Twist and Turn

by Tim Tigner

  Briggs nodded and said, “Heaven help us. The timers on the Serenity were set for 16:30.”

  I looked at my watch. 4:18 p.m. Twelve minutes to detonation.

  “Come with me,” Briggs said.

  We ran starboard toward where sunlight was streaming through open side ports. The forklifts were going at it big-time as the land sailed by. They weren’t using the careful one-by-one lifting procedure I’d seen earlier. They were bulldozing whole rows of pallets. The sight reminded me of paratroopers leaving a plane.

  “The captain has us over the deepest part of the channel. Just one truckload, right?” Briggs asked, skipping around as his mind jumped.

  “Almost certainly.”

  “That’s thirty pallets. We picked up eighteen pallets of eggs and a dozen potatoes. You say the supplier wasn’t in on it?”

  I was sure Katya and I would be answering the same questions many times in the days to come. If there were days to come. “That’s right. They’re innocent.”

  “That’s all the potatoes!” a forklift driver shouted.

  It was 4:26 p.m. Very impressive. But we’d all be vaporized in less than four minutes if the explosive eggs were still aboard.

  I expected Briggs to run toward the second hive of activity, but he didn’t. No point, I realized. He’d just be a distraction. Good commanders trained their people well, then got out of the way while they worked.

  “What happened on The Serenity?” I asked.

  “Your girlfriend led my counterpart to the explosives. She chose a considerably less dramatic means of alerting him, by the way. She just asked for him at reception. They found sophisticated active and passive receivers in addition to timers, which are set to detonate at 16:30.”

  “Are set? You didn’t disarm them?”

  “Cruise ships don’t keep bomb disposal crews on hand. But they got a bigger buffer than we did. They found the first pallet at 15:30. That gave them enough time to covertly load the six pallets onto lifeboats and haul them out to sea. They’re still towing the bombs toward deep water, on a very long line, but will let go any second.”

  Briggs looked at me, and I looked at him. I had no doubt that we were thinking the same thing. If his crew didn’t get the eggs out in time, we’d never know it. We’d just vanish. Turn to vapor in the blink of an eye.

  I didn’t want to die.

  In what might be the last seconds of my life, my thoughts moved on to Katya. She had made it! She’d also saved thousands of lives.

  I didn’t want to die.

  I wished I’d been able to propose, to hear her say “I do,” to make and raise beautiful kids, to see the world as tourists do and grow old by her side.

  I didn’t want to die.

  I wished this hadn’t happened to us. The bunker. The kidnapping. The cross-country chase. But in retrospect, we were lucky that it had. Because if it hadn’t—

  106

  Caution

  Florida

  I DIDN’T DIE.

  I did feel the underwater explosions. At the time I was bracing myself against crates of bananas while looking into a British detective’s baby-blue eyes and thinking how far that setting was from my ideal parting scene.

  The exterior video I saw later was much more impressive than the inside experience. Big shock waves raced across the top of the water like rings of turbocharged whitecaps, followed by white geyser-like plumes, then darker-lower-wider blasts of frothy water and finally eruptions of black silt which rained on ship and shore like the muds of Hell.

  Then it was over.

  Oz killed a lot of fish and caused one nonfatal heart attack, but his clever creations failed to take a single human life. Not the least of which were Katya’s and mine.

  In Florida, that was.

  Nevada was a different story.

  That was the sum of what I knew when a pleasant-faced man of some forty years with graying hair and a matching suit walked into the Port Canaveral security office where I was being detained. I’d never seen him before, but I knew who he was the instant our eyes met. “Special Agent Link.”

  As the door clicked shut behind him, Vic slid into the chair just vacated by the Navy captain who ran port security. He opened by answering a question the colonel had repeatedly ignored. “Ms. Kozara is on her way here now,” he said by way of opening. “My Miami counterpart is escorting her up on his plane.”

  My heart leapt at the news, and I let it show. But that was only half the story. The least important half. “Thank you. What’s her status?”

  “Same as yours. She’s a person of interest.”

  That was good news, if not definitive. While Katya had committed no crimes, a warrant had been put out for her arrest by the man across the table from me now.

  Same for me.

  While I hadn’t committed the crime for which Vic had issued the warrant, I had racked up a serious slate of potential charges since. Not the least of which was assaulting and kidnapping officer Jarvis.

  Not wanting to go that way, I asked the big question. “Did you catch Oz?”

  Vic met my eye, then extended his hand across the table. “We did. All four of the people from your video and a fifth whom we’ve identified as the chicken farmer are now in FBI custody. As is the cryptocurrency flash drive. We don’t have the password yet, but we’ll get it.”

  The flash drive! I’d all but forgotten about the money. A temporary lapse, to be sure. I was less confident than Vic regarding their ability to coax the password from Oz. The Saudi struck me as exceptionally resilient.

  I wondered if my flight prediction had proven correct. “Charter flight?”

  “They rented a corporate jet.”

  “Where?”

  “We caught them in Orlando. Their current location is undisclosed.”

