by Beth Abbott
“Not too shabby.” She conceded.
“Ok, I’d better get back to Orlov in the waiting area.” Drago murmured. “I just darted into the men’s toilet to make the call. Luckily, there’s only one cubicle, or my shadow would’ve come in here with me as well.”
“Ok, I’ll speak to you later.” Hannah agreed. “Call me to let me know when you’ve made contact with Micky Kozlova.”
“Will do.”
The line went dead and Hannah placed her phone on the desk.
“Drago and Abram are there to meet the flight, but it sounds like Orlov, the guy who set up the meet with Lebedev, has bummed a ride to the ship.” She explained. “Drago has already told him he can’t get on as part of our team as we already have our quota of men, but he claims to have a Polish friend already on the ship. He seems to think Lebedev will allow him on board.”
Tuck nodded.
“Does that cause Drago any problems.” He asked.
“He seems confident he can convince Lebedev that Orlov being there is nothing to do with him.” Hannah shrugged. “From the minute they get to the ship I think he’s going to let Orlov fend for himself.”
“Probably for the best.” Tuck sat down.
Hannah picked up her phone and set it down next to her laptop, moving her pen so it was lined up at right angles to it, with her coffee mug due north of the pen.
When she looked up at Tuck he was watching her carefully, with half a smile on his face.
“What?” She stopped fiddling and looked at him.
“Care to share whatever it is that’s on your mind?” He invited. “Because something is bringing out the twitchy in you, and it’s going to drive you nuts if you don’t spit it out.”
“Do you think we’re doing the right thing? Sending the guys into this sort of environment, knowing they’re likely to get hurt?” She sat back and frowned. “Was I right to agree that we ask Zach to go? He’s not a Guardian, and he’s got a family.”
Tuck sat forward.
“Firstly, it was my call to get Zach involved, and for what it’s worth, this is the sort of thing he will have no problem with.” Tuck shouldered the blame in one sentence, but somehow, Hannah didn’t really feel absolved. “As for him having a family, we brought the guys into the team initially because they were unattached, but it was never going to be a rule that they had to stay that way. Hell, look at Hollywood! A more devout bachelor you could never have found, and less than a month later, he’s got himself a woman he adores, and is being a daddy to her kid! We’re not exactly rushing to kick him out of the Guardians now, are we?”
“No, I guess not.” Hannah mumbled.
“This is all to do with Sacha being upset, isn’t it?” He guessed. “It’s brought it home to you what the repercussions would be if anything happened to Zach.”
Hannah stared at Tuck for a few moments, wondering how he came to be so perceptive.
“I think it’s because she’s the only wife watching her husband go off to war, so to speak.” Hannah sighed. “In the past, there have always been a bunch of us women in the same situation, watching our men go off on missions together. But this time, I get to keep my husband home with me, as does Candy, as does Alice, Ellen, Abbey and the rest of the wives. It doesn’t seem fair that Sacha’s the only wife potentially making a sacrifice.”
“Nobody is making a sacrifice, Hannah.” Tuck sounded confident enough that Hannah almost believed him. “Zach is just doing what he was trained to do by the military. In fact, if anything, this will be a walk in the park. At least we’ve no reason to believe anyone will be shooting at him on this mission.”
“I guess.” Hannah gave herself a mental shake. “Either way, all we can do at this end is have everything ready to relieve Lebedev of his money as soon as the opportunity arises.”
“Will that be during the weekend’s activities, or after Drago returns to Moscow?” Tuck asked.
“That entirely depends on Lebedev.” Hannah shrugged. “If the team win all their fights, and Sergei decides to do business with Drago on Sunday, we’re hoping he’ll agree to hand over the weapons the same night. Alternatively, he may just ask for a payment on account before they leave the ship, which will suit us down to the ground. Even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t hurt Drago to actually offer him a deposit, once Lebedev confirms the deal is on. It could be seen as a good faith payment.”
