Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (5 page)

“
Yeah.
Fernando Salamas. He killed Santos.”

“
I would
imagine that is the train of events. He is very possibly ordered to
kill you if you seem to be getting too near the truth.”

“
I need
more information. I can’t do anything if all I know is Taylor is
part of it.”

“
Taylor
is an idiot. He thinks he’s making a deal where he gets some
millions of dollars. He will get dead should he fulfill the
obligation he thinks he has entered into. These people want no
trail for anyone to follow. They have made a terrible mistake in
getting you involved and know it. Now they fear you will have left
something somewhere that will implicate them. Had they not been
introduced to that possibility they would have eliminated you from
the first, not delayed you. There is another place where you are
known that has them very afraid. I do not know where that place is
or why they so fear you.”

“
Thanks.”

“
It would
be wise for you to actually leave something that would indicate you
know much more than is truth. Preferably where they can get a copy.
It can suggest far more than you know. Mention Niklev, Feinberg,
Ghenkof, and Fandrev. Those names will strike a mutual fear into
them. They will have to tread very carefully down any path where
those names might be revealed. It will guarantee that they will do
little more than try to intimidate you until they have the mis ...
shipment. You need only leave the names somewhere. Do not try to
build a scenario with them doing anything. It would show that you
know little or nothing.”

“
Yeah. I
really don’t know anything.”

“
You are
far safer not knowing.”

“
Not my
nature. I’ll dig into it, but just to the extent it affects people
here. Their worst mistake with me was bringing the Indios into it.
Me? Who cares. My friends? I’ll never let it go.”

“
Yes. I
agree. I was most surprised to find that you are Ngobe
Bugle.”

“
They’re
my people.”

“
Yes. You
have made them so. I respect that more than you can know. I must
go.” He hung up. Clint sat back to think, then made a list of
people and what he’d learned. He added a few more to make them
wonder what the hell he was doing. Turn about’s fair
play!

He put the four names Armakov gave him into
the list that he was supposedly checking on through the internet.
They were at separate points and he put a question mark after each.
They’d also have to wonder why the names were in those
positions.

He slightly crumpled and smudged the papers
so they’d look used and dropped the notes into his backpack.

He decided, seeing he was here, he would
spend the rest of the day and the night there.

He went back into David just before noon and
checked into the Costa Rica. Now that he knew he could spot the one
besides Armakov’s man so would make it easy for him to find the
note. He put the backpack in his room and went to lunch at the
Hotel Alcala’. They had better than average meals moderately
priced.

He walked around a bit, greeting people, then
went back to the pension. The little traps he set showed that his
backpack had been searched.

Now he had a bit of a weird dilemma. The
other follower had followed him to the Alcala’ hotel. Armakov’s man
didn’t unless he was better at it than Clint believed.

Something else to consider. Clint laid on the
bed to think. A grin slowly moved across his face.

He had kept Armakov’s cel number. He never
got rid of one. It took about ten minutes to find it, then he
called.

“
Yes, Mr.
Faraday? – and how did you get this number?”

“
He did.
You gave it to me two years ago in the golf club.”

Armakov laughed. “So you figured all along
that I was trying to find the leak there. Eladio Camacho, my good
loyal man.”

“
Yeah.
You wouldn’t have to call me if you knew where they got what you
said about me.”

“
You’re
very sharp, Mr. Faraday. I am highly impressed. You had me
believing I had you fooled about my true aim. I assure you, I also
meant to warn you, even though I felt it would not be necessary to
do so.

“
There
will soon be another there to follow you.”

“
Not
needed. I can take care of myself. Right about now they’re
wondering what I found about the names on the internet. I made it
look like a list several days old and put information about all of
the people except those four on the list with some references to
search engines I use. All I put by those names – and I spread them
through the list – was a question mark.”

“
So they
will wonder how you found the names and what you may have learned
since the list was written. I am again impressed. They will spend
inordinate time trying to find their own leaks. I hope you didn’t
put any names that do not deserve the attentions of those
people.

“
Call me
Vasily. May I call you Clint?”

“
Of
course. I’m surprised you didn’t from the first.”

They talked for a couple more minutes about
good restaurants, then Clint rung off.

What now? Wait? Or actually see what he could
learn about those names?

He called Manny.

Who Are These
People?

Manny said he could figure who Feinberg was,
and maybe Ghenkof. He’d see if there was any information out that
might tie them into anything other than the regular rackets. He
called Judi, but there wasn’t anything new to report. It seemed
that Nando was gone. Sergio had word out that he needed to have a
heart-to-heart with the man. Besides which, Clint was gone off into
the sunset somewhere.

He borrowed Bob’s laptop and went on the
wireless internet. He checked his e-mail and such, then started
looking for the names.

The trouble with that kind of search, where
he only had part of the name, was that the comp came up with
hundreds of Niklev, fifty or so Ghenkof and fifty or so Fandrev. It
came up with more than a thousand Feinberg. Clint knew that search
would be as much as hopeless. He could only read through to see if
anything clicked.

He spent about two hours on it, then went out
to walk around town. Not much new was going on. David is a
laid-back city that is more like a large town. People would stop to
chat and trade gossip, seldom mean. While he was wandering he went
to the bazaar strip and bought new underwear and supplies along
with some light shirts and other clothing that was about a third of
the price the same thing cost in Bocas Town.

Manny called and said there wasn’t much about
his people, but that Feinberg was getting very cozy with some big
arms dealers in the Far East. He seemed very interested in guided
missiles.

