Caribbean Adventure

We rolled back into town at close to midnight, there was still some life in the waterfront bars, so I avoided them. I was still covered in mud where it hadn't dried and rubbed off wearing a ripped t shirt, swimming shorts and a pair of chopped up shoes. I also had a reluctant passenger who might do something stupid to attract attention.

I needed to find some clean clothes and somewhere to lie low, my hotel was obviously out of the question, I was supposed to be dead and didn't want to tip anyone off at this stage. There was only one place I could think of at midnight, our timings may or may not coincide and more to the point I didn't know if I could trust them, but I was going to have to go out on a limb and take a risk.

I parked up in a car park close to a container compound, there were a few other vans around, so I was inconspicuous in a hidden in plain sight kind of way. Daisy had accepted that I was not looking for an excuse to kill her and came along with me, more or less willingly, as a sign of good faith I didn't cable tie her hands, but I did hold onto her left arm as we walked towards the waterfront and had the sharp machete hidden down the back of my ripped T Shirt.

I avoided the bright lights of the bars and restaurants, I was feeling quite conspicuous in the shorts, ripped T shirt, mud combo and didn't want to risk being spotted and remembered so kept to the shadows. I spotted my target, where I'd hoped it would be. Charles and Rhodey were just tidying everything away, lights were still on in the cabin, and I could see someone on the rear deck.

We stepped down onto the boat, it rocked enough that an inquisitive head popped up from the rear deck. Rhodey took a minute or two to work out who this person looking like a tramp was that had just jumped aboard. When he did his eyes opened wide with a moment's panic, calling out to his colleague for back up.

He started gabbling, his local accent dropping out in favour of home counties English. "I didn't touch her, I swear. That Virgil, he paid us for special services for his wife and a friend of hers. He's dangerous, he's got these minders that disappear people." He'd reached the back of the boat and had nowhere else to go. I stood and let him ramble, hoping I might get some more coherent information, when he went quiet I looked to my left. Charles was stepping out of the cabin carrying a baseball bat.

I reached behind my back and pulled out the Machete, holding it in as non-threatening a manner as is possible with a machete. "Good evening gentlemen, let's not get too carried away now, shall we?" I kept my voice low, reassuring and unaggressive.

Charles lowered his baseball bat, "You're supposed to be lost at sea, Virgil's men took you for a moonlit dive. You need to go, I don' want them comin' lookin' for you on my boat."

I shook my head, "No mate, they aren't going to come looking for anyone. We had a bit of a discussion, and I made my point quite, um, forcefully. Now, are we going to have a problem, or shall we be sensible here?"

Charles made a quick decision and laid his baseball bat aside. I did the same with my machete, we watched each other warily. "I didn't have a choice you know. They'd have killed me and Rhodey if we didn't do what they told us. They said that after the whale watching your wife wanted the same special services that Margaret got on the boat. I knew it wasn't right when we got there, Virgil told me you'd gone out for a midnight dive with his boys and your wife was spaced out."

I told him we were cool, and that I was not going to come after him, I wanted to fuck over Virgil, and I had the beginning of a plan.

I gripped Daisy's arm again. "Do you know where the other van went and what was in the package Gabe and Paul brought to the beach?"

She tried to pull away. "Did you really get away from Gabe and Paul, and are they really not coming back?"

I thought back to the reef. "No, they're not coming back."

She sniffed. "We had to keep them happy, the beach set up, it's Virgil's beach. He owns it as a means to get his gear and money on and off the island without being noticed. When he's not here Brandon runs things. We have to keep, had to keep Gabe and Paul happy. Every time, sometimes Brandon and Samuel or the other two that you tied up, we were a bonus for them. If you want help to hurt them I will do anything.

The package was either money or drugs. Drugs go one way; money goes the other. Gabe and Paul would run out to sea in their speed boat and come back with a package. The cops here are bought and paid for, they know when to be on the other side of the island. Brandon will have taken it to the dive shop. "

She agreed to show me where the dive shop was, Charles and Rhodey agreed to come with me. They seemed quite keen to get Virgil out of their lives as well, Rhodey ducked into the cabin and found me a clean dark T shirt and a pair of jeans, I sluiced off under the freshwater hose from the dockside and away we went. I left the Machete behind and took a short crowbar instead.