“Is that all you need to get you into Lebedev’s accounts?” Tuck frowned. “It kinda makes me worry how safe my own bank accounts are.”
Hannah grinned at him.
“There are probably only a handful of people in the world who can do the kind of stuff I can do.” She explained. “And believe it or not, even if we were all bad guys, there are still a million ways to make a ton of cash without having to go through the banking system.”
“So, are you going into the accounts the way you did when we went after Baron?” Tuck asked, obviously remembering the dozens of laptops they used for the purpose of clearing out all of the accounts at once.
“Sadly, we can’t do it that way this time around.” Hannah shook her head. “Last time we did it, if you remember, Abbey had all of Baron’s account numbers and passwords. This time around we have to use a different method. We’re using Peter.”
Tuck smiled at her.
“Ok, I’ll bite… Who is Peter?”
Hannah struggled not to grin.
“When I was creating the two new programmes, Adam was sitting in the kitchen with me, and he kept asking me what I was doing.” She explained. “I explained that I was creating one new programme to dig into people’s finances, and another to find the connection between various accounts. I described them to him as a mole and a worm, to make them a bit more understandable, so, of course, Adam had to name them.”
“So, you have a mole programme called Peter?” Tuck chuckled. “Do I want to know what your worm programme is called?”
“Well, Peter is actually Peter Pan.” Hannah grinned, unable to stop herself. “Therefore, it stands to reason that the worm had to be called Captain Hook.”
“No Tinkerbell?” Tuck snorted.
“You may scoff. At least they’re half-sensible.” Hannah laughed. “I have two goldfish named Bedknobs and Broomsticks. You can blame Danny, of course. My husband loves to watch old Disney movies with the kids when he’s got some free time, and Adam loves to sit with his daddy. I don’t know how many times they’ve watched Jungle Book.”
Tuck shook his head.
“I’m surprised Danny doesn’t have him watching action movies.” He smiled.
“Danny is surprisingly adamant that the kids stay kids for as long as possible.” Hannah shrugged. “He does as much stuff with them as he can to keep them away from social media and games consoles. He plays football with Adam, takes the girls bowling, and just chills with them. Of course, it does help that he’s a big kid himself.”
“Has he recovered from being barred from this operation?” Tuck asked.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Hannah laughed. “I won’t tell you what I had to do to help him get over the disappointment, because Danny’s never one to miss an opportunity to use a little emotional blackmail. But let’s just say it involved a game of Twister, we were naked, and it was completely dark! For two days afterwards, Rose kept asking me why the Twister mat smelled like mummy’s cleaning wipes!”
“I really don’t need to hear the details.” Tuck waved her away with a grin.
“Knock-knock. Can I interrupt?” Abbey’s voice came from the door.
“Sure, come on in.” Hannah smiled. “What can I do for you?”
“I just wanted to let you know that our guy came through for us at the docks.” Abbey smiled. “We have cameras set up watching people exiting the customs house once they’ve gone through passport control, and also at the gangplank or whatever you call it, to board the ship. We’ve got two angles on both, so we should have no problem with facial recognition. We should be able to identify ever
yone already in Interpol’s systems, and any we don’t get through criminal records, I’ll go through with Drago when he gets back. Everything is being recorded, so there’s no rush.”
“That’s great.” Tuck smiled. “It sounds like we’re milking the operation to get every last scrap of intel out of it.”
“This kind of stuff may not help us, but there may be other law enforcement teams looking at the other people on board for whom this shit will be gold-dust.” Hannah nodded. “We’ll pass on everything we get to Interpol.”
“I just wanted to know where we’re setting up for tonight.” Abbey asked Hannah. “Are we working out of the office?”
“I’ve got everything set up at my place.” Hannah confirmed. “It’s entirely up to you whether you want to come over or follow the progress at home via your tablet.”
“I’ll come to you, I think.” Abbey confirmed. “I don’t have the same set-up as you, and I’d rather be with you in case you need a second pair of hands.”