  My thoughts moved on to the number of prisoners. Given that all five had been flying out, either nobody had been watching the ports or Oz had additional accomplices.

  “Your expression tells me you’ve landed on my immediate concern. Do you have any reason to believe there were more than the five of them involved?”

  I’d given Oz’s team a lot of thought while planning my big gambit. The beach exchange. “Given the controlling and analytical way the Saudi operated, and his focus on secrecy, I think he limited involvement to family. You should see if either he or Sabrina have other relatives around.”

  “One step ahead of you there.”

  “Good. There were probably contractors as well. People who supplied this or that without knowing about the larger plan.”

  “On it. Katya is helping with that,” Vic added.

  “And then there’s the source Oz threatened me with. The one I told you about. His supposed friend high up in the FBI. You should ask him about that.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I will.”

  Something in Vic’s expression compelled me to add, “I didn’t believe him, but I couldn’t be sure. I hope you’re not offended that I proceeded with caution.”

  My words drew a smile. I wasn’t sure why until Vic spoke. “Mr. Achilles, your definition of caution varies greatly from most.”

  107

  The Cake and the Castle

  One Month Later

  Half Moon Bay, California

  WE HAD A SMALL CEREMONY ON A BEACH. A Northern California beach, not a central Florida beach. It wasn’t extravagant from a society pages perspective, but it was perfect. Mother Nature brought us her best, as did a string quartet and talented florist.

  Standing there with the sun setting and the waves crashing, looking into Katya’s loving eyes, I reflected on how close we’d come to missing that moment. If Jarvis had delayed me another few minutes or Briggs hadn’t been top shelf, Katya would have become a widow without ever being a wife.

  I couldn’t control my tears.

  Katya didn’t seem to mind. But she did stop them—with a kiss.

  Our reception was catered by none other than Cinquante Bouches, with the compliments of
the owners and chef. While that had been offered and arranged in advance, we did have two surprise guests. Or maybe it was one—with an FBI escort.

  Vic approached me while his charge was talking on his phone. “Congratulations!”

  “Thank you.”

  “Before we get to the interesting stuff,” Vic said, gesturing toward the other man with his head, “I wanted to bring you up to date on the investigation.”

  “Please,” Katya said.

  “Osama told us everything. In short, there were no watchers on the docks, and he was bluffing about having a source within the FBI.”

  Vic spoke definitively, but I had to ask anyway. “How can you be certain?”

  “Director Brix cut a special deal with him. He made a few minor if unorthodox accommodations in exchange for complete cooperation. If anything proves untrue, Oz and his crew go straight to death row.”

  As my internal alarm began blaring, Vic hastened to add, “In any case, the Saudis will spend the rest of their lives behind bars.”

  “We’re relieved to hear it,” Katya said.

  I was about to inquire regarding the unorthodox accommodations when Vic’s companion joined us.

  “Governor Rickman,” I said, shaking his hand.

  “Congratulations! And please, it’s Whip.” He pulled a stack of fancy white envelopes from his suit coat pocket and presented them to us with both hands.

  Katya flipped through the pile at his prompting. They were all addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Kyle Achilles.

  “From our fellow captives,” Whip said. “The genuine ones. All forty-three of them.”

  I looked over at Katya who was beaming with a pleased but perplexed smile.

  “They’re genuinely grateful, given what they now know,” Whip added. “As am I.” He handed me another envelope. One that differed from the rest. It was long and thick.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s not a check. It’s a thank you card, of sorts. I’d call it a token of Florida’s appreciation, but it’s more than a token. It is, however, both fitting and appropriate. Have a look.”

  I opened the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of stapled papers. An official document, complete with stamps and seals. “A property lease?”

  “Look at the address,” Vic said, unable to hide his excitement.

  I recognized it immediately. “The castle?!”

  “Forfeited to the state,” Rickman said. “I couldn’t give it to you outright, but it was within my power to offer you a lease. Ninety-nine dollars for ninety-nine years.”

  Before I could find a reply, Vic handed me another envelope. This one much smaller but just as thick. “A little something from the Orlando Field Office of the FBI.”

  “Where Mr. Link is now the SAC,” Rickman added.

  I didn’t need to open the second envelope to know what was inside, but I did. A stack of one-dollar bills. “Let me guess,” I said, ceremoniously passing it along to Governor Rickman. “Ninety-nine.”

  Both distinguished visitors turned to the bride. Rickman said, “The two of you will always be welcome in the Sunshine State. We hope you’ll visit often.”

  “With kids,” Vic added.

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said, turning to my wife. “Honey, why don’t we get to work on that?”

  Epilogue

  Location: Undisclosed

  OZ SUCKED in the fresh unfiltered air as he looked out the open window at his sapling tree. A lone elm. The view was simple, flat and otherwise bald, but undoubtedly one of the most expensive in history.

  It was also the last he would ever see.

  Oz was not complaining. Much to the contrary, he was pleased with his stroke of genius. The tree and the window were luxuries. Two of the four that blessed his life.

