Convoluted Journey (The Mercury Black Authority Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  “How are you feeling Angie,” Noah asked softly.

  “I have been better.” Her speech was muffled by her bandage.

  “How long before you are back on your feet?” He was truly concerned.

  “The doctors say six to eight weeks for most things, but some of the damage is permanent plus I lost some teeth.”

  “Do you have good doctors?”

  “Mostly, yes but Frank is trying to block the insurance. He wants me to suffer,” Angie started to cry. Noah reached over to hold her hand. When he touched her she winced it was not the pain. She did not want to be touched by anyone.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” Noah knew that it would hurt but he needed to get information.

  “He did it here in England. When he confronted me at a small hotel Frank tied me to the bed and beat me with a switch.” She eased the sweater back allowing Noah to see the long thin welts where the skin was broken. “After that he started punching me and when I regained consciousness I was in the hospital. I am fresh out of the hospital as of yesterday.” She started to sob uncontrollably. Noah knew he should not press for anything else. He found out one thing this was not an act of passion. Frank had prepared before he went to see her. This was a calculated act just as it was a calculated act against Terri, Suki, Lynn and Susan.

  “I brought some people to wish you well. Can they come in for a few minutes?” It took some convincing, but he talked her into it. He had Susan prepare her again and cautioned the others about her appearance. Susan went over to the cottage with them. Noah waited in the Founder’s cottage with Lynn. He slammed his hand down on the counter not being able to find the words to express his feelings.

  “Yes,” Lynn said feeling his rage. “I don’t know why he was so jealous about Angie? He cheats on her with young boys.”

  “What are you saying?” Noah needed to hear this. Lynn went on to relay Angie’s tale about her finding pictures of her husband sitting naked on a chair switching a young naked boy.

  “Does she have any kind of household help?” Lynn went on to relay to Noah everything that she could remember which was considerable since Lynn had an excellent memory for detail. Angie loved to talk about her problems and told her all about Frank’s sadistic side in detail. By the time Lynn finished, Noah put together a plan. Lynn’s discourse was halted by a loud noise overhead. They both walked outside looking up to see a Bell Jet Ranger flying just above the cottage roofs. It swung around smartly and settled on to the unfinished helicopter pad. Frank, Susan’s driver was already on his way to greet the helicopter. Frank returned with three people in the cart the relief, Fran and the helicopter instructor.

  “We are on a check ride. They will rent this helicopter to us if we check out ok. I thought that I could show Fran a few things. This little lady can fly.” Fran gave him a light kick in the shin for the ‘little’ comment.

  “Can we stop in and say a quick hello.”

  “Talk to Susan before you go in. It is not pretty.” Noah wanted the crew to see Angie. He wanted them to see why he was going to eliminate this skunk. The pilot and copilot came out of the cottage looking more than a little shaken. Fran and Frank stopped to talk to Susan before going in and after a few minutes conversation they went in for about ten minutes. When they immerged Fran looked visibly shaken. She walked up to Noah.

  “Are you going to kill him?”

  “Something along those lines,” Fran was not sure what that meant, but neither was he. Right now he had half a plan. “I need to finish some business.” Noah had an afterthought. “If the check goes well could you stop back in an hour?” Frank agreed, and the crew left.

  Noah, Lynn and Susan gathered in the Founders cottage. There was a lot to accomplish. He outlined what Lynn had told him. The whole plan hinged on being able to get their hands, on those pictures in the dresser. Lynn agreed to see if Angie could do anything about the pictures working through the house staff. One thing in their favor was that none of the help at the Embassy respected Frank. The Iranian’s hated him. Noah calculated that it should not take much to find a betrayer. Lynn went to get some tea for Angie and Noah found Susan in the founder’s cottage.

  “Susan, I hate to make things overly complicated, but we need to talk about Fran.” Noah went through Fran’s history showing Susan the information that he was given for the hit. He then proceeded to outline his plan. He needed a special effects artist to pull off the deal and he was hoping to find one at Pinewood.

