Dig Two Graves: Revenge or Honor

by Nick Vellis

  “That’s terrible, unusual for that area. Bad for the tourists I’m sure, but why did he call you?”

  “The man was wearing a wig and had multiple IDs on him, but the responding officers are sure the man is Anton Petru.”

  “Damn! They’re already cleaning up loose ends. We’ve no time to lose. How soon can you leave?” Gia said.

  AJ watched the terminal flash by as the G550 sailed down the runway then lifted off from Milan’s Malpensa Airport. The twin Roll-Royce engines pushed AJ into his seat on the climb out and after just a few minutes he felt the nimble plane level off.

  “AJ, come on up when you’re comfortable,” Gia said, over the intercom. AJ was used to flying, but always commercial and usually First Class. The private jet’s luxury was beyond anything he had experienced and beat even the best airline’s First Class section hands down.

  His boss, Luis Echeverria, needed one of these, AJ thought. The cabin was nearly as long as a tennis court and more than three times as wide as the span of his out-stretched arms. Beryl wood in lush, dark hues covered every exposed surface. The front cabin held eight plush seats covered in light grey leather. Each one swiveled to allow face-to-face conversation and had its own telephone and data port in the armrest. A conference table for eight and four large video monitors filled the rear of the cabin. AJ felt the suppleness of the soft leather, touching each seat, as he made his way to the flight deck.

  “That was an impressive take off, very smooth and fast, Alessandro,” AJ said to the man in the pilot’s seat.

  “Thank you. I haven’t flown this plane in some time, but it’s always a pleasure,” Alessandro replied, not taking his eyes off the array of gauges, electronic panels and dials in front of him. “We seized this one from a Sardinian Mafioso for money laundering and tax evasion. We get many of our aircraft by seizing property from criminals. This plane is very well appointed.”

  “You can say that again,” AJ said. “I was checking out the accommodations. Air Force One doesn’t have much over this plane.”

  “This one is the director’s favorite. We use her for executive travel and sometimes for stings,” Alessandro said. “There is the newer Gulfstream G650 but this one is top notch. This plane has a few years on her but she’s the newest one in our fleet. She’s very fast.”

  “It’s a nice ride. How fast will it go?”

  “This plane’s rated for MACH 0.88, but we’ll cruise below that to go easy on fuel.”

  “How fast are we going?” AJ asked.

  Alessandro replied by pointing to an electronic read out on the control panel that read 589.00 MPH.

  “Whoa. How long to Athens?” AJ asked.

  “We’re going to Thessaloniki. It’s closer to Katerini, by 100 kilometers” Alessandro replied. “Flight time to Thessaloniki is two hours fifty-five minutes, but we have a favorable wind. We should be on the ground in just over two hours,” Gia replied, pointing to a GPS-like screen on the control panel showing their position.

  “AJ, there is something I didn’t tell you before we took off,” Alessandro said.

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “I’m the Deputy Director of Guardia di Finanza.”

  “Yes, I know that, and I appreciate the help you’ve given me,” AJ said, waiting for the pay off.

  “I have responsibilities, political responsibilities. I’m sticking my neck way out getting involved in this but because of Gia…”

  “… and because you may get Solaris, you’ve agreed to help,” AJ interrupted.

  “I’m afraid it’s more than that,” Alessandro said.

  “What have you done?” Gia said, turning in her copilot’s seat to face Alessandro.

  “I contacted the Greek Counter Terrorism Unit. They’ll meet us at the airport to give us support.”

  “Damn it! Gia, I told you I didn’t want government involvement!” AJ shouted.

  Before Gia could answer, Alessandro said, “Don’t blame her. I did it without her knowledge. I knew your feelings, but I had to do it. As an official of the Italian government I…”

  “Forget it. The cat’s out of the bag. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you from the first, but now I’m stuck with you. I guess that’s how you got the director’s favorite plane.” AJ said, as he turned in disgust to return to his seat.

  When he had gone, Alessandro turned to Gia, “Go talk to him. We need his cooperation to pull this operation off.”