Clint remembered what Vasily almost said. It
connected, in a way. What the HELL did Panamá have to do with it?
They sure as sunset didn’t ship any missiles from Chiriqui Grande
or Bocas del Toro or anywhere else in Panamá! He didn’t even know
where to begin.

Okay. Financing was all it could be. They
were smuggling something out of Panamá. What? It wasn’t drugs. That
wouldn’t be handled in that area. It would more likely come from
Colombia in bulk. What was in Panamá that would turn that kind of
money?

There were a few mines for silver and lead.
There was some zinc. Not enough to finance anything vaguely like
what was needed to buy a missile. Gold was 99% a scam. There just
wasn’t that much on that order here. What oil was here couldn’t be
smuggled anywhere. How do you smuggle ten million barrels of
oil?

If you had a ton of silver and John Doe had
ten tons of lead and Mary Smith had fifty pounds of gold ... it
still wasn’t anywhere close to what they needed. What could there
be that would finance something like this?

He decided to call his weird musician friend,
Dave. Dave said the only thing it could be is money. Panamá is
world-famous for laundering. It was something that would get
Clint’s attention.

“
It
wouldn’t get my attention if I didn’t know about it,” Clint pointed
out.

“
Didn’t
you just say they got your attention by accident?”

“
Oh,
shit!”

“
Sort of
intriguing. A few hundred million in cash put on a boat and shipped
to somewhere else to be put on a boat. I could come up with a few
stories with that as a background! The types it would involve would
make it a great basic for a blood-and-guts, what they call ‘action’
book.”

“
There
are enough types in this already. Thanks. I didn’t see the obvious
again.”

“
As
Merlin Tyana says, step back. You’re too close to it. You can’t see
the whole picture from that close, only bits and
pieces.”

“
Who the
hell is ... never mind. A character in those books you
write.”

They chatted a bit, then Clint called
Manny.

“
How much
money is being shipped out of here by those people?”

There was a pause. “That’s an angle I
wouldn’t have considered. I’ll see if there’s anything to it – but
whoever’s behind it seems to be very professional. Have you found
out what it’s about?”

“
Buying
missiles.”

“
Really?
No shit? That would explain Feinberg. He might have the connections
for it. They won’t be nuclear.”

“
That’s
what has me worried. A few regular missiles wouldn’t change the
balance.”

“
It would
depend on where they’re aimed.”

They talked for a bit, then Clint called
Judi.

“
Hi.
How’re things in Glock-amora?”

“
Same old
same old. Hi, Clint.”

“
Jude,
what have you heard lately about money laundering?”

“
Not a
lot, but nobody mentioned anything to get me curious. I can check.
There’s always a lot of that here.”

“
I’m not
talking about a few pitiful millions.”

“
Oh? Now
I’m curious!”

They talked about the weather and local news,
then Clint sat back to, as Dave suggested, “Step back” to try to
see the whole picture.

It was
still blurry –
my god! Did I really come up with that?

An hour later he had a new scenario figured,
but it still didn’t make much sense. Cash would come from the
offshore banks, not interior Panamá. It seemed less and less
likely. Something was missing. Something major.

The phone rang. It was Manny.

“
Clint? I
got some word about one of your people. Fandrev. He’s a nuclear
scientist. Help anything?”

“
Hell no!
Shit fire! That brings up a very scary possibility.”

“
The
missiles they’re going after are guided and accurate, but they
deliver standard payloads – so maybe that’s what they’re doing. By
the time they’ve set it up to where it’s operational the payload
wouldn’t be standard anymore.”

“
But ...
it still doesn’t make any sense! Why am I involved? What could I
know that would make them try to keep me out, but would make them
afraid ... because I could connect Fandrev to missiles.

“
Could
they get the stuff to make them nuclear anywhere?”

“
I don’t
know that much about it. Call Dave. He wrote some stuff about
nuclears some years ago. Maybe he can add two and two and come up
with something more than zero.”

“
You’re
as bad as he is – or me.”

“
Judi
told me about your Glock-amora remark. Lame!”

“
Hah! You
don’t know lame! Try `looking at the picture, but it’s blurry’ for
size!”

“
That’s
downright sick!”

Clint agreed and called Dave, who was out in
the town. He left a message to call him back.

He walked around the quieter parts of David
to think, stopping in the Luz Rosa for a bit of the very good local
food there.

No matter how you added it, it was scary and
pretty close to impossible according to what he knew about nuclears
– which approached zero. He was walking back toward the pension
when Dave called and asked what he wanted.

“
Dave, is
it possible to convert a standard-type guided missile to nuclear?
Could a few powerful people who knew something about nuclears do
it? Is it even possible?”

“
Oh,
yeah! To make a really dirty type, it’s not only possible, it’s
easy. All you need is enough fuel.”

“
Fuel?
What...?

“
Uranium.
Plutonium. Get two half-critical masses, set them far enough apart
that they don’t initiate a reaction, slap them together and boom.
Radioactive particles for miles and a big hole where it went
off.”

“
Cripes!”

“
I
sincerely hope you’re simply theorizing about some idiotic action
book you read or something. I very sincerely hope that you’re
letting your imagination roam out in left field.”

“
And
Manny says I’m bad?”

“
Yeah.
That one even gets a groan from me.”

Why
Panamá?

It still
didn’t make sense. What did Panamá have to do with anything? Why
was he involved from any angle? What did he know – or what did
they
think
he knew
that brought him into it in the first place?