by Blake Banner
“So where is the research?”
“The stone is, as well as a programmer, a kind of massive hard drive that operates on a binary system based on quantum principles. All the essential research is encoded into the NPP.”
I nodded for a long while, looking at my drink. Then I shook my head and gave a small laugh.
“Maybe, if we had both known a little more about each other from the start, things might have gone a little more easily.”
She nodded. “Maybe.” We sat in silence for a while and then she frowned hard and looked at me with an uncertain smile. “So, what are you going to do tomorrow?”
I held her eye for just one second, with no expression. “Take their money and kill them.”
She fought back a smile and said simply, “Oh,” and after a moment, “and what will you do with the money? Like I said, the NPP is mine. Sure, Ethan and the ben Amini Foundation provided funds for the research and development, but I made it. It was my creation…”
I smiled. I don’t think it was a nice smile. “You feel entitled…”
“Hey, don’t say it like that. I’ve worked damned hard for everything I have…”
“I don’t doubt it. But you know how it is. Taking from a thief is not theft.”
“Yeah, and you also cannot steal from yourself.”
“I’m not going to quibble with you. I’ll give you half of everything we get out of Omar tomorrow. Then you and Ethan can go and become billionaires together.”
I gave it just enough edge and she raised an eyebrow and smiled.
“Now hang on there just a minute, Mr. Ethelbaum, is that the little green-eyed monster I see lurking on your shoulder?”
I tried to look like a man who isn’t hiding anything. “You were my wife for a few hours. Now I have to give you up to another guy who’s had everything given to him on a plate, just because he’s a genius and has all the right connections.”
She was grinning and there was genuine pleasure in her eyes.
“What on Earth makes you think there is anything between me and Ethan?”
“The way you call him Ethan, for a start, the way your eyes go dreamy when you talk about him…”
She burst out laughing and I laughed with her. “I don’t believe this! The great Harry Bauer, the most ruthless, brutal killing machine on the planet, is not just in love, but jealous too! Watch out, Ethan Booysen! You have real trouble coming your way!”
We sat in silence for a while, just staring at each other and smiling. After a moment she reached out her left hand and took hold of my right.
“You really think we could make this work? I mean, this is just crazy!”
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I never really plan that far ahead. But the kind of money we are going to have tomorrow afternoon will sure as hell help!”
“My God, you’re insane, but I kind of like it.”
I jerked my chin at her. “Is there anybody?”
She shook her head emphatically. “No, never. It was always my work, and men just got in the way. I had a few female suitors too, and I tried, but that didn’t work for me either. Women are just as needy as men, sometimes more. So I kind of put it on a shelf and focused on work. What about you?”
“No. A long string of one-night stands, casual hookups. You can’t be seriously involved when you’re in this kind of work.” We were quiet and then I shrugged. “But now I can retire, live off the interest…” I trailed off and then narrowed my eyes at her. “So, Helen, the billion-dollar question…”
“What?”
“What happens to humanity after we get to DC? What happens to the world when you hand that device over to Ethan Booysen?”
She bit her lip and looked away. “Way to spoil a romantic moment, lover boy.”
“It’s a pretty important question, Helen. And we are just a few hours away. I can’t say I trust the Federal Government or its various departments a hell of a lot more than other governments in the world. And I can tell you straight out that the thought of that device in the hands of the CIA or the Pentagon makes my blood turn cold.”
She spoke quietly. “I know. But all we can do is trust them and have faith that they will make the right choices.”
“That’s all the two of us can do, have faith that the Pentagon will make the right choices?” She nodded, then shrugged and nodded again. “That’s all we can do, unless you want to go to war with the USA itself!”
“Boy,” I said, “we really are screwed then!”
Sixteen
It was a bright, sunny, Atlantic morning. There was a brisk breeze out of the west and enough of a swell to send the repeated shower of spray across the bows. At eight that morning I’d phoned Atlantian, a small firm on the Paseo Marítimo that hired out sailing boats. I’d been there before and they knew me. I told them I needed a forty-foot sloop or a cutter for that morning, and that I was prepared to pay above the odds. Javi’, the owner, told me no problem, I could collect the boat from the Royal Yacht Club at the Paseo Almirante Pascual Pery.
Then I phoned Omar on the burner.
“Yes.”
“You got somebody who can sail a boat?”
“Yes.”
“You got a boat?”
“Of course.”
“You, your secretary, your accountant and the skipper of your boat, you meet me four nautical miles northwest of Cadiz, two and a half miles south of Rota, at noon sharp. I’ll be in a forty-foot cutter, you know what that is?”
“Of course.”
“Your skipper drops you off and goes home. I take you back to port.”
A short laugh. “But how…?”
“No negotiating, no deals, no talk. I can sell this baby anywhere I like from London to Seattle without moving from my armchair. We do the deal my way or you can go to hell.”
A heavy sigh. “Fine, we’ll be there.”
