The Bahamas Caper

by Drew Hill

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  “This is Agent Haselry.”

  “Agent Haselry, this is Frank Jones. We’ve found Dominic and Gerald. One of our agents is flying them to Brazil. I’m about to message you the coordinates so you can go catch them.”

  “Sir, we can’t. There’s a hurricane blowing in from off the coast of Florida directly into our flight path.”

  “Oh, great!” Frank exclaimed sarcastically. “Well, as soon as the storm clears, head for Rio de Janeiro. I’ll have some of our agents meet you and your team there. Goodbye.”

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  Frank turned to Daniel. “The team in Nassau can’t go because of this hurricane.”

  Daniel groaned. “We still can’t operate effectively because we don’t know where they’re going to land. We’ll just have to keep our agents ready and hope Agent Benzamaen can delay his passengers long enough for the agents to get there.”

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  “We’re about to land,” said Jacques. “Please fasten your seatbelts as we land in Rio de Janeiro.”

  The three men fastened their seatbelts. Jacques brought the plane in for a perfect landing. He helped them unload their luggage. Harold and Dominic went to go rent a car while Gerald and Jacques waited by the airplane near the luggage.

  Jacques got in the cockpit and radioed a message to the CIA. Agent Harkens received the call. Jacques told them his position. After they finished the call, Agent Harkens called some agents in Rio de Janeiro. They got into position as Dominic and Harold drove up.

  They loaded the suitcases into the car. The agents came closer. Jacques was loading the last suitcase when one of them stepped forward and ordered the four men, “Stop right there.”

  Instantly Jacques lunged for Harold and Dominic dove into the driver seat. Gerald leaped into the passenger seat. Dominic switched the car into drive and slammed his foot on the gas pedal. Gerald and Dominic ducked as the windshield shattered from a hail of gunfire. Dominic looked up as an agent dove out of the way. He saw a police car ahead and jerked the steering wheel to the left. They careened down the street as civilians screamed and sprang out of the way.

  They turned down another street. At the end was a police car. Dominic made a quick U-turn and sped down another street, and then another.

  After a long chase, they finally got away. They parked in a small alley as they both caught their breath.

  “Do you think Harold got away?” Gerald breathed heavily.

  Dominic shook his head. “Doubtful. I saw Jacques tackle him. Jacques must have betrayed us.”

  Harold arrested? Who will get arrested next time? Me? He wondered what would happen to him. Would Harold tell on them? Get Dr. Xaviers captured? He heard a small beep. He looked at the dashboard. “The trunk is open, boss.”

  “Go see if the suitcases fell out,” Dominic ordered.

  Gerald got out and looked in. Nothing was in there. He got back in the car. “Everything fell out.”

  Dominic swore. “Great. There goes a few million dollars. When they find the suitcases, they’ll get all of the nukes. Except one.”

  “You know they’ll catch all the people as soon as the missile is launched,” Gerald pointed out.

  “So? Now, nobody has to get paid except for you and me. We’ll split the money and just hide out here until the heat is off. Then I’ll get plastic surgery to change how I look and spend the rest of my life enjoying my millions. How about you?” asked Dominic.

  Gerald shrugged. “Yeah, probably something like that.”

  Could he do that? It would be easy enough. But could he enjoy millions of dollars stolen from a country so they wouldn’t be bombed? And live with the knowledge that he let millions of people die and just hid out in South America? But maybe he could let them catch Dominic and the people on the island without getting caught. That way he could stop the nuke from hitting Washington, D.C. and partway make up for the bombing of London by letting them catch the leader.

  Gerald sat back and smiled. That might be a good plan after all. They pulled out of the alley and drove to a small hotel in the poorest part of Rio de Janeiro.

  ҉

  “Well, sir, Dominic and Gerald jumped in the car. They ducked and pulled away. Agent Benzamaen tackled one of the men, but the others got away,” reported Agent Lyles, the CIA agent who had been sent to capture the three criminals.

