Taking the kebab I'd just bought I turned and eased my way through the crowds in the market back toward the open spaces near the fountains in the park. Taking a rare vacant bench in the shade of a date palm I waited for mike to join me. He wandered up a minute later. Casually dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki slacks, baseball cap and sunglasses he looked just like all the other expats out wandering the malls.
I sat and ate my kebab silently, waiting for him to make the first move.
You've created quite a stir over the last month or so you know' he said.
Really? Now what makes you say that?' I replied in my most innocent tone of voice. The sarcasm ran in rivers. At least he had the decency to smile at it. For no particular reason I liked Mike. He seemed like a good bloke. My gut instinct was, that despite everything, he was one of the good guys. Although my track record for trusting people was a little hit and miss of late.
Mike grinned. 'For a guy with no background in this game you've done well so far. An international conman is sweating bullets, a fortune in illicit diamonds has disappeared and no less than five different intelligence agencies that I know of are churning out forest breaking amounts of paperwork and you are still alive! Not bad at all.'
I shrugged. 'Well a guys gotta have a hobby I suppose!'
That made him choke on his water bottle.
'You say five agencies? I figured you yanks and the Brits ,but who else?'
'The French are pretty upset and there's a couple of African states asking a lot of questions as well.'
'The French?' This was a new twist. 'What do they have to do with any of this?'
"It seems that one of their agents and a certain friend of yours have both disappeared, along with several packets of documents that could be very embarrassing to certain governments if they were to end up in the wrong hands "“ like the press.'
I must have been a little slow on the uptake as I had to think a moment before it dawned on me. "Michelle?! A French agent? Bloody hell I never would have guessed it. Steve said they had problems but he said it was with her family"¦'
"Yeah he got that right' said Mike. "Not just any agent and not just any family either. Her uncle is a director with the DGSE and he is not a happy Frenchman by all accounts. He wants both her and those documents back. Badly!'
I shrugged. "Bloody Frogs always want something. Too bad, it serves them right. One back for the Rainbow Warrior eh?'
Mike looked confused. "Who?'
"Not a "who' but a "what'. It's the ship the bastards blew up in Auckland Harbour years ago. Killed one person and then the bombers got the harshest penalty of three years on a tropical Island in the pacific. They went home laughing and got medals and promotion to boot. If they think they are getting any help from me then they can kiss my arse. I've never had any time for the Frogs since then.'
"Well they've certainly got time for you. One of their agents tracked them down to Djibouti where they met you. While I was persuading him to back off, you lot took off to Aden. From there Michelle headed for Rome and disappeared and your friend Steve seems to have vanished completely.'
And bloody good luck to them both I thought to myself, but to Mike I said "How do you know all this anyway?' I felt it was about time I started getting some information coming my way for once. "First off "“ in Africa you were just a bodyguard. Then I learn that you are supposedly a treasury agent, but this goes way beyond what I would expect the treasury to be dealing with. So which set of letters do you really belong to Mike? CIA, NSA, DEA, FBI, MMC"¦ what?
"I'm not really at liberty to "¦ the MMC? What's the MMC?' He looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"The bloody Mickey Mouse Club "“ but that's not important right now. How come you are involved and what exactly is it that everyone wants from me?'
Mike laughed "That's a good one, mind if I use that one myself?'
I just took another bite of my food and waved him to continue.
"Okay, the French and the British are busy finger pointing and blaming each other as usual so they've come to us because their agent reported his contact with me. Upshot is that they want us, the U.S. i.e. me, to approach you to get in contact with Steve.'
"And tell them what?'
"They want both the papers and Michelle back, although I think that at a push they'd settle for just the papers. No copies. In return they let the two of them walk away into the sunset.'
I looked at him sceptically. "With no questions asked? You expect us to believe that?'
If Steve and Michelle had taken the papers then they were obviously as an insurance policy and if they thought they needed such strong insurance then I didn't see them giving them up easily. It probably wouldn't be a long or happy retirement.
