Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (9 page)

“
Just
wanted to fill you in. There was resistance and the regular people
couldn’t go aboard. They were followed and a small boat came
alongside. Some men came out on deck with AK-47's and threatened
them. The last thing they learned in life was that you don’t
threaten people with automatic weapons if they have them too and
don’t wait for you to make the first move. They boarded, there was
some shooting, then they went back to their boat and left. They
waved for the, er, police officials to go on aboard. They found the
stuff and a few other things.

“
So! How
are things in, as you were overheard to say,
Glock-amora?”

“
Say
something intelligent and it fades away before the words are out.
Say something stupid and it’s there for the rest of your life,”
Clint replied. “Where did the little boat come from?”

“
We don’t
know. They did us a favor and we won’t ask.”

They chatted awhile, then Clint decided to
make his call. He hesitated before he punched the number, then
called Manny instead.

“
You have
anything to do with a bit of a minor shootout in the Atlantic a
couple of hours ago?”

“
It was
five and a half hours ago and to what doest thou refer thus and
thusly?”

“
Thanks
from about six governments around the world. Did you ever learn
anything about any of the others involved in this crap?”

“
Not
really. They’re very adept at hiding their trails.”

Clint told him they found the stuff. He knew
it. They talked a minute, then Clint made the call. To Armakov.

“
Hi!
Surprised Eladio didn’t answer! How are things?”

There was a silence.

“
You
there?”

“
Clint.
What, I mean, you caught me off guard. People seldom do. You are a
very surprising man it would seem.”

“
You had
to know I’d figure that out. I just want to know what the real
motive is. Or was.”

“
To stop
them. I told you that.”

“
Good
enough! Now the rest of it.”

“
To get
my hands on the uranium. You seem to have prevented
that.”

“
Nobody
needs that kind of thing.”

“
It would
only be for our protection.”

“
At
first, maybe. In a few more months or years someone would want to
do to others as others almost did to them and it would be the same
thing, just another one at the top. You know it.”

“
There
wasn’t yet enough to make the device. That is the thing that would
not be explained.”

“
But the
threat, not the actual device, was the power play.”

Armokov sighed. “I have worried about that.
Perhaps it is better if things remain the way they are, as bad as
they are. It would probably only get worse.”

“
I’m
afraid it will, anyhow. That’s ingrained in the psychology of the
area and no one’s trying to change that.”

He sighed again. “True. Sad, but true.”

“
It’s
over. Stop the psychology here. That will be a start.”

“
But time
is extremely limited. You don’t know the plans many have. There are
those in Panamá as well who plot and plan. There are those in
Brazil and Ghana and Egypt and Germany and England and Australia
and any other place you care to name. I fear civilization as we
know it is very near to extinction.”

“
I agree.
I don’t care to be part of that.”

“
You, as
an Indio, can go into the jungle and escape the horrors to come. We
in the cities of the world cannot. It is something we, as a race,
do to ourselves.”

“
That’s
the thing none of you will actually accept. You say it as rhetoric,
that’s all. You do it to yourselves.”

Armakov sighed again. “That is true. Hasta
lluego.” He hung up.

Back With
Friends

Clint sipped the coffee and took a bite of
the hojaldre, then waved at Judi. She waved back and called that
she had some news. He said he’d be over later.

After taking care of the things around his
house he checked over the boat. He would go out later anyhow so put
his gear in the boat and went to Judi’s deck dock. She told him
that Nando was supposed to go straight to Changuinola, had left
Almirante and no one had seen or heard a word from him since.

Clint wondered if he had enough savvy to be
able to disappear himself or if others had caused the
disappearance. As stated several times, he knew the rules when he
got in the game. To sit around crying about it when it didn’t go
your way was to sit around and cry about it when you’d lost. There
was one way out of that and that was to die. Clint held no sympathy
for the type.

Earl came by to say he and Ben had a sort of
promissory deal. He would go back to the states and would quit his
job, take care of unfinished business, then move here. If things
worked out the way they seemed headed he would be a permanent
fixture around the place. He swore again that Ben wouldn’t ever be
in any danger.

“
I have
some things to guarantee they’ll leave me alone. I’m not important
enough to be in deep. It’ll be better to let me out than to face
what can happen. It’s because of family. I’m in it at all because
my father was. They were the only ones I was ever around until I
got a job and worked with other people. I didn’t even know there
were good people in the world before that. I didn’t know I was gay,
either. I thought everybody felt the things I felt. They just never
acted on it and never talked about it because they’d be ostracized
if they did. It took a guy where I worked to show me the reality of
the world.

“
Anyhow,
I’m really happy here. Nobody cares if I’m gay or straight or
bi.

“
I might
be bi. Ben is, if not much. We dated girls twice and I really did
have a good time and I really did like the sex, it just isn’t the
kind of thing I like best. No girl makes me go weak in the knees
and Ben and a couple of others had that effect on me.

“
What I’m
saying is that Ben and I will be a couple. Maybe not exclusive, but
maybe.”

“
I wish
you all the luck in the world,” Clint replied. “Ben’s a good
person. A lot of people here are. I think you’ll fit.”

They chatted, then Earl went back to Ben’s.
Clint called Manny, who didn’t have anything new and hoped he never
did about that bunch. If they never came up again in any way it
would be fine with him. Dave called and said he was going up the
coast. Did Clint want to go?

