In the distance walking toward him was Squadron Leader Will Ramsey, Shaws friend from the start of their careers seventeen year ago. In his hand he had a memo envelope, he reached Shaw and they both exchanged pleasantries.
'Will, what is going on?'
Will replied with 'I honestly don't know, about twenty minutes ago my corporal brought this into my office and said '’I have been told to give these to you Sir and that a Sentinel will be landing in twenty minutes and to go and meet the passenger'’ oh and get changed out of uniform.’
‘Did the corporal say that to you or are you saying it to me?’
‘To you, hurry, no time for joking around.’
Shaw walked back up the steps and stepped out five minutes later in a navy-blue Lacoste polo- shirt, beige chino’s and a pair of Clarks desert boots.
'You couldn’t look more English if you tried.' Will said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Shaw scowled at Will and took the envelope off him and reached inside, he pulled out a slip of paper and a set of car keys. The slip of paper read Silver Seat Leon in McDonald’s car park in La Linea, walk straight ahead after the border.
'What is it?’ Will Ramsey asked.
Shaw smiled, shook his head and said.
'Sharif, it has to be, well I suppose I better go find out. I will call you soon and we will go for a drink, you can show me the delights of Gibraltar.’
'No problem see you soon.'
They shook hands and Shaw said off on foot for the border with his holdall on his left shoulder.
After passing through passport control without delay, Shaw headed for the Mcdonalds car park where he found the silver Seat Leon reverse parked in a parking bay, he got the keys out of the envelope and used the remote fob to unlock the car. He walked over to the vehicle, looked through the front passenger window and after seeing nothing of interest he opened the boot and put his holdall in and closed it again. Having not eaten all day he decided to get some food and stepped in to the air conditioned cool of the Mcdonalds. After getting his order of two double cheeseburgers and two large Fanta's he spotted Lawrence Sharif, who was sitting at the rear of the restaurant. Shaw sauntered over to him.
'I knew you would come in here, especially after a night on the booze' Lawrence said. 'Funny looking Falkland Islands this, as soon as I walked down those steps and realised where I was, I knew you had to be involved somehow, you’re a menace, what is all this about anyway?' Shaw replied as he took a seat at Lawrence's table.
'Not here and don't sit down, we need to get going, you can eat that on the way, oh congratulations on your promotion well done.’
'Thank you how do you know about that, in fact don't answer. Am I right in assuming it was you or your people at least that arranged my detachment to the Falklands?'
Shaw and Sharif got up from the table and headed outside, towards the Seat.
Lawrence got in to the driver's side so James got in the front passenger side and put his seatbelt on and tucked in to one of his burgers.
'We needed it to look as though you are as far away from this as possible, this is top secret, what I am about to tell you is for your ears only, but first check your bank account' Lawrence said.
Shaw pulled out his phone and logged onto his online banking, his balance showed £364,000 whilst he had been in the air an unknown account had deposited £100,000 into his account. 'Very nice who is it off and why now, we normally get paid at the end of our jobs not before?'
'That’s right we do and normally we pay for our hotels and cars and whatever else we need on a government credit card, not this time though, we are on our own, no clean up squads, no assistance on call if we need it, it is just me and you, you owe me two hundred euros for the car as well, I hired it for the week' Sharif said.
'I will pay for the hotel then we are all square, what about weapons assuming we need them?'
'In the spare wheel compartment are two Beretta 9MM with spare magazines, suppressors and enough rounds to last a month, they let me bring those in a diplomatic bag but that’s it, we are on our own.’
'Ok that’s good hopefully we won’t need to use them, but what is the job where is it and why all the secrecy?'
'Ever been to Seville or Sevilla as they call it here?' Sharif asked.
'Yes, just the once about ten years ago, nice place from what I can remember, what I can also remember is this car will be no good there we will have to park outside the old town' Shaw replied.
Lawrence Sharif started the car, pulled out of the Mcdonalds car park and headed to the main road which would take them to the motorway towards Seville.
'Right I will drive to Jerez where we will stop for a break, then you can take us to Seville' Lawrence said.
'Ok sounds good to me I will find us a hotel whilst you drive and finally get around to telling me what this is about.'
Lawrence was checking his mirrors every few seconds like a new driver, even though he had driven abroad many times, driving on the wrong side of the road still made him nervous.
'I will get to that in a minute, I have also been promoted so it seems that this will be our last job together' Lawrence said whilst keeping his eyes on the road and checking his mirrors. 'Congratulations, promoted to what?'
'Deputy Director of Operations.’
'Well done, have you skipped a few rungs on the ladder there and does it mean you will be flying a desk like me when I get back to Britain?'
'Pretty much. I will be in charge of the new us, whoever that will be, the Director wanted me in there due to my “expertise in the field” he said. So, he decides to put me behind a desk, where is the logic in that' Sharif said.
'Crazy if you ask me, like myself with the Station commander in Akrotiri, he said they want an Intelligence officer as Station Commander at RAF Waddington, I don't know why but who am I to complain.’
Lawrence and James made it on to the motorway and the Spanish countryside began speeding past them in a blur.