The dive shop was only a short walk away a couple of roads back from the bars, it seemed to be locked up but there was a faint light showing behind the back door. I listened carefully. There may have been movement, I couldn't say for certain. I listened a bit longer.

Low voices maybe? Hard to tell.

Definite movement now. I hid around the corner of the building just as the back door opened and two shadowy figures stepped out, in the midst of a low whispered argument.

"They should be here by now, I'm going to call Virgil."

The other figure hissed back at him from the door "No, there's nothing he can do, he'll just get pissed at us. You'll get a beating and I'll end up entertaining Gabe and Paul for his enjoyment. We sit tight and wait."

Good news. It looked to be just the two of them.

I passed the baseball bat to Charles and in a semi crouch he sprinted towards the taller figure and leading with his shoulder cannoned into it. I had been right in my initial thoughts; he'd make a great running back. He slammed Brandon into the door frame, following up with a short stroke dig to the ribs with the baseball bat. Jasmine started to scream but was cut off by Rhodey's hand across her mouth as he pushed her back into the dimly lit interior.

Brandon was trying to breathe, making whooping noises and wheezing, Charles passed the bat to Rhodey and applied an armlock. "Keep quiet or I will rip your arm out of its socket and beat you unconscious with the sticky end, do you understand?"

He understood.

Rhodey closed the door, ushering Daisy in ahead of him. I set Daisy to work to find some gaffer tape and hung back in the shadows where I found Brandon's phone where it had gone flying from his hand when Charles hit him. She found a box filled with rolls of insulation tape, which would do as a restraint for the short term.

Charles let go of Brandon, spinning him and pushing him onto the ground, where he sat silently, brooding.

He got a poke in the chest with the baseball bat, "I'm only going to ask politely once, where's the package Gabe and Paul brought ashore?"

He tried to act tough, "Hey, you don't know what you're into here. Gabe and Paul are due back from sending that English pussy on a midnight dive, when they get here you motherfuckers are dead. Daisy, you are gonna get fucked to death then thrown in the sea. You let us go now and maybe I'll put in a good word for you."

I stepped out of the shadows and grabbed him by the throat. "Paul and Gabe are going to find that difficult to do, they won't be coming round any time soon."

I stepped back to avoid the rapidly expanding pool underneath him. Good, my point seemed to have been made, a tatty towel was on the work bench beside me, and I threw it onto the ground to soak up the piss then twisted his ear savagely. "My associate asked you a question. Where. Is. The. Package.?"

His will to resist was broken completely, he jerked his head towards the inner office. Charles sent Rhodey off, he came back thirty seconds later struggling with the familiar black parcel and set it on the bench then dug in with a screwdriver and ripped the wrapping open. It took him a while; it was well covered. Eventually he revealed a black neoprene sack with a big metal reinforced cable tie holding it closed, he worked the screwdriver in and twisted it to no good effect. I passed him the dive knife I still had strapped to my leg, he sliced through the sack to reveal the contents, which seemed to be more cash than you could shake a stick at. There were a mix of currencies, mainly US Dollars but there were some Canadian Dollars, some Euros and even some Pounds.

We lifted the stack down and set it on the floor between Brandon and Jasmine. I took Brandon's phone; it was locked but it had fingerprint recognition. He tried to be brave again, keeping his fists balled until I pointed out all I needed to do was cut off one finger to get access. He was a lot more cooperative after that.

I stood Charles, Rhodey and Daisy out of the way and took a picture of Jasmine and Brandon with a pile of cash between them. I checked the contacts and found a number stored as "V" which with a bit of persuasion Brandon confirmed was Virgil.

I sent him the picture with a caption saying "We had an unwrapping. Are you coming to the party?"

We left the pair of them trussed up in the dive shop and withdrew to the end of the road to watch any comings and goings. It only took ten minutes before a taxi pulled up and Virgil climbed out, he had what looked like three more local heavies with him, one he left outside the front door, the other two he took with him inside.

