“I’ll call my office for permission. I know they’ll agree when I tell them what we have,” Maddie said, pulling out her phone.
“I don’t know,” I began, but then stopped when Galveston gave me the, “I’ll cut your throat” sign with his finger.
“I think it’s a grand idea,” Alex butted in. “She can help you guys investigate this company.” He smiled, fueling the flames of Galveston’s crush.
I cringed at the thought of having to chaperone Galveston in his little love quest. I put my head in my hands and grunted. I was in for a long few days.
Maddie put in a call to her company and got permission to accompany us to Singapore. Galveston decided we needed to leave as soon as possible and discovered a flight was leaving LAX tonight, bound for Singapore.
Maddie excused herself to return home and prepare a bag for the trip. We had only a few hours to spare before we would have to be on the road to catch the flight.
After Maddie left, Galveston sat thinking dreamily, clearly satisfied with his coup.
“We’re going there for business,” I reminded him bluntly, “not so you can have a love connection.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Galveston responded innocently.
“She’s pretty hot, isn’t she?” Alex said to Galveston, pulling up a chair close to him.
“Yeah,” he answered slowly, probably forming her image in his mind.
Alex had a bag of chips, opened them, and crunched loudly. “I thought the same thing when I went out with her,” he said flatly.
Galveston turned his head to Alex and stared. “Excuse me?” he asked.
“Yeah, I went out with her a few years ago. That’s how she knew about us.” Alex continued to crunch on his chips. “It was when I did that small job for her previous company. We hit it off and went out.”
Galveston gasped and then composed himself. “You went out with her once?”
“Well, not just once,” Alex started, thinking to himself as he ate. “It was about three months.”
Galveston was speechless and his face turned red. “You dated her for three months?”
“Yeah, she was a lot of fun,” Alex said, throwing another chip in his mouth.
“And then she dumped you, right?” Galveston asked hopefully.
“Nope, I stopped it with her. We just weren’t compatible. I was seeing a lot of women back then.”
Galveston was appalled. “You dumped her?” he said loudly.
“Yeah. So? What are you getting all frothed up about?”
“I, I,” Galveston stammered. “I can’t believe she dated you.”
“Your world is crumbling,” I added dryly.
“What is so hard to believe about that? I’m quite a catch,” Alex said with confidence.
“Yeah, if you want to catch a bout of vomiting,” Galveston quipped.
“That hurts,” Alex said smiling. “You really do have a thing for her, don’t you? You realize you just met her, right?”
Galveston said nothing and was still processing the thought of Maddie and Alex together. “I don’t have a thing for her,” he replied quietly.
“You do! You do have a thing for her. I thought it was just a phase, but you dig her!” Alex exclaimed, pointing his finger at Galveston.
“I don’t know if I do now. How could she go out with you? Your just so,” Galveston paused, “you know, kind of a cheeseball.”
“She liked me, a lot,” Alex proclaimed. “Deal with it.”
“I think he’s trying to tell you that she was slumming it,” I remarked to Alex, joining the fray.
“No, I’m not saying that,” Galveston replied.
“Then why do you have a problem with it? He’s not interested anymore. Why would you care?”
“I never said I wasn’t still interested. She is looking rather good,” Alex said. “Maybe I would like to ask her out again.”
Galveston‘s vein on his neck was beginning to bulge. Alex was just pushing his buttons now.
“Go for it,” Galveston said dismissively. “I’m not interested anymore.”
“He really doesn’t like you, does he?” I asked Alex.
“He’s always had this problem with me. He’s just intimidated. He knows he could never measure up, and he’s scared.”
“I’m still in the room you know. Now I am going to ask her out,” Galveston said emphatically. “It will be a piece of cake.”
“I’m going to ask her out too,” Alex added, goading Galveston further.
“Maybe I’ll ask her out too,” I said.
“Jane!” the pair yelled in unison.
“Okay, I was just kidding of course. Nobody is bothering this poor woman until after Singapore. Better yet, until after we get this job done. I don’t want any distractions, got it?”
“Yes, boss,” the two men together.
“Now, let’s get going. We don’t have much time to get everything together. Alex, I want you to start tracking the satellite pictures and the possible courses of this ship. Check the reports from other ships in the area and see if they’ve reported anything unusual.”
“Can I do it by slightly illegal means?” Alex asked seriously.
“I didn’t hear that, but yes, by any means necessary,” I told him quickly.
“Dan, get home and get packed. I’ll meet you here in the next hour.”
“Yes, sir,” Galveston answered with a salute.
“I’ll call Maddie and tell her to meet us here. You are dismissed,” I told the pair. “Now I have to explain to Jane where we’re going.”
We broke up our meeting, and I pushed the men out of my office and toward the door. They managed to throw a few more friendly jabs at each other before they waved a goodbye to Jane and left.
I sat down next to Jane‘s desk and sighed.
“How’d it go?” she asked, knowing the answer since she had heard the entire meeting. “I don’t envy you for being in charge of those two children.”
