Smokescreen: A True Adventure by Robert Sabbag

Author:Robert Sabbag [Sabbag, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure
Publisher: Argo-Navis
Published: 2013-12-09T23:00:00+00:00

The pilots did not have a clue.

McBride and Hatfield were flying to the Guajira expecting the second load of pot on the arm — fronted by the Colombians, pending distribution in the States — putting the Americans in position to pay for the load and also pay for the load that had been lost. The pilots would not have agreed to the trip had they thought the load was a “maybe.”

The Colombians expected the plane to land carrying not only the money the Americans owed, but a down payment on the pot the Americans were there to pick up. From the Colombian point of view, the plane, when it landed, would be — to the penny — a quarter of a million dollars short.

The thought that the Colombians might kill them right there as they stood on the beach for showing up empty-handed would have been that much more discouraging to the pilots.

All three men were playing light, but only one of them knew it.

By unofficial agreement in the dope business, the impact of a seizure like the one at West Point is absorbed evenly by buyer and seller. By tradition, if a smuggler can show the loss to be legitimate — providing a police evidence sheet, for instance, to prove that he is not actually stealing — the loss is split down the line, usually at the farmer’s price. The farmer gets paid in full, and the traffickers share the hit. Long assumed the protocol to be standard, but never having worked with the Colombians, was not sure they observed the convention.

One way or another, by raising the issue beforehand, he jeopardized his shot at a second load, or so had been his reasoning. He was presenting the Colombians with a fait accompli, judging it a way to improve his odds. Apart from Long himself, only Reed knew he was running a con.

“You’ll do it,” said Reed, when Long laid out the plan. “You can talk ’em into it, Al.”

But even now, a hundred miles from touchdown, Long wondered what to say. He wondered how he was going to handle it. He knew only one thing for certain. For whatever it happened to be worth, he knew he could count on Reed. He knew he could trust JD to be there, waiting for the airplane, no matter when it got back.

If it got back.

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