Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 01 - Flapjack (28 page)

-
Chapter 53-

Chase sat at the long table surrounded by other men and women of his elite set.  He slowly chewed his beef Carpaccio that sat on top of a bed of arugula, and sipped on a glass of ’61 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion Pessac Leognan Bordeaux, a three thousand dollar bottle of wine. 

There
was a reason for this little event; to show the investors that things were on track, and their returns would be sizable.  He would have to lie about it, but this didn’t faze him in the least.

Just as he finished his dinner and got a refill on his glass of wine,
his phone vibrated.  He excused himself quietly from the table and got up, walked to an adjacent room, and answered it.

“
Yes,”

“
The operation is complete and clean.”  It was Murray on the other end.

“
Good.  Move to the next target and complete it.  Only call me again when it is complete.”

“
Agreed.”  Murray answered, and quickly hung up.

Chase didn’t care for
Murray, but he was an unsavory essential for the plan to come to fruition.  He didn’t immediately return to the table, and instead made another call.

“
Yes?”  The husky voice answered on the other end.

“
I’m glad I caught you,” Chase said into the phone.

“
Yes, what is it?”  The voice asked dryly.

“
We’re on track.  Our other little problem has been taken care of. 
Project Rig
was successful as you probably well know.  When is the announcement?”

“
Three days.  I’ve been ensured of that.  I noticed how your boys went about it.  I hope they are covering their asses.”

“
Yes they are, and they are closing in on the last contact, Murray’s association with us is complete.  Everything has been done as quietly as possible, as promised.”

“I wouldn’t call some of it quiet,” the voice grumbled.  “I don’t want to be caught with my pants down.”

“
Probably wouldn’t be the first time,” Chase shot back.

“
Watch it Chase.  I could have your ass in a sling and I could still come out smelling like roses.”  The words had definitely hit a raw nerve.

“
We’re both in this, you know that,” Chase said to the voice on the other end.

“
I’m ready.  In four days I’ll get the FBI involved, and the whole thing will be blown.  We better be ready.”

“
Of course, everything is in place.  We can’t be stopped now.  Goodbye.”  Chase hung up the phone and returned to the table, where the other patrons were finishing their desserts.  He didn’t sit down.

“
Ladies and gentlemen, let me inform you of our progress.”

-Chapter 54-

The plane landed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after an eleven hour flight from Houston.  It had been a long journey, but on our arrival Galveston immediately began working the phone, first contacting Elizabeth, and then realized he had three messages from David May. 

He listened to the messages and I noticed his face change as he listened.  Something was amiss. He hung up the phone slowly and his eyes were sunken.
  Dr. Blout, Dr. Sloan’s friend and May’s contact at Global Energy, was dead, supposedly from an auto accident.  May didn’t think it was just an accident.

Black Bear
was going after everyone that knew about the battery. 

“
These bastards aren’t going to get away with it.  We’re going to find everybody involved, and the Feds better beat us to them,” Galveston said angrily with passion, he meant every word. 

I too felt his anger.  These men were playing with people’s lives for money
and creating havoc in their wake.  None of it sat well with the Boy Scout in me, if I had been one.  I felt we did have a purpose, well beyond covering our butts or even making money for the business.  Since our altercation at Jane’s house, it had become personal.  Now the killing of a colleague’s friend, Dr. Blout, only angered me more. 

“
What else did May have to say?”  I asked Galveston, who was finally beginning to calm down. 

“
Chase may be a prime player.  He had been pressing Dr. Blout about the location of Dr. Sloan.  May is going to a press conference where he will be able to interview Chase.”

“
Interesting,” I responded, not knowing what else to say to him at the moment.

Galveston
and I would fly out the next morning to meet Elizabeth in Sao Paulo.  We would convince Jane to stay behind at the hotel, and await our return. 

The
conspiracy theories and paranoia ran amuck in my head that night at the hotel.  Then it struck me, what did we really know about Weston Chase’s motivation?  He seemed concerned about Dr. Sloan’s disappearance and seemed to have a big stake in the production of the battery.  He was a businessman, and once a businessman, always a businessman.  Of all the conspiracy theories I thought up in the dark, this was the one that bothered me the most.  He had the connection with Global Energy, the Alternative Energy Consortium, even Black Bear.  I waited as long as I could before speaking up in the darkness of the room.

“
Hey,” I said softly.  “Galveston?”  All I heard was heavy sleepful breathing.  I reached down in the dark and felt around for my shoe, and upon finding it, flung it towards the side of his bed.  I heard him grunt as it missed the side of the bed and hit him in the head.  “Galveston?  You awake?”  I said again.

“
Uh, yeah, what the hell?  What is it?”  He said rubbing his head.

“
What do you know about Weston Chase?”  I asked.

