Buzzard Bay (58 page)

“Who in hell are you?” the doctor asked.

“Jon didn’t tell you. He brought me over to dismantle Lena’s computers. I got an e-mail to bring Mr. Green a suit. I assume you are Mr. Green,” he said, looking at Bob, “being as you’re the only one in here naked.”

“Hello, Henekie,” a man leaning against the back wall said. “Must be ten years since the last time I saw you. The Sudan I think it was.”

“What are you doing here?” Henekie asked the man he recognized as a mercenary he’d worked with years before.

“I work for the Smyskins now.” The man turned to the doctor, “He’s probably all right. You always were a bit of a geek, weren’t you, Henekie? I’ll go outside and have a look around, just to make sure. Until we’re sure what you’re up to, Henekie, just sit down beside Mr. Green where we can keep an eye on you,” the man told him.

Henekie handed the tux to Bob. “Jon said for you to get dressed. You’re supposed to take him with you when you all go out to the boat,” Henekie told the doctor. The doctor nodded, and Bob began putting on the suit.

“I thought the deal was that my wife would come here where I could see she was all right,” Bob asked.

“Change of plans, Mr. Green, looks like I won’t be able to put you in the shower after all,” the doctor told him. Bob didn’t argue with that.

Henekie turned to the three men sitting together on a couch. “Jon told me you’re from Miami, right?” The men nodded. Henekie showed them the bag in his other hand. “I found this along with a bunch more cocaine over at Lena’s. I’d say it’s pretty high grade stuff, but maybe you could confirm what I think.”

Henekie reached in the briefcase and pulled out a plastic bag. He threw one to the doctor and one to the three men on the couch.

The doctor squinted his eyes, “Where did you say you found this?” he asked as he opened the bag.

uddenly, there was a pop, and white powder covered the doctor, but Bob saw that his face was covered in blood, and both his arms were missing up to the elbows. Then Bob heard a bigger bang, and he looked over to see three men going over the back of the couch just before the room was consumed with white dust. Bob got to his feet trying to remember where the door was when he saw a patch of light appear in front of him.

omething grabbed him by the collar and the seat of his pants and threw him at the patch of light. His head hit something soft, and he heard a grunt as he felt himself land on someone. The air was clear outside the room, and he saw that he was on top of the same man who’d caught him and the girl trying to escape.

The man was trying to reach for his gun that had fallen on the floor. Bob punched him in the face and then caught hold of the man’s arm as he tried to bring his pistol around. Bob wrestled with the man, and the gun went flying. Bob pummeled the man’s face with his fist and then rolled away and picked up the revolver. It was then that he saw that the doctor had Henekie pinned to the wall. He had a knife in his teeth, and it was inches away from Henekie’s throat.

Bob had no qualms; he took the revolver and shot the doctor just as the man on the floor jumped him, and again they wrestled for the gun. Bob felt the gun ripped out of his hands and then heard two shots, the man on top of him went limp and Bob crawled away.

He got to his feet ready to run, but Henekie waved for him to follow, “Come with me, you’ll have the Colombian army to fight if you go that way.” Bob didn’t see much choice but to follow Henekie as he took him through a tunnel and then down a set of steps and finally into what looked like an underground cavern. A black boy appeared out of nowhere.

“Tommy, is that you?” Bob looked at the boy and then at his surroundings in amazement.

“The first time I saw this place I thought I was in heaven,” Tommy told him, “but I’m real, and this place is real, Mr. Green.”

Bob figured this had to be some kind of underground waterway and one hell of a place to hide.

“Is the boat loaded?” Henekie asked.

“Fueled up and ready to go,” Tommy told him.

Bob was still having problems understanding how things worked as they went up through the locks and then out into the open water, but now that he felt the night air hit his face, he had a different set of questions.

“So have I just jumped out of the frying pan into the fire?” he asked Henekie.

“Probably, does my name mean anything to you, Mr. Green?”

“The man back there called you Henekie. The man who tried to kill me was called Henekie. Everyone blames everything on Henekie. Am I supposed to believe that you’re the Henekie?”