  “A friend of a friend is banging the property master for a James Bond movie. I called yesterday afternoon and he will have some time. They quit filming and most of the studio is between assignments, so he has agreed to listen to your plan.”

  “What the hell it’s a chance. Give him a call.” Noah was winging it anyway. Susan was out of the room for twenty minutes and returned with a smile.

  “He will talk to us, but we need to hurry down there.”

  Noah pointed to the sky, “Ask him if they have a helicopter pad. If they have one, we can be there in two hours.” Susan disappeared for ten minutes.

  “There is a pad, but we need to have our pilot call them before we leave.”

  “Good, I need to make a few drawings.” Susan led Noah to the support building next to the helicopter pad. It was a low building containing the working core of the resort. She opened a door marked security Noah was surprised by the sophistication of the electronics at the heart of Susan’s enterprise. In one corner was a drafting table. Susan opened a cabinet which held drafting supplies. Noah detected a strong Plumeria scent. She smiled at the look of recognition on his face.

  “This is Terri’s area. She does most of the design work for us.” Noah drew a rough diagram of the landing site in Nicaragua. Next, he drew a plan for a large wooden box. He sketched out a few other ideas. Noah was just starting to outline another idea when he heard a helicopter land. He hurriedly rolled the drawings up and ran outside with Susan seeing that Frank was at the controls. When the chopper shut down, he hustled Frank to the telephone calling the studio immediately. Frank scribbled down the instructions while Susan and Lynn loaded in the helicopter with them. They left with Fran at the controls.

  The flight lasted just under fifteen minutes. Frank supervised Fran’s landing, but left the controls in her hand. A heavy man with a four-day growth of beard met them.

  “I am William. Who is Susan?”

  “That would be me,” She put on a cool assertive voice. “This is my assistant Lynn, my pilot Frank, my field man Noah, and our problem Fran.”

  “Our technical advisor from MI called. It seems you have a problem that we can help you with.”

  “Yes, Noah must kill this lovely lady in front of twenty or thirty people. The people that want her dead will not stop as long as she is alive. She must die and this man must kill her.”

  “I see. Well we have an F/X team wrapping up a movie. They are all here together. Hop on the cart and we will pick their brains.” William drove through a sound stage. It appeared to be the inside of a ship.

  “We finished up filming ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ and are doing the editing before we take this down.” They pulled up to a roll up door driving into a large workshop with everybody exiting the cart. Three people were sitting around a table stacked with nylon webbing, electronics and clothing. Susan explained the problem simply. “Fran must die in front of witnesses.” Noah laid out the diagram of the road and presented his idea.

  “How far away are the witnesses?”

  “We will be around thirty meters away.”

  “What will she be wearing?”

  A tee shirt, fatigue pants and jungle boots. She needs to come within a meter of a few of them before and after I kill her. So I need to apply whatever you come up within a minute.”

  “Are you going to shoot her?”

  “Yes.”

  “What are you going to use.”

  “I use a .38 caliber colt revolver with a two-inch barrel with wad cutter loads.
I will use a plastic bottle to deflect the sound.”

  “That’s awfully light for a hit.”

  “I shoot for a head shot from less than a meter. Fire a few rounds you will see they work quite well.”

  “Will you be using blanks?”

  “No, I will shoot past her into the ground.”

  “What about this crate you want?”

  “I shoot her, pick her body up and load it in the crate and then I load the crate in the plane taking a picture for proof.” Noah cracked a smile, “If she picks up one splinter I will wish I shot her.”

  “Right then, we move on to the victim next.” They brought Fran forward and the F/X artists went over every inch of her body. They stripped her down to her underwear photographing her from every angle. They had her curl in a ball and lastly they cut hair samples. When Fran was done, she dressed again.

  “Go to the commissary and have a bite come back in an hour.”