"Okay so that's the carrot. Now what about the stick?'
"What stick?'he asked.
Finishing my kebab I tossed the wrapper in the wastebasket and stood up. "Come on lets walk, this heat is starting to get to me.' The air above the concrete shimmered in the late afternoon sun and the glare was blinding even with good sunglasses on. As we headed for the entrance to a mall I continued. "They want me to do this, to make contact, so what happens if I say no, or if there is no reply?'
"For our part - Don't worry; we'll know if you've kept your part of the bargain. As for the others "“ who can say, but they seem to have an appalling record in light aircraft accidents.'
The temperature plummeted over twenty degrees as we entered the mall. Not all of it was from the air-conditioning.
I pulled Mike over into the lee of a planter box, out of the main ebb and flow of white-collar Arab shoppers and their veiled wives.
"Look, I'm not going to pretend I know all about what's going on here. I don't. All this secret agent and stolen papers business is bullshit to me. I'm just an ordinary guy out flying my aircraft. I didn't ask to be involved in all this. I want out. So I'll pass your message and I'll pass on any reply I get. But "“ I will not sell out my friends. I will tell them everything I know, everything that I have heard and anything that I think that they should know. I'll also let them know about what you've just inferred and that if anything happens to me, or any of my family, then they should go ahead and publish the papers. I also have a considerable sum of money available now and if I even suspect someone is trying anything funny then I will use it all if necessary, to hire people that will cause a great deal of suffering and heartache to those involved. Do I make myself absolutely clear?'
Mike looked at me quietly while he thought about what I'd said. "Absolutely, and for what it's worth, you have my personal backing as well.'
"Appreciated Mike but I have one more condition before I do anything.'
"What's that?'
"What's the story about Tony and these bloody diamonds?'
Mike relaxed and smiled at me. "That's going to take a while. C'mon lets go and find somewhere quieter. I don't promise to tell you everything. Some of it's classified and you've no need to know.'
"That's fair enough. I just need enough to make a decision about what to do next.'
Seated in the bar near the windows we could see the shipping sliding by. Gliding silently to and from the refineries and oil terminals further along the coast. The cool quiet elegance of the Burj Al Arab was an expensive extravagance but one I had promised myself. The price ensured privacy while we talked.
"Tony was already a con man and thief of some repute when we first came cross him about two years ago, said Mike. "We were tracking some arms shipments and trying to trace the money trail. Tony had been investing heavily and rather unwisely in the European stock market. He'd conned some money in a lottery scam in northern Europe and bought a sizeable arms cache on the black market. He was then on selling it in Africa for diamonds as payment.'
"Okay, I buy that so far but how does the U.S. get involved?'
"I'm coming to that. Tony got greedy. He found that he could get a better price for the rest of the weapons and for the diamonds by selling to certain groups inside the U.S.A.
"And that's where you come in to it.'
"Exactly' said Mike. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "It took me over 6 months to infiltrate Tony's' group and to work my way into a position where I could start getting any information worth having. We were just about in a position to make a move when we nearly lost the whole lot.'
This was really starting to get interesting now. "What happened?'
"Well several things happened at once. Either Tony's African contacts got wise to him or they got greedy themselves. The aircraft that dropped off the arms shipments and picked up the bulk of the diamonds was shot down shortly after takeoff in the Niger Delta. We think that it was supposed to go down into the trees nearby but the pilot struggled clear and it went down into pretty thick swamp and bush instead. That's what we were looking for when you got involved. The second thing was a monumental cluster fu*k back in the States.'
We sat silently for a moment while the waiter replaced the water decanter and glasses. Once he had gone Mike continued.