No. Clint wanted to stay right there for at
least a week. No headaches and no buses or boats.

Manolo called and said both bunches of the
nuclear deal were neutralized and wouldn’t ever have a chance to do
anything like it again. He had no doubt they’d try.

“
Just so
they leave my friends and me out of it,” Clint replied. “If there’s
a next time the last thing they want to do is get me or any other
Ngobe involved.” Manolo said he’d heard Clint was declared a Ngobe.
Congratulations! It was an honor few ever knew. Sergio called and
said they found a body that might be Nando in the swamp on the
flatlands. He had the ID papers of Nando on him, but the body was
in bad shape. They would identify it as Nando, but this one was
about three and a half inches shorter than Nando. Too bad they
didn’t have any of his DNA.

“
Let it
lay unless it turns out to be someone who was just there when he
needed a body,” Clint suggested. “If it’s someone from around here
who was caught up in it through no fault of their own, make it loud
and clear it wasn’t him. Those people will make sure the next
one
is
him!”

He then went to the Golden Grill to talk with
people, then did a little grocery shopping for vegetables, then
went home.

His phone buzzed. It was shown from a private
number.

Clint shrugged and answered. It was
Armakov.

“
Clint?
Just wanted to let you know the latest. There was a minor
revolution in a certain country that replaced a few of the more
important leaders who had delusions of grandeur. The information
that initiated it was things that they had hidden so deeply they
thought it would never be found.

“
You?”

“
No. I’m
through with anything to do with those.”

“
Well, if
you know who did it, tell them thanks from ninety percent of the
people in at least three countries.” He hung up. Clint wondered.
Manny?

No way! Manny wouldn’t get involved in that
kind of thing. He wanted out of that crap and was staying out of it
very well here. He called Manolo and bluntly asked him if his
organization was behind it.

“
They
would be the ones with that kind of information so I imagine a few
of the groups got together and solved the problem for a few months
or years. They have special operatives for that kind of thing. You
can bet what happened here had something to do with it. Nuclears?
No way will that be forgotten or forgiven!”

“
Well,
Armakov said to tell whoever did it thanks from ninety percent of
the people in at least three countries.”

“
They did
it to themselves. They tried to use you. Bad move!”

“
I didn’t
have anything to do with it.”

“
You
exposed it. That was the same thing. Those people can thank
you.”

“
Crap!”
Clint retorted with feeling.

Clint Faraday Mysteries #12

Dead
Certain

© 2011 & 2013 by C. D. Moulton

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances
to persons living or dead is purely coincidental

Some new people, arrogant people who were too
used to giving orders instead of requests move onto Isla
Bastimentos. People said there would be trouble for dead
certain!

That was a too literally true statement!

Contents

Lazing Around

Phone Chat

Super Rich Bums

Mobs?

Politicians?

Private Talks

Revelations

Porno?

California

Pragmatic
Solution

Finally Home

Dead Certain

Lazing
Around

Clint was just lazing around the house. It
was a truly beautiful day, but he didn’t really want to get
involved in anything for awhile. His last case had him running all
over the country never quite knowing exactly what was happening
until it was almost over. He decided to go into town to chat with
people in all the regular spots. He didn’t want to become involved
in things, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be ignorant about
local happenings.

It wouldn’t rain until mid-afternoon,
probably. It was that time of year when it rained for an hour or
two in the afternoon, then cleared by nightfall. He would be back
before that. If not, he would stay someplace with the chatter until
it was over.

He greeted a number of people on the walk
into town. Quite a few greeted him. He stopped to chat with several
people, then continued. It took him until a little after ten to
reach the parque. The regulars were sitting at their usual table at
the Golden Grill and called him over. He sat to have coffee and
empanadas and to chat. The talk was mostly about how much rain
there was here lately and how the old-timers remembered the year it
rained for seventeen days and nights straight. The way Martinelli
should concentrate more on stopping the petty thieves who were
stealing the tourists’ cameras and cel phones. The way something
would have to be done about the boats at night with no running
lights. How rude the taxi drivers were in the town. Whatever came
up.

There were some people who bought a place on
Isla Bastimentos in the wrong place for white gringos, particularly
ones with arrogant superior attitudes.

“
The
Dickersons? They aren’t really so bad,” Bob suggested. “They just
are used to treating the natives like servants. They lived in India
for two years, then in the Philippines for two, then the states,
now here. I talked with them. They weren’t happy anyplace they’ve
been for long. They always had plenty of servants and can afford
them. They just let it run over into the way they treat everybody
they come across. The Indios don’t let it bother them, the blacks
get all het up.”

“
Yeah,”
Aaron added. “They picked the wrong place for their type to try to
build anything. Those people won’t put up with that kind of crap.
Remember what happened to those Fordyce people. They headed back to
England with their tails between their legs in less than a
month!”

“
They
chose the wrong place to build. There’s gonna be trouble with the
locals out there for dead certain, I’m afraid,” Bob
agreed.

“
You
can’t tell them anything. They know everything about everything,”
Tom put in. “I tried to explain from my own experiences with the
people here that they’ll never be accepted. That’s true even here
in Bocas. It’s true in spades on the other islands.