Coonts, Stephen - Jake Grafton 7 - Cuba

Home > Other > Coonts, Stephen - Jake Grafton 7 - Cuba > Page 3
Coonts, Stephen - Jake Grafton 7 - Cuba Page 3

by Cuba (lit)


  gun crews on five-minute alert, ammo on the

  trays, no liberty. After three days she can pull

  the hook and join us, and another cruiser can come

  anchor here."

  - "Yes, sir."

  "There's a marine battalion landing team

  aboard

  Kearsarge,

  which is supposed to rendezvous with us tomorrow. I want

  Kearsarge

  to stay with

  United States.

  We'll put both ships in a race-track

  pattern about fifty miles south of here, outside

  Cuban territorial waters, and get on with our

  exercises. But we'll keep a weather eye peeled

  on this base."

  "What about the base commander, sir? He may know more

  about this than we do."

  "Get on the ship-to-shore net and invite him to have

  dinner with me tonight. Send a helo in to pick him

  up."

  STEPHEN COONTS

  "Sir, your instructions specifically directed that

  you maintain a business-as-usual security

  posture."

  "I rememberea"...Jake said dryly.

  "Of course, "business as usual" is an

  ambiguous phraseea"...Toad mused. "If anything

  goes wrong you can be blamed for not doing enough or doing

  too much, whichever way the wind blows."

  Jake Grafton snorted. "If a bunch of

  wild-eyed terrorists lay hands on those warheads,

  Tarkington, you and I will be fried, screwed, and

  tattooed regardless of what we did or didn't

  do. We'll have to will our bodies to science."

  "What about the CO ef the cruiser, Admiral?

  What do we tell him?"

  "Draft a top-secret message directing him

  to keep his people ready to shoot."

  "Aye, aye, sir."

  "Nuestra Senora de Colon

  is sailing this evening for Norfolk. Have a destroyer

  accompany her until she is well out of Cuban

  waters."

  "Yo."...Toad was making notes on a small memo

  pad he kept in his hip pocket.

  "And have the weather people give me a cloud-cover

  prediction for the next five days, or as far out as

  they can. I want to try to figure out what, if

  anything, the satellites might be seeing."

  "You mean, are they keeping an eye on the Cuban

  military?"

  "Or terrorists. Whoever."

  "I'll take care of it, sir."

  "I'm going to run a couple laps around the

  deckea"...Jake Grafton added.

  "May I suggest putting a company of marines

  ashore to do a security survey of the base

  perimeter? Strictly routine."

  "That sounds feasibleea"...Jake Grafton said. "Tonight

  let's ask the base commander what he thinks."

  backslash

  CUBA 17

  "Terrorists or the Cuban Armywanna bet ten

  bucks? Take your pick."

  "I only bet on sure things, sir, like

  prizefights and Super Bowls, occasionally a

  cockroach race."

  "You're wise beyond your years, Toadea"...the admiral

  tossed over his shoulder as he headed for the hatch.

  "That's what I tell Ritaea"...Toad shot back.

  Rita Moravia was his wife.

  Jake Grafton didn't hear the rest of

  Toad's comment. "And wisdom is a heavy burden,

  let me tell you. Real heavy. Sorta like

  biological warheads."...He put the binoculars

  to his eyes and carefully studied the naval base.

  The night was hot and sultry, with lightning playing

  on the horizon. From his seat on"...the top row of the

  stadium bleachers Hector Juan de

  Dios Sedano kept an eye on the lightning, but

  the storms seemed to be moving north.

  Everyone else in the stadium was watching the game.

  Hector's younger brother, Juan Manuel

  "Ocho"...Sedano, was the local team's star pitcher.

  The eighth child of his parents, the Cuban fans had

  long ago dubbed him El Ocho. The family

  reduced the name to "Ocho."

  Tonight his fastball seemed on fire and his curve

  exceptional. The crowd cheered with every pitch. Twice

  the umpire called for the ball to examine it. Each

  time he handed it back to the catcher, who tossed it

  back to the mound as the fans hooted delightedly.

  At the middle of the seventh inning Ocho had faced just

  twenty-two batters. Only one man had gotten

  to first base, and that on a bloop single just beyond the

  fingertips of the second baseman. The local team

  had scored four runs.

  Hector Sedano leaned against the board fence behind him

  and applauded his brother as he walked from the mound.

  Ocho looked happy, relaxedthe confident, honest

  gaze of a star athlete who knows what he can do.

  As Hector clapped, he spotted a woman coming

  through the crowd toward him. She smiled as she met his

  eyes, then took a seat beside him.

  Here on the back bench Hector was about ten feet

  fro'm the nearest fans. The board fence behind him was

  the wall of the stadium, fifteen feet aboveeathe

  ground.

  "Did your friends come with you"..."...he asked, scanning the

  crowd.

  "Oh, yes, the usual twoea"...she said, but didn't

  bother to point to them.

