Andrew Vachss - Dead and Gone

“I am sure not,” he said, smoothly, refusing to take offense at my constant interruptions. “Waterfront property is available, with sufficient dockage constructible to accommodate ships of any size. But I believe ambiguity is a potential source of dissatisfaction between associates and, thus, should be eliminated. So, as to your other specifications, if you will enlighten me …”

“Certainly, sir. Those ‘accommodating’ governments of which I spoke are run by mud people. I will not spend my final years in a country controlled by animals. You describe Darcadia, if I have read your prospectus correctly, as a country which would be openly racialist in its orientation.”

“Darcadia is a sovereign area. As such, it is free to—”

“Are you deliberately evading my question?” I snapped at him.

“Mr. Preston, my apologies if you took that to be my intent. Let me match your bluntness with my own. Non-Aryans will not be permitted on Darcadian soil.”

“Ah, that is unfortunate,” I said, setting my own hook.

“Sir?”

“I have certain … servants, if you will, who are not Aryans. They are my … preference. Am I communicating sufficiently?”

“You are,” he said, returning serve effortlessly. “My apologies. I should have explained that the prohibition is against citizenship and tourism. But Darcadians who enjoy a certain … status would be free to operate their private estates entirely at their own discretion. Is that satisfactory?”

“It … sounds so,” I said, centering myself for the bluff that the whole thing hinged on. “But I would need to see who I would be dealing with as well as the specifics of the deal. After all, what I would be investing in is, to some extent, intangible … at least for the present. But what I would be delivering is quite tangible. So, if you can come to my estate on Key West, at your convenience of course, we could finalize—”

“My regrets,” he said. “This would be, frankly, impossible. News of Darcadia has attracted considerable government interest. And I am , at least on paper, an American citizen. Neither I nor my Cabinet can subject ourselves to the jurisdiction of—”

“Yes, yes,” I cut him off, impatience dominating my voice. “All right. You pick our meeting place, then. But let me caution you: I will not fly. I simply don’t trust airplanes. So, if it is a considerable distance, be prepared to wait until I can make the journey by ship.”

“You are being more than reasonable, sir. Could I ask you to call back in twenty-four hours? I will have an answer for you then. A satisfactory answer, you have my word on that.”

“Twenty-four hours from right now? Or at eight-ten my time tomorrow night?”

“You are a very precise man.” He chuckled appreciatively. “Let us say eight-ten once more. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” I said. And hung up on him.

“Call them in,” I told Gem.

The next night, I went through the same routine, including the “receptionist,” and got him on the line. As soon as he started talking, I had to shut him down.

“Look,” I told him, allowing the impatience of the character I was playing to come through clearly, “just because I own a yacht doesn’t make me a damn sailor. You’re going to have to go slow; I need to write this all down.”

“Certainly,” he said, calmly. “Remember, we are meeting on your terms. That is, a place you can reach by boat. Your captain will know the Oregon coast …?”

I felt a bone-deep chill. How could he …? I rotated my head, slow and soft, like Max had shown me. Then reversed the direction. When I had control of my voice, I said: “What are you asking? Can he find the damn coast, or is he familiar with it?”

“The former, sir.”

“Then of course!”

“All right. Please set sail for the coastline on the California-Oregon border. Once you are in that area, I will provide your captain with precise instructions.”

“I’m not pulling in to any—”

“No, sir. We will meet at sea. Fair enough?”

“I’ll be traveling a long way—”

“I understand that, sir.”

“—with a lot of money. I trust I won’t be disappointed.”

“You will not, I promise you. Until then.”

“By the time we get there, it will be right around the first of May,” Flacco said. “Even out where he wants to meet, the sea’ll be sweet and calm. Like glass, especially at first light. Anyway, as calm as it ever gets off Oregon; that is one bad coastline, hombre.”

“That’s more than three weeks,” I said. “It’ll take that long?”

“I’m giving us a little margin, just in case of weather, but that’s about right. We looked his ship over, and she’s like new. Perfect. We can carry about thirty-five hundred gallons, cruise around twenty-two knots, and we’re working with a range of maybe four thousand miles. So figure Galveston to Progreso to Panama, maybe a week. Then we go through the Canal to Cabo San Lucas.…”

I gave him a “What?” look.

“That is the tip of Baja, hombre . Me and Gordito, we know it well, don’t we, compadre?”

Gordo just smiled.

“Our next leg is into Dago, then up to San Francisco. Got to allow, oh, two weeks max for that one. Finally, we lay in once we get near the Oregon border. From there, we can hit any spot he picks in two, three hours max.”

“I thought the Panama Canal was only for commercial ships.”

“No way. You pay the freight, they let you ride. We lock it from port to port—Cristobal going in, and we exit at Balboa. Whole trip takes maybe nine, ten hours; nothing to it.”

“How much is the toll?”

“Depends on the size of the ship. The one we got, under five grand, my best guess.”

“And you just drive up and pay the toll, like going over a bridge?”

“No,” Gordo answered. “It is not like that at all, my friend.” He used his fingers to tick off requirements he’d obviously memorized. “We have to radio prior to arrival—ninety-six, seventy-two, forty-eight, and twenty-four hours in front. We make contact on VHF Channel 12, then they find us a working channel to finish up. Then everyone on board needs ID; it’s called a Landing Card. You get those when you hit the first pier. After you pay them.”

“Damn.”

“Oh, there’s more,” he went on. “They’ll want a Quarantine Declaration and one for any cargo, too. A crew-and-passenger list. Lots of stuff. And they can inspect you at any time. So we also need an International Tonnage Certificate with all its calculation sheets attached, Lines Plans for the Offset Tables, mucho paper, man. I don’t know if all that’s on board. It should be—that beauty’s an oceangoer, no question. But they’ll do all the measuring and stuff right there if we want. So long as we—”

“—pay for it,” I finished for him.

“You got it. And when it comes to paper, Gem …”

She nodded. “We have all gone through the Canal before,” she said. “It is no problem.”

It took a half-line in under eight hours.

“You still want to walk that path with me?” I asked him. “Yes.”

“Ever been on a boat?”

“I was a Marine,” he said, as if that answered the question.

I gave him the meet-point in Galveston. “Bring your tools,” I told him. “There’s something we’re going to need to fix.”

“Can you make one, Mole?”

“It would depend on whether the contact point is organic or inorganic.”

“Huh?”

“Wood is organic. Metal or plastic is inorganic.”

“Ah. I don’t know.”

“I would have to make two, then. The simple one is a penetrator. The other would require either a magnet or suction of some sort. How long would it have to remain in place?”