  “Is that it? Why did you let them get in the car?” Oliver practically shouted.

  Agent Lyles tried to defend herself. “Well, we did have them surrounded, but as I said earlier, they were next to the car and jumped in. We fired at the car, but they drove away down the street.”

  “So why didn’t you follow them and capture them?” asked Oliver, still incredulous.

  “We did, but they lost us. We put an all points bulletin out for the car, but we haven’t heard anything yet,” said Agent Lyles.

  “Is that all you’ve done?” Oliver tried to calm down, but still nearly shouted.

  “Well, no actually. As we were trying to track them down, we found six suitcases on the road. Apparently the car’s trunk had come unlatched, and when the car hit a pothole, the suitcases fell out. Two of them contained regular things you would expect in a traveler’s suitcase: clothes, toothbrushes, a laptop, etc. But the other four had something very interesting in them,” said Agent Lyles.

  “What?” growled Oliver.

  “Nukes,” said Agent Lyles.

  “What!” exclaimed Oliver.

  ҉

  “Hey, Dominic, I’m going to go enjoy some of the sights of Rio de Janeiro. I’ll be back in a few hours,” said Gerald.

  Dominic looked up. “Do you think that’s wise? They’re scouting all over town for us.”

  “I won’t take the car. They probably won’t recognize me without it. Goodbye.” Gerald walked out.

  After he left the hotel, he headed for a small café a few blocks down from the hotel. He pulled out his cellphone and called the only CIA agent he knew, Jacques Benzamaen.

  “Hello, this is Jacques Benzamaen, pilot for hire,” answered Jacques.

  “Listen here. I know you aren’t a pilot. You’re a CIA agent. And I have information for you about Dominic Walton and a missing nuke. And I’ll tell you—for a price,” said Gerald in a gruff voice.

  Jacques was shocked someone could know he was in the CIA, but he wasn’t going to give it away. “CIA? Me? Oh, please. That’s ridiculous.”

  “I saw you tackle Harold Summers when the CIA surrounded Dominic Walton, Gerald Hamilton, and Harold. But if you’re not in the CIA, I can just not give you any information.

  Jacques decided to take a risk. If his cover was already blown, he might as well get something for it. I just hope the Agency understands. “Alright, I’m listening.”

  “I want $50,000 in twenties wired to my account” said Gerald.

  “Okay, done. What’s your information?”

  “First, what guarantee do I have that you’ll pay?”

  “What guarantee do I have that your information is not faulty?”

  “You don’t. Well, I guess if you don’t want my information, I can hang up.”

  “Wait. I can’t really guarantee that your money will be there, so you’ll just have to trust me.”

  “Fine. Dominic Walton is staying at the—uh, well, I can’t remember the name, but it’s on Second Street and it’s the last hotel on the block. He’s staying in Room 2.”

  “Where’s Gerald Hamilton?”

  “He, uh, had some kind of dispute with Dominic Walton over how much he was getting paid and left town.”

  “So, what’s this about missing nukes?”

  “There’s a nuke he left in the Bahamas. He’s going to have it fired at Washington, D.C., soon, possibly tonight. It’s on the island just north of the island where there was a fight between Jordan Michaels’ kidnappers and some Navy SEALs or something. Now, that’s all I know. Goodbye.”

  Gerald hung up. Suddenly something from his conversation came back to hi
m: his money. He still hadn’t gotten paid. What could he do? He thought the CIA agents wouldn’t arrive at the hotel for a couple of hours. Maybe he could get there really quick, get his money, and leave. Yeah, that’s a good plan. He turned around and walked back to the hotel.

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  “Agent Haselry, this is Agent Benzamaen. I know where Dominic is.”

  “What! How’d you find out?”

