by Bryan Murray
“Yes, of course, sir,” Genaro replied. “I will call you when we are clear and it is all done.”
“Make sure you do.” Lorenzo replied before going off the line.
Genaro got off the phone nervously and surveyed the scene. The Doctor was in with the target completing his final session of hypnotherapy and his men had already sensed that the plans were changing.
Genaro barked at them. “Okay, the plans have changed. We must pack up and leave quickly. The Americans are coming and we must leave no trace that we were here except for the Arab clothing and the sword.”
“And what about the boys?” one of the men asked.
“We leave them alive, still tied up for when the Americans arrive. Now, get to it!”
Hearing the conversation, the Doctor emerged from Jeff’s room and spoke to Genaro when he saw they were getting ready to leave.
“My job is finished,” he began. “The boy is ready and I need payment so that I can leave.”
Genaro nodded, quickly grabbed his pistol and shot the Doctor between the eyes! No more loose ends the Don had stated.
In his room, this time the sound of a real gunshot had brought Jeff out of his trance and he and Andrew were dragged out of their rooms, their bindings checked and they were dumped on the floor, watching the guards who were still masked and getting ready to leave. They looked nervously at the body of the Doctor on the floor, wondering if they were going to be next.
* * *
Lorenzo was sitting in his office, still trying to think of anything that he had forgotten when his cell phone beeped to indicate a text message had been received.
He clicked on the message and his eyes opened in wonderment. It was a recent photograph of Andrew with the words underneath it stating - ‘His name is Andrew, middle name Lawrence (Lorenzo) and he has no idea who you are!’
Lorenzo looked at the picture, tears forming in his eyes before he walked over to the mirror and held up the picture next to his face both facing the mirror and as he looked at the reflections, the resemblance was amazing.
Sons of Mafia leaders were treated like gold and the degree to which their fathers would go to protect them was almost without limit. In this instance, Lorenzo’s only option had been to allow the Americans to take the blame in the eyes of Al-Qaeda, by arriving to rescue the boys before he had been able to execute them as agreed with the General. This way he would be off the hook with Al-Qaeda and his plan would not be a total failure.
He then received a phone call to advise that the bodies of Bruno and Vittorio had been recovered from the cabin and the place had been sanitized. Another loose end taken care of.
* * *
Unfortunately, what Lorenzo and Genaro had not realized was that at that very moment, Jake, Sarah and Steve were a lot closer than they thought, in fact they were already pulling off the main Highway 24 and heading into the center of L’Aquila.
Jake drove along and Sarah was checking on the GPS as they were going through the narrow, snow-covered streets. “It looks like the Corso Vittorio Emanuele is the next left and then we go along until we see the church.” she observed.
Jake nodded and continued to navigate the narrow, slippery streets as the snow continued to fall. It was a picturesque scene and hard to imagine that within minutes they would be in a nerve-wracking battle zone.
Sarah suddenly pointed ahead. “There’s the church, two blocks down!”
Jake drove slowly up to the church and just before they reached the building, still covered in scaffolding, there was a left turn that led them to a further right turn immediately behind the church, which was where they were hoping that the house where the boys were being held was located.
Suddenly, up ahead, the old three-storey Baroque building could be seen.
“That’s it there!” Sarah pointed ahead and Jake nodded in agreement.
“So far so good!”
“Now we need to try and get behind the building.” Sarah whispered.
Once again Jake slowed down and he turned down an even narrower road at the back of the building. He finally let out a sigh of relief. “Bingo!”
There ahead, being slowly covered in the continuing snow, was the red Fiat SUV! Jake turned the Mercedes around so that they were facing out of the narrow lane and blocking the exit for the Fiat. They then settled down to check out the rear of the old, dilapidated building.
The only lights visible in the entire building looked to be on the third floor and there were flights of old metal stairs in the alley outside leading up to the various floors.
Jake turned to his friends. “Okay, Sarah and I will go in and take out the resistance while you stay down here, Steve and you take out anybody who makes it to the ground who isn’t us!”
Steve, who was still looking a little weak from the loss of blood, nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry, they won’t be leaving!”
“Okay, check your weapons and spare ammo. Once again we need to make every shot count, those bastards have some heavy artillery!” they all nodded in agreement.
Jake was assuming that the same number of men who escaped from them the last time in the Fiat, would still be upstairs guarding the boys, which including the civilian they had seen with the Arab gunmen would make five hostiles plus the two boys.
With a silenced Glock each plus spare ammo, they started to make their way silently up the metal staircase towards the third floor, hearts beating fast and adrenaline flowing.
Sarah looked at Jake and smiled. “Seems like old times, huh?”
He grinned. “Yeah, no heroics, okay?”
“You’ve got it, same goes for you too!”
Down below in the car, Steve was watching them through his night glasses, his gun at the ready.
When they reached the second balcony, they had to suddenly jump back into the shadows when the door of the apartment above suddenly opened and a beam of light lit the staircase when the first two guards emerged, guns in one hand at the ready, and a tote in the other as they started to make their way down to the Fiat below. When they reached the second balcony, the first of the two guards looked down to see the Mercedes blocking their exit. He was about to mention it to his colleague but neither of them even heard the bullets to the head that took them out. They slumped onto the snow where Jake and Sarah quickly pulled their bodies into the shadows.
