Read Online Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition by CD Moulton - Free Book Online Page B

wonder
if they got enough of the product out to accomplish more than
threats.”
    “ They
haven’t yet delivered it to the European connection. It won’t
arrive.”
    That was even more of a shocker, it appeared.
Nando stared at him without speaking. He was suddenly sweating.
    “ Your
silly dodge with the yacht was as stupid as the other distractions
meant to head me off.”
    “ I
see.”
    “ You’re,
as Frandrev said about his own case, a walking dead man, aren’t
you?”
    He looked like he was about to cry. “I have
to get out!”
    “ As
Gregor also said, it’s part of the trade. You knew that from the
start.”
    “ You have
to help me! They’ll kill me!”
    “ What?
You hire yourself out as a killer, then want to cry when it’s your
turn? It’s what you signed up for. There isn’t a way
out.”
    Nando was staring at the table top when Clint
got up and walked out. Sergio was in front of the China. Clint
waved and shook his head. If Sergio arrested him now and held him
it would be his responsibility when he was killed. Clint had
finally learned to be pragmatic where these kinds of people were
concerned. If they were lucky Nando would leave and never arrive
somewhere else.
    Now it was time to wait again. Clint didn’t
believe for one short second this was over. They would try the same
stunt somewhere else if they weren’t stopped here and now.
     
    Just a Distraction
    “ Clint,
you’ve started a firestorm. It’s lucky it won’t be here to any
extent,” Manny reported. “Would you believe those cruds tried to
get my old organization to help them?
    “ I mean,
Ruskies? We’d have anything to do with them – particularly when
what they wanted was for us to hit some others who were helping
them? Gimme a break!”
    “ I think
we have a little more to go,” Clint warned. “Don’t let out the
least hint you know anything at all about it, other than I went all
over hell an...!”
    “ What?”
    “ I just
thought of something I said on the comarca fifty or a hundred years
ago, or so it seems, when I got drawn into this.
    “ I’ll be
damned!”
    “ What?”
    “ I told
some people I’d see them in hell.”
    “ The
rednecks?”
    “ Uh-huh.
Some things just clicked.”
    “ They’re
gone. I kept a very close eye on them. They’re what they appeared
to be.”
    “ Exactly!
They’re what they appeared to be.”
    There was a pause, then, “Don’t do that.”
    “ Oh. They
appeared to be inordinately stupid gringo rednecks.”
    “ And
that’s what they are.”
    “ Another
something to stop me from finding the real source of the
problem.”
    “ Two
factions from the old Soviet Union who were trying to grab control
over each other. That ain’t it?”
    “ Oh, I
suppose it was, at least in their own minds.”
    “ It’s
better if I don’t know what the hell you’re talking
about?”
    “ It’s a
lot safer for your family. Those people are capable of
anything.”
    He could picture Manny looking thoughtful and
nodding. They chatted a minute or two more, then Clint rang off. He
would wait until the yacht was stopped and the uranium seized
before making a phone call.
    What to do in the meantime?
    He got his boat and he, Ben, Earl and Judi
went fishing.
     
    “ Hi,
Clint!” Fredrico, a friend from Almirante called from his boat as
he was passing. Clint had gone to the Lemon Grass with Judi, Ben
and Earl for dinner the night before. Clint met a girl from
Australia and they spent the night together. Clint was laying in
the hammock on his deck with coffee. Anita had gone with friends to
take a tour of the islands and to snorkel off the Crawl Key end of
Bastimentos. He returned the greeting.
    Judi had finished watering her orchids and
had called that she was going into Bocas Town for a meeting of the
community watch group. Ben and Earl came by and knocked on the
door. Clint called to “Come in!” and they came out onto the dock.
Earl grinned at Clint and Ben said he should wear clothes when he
was