'Have a drink, you should present one of those talent shows they keep churning out on a Saturday night' Shaw said handing one of his drinks to Lawrence.
‘What do you mean?'
'The way you are keeping me in suspense about what we are doing here, I have been waiting about twenty minutes, now just tell me you tool' Shaw said in jest.
'I will go through the details when we arrive but a brief overview should keep you happy for now, have you heard of ESPoil?'
'Yeah, I seen one their stations by that Mcdonalds in La Linea and we passed one about two minutes ago. What about them?'
'Well do you know where their CEO is from?' Lawrence asked.
'Spain by any chance, just get on with it, you talk I will listen.’
'He is Argentinian and we have as I am sure you are aware been monitoring the Argentinians communications.'
'Really that’s outrageous' Shaw interjected.
'As I was saying, he has links to the government and they are working together on a plan to invade the Falklands again. A group of conmen who are based in Liverpool have become involved, however they don’t know what they are getting into, they just think they are conning some person who in their eyes deserves it after some of the things this Javier Ramos has done, that’s the CEO of ESPoil in case you are wondering.’
'Basically, a group of conmen are going to cause another conflict between ourselves and Argentina and they don't have a clue about any of it, what is it they are selling anyway?' Shaw asked.
He then finished his second burger and balled the wrapper up before he put it in the glove box, where he found a map which he pulled out and opened up to look at, it was a road map of Andalucia.
'They have created an oil company and our selling it to Javier Ramos and ESPoil, we only became aware of this a few weeks ago after Mi5 had notified us that they had made contact with Mr Ramos, they then informed me that they were heading to Seville to finalise the deal, and here we are on our way to Seville.’
'I am assuming
we are to stop this deal happening by erasing this Mr Ramos before they meet.’
Lawrence focused on the road ahead as the Spanish countryside raced by then looked at James and said.
'Not necessarily, I was thinking let the deal happen, the Englishmen get the money, pay their taxes and then we take Ramos out before he can cause any damage.’
The car rocked and bumped with the road and passed a sign which indicated Jerez de la Frontera was fifty kilometres away. Shaw stayed quiet and was scrolling through his phone.
'I have found us a place to stay, it is in the old town, a hostel with a pool on the roof, shall I book it?'
Lawrence turned and looked at James and said.
'Aren't we a bit old for a hostel, wont it be full of backpacking types, we won't get much privacy to work, will we?’
James replied 'Sometimes the best place for privacy is when you don't have any, think about it, it will be full of backpackers partying and making noise and we can sit amongst them plan and discuss and nobody will pay any attention to us, were as in hotels everybody wants to know everybody else's business, this place looks good, I will book us four beds in a four-bed room so we will be able to work in private when we need to.'
James reached into his pocket and pulled his debit card from his wallet and entered the long number into his phone.
'All booked' he said before pulling two fifty Euro notes from his wallet and saying to Lawrence.
'Here is your car money, you can get the drinks tonight, how far now to Jerez I need a smoke?' 'About twenty minutes, then you are driving, see if you can put the hostel address in the Sat-Nav, we will check in, then take the car to Hertz at the railway station then we are on foot or public transport.’
'Put your foot down then, yes we will do that, when I was last there, they had started rolling out a city bike scheme we could use those or hire a scooter each.'
Lawrence laughed and said 'You won't catch me on one of those death traps, they have a good bus network and a tram and metro system if we need to move around quickly.’
Lawrence moved across to the outside lane and followed the slip road off the motorway, before slowing the car down and turning in to a service station, he slowly drove through the car park before finding a space and parking the car. Both men got out of the car and stretched out after being sat down for so long. Shaw lit a cigarette and took a long drag. Lawrence Sharif asked Shaw if he wanted anything from the shop, he asked for a bottle of water and a couple of packets of cigarettes.
Lawrence returned a few minutes later with four bottles of water and a carton of two hundred cigarettes. Shaw lit another and offered one to Lawrence which he accepted. Shaw then said.
'Good thinking on getting a carton, one less thing to do for a few days, when are the guys from Liverpool arriving or don’t you know yet?'
'Sunday, we think, they are booked on a flight from Liverpool to Malaga and I wouldn’t think they would hang around down there, they will come in by bus or train.'
'Why not by car like us?'
'They haven't booked one and they have no known associates to get one so we can assume bus or train but most likely the train, what we will do is, one of us go to the bus station and one to the railway station to await their arrival' Lawrence replied.
Both men got in to the car, this time with Shaw in the driving seat, Shaw started the engine and adjusted the seat as he was taller than Sharif. He put the car in gear and pulled off, as he shifted in to second gear, the car made a grinding noise as Shaw tried to find the right balance with the clutch. Sharif laughed out loud.
'You need to drive proper cars instead of that American monstrosity you drive now.’
'Oh, sorry Mr Ford Mondeo, my name is Lawrence and I drive the most boring car in Britain' Shaw sniggered.
'Shut up and get back on the motorway.’
Shaw drove up the slip road and past a sign which read Sevilla ninety kilometres, he then put his foot down and climbed the cars speed up to eighty miles per hour.
