Read Online White Death by Philip C. Baridon - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Philip C. Baridon
Tags: Suspense
Ads: Link
instrument-rated pilots who can avoid the disorientation caused by flying over open water in poor visibility. I know of one other qualified pilot who might be interested. May I ask what it pays per trip?”
The obvious question caught Marcus and Tyrone by surprise. This was supposed to be a feasibility meeting, not a done deal. Tyrone finally offered, “The pay will be excellent considering the risks. We need to talk to our other partner and get back to you on this. You fully understand the sensitivity of this matter, correct?”
“I swear on my mother’s grave to speak to nobody.”
As they parted, Tyrone heard Marcus say,
“Entiendes que sera´ su propia tumba si decides hablar de este asunto.”
“Si, comprendo.”
Tyrone decided not to ask. He heard something sounding like tomb or death and considered that Marcus was adding some emphasis to his warning.
On the way back to the airport, the men talked over the merits of the proposal and how to handle Gonzalez. They thought it had great potential for moving cocaine in quantity and a few kilos of marijuana. Ortiz had estimated five-hundred pounds of product per trip, better than they had expected. In addition, it would minimize the use of swallowers, a method nobody liked. They decided it was the best plan; but who would talk to Gonzalez?Tyrone was blunt about Gonzalez’s prejudice against blacks, and he acknowledged his manner of superiority also irritated to him. Accordingly, the burden fell to Marcus to convince Gonzalez. They compared notes in the terminal building and agreed on how best to present it to him.
The next day, Marcus called Tyrone with the good news. Gonzalez liked it. Now, they needed to buy three planes, using three straw purchasers, and do a trial run.
Implementation
The three straw buyers bought the planes with cash and delivered them to Miami. Marcus paid each buyer three-thousand dollars for his services and told them to disappear. Ortiz planned a trial run, without drugs, in daylight to anticipate problems and evaluate the plan. He quickly thought through the three basic forms of navigation, critical for a long flight over water. Navigation by landmarks was out, except when near major landmasses such as the Bahamas or the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. The trip required a lot more of dead reckoning, but between ground-based navigation aids, no other option existed.
During his practice run, Ortiz jotted down altitudes and headings. Basically, the pilot flies low near land and high over open water to pick up navigation signals out of Barranquilla, and later from the vortac at Guantanamo, 5 which also had Distance Measuring Equipment (DME).
While taking on fuel in Matthew Town, Ortiz began chatting with the lineman – who was quite taken with the gleaming new Comanche.
“Do you work at nights as well?” asked Ortiz.
The young man replied that two linemen pumped fuel during the day and evening, but lived nearby and would respond to night radio calls on the local frequency.
Ortiz pressed a little harder. “How late?”
The movement of the young man’s shoulders and face answered his question.
“May I ask how much you make an hour?”
“A buck seventy-five.”
“Do you have a telephone where you live and near where you sleep?”
“Yeah, don’t use it much.”
“Sometimes I, and a few co-workers in my company, have to deliver handmade, spare parts at unusual hours to another company that operates around the clock near Miami. Obviously, we need to count on getting fuel here to finish the trip, another six hundred miles. We can’t spend the night here. If I called you from Barranquilla to say that one of us is leaving, would you go to the airport, listen to the radio, and be ready? It takes about four-and-half hours to fly here from Barranquilla.”
“How much extra would you pay us?”
“Well, what do you think would be fair for getting you out of bed late?”
“Maybe twenty dollars.” Which was more than
The obvious question caught Marcus and Tyrone by surprise. This was supposed to be a feasibility meeting, not a done deal. Tyrone finally offered, “The pay will be excellent considering the risks. We need to talk to our other partner and get back to you on this. You fully understand the sensitivity of this matter, correct?”
“I swear on my mother’s grave to speak to nobody.”
As they parted, Tyrone heard Marcus say,
“Entiendes que sera´ su propia tumba si decides hablar de este asunto.”
“Si, comprendo.”
Tyrone decided not to ask. He heard something sounding like tomb or death and considered that Marcus was adding some emphasis to his warning.
On the way back to the airport, the men talked over the merits of the proposal and how to handle Gonzalez. They thought it had great potential for moving cocaine in quantity and a few kilos of marijuana. Ortiz had estimated five-hundred pounds of product per trip, better than they had expected. In addition, it would minimize the use of swallowers, a method nobody liked. They decided it was the best plan; but who would talk to Gonzalez?Tyrone was blunt about Gonzalez’s prejudice against blacks, and he acknowledged his manner of superiority also irritated to him. Accordingly, the burden fell to Marcus to convince Gonzalez. They compared notes in the terminal building and agreed on how best to present it to him.
The next day, Marcus called Tyrone with the good news. Gonzalez liked it. Now, they needed to buy three planes, using three straw purchasers, and do a trial run.
Implementation
The three straw buyers bought the planes with cash and delivered them to Miami. Marcus paid each buyer three-thousand dollars for his services and told them to disappear. Ortiz planned a trial run, without drugs, in daylight to anticipate problems and evaluate the plan. He quickly thought through the three basic forms of navigation, critical for a long flight over water. Navigation by landmarks was out, except when near major landmasses such as the Bahamas or the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. The trip required a lot more of dead reckoning, but between ground-based navigation aids, no other option existed.
During his practice run, Ortiz jotted down altitudes and headings. Basically, the pilot flies low near land and high over open water to pick up navigation signals out of Barranquilla, and later from the vortac at Guantanamo, 5 which also had Distance Measuring Equipment (DME).
While taking on fuel in Matthew Town, Ortiz began chatting with the lineman – who was quite taken with the gleaming new Comanche.
“Do you work at nights as well?” asked Ortiz.
The young man replied that two linemen pumped fuel during the day and evening, but lived nearby and would respond to night radio calls on the local frequency.
Ortiz pressed a little harder. “How late?”
The movement of the young man’s shoulders and face answered his question.
“May I ask how much you make an hour?”
“A buck seventy-five.”
“Do you have a telephone where you live and near where you sleep?”
“Yeah, don’t use it much.”
“Sometimes I, and a few co-workers in my company, have to deliver handmade, spare parts at unusual hours to another company that operates around the clock near Miami. Obviously, we need to count on getting fuel here to finish the trip, another six hundred miles. We can’t spend the night here. If I called you from Barranquilla to say that one of us is leaving, would you go to the airport, listen to the radio, and be ready? It takes about four-and-half hours to fly here from Barranquilla.”
“How much extra would you pay us?”
“Well, what do you think would be fair for getting you out of bed late?”
“Maybe twenty dollars.” Which was more than
Similar Books