  Sedano found one of the men settling into a seat five

  rows down and over ab* thirty feet. A few

  seconds later he saw the other standing near the

  entrance where the woman had entered the stadium. These

  two were her bodyguards.

  Her name was Mercedes. She was the widow of one of

  Hector's brothers and the current mistress of

  Fidel Castro.

  "How is

  MimaThat'

  Tomorrow was Hector's mother's birthday, and the clan was

  gathering.

  "Fine. Looking forward to seeing everyone."

  "I used the birthday as an excuse. They don't

  want me to leave the residence these days."

  "How bad is he?"

  "Estd tojodio.

  He's done in. One doctor said two weeks,

  one three. The cancer is spreading rapidly."

  "What do you think?"

  "I think he will live a while longer, but every night

  is more difficult. I sit with him. When he is

  sleeping he stops breathing for as much as half a

  minute before he resumes. I watch the clock,

  counting the seconds, wondering if he will breathe again."

  The.home team's center fielder stepped up to the

  plate. Ocho was the second batter. Standing in the

  warm-up circle with a bat in his hands, he scanned

  the faces in the crowd. Finally he made eye

  contact with Hector, nodded his head just enough to be seen,

  then concentrated on his warm-up swings.

  "Who knows about this"..."...Hector asked Merc"...des.

  "Only a few people. Alejo is holding the lid

  on. The doctors are with him around the

  clock."...Alejo Vargas was the minister of the

  ulterior. His ministry's Department of

  STEPHEN COONTS

  State Securitythe secret policeinvestigated

  and suppressed opposition and dissent.

  "We have waited a long timeea"...Hector mused.
>
  "Ese cabron,

  we should have killed Vargas

  years"...agoea"...Mercedes said, and smiled at a woman

  who turned around to look at her. *

  "We cannot win with his blood on our hands."

  "Alejo suspects you, I think."

  "I am just a Jesuit priest, a teacher."

  Mercedes snorted.

  "He suspects everyoneea"...Hector added.

  "Don't be a fool."

  El Ocho stepped into the batter's box to the roar of the

  crowd. He waggled the bat, cocked it, waited

  expectantly. His stance was perfect, his weight

  balanced, he was tense and readywhen he batted

  Hector could see Ocho's magnificent talent.

  He looked so ... perfect.

  Ocho let the first ball go by ... outside.

  The second pitch was low.

  The opposing pitcher walked around the mound, examined

  the ball, toed the rubber.

  The fact was Ocho was a better batter than he was

  a pitcher. Oh, he was a great pitcher, but when he

  had a bat in his hands al caret his gifts were on

  display; the reflexes, the eyesight, the

  physique, the ability to wait for his pitch....

  The third pitch was a strike, belt-high, and Ocho

  got around on it and connected solidly. The

  ball rose into the warm, humid air and flew as if

  it had wings until it cleared the center field fence

  by a good margin.

  "He caught it perfectlyea"...Mercedes said,

  admiration in her voice.

  Ocho trotted the bases while everyone in the

  bleachers applauded. The opposing pitcher stood on

  the mound shaking his head in disgust.

  Ocho's manager was the first to greet him as he

  trotted toward the dugout. He pounded his star on the

  back, pumped his hand, beamed proudly, almost like a

  father.

  "S

  CUBA 21

  "What else

  is

  happening"..."...Hector asked.

  "The government has signed the casino agreement.

  Miramar, Havana, Varadero and Santiago.

  The consortium will provide fifty percent of the cost

  of an airport in Santiago."

  "They have been negotiating for whatthree years?"

  "Almost that."

  "Any sense of urgency on the part of the Cubans?"

  "I sense none. The Americans were happy

  with the deal, so they signed."

  "Who are these Americans?"

  "I thought they were Nevada casino people, but there were people in

  the background pulling strings, criminals, I think.

  They wanted assurances on prostitution and

  narcotics."

  The Cuban government had been negotiating

  agreements for foreign investment and development for

  years, mainly with Canadian and European

  companies. Tourism was now the largest industry in

  Cuba, bringing 1.5 million tourists a year to the

  island and keeping the economy afloat with hard

  currency. Now the Cuban government was openly

  negotiating with American companiesea.with all deals

  contingent upon the ending of the American economic

  embargo. Fidel Castro believed that he could put

  political pressure upon the American government

  to end the embargo by dangling development rights in

  front of American capitalists. Hector

  Sedano thought Fidel understood the Americans.

  "The tobacco negotiator, Chancehow is he

  progressing?"

  "He is talking to your brother Maximo. Then he

  is supposed to see Vargas. Tobacco will

  replace sugarcane as Cuba's big

  crop, he says. The cigarettes will be

  manufactured here and marketed worldwide under

  American brands. The Americans will finance

  everything; Cuba will get a fifty-percent share of the

  business, across the board."

  "Is this Chance serious?"

  "Apparently. The tobacco companies think their days

  are numbered in the United States. They want

  to move off-

  shore, escape the regulation that will eventually put

  them out of business."

