tracking too well.”

  I asked, “Please, both of you, explain something, I see Melissa is a little shy, even now. And Ralph, I know I’m not letting any cats out of the bag when I say you’re not exactly a virgin,” both of them cracked up over that comment, “what got the two of you interested? From what I know about the two of you, you really don’t seem the type who would pair up.”

  Melissa looked over at Ralph and took his hand. “I don’t know why, but something about him just clicked. He seemed so confident and all. When he told me he could make me climax and guaranteed it, I thought it was funny, but it was also a turn on for me. I had never been with a guy who was so confident in that way. And then when we…”

  I held up my hand, “Stop! This is more than I needed to know.” I continued to look at Melissa. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not what Ralph usually likes in a woman.” I turned and looked at Ralph, “Why?” I asked.

  “Like she said, something just clicked. And then when she told me about her difficulties well, then it became a challenge. And once it happened, it was like the little Dutch Boy who pulled his finger out of the dike. She was so—” Again I held up my hand.

  Ralph continued, “Well, since things were like they were, I didn’t want to cover too much of the danger part because I wanted you to find her. I guess that was my bad.”

  “Ya’ think? Butthead!”

  “But everything has turned out good so far. Yes?”

  I know Ralph isn’t that much younger than me, but looking at the two of them, and the look of complete lust on their faces, I felt older than dirt. I still like sex and all, but the way Melissa lit up, it was obvious making love was something brand new for her. And whatever Ralph’s difficulties in the past had been finding women who were not put off by his size, now it looked like a thing of the past. I just hoped that these little Kopf Kino’s that kept running in my head would soon stop. It had been a while since I’d been with a woman, and I wasn’t so old I didn’t miss a little companionship.

  The phone in my armrest started to ring. I picked it up. “Matt, it’s John. If you look at the handset, there’s a button that will put this call on speaker. Please do it.” I did as I was told and John’s voice came through loud and strong.

  “Hi kids. This is John Orchard. The rest of Melissa’s team has been found and they’re safe. I am going to have the pilot take both of you to a safe house for a couple of weeks to make sure there is no interest in either of you. Ralph, I understand that your program is ready to launch. Is that correct?”

  “Yes. I can call a couple of people at the office and they know what to do.”

  “Then if it is okay with the two of you, take a couple of weeks to get reacquainted,” I’m sorry, I had to snicker at that comment. “Take some time. I’ll contact you when it’s okay for you to return to, well, wherever you want to return to. Have a nice time.”

  “Matt, I’m going to have the plane take you back to Seattle and drop you off.”

  “Does this mean I have to give up the plane?”

  “Yes Matt, you have to give up the plane.”

  “But…”

  “No Matt. You cannot keep the plane.” I could hear Johnny laughing as he hung up the phone.

  Ralph extended his hand and I took it. “Thanks, Matt. Thank you for both of us. I knew when I asked you to help me I was doing the right thing. Now the guys at the poker game will have even more to talk about.”

  “Ralph, if you really are grateful for what I’ve done, then say nothing about what has happened. I think I’m going to stop playing poker because those damn games seem to get me in trouble. And you blabbing about the things I did for you isn’t going to help. Why don’t you just concentrate on making this young woman as happy as you can?”

  Both of them beamed at me. The way they looked at me with fire in their eyes and smoke coming out of their ears, I almost asked the pilot if there were any parachutes onboard. I was willing to bet both Melissa and Ralph would strap one on me and toss me out. I wondered how much longer the damn flight was going to last. I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to keep the two of them apart. Maybe it would be best for me to ride up front with the pilot for the rest of the trip?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  I settled into the co-pilot’s seat and he looked over at me as if to ask, “What’s up?” I’d put on the headphones and I switched it so I could chat with him.

  I shook my head and told him, “Don’t ask. Those two back there were making me feel like some kind of pervert or something. When you land, you’ll probably have to take a hose and wash the back end of this plane down.” The pilot got a bang out of my comment.

  We were about thirty minutes out from Boeing Field when I felt my cell phone vibrate. I had three voice mails. One from Sharon and one from Gladys, both telling me that wanted to see me. I put them off for the time being and checked the last message. It was from Bullwinkle.

  “Matt. This is Otto Niles, Bullwinkle. By the way, I never told you this, but I’ve never cared for that nickname.” I thought to myself I needed to remember that. “I’d like to talk to you. I understand why you’re reluctant to see me alone, so if you’ll pick a public place, I’d like to meet you and have a chat. Is that acceptable?”

  I looked at my phone and saw I had enough bars to call him back. He picked up on the second ring. “Otto, this is Matt.”

