Buzzard Bay (57 page)

“Perfect,” Henekie told the man. “I’ll take one the same size along with a pair of shoes.”

“Who’s the tux for?” Tommy asked after they left the shop.

“A naked man needs it,” was all Henekie would say.

Novak was pretty satisfied he’d done everything possible to be ready for this evening. Already some of the dignitaries were arriving, these were people who had arranged private meetings before the main event started, and some just didn’t want to wait in line. He made one last pass outside and then went to get dressed. The hotel always had dressing rooms set aside for its staff.

He was completely dressed and about to leave when he felt the package in his pocket. He fished out something wrapped in plastic and opened it. He recognized the necklace immediately; streams of memory passed through his mind as he remembered the tears that had been shed over this necklace, his own included as he pried the tiny piece of the necklace from a dead Mountie’s hand. He looked around.

“How in hell did this get in here?” he asked himself. Novak opened the piece of paper with it. “When Sir Harry leaves with Mrs. Green and Lena, have someone give him the message that he is not to go to the embassy but directly to Smyskin’s boat. Next, phone this number and ask to speak to the doctor. Tell him they are not to hurt Green and to take him with them to Jon Smyskin’s yacht. I sent the necklace to show this is not a hoax. Beware, Mr. Novak, keep your troops around you as all hell is about to break loose.” Novak knew that whoever sent him this message was sincere; the necklace was something that would not be given up lightly.

Novak had been hearing reports of trouble in the city center, and this evening he had to send some of his men to help out. Jon Smyskin certainly knew how to put a damper on a party. Novak did not take this warning lightly; there’d be no more of his men leave the hotel tonight no matter who the request came from. He checked the back side of the hotel and was told the helicopters were coming in on schedule. Then he made his way out front to watch the limos as they dropped off their passengers and then were whisked away to the parking lots. Across the street he noticed some protesters, but that was to be expected at an event like this.

He took a deep breath; so far so good, he thought as he went up to the surveillance room where he could get an overall view of the proceedings.

“Hear you’ve got some trouble up town,” Wilbur Smith said to him as he entered the room.

“I imagine you’d be upset too if you were one of the people who just got laid off,” Novak answered. “I’ve got a strange feeling Smyskin knew what he was doing when he picked the day before Horatio’s party to make his announcement. After all, El Presidente was his father. I see Smyskin’s supposed to escort Lena to the party tonight. I doubt either of them will show up.”

“Well, looks like everything’s under control up here,” Wilbur told everyone in the room. “I’m going to go down and mingle.”

Novak waited for him to leave the room. “When you see Sir Harry leave the hotel tonight, give me a call and make sure you know who he leaves with, would you?”

“Yes, sir,” one of the men said, “but speak of the devil, you should see who just walked in.” Novak went over to the screen.

“Who in hell is that with Sir Harry?” one of the men whistled. There wasn’t a man in the place who hadn’t stopped to watch her come into the ballroom.

“That’s July Green,” Novak hated that he sounded like he was bragging that he knew her. “Cut it out, you guys,” he chided as they zoomed in on her low-cut dress.

“Holy shit, here comes another one.” The screens moved back to the doorway where Lena stood draped on the arm of Jon Smyskin. Now Novak was worried. There had to be a good reason for him to bring Lena here.

Just then, Novak got a call from his sergeant in front of the hotel. “There’s a crowd building out front, sir, and they’re getting aggressive.”

“I’ll be right down,” Novak told him.

As soon as Novak saw the size of the crowd forming across the street, he knew they could be in trouble. He phoned headquarters to see if they had put up roadblocks to stop people getting out to the hotel. Headquarters told him they had tried, but there were too many people headed out that way to be effective.

“Are the helicopters in the air?” Novak asked.

“All of them,” was the answer.

“Okay, send one of them our way. I’ll make sure the deck is clear for him. We have to get the prime minister out of here.”

He went inside and was happy to see that the guests were still calm, obviously unaware of what was happening outside. The prime minister’s chair beside Horatio at the head table was empty. Novak saw two of his men standing in front of the door off to one side of the main ballroom; he brushed by them and into the room. Inside, he saw the prime minister and Jon Smyskin in a heated discussion.