"Apparently no one had told the local cops what was happening in their patch. They stumbled upon one of Tony's guys - during a routine traffic stop of all things "“ spotted an automatic in the car. The young flatfoot thought he was clever by not taking him down and instead they followed and called in the local undercover squad instead. They thought they were onto a drugs ring. Instead of punting it up the line the locals decided to handle it there and then. They came charging in all fire and brimstone. Well Ben wasn't having any of that.'
"This is the same Ben that died in Nigeria?'
"Yeah that's him. He was Tony's right hand man. As you guessed at the time, he was ex-special forces. He had that place so wired even the mice needed passes. Those cops never knew what hit them. Within seconds they were one man down and pinned flat. The only thing that saved their sorry asses was a SWAT team that was returning from a callout two blocks over and heard the call for backup. Next thing it's world war three with automatic weapons going both ways. Two of Tony's guys went down and a third was hurt pretty bad. Ben and I got Tony out our pre-prepared escape route and got out of the country. I later found out five cops had been killed and about half a dozen injured. Some of them must have been shooting at each other in the confusion because two of them went down after we'd left!'
I sat back and let out my breath. " Man I see what you mean by a clusterfu*k all right. What happened after that?'
"I was ready to take them both down and bring them in but someone higher up decided not to. They still needed to secure the weapons inside the U.S and trace back the money trail to the groups buying them. So I was told to keep cover and carry on.'
"Tony and Ben never suspected you?'
"No, while we were shooting it out in the warehouse I put a bullet into a cop that was about to blindside Tony.'
"Holy s**t' I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You shot a cop?!'
"Shhh, keep your voice down. Yes I shot a cop, but I made sure it was only a clean wound and not a kill shot. It put him out of the fight and both Tony and Ben saw him go down. It removed any doubts that they might have had. Not that I think they had any, otherwise I'd have been dead long before then.'
"Fair enough' I said. Mike was certainly one cool customer.
Mike continued "we got back to Europe and that's when we found out about the diamonds being missing. Tony had lost just about everything by then and was getting pretty desperate. We headed for Nigeria and tried to hire a plane to get into the Delta. When the pilot heard just where he was expected to go he pulled out and just walked away. When you showed up Tony was like a kid whose Christmases had all come at once.'
I remembered back to the scene in that bar in Lagos. Tony on the cell phone, calling that pilot all sorts of things. Dads' advice, that he told all us kids, never seemed more appropriate than just then "“ never volunteer!
"Us getting shot down never entered into his calculations though' said Mike. "Losing Ben shook him more than he'd bargained for I think. The saving grace for him was that you'd recovered his laptop. He had a map of the meeting places and the location of the crash site on it.'
"Yeah I remember' I said "he clutched that laptop like it was his life.'
"That's right. While you were in hospital, Tony, to give him some credit, hired a boat and went back in to the Delta. We searched for nearly a week, dodging animals, snakes and Militia before we finally found the wreckage. Tony actually cried when he found the diamonds still there. We were just going to fly back to Europe but by then the authorities were asking all sorts of questions and it got too hot for Tony. That's when he got the idea to use you to fly them out; less risk for him and we would recover them later. He didn't count on you finding them though.'
I laughed. "Yeah I bet that put a spoke in the works. What about the mercenary outfit that flew me to Port Harcourt though? Where do they fit in?'
"Oh that.' Mike just shrugged. "That was just a cash job "“ fly this guy from here to here, say nothing and get the rest of the money when you get back. I doubt if the guys put it through the books and probably never even told their bosses about the job at all'
I sat back again. "So it wasn't part of some big conspiracy then?'
Mike laughed at me "No, sometimes a cigar is "¦'
""¦ is just a cigar' I finished for him. "Okay so what happened after that?'
"Well Tony headed back to Europe to try and salvage something there. I headed back to the States. Tony had told me where the remaining weapons were and I was supposed to sell them up and rejoin him. It meant I was able to report in and update head office as well.'
I was confused. "If you were in the States and Tony was in Europe then who were the guys in Central Africa that tried to stop me leaving?'