I walked off for a quick investigation and came back with a couple of empty beer cans and a wine bottle from the bins behind one of the bars then took Daisy for a simulated drunken walk along the road back towards the dive shop. When we were almost there Charles threw the wine bottle hard across the road, the heavy's attention was distracted, and I smacked him with the baseball bat that Daisy had been carrying behind her back. Teamwork makes the Dream work.

I sent Daisy back to Rhodey, passing Charles as he came to join me. I swapped the crowbar for the bat and walked up to the front door where I popped it in between the door and the frame. The door was new, but the frame was rotten, with a sharp heave I popped the lock and swung it open. Less fortunately there was a bell above the door which rang as I pushed.

Charles stepped through the opening and two seconds later a second heavy was laid out. I went round behind the building again and tried the distracting trick with the two empty cans. Never say a good trick can't work again because it did. I stepped over the unconscious body to find Virgil pointing a gun at Jasmine and the lifeless body of Brandon.

"Hello Virgil, what brings you down here?" I asked

He spun round, staring in shock. "When Brandon said you'd done this I thought he had to be wrong. How did you get away from Gabe and Paul? "

I laughed, "Don't put your trust in ex-cons. Gabe may have been a Navy SEAL once but his prison time and hanging round with Paul as your enforcer had taken the edge off. They weren't used to anyone fighting back. Not that it matters anymore because the day of reckoning has arrived."

He lifted the gun and aimed it at me, "Not if you're dead. People like them, they're easy to find."

Before he had a chance to pull the trigger a baseball bat swung and shattered his wrist, he dropped the gun, when it hit the floor It went off with a bang, sending a cloud of dust out of the floor where the bullet buried itself.

I took the opportunity to kick Virgil in the nuts if I'm honest it was for the fun of it. When he hit the ground I gave him a couple more into the head as well because the first had been so much fun.

Once I'd had my bit of playtime I found a canvas bag and scooped it full of money, handed it to Charles and sent him away. "I'll come and catch up in the morning, right now I'm going to sort this out for good."

I borrowed Virgil's phone, the same discussion about fingers got me access, and called the British Governor General's office, the island we were on was one of the last remaining outposts of the Empire, still being officially managed by the Foreign Office. The duty communications manager was a former Royal Signals Warrant Officer, and I spent a minute or two establishing my bona fides before outlining what was happening.

He cut me off very quickly, "All calls are recorded for security and training purposes. I'll be there in five minutes."

True to his word he was there in five minutes. He introduced himself as Melvyn Blyth, and as I gave him the full story we came up with something between us that would keep me out of jail and put Virgil and Margaret into it for a long time.

He called the duty security officer who called the Deputy Governor, who despite it being 2 am was with us in twenty minutes. He had a couple of Royal Marines with him who secured the area while he called local police and ambulance services.

Virgil gave up Margaret's location in a matter of moments, she was in a villa just out of town. I was invited to join the Royal Marines, who by now had seen their numbers boosted to a full section, most in body armour carrying SA80s, on their move to arrest Margaret and to release Karin. The Marines medic, a Naval Surgeon-Lieutenant had been pulled out of bed and was joining us there.

I didn't get to see the doors being kicked in, but at three thirty in the morning in they were well and truly kicked, Margaret made the mistake of pulling her gun on the Royal Marines and took three 5.56 bullets through her silicon enhanced tits. Karin and Hirani were brought out, dazed and confused by everything. Everyone else in the building was arrested. The doctor had shown the good sense to get a couple of civilian ambulances lined up and Karin and Hirani were carted off to hospital for a thorough check up.

By five am I had the good news that my wife was physically unharmed although still suffering the effects of a cocktail of drugs that would have reduced her will to zero, induced feelings of euphoria and left her open to suggestion. On the plus side, once the drugs were out of her system she would have no memory of anything that happened to her.

I was sent back to our hotel at six, where I showered and slept for about four hours. I dressed in real clothes with real shoes, ate the first meal for nearly twenty-four hours and made a side trip to Charles' boat on my way back to the hospital.