  “I got an anonymous tip. He’s staying at the hotel on Second Street on the corner. The tipper forgot the name of the hotel. He’s in Room 2. Also, he said there was a nuke on an island in Exuma Sound pointing at Washington, D.C. I’ve already contacted headquarters. They’re sending men for that mission. But we need to get men into position to raid the hotel right away.”

  “Agreed. I’ll get everybody going in ten minutes.”

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  Gerald knocked on the door. Dominic let him in. “Back so soon?” he asked.

  “Well, I had just eaten lunch when I realized I didn’t have much money on me. I came to see if I could get part of my paycheck.” Gerald took a deep breath. “Also, I think it’s time to split up.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Dominic.

  “I mean, if we stick together, it’ll be more dangerous. I thought we should just go our separate ways. So I came to see if I could get paid and leave.”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t an option at this point. I must insist you stay here.”

  “You can’t stop me from leaving.”

  As he turned to leave, Dominic said, “Stop, Gerald.”

  Something in Dominic’s voice made him turn back, and he saw a gun in Dominic’s hand. It was pointing at him. “I’m afraid you can’t be allowed to leave this room alive,” said Dominic.

  “Okay, okay. Let’s talk about this. Could you put that gun away?” Gerald pleaded.

  “No, that’s not an option. You can’t be allowed to live. You know too much. You see, if I let you go, you could go rat to the police. Plus, I get to keep all of the money. So it’s a win-lose situation. I win, and you lose.”

  Dominic raised his gun slightly. His finger tightened on the trigger. Suddenly he stopped. Gerald listened. Footsteps in the hall? Could it be the agents had already arrived? No, it was probably just the cleaning lady.

  Suddenly, the door burst open. Two agents rushed in. Gerald dived behind the bed as Dominic’s gun went off. One of the agents spun and fell. The other lunged for the bathroom. Dominic knew this was his chance. He ran to the window and opened it quickly. He turned and fired as another agent rushed in.

  Dominic stuck his head outside the window. He saw agents waiting below him. He jumped to the fire escape and started climbing.

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  Oliver looked up. He recognized Dominic and thought about firing, but realized he couldn’t see what was above him. Dominic’s form disappeared over the roof. He turned to Levi. “Climb up, but be careful. I’ll circle the building.”

  He watched as Levi began climbing the ladder. Then he turned and began to run around the building. He saw Dominic leap and barely make it to the next building. He ran after him.

  When he saw Dominic leap for the next building, he fired and missed. He continued running. What he didn’t know was Levi had fallen when trying to leap to the building. Levi was lying on the ground unconscious.

  Oliver ran around the building. He saw a ladder and began climbing. When he was two rungs up, Dominic appeared over the edge. Oliver tried to fire but slipped. His gun clattered to the ground. He pulled out his backup and kept climbing.

  When he reached the top, he carefully looked around. Dominic was on a rooftop a hundred yards off. Oliver ran and leaped for the next building. He began to close in on Dominic. At about a hundred feet away, he fired. Dominic stumbled and fell down. He got back up and staggered for a ladder. Oliver tripped and fell. He quickly scrambled to his feet.

  As Oliver reached the ladder, he looked down. Nothing but a few dumpsters and doorways. He started climbing down, keeping an eye below him. As he reached the ground, he looked around. He didn’t see anything. He kept his back to the wall and slowly edged down it. He edged past one of the dumpsters and looked behind it. He looked left, then right. He looked left again and a gun seemed to explode in his ear. A searing pain went through his side. As he fell to the ground, he could barely make out the figure of Dominic as he limped down the alley.

  Chapter 22

  As he opened his eyes, Oliver saw Malachi sitting in a chair facing him. “Hey, Oliver. How are you feeling?”

  Oliver didn’t know what he was talking about until he felt pain in his side and it all came back to him.

  “Fine. Where am I? Did they catch Dominic?”

  “You are in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And in answer to your second question, no. They did catch Gerald, as well as Dr. Xaviers and the missing nuke. But we still don’t know where Dominic is.”