“
What?  Weston Chase?  It’s two thirty in the morning, go back to sleep,” he mumbled.

“
What do you know about him?”  I inquired again.

“
Same as you.  Rich guy, has lots of toys, a businessman,” he said sleepily.

“
But what do you really know about him?”  I heard the bed move and then his bedside light flipped on causing us to squint at each other.

“
What’s on your mind?”  He asked.

“
I don’t know.  I’ve just been thinking that we don’t know much about him.  We’ve never really looked into his connection with this whole thing.  What’s in it for him?”

“
Why does he have to be in it for something?”  He queried.

“
All his types are in it for something.  He’s a corporate raider, a businessman at heart.  How did he know Dr. Sloan went missing so quickly?” 

Galveston
sat up in his bed.  “You think he’s involved in this thing more than we’ve been told?”

“
I don’t know, but he has connections to most of the players in this fiasco.  It just doesn’t make sense.  Does he know we found Dr. Sloan?  Did David tell Dr. Blout that we found Dr. Sloan?”

“
No, I don’t think so.  David told Blout the Feds hadn’t located him.”

“
I don’t know why Chase would be so interested in Sloan.  I just figured he wanted to make sure the battery would be in the hands of Global Energy, like they had agreed.”  Galveston looked at me, and a worried look popped on his face.  “I just can’t picture a guy like that not having an alternate plan for this thing,” I said.

“
I agree with you, it is sort of weird.”  He swung his legs over the bed and reached for his phone.  “I have an idea that will help answer this question.”  Galveston dialed the phone and waited for the other end to pick up. 

“
Hello, what is it Galveston?”  May said groggily on the other end.

“
David, sorry to wake you.  I know it’s late, but we need you to do something when you talk to Chase and it’s going to be strange.  I need you to tell Chase that Dr. Sloan was found dead in San Diego.”

“
What?  But why?”  May asked, still half asleep.

“
Tell him he was found last night, shot to death.  Tell him the prototype wasn’t found in his hotel room.  Don’t tell him anything else.  Can you do that for us?”  Galveston asked.

“
Uh, yeah, I guess.  It is kind of strange, but I’ll do it.  Where are you going with this?”

“
We have some suspicions about Chase.  Get back to me as soon as you know something.”

“
Alright, I’ll call you tomorrow.  Goodbye.”  May said hanging up his side of the line.

“
Bye David, sleep tight.”  Galveston set his phone down.  “We’ll see how much Chase wants this battery.”  Galveston slumped on the edge of the bed.  “You and your night thinking.  Just go to sleep.  I can’t think anymore.”

“
Alright,” I said putting my head back on the pillow.

But we wouldn’t be getting much sleep.  The thoughts continued to race through both our heads.  What was Weston Chase really out to do?

-Chapter 55-

Our wakeup call was 6 A.M.  I needed some coffee, but not before I snuck in a wakeup kiss and goodbye kiss to Jane in her room.  I gave her a wad of money to use as she liked because we weren’t sure when we would be back. 

W
e were the only thing standing in the way of these mercenaries’ success, and we must be the ones to succeed.  I parceled it into good and evil, right and wrong, and the just versus injustice.  I felt better, stronger, and more courageous, with increased confidence and vigor.  Maybe my kiss from Jane this morning had something to do with that.

“
You ready?”  Galveston said to me from behind.  I turned around with steely eyes with a coffee cup in hand.

“
You bet, let’s go.”

“
Well aren’t you an eager beaver,” he joked. 

The flight
from Sao Paulo went without incident, no emergencies, and thankfully, no pesky passport problems.  We approached the sprawling and congested city of Sao Paulo and landed safely on the ground. 

Sao Paulo
is the hub of commerce and finance in Brazil, and boasts a population of 21 million people.  It is an extremely congested city with a developed metropolitan center and vast suburbs of slums.  It has also been known for its extraordinary crime rate and dangerous areas, but this had waned in the previous years.  The difference in the socioeconomic status of the people was evident, but they had a decidedly content air about them. 

A young boy approached us
on the concrete sidewalk, and motioned that he wanted money to carry our bags.  He was dressed in dirty, ruddy clothes, and spoke only in Portuguese.  I reached for some money to give him, but Galveston stopped me, and politely shooed the boy away.  I looked at him in horror.

“
Sorry about that, but if you start flashing money we’ll have twenty kids around us in seconds.  That’s not the attention we need right now.”  Galveston said.  I understood his point.  We already stood out like a sore thumb, and the last thing we needed was a scene in a public place.

Galveston
began scanning the area and noticed a sultry lady standing next to a car with tinted windows.  It was Elizabeth dressed in a mild black dress, a large flowing hat, and sunglasses.  Galveston nodded his head to her, and we went to an awaiting car. 

We weaved our way across the street with our bags, dodging the heavy traffic coming from both directions. 
Galveston ungraciously took the front seat as I grabbed the back.