Down below, Steve smiled. “Way to go, guys!”
Up in the apartment above, Genaro was checking the room to make sure that they had not left any incriminating items that could be traced back to them. The Don’s sanitation crew would be back later to remove the body of the Doctor.
With his cell phone in one hand and his gun in the other, Genaro and the other guard were ready to leave. They were just prodding the boys over to the old sofa where they were going to leave them, before Genaro called Lorenzo to let him know that they were on their way out, when the door busted open and Jake and Sarah entered, gun in hand. Both Genaro and his sidekick never even knew what hit them as they fell to the ground in the darkened room, each with a bullet to the head.
To one side, the two boys simply sat back wide-eyed at what had just happened. Jake motioned Sarah to check the other rooms and he turned to the boys with a smile on his face. “Hi, Guys, you okay?”
Jeff looked at him with a smile of relief on his face. “Americans! Thank you, God!”
Andrew nodded in agreement. “Amen to that. Where did you guys come from?” he asked.
“We managed to track you after the shoot-out yesterday.” Jake replied.
Sarah returned quickly and motioned to Jake to take a look in the other room. He walked to the door and they both looked at the body of the Doctor on the floor.
Jake looked at Sarah. “Obviously more loose ends that the Arabs weren’t going to leave behind!”
He turned to the two shocked boys as he quickly undid the ropes on their hands. “By the way, I’m Jake Harrigan and this is my partner Sarah Schaumberg, the President and Vice President
asked us to come find you! Our buddy Steve is in the car down below waiting to take you guys home. How does that sound?”
Jeff was overjoyed. “You have no idea, thanks Jake, Sarah. When we saw them getting ready to move out again, we weren’t sure if they were going to kill us this time!”
Jake smiled. “So, any idea where these bastards were planning to take you?”
What Jake hadn’t realized was that at the very second that they had busted into the room, Genaro was not planning to take the boys anywhere, he was just going to leave them bound and gagged for Jake to find.
Andrew tried to answer Jake’s question. “Problem was, Jake, they never spoke a word and when we did hear conversation through the door of each room where they were keeping us apart, it seemed to be in a foreign language.”
“That’s okay,” Jake replied. “So, you guys ready to go home?”
Jeff smiled. “You bet. I bet our folks are tearing their hair out!”
Sarah smiled. “Something like that,” she turned to Jake. “I guess we’d better get all the bodies in here before we move out. Then the people who set this all up can decide what they want to do with them!”
Jake nodded. “Right, but before we leave, let’s take a photo of each of them, see if the guys back home can get a match,” he looked at the two boys. “You guys aren’t squeamish, are you?”
Jeff grinned. “After all the things we’ve seen in the last few days, I guess not.”
Jake smiled. “Good, in that case you can help us haul two more bodies up from the floor below!”
Jeff looked at Andrew and grinned. “Me and my big mouth!”
While Sarah quickly went below to let the anxious Steve know that the boys were safe and the place was secured, Jake and the boys quickly brought the two bodies up from the floor below and lined them up, including Genaro and the last Guard plus the Doctor, They were all lying on their backs facing upwards before Jake took a close-up of the face of each man with his I-phone. He then scribbled a note that he left on the body of Genaro. It simply read ‘We don’t negotiate, remember that!’
He pointed to the body of the Doctor. “Who was this guy?”
Jeff looked confused. “Not sure, he was kinda weird!”
Jake nodded. “Maybe his mug shot will give us a clue. Okay, let’s hit the road!”
They left discreetly closing the door behind them and switching off the lights before heading down to the SUV.
In all the action that had been going on, they had missed just one thing. In the skirmish as Genaro had tried to react as he fell to the ground in the darkened room when Jake and Sarah came busting in, he had been holding his cell phone in his hand and as he hit the floor it had slid from his hand out of sight underneath the beaten up, old sofa and neither Jake nor Sarah had noticed it.
Down at the Mercedes, Steve was delighted to see the boys looking healthy, coming down the stairs with Jake and Sarah. Jake did the introductions. “Guys, this is our buddy Steve, or should I say CIA Agent Caplan.”
“Hi, Steve!” the boys replied and shook Steve warmly by the hand as they all climbed quickly aboard and Jake drove away into the still falling snow.
Back in the dark, silent apartment above, Genaro’s cell phone started to ring with the flashing light showing from under the sofa. It was Lorenzo, calling to check if Genaro had left, having told his Capo to make sure he called before he did so.
When there was no reply, Lorenzo quickly called his clean-up crew telling them to pick up the body of the Doctor and check on the rest of his men. He wanted the entire site sanitized. His people were on the move immediately, totally unaware of the shock awaiting them!
* * *
Driving along on the way back to Rome, Jake was chatting to the boys, trying to put together as many loose ends as he could that he and Sarah could sort out before the boys were whisked off into a cocoon of excessive protection in the US.
“So, did you suspect that the two girls in the bar were in on the kidnapping?” he asked.