“Do you remember a cold snowmobile ride with me on your ass, or a phone call telling you I had your daughter, or the night El Presidente’s ship went down? I can go on, Mr. Green.”

Bob was stunned. “You are the son of a bitch.”

“Yes, Mr. Green. You see, you killed my best friend. You’re the man I went to sleep hating and the man I woke up in the morning planning to kill. Funny us sitting together now, isn’t it?”

“I heard you in the hospital that day. I was pretty well helpless. If ever there was a time to kill me, it was then, why didn’t you?” Bob sounded like he needed to know.

“I couldn’t kill my nemesis while he was lying in a coma, Mr. Green, or maybe I was scared I’d have nothing to get up for in the morning. You see, I was taken in by a pack of wolves and taught to kill to survive. Then one day, the pack was gone, and I thought it was all your fault. As time went on and the farther I followed you, I began to realize you were just a symptom, not the cure. In a way, we were both caught up in something way over our heads, the only difference was that you wanted to get away from it, and I was trying to get my share. In the end, we both ended up here, Mr. Green. The goal is I want Lena and you want your wife. Are you with me?”

“You think they’re in the same place?” Bob wasn’t sure how that could happen.

“That’s what I suspect,” Henekie got up off the seat and moved up to the front of the boat. “Get Novak on the phone.”

“I don’t know his number,” Bob told him.

“Yes, but your son does.”

It seemed to Bob that Henekie knew an awful lot more than he should as his son came on the phone. Rikker was full of questions, but Bob couldn’t answer them now.

“I’m sorry, Rikker, all I can tell you is I’m trying to find your mother. Please patch me through to Novak.”

“Seems you spend a lot of time doing that,” Rikker said as he put him through. Rikker’s sarcasm did not go unnoticed by his father, but this was no time for a family squabble.

Novak sat up in the surveillance tower watching the last of the guests leave the ballroom in the Crystal Palace. Some of his men had gathered with him, congratulating one another on turning a disaster into an orderly exit of guests; many of whom still thought the helicopter crash was the reason they had to leave early. Novak was completely exhausted and looking for a quiet place to relax when his phone rang. He recognized the office number where Rikker had been monitoring his calls in order to keep some semblance to what he had to deal with.

“Job well done, Rikker,” Novak spoke into the phone.

The answer Novak heard made him jump up off his chair. “This is Bob Green.”

“You disappeared on us, Bob. Where are you?”

“I’m on a boat with a man whose main goal in life has been to kill me, but now we are both trying to find July and Lena.”

“Sounds like the story of your life,” Novak told him.

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it? Here’s Henekie, he wants to talk to you.”

“Hello Novak, I need some information.”

“I got your message, and I made the phone call, that’s about all you’re going to get from me,” Novak answered.

“Green thanks you for the call. It’s probably the only reason he’s still alive. If you won’t help me, maybe you’ll help him,” Henekie replied.

“What is it you want?”

“There are a few things you don’t know, Novak. Lena and Mr. Green stole a billion dollars from the cartel’s account and hid it in a U.S. account under the Greens’ name. Smyskin knows where the money went and wants it back. Problem is, the United States won’t give it back to Smyskin, so he has to go through Lena’s bank and the Greens have to sign that her bank put the money in their account by mistake. Smyskin’s going to have them all on the boat tonight to sign the papers and Sir Harry’s delivering the ladies.”

“For fuck’s sake, Henekie, or whoever you are, you can come up with a better story than that. Sir Harry’s had Mrs. Green all week, he’s been protecting her from assholes like you,” Novak stated.

“Okay, if you’re so smart, why did Sir Harry bring her to Horatio’s party?” Henekie spat into the phone. Novak didn’t respond so Henekie continued on.

“I’ll tell you why, because he had to prove to Smyskin that he really did have her. I’m sure he’s getting well paid to keep her away from nosy guys like you, Novak.” Novak had a funny feeling that what this guy was telling him was true. “Something went wrong with their plan, Novak. Why did they take the patrol boat? Wilbur Smith was supposed to take the two women out to Smyskin’s yacht in his helicopter.”

“Okay, Smyskin’s helicopter blew up killing everyone on board, which is probably what you planned. Anyway, I’m confirming it,” Novak told Henekie.

