by Finian Blake
The resort security responded quickly to the gun shots, but the boat was out of sight, before they arrived at the house. It was a scene of carnage there were bullet holes and blood all over both the house and the car. The drag marks went out to the shore where it was obvious that a boat had been beached. With the amount of blood in the drag marks it was assumed that Seraphina was either dead or soon would be. The investigation would report that Seraphina was assassinated with the body being removed by a hit team. All of the weapons were Russian and the blood was her type. She was a colonel in the administrative section and this would warrant further investigation. There was no doubt that this was a precision military assassination. This had to be a Spetsnaz team the obvious question was, why did they send a whole team to assassinate one colonel?
Jeff and Sarah found the galley on the Patna suitable for their purposes and set up their equipment using two rooms for changing clothes. Sarah hung the different backdrops and set up the lights creating four different photo areas. Jeff set up four cameras so that they would not have to move anything. Only the ID pictures would be taken on the Patna and the actual documents would be processed at the Inn. By the time the first Antonov from the armory landed they were ready.
Noah decided to pay Marc the full bonus in advance not wanting to risk any delays in their departure. He did not want anything to cloud the next few hours. “Marc, we paid in advance for the ship. Here is a hundred thousand dollar bonus for the extra security and there will be another hundred thousand in Karachi when we off load.” Marc was proud of his crew because they were all his first line people, and every one of the men carried a side arm at the minimum.
“We have thirty crew men to work the cargo and they will be doubling as security. I have six armed men along the dock and Karim has twenty men around the airport fence. He has two large Hyster forklifts, so we can containerize and load one pallet every three minutes.”
Adam filled in his end, “They are going to roll the pallets out on a speed drop, and we will fork them off of the ground and into the containers with the third plane stopping briefly to let our passengers out. We figure there will be between fifty and eighty pallets. All that needs to be done is to wait for the first plane to land.” Adam found Karim and gave him a hundred thousand dollars for his bonus and security instead of waiting for their departure. “Here is an extra forty thousand Pounds for your family I understand that it is a large family.”
Karim stuffed the envelope in his shirt, “Yes, it is a very large family indeed.”
The first Antonov touched down at eleven PM. The first six pallets rolled out the back and the pilot went to full throttle. The first plane was in the air before the next plane was on approach. As soon as it was out of the way, the fork lifts went to work. The drivers worked with a smooth dance like efficiency that was a pleasure to watch. Their smooth performance left no doubt in Noah’s mind why Marc had selected them. They had four aircraft pallets loaded in containers by the time the second Antonov touched down and disgorged its cargo without stopping. There were only four pallets left on the ground at the time the third Antonov landed. After it pushed its cargo out the Antonov stopped and twelve people ran out. They all ran over to the closest pallet claiming their personal possessions climbing in a bus that would take them to the Patna. The plane went to full throttle, and took off before the ramp was fully raised.
Noah picked up the group in a bus taking them to the Patna escorting them to the make shift studio and Jeff started his work. Sarah found Cassandra who had just flown in with the group since she was the extra help that Sarah was planning. Cassandra was Sarah’s daughter by an affair with Gregory. She went to work with Jeff and Sarah without hesitation. Sarah wore baggy jeans and one of Noah’s shirts not wanting to give the Generals any idea of the changes that she had made. Sarah pulled her hair up under a hat wearing thick black plastic rimmed glasses finishing off with a pair of heavy military shoes, and for an added touch she added a slouch to her walk. The look tacked ten years on to her age. The generals looked at Sarah wondering why they were ever attracted to her.
As Jeff started to work, four of the twenty foot ocean containers were being locked down in the cargo racks that lined the deck. After an hour they had eighteen of the containers loaded on the Patna with the second load on its way to Trabzon. The thirty minute flight time kept a steady rotation of aircraft with three Antonovs dropping their cargo twenty minutes apart. The cargo from each aircraft had been steadily containerized by forklifts and stowed within thirty minutes of each delivery. At the Russian base the pallets were loaded with practiced rhythm. The Russian ground crews were experienced with air operations and all of the runs went without a hitch. Each one of the Antonovs was scheduled to make three runs.
The third run was the same as the first two except for the fact that the crew of each Antonov switched pilots that were already processed by Jeff’s team reducing to a single pilot to fly on the return run. One relief pilot flew each Antonov back to the base in Russia, and twelve additional people made their way to the Patna’s forgery center for processing. The steady rotation allowed Jeff to get his costume changes for the different photos. When the last Antonov returned to the weapons depot, the last three pilots grabbed a small Antonov Two, since the army would not put as much importance on an thirty year old Antonov Two trainer as they would three Antonov Twelve’s. The time was almost two thirty when they landed in Trabzon. Three of the pilots exited the Antonov Two and a tall pilot wearing a wet suit with a hood took their place. They removed the doors loading them in back making sure that not one thing of Russian origin would be left in Trabzon. The pilot was going to ditch the trainer at sea near the rubber raft commanded by Frank and his crew. Jeff did a quick job on the last twelve people, and was off the Patna with his equipment by ten till three with the Patna casting off by three AM.