“
Morning love,” he said to Elizabeth in a mock English accent and kissed her on the cheek. 

I hadn’t noticed
that the boy outside the terminal had followed us across the road, and was standing at the back of our car.  As Galveston and Elizabeth were exchanging pleasantries and swooning over each other, I rolled down the window and motioned for the boy to come to the car.  He came up to the window, and I pushed a few dollars in his hand before we began to drive away.  I peered back as we left and saw a smile cross his face as he turned and ran back across the road.  At least I may have made someone happy in this city, if only for a short time.

A
s we made it to the center of the city things began to change and well developed areas with shops and quaint apartment buildings began to emerge.  Elizabeth focused skillfully on the road, never taking her eyes off the clutter of traffic weaving its way around us.

“
Where are we headed?”  I asked toward the front of the car. 

“
We’re going to Dr. Patelo’s home.  Elizabeth found out where he lives,” he said turning forward again.  “It should be close.”

We
pulled up in front of a large high-rise, brightly decorated from the outside.  It was an upscale building with a beautiful glass exterior, and noticeably one of the newer buildings in this part of town.

Galveston
decided to check if Patelo was home and left Elizabeth and I steaming in the car from the hot summer sun.  He returned after thirty minutes.

“
He hasn’t been home in a while, but I did find this,” Galveston said as he got back in the car.

“
You broke in, didn’t you?” I stated seriously.

“
Of course,” Galveston said smiling daftly.  “That’s a no brainer.  Check this out and see what you can find.”  Galveston handed me a neatly bound notebook.  “It has his entire timeline.  I even saw pictures of him and Espinosa in his apartment.”

I flipped the notebook
open and read back through his writings.  He had entries for mundane items he was working on and a to-do list of things to accomplish.  Then an interesting entry struck my eye that he wrote about a month ago.  It read:

Contacted by Jorge Morales of Ecomax about a new research

opportunity in an energy transfer system.

I pulled out a pen and ripped out a piece of paper from the journal
, and wrote the name down.  I flipped the notebook to the next page.

Dr. Morales gave me the information about research conducted in

Sao Paulo
.  Received design parameters.  He wants prototype during

week period at end of month.  Needs personal staff of fifteen and

project will be tightly controlled.
 

I flipped the page again and read on.

Talked to Morales today and received contract for work with Ecomax. 

If successfully completed will receive grant money of $1.5 million

toward my current research projects as well as $100,000 personal

compensation.  Project is
very secretive due to corporate espionage

concerns.  Morales asked me to get in touch with my contacts in

Mexico.  They need security to transport design.  Called Alfonso who

agreed to do the work
.
 

I then read the next day’s entry.

First payment received for staff.  Project named Adamanthea, and the

work location will be Summit Hill
“.  I again wrote down the pertinent

information and flipped the page again.  The next entry was strange
,

and the last one entered into the journal.  It was a full two weeks

later.  “Summit Hill no longer the location, now going to Santa Rosa. 

No personal items allowed,
and Morales no longer my contact.  Work

to begin tomorrow.

I recalled the date from the letter we had from Colonel Espinosa
and it fit perfectly with Patelo’s timeline.  What and where was Summit Hill and Santa Rosa?  I pushed the journal and my handwritten notes to Galveston, but as I was handing them to him I noticed some scribbled words on a few of the back, mostly blank, pages.  I could barely make out the words, but they seemed to be quickly written.  They were directions to somewhere.  I read through them carefully and near the bottom I saw words that I had previously read.  “Turn left at Evangelista de Souza station”. 

“
I think we have where he went,” I told Galveston excitedly.  Lucky for us, Dr. Patelo was a man of excruciating detail.

“
I’ll call Alex and have him check it out,” Galveston said to me, already dialing his phone.  He began to talk to Alex who plugged in the directions I had found.

“
It’s a dead end, just a railway station, nothing else.  It’s surrounded by jungle” Galveston said to me.

I skimmed the journal again. 
“There had to be more details,” I thought to myself.  On the last page of the journal, scribbled at the bottom of the page was 23 55 48.13, and 46 38 27.08. 

“
Have Alex find exactly where these coordinates are,” I said showing him the numbers.  He gave me a confused look, and then realized these were the same type of numbers we had seen before. 

Galveston
read off the coordinates as Alex plugged them into his computer.  “It’s way outside of Sao Paulo, south of the city, and in the jungle.  There is nothing around for miles, except for this train depot.  He’s going to send the directions,” Galveston stated, continuing to hold the phone to his ear.  “Get back to me on those other things as quick as you can,” he said to Alex before hanging up.

“
I think you just found where they took the device, Roger.  We need to check it out.” 

I smiled at our good fortune, but I had a queasy feeling that
we would find something unsettling.