“Did Sir Harry leave after or before the helicopter came down?” Henekie asked. This was not the response Novak had expected.

“After,” Novak replied.

“So Sir Harry knew the Smyskins were dead. Why did he change his plan and take the patrol boat?” Henekie wondered out loud. There was still a lot of shit going on here.

“I suppose he wanted to protect the women.”

“No, he wanted them for something,” Henekie responded. “Sir Harry thinks he can get all the money for himself. That means he’s headed for Lyford Cay where his yacht’s tied up, but then you didn’t even know he had a yacht, did you, Novak?”

Novak overlooked the cynicism. “If you go after Sir Harry, I’m going to try to stop you. I warn you, if you harm any of these people, I’ll hunt you down until you’re dead.”

“For fuck’s sake, Novak, why do you think Sir Harry took you under his wing and put you where you are? It’s because he needed an over efficient, naive young man to do all his work for him. You’re a source, Novak, a source for all the information he needs, so get your fucking head out of your ass and realize you’re working for the man they call the Referee,” then the phone went dead.

Novak’s first reaction was one of anger to be talked to that way, but something Jon Smyskin had said stuck in the back of his mind: “You have to surround yourself with good men don’t you.”

“Do we have anything available to get us over to Lyford Cay?” Novak asked the men around him.

“No, sir. Everything is busy, and traffic still has the road tied up,” one of the officers told him.

“Do we have a jeep of any kind around here?”

“I have one in the parking lot,” another officer told him.

“All right, you three come with me.” The next thing the officers knew, they were hanging on for dear life, as Novak honked his way through traffic over a steel fence and then through the golf course across the street.

Rikker Green listened into the phone conversation and decided that he too would head for Lyford Cay. There was little traffic to impede his motorcycle at this time of the morning, but seeing as he was not familiar with this area of Nassau it took him a little while to find the entrance. When he did find it, it was manned by a guard who didn’t want to let him in. Rikker would not be deterred; he went back up the road then turned around and took a run at the entry, passing through a narrow walkway between the guardhouse and gate at a high rate of speed leaving the guard running for cover.

Once he was into the gated community, he slowed down then stopped on the channel bridge and thought he saw some lights at the other end of the channel. He followed the road until it came to a point where the channel and sea met. There was no sign of anything moving in the channel, but as he turned his bike around, he saw lights down by the water. The lights were behind a high brick wall that appeared to surround a house.

Rikker saw that the wall turned into a chain link fence as it got closer to the water. He decided to take a look and eased his motorcycle down along the brick wall and stopped his bike. He walked the last bit to peer around the wall and there they were; the patrol boat was tied up to a dock, but out farther were the lights of a much bigger boat.

Rikker was trying to work out some kind of plan when something hit the wall near his head. Instantly, he knew someone was shooting at him and dived for the ground as he heard the whine of bullets bouncing around him. He tried to crawl away on his belly, but when he looked back he saw two men closing in on him fast.

Just then, the lights of a vehicle swung around and pointed toward him. Rikker heard the sound of shots and knew the men behind him were shooting at the car lights and watched as the lights quickly retreated behind the front of the brick wall. The two men who had been looking for him seemed to fade back into the darkness, Rikker quickly turned and continued to ease his way back down to the fence.

Novak and his men were stopped on the channel bridge when they heard the shots. They couldn’t locate where they came from until they reached the end of the street and went to turn around. The sound of bullets whining overhead encouaged them to quickly spin in behind a wall for cover. Novak thought he could sneak down along the wall, but there was too much background light, and a hail of bullets chased them back. Their pistols weren’t much good at this range, and it was pretty evident that they were pinned down with no place to go. An orange glow began to appear from inside the wall, and then the crackling of wood burning told them that something substantial was burning inside.

“I’m going to try going down the outside of the wall again,” he told the men and crouching low, he began making his way down toward the water. He drew no fire, and he made good time until he saw someone moving ahead of him. Whoever it was seemed to be stationary near where the wall ended. Novak pulled out his pistol and carefully made his way up behind the man. Novak was right behind him when he recognized him.