by Warren Esby
Ben laughed and said, “Oh man. Bad idea. Too risky. I mean if you were on your own with a few friends, that’s one thing. But there are a few things that you independent contractors don’t have that we do. We have resources. We’ll just have some Navy Seals dropped off far enough away so that the boat that brings them will not be detected. They’ll be given enough time during the night after they get dropped off to get there and be waiting for you at that location. They love to do shit like that. They’ll be waiting for you in the morning when you get out there, and there won’t be a chance anyone can see them in the water, and they won’t cause a blip on the radar in case they are tracking your location that way and should notice an extra blip.”
I realized he was right. They did have radar facilities on the island. And I also realized that sometimes you can’t do everything yourself, and it is nice to have the Federal Government’s resources behind you. Boy, I thought to myself, maybe the United States Government can do something right on occasion after all.
“Thanks. That’s a great idea. We better go in case we’re being watched.” I gave him the cell phone he had left for us since I couldn’t bring it back to the island, and then I said in a loud voice as I got up, “Nice meeting you two. Have a nice vacation,” just in case we had been followed which I didn’t think we had.
Anya also said bye and we left. We bought a new collar for Muffy that looked something like her old one and checked into one of the plush resorts that allowed dogs, and we left Muffy in our room while we went to a nice restaurant in Nassau that evening before returning to Freeport the next day. When we returned to the Prokaida for the trip back, Noorzai greeted us with a scowl on his face. Muffy looked at him and returned the scowl with a growl, and Noorzai took a step back to put some distance between us. It was not really enough distance if he wanted to shoot us, but I didn’t think he would do that right there on the dock. I began to wonder whether we should reconsider going back onto the island after all.
Then Noorzai said, “Where have you been? We haven’t seen you anywhere in Freeport and you checked out of your hotel. And I want you to return the cell phone I gave you.”
“We decided to see Nassau while we were here since we haven’t been there before. We stayed there last night. Unfortunately I lost your phone on the ferry trip over. Muffy jerked it out of my hands and it fell overboard. I’ll be happy to pay you for it.”
He grunted and began to cool down. I had figured that the phone had a tracking device in it which is why I had dropped it overboard, and he must already have known that it went overboard between Freeport and Nassau, and he probably had someone check the hotels in Nassau. I had used my real name when I registered at the hotel, so the story I just told him would check out. He suddenly smiled and seemed relieved. He still needed me, and he seemed to want to believe me. After we all got back on the boat, he did have us all checked again for any electronic devices, and this time he even had Muffy’s collar checked as well, but she was now wearing a plain dog collar. Once again we had been lucky that we had the foresight to get rid of the old one.
The following Wednesday was calm and we went out at sunrise to ski. We went due east into the sun and stopped at the prearranged location. After a short period of time, like small dolphins surfacing, two black figures arose from the deep. They had made sure we were between them and the shore. Anya jumped off the back of the boat with her skis to distract anyone who may have been watching, and one of the Seals handed me up a Velcro belt that he had been wearing around his waist on which several waterproof pouches had been attached. The pouches contained our two Glocks and a satellite phone. Within a few seconds, both figures disappeared as if they had never been there.
Anya signaled and I pulled her up on her skis. She skied for a while and then we stopped at about the same location as before. The risk we had taken was like an aphrodisiac and we really enjoyed making that little boat rock. They may even have noticed the extra swaying from the shore, those perverts. Anya strapped the Velcro belt around her waist as we headed to shore, and she put on the burka, which she now wore on a regular basis, before we got there. It turned out to be lucky for us that they had wanted her to wear one since it would have been difficult to conceal the Glocks and the phone otherwise. As I’ve said before, I’d rather be lucky than dead.
When Noorzai asked why we liked to ski so much in the morning, I told him it was because it was cooler in the morning and also more fun than skiing in the evening after a day of work when we were tired. I thought Noorzai had begun trusting us more and more, and maybe he had, but maybe not. Over dinner a few nights after we got back, he mentioned that we had made enough progress to maybe do a test run. I used the opportunity to see if I could get more information so I asked him how far away he could be and still get the drones there and back. He told me about a hundred miles.
“So you can really only reach Florida from here. You’ll need other facilities.”
He was relaxed and maybe his guard slipped or maybe not. He said, “Oh no. What you see here are short-range drones. We have longer-range drones that can reach up the east coast of the U.S. We don’t want to alert anyone of where we are because, as we have found out, the more places we are working, the better the chance we will be discovered. So we will operate from here. It is a very secure location and we don’t think anyone outside of those on the island knows we are here. And even those on the island, like you, don’t know the specific location.”
And then he looked at me, and I could see him weighing to himself if he had said too much too soon, and also perhaps wondering whether I did, somehow, know where we were. He was a very careful man, and that was one of the reasons why he was put in charge. It was obvious to both of us that he had just told me that this was the only location, and I wondered if he had told me because he didn’t think it mattered since he was planning to get rid of Anya and me as soon as they knew they had made a successful run. If that were the case, I thought he would not do so until after the test run in case it didn’t work as well as he wanted, and he would still need my supposed talents until all the bugs were worked out.
