He looked at Durand like he was some demented clairvoyant suffering some mental reversal back to his childhood. ‘Fantastic Raoul! Number bloody one hundred and thirty-one. How many number one hundred and thirty -ones are there in Cornwall alone? How many hotel rooms in the entire world with one hundred…..’
‘Ok, ok Harry. It was just a thought. Forget it.’
Parker was now getting angry and frustrated. ‘I bloody will forget it Raoul, if you don’t mind.’ He banged the top of the table in frustration with a clenched fist. ‘Curse these bastards!’
‘Steady on Harry. No sense in getting worked up.’
Parker stood up and faced the window.
‘I’m sorry Raoul.’
‘Perhaps we should contact Meyer and tell him about this telephone contact. He has a huge amount of police resources in Switzerland and contacts across mainland Europe he can deploy.’
‘Yes, but again by the time they get mobilized it could be too late. I feel we need direct action in the next forty- eight hours if we are to save her.’
A short while later, Parker was outside in the garden getting some fresh air while considering Durand’s suggestion about contacting Myer when his mobile phone vibrated.
‘Dr. Parker, I’m Simon Hadley’s secretary.’
‘Yes. Continue,’ replied Parker anxiously.
‘Wing Commander Hadley needs to talk to you most urgently.’
‘Yes of course. Did he say what about?’
‘No. He just said it’s of the utmost importance Dr. Parker, a matter of life or death.’
‘I’ll come at once.’
He went back inside and spoke to Durand. ‘I’m out of here Raoul, heading to London to meet Hadley. I think I’ll take Karl’s CD’s with me and store them securely in my wall safe in Earls Court.’
75
Standing behind his 40th floor office window looking out across the Manhattan skyline, Lazare was on the phone to Colgo.
‘I need to update yah on Lehman, Henri.’
‘OK Colgo! What have you got?’
‘I got confirmatin from personal contacts in Europe. They’re able to connect de military helicopter with som bogus charity that helps famin’ countries in Africa and de Far East.
‘What’s an organization like that doing with military aircraft?’
‘They have five or six o’ dese military attack choppers. They claim they need ‘em for defensive purposes when deliverin’ stuff to de tough war-torn regions. To me it sounds like a cover for dah same dudes Bonnet’s men bumped inta dat nobody knows anthin’ about.’
‘So why did the British police not spot this?’
‘Dah chopper was flyin’ without reg numbers. My contac’s had to dig real deep to get dah connection. I need to talk about costs I paid to get dis information Henri’
‘OK Colgo, get to the point. I have a meeting in five minutes.’
‘Dah cost of dis information for yah is one hundred thousand bucks, Henri.’
‘Bull shit!’
‘Very well Henri. No deal. I won’t waste you’ time, Bye’
‘No wait! How do I know if the Intel is worth that much?’
‘Yah ne’d to trust me on dis. No agreement, no info. My associates are insistin’ on gettin’ paid.’
Lazare was eager to find out what he was up against and who was behind Philips murder.
‘Ok! I’ll go with it. I’ll pay you the one hundred thousand bucks, but the information better be on the money.’
‘Well it’s veri good Henri. Yah won’t be disappointed’
‘Continue Colgo.’
‘A real secret orginizatin was involved in Philips murder, ok?’
‘A secret organization? I already know about a secret organization and their involvement in Philips murder.’
‘Yah do?’ responded the muscleman sounding surprised.
‘Yeah! Bonnet told me when we visited his vineyard.’
‘I see.’
‘So, there’s nothing new in what you’re telling me then?’
‘Der’s plenty of stuff I need to tell ya! Now text me an IOU first.’
‘How do you know so much about this top-secret organization?’
‘Connections, Henri.’
‘Ok! I’ll go along with you and see where it gets us.’ Henri picked up his phone and texted him the promissory note for one hundred thousand dollars.
‘This information better be good.’
Colgo’s phone vibrated, signaling an incoming text message. He smiled when he read its contents.