  William loaded everybody in the cart and driving off he did a slow tour through the sound stage. The building was immense somewhere around 45,000 square feet. Lynn was all eyes and ears because she was mad about the movies and everything about them. William caught on to her passion turning the trip to the commissary into a studio tour. In exactly an hour they arrived back at F/X. The F/X people said that they could do something, but they would need Fran for at least a full day for testing after they fabricated the paraphernalia. Susan agreed without asking the others.

  “My assistant will personally handle all the details regarding Fran.” She looked at Lynn. “Can you manage all of Fran’s personal needs?”

  “I won’t fail you.” Lynn wanted desperately to work with Pinewood. She was absolutely wild about the movies and jumped at the chance.

  The flight back was quick. Fran was at the controls with Frank monitoring. She touched down smoothly at the Inn. Noah knew that his plan should work and elected to fly back to the airport with Fran and Frank. They turned in their logs and Frank checked the chopper in while Noah talked to Fran.

  “You have been poked, prodded and told what to do. I would like to hear what you think.”

  “I know what you are trying to do. I believe someone wants me dead and they are offering you a large amount of money to do it, but what about my husband!” Her eyes started to tear.

  “I did not say that that he was involved. He was taking pictures in the area where the ones that Buck handed me were taken. One thing for sure is that they are not going to give up, so Maria needs to die.” Noah said with a stern emphasis.

  “You can deal with the husband issue later, but right now I want to know if you can let me kill you, and do you believe in me enough to let me stand over you with a loaded gun? Can you lie absolutely still while the asset identifies you? We will find out who set you up later.” Noah knew that there was no point in pushing her into a break down. “Don’t answer me now. Sleep on it and get back to me in the morning.”

  “Thanks, I need to think this out. I know you’re right. I just need to think it through.” Fran was getting comfortable with her new identity. She liked the name Francesca better than Fran. Her old name Maria was starting to sound like it was another person, but she did not understand why they thought she was the rebel leader. Frank joined them taking part in the conversation.

  “We are checked in. The instructor is going to credit the flight time to your log. I reserved the chopper for tomorrow. He won’t require that an instructor fly with us.” He turned to Noah, “We are still under repair aren’t we?”

  “Yes, we are. I need the extra time to set something up for Angie’s husband. Let’s go.”

  The trio walked out the front door, and saw the Jaguar driven by Frank from the Inn parked out front. “Susan has moved the others over to the Inn. I will take you to retrieve your bags. I think you will find the Inn more comfortable. Will Miss Francesca require a cottage of her own?”

  “Yes, I will thank you.” Fran was not ready to give up on her husband. They went to the hotel and gathered up their belongings. Frank took them out to the Inn with Noah in the front passenger seat.

  “Frank you seem extremely competent. What training have you had?”

  “Twenty-five years in the SAS. I retired as a master instructor and went over to security at MI headquarters that’s where I met Miss Susan, and when she started this place. I thought that I would go with her. I am sorry that I was not available for Miss Terri and Miss Suki.” Frank seemed more than capable at his job. “It was good that you were able to stop those men when you did. And you sir, were you an officer?” Frank was interested in learning Noah’s history.

  “No, I was never in the military. I was recruited from a private contractor, so my history is strictly outside the system I am a transportation specialist.” Noah did not want to blow Frank off, but did not have enough time to go into details. “Let’s get together over a pint and I will fill in some details for you then. For now, I believe that Susan might need a little more help, so if you have some friends that might be interested please keep them in mind.”

  “I most certainly will sir.” Frank seemed mild and quiet. Noah sensed that was far from the truth. Frank pulled up in front of the first two cottages. Noah waited while Frank walked Fran and the relief to their cottages. When he was done he took Noah up to the Founders cottage.

  Susan, Lynn, Terri, Suki and Angie were waiting for him. Angie was sitting on the love seat. The other women were seated at the table. Noah took a seat at the table between Terri and Suki.