The other possibility was, of course, that he was beginning to trust us and wouldn’t get rid of us because the Russians might get upset because he believed we still worked for them or continued to be useful to them. Then again, I realized that if that were the case, he probably had already checked with his Russian counterparts and been told it was okay with them if he wanted to get rid of us. I mean, we hadn’t been any use to the Russians in years. I thought I could detect by the look in Noorzai’s eyes that he had all but decided he had to eliminate us.
Perhaps he had decided that all of the other foreigners had to be eliminated as well, but that all may have been paranoia on my part. Being paranoid is an asset for people like me. I knew we would have to be even more careful going forward than before, and I was happy we now had our Glocks and our satellite phone. We generally left the satellite phone and my Glock in the cabin while we were at work during the day since Muffy was inside when we weren’t there and would not let anyone in, and they were afraid of her. Anya always wore hers, however, since she could easily conceal it on that Velcro belt under her burka.
Chapter 38
The next time we went out water skiing we took the satellite phone, and I used it while lying down in the boat with both Anya and me rocking the boat on purpose since it was visible from shore. I told Ben to plan on destroying the facilities with a drone strike as soon as possible because I expected the test run at any time and I had found out the island was the only location. He said they were already in position, and we should plan to be out on our boat and away from land when it occurred. He set the date for just after dawn the day after the next day.
I called Tom and gave him the coordinates of the island and told him to cruise off shore just over the horizon on that day and wait for us. We went out again the next day in the afternoon, but it was too rough to water ski and we came back after a short time. I then
made a mistake. Because Anya was already strapping the Glocks under her burka, it was a little bulky to also have her transport the satellite phone back and forth. Because we were to make our escape in the boat the next morning and wouldn’t really need it before then, I decided to hide the phone on board. I didn’t think they would be checking the boat whenever we used it after all this time, and it would be safe for one night, but they did check it that evening.
A short while after we got back, Anya put on her burka and took Muffy for a walk on the beach. She said she was getting tired of having to dress that way and was glad it was almost over. She did strap the Glock under her Burka as she had been doing since we got them. We both were feeling a little insecure about our safety, and we were glad that we were once again armed. I went inside with my Glock held under my tee shirt, which I had taken off for that purpose, and changed into shorts that had deep pockets, the right hand one of which I put the Glock in. If you surmised that I am right handed, I say to you, “What perception!” Of course I’m not gonna put it there if I’m left handed. I stepped outside and leaned against the cabin door, which faced the water, and enjoyed the waning sunlight. All of a sudden, around the corner of the cabin came Noorzai, followed by two of the Pakistani guards carrying AK-47s which, when they stopped and Noorzai confronted me, they pointed in my general direction. I noticed that Anya was returning from her walk as they stood there. Noorzai was holding the satellite phone in his hand.
He said, “We found this when we searched the boat. It was in the compartment with the fire extinguisher. It doesn’t happen to be yours, does it?”
“It’s mine.”
“How did you get a hold of this?”
I shrugged and said, “I got tired of being so isolated, so I arranged to get one.”
He immediately became suspicious of who had given it to me since I was searched going and coming from the island, but so was everyone else.
He said, “Who gave it to you?”
I shrugged again and said, “Just like you, I can keep secrets. But since you now have it and I don’t, it really doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Of course it does. There is a traitor in our midst.”
“Or someone who wants to make a little extra money,” I said.
“Did you use it to tell someone where we are?”
“How would I know where we are? We always come in the dark, and you make sure we don’t have any electronic devices.”
“Did you meet someone in Nassau? Did you throw the cell phone away on purpose?”
“Did you put a tap on it?” I countered. “I figured you might have, just as you probably have our cabin bugged which is why we go out all the time. You obviously don’t trust us, and I don’t trust you. I’m just trying to protect myself, and I don’t want to be isolated and at your mercy, so I wanted to have my own communication device.”
I thought to myself as I said this that since he was talking rather than shooting, I just might be able to get out of this crisis.
He started to think about that. As I could see him thinking, Anya walked up with Muffy and assessed the situation quickly. I know Anya loves me, as I do her. She is the kind of person who, if she loves you, will kill you with kindness or, maybe in my case, with a bullet. But that will be her decision, the way she chooses to kill me. But as far as other people are concerned, she is very protective and possessive about those she loves, and she will not let anyone else kill me with kindness or otherwise if she can help it. So she did what any woman in her situation would do for the man she loves, especially if she had her dog on its leash at her side. She dropped the leash and said to Muffy, “Stay.” Then she took out her Glock from underneath the burka and shot the nearest Pakistani holding an AK-47 through the ear, and then she turned and quickly shot the other one, who had turned to face her, through the eye, using two of her favorite targets. Noorzai just stood there in shock with his mouth open. So I said to him,
“Please excuse her. She just thought I was in danger, and it was your fault for giving her that impression.”
