by Mark Goodwin
Everett rubbed his eyes. “If he wants half the diamonds, we need half the merchandise.”
Ali’s forehead puckered. “No, Everett. That is not how these thing work. Always is fifty percent deposit for sample. If you like items, then everything else will be of similar quality. If you don’t like, then Sheik try to make better product or say no thank you and everyone walk away. But always he need deposit to purchase items. If you make problem, then Sheik don’t work with you, and Sadat don’t work with you.
“I know you think these men are criminal, and probably you are correct. But, they have reputation because always they honor deal. You, on the other hand, have no reputation in this world. They only make business with you because of me.”
Everett listened quietly.
Ali waved his hands. “I don’t care more about these things. But if you don’t make this deal, opportunity is gone. Sadat will not speak to either of us ever again. I hope so, by now, you trust what I tell you is true.”
Everett waited for the kettle to whistle. “Okay. On your say-so, I’ll give him half the diamonds for a sample of the goods.”
“Good. I go get Tobias and Gideon. We must leave in half hour or we’ll be late.” Ali let himself out the back door.
Everett woke Courtney and offered to let her sit this one out. Of course, she declined.
“So much for our trek to find the source of the creek.” She put her backup gun in an ankle holster before putting her boots on.
“I’m sure the bloody stream will still be there when we get back.” Everett placed several magazines in his assault pack.
“Could we make a quick stop by the sea? I’m curious to see if Moses’ staff will turn blood from the Black Sea back into salt water or if it might actually come back as fresh water.”
“If we can get on the road before 6:00, we’ll make a pit stop. Otherwise, it’ll have to wait until we get back.” The teapot whistled and Everett hurried to retrieve it from the rocket stove.
The team was loaded into the Mercedes SUV at 5:55. Gideon looked like he’d been awake less than five minutes.
“You ready, big guy?” Everett glanced at him in the rearview.
“For what?” Gideon had a bad case of bed head.
“To go buy some fireworks.” Everett dangled the black velvet pouch in the rearview mirror as he put the vehicle in gear.
Remembering the previous trip, Everett had some idea of which parts of the roads were really bad and which parts were in good enough condition to drive a little faster. He made good time getting to the coast. He put the vehicle in park while he and Courtney bailed out. They ran to collect a sample of the blood from the Black Sea and hurried back to the SUV. Courtney retrieved the staff and stuck it in the one-gallon bucket containing the blood. Instantly, it turned to water.
“Now here’s the real test.” She put the bucket to her lips and sipped a small amount.
“What have we got?” Everett asked.
She passed the bucket to him. “Fresh water!”
Everett took a quick drink, then passed the bucket to Tobias. “Try this. It’s the best water you’ve ever drank.”
Everett closed the door behind Courtney, returned to the driver’s seat, and continued toward Sadat’s villa.
An hour and a half later, Ali pointed toward the coast. “There is fishing marina. We are nearly to Rize. We should be to Sadat house on time.”
“Is that a sanitation truck?” Tobias pointed at another vehicle on the road ahead.
“Wow,” Everett commented. “I can’t believe they have garbage service around here. I haven’t seen any other signs of GR presence at all. I’d think trash pick-up would be toward the lower end of the priority scale.”
Gideon called out from the back. “Something’s not right. There’s a delivery truck and a bus behind us. This is more traffic than we’ve seen in both trips put together.”
Everett took his foot off the accelerator. “The garbage truck driver just stuck his vehicle sideways and blocked both lanes!”
“This is an ambush!” Tobias yelled. “Try to turn around and drive past the bus and the delivery truck!”
It was too late. Both vehicles were already behind Everett blocking any possible exit. “Lock and load!” Everett drew his rifle up to wait for the garbage truck driver to get out.
“Bad news,” Gideon said. “I’ve already spotted six shooters on the rooftop of the apartment building to the left. No telling how many more are set up in sniper nests inside the windows.”
Everett turned to Courtney. “Just stay down.”
“No way! We’re probably not going to walk away from this one Everett. I’m not going down without a fight.”
His worst nightmare had come true. Unless God granted him the grace of catching a bullet before she did, there was a good chance Everett was going to have to watch his wife die a violent death. He took a deep breath and prepared to fight it out to the end.
A voice with a thick middle-eastern accent came over a megaphone, “Nobody want to die today. Just give us diamonds and you can leave. But don’t try to keep any. We know exactly how many you have. Even we know size and color.”
Everett turned to Ali. “Sadat set us up!”
“No! He never do this thing!” Ali protested strongly.
“Face it, Ali. He sold us out.” Everett looked for shooters inside the windows of the apartment building on the side of the road. He saw many of the windows open and figured they weren’t open for the fresh sea air since it smelled like rotten fish.
“What do we do here?” Everett looked at Tobias in the rearview.
Tobias shook his head in defeat. “I think we have to give them up.”
“You think they’ll really let us go?” Courtney asked.
“I don’t know,” Tobias replied. “But they’ll get those diamonds one way or the other. We’re massively outgunned here. If they don’t let us through, we’ll take as many of them as we can. But we’ve gotta try to get out of here without a firefight.”