As Jeff stepped off the Patna the lines were being released. The Patna was starting to move away from the dock using the side thrusters. Roger and Ralph were loading his forging gear while Cassandra and Sarah were waiting on board the Twin Otter. Arrangements had been made for the solo pilot to ditch the Antonov Two out in the Black Sea. At the proper time Mark received a message to turn on the beacon, so that both the Patna and the Antonov two could home in on the small boat. Frank was headed West North West toward Trabzon while the Patna and the Antonov headed west. The small boat was one hundred twenty miles due West North West of Batumi. The Antonov homed in on the signal ditching twenty yards ahead of the rubber boat that had been going for almost five hours since the raid sinking their extra gas cans along the way in order to create more room in the boat. The pilot dressed in a light wetsuit, set three heavy charges swimming out of the aircraft that was now bobbing like a cork. The swimmer pulled with a strong stroke to the edge of the inflatable boat throwing a set of flippers over the side. Frank and Mark helped pull the swimmer into the boat being very much surprised to find that the swimmer was a woman.
“My name is Nadia. Is this the bus to the Patna?”
“No, we are just a cork on the ocean, but you can have a ride anyway.” Frank was surprised to see a pilot that tall. “You are big enough to be a keeper. We won’t have to throw you back.” Nadia took a seat in the boat and they continued on to the Patna. When they were a few minutes away a large explosion briefly lit up the sky.
“What would you have done if the boat was not on time?”
Nadia laughed saying in a Dutch English accent. “I am a good swimmer.” Frank was impressed by her lack of an accent.
“Your English is quite good.”
“We use Dutch teachers. It is easier to bury the Russian accent.”
They met the ship on schedule. As they approached Frank examined the Patna. The waterline was high above the waves and the high freeboard made her look like she was light. The high freeboard also hid the first two containers in the cargo racks, so that it was impossible to do a container count from a distance. Marc had included these elements in her
design purposely to make her look like there was no cargo on board and discourage boarders. The crew of the Patna swung a loading boom over the side to hoist the boat on to the deck with Frank’s crew hooking the cable to lift rings on the boat allowing the six passengers to step directly on to a dry deck. After spending almost seven hours in the small boat Frank was extremely grateful to stand up and walk around. As soon as the rubber boat was clear of the water the Patna went to maximum power until dawn. Frank spotted Anna and Alex walking toward him on the deck. Nadia spotted Anna and ran to her almost knocking Frank over.
“Mom, I hitched a ride with these sailors. Can they come too?” Nadia was Gregory’s daughter by another woman.
“Of course they can.” Anna slipped an arm around her waist and walked Nadia to the Patna’s super structure. Frank watched the two women walk to the bridge noticing that Nadia was well formed for her extreme height. She was six foot four but did not look overly thin as most people of that height did. Frank also noticed that her humor was more open than that of most women. He found himself wanting to know more about Nadia. She was definitely not the kind of woman that he saw having tea with the ladies back in the UK.
The Twin Otter took off doing a low fly by on the Patna as it made its way North and then West at maximum speed along the coast of Turkey. Ralph did a low pass over the Patna, on a heading for Italy staying low until the plane was approaching the Bosporus flying on to their first refueling stop in Bari. Cassandra had her Raven hair pulled back in a tight bun. She wore a wool army uniform coat, slacks, shoes, and black plastic rimmed glasses. She took off her uniform coat, tossed her glasses and loosened the bun in her hair with her long black hair falling over the back of the seat. Cassandra stripped naked fully unconcerned that Jeff was watching. She held up the nearly transparent panty between her and Jeff smiling with approval just before she put them on. Cassandra did this with each item of her apparel doing a reverse striptease which transformed Cassandra into a desirable woman. She handed Jeff her shoes pointing a toe directly at his nose.
“Jeff, would you help me with my shoes the combination of these little buckles and long nails do not work very well.” Jeff accepted the shoes with shaking hands complying as requested. When he was done Cassandra stood up stamping her feet to make sure that the shoes fit properly. Cassandra leaned forward giving Jeff a warm kiss on the mouth. Sarah smiled when she saw the expected reaction.
“Yes Jeff, there is a similarity.” Sarah knew what she was doing when she set up the deal with Cassandra, advising her to seduce Jeff. “You two have been very busy. Let me do a formal introduction. Cassandra I would like to present Jeff. Jeff this is…”
“Beautiful…” Jeff was locked into Cassandra with the blink of an eye. She was a very similar body type to Liz except that she was slightly larger on top. Their conversation started after flying over the Patna and was uninterrupted until the fuel stop in Bari. Sarah coached Cassandra convincing her that a brazen spectacle was what she required to capture Jeff’s visual nature while Jeff was packing his forging equipment on board the Patna. She hoped that Cassandra was the right size. Anna brought some of Liz’s clothes even some of her underwear hoping that Jeff would not catch on to the trick. Cassandra was only slightly larger on top but the adjustment was not critical and the extra cleavage definitely snared Jeff’s attention. She handed her military clothes to Jeff asking him to throw them out over the Aegean Sea. As he complied with her request, Cassandra liberally applied the Plumeria perfume that Sarah had brought along causing Roger to look back in the cabin when the strong flowery scent caught his nose.