  Oliver’s eye caught a movement on the other side of him. He turned his head and saw Levi sleeping peacefully.

  He turned back to Malachi and jerked his thumb at Levi’s bed. “What happened to him?”

  “As he was following Dominic, he missed a building and landed on the ground. He has four cracked ribs and a broken leg, but all in all, he escaped severe damage. By the way, you have a guest.”

  “Who?”

  “A friend of mine. When I told him about you, he said he wanted to come visit you. His name’s James Ganze.”

  James Ganze. Where have I heard that name?

  The door opened and the man stepped in. He was tall. That’s the first thing Oliver noticed about him. Then he saw the Bible under the man’s arm and he remembered the man. He was sitting on the platform of that church where he had went to the service. He remembered someone mentioning him as the pastor of the church.

  “Hello, sir. I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes. Malachi told me about your accident in the steel mill,” said James.

  Steel mill? So that’s the story the Agency must be telling about him. Oliver nodded politely.

  “And I just wanted to talk to you about the Lord. Have you ever trusted him as your Savior?” asked James.

  “No,” said Oliver. His mind was telling him to make the man leave, but something stopped him.

  “Do you believe in Jesus?” asked James.

  “Um, well, I believe He was a good man. He had some good stuff to say, but I’m not a Christian, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Do you believe Jesus was God?”

  “No. He was a good man, but He wasn’t God.”

  “But He said He was God. So was He lying, crazy, or God? Because if He was lying, then He wasn’t a good man. If He was crazy, how could you believe His teaching? And if He really was God, then you should believe in Him.”

  “Yeah, I guess I never thought about it like that.” Oliver’s mind was in a turmoil. He kept telling himself he was an atheist, and he didn’t believe in God. But something was telling him what the man said was true. So if Jesus was God, why wouldn’t he believe in Him?

  “Would you please tell me more about this?” Oliver found himself saying.

  “Certainly. What do you want to know?”

  “Well, why do we need to be saved?”

  “We need to be saved because God is holy. He created man in a perfect world. Then Adam and Eve sinned. Suddenly sinful man couldn’t come to a holy God. His punishment for sin is blood. So Jesus came from Heaven and lived a sinless life. He took our punishment for us when He shed His blood. But some people refuse to accept His blood. What they don’t realize is they are shunning the only way to Heaven. In John 14:6 it says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by me.’”

  Oliver knew he had sinned. He knew he needed something to help him. “So to get to Heaven we must have Jesus, because God won’t allow sin into Heaven?”

  “That’s right. When we ask Jesus to save us, and wash our sins away in his blood, we must stop doing those sins. This i
s called repentance.”

  “So we must ask him to save us, cleanse us, and then stop sinning to get to Heaven?”

  “Yes. But not only can we make it to Heaven when we do that, we can also be used of Him to tell others and help them know the only way to Heaven. Now that you know, what’s stopping you from accepting Christ? Would you like to know Him as Lord and Savior?”

  Oliver thought how the events in the last several weeks had prepared him for this moment. He thought about everything that had happened to him. He wondered what was holding him back.

  “I guess nothing is holding me back, Pastor Ganze. Nothing. So what should I say? I haven’t prayed since I was four.”

  “Just ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins, ask Him to cleanse you with His blood, repent of your sins, believe on Him, and thank Him for dying on the cross for you and rising again from the dead.”

  “Okay,” said Oliver. They all bowed their heads as Oliver prayed. “Dear Jesus, I am sorry for sinning against You. Please forgive me. I believe You are the only way to Heaven. You died on the cross so I could be forgiven. I’m asking you to cleanse me from my sins. I repent of them. Please come into my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

  When he opened his eyes, Malachi and James were smiling at him. “Oliver, I would like to welcome you to God’s family,” said James. Oliver shook his hand. Even as he did so, he wondered what God had for him. What did God want him to do now?

  Coming Soon…

  The Assassination Attempt

  The sequel to The Bahamas Caper.