Everett rolled his window down just enough to hold the pouch out.
Gideon said, “We’ve got four armed men coming out of the bus behind us. They’re approaching our vehicle. Tobias, get a bead on this guy. If they start shooting, we start shooting. Everybody get out of the SUV and make a run for the garbage truck. If we can kill the driver, we’ll have the right side of the truck for cover from the snipers.”
“Then what?” Ali asked nervously.
“Then we’ll shoot it out until . . .”
“Until what?” Courtney inquired forcefully.
Gideon didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said, “We weren’t going to be around here all that much longer anyway.”
Everett held the pouch steadily with one hand and kept the muzzle of his HK rifle trained in the direction of the approaching gunman with the other. They were dressed in solid black clothing with black face masks. Each one held an AK-47. One of the gunmen lowered his rifle just long enough to lunge toward Everett and snatch the black velvet pouch from his fingers.
The four gunmen backed away from the Mercedes cautiously and re-entered the bus.
Everett’s heart pounded as he waited for the next event. Nothing happened for several minutes. Finally, the garbage truck’s engine started and it pulled back into one lane.
The voice came back over the megaphone. “You may leave.”
Everett stomped the accelerator to the floor and sped past the sanitation vehicle. He took a deep breath—angry that they’d been robbed, but immeasurably grateful that he’d not had to watch Courtney get shot.
“Now what?” Tobias asked.
“We go to Sadat’s, gun down his guards and hold him hostage while we wait for his henchmen to show up with the stones.” Everett clinched his jaw.
“No! Everett! I am telling you right now, Sadat don’t do this!” Ali sounded furious.
“Then who did? Tariq?” Everett glanced over at him for only a moment.
“Tariq
the Sheik don’t make reputation by do these thing. They have code. I don’t think so it was Tariq also.”
Everett yelled in rage. “Then who, Ali? No one else knows we have the diamonds. You’re in denial. You just have to accept the fact that Sadat set you up. He’s not the same guy you knew three years ago. People change. And gangsters, when they change, it’s for the worse.”
“You make big mistake, Everett!” Ali shook his finger at Everett with his nose snarled and his eyebrows seized together in a knot. “Big, big, mistake!”
Gideon interjected. “Ali could be right.”
“How could he possibly be right?” Everett snapped. The line of reasoning was simply insane.
“Our communications with Sadat could have been intercepted. We’ve been speaking openly over shortwave. If they strung everything together, they could have determined where we were coming from, where we were going, when we’d be here, and they’d have certainly known exactly what we were carrying.”
Everett instantly realized that he’d completely overlooked this possibility in his fit of angst. He huffed. “An ex-CIA analyst was talking about millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds on an open channel.” Immediately, the guilt, shame, and humiliation hit him like a tsunami. He banged the steering wheel with his fist. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”
Courtney put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. An ex-NSA analyst was right there beside you, and she said nothing.”
Tobias’ voice came from behind. “There may or may not have been two Mossad agents involved in the lapse of standard communications protocol. You certainly can’t take all of the blame.”
“The person who normally must be more cautious than all intelligence agent is the man who work for Turkish mafia. This type of mistake will get you killed in mob. I cannot let this go without I accept my portion of the responsibility.” Ali looked sheepishly at Everett.
Everett quickly understood that while they’d lost the diamonds, he had something more precious; brothers and a sister in Christ who were in this thing with him no matter what. “Thanks, guys.”
“So we need a new plan, that’s all,” Tobias said with an encouraging tone.
Everett turned to Ali. “Sorry I yelled at you. What do you recommend?”
“I raise also my voice. For this, I am the one who is sorry. I think so we should go to Sadat and say to him what happen. Still, we have other half of diamonds in Batumi. And we don’t talk about when we come back over radio.”
“You got that right.” Everett continued racing toward Sadat’s villa.
CHAPTER 7
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16
Everett lowered his eyes like the boy who’d sold the prize cow for a fist full of magic beans. “Obviously, we won’t speak so openly over the radio again, sir.”
Sadat threw his hands in the air and let them come back down on his face. “What am I supposed to do? I always make things fair, but this is not only me we talk about. Tariq the Sheik don’t want to hear excuse. He make bargain. He fulfill his side. And he expect me to fulfill my side.”
“We could race back to Batumi, pick up the other half of the diamonds.” Everett raised his eyebrows.
“Then what happen when it is time to settle for other half?” Sadat scolded Everett. “This is bad plan.” Sadat looked at Ali. “I never work with these guys if not for you. I thought you understand how serious is this business.”
“I do, Sadat. I am very sorry for disappoint you.” Ali’s head hung like a windsock with no breeze.
“What if we had something more valuable than diamonds?” Courtney stood with her arms crossed.
“No, no. You don’t change deal one hour before we meet with Tariq. This is very bad.” Sadat wagged his finger at her.
Courtney stood staring at Sadat silently as if she were waiting for a grouper to bite the shiny lure affixed to the end of her fishing pole.