'Shall we start work tomorrow, there is not much point in starting today?'
Lawrence replied 'I was thinking the same, let's get checked in, get rid of the car and have some drinks, we will stop by Ramos's house tomorrow and we can see what is what, maybe see if we can find out where the deal is going to take place, he hasn’t even told the con artists yet.’
'Keeping his cards close to his chest I see; I am sure we will find out one way or another' James Shaw replied.
SIX
In the South Atlantic, work had already begun on the building of oil platforms at the sites that Jack Reuben had marked as being the best places to start drilling. Floating platforms had been installed whilst teams worked on constructing permanent structures.
The British monitored the activity on the platforms and sent out reconnaissance flights twice a day. Even though the sites had permits for drilling, they were concerned with the shipping traffic from Argentina to the drilling sites. However, they had no reason for concern as the workforce was apparently made up of Bolivians and Ecuadorians who made the journey to Argentina to then be shipped to the drilling sites for work. The workers had even started to wave at the RAF Typhoons that flew past twice daily. The threat of an Argentine invasion, it appeared was once again just talk as happened at least twice a year.
SEVEN
At Javier Ramos's house in Seville he was sat on a sun lounger next to his swimming pool talking on his mobile phone. His wife appeared in a long black dress and asked Javier.
'Te gusta mi nuevo vestido' (do you like my new dress?).
Javier Ramos ended his phone call and got up from his sun lounger and said.
'You do not interrupt me women.'
He then struck his wife with the back of his free hand before he pushed her into the pool. As his wife struggled in the water Javier Ramos walked away back towards the house and out of the side gate, where his Ferrari California was parked. He got into the Italian supercar and turned out of his drive heading for the city centre.
A little over ten minutes after he had left his house, he arrived outside the Alfonso Xiii hotel. After parking his car, he stepped into the hotel lobby and approached the reception desk, where a man and women were sat like they had been waiting all of their lives to help. Javier Ramos asked them if he could book a conference room for the next week, the man said he could and it would cost him one hundred euros, Ramos paid and then returned to his car and set off back to his house.
EIGHT
Whilst Javier Ramos was parking his Ferrari back on his driveway, James Shaw and Lawrence Sharif were sat in traffic in the old town on a single lane street. As they inched through the traffic looking for their accommodation, they argued about what to do when they arrived. Shaw wanted to get a shower and have some drinks, whilst Lawrence wanted to plan their strategy and get a feel for the city.
Shaw said 'We have until Tuesday, tonight we unwind, have a few drinks and act like tourists.' Eventually Lawrence agreed with James. A few minutes later they arrived at their accommodation, which was on a single lane one-way street. James Shaw put the hazard lights on and said to Lawrence.
'We will check in then I will take the car to the train station and head back here.'
'Yes, ok.'
They grabbed their bags and hardware out of the boot of the car.
Shaw had booked a four-bed dorm for the two of them to ensure privacy, he knew the idea of a hostel was a good place to hide in plain sight where nobody would ask questions of what they were doing, if anybody did ask then they would just say they are tourists on holiday.
After checking in and putting their bags in the room which had two sets of bunk beds along the walls and a window at the opposite end to the door Shaw ran back down the stairs to the car and set of for Santa Justa railway station.
Once he had returned the car to the right lot and handed the keys back to the clerk in the office, he went to check out the station in preparation for the arrival of Lyndon Powell and his cre
w on Sunday. The station’s concourse had seating areas, shops, bars, restaurants and a ticket booking hall. The concourse had two front entrances and two from the sides then a further two sets of doors leading to the platforms, which were on the lower level accessible by stairs or flat escalators to make it easier for carrying luggage up and down. Shaw thought of three ways to keep an eye out for Powell and his people, he assumed that Ramos would also have people in the station. The first place would be old school, he would sit in one of the bars waiting for them to come out from the platforms. Second would be to sit or stand near the notification boards like a normal passenger keeping watch on his train's status. Third would be a more direct approach, he would accost them on the platform, hopefully before anybody else could. Shaw didn’t hang around for long, he left the station and jumped in to a cab outside the main entrance to take him back to the hostel. He would work his approach out in more detail another time.
Shaw arrived back at the hostel to find his clothes had been folded and put away in a drawer, with his bag placed on the top bunk, but Sharif was not in the room. James left the room and checked the door was it was locked by jiggling the handle before walking away, he said hello to people in the hallway and on the staircase, which wound its way to the top floor, he reached the top of the stairs and stepped out onto the roof terrace which had seating areas, a gazebo and swimming pool. Located inside was a bar, where Lawrence had come from with a plastic glass of lager in each hand, he handed one to James and they both sat down near a group of American men in their early twenties who were being loud and boisterous.
'I have just had a good look at the station, there shouldn’t be any problems, I expect Ramos will have people also watching.’
Lawrence nodded in agreement.
'Yes, we can pretty much guarantee it, how many and who, we do not know. Like I said we are on our own on this. I am going to check out Plaza de Armas bus station tomorrow in case they arrive by bus.’
One Last Time Page 6
