by Sam Wilson
DICKENS
This can’t wait; we need to talk now and somewhere private.
RUSHMORE
Fine, let’s go to my study.
A minute or two later they were at the study upstairs
Please be quick ------
DICKENS
They know it’s us (she sounded worried)
RUSHMORE
Who knows, who are they?
DICKENS
Don’t play that game with me, you fucking know who, they want it to stop, yesterday,
RUSHMORE
How did they know?
DICKENS
Listen I got this strange call from him and he made it very clear, we give the boys and the General up or it’s going to be us and our families --- my friend (pause) I have made my choice.
RUSHMORE
Just calm down, let’s not panic here (hands her a glass of brandy) there has to be a way to get around them because these guys have got to go.
DICKENS
There’s no other way, I’ve been through it, over and over again
RUSHMORE
Well I haven’t (He hit the table hard almost breaking it) who the fuck do they think they are? Don’t they know what we are trying to accomplish here (breathing heavily, he rise the wine glass to his mouth and empties it) first they wanted them gone; now they don’t, (screams) what is going on? ------------ My God it’s George we are talking about here, you know him, best man at your wedding
DICKENS
God knows I love him but it’s them or us
RUSHMORE
It’s not that simple, (pours himself another glass of brandy, drinks the glass empty and slams the glass on the table) it must have been part of their plans from the start, hope you will be able to live with yourself for this, okay (long pause) I have to make this difficult decision for the sake of others… do it. Now get the fuck out of my house.
DICKENS
I’m sorry (She turns, puts the still full wine glass on the table and walks out)
THE AMAZON JUNGLE BETWEEN THE NORTH OF BRAZIL AND THE SOUTH OF VENEZUELA. THE SHALLOW REGION OF THE AMAZON RIVER.
The sky is bright with orange tilted colour just after the sunset, the rails of sun shines beautifully through the leaves onto the jungle floors, the sounds of animals and people walking, breaking the tree branches that has falling on the ground echoes through the jungle. A beautiful black and brown coloured donkey cries out in agony as its lead to the shallow Amazon River by a kid Named Angel, followed by a few aimed men, five other donkeys and a cow, their leader called Chesar at the front barks at them in Spanish language to stop wasting time and to move their asses, the second in command is a muscled man called Arnold, he Named himself after the Hollywood actor, slaps one of the men, instructing him to concentrate and guide the cow, they finally stopped after a long journey by a shallow remote river
CHESAR
(In Spanish, speaking to a man holding the cow) fool, bring that cow over here, (the cow is lead by the man to the edge of the river) Arnold feed this meat to the fishes (sounding like he had watched God father one too many times)
ARNOLD
(In Spanish) With pleasure
By hand gesture he signals to the gang to come over and they started to puck the animal with sticks and other sharp objects, chasing it into the River where it’s boom rushed by piranhas, as its been fish food, chaser’s gang hurried to cross the river with their heavily loaded donkeys, packed in the bags are pure cocaine, so they are not taking any chance. Ghost has eyes on the ground.
Captain Caxander and the gang have been undercover in Venezuela for two weeks, a week ago in Columbia during their investigation they found out that two men fitting the description of Mr West and Gazzon have possibly left from Columbia to Venezuela, they got lucky when a dirty politician sold them the information that has lead them to a remote area only accessible by boats and Helicopters, it has been under surveillance by the team for 3 days, their work has made progress, Mr West was spotted smoking on the balcony and a few minutes later so was Mr Gazzon, this was their lucky break, the hide out is a massive place with not much to offer by the looks of it, but it has a pool and a hidden helicopter pad, most of the house exterior are covered by both real and artificial trees and the roof is also covered by artificial leaves, so from a sky view it looks like nothing but thick forest, but on the ground it’s a different story, there are about 40 extremely well aimed guards, a few women in barely there bikinis jumping in and out of the pool, music and laughter filled the air, West, Gazzon and some friends standing on the balcony holding on to some lovely ladies and enjoying the activities below them, the security is so well run that in any sign of trouble the bosses will be evacuated very quickly, the helicopter is fuelled and ready when needed although Cax and the team think it’s a decoy.
The unit are about two miles away watching the compound housing the bosses and the surrounding areas through high tech military surveillance equipments placed at strategic locations, by studying the work routines of the guards, they have come up with a plan that will get them into the main house without raising an alarm, they gathered round in a cycle to hold a meeting, cax puts a small screen on the dirt and grass floor.
CAP CAX
(Pointing at the screen) West and Gazzon don’t sleep upstairs, that we have seen from the surveillances, which means they are at a restricted area down stairs, what I’m thinking is a bunker with an escape route, Terry enlighten us.
TERRY
(Lays a map on the ground next to the camera screen) A few miles out behind that building is a waterfall (Angel falls), I climbed down and found a cave, in the cave was a tunnel filled with alarm sensors, it definitely leads back to that mansion, plus there is a power boat cleverly hidden in the water just a few yards from the waterfall.