  When the FBI surrounded his party just minutes before their departure from Orlando’s Executive Airport, his plans and dreams had gone up in steam. Vaporized water, not smoke. That was the appropriate classification given that hours later, a new plan rained back down—bringing a very different dream. One much more modest, but infinitely better than any conventional alternative.

  His brainstorm came in the form of a negotiation tactic. A quid pro quo scenario that ultimately became a contract signed by the big man himself, FBI Director Bobby Brix.

  Oz gave the venerated politician everything he wanted in exchange for a single demand—with three parts. His was a simple ask. Easy to grant. Costing nothing and camouflaged accordingly—but giving Oz everything a man needed to be happy in life.

  The Federal Bureau of Investigation got the list of all his accomplices—of which there were none—and the password for his cryptocurrency drive. A phrase worth ninety-two million dollars, less a few final operational expenses. Brix also got to avoid a trial that would expose the FBI’s shortcomings and weaknesses, and he got to quash the public revelation of Oz’s dog-defeating methods. What’s more, Washington got complete control of the message, and it was a good one. Justice has been swiftly rendered! The perpetrators have been locked up for the rest of their lives.

  Oz got life in a cell with a barred window he could open, looking directly onto a healthy tree not more than thirty feet away. A cell he was permitted to share with Shakira, Omar and Sabrina.

  Oz could breathe fresh air. He could chat with his friends. He could watch his tree blossom and his wife grow old.

  Or he could hang himself in the shower. That jury was still out.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Dear Reader,

  If you enjoyed TWIST AND TURN, I hope you will be so kind as to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere. Reviews and referrals are as vital to an author’s success as a good GPA is to a student’s.

  If you’re skeptical about anything you read, I would encourage you to follow the appropriate link below. Most industries and organizations are far more complicated and corrupt than they appear on the surface. Fortunately, most also have members who are almost unbelievably capable and courageous. Hopefully, said heroes will continue to keep the world in balance.

  Thanks again for your kind comments and precious attention. All my best,

  Amazon Review Link for TWIST AND TURN: US

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  NOTES ON TWIST AND TURN

  Please find below the web addresses for articles and videos supporting many of the key concepts and elements in Twist and Turn. All these and more are also available on my Pinterest page: Pinterest

  For more information on extravagant bunkers built by Preppers, start here: Bunkers

  For a story of incredible fraud and deceit within the startup medical device industry, click here: Theranos

  For the video of an actual jetpack in use, click here: Jetpack

  For a video of the real castle on the beach, click here: Castle

  For a video of the garage door-opening trick Achilles used at PPS, click here: Coat Hanger

  For a video of a modern chicken farm, click here: Chicken Farm. The one physically described in the book is located near Cairns, Australia.

  For information on the real Saudi Purge that motivated the fictional Oz and Sabrina, click here: Saudi Purge

  For information on the cover-up of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9-11, click here: Saudi Involvement

  For information on the FBI tip line: FBI Tip Line

  For a quick video showing the logistics of provisioning a cruise ship, click here: Cruise Ship

  WANT MORE ACHILLES?

  Visit my website, timtigner.com, where you can download CHASING IVAN for free. Chasing Ivan, a 150-page novella, is the story of a pivotal mission in Achilles’ career while he was still with the CIA.

  Achilles #1, PUSHING BRILLIANCE #2, THE LIES OF SPIES and #3, FALLING STARS are on sale now at Amazon.

  Links to Tim Tigner’s other thrillers

  Also in the Kyle Achilles Series

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  Also by Tim Tigner

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  About the Author

  Tim Tigner began his career in Soviet Counterintelligence with the U.S. Army Special Forces, the Green Berets. That was back in the Cold War days when, “We learned Russian so you didn't have to,” something he did at the Presidio of Monterey alongside Recon Marines and Navy SEALs.

  With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tim switched from espionage to arbitrage. Armed with a Wharton MBA rather than a Colt M16, he moved to Moscow in the midst of Perestroika. There, he led prominent multinational medical companies, worked with cosmonauts on the MIR Space Station (from Earth, alas), chaired the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, and helped write Russia’s first law on healthcare.

  Moving to Brussels during the formation of the EU, Tim ran Europe, Middle East, and Africa for a Johnson & Johnson company and traveled like a character in a Robert Ludlum novel. He eventually landed in Silicon Valley, where he launched new medical technologies as a startup CEO.

  In his free time, Tim has climbed the peaks of Mount Olympus, hang-glided from the cliffs of Rio de Janeiro, and ballooned over Belgium. He earned scuba certification in Turkey, learned to ski in Slovenia, and ran the Serengeti with a Maasai warrior. He acted on stage in Portugal, taught negotiations in Germany, and chaired a healthcare conference in Holland. Tim studied psychology in France, radiology in England, and philosophy in Greece. He has enjoyed ballet at the Bolshoi, the opera on Lake Como, and the symphony in Vienna. He’s been a marathoner, paratrooper, triathlete, and yogi.