“Can’t we just run away and take a vacation on a Caribbean beach somewhere?” I asked.
“Get going. You have a job to do. I’ll hold down the fort. Call me if you need anything.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I dejectedly answered. I got up, gave her a long kiss on her lips, and left for home to pack my bag for the long trip.
Before I knew it I was bouncing up Interstate Five towards L.A.
-Chapter 21-
Singapore, a tiny island nation, is one of only three city-states in the world. It has a free trade economy, educated workforce, and is the fourth-leading financial center and fifth busiest port in the world. Almost everyone in global trade was doing business there, partly due to its large English speaking population. This is the place where we would begin our search for answers.
After a boring and tedious flight, we arrived in Singapore, and the massive time change was already beginning to affect our faculties.
Galveston appeared to be more annoying than usual, and Maddie seemed completely removed from coherent thought. We desperately needed a good rest period, but there just wasn’t time. We had to keep moving.
I left the energetics to Galveston who seemed to possess the most complete portion of rational thought, which frightened me to no end. I would have to let him take the lead and guide us through this portion of the operation.
“What ya got?” Galveston asked loudly into his phone as we stood outside the airport terminal.
“I did some snooping around, and I have an address for you to check out,” Alex replied on the other end. “It was difficult to find a physical address, and I haven’t been able to raise anyone at the number. It’s just an answering service.”
“That’s pretty fishy in my book. Have you found anything out about the company?”
“Nothing. Their site on the internet says it’s under construction. The funny thing is the site’s address traces to a server here in the U.S.”
“We’ll check out the office and let you know what w
e find. What’s the address?” Galveston listened intently and wrote down the address of Asian Pacifica before he hung up the phone. “Let’s get going,” he announced to Maddie and me as we picked ourselves up off a bench we were on.
I managed to hail a cab, and the driver was easily able to find the non-descript office building of Asian Pacifica near the port.
“Can you stay here,” Galveston asked the driver as he shoved a wad of cash in his hand, “I don’t think we’ll be long.”
Galveston immediately noticed something about the building before I had noted the same; it was virtually abandoned except for some offices of small fishing companies. We walked to the front door and went inside.
It was an old, dilapidated building with a handwritten directory on the wall. Asian Pacifica was scrolled in small letters in office number two. It didn’t take us long to notice that this was not a high-priced operation. The offices were maybe four hundred square feet, and a solid door led to office two.
Galveston tried the door, but it was locked. He knocked rapidly and got no answer at the door.
“Maddie, can you stick your head in one of those other offices and find out if they’ve seen anyone here before?” He pointed to one of the fishing company’s office door.
“Sure, I’ll see what I can find out.” Maddie left and disappeared into one of the offices we had passed. We could see her conversing through a small window with a woman sitting at a desk.
“Keep an eye out,” Galveston said urgently as he pulled out a lock pick set.
“Huh?” I replied, seeing what Galveston intended to do.
He played with the lock and made it open almost immediately. I had turned my head for only a second when he yelled for me to come in. As I arrived in the office, it appeared that whoever had been there had left in a hurry. There was nothing inside but some newspapers and a floor lamp. There was no furniture or any indication of a business named Asian Pacifica. I noticed a few papers that had been pushed under the door and picked them up. They read of a warning of eviction due to non-payment of rent. The earliest read a week and a half ago.
“Looks like they weren’t doing too well with their business,” I commented as I handed Galveston the papers.
“Yeah, there’s nothing here. Something ain’t right in river city.” Galveston knelt down to the carpet and noticed the outline of some desks and rolling chairs. “They haven’t been gone that long, but this isn’t a reputable company. Look at these marks.” Galveston pointed to the floor where the carpet changed to linoleum. “They were dragging out something heavy here, really heavy. There are cuts in the floor from a dolly. It looks like they struggled to get it out. Probably a safe, I bet, something that doesn’t move well. And look at the holes in the ceiling. They had some major electronic wiring going into this room.”
I noticed the holes and a few stranded wires still sticking out that led to ports in the wall for computer connections. I pushed my fingers through a variety of the holes and felt the emptiness of the wall. As I moved from hole to hole and inspected the wires, I noticed something odd. There was a wire perched conspicuously in one corner of the room. I went up on my toes and stretched for the strange wire, grabbing it between my fingers. I pulled it through the wall easily, and as I peered at it, I realized what it was.
“I think we need to get out of here,” I said quickly to Galveston who was still examining the layout of the office.
“Why? Don’t you like wallowing in this lovely place?”
“Not really, look at this.”
Galveston moved toward me, and I showed him the wire.
“That’s not good. I think you’re right, it’s time to leave.” Galveston took the wire from me and gave it a heavy yank, ripping it from the wall and to wherever it was connected. “Get Maddie and get to the car.”
Galveston raced behind me out the office door to the first office where Maddie was still talking a woman there.
“Thank you, ma’am,” he yelled at the woman as he grabbed Maddie’s arm and pulled her out the door.
