Black Flag Rising: A James Jackson Thriller

by Jesse Russell

  He kicked him hard in the stones.

  The goon raged in pain, trying to lash out at George.

  “Let's get him back up in the chair. I am not letting him run the clock out on us,” Jackson said as they hauled him up and sat him back down in the chair.

  “Let's try this one more time. Think very carefully what you do next. You can decide to talk, or shall we proceed to the Wet Work on you?”

  The goon shook his head. He knew what Wet Work was. The KGB had invented it. It was horrible, torturous, slow, and very, very bloody.

  “Who is doing this, and how are they doing it?” Jackson shouted in his face.

  The goon thought for a minute, then proceeded to spill his guts.

  44

  Back at the cabin, Julia's phone rang. It was a number she didn't recognize, so she ignored the call and let it go to voicemail. She didn't trust anyone calling her at this point. She regretted not shutting the phone down and taking the battery out, but she was secretly hoping that Juan would contact her.

  It rang again - the same phone number. She sighed and answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Julia? It's me, Juan.”

  “Juan, where are you?” she whispered.

  “Listen. I am at a pay phone. Where are you?”

  “I can't say. Where are you?” Julia whispered.

  “In some small town. Out in the desert. Where are you?” he asked again.

  “You need to call the police and go back to jail. You will be safe there,” she said to him.

  “That is not happening. I need to come see you. Where are you?” he persisted.

  “Um, I’m away. In Tucson,” she lied.

  “Tucson? We were headed up north to Payson!” he shouted.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, looking around nervously.

  “I, uh, was coming up to Payson with some guys. They said I could see you there.”

  “Why aren’t you with them now?” she asked.

  “I… I escaped. They were doing bad things to me,” he hedged.

  “What were they doing?” she asked.

  “They hit me. They were roughing me up,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “I don't know why. Maybe they wanted some information from me. But I never told them anything. I don’t know anything,” he lied.

  “Anything about what? What did they want to know? Why were you in jail to begin with?” She started getting mad.

  “I can't talk about it, Julia. Tell me where you are. I will come to you. I need to get you and the kids and get out of here,” he said.

  “I told you, Juan. I am not where you are. I have to go now.”

  She hung up and shut down the phone, taking out the battery. She shook her head and let out a deep breath. Then, she went in the other room and told Lindsay to call George.

  45

  Sitting with Valeria, the doctor had finished listening to her explain her faith and how it was based on one of the oldest books in history. He stood up to go check on Dumitru and Mrs. Drazov. He felt different. Lighter. He had a different perspective. He had never heard these things before. She had given him some deep things to ponder. Very deep things.

  He walked into Dumitru's room and checked his vitals. His blood pressure was nearing normal, his heart rate was stabilizing, and his kidney and liver function were much improved.

  He was sleeping peacefully. The doctor lifted one of the leaves on his abdomen. The red swelling was decreasing rapidly. He just might make it. It was nothing short of a miracle.

  He walked in and checked on Mrs. Drazov. Same results. She was sleeping as well.

  Grav, Dumitru's boss, had arrived and was also on a drip and the kelp. He had not gotten very ill, and his numbers were also good.

  He walked back to his office as his phone rang. “Dr. Al-Hazi.”

  “Cousin, I have some information. We have located the truck. It is at the docks. We have sent a team there with radiation equipment. I will let you know if we find anything. There were multiple ships leaving within a couple of hours of the time it arrived. The records show nothing, but we are going to interview everyone that may have had contact there.”

  “Keep me posted.”

  He hung up and called his doctor friend in Ukraine again. This time, he answered.

  “Salaam, my friend, this is Al-Hazi in Moldova.”

  “How are you, my friend?”

  “I am well. Did you get my message?”

  “I did. I have a detective friend checking now. I will let you know. Is it a nuclear device? Do you know where it went? Why would someone want something like that in Moldova?”

  “We don't know anything, except we have some very ill people here. We are working hard to get them well.”

  “I will let you know as soon as I hear anything.”

  “Thank you, my good friend.”

  46

  George's phone rang.

  “Dad, it's Linz. Hang on, Julia wants to talk to you.”

  “Hi, George. Juan just called me,” Julia still sounded breathless.

  “Hold on.” He ran inside and got the team together to put it on speaker.

  “Julia, we are all here. Go ahead,” George said.

  “Juan just called me. He is in a town up around here somewhere. He called me from a pay phone. He wants to come see us.”

  “Ryan, is there any way to track the call?” Jackson asked.

  “I think so. Does she have the number?”

  “Julia, get us the number he called from,” Tom said.

  She gave it to them.

  “Let us check it. Are you guys doing OK?” George asked.

  “Oh yes, we’re doing well. The kids are happy, and I am fine. Linz and I are like the best of friends already. She is terrific. And Adam’s wife is wonderful,” Julia said.