Before he could respond, I did what I needed to. I picked up one of the AK-47s and slapped him upside the head with it. He dropped like a stone. I didn’t want him in the way for what was coming. I tossed the other AK-47 to Anya and told her to put Muffy in the cabin. I expected, and she knew, that the other armed guards would be showing up momentarily to see what all the shooting was about. She came out of the cabin without the burka and dressed only in her itsy bitsy teeny weeny camouflage bikini. Although it was made out of camouflage material it didn’t really manage to do a good job of camouflaging very much of her. I motioned her to go around to the other side of the cabin. We are a good team, as I’ve said before, and she knew instantly what the plan was.
Within minutes, the remaining four armed guards came running towards the cabin. I backed up towards the water and down the slight incline where the dunes meet the beach. I knelt down as they got in range with only the upper part of my body exposed. From a kneeling position, I raised both of my hands in the air, but I still held the AK-47 in my left hand as I did so. I wanted them to think I was surrendering so they would come closer without shooting. They naturally thought I had been trying to escape and realized the water would block me, and that I had decided to give up. I know you think it is despicable to pretend to surrender like I did, but these were not nice people. They were planning a mass destruction of Miami, which some may applaud because of its decadent ways, but live and let live, decadently or not, I always say.
Now as I have mentioned before in this narrative, the AK-47 has a natural tendency to ride up on full auto as it is fired rapidly. Since I was only partially exposed and well below their level, I had minimized their ability to hit me. I took my time to aim and began picking my shots just as they passed the cabin. Anya came into action at this point. She stepped out from around the corner of the cabin as they passed her, and we had them in a cross fire. It wasn’t really a fair fight. As two of those men turned towards Anya, their eyes bugged out and they momentarily forgot to pull the triggers on their AK-47s. Maybe they thought they had reached heaven early or at least had a preview of what they hoped to find when they got there. In any case, she took them out pretty easily. The other two didn’t know which way to turn and I finished them off. I’ll give them this. They were brave and went down firing. They were not afraid to die for the cause, and we accommodated them.
Noorzai was still out and I didn’t believe we were in any danger, but I couldn’t be sure. I told Anya to keep an eye on Noorzai because there was something I wanted to do now that I had the chance before some of the others reacted. I started walking towards the laboratory building. Hassan, Noorzai’s assistant, was walking towards me with a concerned look on his face because of all the shooting he had heard. He saw me with the AK-47 in my hands and was uncertain as to why I had it. I intercepted him and told him to come with me. I’m sure he was thinking to himself that if I had an AK-47, Noorzai must know because how else would I have one. And if I shouldn’t have had it, then he had better come with me because I was armed.
In any event, he followed me towards the commercial building and I told him to unlock the gate into the facility, which he kept locked whenever the facility was not in use. He said I wasn’t allowed in there after hours and he had to check with Noorzai. I told him that Noorzai would only tell him it was okay, and if he didn’t believe me and went to ask Noorzai, I would just shoot the lock off the gate anyway and it would be his fault. He unlocked the gate and asked me what I was going to do. I didn’t answer and only told him to walk in front of me to the back of the building. As we turned the corner into the back, the two drones were there. I told him to stand aside.
Then I aimed the AK-47 at the engine of the nearest drone and started firing at it to disable it. He shouted for me to stop and was so upset, he did something he never should have done and which surprised me a lot. He started to pull a revolver out of his pocket. Well you know what happened next. I
did something that all of us, at one time or another, wish we could do when we run across one of these self-important, officious people who delight in telling us what we can and can’t do, when we can and can’t do it, where we can and can’t go, and telling us we’ll have to come back tomorrow or next week. Yes, I blew him away with the AK. Now you can live vicariously through me and have the satisfaction of knowing that at least one of these little weasels of society will be around no more. I used the rest of the clip to destroy the engine on the second drone and went back to see how Anya was doing with Noorzai. I didn’t lock the gate behind me.
I noticed as I walked back towards Anya that one of the burka wearers was standing in front of the other cabin and it looked like she might have had an AK-47 in her hand. I didn’t think that the way Anya was dressed would have any effect on her, or make her hesitate to shoot. In fact it might even have the opposite effect, so I picked up one of the other AK-47s from one of the fallen guards as I got close to our cabin because the one I had been using was now empty. I pointed it towards the burka wearer and she ducked back inside the cabin.
I went into our cabin and picked up one of our duffel bags and went around to each AK-47 next to each of the dead guards and took out the magazines and dropped them into the duffel bag. Anya and I had the two remaining loaded AK-47s. I told Anya to get Muffy and she went into the cabin and came out with Muffy on a leash. By this time Noorzai was coming around, but was still pretty groggy. I helped him up and started moving him towards the dock. I picked up the satellite phone and put it in the duffle bag with the magazines and slung the bag over my shoulder. We didn’t take anything else we had brought to the cabin. We were well off enough to be able to replace everything, and besides, we could also get the government to reimburse us if we wanted to be like other government workers.