Queen Zaria Trilogy

by Danny Dunn

  Pedro "The U.S.?"

  Michael "How well you cooperate determines your destination, perfect means we turn you over to the NSA, fairly good means the CIA gets you, and not at all means we dump you out with the other stuff we don't need over the Gulf of Mexico. Have you heard about the squid population exploding there? Ooh, horrible way to go.

  Pong has a drone flying two miles ahead of Michael's team. I have a black 4 door heading your way coming from the airport. They are doing 105 mph and tells them to pull over now. They see a gas station ahead and pull around behind it and shut off their lights.

  Pong tells them for a few reasons to bring the helpers with them to the U.S.

  Alby and Joe grab the two helpers and toss them into the van with them, then locks up Pedro's van and tosses the keys in the bushes.

  Pong, "I have done the math, and you are going to have an extra 3 minutes when you arrive at the airport to get into the air before the feds reach Pedro's shop and then drive like maniacs to the airport. You will be out of the sight of their rearview mirrors in 3,2,1 Go!

  Michael turns on their lights and heads to the airport at about ten MPH over the speed limit.

  Pong tells Michael, "I still have a drone hovering over the intersection at Pedro's street and will let you know as they arrive there and get back onto the freeway. Wow, they are in a hurry. They just arrived at Pedro's. She has a drone watching. The feds get out of the car, walk around the building, and hop back into their car and leave the building. That was quick, they are on their way, and a second car has joined them at the intersection. The second vehicle is a van. At your two speeds, you will have three minutes from the moment you get to the airport."

  Michael, "copy that.” Michael tells the team that they will leave the van at the plane. Joe, you jump out of the van when we arrive and get the plane ready to go. Alby, you and I will throw everything into the cabin as fast as we can, starting with Pedro and the helpers.

  They arrive up to the private plane terminal security gate. There is a security guard in a small booth getting up to greet them.

  They pull up to the guard shack

  David, "Good evening."

  Guard "Good evening."

  The guard draws his gun and has Michael frozen.

  Guard "Put your hand where I can see 'em."

  There is a buzzing noise. The remaining two drones come flying in at 70 mph. The first guard's hand holding the gun, causing it to change direction just enough to miss Alby. A half-second later, a second drone tasers the guard in the neck, and the guard drops to the ground.

  Michael hits the gas pedal, and they speed toward the jet. Joe climbs into the plane and into the cockpit and begins preparing the jet for taking off. Michael throws the files and hard drives into the cabin of the plane, and then they load the unconscious Pedro and the two helpers into the plane.

  Pong, "they are flying guys; you have about two minutes."

  Joe has the jet ready to go. They taxi to the runway and ask for permission to take off.

  Tower "A447, please hold we have an emergency landing in process. Please hold.

  Joe "Guys, that's B.S. guys. They are stalling."

  They all look out in every direction.

  Alby, "I have emergency vehicles at 2 o'clock with RED lights and no blue lights heading across a taxi lane to block us most likely.

  Michael "Gas it, Joe!" Joe hits the throttle with the brakes on and then releases to the breaks to maximize their take-off speed. As they started down the runway, they see the 2 black speeding vehicles coming from the direction of the Frog Man's shop.

  As the plane is gaining speed, the emergency vehicle stops on the runway too close for Joe to get up enough speed for taking off. Joe keeps the throttle maxed and talks to them as they accelerate.

  Joe says, "Hang on guys, we are going to get up enough speed to jump over the car and come back down and then get up our speed for taking off. This runway is rated for bigger planes, so we should have enough runway to pull this off. But when we touch back down, it is going to be a hard one, so hang on."

  The two men in the parked emergency vehicle, which Joe can now see are airport police, jump out of the car and are reaching for their guns, but when they see the plane isn't going to stop they run off to the side and dive to the ground to avoid the explosion of the plane crashing into the car.