Charles had counted the money, "Six hundred thousand dollars man. Six. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. I got your cut here." He handed me a parcel, "Hundred and fifty gees." Around ninety grand in English money. I gave it a quick thought; I'd have to smuggle it home which had its own perils. Once I got it there, assuming I did without being caught, I couldn't explain where it came from and the banks are very quick to involve the fraud squad for ordinary people, it's only Oligarchs and Politicians get a free ride.

To play for time I asked what he was going to do with his cut. "I think we may be expandin' the business. Maybe replace this boat with another couple, one each for me and Rhodey to run. Daisy said she can work with us offering massage on board during the charter."

Decision reached. "Keep the one fifty mate, I may know a qualified dive instructor might be looking for a job soon as well."

Daisy had joined us on the boat, she looked a lot more relaxed compared to the scared woman I'd brought back from the beach and gave me a shy hug whispering "Thank you, you saved me" in my ear.

Back at the hospital Hirani and Karin had been released to a psychiatric team for counselling and to be given the truth on what had happened to them. Both women seemed to be taking it fairly well and were allowed to leave after a couple of hours, with strict instructions to follow up with counselling at home. Having no memory of it probably helped a lot, Hirani seemed to be even happier when she was told Gabe and Paul wouldn't be around again.

I took Hirani down to meet Charles and Rhodey, they all seemed to get on and liked the idea of working together.

The days slipped by and Karin and I were soon into the second half of our second week of the holiday, I'd made several statements to members of the Governor's team, then to David Fry, a Superintendent from the Thames Valley Police who had been brought in to oversee clearing out the corrupt members of the local cops, he seemed to think it was only a small core who were actual wrong 'uns, a few more who were led astray but probably recoverable and the majority were just getting on with their jobs.

I went for a beer with Melvyn one evening, he filled me in on a few things I wasn't supposed to know. Once he knew Margaret was dead Virgil threw her under a bus, claiming it was all her idea and he'd just gone along with things. What he hadn't realised was that under UK laws conspiracy to smuggle, conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to kidnapping and conspiracy to money laundering all carried sentences between fourteen years and life. The Smug looking Superintendent who unofficially joined us was of the opinion it would be at the top end of the tariff and the first seven years would be somewhere like Belmarsh or Long Lartin, high security prisons. Fry could barely supress a laugh when he described Virgil's face when he found that out, after he'd coughed to conspiring to all that lot. He was even sicker when a couple of FBI agents from the US embassy had a chat about various crimes at home.

All of which was nice but didn't really deal with the issues Karin and I were facing. Well, I was facing really, she'd got no memory of any of it, I however remembered everything in great detail. It wasn't the fact that she's had sex on display with at least four men and a couple of women, it was my own feelings of helplessness and being unable to stop it at the time, I had the 'If I'd done that' or 'if I'd seen that earlier' conversation with myself almost constantly.

It came to a head two days before we were due to fly home, I'd avoided initiating anything with her, telling myself it was to give her time to get over the trauma. We were back in the room, getting ready for an evening out when she stepped out of the shower, dried off and pushed me backwards onto the bed, her hand scrabbling in my shorts. I must have resisted because she sat up and smacked me hard in the chest.

"Come on then, what's the story? You've been keeping your distance all week; do I need to worry? Is this going to be a problem in the future?"

I tried to explain that I didn't want to pressure her, that I was worried she wanted space, she told me she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me, and I should be supporting her not ignoring her, it all got a bit heated, and I ended up almost in tears telling her I was worried that she blame me for not saving her. That got me another smack on the chest and a lecture about trust and intimacy and several other things I was getting very wrong.

Well, that ended up being a very frosty evening, I got a bit drunk, it's my go-to method of dealing with things I can't handle. She simmered gently all evening until we went back to the room where we slept, badly, back-to-back until an equally frosty breakfast.

Around nine thirty she disappeared for ten minutes, returning in a better state of mind, more determined, less emotional. Not that I was about to be stupid enough to use the 'E' word around her. At eleven she took my hand and told me in no uncertain terms we were going to go and sort this out properly.

I know what's good for me and followed in her wake. To my surprise she took me down to the health centre where I'd dropped her for counselling, she walked straight in, through a set of double doors and along a corridor. She paused outside an office and almost snapped her fingers at me, "Come on, get in here. Now."