  “What, no Bullwinkle?”

  I laughed, “Dude, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know it bothered you. How did you find out anyway?”

  “I met your buddy Walter one day out in the bush. We had a nice talk and one time he fucked up and called me Bullwinkle. When I asked him what that was all about, he said it was your name for me.”

  “Like I said, I’m sorry. When we first met you and the little dude we were supposed to take care of, the names just seemed to fit. I am sorry if you were offended. Okay, you said you wanted to meet me somewhere.”

  “Yeah. I’d like to meet face to face, I’m like you. I am not too fond of phones.�
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  “How about the Starbucks where we saw each other the other day? Say tomorrow morning at ten?”

  “Good. I’ll see you then.”

  I sat for the rest of the flight wondering what he wanted. I guessed I would just have to wait until then to find out.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  I was early for my meeting the next morning with Bullwinkle. I made a promise to myself, I would try and call him by his given name, but when I was thinking about him in my head, I’d still call him Bullwinkle, I’d called him that for too long to stop now.

  I walked around the strip mall and could see nothing that alarmed me. I went in, ordered my drink and took a seat. At the stroke of ten, Otto walked into the shop. After he got his drink he came and sat down. “Matt, thanks for taking the time to see me.”

  The person I knew back in Nam and the man I was talking to now were very different. This one was polite and had a gentle way about him, but he was still as scary looking as he’d always been. I knew he would have never thanked me for meeting with him, it just wouldn’t have been expected. “Good morning. What can I do for you Otto?”

  “Did you ever see Snooker?”

  “Yes, and we had a great talk. It’s funny, on a side note here, it seems he’s like so many of the people I knew from back in country, you included, he’s mellowed.” He smiled. “As Snooker and I talked, we discovered we had a problem with what we ended up calling ‘his Hollis’ and ‘my Hollis.’ We both had known a person named Hollis and I was positive mine was dead and he was positive his was still alive.

  “It turned out that Snooker had actually met you in Viet Nam and then saw you not too long ago in Portland. The people Snooker knew as Hollis and Price were you and Davidson. Did you know there were actually three teams that MacDonald and McNally called Price and Hollis?”

  He said, “When MacDonald first explained that we were going to be known as Price and Hollis, Davidson asked why. I don’t recall exactly the bullshit story MacDonald fed us, but the way he described things, I knew there was at least one more set of guys who were the actual Price and Hollis. I kind of thought that there were two sets. It took me a while just to figure out the first pair. It was one of the reasons I wanted to see the diary. You know, Hollis’ diary.”

  “About the diary, as far as I know, every copy has been destroyed. I know that Albert Bradson, the US senator? He read the diary. I never did. I had a chance, but Walter told me there was no way I wanted to know what was in the book. He said he already knew some of the shit that was in the diary and warned me I didn’t want to know what it said.”

  Otto leaned back in his chair, and took a deep breath. “Matt, I lived some of the shit. Walter was right. You do not want to know what was in that book. I know stuff that would put MacDonald in Leavenworth for the rest of his life.”

  “About MacDonald, did you know he was dead? Somebody killed him.”

  I doubt if I had slapped Otto across the face with all my might he could have looked any more stunned. He rocked forward as he exclaimed, “Are you fucking with my head?”

  “No, it’s true. I know it for a fact he’s dead.”

  His mouth dropped open. “You know for a fact it’s true he’s dead? For a positive, for sure fact?” He whispered, “My God, you did it? You offed him?”

  I answered him quickly, “No, no! I didn’t do it. He was in a helicopter that exploded as it was landing. But I was there and I saw it happen.”

  Otto looked at me with one eye closed. “Do I want to know what you were doing at the landing site?” I smiled at him as I shook my head. He continued, “You were supposed to make sure it happened?” He said it as a question.

  “Yeah, kind of like that. But I didn’t know I was plan B. At the time I thought I was the one. Just between the two of us, I was really glad the bird blew up. Ol’ CV had put out a hit on me and also on a number of others as well. Shit, Otto, for all I know there was a hit on you too. You were a Hollis and MacDonald didn’t ever want it to get out about the three black ops teams like Price and Hollis. I was sent there to make sure MacDonald happened. But like I said, I didn’t know how it was going to play out till it was over.

  “So, how did you figure out there were three teams?” Bullwinkle asked.

  “You’re not going to believe this. McNaulty had me meet him the other day and he told me.” Otto shook his head. “It was right after MacDonald was killed. I’m going to tell you it was a very strange meeting. Talk about people mellowing with old age. After he told me about the Price/Hollis teams, he told me he was leaving for an assignment, but wouldn’t tell me any more than that.”