  Joe pulls back on the wheel, and the plane lifts up just enough to clear the car and hits back down hard quickly. Joe raises the flaps back up to increase speed. Joe gives it full throttle again. The engines are screaming. Five seconds before they run out of runway, Joe lowers the flaps to get more lift. They use every foot of the runway, and at the last second, Joe pulls up just enough to get them off the ground, the wheels clip some trees just beyond the runway. They all look around at each other and grin.

  Michael Asks Joe if hopping a car on a runway was something, he learned that in the Blue Angels? Joe replies back to Michael, are you kidding, I have never done that in my life and says that that scared the hell out of him. They all laugh and are truly relieved.

  End Chapter 28

  Chapter 29 – Pedro Do You Like Skydiving?

  Michael messages Pong as they take off and sends pics of all the documents, the equipment, computers and pictures of Pedro in the plane, and the videotape of Pedro's confession part 1 at his shop.

  Michael "Confession part 2 will happen in the air, and we will send it along with the rest of the intel when we land. Please have the fastest jet you can get your hands on that can reach London without refueling waiting for us when we arrive. Please have 20 more of my team in the plane ready to go the moment we land. If possible, their gear should be in the cabin so we can do whatever prep work we need to do on the way.

  David "Roger that guys, great job to all of you. The A-Team has nothing on you guys!"

  David tells Pong he is sending a team to the airport to watch for activity in the area to make sure the feds are not launching an ambush there.

  Pong receives everything and sends it encrypted to Karen and asks her to please make several copies of everything and get them off-site and put it in several locations asap. It needs to be somewhere the feds would never think of looking. Put at least one copy in a remote area buried in plastic under a rock. And Karen, the President and the CIA director would have no issue having us killed if they thought it meant having this information so watch your back.

  Karen replies, "roger that." Karen encrypts everything, puts it on a thumb drive, and tells her mom she will be back in a few minutes."

  Michael "Ah good, you are awake. You missed all the fun. I will give you a few minutes to wake up, and then we will talk a bit.

  Alby and Michael are reading, condensing, and organizing what they have. They take more pics and arrange the documents.

  Alby, "Michael, look at this. They are the packing slips for the orders to the U.K. They show shipments to 20 locations. It would appear we have the locations of the twenty U.K. shops."

  15 minutes pass and Pedro is wide awake.

  David "First of all we are not the CIA. We are the guys the CIA is blaming for the attacks to cover up their cluster fuck with you. If we have anything in common, it is how we both feel about the CIA, no honor. Pedro, every guy in this plane, lost multiple friends and family members in the attacks, so you are not a very popular guy in this plane. We probably have enough to ensure the right people go to prison. However, we are willing to make a deal with you for a full confession implicating the CIA players and the ones you sold the toxin to."

  Pedro "What happens if I confess?"

  Michael " Like I said before No confession means you depart the plane early, and we take the $10 million. A half-assed confession lands you in the hands of the CIA, which would have you wishing we threw you out of the plane, and we take the $10 million. A really good confession gets you into the hands of the NSA, and your family keeps the $10M, and they live happily ever after."

  Michael "All we need now is a full conf
ession/explanation of what happened beginning to end with a special focus on the Aholes that are framing us for their screw-ups."

  Pedro says, “Fine. Pedro starts his confession all the way back to his original dealings with the CIA and how they had purchased his product for other operations and names a few he knows his product was used in. Pedro includes comments about his recorded conversations with his CIA contacts, he provides the access codes to a thumb drive and a cellphone hidden inside one of the computers. They had found the phone but not the thumb drive. The phone has recordings of every call he has ever had with them. He tells them it even has the recording of his CIA contact explaining how they are going to pin everything on Pong and that if he doesn’t cooperate, they are going to kill him and his family.”

  Michael "Tell us about the U.K. shipments."

  Pedro sighs and answers, "Yes, I shipped the same product for the same customer to 20 locations in the U.K.

  Michael "How many loaded cartridges?"

  Pedro "40,000."

  Michael "How long after the U.S. shipment was the U.K. shipment?

  Pedro "About three months after."

