We arrived at a snazzy BMW SUV Alex had rented and drove to the Hotel Soleil in the north central part of Paris. It was a plain hotel, just as Galveston had instructed Alex to acquire. It had many exits if we needed to make a quick escape.
I expected the room to be filled with a multitude of computers and monitors, but instead I saw two laptops, a pair of cell phones, and a router connecting them together. Alex told us this was all that were needed to accomplish our goals. It made the team of Lee and him all the more formidable with what they could do with very little equipment but crazy skills.
We were approaching the time deadline. Galveston needed to make a call to Olvary on the cell phone we had acquired from the locker in Cape Town. Lee and Alex had to work quickly to get their job done so that Galveston’s call would have its desired effect.
Lee wasted no time and sat himself in front of one of the laptops as Alex followed closely behind. The pair busily got to work pecking at the keys and comparing notes as they bounced across the internet globe, hiding their movements as they proceeded. In a matter of hours, the clandestine duo had uncovered many of Olvary‘s accounts and gained access to most of them.
My run-in with the South African local paid off also. The phone I had procured allowed Lee and Alex to locate Olvary’s phone network. It took them some work tracing the multitude of accounts back to him, but it resulted in discovering a few more hidden businesses. This allowed us access to his business accounts where our tech experts siphoned off more money.
Galveston and I decided to find something to eat and drink, and we left the two men to complete their tasks. It only took Lee and Alex another two hours before they had transferred millions of dollars from Olvary’s accounts into other accounts scattered around the world—our accounts. From there they transferred them again so that the trail would very difficult for anyone to trace.
We could have stopped there, but this was only the beginning of our final plan. Olvary and his men would pay for messing with us and kidnapping our friends. The next part of the plan would expose Olvary to the world.
-Chapter 58-
Jane and Maddie had been held in separate back rooms of Olvary’s villa for over twenty-four hours. They had received no contact since being placed in the rooms, except for the occasional plate of food that was shoved through the door. The last few hours had been different, however. The pair could now hear an increasing chatter of men’s voices behind the heavy, thick, wood doors.
Within minutes of hearing the loudest clamor of voices, the door of Maddie‘s solitary confinement creaked open and in walked Marcus Olvary. He was clearly perturbed about something and motioned for his henchman to pull Maddie up from the cot she was lying on.
Maddie was startled and closed her eyes, fearing she was going to be hit. Instead, the henchman threw her hard into a wooden chair. Olvary stared at her intently.
“Your friend has made a grave mistake. He has not contacted me when told, and he ripped up the map to our meeting location. You need to tell me some information about him, and where he might be, if you want to live.”
Maddie could tell this was a man that did not bluff, but telling him anything would only lead Jane and her into more danger.
“I only hired him to find the ship. I was just there to pay his way back to the U.S. That is it,” Maddie said convincingly. “He doesn’t care about me. He has my money and has probably left South Africa.”
Olvary looked at her without speaking. He wasn‘t used to things not going his way. He raised his hand as if to strike her, but pounded the table instead. “You will die then. You are no use to me,” Olvary said ominously.
Maddie was clearly frightened and confused. What had Murphy and Galveston done? “No, no,” she pleaded. “Please give him a chance to contact you. If he has the man you want, I’m sure you could pay him off or something.”
“For your sake and the life of your assistant, you had better hope he contacts me before the deadline.”
Olvary whispered to his henchman and then turned to Maddie again. “I will give him two hours.” Olvary and his man left the room, and Maddie sat bewildered.
She wanted to cry, but could not, she was too emotionally exhausted. She only put her head in her hands. As she tried to clear her brain, she became struck by Olvary‘s words. For one, Olvary only mentioned one man that was causing him problems. She wasn’t sure he was talking about Galveston or Murphy, but he definitely wasn’t talking about them as a pair. The second thing that struck her was someone had ripped up a map to the meeting point, a move that seemed contrived. Galveston and Murphy had to be planning something else. She began to garner some hope they had an alternate plan.
Jane, on the other hand, was handling Olvary‘s threats rather well. She lied without hesitation, stating she was Maddie’s assistant on the case. She had a sense that the destruction of the map and not contacting Olvary for a drop off point was just another Galveston and Murphy carefully orchestrated plan. Her boys were up to something, and it caused her to smile for the first time in three days.
-Chapter 59-
Galveston knew the time had come to make the dreaded call to Olvary. He prayed it would work, and Olvary would take the bait. Alex and Lee assured him that Olvary had just been drained of a significant amount of his wealth, and that Galveston now held all the cards.
He pulled out the phone from the Cape Town locker and dialed the number nervously. The phone connected and Galveston cleared his throat so the first words out of his mouth wouldn’t sound like a twelve year old boy going through puberty. The line clicked on the other end and a stern voice answered.
“Yes?”
“I need to speak to Marcus Olvary, no one else,” Galveston said in his best macho voice.
The phone went quiet for a minute before the voice of Olvary came on. “You have just beaten my deadline. Very fortunate for your friends,” he began. “Do you have the Chinese national?”