  “Good. Please put Linz back on.” He waited til he heard his daughter’s voice. “Linz, no one leaves the house for any reason. Do you have the gun I gave you?” George asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Good, keep everyone inside, and we will call you back shortly. If you see anything funny, shoot first and ask questions later. Her husband is a dangerous criminal. Who knows what he might try,” George warned.

  “OK.”

  Ryan hustled into the office and got to work, while they all paced around, hoping they could get a bead on him quickly. “Good thing I taught that girl how to shoot when she was young. She's a better shot than most of you,” George said.

  Sam and the kids had gone outside to take a hike while they formulated plans.

  Brad called the sheriff and filled him in around the edges of the whole plot, asking him to keep his eyes open for the mule.

  Ryan came out of the office. “Got it! It's a payphone in Gisela, twenty miles south of Payson. I Google Earth-ed it, and it looks like a gas station convenience store and bar. It's called Bud's.”

  “I know that place well,” Brad said. “They have some killer Buffalo burgers there. I know the owner. I'll call him.”

  He pulled out his phone and looked it up online.

  “Bud's place, this is Wanda,” the woman answered.

  “Hey Wanda, this is Brad Bartholomew from up in Payson. Is Bud around?”

  “He's not here right now. He's up north hunting. How can I help you, Brad?”

  “Me and my buddies have been down there for your wonderful burgers a few times. I'm a deputy sheriff up here in Payson,” Brad said.

  “I remember you guys! Where you all been lately, honey?”

  “No excuses, just been a little busy. Wanda, I have a favor to ask,” Brad said.

  “Of course!” she replied.

  “Please don't say anything out loud if you can avoid it. Just answer yes or no,” he cautioned.

  “OK,” she said.

  “Was there a Latino man in there using the phone in the last hour or so?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Is he still there?”

 
“Um huh,” she replied.

  “Can you get somewhere you can talk freely?” Brad asked.

  “Yes. Hold on,” she said.

  They waited.

  “OK, I'm here,” she said. “I went into our office.”

  “Wanda, listen to me. This man is dangerous. Do not do anything to set him off. Did he come in on foot?” Brad asked.

  “Yes, he wandered in here about an hour and a half ago. He said he was waiting for someone and needed to use the phone. He had asked to use our phone, but I felt weird about him. I let him pick the change out of our penny pot and use the pay phone. He's really creeping me out, to be honest. Really nervous and jumpy,” she said quietly.

  “What’s he been doing since then?”

  “Just pacing around, acting nervous,” she said.

  “All right. Try and keep him there if you can. If things go south, do you have a gun?”

  “Which one? We have many stashed around in here.”

  She pulled a drawer open and pulled out a Taurus 1911 .45, checking to make sure it was loaded. Just then, she looked up and the mule was standing in the doorway, staring at her.

  He turned and bolted out the door before she could even get the phone slammed down. She ran after him pointing the gun, but she was too late. He was gone into the trees.

  She shouted out, “And don’t come back here or you’ll be a dead man!”

  They had heard the whole thing back at the ranch, as she hadn’t gotten the phone down. She came back in and picked it up.

  “He ran. He’s gone,” she said as she struggled for breath.

  “Ok, Wanda. Thanks for all your help. We’ll take it from here. Great job, and keep your eyes open. Here is my number if you see or hear anything. Please stay armed at all times and eyes open. That is one bad dude.”

  “Oh, you know it. I can handle myself. You don’t run a bar for forty years without knowing how to handle bad actors,” she said.

  “We think he may be one of the worst. Let me know of anything we can do for you,” Brad said.

  “Sure will, honey. Come down and see us again, OK?” Wanda said.

  “You got it, Wanda.”

  47

  Back in Moldova, Dr. Al-Hazi's phone rang. It was number from outside of the country.

  “Dr. Al-Hazi.”

  “Doctor, this is Detective Hassan in Ukraine. Dr. Uruduz has me looking into things here, and he gave me your number.”

  “Yes. Do you have any info for me?”

  “Yes, sir. We have in custody a Chechen man, age thirty. He is very ill and his truck had been impounded. We do not want to go near it, so we have cordoned off the highway he was on. We have him in the hospital under arrest.”

  “Very good. I assume your doctors know what to do with radioactive exposure?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir. We are all well-versed, being so close to Russia,” the detective replied.

  “Please let me know if you find anything out from him,” the doctor said.

  “Will do. Thank you for alerting us,” the detective said.

  “I thank you for finding him,” the doctor replied.

  48

  Back in the office, Ryan was doing some deep news headline and police record searching with key words: nuclear, radioactive, radiation, bomb, turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Chechnya, Mexico, and a few others.

  He was looking at archived news stories, big and small, for the preceding twelve months, from national and local news sources all over the world.

  He had sifted through hours and hours of stories and was getting nowhere. He had moved dates forward as he went, figuring this would be something occurring in the past year and most likely, the last couple of months. He was now reading news from three months ago. He decided to take a break and go out and see what everyone else was doing.

  “Ryan, what are finding on the web?”

  “I am now three months out. Still nothing. Going back to do more research now.”