So at eleven AM that morning, after running some errands in town, we were making a nice six knots tacking into the wind, headed for the rendezvous. I was at the helm, with the mainsail close hauled, casting a shadow over the cockpit. It was warm, maybe ninety degrees, but the sea breeze beating in off the ocean made it seem cooler. Diana was sitting in the cockpit, looking out at the immense sweep of the sea. In her hand she had a cold beer. After a moment she turned her big, black glasses on me and asked, “How far is it?”
“Not far, a couple of miles, but we’ll sail around for a bit to make sure we’re alone.”
“Why would they choose a place like this? We will be completely at their mercy.”
I smiled. “Because it’s inconvenient, you can see for miles around if anybody is approaching, and water makes it very difficult to eavesdrop. It interferes with electronic listening devices. Also, out on the high seas it’s a bit like outer space,”
She stared at me a moment. “What do you mean?”
“Nobody can hear you scream.”
She gave her head a small shake. “You’re out of your mind. You know what I have observed in you?”
“I guess you’re going to tell me.”
“You get away with the crazy shit you do because you are prepared to go that extra ten percent where most people back down. But one day you are going to meet someone as crazy as you are…”
“I already have, and more than once.”
She looked curious. “And?”
I smiled. “They went too far.”
She gave a small snort, then surprised me by asking, “What are you looking for, Harry? What is it you are prepared to go so far to find?”
I didn’t like the question and I scowled. “I don’t know. It’s different every time. I want to do the right thing, stop the parasites and the sadists, and the tyrants…” After a moment I asked, “What about you?”
She shrugged. “An ally.” She looked down at the beer bottle in her hands. “Somebody to stand shoulder to shoulder with contra mundum. The world is a bad place. They’ll hurt you out there if you let them. It’s good to have an
ally.”
At eleven thirty we had come to the spot. I lowered the sails, dropped the anchor and scanned the horizon for other boats. There was nothing as of yet. So we unpacked some bread, cheese and ham we’d brought with us, and a couple more cold beers. Twenty minutes later I saw what I had been expecting: two motor launches approaching fast from the east, from Cadiz.
When Diana saw the two boats she looked at me with wide eyes. Her fear was palpable.
“Two boats?”
“I know.”
“You said one!”
“They brought two.”
“But Harry! They’ll torture us and take the stone!”
“No they won’t.”
She clutched my arm and grabbed at my shirt collar. “Harry! I can’t take torture! I’ll talk. I’m not strong like you!”
I raised my voice. “You can’t tell them where it is and neither can I!”
“What are you talking about?”
“We don’t know where it is.”
“What?”
“I posted it to my attorney in New York.”
Her jaw dropped, not figuratively but literally. “You posted it…?”
“DHL, actually.”
“You’re out of your mind! Do you know what they are going to do to us?”
I nodded. “Do you?” I didn’t wait for a reply. “Go below. You’re supposed to be dead, remember?”
“I am,” she said, looking out at the two launches in the distance. “Not supposed to be, I am.”
The two launches divided. One slowed and approached our portside, while the other described a wide circle, slowed and came up alongside on the starboard. That launch had four men in suits. Two of them were holding AK47 assault rifles. All four had that military look.
On the port side were Omar, his secretary, his accountant and the skipper, who also had that military look and was wearing a pistol on his hip. We rafted up and Omar and his two boys came aboard. I pointed to the second boat.
“That is not just rude, it’s in bad faith and in direct violation of the conditions of our meeting.”
Omar grunted and waved the back of his hand at me. “You know very well that contractual agreements can only be made when both parties agree. I did not agree and told you so. I am not going to put myself at your mercy on the high seas with no protection. It is absurd. Are we going to sit or shall we just stand here all day?”
I nodded. “Sure, you can sit out here in the cockpit or we can go inside. But your boys can take a hike. You can see I’ve kept good faith and I’m alone. So send your muscle away and we’ll talk business.”
He looked around, licked his lips, feeling powerful for a moment with his extra men and seeing me on my own. He found a seat he liked in the cockpit and sat. His secretary sat next to him, and his accountant opposite. I remained standing.
Omar spread his hands and smiled. “You see, here is the problem: we do not have a level playing field. You have the NPP. There is only one in the world, you have it and as I understand things, you are aware of its value. That gives you an unfair advantage. I have brought my men to even things up a little.”
I stared at him expressionlessly until he began to look uncomfortable. Then I said, “Why didn’t you tell your mommy to come along and scold me for being unfair? What is this shit about level playing fields? Did I just step through the fucking looking glass? Am I in Wonderland? There is no such thing as a level playing field, Omar! And this is not a competition between nice, well-bred boys. I have what you want; how badly you want it dictates whether you get it or not. If you don’t want it bad enough, Putin does and I know for damn sure the Pentagon does. So stop wasting my damned time.”
His skin went a little gray. He wanted badly to hurt me, but there was fear in his eyes; fear that he would lose the NPP.
“Where is it?” he said. “Let me see it.”
“Screw you. You acted in bad faith. Get your boys out of here or you’ll see nothing. You think I am going to let you see it when you have five armed men surrounding me almost three miles from the coast? You’re out of your mind!”
“It is on this boat?”