“Of course,” Galveston started, “but there was an unfortunate turn of events. I don’t have the map for the meeting place.”
“That is a shame. Your instructions were clear. I’m afraid we cannot do business together then, goodbye,”
“I wouldn’t hang up, Olvary,” Galveston said forcefully as he began to play his next hand.
“What do you propose then? You have not followed my instruction, why should I listen?”
“The rules have changed, and it’s time for you to listen. I have the man you want. You have two I want back,” Galveston told him before being interrupted.
“You have two hours to bring me what I want or the women die,” Olvary said angrily.
“Olvary, I have something you need more. Let’s just call it a little bargaining chip to make sure you don’t do something foolish at the exchange.” Galveston paused. “I pretty much have all of your money.”
Olvary immediately gave a sinister laugh. “My money? You are a bigger fool than I could have imagined.”
“Have some of your hired thugs check your accounts. I can wait. I have all the time in the world.” Galveston could hear that Olvary was about to rebuff his seemingly ludicrous statement. “Check it now Olvary, you are running out of time.”
“If you insist,” Olvary said rather nervously.
Galveston waited for a few minutes and kept his fingers crossed that Lee and Alex had been telling him the truth.
“I’m going to find you and kill you and anyone associated with you!” Olvary announced with disdain.
“If you harm the two women you will never see your money or the Chinese hacker again. I can promise you that. Plus INTERPOL would be interested to know what you were doing with your money.”
There was another pause as Olvary weighed his options, of which he had none, other than to listen to us.
“Go on. What do you want?” he asked calmly.
“Meet at the Gare Montparnasse Train Station in exactly four hours, Vaugirard station. We will have the accounts where your money is being kept
in exchange for the women.”
“And what of the Chinese national?” Olvary asked.
“He will be holding the accounts. I want to see only you there. If I spot any of your men near the Chinese man or the women you will never see your money again. Do you understand?” Galveston asked with confidence. He knew that Olvary and his henchmen would be crawling all over that station.
“Agreed,” Olvary said quickly.
“Four hours from now, no more, no less, or the deal is off.”
“I will eventually kill you after this is done, you can be assured of that,” Olvary threatened.
“Whatever let’s you sleep at night, pal,” Galveston responded and hung up.
He looked over at us and gave a thumbs up with a smile. Olvary had taken the bait, and the second phase of the plan was set. All that was left was the final phase of our dastardly plan.
Galveston threw the phone on the table and turned to face Lee, Alex, and myself. “Get me the number of INTERPOL in Paris and agent Francoise Larout.”
-Chapter 60-
INTERPOL, or the International Criminal Police Organization, is an organization that facilitates international police cooperation. It is a worldwide police force that acts as a liaison between law-enforcement agencies of other countries. INTERPOL investigates everything from common smuggling to terrorism and organized crime.
Galveston had an old contact in INTERPOL from his days in U.S. Diplomatic Security. It was time for us to get him involved.
Francoise Larout was an INTERPOL agent specializing in organized crime. He was based at the headquarters in Lyon, France and Galveston described him as a good man.
“How is he going to help us?” I inquired, wondering how we would spin a tale to implicate Olvary.
“He owes me a favor; I introduced him to his wife,” Galveston told me proudly. “He’ll help us out. I’m sure of it. They can bust Olvary as we’re making the exchange.”
“Hey, sounds good to me,” I said dryly. “Are we ready for Lee to do his deed?”
“Damn, that’s right, almost forgot. Yeah, let’s get the Chinese communist government involved.”
“I’m not so sure about this now,” I stated with trepidation.
“It was your idea,” Galveston expounded.
“But that was before I thought it through,” I confessed.
“No, it’s a good idea. Have Lee do it.”
I nodded my head and whispered to Lee. He drew a long, heavy breath. He was going to put himself in danger, but we knew for him to have a normal life with his family later on, his government would have to think Olvary had been responsible for his abduction from China.
Lee went to work on the laptop. He cracked his way into a backdoor of his former employer and intentionally alerted the Chinese state security service that INTERPOL had located the whereabouts of their premier hacker. The man had been abducted by none other than the known terrorist financier, Marcus Olvary.
“They will be contacting your man anytime. I suggest you call him,” Lee instructed Galveston.
Galveston had sent Larout a message earlier, and he agreed to talk when Galveston was ready. The time had come to get his friend on board.
“Francoise, you crazy Frenchman, how are you doing?” Galveston exclaimed, like he was talking to an old frat buddy.
“Galveston, good to speak to you. It has been a long time,” Larout replied.
“I hope you can help me, Francoise. We have quite a dicey situation here.”
Galveston explained the whole ordeal to Larout, who listened intently. It was something he was clearly interested in.
“You have to let it play out before you go in to get him. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes, I think so. I’ve been tracking Olvary for years, but I haven’t been able to charge him with a crime. He even has become more brazen with his activities.”
“Okay, Francoise. I figured you would agree, I mean, I did introduce you to your wife, so you have to do this for me, right?” Galveston laughed.