Jeff thought a moment. “Not at all, we got the shock of our lives when we saw them chatting to the kidnappers before we passed out from the tranquilizers!”
Jake added. “Exactly and then the kidnappers killed them both to make sure there were no loose ends!”
Jeff was in total shock. “You’re kidding!”
Sarah was also curious. “And did you get a look at any of them before we arrived?’
Andrew replied. “No, they stayed masked and didn’t speak, but we were convinced they were Arabs!”
Jake thanked them. “Thanks, guys for the info. Now I guess we ought to make two sets of parents happy!” he called the White House where he was put through immediately to the Oval Office.
The President, still snuffling with the flu, came on the line immediately. “Hello, Jake, what’s happening?”
Jake smiled as he replied. “You can relax, Mr. President, the boys are here with us safe and sound and we’re heading back into Rome!”
The President was overjoyed and covered the phone to talk to Elizabeth, Maria and Mulroney. “They’re both safe, thank God! Jake and Sarah have them and they’re on their way into Rome!”
Elizabeth and Maria both dissolved into tears in each other’s arms.
“Well done, Jake, well done all of you,” the President sounded very emotional. “And are they in good shape?” he added.
“They seem pretty feisty to me after all they’ve been through, sir. Steve Caplan is wounded, but he should be okay! There is one thing we could use, sir?” he added.
“Just name it?” the President replied.
“It’s getting late at night here, still snowing and I was thinking it would perhaps be the safest thing if we could pitch down at the US Embassy in Rome for the night, before we head back to the US tomorrow?”
“Not a problem,” the President replied. “The doors will be open and people will be waiting as soon as you get there. We’ll also have medical staff there to take a look at Steve and check out the boys to make sure they’re okay.”
That’s great, sir,’ Jake replied. “There’s a lot been going on, so I guess we’ll debrief with you as soon as we get back to DC?”
“Absolutely and both Elizabeth and I and Maria and David can’t begin to tell you how pleased and grateful we are at the discreet way you and your team handled all this without the international trauma of the story leaking out. That would have been disastrous back here for Maria and me!”
“Our pleasure, Mr. President,” Jake answered. “Now there’s someone here who would like to talk to you!” he passed the phone to Jeff.
“Hi, Dad.” Jeff began.
“Hello, son,” the President replied, choking up when he heard his son’s voice. “Good to hear your voice. Hang on, here’s your Mom,” he passed the phone to an ecstatic Elizabeth. “Make it quick and then let Andrew speak to his mother.”
“Will do.” the First Lady replied and across continents, the two families were happily reunited.
John Mulroney was already on the phone to the Embassy in Rome, laying out the red carpet for Jake and his group.
Across the office, Maria sat there, tears of joy in her eyes that Andrew was safe, but racked with mixed emotions. She immediately called David who was in a business meeting just a couple of blocks away in downtown and he left for the White House immediately.
When David arrived and was given the good news by the President, the genuine tears of relief in David’s eyes, were at least proof that in spite of their rocky marriage, hanging by a thread, he was a totally devoted father who loved his son dearly, relieved that he was now safe and sound. If only he knew the truth.
* * *
In contrast to the elation in the White House, a saddened Al-Qaeda operative was watching through the powerful telescope, outside the Guantanamo Detention Camp as Jamal al-Midari was rushed back into the compound under heavy guard and when he relayed the sad news to his superiors in Iraq, the General was furious that the plans of t
he Mobster had gone wrong. Once again, the NSA were monitoring the conversation
* * *
In his villa in Sicily, Lorenzo was also far from happy when he received a phone call from his Capo Benito in L’Aquila, with the news that his entire team had been terminated by this American assassin, who even had the audacity to leave a note on their bodies!
Lorenzo told his capo to remove all the bodies of his brave soldiers, blaming their deaths on retaliation from a rival Mafia family operating in L’Aquila. He told him to return them to their families for a proper burial and that he would attend each funeral personally. He also decided that some damage control was needed within the family and so he decided to split one million dollars of the money that Al-Qaeda had paid him between the grieving families, which would make him look like a caring Godfather, taking good care of his soldiers.
He was sorry to lose Genaro, but there were much bigger things to take care of that required his urgent attention. Shortly after he put the phone down, there was another call on the line. This time it was the Al-Qaeda General and he was clearly not a happy camper.
“What is going on, Don Lorenzo?” he demanded. “My people tell me that our leader has not been released from Cuba? Have the two hostages been executed with extreme prejudice as you had promised?”
Lorenzo chose his words carefully, lying through his teeth. “I’m afraid not, General. Just minutes before my men were prepared to do the executions on camera for the world to see, a team of US undercover agents broke into our compound and assassinated seven of my men, before taking the two boys back to Rome and then presumably to the US! It seems we both lost out last night, General and I want you to be reassured that we were prepared to do the honorable thing in accordance with our agreement. It’s just that the Americans were just too quick for us. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to speak to the grieving families of my men!”
The General capitulated to a degree. “I sympathise with your loss, Don Lorenzo, this has been an unfortunate incident, but that must not stop us from continuing to pursue ways in which we can still work together.”
Lorenzo was smiling on the phone. These guys were so naive!