  “Oh, so now it’s an operation? I thought it was my uncle helping me out.”

  “Gia, please, this is Solaris, the only man left on the GdF hit list. When I spoke to the director about the plane and told him it involved Solaris, he didn’t ask any questions,” Alessandro said. “Your father…

  “Don’t bring my father into this. This is about you and your vendetta.”

  A frazzled Mary Burnsnell hurried into Ceres’ room and as usual was already in the midst of a conversation. Ceres hardly recognized her without her nurse’s uniform, but the constant barrage of conversation readily identified Nurse Mary.

  “… then when I did find a place to park, it was as far from the entrance as it could be and with the rain and my umbrella already turned inside out, well you can just imagine, I was soaked. I’ve never seen a library so busy on a weekday,” she said. “How are you today Mr. Savas? I see you’ve had your IV removed.”

  “I feel quite fit, thank you. They’ve allowed me to walk up and down the hall this morning AND take a shower. It’s surprising what a treat ordinary things can be when you haven’t been able to do them,” Ceres replied.

  “Ah, well. A good wash fixes many an ill. You look much better today, good color in your face. Now, don’t overdo the walking.”

  “I thought it was your day off?” Ceres said with a smile. “That’s right it is your day off. What are you doing here?”

  “I was working on that little project for you,” Mary said dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It’s a tough nut to crack.”

  “If it’s too much…”

  “No. It’s not that. It’s a great challenge. I’m positively energized,” Mary said. “I had some more questions for you. You see, I’ve tried all the standard solutions, single and double letter substitutions, and transposition both forward and backward. Then I went to some more advanced ciphers like the Greek Square, the Rosicrucian, the Pig Pen, the Caesar’s Cipher, the Saint Cyr Slide, but none of them worked. Then I wondered, could the message be in something other the English. I tried all the solutions again looking for Greek words because that’s where you said the person who encoded the message was at the time, but still no luck.”

  “You’ve done much more work on this than I expected, Mary. Thank you.”

  “Oh, posh,” Mary replied, waving a pudgy hand at Ceres. “Don’t thank me, I haven’t puzzled it out. Yet.”

  “What else is there to try?” Ceres asked,

  “There’s quite a bit actually. You see, it has to be a substitution cipher that’s either polyalphabetic or has a randomized substitution shift.”

  “If you say so,” Ceres replied, not sure what Mary had said. Ceres was very impressed with Mary’s apparent knowledge. The woman seemed so scatter brained.

  Mary pulled a yellow legal pad from her canvas bag and said, “May I sit down? I’m not used to sitting in a patient’s room.”

  “Certainly, how silly of me to not offer you a chair. Please, sit,” Ceres, said apologetically.

  “What sort of document was this cipher originally? Was it a single sheet of paper or was it part of a longer document?” Mary asked.

  “It was on the final page of a diary,” Ceres said, without hesitation.

  “Is there any hint in the diary about a key, perhaps some random numbers or references to an address? Since it must be a substitution cipher the key would be something to do with a number,” Mary said.

  “I can’t think of anything. Would it help you to look at the journal?” Ceres said.

  “It could. Be
a dear and let me take a peek,” Mary replied.

  Ceres reached for the nightstand drawer and couldn’t quite find the drawer handle.

  “May I help, Mr. Savas?” Mary said as she stood and leaned toward the nightstand.

  “It’s a black notebook. It’s the only thing in the drawer.”

  Mary took the notebook out of the drawer and handed it to Ceres who waved her hand away and said. “No, please take a look.”

  “Where is the cipher?”

  “It’s two pages from the last full page with an entry,” Ceres replied.

  Mary turned to the cipher and checked her copy against the letters in the notebook.

  “Well at least I wasn’t working with a bad copy,” she said as she regained her chair. “Who wrote this? The handwriting is very precise.”

  “His name was John Pantheras, a lieutenant in the United States Army. The man was a good friend to a scared little boy,” Ceres replied.