There was an awkward pause. “If that is the case then I don’t have to do it for you. My wife and I got a divorce.”
“Oh, ouch. Yeah, forget I brought that up then. Another Galveston match making session gone horribly wrong—story of my life. Sorry Francoise, but thanks for helping us anyway.”
“Okay, Galveston,” Larout laughed, “I’ll have the undercover French authorities in place. Give me a call when you are ready. We never talked, however.”
“Of course, like usual.” Galveston hung up the phone and sat down. “I’m exhausted. Are we done yet?”
“Just getting started, big boy,” I chimed in.
The pieces were coming together nicely. “What could possibly go wrong now,” I thought to myself. We believed that all of the players were accounted for, but there was one that was unknown. It was the piece that could unravel the entire operation.
-Chapter 61-
Maddie watched the door swing open and in came Olvary’s large henchman, Marquette. He pulled Maddie from the room, blindfolded her, and led her to an awaiting SUV. When the cover came off her eyes, she noticed Jane sitting next to her.
Jane gave her a big hug and worked in a whisper. “Roger and Galveston have a plan, I know it. They’re coming for us.”
Maddie looked at her face and knew she was telling her a confident truth. Her emotions eased as the car moved forward.
The countryside outside their window slowly turned to city as they rode to what they hoped was their eventual freedom. The pair dared not talk and instead gripped each other’s hands.
Marcus Olvary was not in the car with them this time, but they noticed two cars following closely behind the SUV.
Just around the time Maddie and Jane were being whisked to the train depot, Galveston and I were prepping ourselves for the meeting. Alex had been noticeably quiet, busily working on his laptop. We were not sure what he was up to, but when Alex was this benign, I began to worry.
“How do we squeeze our way into the train depot?” Galveston asked, breaking me from thought.
“Doors are always a good bet,” I quipped.
“Yeah, but we can’t stand out. We need disguises,” he said with joy.
“Great. What, dress as women?”
“If that makes you feel comfortable,” Galveston retorted.
“More damn disguises,” I lamented.
“We need something to blend in somehow. Do you have any useful ideas or just useless ones?”
I thought it over before making another suggestion. “What we need are disguises that wouldn’t be out of place in a train station.”
“Like a fat tourist with pasty thighs and flip-up sunglasses.”
“Not a bad idea, but what about a long haired college student with a huge backpack?” I said.
“I actually like it. Let’s do it. It ought to be fun.”
“Yeah, fun, this is supposed to be fun,” I remarked.
Galveston smiled. “Let’s go find some costumes. Gentlemen,” he announced to Lee and Alex, “you have the controls.”
“What is he talking about?” Lee inquired.
“Just ignore him, that’s what I do,” Alex replied without looking up from his laptop.
Galveston and I made our way for the door, but Alex jumped up and grabbed my arm. “Roger, I need to tell you something,” he said.
“Go on down and find a shop where we can buy our gear. I’ll be right there,” I instructed Galveston.
“Don’t be long. I’m very excited,” he replied and disappeared out the door.
“What is it Alex?” I asked.
“I feel I need to inform you of who we are dealing with. I didn’t want to tell Galveston because he’s in his own little world right now.”
“What is it?”
“You’re not dealing with a rookie here with Marcus Olvary. This guy is bad, real bad. I’m finding a lot of information about him and it’s not pretty. He’s tied to some bad stuff but has ma
naged to stay out of the crosshairs of our government. This guy has ties to many terrorist organizations, not just the ones he’s interested in. It’s believed he has been financing groups throughout the Middle East; Hezbollah, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, al-Qaeda, you name it. He doesn’t support these groups, he just wants to have them to create as much havoc as possible so other countries will have to move resources to deal with them. I think he wants to fund the Chechens in Russia so he can eventually steal power and move on the Russian government. I believe he has an ambition to be the Russian president and is under the illusion he can do it.”
I stood dumbfounded at the statements and was unable to respond.
“You must tread lightly,” Alex continued, “this guy will do anything to eliminate people in his way, and I fear we’ve crossed the line. He’s done it before. He has assassins, terrorists, and mercenaries on his payroll, and I can’t imagine what he would do if he got his hands on Lee. We have to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen. Do you get me?”
“Loud and clear. He could force Lee to dismantle the world markets and Russia’s economy,” I responded, thinking like a pure economist and businessman. “Lee can’t be around when this goes down. Do you think you can get him out of the country?”
“I’ll work on it now. Where should he go?”
“Wherever you think would be best, just don’t tell me. The less I know the better,” I said. “I have to think of a way to make sure we slow everyone down who is looking for him, or better yet, to believe he is no longer on this earth.”
“I think a little bit of both would be a good idea,” Alex suggested.
“Got ya, Alex. Let’s make sure he is long gone before this goes down, for everyone’s sake.”
Alex nodded and slapped me on the shoulder as he returned to his laptop. I gave Lee a wave and said “goodbye” before I stepped out the door. It would be the last time I would ever see Lee again.
Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 02 - Peeking Duck Page 25
