Elizabeth at War Ch. 10 - Dénouement
Breakfast was waiting at the ranch house. Maria looked in on Jessica, still sleeping off the heavy sedative that Linda had administered on take-off. Clifford, likewise, was still sleeping from a non-Scottish additive to his whiskey.
General Charteris had a second helping of bacon, then asked Ramon: "So how did it go, young man?"
He looked at his plate. "
Mon General
, I would hesitate to tell much until the rest are here, I believe they will be arriving tomorrow or the day after. But I can assure you the look on the young man's face, when he expected to be welcomes by cartel members in Bogota, and instead found himself at an airforce base surrounded by Marines with rifles, was priceless. He had an instant conversion to patriotism."
***
Mrs Smythe nodded towards the three men who were talking to Barry. Berman, as he was known here, smiled. Despite the upset last night things were looking good. By now Brown's cleanup team should be at the house. Everyone there would have been killed and would soon be under the ice in a trawler hold, on their way to the depths of the ocean.
"Coffee please, Mrs Smythe."
She nodded. "Mr Berman..."
He frowned. Something about her facial expression snagged at his mind. He dismissed it as she said: "There's a girl who wanted to see you. She is waiting in your office."
He opened the door. A strawberry blonde, sitting before his desk. She was apprehensive, her body language defensive. Her face was somehow familiar.
His first reaction was one of fury. White in the face he thundered at her: "Who are you and what are you doing here? I will..."
He moved to subdue her, to dominate her. Instead of cringing she smiled. "Is that how you did it with Sondra, André? How you subdued Renate, Jessica, all the others? It won't work anymore, you know."
He made to turn, but two men were behind him, hands under their jackets. Another one, a geeky type, peered from behind them. She continued:
"No funny business, please. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Elizabeth Durr. We met once at an event arranged by the dear departed Sondra. You see, you killed me. Except that you failed. In a sense I am an avenging angel. So please sit where we can keep an eye on your hands, or you might lose them. Charles here is known to be exceptionally fast with a knife and we would not want to ruin your priceless Afghan carpet. Stan served there, you know, but he is not the killing type, he is much more devious.
"I have some bad news for you, Monsieur André. Poor Sergei's shipment was intercepted and his cleanup crew did not arrive at your mansion this morning. Your associates are singing like the proverbial canaries as we speak."
André felt the blood gushing to his face. He deflated as if he had been kicked in the gut. She kept the pressure on him.
"We have a DNA sample from Renate's corpse to tie you in to her murder, and now the same from Jessica, just to be sure. We have evidence that ties you in to several drug-related deaths. But more importantly, we can now tie you in to espionage in a number of companies. And we have enough circumstantial evidence to tie you in to the death of Sondra, for a start."
He frowned. "But you will have great difficulty proving that in court."
She grinned. "Exactly. It would embarrass your principals for years to come. Just think how well they'd like that."
His eyes darted from side to side, looking for a way out. He thought again of threatening her, but the smile in her eyes told him it would not work. She continued:
"Or you could work with us. That way you could avoid dreary years in re-education camps in insalubrious climes. Of course you will be working under close supervision in a government establishment. You will do what we tell you to do, you will report what we give you to report. And, yes, we know you were in charge of the recruitment side of things, but don't worry, we are on to the rest of the network. So what do you decide?"
He gave a dry swallow or two. She kept him off balance. "Come, you had Sondra kill my colleagues and friends, how much sympathy do you want me to have for you? If I let my emotions run away I would take your paper knife here and dissect you, monsieur André. Or maybe I should let Jessica and the others loose on you? Imagine what they would do if you were tied up, or running on a treadmill, and they had the whip? Do you think that sounds good? We might even get one of your associated to do other things to you like you did to the girls. Let me think. Perhaps that would be more fitting. Think about the possibilities."
André shook his head. "I need time..."
She smiled again. "Time, like you gave Jessica? I think there was a cord around her neck. Should we try that on you? How much time did you give Sondra, with the drug flowing into her system like it flowed into mine, André? It's your luck that I am in a good mood. But your luck and time has run out exactly now. So open the computer, give Pete here the passwords and the decryption keys, now. And give me the code to call your colleague, now. Time's up. Pete is our computer expert, he will take it from here."
***
The whole team only assembled back at the safe house on the ranch two days later. A debriefing is supposed to take place under controlled circumstances, but instead it was a rolling barbecue with children underfoot and a discreet samba performance by Maria da Silva in one corner, in close proximity to Ramon.
General Charteris tried in vain to calm the crowd down, but only when Elizabeth called for order did they pay attention. She began:
"As you can see I am recovering, guys. My interview with the spider was the best therapy ever. Look, people, I appreciate your support. My mind still has holes in it, somehow I fell into one the other day. But in those holes there are amazing things, ask Terry... Ok, don't ask him. I managed to climb out of it. So, we all want to know what happened. Ramon had given us his report and I want to recommend him for some medal, General. What can you do for someone who faces down foreign agents, get drug lords to pay up for buying out a girl, and kidnap a crime associate in the process?"
Charteris made to answer, but she silenced him. "I'm sure you will find something, General. So I want to ask Sunitra how her side of things went."
Sunitra frowned. "This was not an experience I would wish to repeat. The whole atmosphere that evening was toxic from the start. Nikita turned up, zonked out of her mind on something, so we stashed her in a room. We did what we could, but most people saw us as a sideshow, something to amuse themselves until they could get some serious activity going. I had a few women, one man, who wanted to know more. We just kept on doing what we were doing, until we heard the problems starting. Then Ramon came rushing by and went out. All hell broke loose. There were people screaming, shouting, so we packed up and left, with Jenny and Linda running interference. Nunes was there too, he had been on the catering team somehow. Well, we got out without losing anyone, but things were a little crazy. Now I have to get working on Jessica, she's going to need months of rehabilitation."
Terry asked: "Maria, can you call Nunes? We would like to get his opinion. And Samantha perhaps?"
Samantha was the first to respond to the teleconference call. "Well, Ramon played merry hell, I can tell you. We had Pablo and Sergei at each other's throats, and then they heard that the trawler had been intercepted by the coast guard, with about a ton of drugs aboard. Of course that put paid to our plans to follow up on all the channels, but the Commissioner is having a heart-to-heart talk with Pablo as we speak. If we are going to have a drug problem, it would be better to have it with him, to be honest. Sergei has gone to ground, nobody knows where. Thanks for your help, guys, we will follow up what leads we have now."
Ramon called out: "Before you go, Madame. I know you would have liked to interrogate me, I will let Señora da Silva do that if you allow. An in depth interrogation, I hope. We still have the young Clifford here. What do you think? Shall we squeeze him dry?"
She laughed. "I will leave you and him to her, but if you have any leads please let me know. I imagine we would like to talk to him sooner rather than later."
***
The house was dead silent. Moonlight vanished as the moon set. Tammy heard a soft whimper from one of the dogs and sat up. She shushed the dog and cuddled him under Sammy's blanket, then walked on soft-soled feet to Jenny's room. The girl came awake like the seasoned combat soldier she was. A few words were exchanged, then Tammy left through the window.