The Destroyer - 16 - The Destroyer 016 - Oil Slick by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir

Author:Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir [Murphy, Warren & Sapir, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pulp Action
Publisher: PINNACLE BOOKS
Published: 2010-03-19T14:53:01+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

"Do you have it?" Baraka asked his minister of transportation.

"Yes, sir. Right here. It was very easy, too. All I did was call the French ministry and they got clearance from Paris, and Paris called the aircraft and the aircraft beamed back its entire passenger list to the embassy. And I made them hand-deliver it to me here, because I am not a servant to stand around waiting while they decide to do something, but instead the personal emissary of the great Colonel Baraka."

"Silence," thundered Baraka. "I am not interested in the brilliant techniques you used to outsmart the entire French government to acquire a list of passengers aboard a plane. Did it ever occur to you to call Air France and tell them to read you the list?"

"But suppose they said no?"

"Will you get out of my sight?" yelled Baraka. "Go. Go."

The minister turned and headed for the door.

"Idiot, leave the list," Baraka snarled.

"Yes, sir. Yes, sir," said the minister, unable to understand how he had angered Baraka.

He returned quickly to Baraka's desk, put the list down, threw a snappy military salute, and backed toward the door, watching Baraka in case the colonel should decide to shoot him.

Baraka waited until the heavy door had completely closed, then reached his hand under the left front of the desk and pressed a small red button. A heavy bolt built into the door frame slid out slowly, into a groove cut hi the door's side. Automatically, a red light went on over the door, signifying to Baraka's Lobynian secretary that the ruler for Hie was busy and must not, must not, absolutely must not, under pain of death, be disturbed.

Teaching the secretary this was a monument to Baraka's perseverance.

At first, Baraka had had only the do-not-disturb light installed. He pressed the button on the day of its installation so that he would not be disturbed, but three minutes later his secretary came in.

He told her gently that he was not to be disturbed when the red light was on; she responded that she had not seen it.

He told her to look for it from now on, before entering his office.

She barged through the red light twice more that day.

The second time, Baraka suggested that she would spend the rest of her life in a brothel servicing goats if she did not respect the red light.

That she regarded this as an idle threat was apparent the next morning when she barged past the red light and into Baraka's office.

Baraka responded by putting a bullet into the fleshy part of her left calf.

She was back at work hi two weeks, her leg heavily bandaged.

Baraka had arrived at his office early that day. He heard the secretary arrive. He turned on the red light, then waited.

Five minutes later, she limped into his office, carrying a pile of papers.

Baraka sighed. A minute later he was on the phone to the palace electrician, ordering the bolt to be installed in the door.

The electrician promised it his personal undivided attention, and only six weeks later, the bolt was installed.

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