  Otto leaned back in his chair. “Isn’t he getting a bit old for that kind of shit?”

  I laughed. “I agree. But he told me he liked the adrenaline rush he got when he was on assignment. He said he’d never grown up and I sort of understand it. I’m not interested in doing assignments, but I do understand. Not too long ago I helped a buddy with a problem when some bad guys took his lady friend up in the mountains.”

  Again, the look on his face was priceless. “That was you?”

  I was surprised to hear that question. “And what do you know about it?” I asked.

  “I know some of the guys who got recruited for that fuck up. Guys who seem to be missing, if you catch my drift? How the hell did you ever get the chick out of there?” I could tell by the tone of this voice he was impressed. It made me feel good.

  “Can’t really tell you all, but those guys you knew who were up there,” He raised an eyebrow. “If they had been in a real combat situation, you probably would have shot them. They were major fuck ups.”

  “Like I said, I knew some of the dudes and you’re right, they were not the brightest crayons in the box. So tell me what you can about what happened up there.”

  “I had help from some really cool weapons like you’ve never seen before. But it was exciting, and really frightening at the same time. Honestly, I thought those days were long gone and then there I was, standing in a fricken snowstorm trying to extract a hostage and I was pumped. Parts of the experience were like I’d never been out of the game. I understand how McNaulty feels about the rush after that experience.”

  Otto leaned back in his chair again. “And I can’t tell you much either, but I haven’t exactly been out in the pasture.”

  I nodded my head. “It shows. You look rather buff.” He laughed. “Was that what you wanted? To find out if I had a chat with Snooker?”

  “Yeah, I was wondering what he’d seen. I had no idea it was me. I wanted to find the Hollis diary. Now it doesn’t seem so important. By the way, Davidson called me a few days ago. He was in hospice for about a day or so and now he’s gone. As I understand it, I’m the only one left of the Price/Hollis teams. It was a small club and it doesn’t look like it was a very good club to belong to either.”

  My laugh was more of a bark. “According to McNaulty, Walter was going to be asked to join your little club, but he asked too many questions. I was going to be asked as well but then I got hurt on the outing with Walter and that took care of that.” I sat for a moment wondering if I wanted to ask my next question. “What would have happened to you if you had declined?”

  Otto sat for a long time looking off into the distance. “I’d like to think I was able to make the decision on my own, but I’m sure now that if I had turned it down, my next mission would have been one way.”

  The two of us sat for a moment and then the person sitting behind Bullwinkle pushed his chair back too far, and too fast, hitting Otto’s chair really hard. Bullwinkle stood as the other person stood. It had never really occurred to me how much larger he was than me. I’m 6’4” and he is a few inches bigger. The guy who had pushed his chair back was smaller. A lot smaller. When the little man looked up at how big Otto was, along with his tanned head and fierce appearance, he was visibly shaking. “Oh, God mister, I
’m sorry. I should have looked first. Please forgive.” And he crept off.

  After the two of us were seated again, Otto started to laugh. “You have no idea how often that happens. I don’t think I look that frightening. I don’t try and make myself look that way, it just seems to happen.”

  “Well, the night I saw you at the nightclub, the lady you were with didn’t seem to mind how you looked.”

  “Yeah, Cindy and I hit it off pretty good.”

  “You two an item?

  “Well, we see each other. You?”

  “I have a couple of ladies I see from time to time. As a matter of fact, I have to get going since I have a date with one of them.”

  We stood and shook hands. Without any warning, we gave each other a big hug, clapping the other on the back. It was a hug for a thousand reasons. We had both fought the fight and had returned. A bit scarred, both inside and out, but all in all, still in one piece. We had discovered, in a way, we were actually kindred souls.

  “Give me a call the next time you’re in town.”

  “I will.” And as he walked through the door, once more it seemed like he just disappeared. I’d always meant to ask him how he did that.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  I got to Sharon’s on time, and as I walked down the wharf, I looked at the many different houseboats floating side by side. If there was ever a place of different architecture, this was it. Houseboats from the thirties sitting alongside brand new ones. It was really cool. I knocked on the door and as I waited, I remembered the last time I’d come over and knocked on her door. I wondered if Sharon was going to meet me in the same outfit as last time. The door opened and I was disappointed, she was dressed. Damn!

  “Come in, Matt.”

  She led me to the couch and invited me to sit. I can’t tell you why I felt the way I did, but I somehow knew this was not going to be a good talk, I just knew I was not going to like the outcome. “So, how you been?” I asked.