  Michael ", The ship to addresses, are those company addresses or residential address?

  Pedro "Commercial."

  Michael "What phone or other information do you have on these guys?

  Pedro "They were in a hurry, and the shipments were smaller, so they had me ship to the branches directly. There is a file there called "Misc." All the information is in there."

  Michael "Who is behind the attacks?"

  Pedro "Habin, Bin Laden. It was revenge for killing his brother. He is living in Pakistan. His phone number is in the misc. file."

  Michael " When is the U.K. attack?"

  Pedro "I don't know exactly, but they are in a hurry. Everything was; rush, rush, rush.

  Michael and Alby help Pedro to the back bedroom of the plane and sit him in a seat and tie him to the bed and gag him.

  Michael "Well, any ideas, the CIA knows we are coming."

  Joe, "I can report a mayday and say we have pressurization problems. They will lower us to under 3,000 feet, our cell phones will work, and we can talk to Pong, who I bet has a fix for our CIA problem."

  Michael and Alby agree. They are 3 hours and 45 minutes from Albuquerque.

  Joe calls in the problem, and the tower lowers them to 2,000 feet. A few seconds later, they are getting cell phone reception.

  Alby, "Pulls out another burner and hands it to Michael."

  Michael grabs another burner and calls David. David's burner rings, and he puts it on speaker.

  David, "How was the vacation?"

  Michael "I caught the biggest fish wait till' you see it. While we talk, Alby is sending everything from a new burner phone to one of their unused burner phones for Pong to sick the team on. We got the deluxe confession and cooperation out of Pedro. We have a lot of intel, pretty much a wish list of intel."

  Michael "Before we discuss anything else, we need to turn our attention to a second attack we feel in imminent. David, it is Saturday in the UK, and that is their big Football day there so the attack could happen today. Pedro confessed that he sent the same product to the same customer in the U.K. 90 days after he shipped to the U.S. Because the U.K. is a much smaller attack, it would take less time to prepare. I believe we have a very short fuse on this. Pedro said the U.K. was rush, rush, rush. Because it was rushed, they had Pedro ship directly to the 20 shops. All the addresses are in the intel message. If this is done quickly and all simultaneously, I believe we can stop it before it happens. How is Pong doing on the jet to London?

  David, "we are all set, Michael. The jet and the team will be there waiting for you guys. I assume you want to go to London."

  Michael " If you told us no, the jet would take off with the three of us each hanging onto the landing gear. One more thing, look in the miscellaneous folder. It has the name of our mastermind on this whole thing. Also, Pedro just told us about a thumb drive and a phone which has a ton of more intel on it, including our buddies telling Pedro how they are going to frame us for the attacks. We are sending that and more as we speak.

  “Any ideas regarding our greeting party?”

  Well, I sent some pretty damning evidence to the President, and he wrote back to assure me we will be left alone when we land. I think we should have a plan cooked up to address whatever they might have waiting for us. Again, logic seems to not play much of a part in the lives of these guys. Which brings me to this. Joe, would you be ok with lowering your altitude some more for a couple of minutes while over the water.

  Joe "Sure, what's up."

  Pong "Even though we appear to have the upper hand, I don't think to trust the CIA is a very good idea. If they get their hands-on Pedro, they would be in the position to torture him, get him to implicate us in a recorded interview, and then frame us just to cover the CIA's screw up.

  David tells them they could have a boat with our people heading out into the sea in the gulf, and you will be over them in a few hours. We want you to strap the evidence to Pedro and throw him out. Pong agrees and that, even if there are issues, everything will float, and we have all the evidence. If Pedro doesn't survive, they just feed Pedro to the fish. David agrees, and they call Michael.