“Ah, good, I’ve caught the two of you together. Mr. Prime Minister, it is imperative that you leave here immediately.”

“What’s the problem, Novak?” The prime minister sounded annoyed.

“There is a mob forming outside, and I don’t think we can hold them. I’m hoping if we send you and Mr. Smyskin out of here and let them know you’re leaving, the crowd might back off,” Novak told the two men. “Your helicopter will be landing in about ten minutes, sir.”

He turned to Jon Smyskin, saying, “You’ll have ten minutes after that to get your helicopter in and out, or you’ll have to wait and take your turn with the rest of them. If you don’t get out now, I can’t guarantee either of your lives.”

“Damn it, Smyskin, I knew this would happen,” the prime minister said angrily.

“You’ll have to continue your conversation later, sir,” Novak told him. “Get yourself and your wife out back to the pool deck and take Horatio and his wife with you. If the crowd breaks through our line, we’ll have to open fire on them, and neither of you want to be here if that happens.”

The doctor took Jon’s call. “Tell Julio to get his mother on the helicopter and get down here. I have to leave the hotel in the next fifteen minutes. There’s a mob outside the hotel, and they’re about to storm the place.”

“Then your plan is working?” the doctor quietly asked.

“Too damned good,” Jon confirmed.

“Hey, Julio, Jon wants you down at the hotel. Get your mother and go right now.”

“I haven’t got the entire luggage on board yet,” Julio complained.

“Just do as you’re told,” the doctor told him. “We’ll take the rest of it when the chopper comes back for me.”

Julio went and got his mother and loaded her onto the helicopter. “Bring my bag with you when you come Julio,” she told him.

“Ya, ya, I’ll get it mother.”

Julio had been hitting the coke pretty hard. Right now he couldn’t remember where he’d put the doctor’s bag. “But fuck it,” he thought, “I know I put it in that room with him somewhere and that’s all that matters. Anyway, this would be the last time he’d have to take orders from that asshole.”

Novak stood on the pool deck watching the prime minister’s helicopter leave and Smyskin’s come in.

“Did you plan this?” Novak asked Jon.

myskin continued to look out into the night air. “Business is business, but to be at the top of your business, you have to have power. It takes power to bring a country to its knees, Mr. Novak, and the Bahamas had to be shown who is boss.You’ll be surprised at how good this will be for my business.”

Novak shrugged. “I guess it’s good to have a goal in life.”

Jon smiled, “I didn’t make these decisions by myself. “You have to surround yourself with good people, don’t you?”

Novak wasn’t sure what the hell he meant by that. “Make sure you fly up over the front of the hotel so the crowd can see you leaving, and remember there are other choppers right behind you,” he told Jon’s pilot. Novak closed the door and watched them lift away. He hurried out to the front of the building to see if the crowd cooled off on hearing and seeing the main reason for their anger leaving.

Julio pulled the signaling device from his shirt pocket making sure no one saw him. His man had told him the higher he was, the better the signal would be, so he waited until they were up over the hotel.

“What are you laughing about, Julio?” his mother asked.

“I’m just happy to be here with you, Mother,” he said as he pushed the button.

Novak’s mouth opened in awe. The helicopter blew apart before his eyes. A cloud of dust appeared, and out of the cloud came four burning bodies all travelling straight sideways in different directions then plunged to the ground. Bits of debris seemed to scatter in the air before it began to descend. The part that fascinated Novak was that the rotor blades kept spinning and gaining altitude until they too succumbed to gravity and fell to earth.

Novak looked down to see where just seconds ago the braver ones in the crowd had begun making contact with the police line. Now everyone was scattering including his own men, trying to get out of the way of the hot steel raining down from the sky. People began rushing out of the hotel to see what had happened. Novak’s instinct quickly told him that now his problem lay within.

He gathered some men and blocked the entrances then took the bullhorn and began telling the guests not to panic. “A helicopter has crashed outside. Please remain inside while we help the injured people, and then we shall begin letting you go in an orderly fashion.”

He gave the bullhorn to one of his men and headed back outside. It was amazing; the crowd had evaporated. A few agitators were in the street trying to rally the troops, but Novak had his men put a stop to that. For the first time all night, he stopped and rested, leaning against a post by the front door, and then a call came over his radio.