“Screw you!” I said again and walked to the hatch, and turned to face them. “You know what? Get off my fucking boat! The deal is off! Get the hell out of here. I don’t need this shit!”
I was playing the bluff to the edge and I knew it, but I figured my position was strong and I should go for broke. He stood and shouted something in Arabic. One of the two boys with assault rifles jumped aboard and aimed his weapon at my belly. I burst out laughing.
“I don’t know whether to ask you how stupid you think I am, or how damned stupid you are. You think I didn’t know you were going to do this? You think I didn’t know you were going to show up with your simian playmates?”
His face flushed a deep red-brown and he screamed at his three other boys. They streamed onto the boat and I let two of them grab my arms. I didn’t struggle. Omar pounded my belly four times and stood gasping for breath. Then he backhanded me four times and drew a little blood. He wasn’t a strong man. He came up close, panting, so his nose was less than an inch from mine, looking up into my face. His voice was little more than a hiss.
“I will cut off your fingers and your toes, I will cut off your feet and your hands, then I will skin you, first one leg, then the other, then an arm…”
“Yeah, I get the idea, Omar. Only the clock is ticking. You want to know where the nano-particle programmer is. Trouble is, you hit me so hard now I feel a bit sick and confused, but I think I can get it right…” His eyes were wild. I smiled at him and went on. “Here’s the thing, my attorney is in New York, but the firm is a British one based in London, but they have major offices in Rome, New Delhi and Hong Kong. Now, Bob? My attorney? He travels a lot between the major offices, and I can’t remember if I sent it to him in New York, London or New Delhi. But I can tell you that I did send it to him. I sent it this morning so it is probably arriving in New York as we speak, or it might have arrived in London hours ago, but if it’s going to India, it is still in the air.”
His eyes narrowed and acquired a manic, cunning glint.
“You sent it, to your attorney…”
“I didn’t tell him what it was. It was one of a number of parcels I sent. I told him, ‘Bob, if I don’t call you at twelve PM Greenwich Mean Time, post this parcel to any address of your choosing, preferably a small village in Tibet, or Tierra del Fuego, or the Pentagon. Or maybe just drop it out in the middle of the Pacific…”
“It’s a bluff.” He turned first to his secretary and then his accountant in rapid succession. “It’s a bluff,” he repeated, like they wouldn’t hear him unless he spoke directly to each of them. He turned back to me and hit me another couple of times in the face, once with a clenched fist. Then he punched me in the stomach and I made like it hurt.
He was out of breath, gasping heavily, and turned to one of the boys with the AK47s, and said something that sounded ugly. The boy slung his rifle across his back and came up close. He looked me in the eye and he was insolent and smiling. I smiled back.
“I’m going to kill you first,” I said.
Omar punched like a girl. This guy didn’t. He was strong and experienced, and well trained. He went for my floating ribs first and made me vomit. When he’d done that he worked on my face a bit with open hands, until my cheek was swollen and blue. Then Omar made him stop.
He appealed to me, smiling, ingratiating. “What is the point of this? You are suffering, and this is only the beginning. You got a lot of money last night. You can keep that. Just give me the NPP. We go home, you go home, everybody happy.”
“I’d love to,” I said. “And I would if I could but I can’t so,” I shrugged, “I won’t.” He was about to tell his baboon to start working on me again, but my body was telling me I had had about enough.
“Listen, you are risking—seriously risking—losing the NPP forever. I foresaw exactly this situation…,” I paused
to spit blood onto the deck, “and I set it up with my attorney so that if I was tortured, injured or killed, nobody would ever see the stone again.”
He gave the boy a nod and the boy started laying into me again, first my chest, then my face, and then back to my chest again. It went on for about a minute, then Omar held up a hand. I was in serious pain and I was having trouble breathing. I was kicking myself mentally because I had foreseen everything except Omar’s stupidity. My head sagged forward and he grabbed a fistful of my hair to raise my face.
“Where is it?”
I had to gulp breath to answer. “I told you, you stupid asshole! You have about ten minutes before I lose control of it!”
“You are lying! You cannot be that stupid!”
“Stupid?” I bellowed at him in genuine rage. “Stupid? My only chance of living is if you get it into your thick skull that I am about to lose control of the NPP! If I had had it onboard I’d be dead by now, you stupid asshole!”
He thrust his face into mine. “And if you lose control of it in ten minutes, what use are you to me alive?”
“None! But you will have lost any chance you ever had of getting it back!”
He turned to the guy with the fists and the AK47. “Cut off his fingers!”
“The damned thing is in New York, Omar! You think I’d be willing to lose my finger over this? For Christ’s sake. This is your last chance, Omar!”
He stared at me, hesitated. Then he turned and looked at his accountant, then his secretary. They remained mute and expressionless. I closed my eyes and spoke through gritted teeth.
“Omar, for god’s sake use your brain. You are about to kill me, and I am the only person on the planet who can get the stone for you. If I don’t call my attorney’s office in the next five or ten minutes, the NPP will be disposed of. You need me in order to get it back. Think, for crying out loud! Would I have called you to this place, unarmed, if I hadn’t taken out insurance? Think!”