“Ok. That’s great.” Hannah nodded. “Jordan and the kiddos are welcome to stay over as well. I’ve still got a spare bedroom, even with Sacha and Rocco staying, and a playpen that can double up as a travel cot.”
“Is it Ok for Candy and me to come over with JT?” Tuck asked.
“Sure. I was expecting you guys anyway.” Hannah smiled.
“So, what do we do for the rest of the day?” Tuck glanced between the two women.
“Well, Abbey and I will be monitoring the feed on the docks, and waiting for the guys to check in.” Hannah explained. “Abbey can head home early this afternoon for some rest before coming over to my place, and I’ll hand everything over to the boys in the Hub to monitor while I drive home around four o’clock. I should be back online by five. That will be seven o’clock where the guys are, and I don’t think much will happen before say, eight or nine o’clock local time.”
“Do you need us to bring food with us?” Tuck offered. “We could be with you for quite a few hours.”
“Are you kidding me?” Hannah snorted. “Ever since I told her what was going on this weekend, CJ’s been planning menus. I think she’s bought enough food to feed an army for a week, and she’s roped Thomas in to help with the cooking.”
“Then I look forward to visiting.” Tuck rubbed his stomach in anticipation. “There’s nothing like southern home-cooked food, and your mom’s chicken is the best I’ve tasted.”
“Yeah, well, three days of her home-cooking while sitting in front of a screen barely moving, and I’ll need to spend a week in the gym to lose all the extra weight I’m gonna gain.” Hannah scowled.
“I’m sure Danny can come up with some inventive ways to help you burn off those extra calories.” Abbey snorted a laugh as she headed towards the door. “Oops, did I say that out loud?”
“Yes, you did!” Hannah called after her, smiling.
She wasn’t wrong though!
Chapter 25 – Kellen
As they made their way toward the ship, Kellen turned back to see Drago’s contact, Orlov, still arguing with the officer on the dock.
Drago had warned him that they wouldn’t vouch for him, but the look on Orlov’s face as they’d walked away clearly showed that he hadn’t quite believed them.
It wasn’t Drago’s fault that neither Lebedev or the Polish team had showed up yet.
As they boarded the vessel, Kellen was impressed with how massive it was.
He’d been on a few ships in his time, mostly navy, and while they were pretty big, this thing was twice the size, and it wasn’t even the biggest vessel he’d seen in port.
His first surprise had been when they’d been greeted at the docks by several men, all speaking different languages.
They were an international crew, the first officer explained to them, so they could be allocated a crew member to show them around, who was fluent in their preferred language.
When they asked for someone who spoke English, they were directed to a young man in his twenties, who introduced himself as Alan.
“This is what they call a Handymax size vessel.” The crewman explained to them as they were led up some steps. “We carry an average of forty to fifty thousand tonnes of cargo on each trip. We could’ve carried more, but the aft hold has been leased semi-permanently, and converted to the client’s specifications, so we have to make sure we balance the cargo weight evenly.”
Kellen glanced at Drago, wondering if he knew what was meant by ‘client’s specifications’, but the Russian shook his head. Obviously, this was a new experience for both of them.
“If you look to your left, you can view the middle of the three holds, and as can be seen, it’s pretty much full of containers.” He explained. “We have a cargo today which includes a number of vehicles, and many industrial shipping containers coming from our factories, carrying agricultural machinery and electrical goods.”
Alan led them further along the ship.
“This hold contains everything your associate has requested.” He pointed out. “A permanent structure which includes living accommodation, an entertainment area, and kitchen. Plus, there is space for him to include as many containers as he wants to add.”
Kellen glanced down to see there were only about eighty containers, whereas the other hold had contained several hundred.
“Is that all?” He murmured to Zach.
“Lebedev isn’t known to be an exporter, is he?” Zach frowned. “I’m guessing that some of them will contain the weapons he’s shipping to West Africa. Others may even be empty. Just for show.”
