Филип Керр - A Five Year Plan

‘OK.’

‘Now why don’t you and I do something constructive? Like maybe take a little stroll around and acquaint ourselves with the layout of this oceangoing marina?’

‘Good idea.’

‘And try to look a little more user friendly and less like an argument for genetic engineering. Got our story straight?’

‘I think so. You’re some financial hotshot, right?’

‘Right.’

‘And a big motor-racing enthusiast. So we’re on our way to Monte Carlo, for the Grand Prix they got down there. After which we’re heading to Cap d’Antibes, in the South of France, where you’ve rented a house for the summer. Got some business associates from London coming down to join you there. Maybe take in another couple of races while you’re in Europe, depending on how the business goes.’

‘OK, what kind of financial hot shot?’ asked Dave.

‘Commodities. But I’m supposed to be a little vague about this, right?’

‘Right. If anyone asks you just say it’s some kind of metal, maybe copper, and leave it at that. They won’t expect you to know any more.’

Dave moved toward the gangway and then turned back. He said, ‘One more thing. The Coast Guard and Customs people will board us when we’re ready to sail. So just so as I know, where’d you stash the Alamo?’

‘They got enough to worry about what’s comin’ into Miami without giving much of a fuck what’s going out.’

‘True. But I’d still like to know.’

‘It’s in the fish-box. Under a shitload of ice. And you can take it from me. Improvisation won’t ever come into it. Gunwise, we are covered against every eventuality. Steady. Random. Whatever the world may throw at us.’

Dave had never told Tony or Al the names of the boats that would be carrying the money. It was understood that this was Dave’s best guarantee of trust between himself and Tony. And even now, as Dave and Al picked their way along the starboard side of the ship toward the smokestacks in the stern, Al saw him give no sign which of the boats now loaded and lashed within the high walls of the Grand Duke’s extraordinary hull were carrying cash bound for Russia and the purchase of a whole bank.

‘Ya see ’em?’ asked Al. ‘The boats? Our boats?’

‘All three. Just like I said.’

‘Yeah? Which ones? Where are they?’

‘When we’re at sea, I’ll tell you. But not before.’

Al laughed bitterly. ‘ "Get along and trust each other," he said. Like fuck.’

‘You wouldn’t want me to make those guys feel self-conscious, now would you? Pointing them out like some kind of tourist attraction? "Hey look, there are the boats that we’re going to rip off." ’ Dave tut-tutted and shook his head. ‘I bet they’re nervous enough as it is. Besides, these are heavy guys, Al. They’ve probably got a fish-box just like ours. Let ’em relax, think they’re on a summer cruise. Better for us, better for them.’

They turned as a white boat with an angled red racing stripe came alongside the Duke. It was flying the Stars and Stripes in contrast to the ship’s British Red Ensign.

‘Customs?’

‘Uh-uh,’ said Dave. ‘Coast Guard. We must be getting ready to leave port.’ Dave glanced at his watch. It was five o’clock in the afternoon and it had taken the best part of a day to float the Duke’s peculiar cargo on board. A couple of seconds later they heard an announcement over the ship’s tannoy in the unmistakable voice of the chief officer.

‘Crew to close all hatches and stow all gear.’

Al smacked his lips.

‘I’m goin’ back to the boat to make myself a sandwich. Want one?’

‘No thanks. I’ll be along in a few minutes. I’m going to the stern. To take a look at our getaway boat. See what we’ve drawn in the lottery.’

But Dave had another mission in mind. Of necessity he had lied to Al, to reassure him. Al was enough of a pain in the ass already without alarming him any further. But now he wanted to reassure himself that the last information he had received from Einstein Gergiev had been correct and that the boats were indeed on board the Duke. He already knew that none of them was on the starboard side. So he waited until Al was out of sight before walking round to the port side of the ship, all the time turning over in his mind the names of the three boats he was looking for like a mantra. His heart gave a leap as he spotted the first boat; then the second; and then the third. Just like he’d been told. He could hardly believe it, but the three boats carrying the money were in a line along the Duke’s port wall. And, like the Duke, they were all flying the Red Ensign which meant that they were registered in the British Commonwealth — somewhere like Bermuda, Antigua, Gibraltar or the British Virgin Islands. There was a 100-foot raised pilothouse, cockpit motor yacht called the Beagle; a 70-foot Burger Cruiser called the Claudia Cardinale; and a 112-foot triple-decker custom Hatteras called Baby Doc.

Everything was just as he’d been told.

Dave still couldn’t get over the last boat. Even back in Miami, when he’d been given the three names, he had thought Baby Doc was hardly a name to have on a boat you were likely to sail anywhere near Haiti. After years of dictatorship by the Duvalier family — Papa Doc and then his son, Baby — the locals would probably have torched it on the quayside.

None of the crewmen of the three boats looked particularly Russian. Not that Dave had expected them to. They did look very tough, of that there was no doubt. One guy sunbathing on the roof of the Beagle was built like a wrestler, while a black guy tying off a length of rope aboard the Claudia Cardinale had arms that were the size of Dave’s legs. More than ever, Dave realized that the success of his plan depended on the element of surprise and not much else. Halfway across the Atlantic, he hoped the opposition would be less on its guard than they looked now. Even with the Customs and Coast Guard around he was pretty sure that one of the guys on the Baby Doc was carrying a gun underneath his shirt. Dave didn’t much care for the idea of a firefight with these characters. Guns had never been his thing. He preferred to shoot with his mouth.

‘Go to stations,’ the voice on the tannoy ordered.

Dave thought that was probably a good idea, before any of them noticed him watching.

Back at the Juarista Dave could just about see Al through the smoked glass of the galley window. He stepped onto the flybridge and found himself almost face to face with a girl on the bridge of the ship to port of him. She looked around thirty, with shoulder-length brown hair that belonged in an expensive shampoo commercial, and eyes that made the sky look as gray as the aircraft carrier moored outside the port’s main turning basin. Stretched out on a big white leather sofa on the back of the bridge, she was the kind of woman Dave had met many times lying on the bunk in his cell in Homestead, but had only ever seen in the glossy magazines.

‘Hi there,’ he said affably, expecting she’d be too snooty to reply.

‘Hi.’

She didn’t say any more than that, but her eyes stayed on him, as if they didn’t mind what they saw.

Dave looked quickly up and down her boat and then nodded appreciatively. She was probably married to some company chief executive old enough to be her father.

He said, ‘Nice-looking boat. Fast too, I’d say.’

‘She rides as flat as a railroad car,’ said Kate.

‘The Carrera, huh?’ he said, reading the name on the side of the bridge. ‘I’ll bet you’ve got the car to match.’

Kate smiled.

‘I’ve never liked Porsche very much,’ she said. ‘I think they’re too clinical. If it was up to me I’d have something British. Like a Jaguar XJS. I prefer something a little more luxurious for my money.’