"Sorry, that's one that I can't help you with' said Mike. "You might have to ask Tony that one if you ever see him again. Maybe he tried to recover the stones using local labour who knows.'
"See Tony again? Not if I can help it. I never want to see hide nor hair of him again.'
"You might just be in luck with that. He disappeared off the radar completely once he got back to Europe. We haven't been able to find a trace of him since. But at least the weapons were picked up. That's my part of things completed, that and looking after you.'
"So what are you going to do now?'
"I'm going back home for some time off then out to the west coast to do training for a few months. Then I'm hanging up my gun. There's an outdoor adventure tourism place that I'm looking at buying.'
"That sounds like fun.'
"Yeah, I still get to do all the outdoors stuff but without anyone shooting back at me. My own place, run my own way, well, mine and the banks. Talking about money, you still haven't said what's happened to the diamonds. I know they're not in the aircraft anymore.'
"Yes I'd heard you looked.'
Mike spread his hands. "Just doing my job.'
I waved it away. "Don't worry I'm not worried about that now. They're gone. They've been sold and the money invested. It will be put to good use. Certainly nothing that will threaten the USA.'
"Do I have your word on that' asked Mike.
"Yes you do. It's invested worldwide. 50% of the profits each year go back into the fund to help it grow and the rest will be spread among aid agencies in Africa. That way the money will help those that should have got it in the first place. That's what Steve was helping me set up.'
"Well that ties a few loose ends up. It wasn't US money in the first place so we have no further interest in it "“ for now. You might get more questions later if thing change.'
"Well let them ask, I don't promise to answer though.'
The sun was setting now and the first bright stars were shining high in the deepening blue of the evening sky. The navigation lights on the tankers winked and shone in the darkness of the sea. The smell of food from the kitchens was making me hungry.
"Do you want to grab a feed?' I asked Mike.
"Sounds good, but I need to clean up first. I'm staying at a place about three blocks up. How about I meet you in the lobby in about an hour?'
"Okay see you then.'
As mike left I finished my water and headed down to my room to change.
I was early getting downstairs so wandered over to join those browsing the magazine racks. I was so engrossed in an article about VOR tracking in the latest Computer Pilot magazine that I never noticed the fellow next to me until the barrel of his silencer was pressed firmly but discreetly into my ribs.
"Craig, so good to catch up with you again' said Tony smiling. Under his breath he hissed "don't do anything rash and we can all walk away from this with the minimum of fuss.'
"Tony' I replied "Long time no see, how's the oil business?'
"Oh just like the flying business, it has it's ups and downs.'
I groaned and said quietly "God Tony, I'm only going to laugh at that because you've got a gun.'
"Sorry, now, we are going for a ride. I believe you have some things of mine and I want them back.
I put my magazine back on the rack. My mind was racing. How was I going to get out of this? Where was Mike? I had to play for time and hope an opportunity presented itself.
"Okay Tony, how do you want to do this?
"That's a sensible chap. there's a taxi rank out front, we will walk out and take one.'
"Tony I'm a guest here, why would I take a taxi? All I need to do is ask and they will provide a limo and a driver. Much more comfortable eh?' maybe I could buy some time ordering the car.
Tony wasn't having any of it though. "Just head outside now, tell the driver to take us to the airport. Don't try anything foolish, I'll be covering you the whole time so please don't spoil things by making me shoot you.'
It's okay I'd prefer to avoid that myself' I told him.
"Good, lets go.' Tony slid his weapon into his suit jacket pocket and motioned for me lead on.
As I crossed the lobby and left the main entrance I kept scanning with my eyes, trying to see Mike but he was nowhere to be seen. We didn't talk much in the cab. I think we were both wondering at our chances of surviving the ride. Traffic sped past us along Sheik Zayed road weaving and passing like a formula 1 race. Our driver negotiated the interchange at the Dubai World Trade center without the slightest hesitation or reduction in speed, and shot along the trade center road. As we passed the Rashid Hospital I hoped we wouldn't need their services. Once over Dubai creek we turned right along Airport road and I gave silent thanks that the trip was nearly over and all I had to worry about was one desperate criminal with a gun.