“This is much better than flying Frank around.” Ralph turned around at the comment with the plane starting to nose down. Sarah called their attention back to work. Cassandra pulled her hair back into a pony tail that came down past her shoulders allowing Sarah to make a single braid out of it. Jeff caught the strong scent of her Plumeria perfume which completely captivated him.
“Jeff, you will have to tell me about yourself.” He started with how much she looked like Sarah. She put her arm around his neck from behind him and toyed with his ear lobe finally taking a nibble. Sarah had not missed relaying a single trick. She had briefed Cassandra on all of Jeff’s triggers. She wanted Jeff for her daughter having determined that he would be perfect for her since they were both forgers. She was glad that her research at the Inn had not been wasted.
“Jeff, I would like you to meet my daughter Cassandra.” Sarah loved the shocked look on Jeff’s face. She looked like Sarah. He thought that Cassandra was too old to be her daughter. “I believe that you met her father Gregory.” Sarah went on to explain how Cassandra was the product of an affair between her and Gregory.
Gregory met the flight at Brit Worldwide around six AM doing a double take when Cassandra stepped off the plane. With the change of clothes the resemblance to Liz was eerie. Cassandra gave Gregory a frozen reception making it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. Sarah started the conversation.
“We need some sleep, and then we will get to work on the papers. I will take Cassandra up to my place. Gregory I believe that you have a toy in your cottage.”
“I would like some time to reacquaint myself with Cassandra,” Gregory said with a lecherous tone.
“You will never do that again.” There was an artic like frost in Sarah’s voice. “We will go to my place as I have said.” Cassandra stormed off without even saying one word to Gregory. He had once tried to seduce her. Raping Casandra when she refused, after which, he had her transferred to another general’s command before she could tell Sarah. Sarah took Casandra to the studio to get some rest and Gregory went to the stables hoping that a spirited ride would work off some of his outrage.
About the time that Roger landed in Manchester, the Patna was cruising off of Sinop. The Russians had not yet given any indication that they were looking for them. They retrieved Frank’s group and the pilot. Mark and Tom were stowing the deflated boat into a container. Noah used the radio telephone to authorize the payment. He called the generals to the radio room to verify the payment.
“You have seventeen million in your central account that will cover the cost of the weapons and your bribes plus one million dollars each, and you can move the money wherever you would like. We will transit the Suez Canal and be arriving in Karachi within five days. Are we agreed that you have been paid as promised?”
“You are a man of honor and everything is correct. Where is Gregory?”
“He is making arrangements for your temporary housing. We are moving you directly to the states.”
“We are not doing this through your government as you promised. Am I correct,” Victor asked.
“Everything will be arranged through me, for the whole transaction.” Noah assured them. “While we are on the subject, I need to know if you are paying for the weapons or not paying. I have dealings around the world and must know that my reputation is safe.”
“You may be assured that they are being paid for as we speak, the money for twenty transactions are being deposited in the proper accounts. Seraphina set them up to pay automatically when the money was in our account. We managed to squeeze some extra profit out of the deal but my country is being paid for everything. We were worried that the deal had been discovered when Seraphina went missing. It is a good thing that Seraphina is with you,” Victor said. “She should have contacted us to let us know that she was safe. I hope we will have a pleasant cruise ahead of us.”
“I am sorry to inform you that Seraphina is dead. She was killed by a Spetsnaz hit squad at the vacation home that you sent her to.” Anna went on to describe how the raid on the home went. “She was shot trying to get away from her assailants. They shot her in her car and dragged her body into the sea taking the body with them.” The generals were wondering what all of the helicopters were doing over the coast when they flew close to the resort. Their hit team gave up watching the house and left two days earlier. This was bad news. They were supposed
to make things look like a suicide so that she would be blamed for all of the irregularities. Victor was deeply disturbed at the thought of losing his scape goat, but said nothing since Seraphina was already on her way to an undisclosed location. He would find out her whereabouts from Gregory when the opportunity arose.
Early in the morning, Susan received a panicked call from Martin in the stable.
“We have an accident. Gregory was jumping the gelding and fell over the horses head into the culvert when he balked at a jump. Gregory is not breathing. He went riding about two hours ago and we found him just now. The accident must’ve happened right after he left because his body is cold.”
“Are you sure he’s dead,” Susan asked with a tone of panic in her voice.
“There is not much hope as he was cold when they found him and there is no doubt that his neck is broken,” Martin said in matter of fact voice.