‘Dah secret orginizatin behind de charitible orginizatin is called Python.’
‘Never heard of them.’
‘Of course not. Very few folks find out anythin about ‘em and live to tell dah tale.’
‘I need to know everything there is to know about them.’
‘All in good time, Henri.
‘Well Henri, wha’ about dah fact that Python carried out double hits, Philips and Professor Lehman as well……’
‘What the fuck!’ roared Lazare down the phone jumping to his feet. ‘Bonnet had nothing to do with taking out Lehman either?’
‘Nah, Henri, ‘replied Colgo firmly.
‘This doesn’t make sense! How do you know it’s true?’
‘Me associates never lie. Besides, I put it to Bonnet he neve’ made dah hits. He was tryin’ to deny it but he came clean in de end.’
Lazare was speechless and beside himself with rage.
‘I’ve spent ten million bucks on this shit and for what? Bonnet’s men even fucked up on Nicole Lehman’s kidnapping.’
All this was shaping up into a surreal picture Lazare had in his mind about the whole operation.
‘Colgo!’ rasped Lazare down the phone. ‘Go to Montpellier and take out that double crossing MOTHAFUCKA.’
Lazare, after a moment’s silence, holding the phone to his ear, sat down at his desk and regained his composure.
‘Be discrete! Conceal your identity. I don’t want this getting traced back to me. At all costs, I don’t want to fall out with Peter over this, family ties and everything. Is that quite clear?’
‘Understood ok! Looks like we jus’ made a deel, Henri. Same rates on top of the hundred thousand bucks?’
‘Yes! Now go and take care of Bonnet.’
Lazare hung up and sat there quietly gazing at his desk phone, trembling with rage.
A short time later Colgo dialed a number in Marseille.
A phone sounded in the workshop close to where a man in a boiler suit was working.
‘Bonjour’ droned the voice. I have some further business for yah. You and yar twin brother need to take a trip to Montpellier?’
‘But of course,’ replied the man. ‘Me and my twin brother go everywhere together, Monsieur.’
‘I will be sendin’ a specialist on this occasion to assist yah and give yah instructions.’
The phone went silent and the man in the boiler suit replaced the receiver.
Colgo immediately put plans in place. There were going to be large amounts of cash in this operation and he didn’t trust anybody with large amounts of cash. He would need the services of a trusted specialist hit-man.
76
Parker arrived at the MI6 building, 85, Albert Embankment at 4.00pm sharp. He was met by Simon Hadley’s secretary before being quickly ushered into the Wing Commander’s office. Hadley gestured to his visitor to sit down in front of his desk.
‘We need to debrief you on Moscow, however all that can wait until later. Something infinitely more pressing has come up Parker; something we’ve been working on around the clock for the last six months.’
Hadley lowered his voice. ‘What I’m going to tell you is highly classified information, involving your associate Nicole Lehman.’
‘What kind of involvement?’ asked Parker uneasily, straightening himself in his chair.
‘To start with, after the abduction of Nicole, the two Typhoon fighters summoned to the scene fr
om RAF St. Mawgan, followed the Mil MI-24 Gunship. These fighter aircraft as you can appreciate don’t hang about. Within seven or eight minutes they should have caught up with the chopper or at least been in visual contact. This didn’t happen. While they could see the craft on their radar screens, they never made visual contact. It simply vanished into thin air when they got close.’
‘Really? ‘Parker said with a perplexed look.
‘The two fighters scoured the area. Within minutes they spotted a large cargo vessel at GPS co-ordinates close to where the helicopter vanished. They swooped down, photographed the ship and got sight of the ship’s IMO number on its stern; a Panamanian registered vessel. They spotted suspicious radar antennae above its bridge that were found to be the latest Surveillance and Navigation radar systems and communication microwave dishes commonly found on British Navy battleships. They also noticed a large cargo hold access platform at the stern, big enough to take a gunship helicopter.’