  Hector sat silently, taking it all in as the

  uniformed players on the field played a game with

  rules. What a contrast with politics!

  Mercedes was a treasure, a person with access to the

  highest levels of the Cuban government. She brought

  Hector Sedano information that even Castro

  probably didn't have. The big question, of course, was

  how she learned it. Hector told himself repeatedly

  that he didn't want to know, but of course he did.

  He glanced at the woman sitting beside him. She was

  wearing a simple dress that did nothing to call

  attention to her figure, nor did it do anything

  to hide it.

  She was a beautiful woman who needed no

  makeup and never wore any. Every man she met was

  attracted to her, an unremarkable fact, like the

  summer heat, which she didn't seem to notice.

  Extraordinarily smart, with a nearphotographic

  memory, she had almost no opportunities to use

  her talent in Cuban society.

  Except as a spy.

  "Will Maximo be at

  Mima's

  party tomorrow?"

  "He said he would."

  "Should I be shocked if he acts possessive?"

  Mercedes glanced at him, raised an eyebrow.

  "He would not be so foolish."

  Well, just who was she sleeping with? Hector glanced

  at her repeatedly, wondering. She appeared to be

  concentrating on the ball game.

  The only thing he knew for sure was that she wasn't

  sleeping with him, and God knows he had thought about

  that

  far more than any priest ever should. Of course,

  priests were human and had to fight their urges, but

  still...

  Castro ... Of course she slept with himshe was his

  mistressthat was how she got access. But

  did she love liim?

  Or was she a cool, calculating tramp ready

  to change horses now that Castro was dying?

  No. He shook his head, refusing to believe that of

  her.

  Where did Maximo fit in? As he sat there

  contemplating that angle, he wondered how Maximo

  saw her?

  Mercedes left after watching Ocho pitch an inning.

  He faced three batters and struck them all out.

  When the game was over, Hector Sedano stayed in

  his seat and watched the crowd file out. He was still

  sitting there when someone shouted at him, "Hey, I

  turn out the lights now."

  The darkness that followed certainly wasn't total.

  Small lights were illuminated over the exits, the

  lights of Havana lit up the sky, and lightning

  continued to flash on the horizon.

  Sedano lit another cigar and smoked it slowly.

  After a few minutes he saw the shape of a man

  making his way along the aisle toward him. The man

  sagged down on the bench several feet away.

  "Good game tonight."...The man was the stadium keeper,

  Alfredo Garcia.

  "Yes."

  "Your brother, El Ocho, was magnificent. Such

  talent, such presence."

&
nbsp; "We are very proud of him."

  "Why do you call him El Ocho?"

  "He was the eighth child. He has the usual half

  dozen names, but his brothers and I just call him

  Ocho."

  "I saw that she was here, with her security guards

  circling. ... What did she say?"

  "What makes you think she tells me anything?"

  "Come, my friend. Someone whispers in your ear."

  "And someone is whispering to Alejo Vargas."

  "You suspect me?"

  "I think you are just stupid enough to take money from the

  Americans and money from Alejo Vargas and think

  neither of them will find out about the other."

  STEPHEN COONTS

  "My God, man! Think of what you are

  sayingff"...Alfredo moved closer. Sedano could see

  his face, which was almost as white as his shirt.

  "I am thinking."

  "You have my life in your hands. I had to (rust you

  with my life when I first approached you. Nothing has

  changed."

  Sedano puffed on the cigar in silence,

  studying Garcia's features. Born in America

  of Cuban parents, Garcia had been a priest.

  He couldn't leave the women alone, however, and

  ultimately got mixed up with some topless dancers

  running an "escort"...service in East St.

  Louis. After a few months the feds busted him for

  violation of the Mann Act, moving women across state

  lines for immoral purposes, i.e.,

  prostitution. After the church canned him, he jumped

  bail and fled to Cuba. Garcia had been in Cuba

  several years when he was recruited by the CIA, which

  asked him to approach Sedano.

  Hector Sedano had no doubt that Garcia had the

  ear of the American governmentin the past four years

  he had supplied Sedano with almost a million

  dollars in cash and enough weapons to supply a small

  army. The money and weapons always arrived when and where

  Garcia said they would. Still, the question remained, who

  else did the man talk to?

  Who did his control talk to?

  Hector had stockpiled the weapons, hidden them

  praying they would never be needed. He used the money for

  travel expenses and bribes. Without money

  to bribe the little fish he would have landed in prison

  years ago.

  Hector Sedano shook his head to clear his thoughts.

  He was living on the naked edge, had been there for

  years. And life wasn't getting any easier.

  "Castro is dyingea"...he said. "It is a matter of

  weeks, or so the doctors say."

  Alfredo Garcia took a deep breath and exhaled

  audibly.

  "I tell you now man-to-man, Alfredo. The

  records of Alejo Vargas will soon be placed in

 

‹ Prev