  David calls Michael, "Hey Michael, we want you to strap the evidence to Pedro and toss him out with a parachute on. Our guys will pick him up. Put one live charged burner into the backpack we will track just in case. Also, toss your cell phones into the backpack and anything you don't want to be confiscated or to be arrested for when you land. If you would please, toss the heavy things out separately and before the Pedro drop. Pong says she will buy you bright shiny new ones of your choosing after things calm down. The team on the plane will have another batch for you to use in London. Please make sure the backpack floats. LOL

  Pong, "I will have a plane waiting for you at the airport under the name of Beyoncé. Pong tells David there will be a case loaded onto the plane that says Beyoncé stage mics on the outside and to please have that brought to the palace immediately and is to be delivered to the Queen. I will let her know it is coming."

  David tells them they will all be there waiting and ready to go. Great job, guys.

  Pong looks at David with a big smile and says with a big grin if we are dropping Pedro should make one of the helpers Pedro. David looks at Pong for a second and says OMG that is too perfect. We take Pedro's wallet and his other stuff and stick it on the helper that looks like him. Wow, Pong, that is wickedly smart. David says that the CIA will be in such a rush to get him that they might not catch it for a while. David tells Pong that we might want to take out any photo I.D.s to help slow down a positive I.D. of Pedro, and Pong agrees.

  David passes it along to Michael, and they start cracking up. Michael tells David they will do it when they are prepping Pedro and will taser the helpers, so they don’t know it happened.

  Pong looks at her computer screen and sees an email "oh, this is bad; a CIA agent is confirming they will have everything ready to arrest Pedro in Albuquerque. David, get to London asap. I will handle everything here. Take Linda, we know what we are going to be met with now."

  Pong then calls The Queen.

  Pong calls the Queen from a burner phone. The Queen's secretary answers at 5:00 am. London Time.

  Pong "Hello sir, I am sorry to disturb you, but this is Pong calling from the U.S., and I must speak to the Queen immediately. For security reasons, I have to use a burner phone to ensure no one can detect this call, which is why you do not see my number on your end."

  The Queen's secretary "Madam, it is 5:00 am, and the Queen is sleeping.

  Pong, "I am aware of that; please just tell her it is me and that I say it is of the utmost importance and very time-sensitive.

  Three minutes pass

  The Queen, "Hello Pong, how are you, my dear."

  Pong "Hello, my Queen, the President, asked my team and me to secretly find the perp
etrators of the attack on the U.S. I found them. One of the perpetrators we captured was the one that supplied the Yellow Dart Frog toxin used in the gassing of the stadiums.

  That same poison dart frog toxin supplier also shipped 40,000 cartridges of the same toxin in the same CO2 cartridges to the U.K. 90 days ago to 20 locations in your country. We believe an attack of a similar proportion will happen very soon in your country and possibly today since your football games will be held today.

  I understand that you will do what you feel is best, but this supplier had links to some people in our agencies. For that reason, I believe it is likely the CIA would catch wind of our operation in the UK, and what they do from there would be anybody’s guess. That could cause the perpetrators to either leave or activate their plan the moment they hear we are onto them.

  I have a Concorde with my team on its way to you right now but have a situation I need your help with. In locating the perpetrators, I ran across some very incriminating information regarding the CIA and the President, where they discuss framing me for the attack on the U.S. They are going to arrest my team when they arrive from Costa Rica in under four hours from now. They are doing this to seize Pedro and the evidence I have on the President and the CIA. So, I am calling to ask for your help with Pedro and the evidence. However, I would ask that you keep our plan quiet until the mission is complete.

  The Queen says, I see. And tells Pong she understands and that one of her guards will be calling her shortly. He and his team are very well trained and that she will instruct Edward to follow your team's orders.

  Pong thanks the Queen and tells the queen they will keep you well informed.

  The Queen thanks Pong and hangs up the phone.

  Edward, the Queen’s leader, calls David immediately, and they begin preparations.

  Steven, from the Queen's guard in British Honduras, calls Michael to let him know they have a helicopter that will be at the GPS location listed below. When the item hits the water, our divers will jump in, and we will hoist him into the chopper in a basket.

  Michael writes back to be especially careful not to damage the goods in the backpack as they are extremely important. Steven writes back, roger that.