“You said to call when Sir Harry left, Mr. Novak.”

“Oh yes, I did,” Novak answered.

“He just left with Mrs. Green, the woman called Lena, and our boss,” the man in the surveillance room told him.

“How in hell did he get out of here?” Novak wanted to know.

“He took the patrol boat parked out back,” the man told him. “Trust Sir Harry to look after himself.” But now what; did he follow the instructions on the message or ignore them?

“You mean they were all on the helicopter,” Wilbur Smith exclaimed on hearing who was involved in the crash. “Now what?”

“I think we should grab Lena and July and get them out of here,” Sir Harry told him.

“Might take a while,” Wilbur answered. “My helicopter is caught up in the queue, and it wouldn’t look good if I tried to get priority.”

Just then two security guards brought Lena and July out to where the two men were standing. “Things have gotten pretty unstable out front of the hotel,” Sir Harry told them. “For security reasons, I want you ladies to come with us.” Sir Harry led them to a boat docked nearby. “I confiscated this patrol boat. I’m sorry about the accommodations, but it was the best I could do for the moment.”

The men helped the two women aboard, and Sir Harry guided the boat out into open water. The two women were staying calm and distant to one another.

Wilbur decided there wasn’t going to be a catfight, so he joined Sir Harry up in the cockpit. “The girls seem to be staying out of each other’s way, so I thought I’d come up and see what you were thinking,” Wilbur told him.

“Out of tragedy rises opportunity. Since there are no Smyskins left, that leaves a billion dollars up for grabs, wouldn’t you think?”

“Well, there is Lena and the U.S. government who might have some interest, not to mention the doctor,” Wilbur warned.

“Look, said Sir Harry, “we know there is a banker being wined and dined on Smyskin’s yacht, waiting for Lena and the Greens to sign the document releasing the money. We have two-thirds of the signers with us. The doctor has the other signer. He needs a bargaining chip to get out of the Bahamas because I don’t think the Colombian government will help a man of his character. So if we guarantee his safe return to Colombia for Green, I think the doctor might be quite interested.”

“I don’t know,” Wilbur sounded worried. “He’s got the Miami mob there with him, and he is fucking crazy. Maybe he’ll kill Green before we can get to him.”

“No, the doctor won’t do anything until Smyskin tells him to. Once he finds out that’s not going to happen, he’ll realize Green is the only bargaining chip he’s got,” Sir Harry surmised. “Let’s go and take my boat out close to Smyskin’s. We can negotiate from there.”

Lena and July sat silently in the cabin. Finally, Lena broke the silence. “I think your husband is still alive, Mrs. Green.”

“You’ve seen him, Lena?” There was a sense of urgency in July’s voice.

“I haven’t seen him for a couple of days, but I know someone who saw him very recently.”

“Thank you,” July answered, “that means a lot to me, but why was he where you were?”

“Let’s just say he was forced into it. His chances of getting out of where he is are slim and none, but he’s a very resourceful man, so who knows?”

“How can I get to him, Lena, he’s my life?”

“Did you know you have a billion dollars in your American account, Mrs. Green?”

July almost laughed, “Did he try to buy his way out of trouble?”

“I’m not kidding, Mrs. Green. Your man and I stole the money from the Smyskin family and put it in your account.”

“Why in hell’s name would you do that?” July wondered.

“At the time, it was in desperation, now it’s a bargaining chip.” Lena saw Wilbur come into the cabin and signaled July to be quiet. “Don’t sign anything until you know your husband is safe,” she whispered.

Henekie was getting nervous; everything depended on Novak’s call, and so far that hadn’t happened. He had been hiding in the garage listening to what the doctor and the Miami guys were talking about, but if Novak didn’t phone soon Smyskin would be back, and that would be the end of his plan.

Finally, the phone rang; Henekie listened as the doctor said, “Yes, Mr. Novak, this is the doctor. Okay, we won’t do anything till we hear from Jon.”

Henekie squared his shoulders and walked into the room carrying a bag in one hand and a tux in the other. “Hello, gentlemen,” he said. Everyone in the room looked startled.