Hadley looked at Parker straight in the eye and felt a growing discomfort.
‘We believe there is every chance Nicole was taken aboard this vessel.’
Parker sat there weighing up the situation, not sure if this was good or bad news. ‘At least she has been located.’
‘Are you absolutely sure Hadley?’
‘Pretty damned sure. Confidentially it turns out this ship is one in a fleet we have been monitoring for the last six months. More recently, following intelligence information on their activities, we have been closely tracking it on radar for more than two months.’
‘Go on!’
‘We believe the ship to be the MV Asclepius, one of about half a dozen or so in this fleet. These ships stay out on the high seas in international waters and remain anonymous, where they cannot be easily boarded or inspected. They very rarely come into port and when they must replenish supplies, it’s usually into ports located in very remote areas. The organization behind this fleet we believe is a large criminal Russian conglomerate.’
‘What are these ships doing?’
‘This is top secret, Parker. I took the liberty of getting security clearance for you to receive classified information’
‘Ok! Go on.’
‘The MV Asclepius is a Research and Support ship, involved in various illicit trades. We believe one of their operations involves the shipments of medicines that fight bacterial and viral diseases to countries that have sanctions and trade embargos imposed on them by the United States, NATO or the United Nations. Countries like North Korea, Cuba and so forth would be served by this covert operation.’
‘I thought the medicines market was highly controlled. Where do they get their supplies from?’
‘They buy the drugs from Third World countries very cheaply and sell them on at huge premiums to the embargoed countries. Some of the medicines they buy for resale are drug stocks originally donated as foreign aid by Western Governments to Third World countries. The rest they buy on the spot market. There is a strong suspicion that the M.V. Asclepius is also a floating drug factory or worse, which I will elaborate on shortly. MI6 working with the CIA are determined to get to the bottom of this and establish once and for all what exactly is going on aboard this fleet of ships.’
‘Who heads up the operation?’
‘Zoran Bartoch.’
Never heard of him.’
‘That’s not surprising. Mr. Zoran maintains a very low profile. A former international arms dealer, he amalgamated his business, Zoran Industries, with a much bigger illegal Russian conglomerate. This Russian organization works in the shadows, piggybacking on organizations, extracting sensitive information before covertly striking out and making large ‘killings’ on world stock markets based on insider information. They are completely ruthless, removing anybody that gets in their way so much so the Russian KGB code named them, ‘Python’. They resemble the behavior of a Python, remaining motionless in a camouflaged position, then striking suddenly at passing prey.’
‘Obolensky mentioned them when I was in Moscow. He said Python, in cahoots with Zoran Industries, are preying on the KOO, extracting information and removing un-cooperative people like Professor Lehman.’
‘Correct! You can now understand what we’re up against, Parker, a former international arms dealer turned rogue trader.’
‘Rogue trading?’
‘He made millions before the Gulf War in 1990 legitimately selling Artillery to Middle Eastern countries. He was later suspected of supplying weapons to several terrorist organizations, which eventually was his downfall. His legitimate customers, military leaders in various Middle East countries, boycotted him. They refused to deal with him after these disclosures became known in Diplomatic circles. He lost millions before aligning himself with Python. Now that he’s on his way back up the greasy pole, this Hungarian fiend is more ruthless, more cunning and less particular about the integrity of the people he works for. He has regained much of his former status we understand through a network of well-placed but dubious business contacts and through political associates who owe him many favors. He recognized working with Python would more quickly restore him to his former position of power and influence.’
‘When you called me in the car ten days ago, I thought you were OTT, Hadley. Not so!’
‘I’m afraid Parker you have become embroiled with some very complex and dangerous secret organizations.’
‘I’m beginning to see the picture. Nonetheless, my primary concern remains getting Nicole back alive. ‘
Hadley immediately looked very uneasy. ‘Yes, and this is what we’re here to talk about. As you know MI6 looks after Britain’s strategic interests abroad. Python itself is an organization MI6 will pursue to the ends of the earth to protect Britain and our allies from their more dangerous sinister enterprises.’