  “Get on it and keep looking. There has to be something out there. This is too big to remain off the radar,” Adam said.

  49

  Three days after coming into the clinic….

  Dumitru woke up and blinked his eyes. The pain was almost gone. He swallowed, and it hardly hurt at all. He was famished.

  He raised a hand and looked at his skin. It was pink. The red was nearly gone.

  He croaked out something, and one of the nurses came hustling in.

  “I'm thirsty… and hungry.”

  Her hand went up to her mouth and she dashed out of the room.

  “Did I say something wrong?” Dumitru thought.

  The doctor walked in and looked at him wide-eyed. He checked all his vitals, and they were normal across the board.

  “Well, well. It looks like you have made a remarkable recovery, Dumitru! Remarkable indeed!”

  He smiled and said, “Did you help me, Doctor?”

  “Oh, a little. It was really more Valeria and Mrs. Drazov. They are the ones you should thank. I just did what they told me.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “About three days, my friend. We thought you were a goner. This is truly a miracle. No one thought you could possibly survive.”

  “I have never been through anything like that. I visited a very dark place. It was horrible. I cannot even describe the things I saw and heard. It was hell.”

  “Yes, my friend. People with terrible afflictions like yours often report these feelings, especially when accompanied with high fevers.”

  “No. I mean… it was hell. Literally. Hell.”

  “It was probably hallucinations, Dumitru. You should eat and get re-hydrated now.”

  “No, no… you don't understand, Doctor. I mean that I visited hell. I was rescued by the light and told I was coming back here. I have never been so happy about anything in my life. You cannot imagine what it is like. No one should ever go there. No one.”

  “Why don't you eat something and we'll talk later.”

  His revelations were disturbing, and they stuck with the doctor as he left the room. He knew Dumitru was telling the truth. There was something about his conviction as he had told him the story.

  Valeria and Mrs. Drazov were just getting ready to leave the clinic when they heard the good news. They both came rushing in and Mrs. Drazov threw her arms around him, crying.

  “Oh, my Dumitru! You are alive and awake! I cannot imagine living without you!”

  The doctor stuck his head back in. “As soon as you are up for it, I have a couple of people that would like to talk to you as well.”

  He smiled and nodded back. The nurses wheeled in a meal for him.

  “Do you think it would be possible to get something for my friends here, and maybe a bottle of wine to celebrate?”

  50

  Ryan came running out of the office. “I found it! I have a radiation problem in Ukraine three weeks ago. I cross-checked it and found more info in Moldova and Turkey. It’s a good start.”

  “Let's go check it out,” Tom said.

  “It started here in Moldova. There was a report of a worker at a warehouse becoming sick on September 13th. A doctor treated him there. Then nothing more posted. Then, I found this.” He pulled up a small article in a local Ukrainian paper about a police stop on September 14th. “The driver was ill. They impounded the truck, but there was nothing inside. The driver died a few hours later.”

  “OK, what else?” asked Jackson.

  “Then, there's this. Another truck found in Turkey. A town called Izmir, on September 14th. It’s a semi by the looks of the picture. No driver found with it. Nothing inside. It was located at the shipping docks. It came in from Moldova. It was immediately impounded and cordoned off. There has to be some kind of link between all three of these.”

  “Is there any way to get a hold of anyone who may be a friendly over there?” George asked.

  “How would anyone ever know? We don't know who we can talk to here, let alone in a different
country,” Adam replied.

  “Keep looking for links. What about shipping logs on that date from Izmir? Any Mediterranean ports with stops for refueling?” Jackson asked.

  Everyone was crowding around his screen, impatiently straining for a look.

  “Let me get back to work. I’ll find something!” Ryan said loudly as he waved them all off.

  51

  Dumitru asked for a phone. He had five days to get on the plane to America, and he wanted to call his brother. Who knew if he may have been trying to reach him?

  “Let me ask the doctor, but I think that should be fine, Mr. Vieru.”

  The nurse came back in with his phone a few minutes later. He thanked her and dialed his brother, Andrei.

  “Dumitru, my brother! I was giving up on you. Where have you been? I have so much work for you here!” Andrei asked.

  “Andrei, I am very sorry. I took ill and have been in a hospital here,” Dumitru responded.

  “Oh no! Are you still able to come?”

  “I do not know yet. I will need to get clearance from my doctor, but I am doing much better.”

  “What is it that you have?” Andrei asked.

  “I had some kind of strange, uh, poisoning,” Dumitru replied.

  “Poisoning? What kind of poisoning?” Andrei asked.

  “It was radiation, I think,” Dumitru said.

  “Radiation? Were you around X-ray machines or something?” Andrei asked.

  “No, I am not sure where it came from.” He didn’t want to worry his brother, so he lied.

  “Then, where would this have happened?” Andrei asked suspiciously.

  “I loaded some cargo. It may have been poisoned. I think the people I did it for have bad motives,” Dumitru hedged.

  “Is that so? What kind of motives?”

  “Maybe nefarious ones. They were Islamic. Who knows?” Dumitru said quietly.