After I'd paid the cab Tony steered me toward a row of darkened hangers. The only light I could see was in the FBO I had used on arrival, about a hundred meters further along the road. I racked my brain trying to recall every detail I could from when I was taxiing in but it was no use. I just hadn't taken that much notice at the time.
Half way down between two hangers he stopped me and unlocked a door. Standing back he motioned me forward. The skylights in the hanger roof let in the bare minimum of light. Just enough to make out the shape of a pair of business jets, several cargo pallets and a few rows of shelving toward the rear. Closing my eyes I tried to adjust them to the gloom as quickly as I could.
"The lights are on the far wall near the office' said Tony pushing his gun into the middle of my back to urge me forward. This was my chance and probably my only one. Spinning quickly to my left I used my left arm to knock aside the gun. Using the momentum of the turn I hurled all the weight and force I could muster into a roundhouse right to his head. It hurt him, it had to have hurt him, it sure as hell hurt me! He'd ducked forward and I hit him in the forehead. It felt like I'd punched a brick wall. As he staggered back I followed up with a right foot to the groin but in the gloom I only half connected. It was still satisfying to hear the grunt of pain and see him fold and roll away into the deep shadows beneath the nose of the Challenger jet. Unfortunately it still left him with a gun and between me and the door. Turning I ducked behind a tool trolley and headed for the back of the hanger, my running shoes squeaking on the polished floor. At the rear of the hanger were several offices with windows looking out into the main body of the workshop. I reasoned that there had to be an internal access door from the offices and that there'd probably be an exit somewhere there. The light from above was now enough to throw deep shadows behind the workbench between the office door and me. Thinking I'd be smart and try the old movie trick of throwing something and causing a distraction, I reached out to grab something off the trolley beside me. I never heard Tony fire but I certainly heard the thump as the round hit the toolbox I was reaching for. I don't know if he could see me or if it was just a random shot, either way, it scared the living s**t out of me and I nearly jumped through the roof. So much for that idea! Trying to move slowly so my shoes wouldn't squeak I worked my way back along the pallets. When I'd nearly reached the wall I could see along passed the windows. There was the office door right in the corner.
Honestly this guy must be a bloody mind reader! Just as I was about to launch myself, Tony shot out the glass in the nearest window. When a plate glass window 4' high by 6' long lets go "“ let me tell you "“ it makes one hell of a noise and an even bigger mess! Shards of glass littered the benches and the floor, glittering in the patches of moonlight from above.
Using the noise as cover I whipped around the end of the pallets and across behind the one closer to the door we'd come in. Tony must have been still in the dark shadows under the jet lying doggo and trying to recover as I couldn't see or hear him at all.
Despite all the Airport noises outside, everything inside that hanger seemed amplified, every creak of the tin like a crash of cymbals, even my heartbeat was like a beacon trying to give me away.
"You're not going anywhere until I get what I came for' came Tony's' voice from the darkness, echoing off the hanger walls. "Just tell me where they are and this will all be over.'
"Yeah right scumbag' I thought to myself. I'll be the one face down with a bullet in the back of the head, that's when it'll be over for you. Creeping as silently as I could I
worked my way closer to the door. The shattering crash as the second office window exploded gave me the cover I needed to get within a few feet of the exit. It also told me that Tony didn't know where I was after all.
Slowly reaching forward I turned the handle and pulled. The door flew open so suddenly that I fell back knocking an unseen broom clattering to the floor. In the doorway was the silhouette of a figure; Mike had been about to enter just as I had opened the door.