DAVE MOORE
An underground escape route that leads more than a mile or two to a waterfall, plus a power boat waiting for a quick getaway (admiration in his voice), what do you make of that?
BIG JONES
No one wants to get caught.
CAP CAX
Men, that escape route is our way out, we walk in through the side door and out through the back.
BIG JONES
Captain do you think it’s going to be that simple?
CAP CAX
I suspect we are going to be coming out hot, but I hope we go in and out without raising the alarm.
ARCHIE
How do we proceed?
CAP CAX
Four of us will go in and the remaining two will cover us at the waterfall.
BIG JONES
What if the escape tunnel leads to someplace else?
CAP CAX
If that happens then you will be able to locate our signal on this monitor (hands over a little device with a screen) and double back to us, Jones and Terry will cover at the waterfall, Archie?
ARCHIE
There are more guards at night; lots of sensors 500 yards a ways from the fence and light all over the place ---
CAP CAX
To cut a long story short, Archie found a way around the sensors it’s about an hour on foot, Archie continue.
ARCHIE
Thank you sir (He said sarcastically) now, this device here will be able to disrupt any camera’s reception giving us a minute window to slip in.
They all staired at him smiling, these are things they already know, and Archie likes to repeat things just so to make sure.
CAP CAX
All right, we move at 01:00 hrs, get some rest guys.
SEVEN
01:00 AM
The moon was full that night and provided lighting Cax and the men’s (Dave, Archie and Victor) needed, the air has the aroma of a thousand flowers, Terry and Big Jones are on their way to the waterfall, set up explosive devices where it’s needed and get the boat ready for their escape.
01:45 am, 200 meter west of the mansion, they can see the guards making their usual rounds, some of them are sit
ting resting, some gathered together talking and laughing, they are going to have to cross the road to the other side of the forest and then make their way to the compound from there, a few minutes later a dark long hair guard thought he saw someone run across the road to the other side of the forest, he stepped forward, walking slowly toward the location as if in a trance, his fellow guards turned looking at him, till one of them ask him what he’s doing in Spanish
GUARD 1
What are you doing?
GUARD 2
I just saw someone run like a monkey across that road
GAURD 1
Someone run like a monkey? Are you insane? Come back to your post, you know the rules.
Cax and the men watches from nearby camouflaged by the leaves and the darkness of the night, they are standing a few feet from each other, the guard looking into the dark to find a sign of something but turned around to rejoin his group to the relief of Cax and his men. The guards make fun of the suspicious guard, they laugh, pushing him to move along, he pushes and they playfully fight, the guards momentarily letting their guard down was the perfect moment for Cax and the men to make a quick move, they were careful not to trip the hidden alarms, some of the other guards got distracted, focusing their attention on the playful guards, the reception of a camera overlooking a fence suddenly went static, the furious voice of the head of security blasted through the portable walking talking.
HEAD OF SECURITY
(In Spanish) You idiots stop playing and get to the west wall.
They all ran towards the wall, the camera reception came back on, one of the guards from outside radioed in to the head of security.
GUARD 1
(In Spanish) Senior, there is no sigh of anything.
HEAD OF SECURITY
(Spanish) Good, keep your eyes open, no more monkey business.
GUARD 2
You should have told him about what I saw.
GUARD 1
What did you see?
The device worked, Cax and the men are inside the mansion, the head of security has put every guard on extra alert, he wants’ to know why that camera suddenly went out and back on in under a minute, he sent his in house engineer to find out what went wrong, from his position Cax could see the engineer and two guard entering a room mumbling, obviously not happy with his new task. The head of security didn’t think West and Gazzon should know about the camera reception problem so he didn’t inform them, everything is in other. There is minimum security inside the house making it a bit easy but they still have to find where the bosses are, the last time Cax checked his watch it was 01:54am, they’ve observed a few attractive female maids with food and drinks going in and out of a door obviously leading to the basemen, they’ve followed the woman and they ended up in the kitchen and followed them back to the door, there was no time to waste, they entered the basement but it seemed like a dead end, they will have to grab the next maid, a wall opens under the stairs and out comes the maid caring a bucket filled with empty bottles of champagne, as she saw them, she dropped the bucket but it was caught by Archie, her next reaction was to scream but Dave already had her mouth covered with his palm, Cax came forward with his index finger over his lips as a sign of silence, then he began to ask her questions and tell her what to do.
CAP CAX
How many guards are in there?
She put two fingers up.
CAP CAX
Where are they stationed? (Talking to Dave) Let her speak, if you scream I will kill you.
Dave let her loose.
MAID
(In Spanish) there is one guard that let us in and the other sitting inside looking at a monitor,
CAP CAX
So there is a camera in the corridor, the guard inside can see you coming to the one outside.
MAID
(In English) Yes.
CAP CAX
(In Spanish) You will leave today if you cooperate with us, do you understand?
She nod’s her head in accord; Cax gave Dave the sign to let go of her completely.