Sadat rubbed his chin and glanced toward his bodyguard, Doruk, who was looking back at him as if he had something to say. “What?”
Doruk ever so subtly nodded toward Courtney.
Sadat caught the signal and turned back to her. He sighed. “Okay, tell me what is more valuable than diamond.”
“Where are you planning to get water?” she asked.
“We will set up stills and distill the water from the blood.” Sadat had obviously already come up with a plan before her inquiry.
“You’re talking about a lot of resources. You’ll burn every tree on this mountain just to distill enough water to keep you and your compound alive for six weeks.”
“You have better plan I suppose?” Sadat seemed to be growing impatient.
“Can you have one of your guys fetch us a bucket of blood from the sea?”
“Why should I?” Sadat looked perplexed.
“Trust her, Sadat.” Ali nodded. “You will want to see this.”
“And pardon me. I need to get something from the SUV.” Courtney turned to go back upstairs.
“I’ll go with her.” Everett followed his wife.
“Okay, but the two men who came with you stay outside with your vehicle,” Sadat said. “Doruk, go with them. And have one of my men bring us bucket filled with blood. Tell them don’t get it on the floor.”
Once Everett and Courtney reached the Mercedes, Tobias asked, “How’s it going in there?”
Doruk accompanied one of the other guards down the winding path to the sea.
“Could have been worse.” Everett stood by as Courtney retrieved the staff.
“Let me guess, you’re trying to renegotiate for water.” Gideon leaned against the SUV.
“Diamonds won’t do you any good if you die of thirst.” She tucked the staff in the duffel bag and walked back to the house.
“I hope Sadat doesn’t decide to liberate us from the staff.” Everett nodded at the guard who opened the door as they walked back in the house.
“I don’t think it will work for him,” Courtney said softly.
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a gut feeling. I think it will only work for a child of God.”
“A gut feeling or is the Holy Spirit telling you that?”
She paused before going down the stairs. “The Spirit. I don’t know how else to explain it, but I’m certain it won’t work for anyone who isn’t a child of God.”
“Good enough.” Everett continued down into Sadat’s parlor.
Doruk arrived minutes later with a man carefully totting a five-gallon bucket half-filled with blood. Doruk placed a piece of cardboard on the floor for the other man to place the bucket on.
Courtney instructed Sadat, “Confirm that the bucket is filled with blood.”
Sadat looked into the container. “Okay. Is blood.”
She lowered the staff into the bucket and the blood turned to pure water. “Take a sip.”
Sadat looked curiously into the bucket. “You go first.”
Courtney cupped her hand and took a drink.
Sadat cautiously did the same. “Okay. Good magic trick. How do you do it?”
Everett stood nearby. “It’s not magic. It’s the power of God.”
“You give me staff instead of diamonds?” Sadat inquired.
“Oh, no. It wouldn’t work for you anyway unless you’re ready to confess that Jesus is the Messiah and repent of your sins.” Everett crossed his arms.
“Not just yet.” Sadat laughed. “But you don’t expect that I am going to take a few buckets of water instead of the diamonds.”
“What if we can purify a permanent water source for you? A creek or a stream?” Courtney asked.
“Can you turn my well back to water?”
“I think so. If you can get me a shaft wide enough to lower the staff on a string and pull it back up,” Courtney said confidently.
“You will need t
o provide a water source for Tariq the Sheik also. I think this plus other half of diamonds and we can still make deal work.” Sadat stood up. “I will have men get drilling rig to drill out hole big enough to lower the staff. But first, to be sure this is not just some type of illusion, I would like to see you turn the creek behind my house to water. It will provide me and my people water for now, and it will go long way in repairing my trust.”
Everett nodded, hoping that they would, indeed, be able to fulfill the request. “Can you show us the source of the creek?”
“It’s further up mountain. Doruk will show to you.”
Everett and Courtney followed Doruk, out of the house, through the small garden area and out a gate which provided access to the wooded hillside behind the villa.
“Here is creek.” Doruk pointed. “It is not much of a stream.”
Everett looked at the thin trickle of blood flowing over a channel of creek stone less than two feet wide. “Courtney, can I see the staff for a moment?”
She handed it to him.
Everett said a silent prayer beneath his breath then thrust the wooden stick into the blood. Immediately, clear water ran down the creek from where the staff stood. Less quickly, the blood began to change into water upstream as well. Everett watched as the small stream converted back to water beyond the point where he could see.
“I don’t believe it,” Doruk said.
“But you had no problem believing when it turned to blood in the first place,” Courtney said with the slightest note of sarcasm.
Doruk shook his head. “I didn’t believe that either.”
Everett held the staff for several minutes, hoping that the transformational power would eventually reach the source of the stream and permanently turn the blood to water. He lifted the staff from the unclouded brook and waited for several more minutes. “Why don’t you go get Sadat. I think we’ve got it.”
Doruk nodded. “Be right back.”
Everett and Courtney quietly watched the water as they waited for Sadat.
He arrived minutes later. “You did it?”