  “Since all the board members are here. I thought we could have a board meeting. Are there any objections?” There was nothing but silence. “None, good, let us begin.” Susan loved to keep the air cleared and held these minor board meetings frequently.

  “We have experienced many changes in the past week, several disasters and some good things too. I have a few proposals to make. Noah has been asked and agreed to join the partnership. He will be taking a ten percent stake. Are there any objections? None, the motion carries. Next, I move we increase Lynn’s share from fifteen percent to twenty percent. Are there any objections? None, the motion carries. Next Terri and Suki have a five percent share I move that we increase that to ten percent. Are there any objections? None, the motion carries. My shares will drop to fifty percent, to reflect the changes in the other shares. All shares are paid as of this date.” Terri and Suki’s jaw dropped. They both looked at Noah and he immediately pointed to Susan. Susan carried on with the meeting.

  “Some of our people have been injured. I move all medical bills be paid. One of our guests has been injured too, so I move that all of her medical bills be covered at the doctors of her choice. I further move that she be compensated ten thousand pounds to cover her permanent damages. Any opposed? No, the Motion carries.” Angie burst in to tears. Terri and Suki went to kiss Noah who held up his hands in the form of a soft refusal.

  “This is Susan’s business. She and Lynn made the decisions. They deserve the kisses.” Noah did not want to steal Susan’s moment because this was her show and he wanted to leave no doubt that she was in charge, since she and Lynn were the senior partners. Susan carried out the rest of the board meeting delegating finance to Lynn, security to Suki and expansion to Terri. She would handle corporate direction. Noah made it clear that he was accepting the post of ‘silent’ partner. Angie was tired, so Terri and Suki helped her back to her cottage while Lynn made arrangements to readmit her to the hospital. Susan took Noah by the hand.

  “Thank you for not grabbing the spotlight. Things could have been much different. Lynn wants to show me her gratitude for increasing her share so I put you in the quiet cottage. I’ll see you in the morning.” Lynn came out of the bedroom dressed in a maid’s costume wearing her ballerina high heels. She carefully walked up to Susan and started to unbutton her skirt with Noah taking the hint returning to the quiet cottage.

  Noah being bone tired headed straight for the shower and to his surprise the shower was extremely large.
Noah let the water run as hot as he could stand it letting the steam soothe him. He took a bottle of shampoo off the shelf and closed his eyes while he was lathering his head. As he stuck his head under the stream of water a hand slipped around his waist causing Noah to lose his balance. Noah rolled to the corner assuming a defensive position. Through his blurred vision he could discern a small female figure, hearing the sound of feminine giggling. Suki was laughing so hard that she fell down too.

  “How did you get undressed so quickly?”

  “I was undressed on the bed and you walked right past me.” Suki could barely talk she was laughing so hard.

  “You are going to blow my James Bond image. Somebody is going to catch on that I am not super observant.” He started to laugh too.

  “I would say that you shit yourself, but there is a lack of evidence.” She reached for a bottle of shower gel on the ledge. Suki started to lather his legs while he lay on the shower floor.

  “You saved me twice. You killed three men to protect me. While I was a tech for MI, I knew that these things happened, but I was never involved in anything like this.” Noah stopped her soaping pulling her to him circling her in his arms holding her tightly. Suki started to sob uncontrollably as they lay on the floor holding each other letting the hot water soothe them. When she stopped sobbing they dried each other. As they settled into bed, Suki put her head on Noah’s arm and started to talk.

  “You know, I am not some dumb bimbo that can’t make money any other way. I have a degree in science from Oxford and I then went to MIT in the states for my graduate work.” Suki graduated University at seventeen. She held a graduate degree in electrical engineering and a PHD in mathematics. She worked for MI-5 as a tech in electronic surveillance. Suki was also not Japanese only her heritage was Japanese. Suki was born in the UK and her parents were also born in the UK. She worked at MI with Frank, Terri, Lynn and Susan.