CAP CAX
You will have to go back (Archie hands him a micro camera) he is going to fix this to your shirt, so we see what you see through this device (shows her a portable receiver with a screen)
Archie fixes the camera to the forth button hole in her shirt and switches it on with a remote control, Cax checks the reception as the device was turned to victor.
CAP CAX
Okay, lose the two top buttons
Without saying a word and with shaking hands she unbutton her shirt exposing part of her breast, she knows that the reason is to distract the guard from the camera, she puts on a brave face and prayed silently.
MAID
What do I say to the guard?
CAP CAX
You have come back as entertainment, think of something, go.
She presses a button on a wall and light came on shining in her face, the door swings open letting her in, before the door could close completely, victor slides a piece of mental between the door holding it slightly open, while Cax watches in the monitor as the camera slowly came closer to the guard who despite been suspicious had a smile on his face waiting for her to approach, Cax couldn’t make out what they were saying but he can see that the guard can’t keep his eyes off her breast that is on display, after a minutes or two the flirty guard gave the signal to the other guard to open the door, the heavy vault like door opens, victor runs in and shots the first guard in the head, brains and blood graphite behind him, cutting them off guard, the maid screams, the other guard not quick enough to get his gun out, gets it in the neck and chest, he fall on the equipment on the table bringing it crashing down and setting the alarm off at the same time, they closed the heavy door and proceeded down the stairs ignoring the alarm, when they got down stairs the maid immediately pointed out where Mr West and Gazzon quarters are and fearfully moved aside.
The head of security is waving his right hand and barking orders in Spanish, the men standing outside started running to the house and into the basement, some of the men already in the basement screamed at each other as one of them places C4 (plastic explosive) on the first door leading into the heavy vault door corridor, they all ran back as it exploded inwards and they ran straight in after was.
Cax and the men now had Mr West and Gazzon and are moving as fast as they could inside the escape tunnel which they entered through a hidden door at Mr West Closet in his joint suite to Gazzon, the second explosion made the Earth move as an Earthquake would, the vault door has just been blasted open, they hurried to get to the electrically operated gate that is just a few yards out, before Mr West could open the gate, he silently prayed his guards would catch up with them and his prayers were answered, as he punch in the last code digit, the guards caught up with them and a fire fight broke out, Cax and the men crash through the gate dragging the bosses along while under serious heavy fire, at a point they answer with grenades, the explosion rocked the tunnel making it start to cave in, they made a run for it, getting to the edge they all jumped into the waterfall without hesitations, dropping like wet bags of sands they hit the waiting water followed closely by bullets from the guards machine guns, while they dodge bullet underwater, two rockets fired by Big Jones and Terry hit the cave opening and it brought down balls of fire, stones and men, all hitting the water violently as Cax and the men dove even deeper to avoid been hit.
Big Jones and Terry helped fish Cax and the others out the water, West and Gazzon lay on the ground coughing and spitting out water, Cax stands up and composed himself like a leader should.
CAP CAX
We have no time to waste, stand them up.
MR WEST
Son, whatever they are paying you, I will triple it, I can make your dreams come true. Believe me.
CAP CAX
Do not call me son, do you understand that. Move please.
Cax’s tone of voice was menacing.
EIGHT
Archie pushed Mr W
est, he did as he was told and instructed, then they climbed onto the escape yacht, the engine rowed to live with a push of a button, they pulled out into Open River and increase the throttle, it rowed off in full speed, Brazil was just a few 100 miles away.
Their escape and trip across the river has gone smoothly, they are at a Manaus local air strip loading two Diplomatic labelled wooden coffins containing the drugged bodies of West and Gazzon into a cargo plane, Manaus is a small city north of Brazil, Cax shake hands with Eduardo before entering the plain and closing the door, Eduardo is a 39 years slick business man that has secretly worked with General Ealing for many years, in fact he will work with anybody, no matter what they do as long as he’s making money, most of his client haven’t meet him except for selected few, this is a tactic that has keeps him and his family safe from the many dangerous people he works with, he watches the plane take off into the air, dusted his baseball cap against his black military style trouser, opens the convertible Mercedes go wing’s door, thought out loud “another satisfied customer” gets in and drives off.
The plain arrived at panama international airport a few hours later, Cax and his men were nowhere in sight, the coffins were offloaded along with the other goods, and it was placed immediately in the waiting undertaker’s vehicle and driven to the mortuary, at about 02:00 am, two well dressed men rang the bell outside the local mortuary, the night caretaker saw them on the security camera and wondered what they were doing there so late, he decided to ignore their call and go back to watching the movie on TV, they rang the bell one more time, waited for five minutes or so and then walked away. 20 minutes later while the caretaker was lost in his movie and shovelling pop corn into his mouth someone placed his hand on his right shoulder, he nearly jumped out of his skin, he turned completely white and he watched the strange Caucasian man in black suite slowly remove his smith and western pistol from its holster.
FIRST MAN
(Speaking in Spanish) Do not be afraid, we just want to ask you a few questions.
A mix race Asian and Caucasian looking man with a thick moustache and a goatee standing in front of his desk