‘Sinister enterprises? What do you mean?’
‘We have been tightly tracking the MV Asclepius. We lost contact with her in Port Said in the Suez Canal about two weeks ago and tried to lock-on to her again sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar. However, it slipped through our surveillance network using its latest on-board stealth technology. We haven’t seen the vessel since Port Said until Nicole’s kidnapping when the two RAF Eurofighter Jets happened upon it in the English Channel. This was a major surprise I can tell you, the last place we expected to find the Asclepius.’
‘What’s it doing off our coast?’
‘We know it was heading to the Caribbean, most likely to Cuba to make another delivery of medicines. It abruptly diverted from its course. Zoran, we believe diverted the ship to the English Channel to provide a base from which to kidnap Nicole Lehman.
‘Hardly?’ suggested Parker with disbelief.
‘Most definitely Parker! You have no idea the impact Lehman’s iDrug project will have on Zoran’s Drug markets and to the strategic and financial position of Python. These operations make everything else Python trade in, pale into insignificance.’
Hadley paused for a second or two before continuing. ‘To answer your earlier question Parker, there is a more sinister development involving Zoran Bartoch you need to be aware of which I mentioned earlier.’
‘I’m all ears.’
‘While our boys were spying on the ship from a grain store, they videoed a jeep making a secret delivery of a high security stainless steel container in the middle of the night, just a couple of hours before the ship pulled out of port. This container has British and United States intelligence agencies on ‘red’ alert. We discovered it originated from a back-street laboratory in a town in West Africa. We are highly suspicious it contains biologically active ingredients used to manufacture WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction!’
77
It was shortly after 8:00 p.m. when the twins parked their motorcycle just off a small country road under Olive trees beside the old vineyard wall in Montpellier.
It was pitch dark and the shrieks and cries of distant foxes could be heard while the two waited for the specialist hit m
an to arrive.
They didn’t have long to wait. Soon they saw a white transit van approaching, slowing down and coming to a stop beside their motorcycle.
The tall figure of a man got out and nodded to the twins before handing them three empty hold-all bags. No conversation was exchanged.
The trio quickly scaled the wall and dropped down on the other side with the bags. The twins had a sketch of the vineyard showing the locations of the security cameras. They crossed fields of grape vines while they made their way to the château.
One twin stumbled and fell over irrigation pipes running at low level along the row of vines.
‘Be careful,’ whispered the hit-man. ‘We need to surprise these bastards.’
No damage done, he quickly picked himself up and they continued on the path to the house.
They soon came to a walled off courtyard at the rear of the large château and approached a wooden gate that remained unlocked. They walked through into the courtyard and quietly circled the perimeter of the building, peering in through windows looking for Bonnet. When they had circled halfway around the ground floor, one twin spotted the gang boss through a window in a library room, sitting at his desk with a suitcase full of money on a table in front of him.
The twin signaled the hit-man to take a look. The trio then doubled back around to the rear of the château and crept up to a door leading into the kitchen areas.
One twin slowly turned the handle and the door opened. The place was in darkness, the kitchen staff had gone home. They tip-toed across the stone floor and went to open the door leading into the main hallway when they heard footsteps outside coming towards them. The door flew open and the lights went on. It was Jerome, one of the Generals. He instantly froze when he saw three men standing still in the middle of the room, one of them brandishing a semi-automatic revolver with silencer fitted.
It was like a slow-motion movie scene as Jerome instinctively leaned to his right to dive for cover under a large wooden table. However, the hit-man with the gun pointing at Jerome, fired two shots off, striking Bonnet’s man in the side of the head. When he landed under the table, he was dead. The body made little noise at it fell onto the stone floor. They listened for further footsteps, but all remained quiet. The hit-man spotted a weighing scales on a work-top and grabbed hold of it.
The Karl Lehman Affair Page 24