  “This note at the end of the diary, it seems hurriedly written compared to the other entries,” Mary said. She smiled as she looked at the note. “He wrote this note to you, didn’t he, dear? He must have cared about you, a hastily scribbled note to a boy he loved.”

  “I have cherished that book since he gave it to me in 1944. Not a day goes by I don’t look at it, or think about him and what he sacrificed for me and for Greece. I want him to be recognized for what he did and my time is …”

  “I understand. You poor dear,” Mary said. She read the note.

  Ceres, Please forgive me for sending you away. You have been like a son to me. I had to know you would be safe. I hope you live a long happy life. GOD bless you. Remember to light a candle for me on my birthday. Lt. John

  “I lost my faith over the years, I suppose because even prayer couldn’t answer my questions about what happened to him, but I have gone to a Greek Orthodox Church every year and lit a candle and prayed for John Pantheras,” Ceres said softly. Tears welled up in his eyes as he remembered the kindness and friendship he had known with John.

  “If you did that all these years, you were a very faithful friend Mr. Savas,” Mary said quietly. “What was the lieutenant’s birthday?”

  “December fourth,” Ceres replied, a puzzled look on his face.

  “What year?” Mary asked, as she picked up her yellow legal pad.

  “1921, December 4, 1921. Why?”

  “Give me a few minutes and I’ll tell you,” Mary replied as she began to write. “Mr. Saves I believe your dedication to your friend will provide the answer,” Mary said, as she wrote.

  “Can you tell what it says?” Ceres said, sitting up in his bed.

  “Give me a few minutes,” Mary replied.

  “Do you have it?” Ceres asked. “Do you know …”

  “Shush, dear fellow. I’m trying to work here,” Mary scolded.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just I’m so excited that …”

  “Shush or I’ll have to leave the room,” she said.

  “All right,” Ceres said.

  “I write the birth date repeatedly under each letter of the message. Then I shift the encoded letter by the number of places in the repeated birth date. See here, the first letter is H, I shift it back one letter, which makes it a G. Second letter is a Q, shift it back two places give us an O. The first word is GO,” Mary said.

  “Mary, I’m as excited as you are but please don’t do it letter by letter,” Ceres said. “I think the suspense would kill me.”

  “Your friend used a Date Shift Cipher.” Mary said, as she worked through the code. “It’s much harder to break than the Simple Shift cipher because the shift varies from letter to letter,”

  Mary said as she translated the coded message. “It’s also polyalphabetic meaning a single number can represent multiple letters, this is brilliant. Here see,” She said as she showed Ceres the matrix of numbers and letters.

  H Q T S R B S V H S G P T G S N E V U E X I 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 4 F N P K T F F E E P Q W F Z O Y N J M G A Q 2 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 0 4 2 1 1 2 M V J S J R 0 4 2 1 1 2

  “When she had finished, Mary sat back and looked over the matrix. Then she wrote out the message and said, “Your friend left a message for you. The message says...

  GO/TO/PARTHOS/FOR/GOLD/USE/TO/HELP/GREECE/LOVE/ YOU/LIKE/A/SON/LT/JOHN.”

  “May I see that,” Ceres said, the tears now streaking his cheeks.

  His hand shook as he took the paper. His friend, his protector, had finally spoken to him. Love you like a son. Ceres couldn’t hold back any longer and sobbed unashamedly.

  Mary sat back and watched as her own tears began to flow. What an emotional moment, she thought.

  After a few minutes, Ceres began to compose himself and said, “Mary, I can never thank you enough for… well, for solving this mystery. It … it was right in front of me all these years. I was too proud and stubborn to ask for help,” Ceres said.

  “Oh, posh,” Mary said, waving off Ceres’ self-rebuke. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, deary.”

  “Regardless, I owe you a great deal. Thank you. But I’m not even able to take you for coffee as thanks,” Ceres said, forcing a smile. When should I tell Ajax?

  The phone rang and the aging Romanian noticed the flashing red light on top. He limped to his desk, picked up the phone and said, “Yes.”