The woman‘s eyes grew wide and she managed a nervous smile. I gave a friendly wave as I passed since she must have thought we were a bunch of lunatics.
“What’s going on?” Maddie asked forcefully.
“We have to get out of here,” Galveston said as he pulled at her elbow.
Luckily our cab driver had assumed he could get a few more bucks out of us, so he had continued to wait patiently for our return. We jumped in the back of his car awkwardly.
“You got anybody?” Galveston asked me.
“Not yet,” I replied, craning my head in all directions. “Uh-oh, I think I’ve got someone. Ten o’clock.” I pointed to the position of a dark sedan accelerating towards us at a high rate of speed.
“Uh, driver? I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you can get us the hell out of here,” Galveston yelled at the shocked driver as he pointed to the oncoming vehicle.
The driver hesitated and Galveston yelled again. “Drive man, drive!”
Reluctantly the cabbie threw the car into drive and made a U-turn in the middle of the road, still shocked at the sequence of events.
“You need give me more money for this,” he yelled back.
“Okay, two hundred U.S. dollars if you get us out of here and lose that car.”
That number must have hit the cab driver’s goodwill button because we were thrown to the back of our seats as he slammed the accelerator to the floor. We jostled in the back as he quickly made a series of turns. I turned and looked out the back window.
“They’re still on us. You’re going to have to come up with something else,” I yelled to the driver.
He responded by slamming on the brakes, which threw us into the back of the front seats. The driver then wrenched the car to the left, sending us sprawling to the right side of the car, as he raced down a narrow alley.
“I hope they not police,” the taxi driver yelled, as he checked his rearview mirror.
“They’re not police, just people who want to know why we were in that office. Keep going, you’re doing fine,” Galveston praised.
The cabbie screeched around a corner and down another narrow alley. I noticed two figures in the following car. They definitely had driving expertise, because every time the cab made a move the chase car followed. Our cab driver had one trick up his sleeve though; he knew these streets better than the two men in the car.
We plowed onto a main thoroughfare as the pursuers inched closer. All of a sudden our cab driver slammed the brakes again, bounced across the median, and joined the crowd of traffic going the other direction. The pursuit car attempted to follow but had to slow down to miss the oncoming traffic.
This was the break we needed. Our driver took the next corner at high speed, narrowly missing the adjacent cars as he weaved his way through the traffic. He allowed just enough distance from the pursuers until we were out of sight for a few seconds. The cabbie turned the car to the right, and we bounced over another median and into a parking garage. He pulled the car to a stop under the cover of a concrete outcropping.
“You see them?” Galveston asked me anxiously.
“Nothing,” I replied. “I think we lost them. That was close. Good driving, sir,” I told our driver and gave him a friendly pat on the back.
“No one keep up with me in city,” he responded, the sweat gleaming on his forehead. “Now where my money?”
Galveston shoved another wad of cash at the man who counted it carefully.
“Good,” he said flatly. “Now get out.”
“Can’t you just take us to the airport?” Galveston asked politely.
“Out!” The man yelled. “No more, out now!”
“I think he wants us out,” I stated meekly as Maddie nodded her head with wide eyes.
We pushed our way out the door and quickly grabbed our bags from the trunk. The cab driver screeched the tires, leaving us alone in the parking structure.
“I think we’ll have to
find alternate transportation,” I said to Galveston and Maddie.
“What the hell happened back there?” Maddie was finally able to ask.
“Those guys were chasing us,” Galveston joked. Maddie was not amused.
I decided I better fill her in on why the men were chasing us. “We found a pinhole camera in the room.” I pointed to the wire Galveston was still holding in his hands.
“There was probably a proximity switch in the door, too. It went off and alerted them that someone was on the camera,” Galveston added seriously. “We had to get out fast when we found it.”
“I can’t believe it! Who do you think it was?” Maddie inquired as she began to calm down.
“I have no idea. Maybe a government agency, or a private organization. It could be organized crime. Alex needs to see this. He’d know where it came from,” Galveston responded.
“Maddie, what did you find out?”
“The woman said she had seen a few Americans going in and out of that office, but nothing in the last week or so. One day she noticed the trash dumpsters filled with furniture and shredded paper, and they were gone. They hadn’t paid the rent and the management didn’t know where they went.”
“Americans?” I wondered aloud. “What the heck is going on?”
“I think I have another task for Alex; find out where this camera may have come from.”
Galveston began dialing his phone until he got a weary Alex on the other end. He filled Alex in on what had just happened.
“Can you find out what internet traffic may have been coming out of that office? Is that possible?”
“Anything is possible. They had a pretty beefy setup, huh? And they were Americans? I think I can find out what provider they had and trace back the activity, but it’s going to be tricky,” Alex explained. “Give me an hour or two and I’ll call you back.”
“Okay, Alex. Good luck.” Galveston hung up the phone. “If he can find out how these guys were transmitting their information and where, then maybe we can figure out who they were.”
“You said something about a safe in the office, Galveston. What was that about?” I asked.
Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 02 - Peeking Duck Page 10