“Is that everything our associate is exporting?” Kellen turned to Alan.
“I believe so.” He nodded. “Almost everything was loaded yesterday ready for the voyage, except for that one container, which was loaded this morning.”
Kellen looked to where the man was pointing and noticed a single container, slightly apart from the rest, with what looked like woodworm in the top.
“Airholes.” Drago muttered. “The trafficked women will be in there.”
“Gentlemen, if you’d like to follow me, I’ll show you to your quarters.” Alan led the way through a doorway to a covered stairwell. “This is the main stairwell you’ll use to get from the deck to the lower levels and the hold. This will be your exit route, if for any reason we should need to evacuate the ship, as the lifeboats can be accessed from here. All the details you need regarding lifeboat evacuation are in your cabins.”
The men looked around them, noticing the lifeboats on either side of the ship.
Alan led them down several flights of stairs, until they were level with the bottom containers. They stepped into the open air, and then through another door that took them inside the purpose built two-storey structure.
“The entertainment area is on this level, with the sleeping accommodation above.” He explained. “I’ll take you there first, so you can stow your gear, and then bring you back down so you can take a look around.”
“Can you access those stairs without coming down from the sleeping area?” Kellen asked. “Like in the event of an evacuation?”
“At the end of the corridor, there’s a door that looks like a hatch, with a wheel-lock.” Alan explained. “It’s an emergency exit. If you open that, there’s a ladder which takes you down into the hold, so you can exit via the main staircase. But please don’t concern yourselves. Ships of this size rarely capsize or sink.”
“What about fires?” Zach asked, looking around for fire extinguishers.
“There’s a complete fire-safety system on board, depending which part of the ship you’re on.” The crewman explained confidently. “This part of the ship has sprinklers, and others have sealed areas where the oxygen is sucked out to kill any flames. You’ll be perfectly safe.”
“It sounds like it.” Drago smiled at Alan. “Excuse all the questions. My guys are just safety freaks.”
“Is everyone else on board already?” Kris asked, climbing the stairs behind the crewman.
“You’re the third team to arrive.” He nodded. “We’re just waiting for one more team, and, of course, Mr Lebedev and his guests, who are expected in the next hour, and then we can be on our way. We have to leave by two o’clock because of the tides.”
Kellen and the men followed him single-file as he led them down a long, narrow corridor with rooms on either side.
“The cabins at this end are for Mr Lebedev and his guests, and then in the middle section are the cabins for the teams.” He explained. “Mr Lebedev’s assistant has, I believe, selected the cabin at the far end. The unoccupied cabins are the ones with open doors.”
“Is everyone accommodated on this level?” Kellen asked.
“No, not everyone.” Alan explained. “Mr Lebedev’s staff have a large crew-room on the lower level, and there’s a room set aside for the hostesses Mr Lebedev brings from his casino. They’re both large dormitory type cabins with their own bathroom and kitchen facilities.”
Kellen glanced at Zach.
“Obviously the hostesses provide a slightly different form of entertainment than we’re providing.” He guessed.
“Here is your team cabin. Number twelve.” Alan announced, and then stood back while Zach, Kellen, Abram and Kris walked into the room.
There were two sets of bunkbeds, but Kellen quickly noticed with some relief that they weren’t narrow. They would be the same width as a standard double back home.
“You have individual lockers for your gear, a kettle and fridge, and of course, a private bathroom.” The man smiled, looking around at the comfortable room. “You each have a key-card to access the room.”
“Where is your cabin?” Kris turned to Drago, pocketing a key-card.
“You are Mr Lebedev’s guest? Mr…?” The crewman looked at his cabin list.
“Drago. No mister, just Drago.” The big Russian smiled.
“Ah, yes Mr…ah, Drago.” Alan blushed slightly. “Your cabin is this way.”
Drago followed him back in the direction they’d come from until they reached cabin number four.
“You should find this satisfactory.” He stepped aside to let Drago enter.