Primary Valor by Jack Mars (booksvooks TXT) 📗

“Who runs it?” Ed said.

“Friends of ours.”

“We’ll need a pilot on the groundwith us,” Luke said.

“I’ll wrap around the island whileyou guys go up the trail,” Buzz Mac said. “I can meet you at the plane. I knowthe airbase in Honduras. They used to call it Amistad, for friendship.”

“You can fly a plane?” Luke said.

“Don’t you know by now, Stone?”Buzz said. “I can do anything.”

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

12:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Boulevard Burgers

Hollywood Beach Boardwalk

Hollywood, Florida

“In or out?” Luke said.

Henry Bowles stared at him acrossthe table. They were sitting in the outdoor eating area of a popular joint downat the Hollywood waterfront. To Luke’s left, a steady stream of joggers, rollerbladers, shirtless weightlifters in tight shorts, bloated tourists and younggirls in sexy bikinis went by on the wide stone walkway. The sun was high andhot. The ocean here was bluish-green.

Bowles was drinking a pint of beerwith his burger and fries. This was probably to show he was as much of a cowboyas they were. Luke and Ed were drinking water. Bowles’s facial hair was stillperfectly set at three days.

“What’s the operation?” he said.

“You know the operation,” Ed said.

Bowles shook his head. “How doesit work? What are the details? When do we go? How do we get in? Do we havesomeone inside already?”

“That’s classified,” Luke said. “Needto know. If you’re not coming…”

Ed finished the sentence for him.“Then you don’t need to know.”

Bowles took a minute to thinkabout it.

“All right,” he said. “I’m in.”

“You comfortable with a nightjump?”

“Of course.”

“Could be hot.”

Bowles smiled. “I like it hot.”

Luke nodded. He gazed out at allthe people. A long-haired man was staggering by dressed as Jesus Christ,complete with a bloody crown of thorns around his head, and a heavy woodencross on his back. It was a literal freak show just a few feet from Luke’s leftelbow. This was a good spot for people watching.

He almost wished he could just sithere all day. Here in South Florida. For an instant, he flashed back to thebrief conversation he’d had with Becca twenty minutes ago. He and Ed were goingon a stakeout tonight. He would be out of touch until at least tomorrow. No bigdeal, and they wouldn’t be in harm’s way. They certainly weren’t leaving thecountry or anything like that. Just people watching in Florida, basically.

He put his hand out to Bowles. “Letme see your phone a minute.”

Bowles stared at him, but thenhanded his phone over. It was a black Nokia flip phone. Luke opened it. “Workphone?” he said. “Personal phone?”

Bowles shrugged. “I have nopersonal life. It’s the only phone I carry.”

Luke looked at it for a fewseconds. Then he smashed it against the table. He hit it once and the flip topbroke off. Now it was hanging by a wire. The screen was already cracked. Lukesmashed it into the table again. And again.

He was mindful not to cut hishand. He dropped the phone on the ground and stomped on it with his shoe.

A group of ladies at a nearbytable watched him in amazement.

He smiled at them. “Just beenhaving a lot of trouble with this thing,” he said. “It’s always dropping calls.”

He picked it up off the ground andslid the crushed remnants of it back across the table to Bowles.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “We’releaving in an hour. We have all the gear you’re going to need, so you’re withus for the duration at this point. We’ll give you the details on the plane,everything we know, and exactly how we’re going to hit. There will be plenty oftime to talk.”

Bowles shook his head. He pickedup the ruined phone.

“You didn’t need to do that.”

Luke shrugged. “I’ll get you a newone when we get back. A nice shiny Motorola, courtesy of your friends at theSpecial Response Team. If you’re in, you’re all the way in. I can’t have yougetting cold feet and sneaking off, calling your superiors to tell them wherewe are or what we’re doing. No mixed allegiances. You said yourself that theinvestigation into Darwin King has been stonewalled for years. There’s a goodchance that the Bureau is compromised on this.”

“Better than good,” Ed said. “I’dsay close to a hundred percent.”

Luke nodded. “The fewer people whoknow we’re coming, the better.”

“I wasn’t going to call anyone,”Bowles said.

“I believe you,” Ed said. He gaveBowles big doe eyes.

“Trust but verify,” Luke said. “Avery smart man said that. Consider yourself verified.”

He pushed his seat away from thetable.

“Now let’s go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

2:15 p.m. Central Standard Time (3:15 p.m. EasternStandard Time)

La Sierra de San Simon (St. Simon’s Saw)

Near Honduras

The Caribbean Sea

“This house is a palace,” DarwinKing said.

It was a strange thing to say,especially when he was by himself. But it was true. There were echoing stonefloors, wide-open spaces, huge windows and doors. There was a magnificentsouthern exposure, looking out across the green hillsides to the open ocean farbelow. Today, it seemed like every window and door was thrown wide—curtainsbillowed on the ocean breezes.

He sat on his private terrace,gazing out at his domain. Far away, across the water, he watched the skydarken. What looked like a rain squall was coming across from the Hondurancoast. Even the rain storms here were fantastic. Sheets of rain blowingsideways, chain lightning, earthshaking rumbles of thunder.

Why not? He had the best ofeverything else. Why not have the best storms?

Darwin had eaten lunch and wasenjoying a glass of white wine. The glass decanter was stationed in a metalbowl filled with ice near his elbow. The wine gave him a pleasant buzz. Hewished he could stop time right in this moment.

He was a king—no, a sultan—andthis house was his palace. He had wealth beyond the imaginations of most people,all those dirty, grasping, toiling masses of humanity, just trying to make itfrom one week to the next. He had his harem girls, at his beck and call, andready to carry out any whim. He had his rich and powerful friends and businessassociates.

It was incredible to be him.

But even so, doubts sometimescrept in. He hadn’t been to his place on Jupiter Island in six months or more. Thepolice investigation, no matter how many times it