Letting out a surprised grunt he started to bend over before suddenly being thrown backwards onto the path outside. The loud WHANG of a bullet glancing off the doorframe brought understanding flooding in. Tony must have heard the door open and turning had seen Mikes outline and thought it was me. I dived out the opening while I had the chance. Mike lay still, a gun still clutched in his hand. Quickly snatching it up I ran the few yards into the dark shadow of the neighbouring hangar. Tony's judgement of human behaviour was his undoing. Thinking I had done a runner he raced out the door in pursuit. As he stopped to look up and down the alley I stepped forward, calmly raised Mikes weapon and shot him "“ twice. Tony dropped like a rag doll "“ dead before he even hit the ground. Carefully wiping the gun down I knelt and put it back in Mike's hand and closed his finger over the trigger and loosed off a shot into the hangar. Checking for a pulse I found Mike was still alive and breathing. Running my hands over him I found a wound in the abdomen and a nasty furrow along one side of his head above the right ear. It didn't look like anything fatal. Mikes gun didn't have a silencer and the noise must have been heard by someone. It was time to leave. Ducking back into the hangar I made my way airside through the access hatch in the main doors. The front of the hangars had spotlights at intervals but there were shadows amongst the aircraft out on the flight line so that's where I headed.
I had just made TGY when I heard sirens approaching. Opening up TGY I quickly pulled a spare shirt from my laundry kit in the back and changed. My old shirt had Mike's blood on it. The FBO was quiet with no one in sight as I walked through. Using the phone on the desk I dialled for a cab.
About 10 minutes later it pulled up out front and as I got in three security vehicles raced past in the opposite direction. The 500 meters between the FBO and leaving the airport felt like a trip in the twilight zone; time dilated until every second lasted a lifetime. I got the driver to drop me in the central city and paid cash before catching another a few blocks away back to the hotel. Once there I quickly showered and changed before packing up everything and heading downstairs. After checking out I again took the ride to the airport. This time in an air-conditioned limo in far greater comfort.
Pulling up outside the FBO again we were stopped by security. The place was definitely a full-scale crime scene now. Flashing lights of police and ambulance lit the hangars and scores of people were standing around further along the road. The officer that stopped us asked where we were going and what business we had here. The driver from the Burj was obviously used to dealing with security personnel and said he had one of the hotel guests to drop off, indicating the FBO offices beside us. Waving us to continue, security stood aside.
Inside I asked for weather and notams for Muscat, explaining to the young man behind the desk that I had a long days flying tomorrow and had decided to leave in the cool of the night.
Used to dealing with business travel and its' unusual timings he quickly had what I required and I set about planning. As he brought me a coffee I asked what all the fuss was about.
"A bad business. The security were in here earlier asking all sorts of questions. Two men were shot earlier. One of them is dead and the other has been taken away to the hospital badly wounded.'
"Really? Do they know what happened?' I hammed it up to look as shocked as I possibly could.
"No. They were foreigners so who knows what it was about.'
Giving him my flight plan to file I though "at least Mikes on his way to the hospital'. I wasn't sorry about Tony "“ good riddance to bad rubbish but I would have been truly upset if Mike hadn't made it.
Rashid helped me carry my bags out to the aircraft, which turned out to be an unexpected bonus. As I was doing the walk around another security vehicle pulled over and began questioning us. Rashid explained that I was a businessman that had just arrived in the courtesy car from the Burj al Arab. This seemed to impress the guards and having a local to vouch that I had only just arrived at the airport settled any doubt that they'd had.
Pre-flight completed I gave Rashid a healthy cash tip and settled myself into the cockpit. It wasn't until I had started and was on the taxi that the shakes started. Violent tremors that started at the finger tip and ran right up the arms. It made holding the sick bag awkward. Thank goodness it was such a long taxi. Although I wanted to be away as quickly as possible, I need the time to settle down. I was almost back to normal by the holding point. Each radio call I dreaded was going to be the return to the ramp instruction.
"TGY is ready' I called, and waited"¦
)