  “The call you expected from Milan, sir,” the Director General’s aide said, in his clipped British accent.

  “Put it through.”

  A moment later the call connected and the director general said, “What is your report?”

  “One deal has been closed, sir. The second participant was not at his office,” the smooth feminine voice on the phone said. “The second group of participants are apparently shy. What are your instructions?”

  “Our source in Milan advises the second group has gone to Greece. You should expect your competitor to go there, too. There will be a promotion for you for you when you finish this. You should go to Katerini. Do you scuba dive?”

  “Expertly, sir.”

  “You will find the other partners participating in some wreck diving. Our client is most anxious. You should be able to close both deals in Katerini.”

  “I’m sure I can convince the parties to the contract to cooperate, sir.”

  “Scuba diving is very dangerous, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir. It is.”

  CHAPTER 29

  “You’re sure about this information, Michael?” Dobos said into his cell phone. “He said the younger one and the girl were going to Greece. Did he say why or what they’re going to do?”

  Provincial Police Commander Michael Verde’s annoyance and apprehension grew. The occasional bribe was one thing, but passing information to outside parties was entirely another matter. He could lose his job and his pension over this deal, but still, Dobos paid well, even if he was dirty. Verde never really knew what Dobos did, and he didn’t ask.

  “Moretti said one man and Gia Donatella were leaving tomorrow night on the ferry from Bari. He didn’t say what they were going to do. “Isn’t that enough?” Verde said, wishing he could get off the phone.

  “All right, fine. You’ll have your money tomorrow. Call me if you learn anything further,” Dobos said. He hit the red end button on his burn phone.

  Dobos hit the speed dial and his boss answered immediately.

  “Report?” Solaris said.

  “All parties leave for Katerini, Greece, tomorrow night,” Dobos said. “I will contact my negotiator and leave as soon as possible.”

  “You will have to handle this yourself,” Solaris responded. “Your back up has been reassigned to another situation.”

  “I’ll need assistance negotiating with these people,” Dobos said. “There are three of them. They’ll be on guard.”

  “Very well, where can your new protégé find you?” Solaris said.

  “I'm in Room 334, Hotel Della Stazione, on the Via Agnesi.”

  “I�
�ll make a call. Someone will contact you tomorrow. Report in when you have completed the assignment,” Solaris said and abruptly ended the call.

  Solaris was obviously finished, Dobos thought. He leaned back on the small hard sofa and held the phone in his right hand as he stared at the blank screen. It’s not unusual to reassign an operative, Dobos thought, but in the middle of an operation? Something was wrong.

  He had worked for Solaris a long time. He was with him in the good times, the smuggling days. Dobos tossed the phone on the table among the crumpled newspapers and closed his eyes. He idly scratched at the flakey patch on his arm, thinking. Solaris…What did it mean?

  He’d met his boss while Solaris was putting together a deal to send stolen weapons to Iran. Several groups tried to block the supposedly secret deal, including the CIA. Solaris asked around for a specialist, and a friend sent him to Dobos. He’d eliminated nearly a dozen men including some CIA assets. The arms shipment went through without interference and Solaris was happy and much richer. Solaris called on Dobos over and over for covert and ‘special’ services over the next several years.

  He fidgeted on the hard sofa for a few more minutes, weighing his options. None of them were good. He decided he had to move and figure out what was happening later. Dobos sprang into action, moving with surprising speed for an older man. Years of conditioning, both mental and physical, had prepared him for this moment he knew would eventually come.

  Dobos booted up his MacBook Air. He needed to transfer funds before Solaris froze his money. Working quickly, he logged into his accounts at a half-dozen banks and began electronic transfers of under $8000 into smaller previously unused accounts. He’d been careful not to let too much money accumulate in any of the accounts Solaris might know of and he expected the transfers would stay below the radar of the several government agencies that monitored financial transactions.

  “Shit,” Dobos said as he found one of his accounts, the one Solaris transferred his pay into, was already unavailable. Fortunately, he had set up automatic transfers, so there were only a few thousand dollars lost.