The Ransom Drop by Rob Phayre

Author:Rob Phayre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 46.

November 11th, Athens, Greece.

Finlay walked into the negotiating room. He had stopped off for a fag on the way and so walked in reeking of stale cigarette smoke. He was carrying an A4 sized manila envelope and John was already there sitting at a desk.

‘Hi Finlay, how did the conversation with Mr Papadopoulos go? - Did he approve?’

‘Morning John, yes, we are good to go, no issues. Are you happy with the notes that we went through yesterday? It can be a bit of a tricky conversation to get through this one.’

‘Yes, I think so.’

‘Good, explaining how the delivery is going to happen can sometimes be difficult. Especially as this one is quite unconventional, though Abdi’s English is really quite good, fortunately. Let’s write some of the key points up on the board and then we can go through it.’ Looking at the table by the wall he added ‘Ah, good, we got the fax machine installed then.’

‘Yes, the tech did it yesterday. I have put the fax number for the ship on the piece of paper beside it.’

Finlay walked over to it, glanced at the number, lifted the handset to check there was a dial tone and then replaced the receiver. He walked back to John’s desk and pulled some documents out of his manila envelope. ‘Here we go. This is the final draft of the process that we need to talk Abdi through, and here is the diagram.’

The documents weren’t new to John, they had discussed them extensively yesterday and re-drafted them twice. One was a written explanation of how the drop would go, and one was a picture, showing how it would happen. Finlay had kept the physical copies in his possession overnight. He wouldn’t have been the first response advisor to have lost vital documents just before a drop.

They spent the next twenty minutes writing key phrases on the whiteboard and then took a quick break. When 09.00 Mogadishu time came up on the clock, as always, Finlay pressed record and John pressed speed dial 1.

The phone rang several times before Abdi picked up. Sounding relieved he said, ‘Hi John, good morning.’

‘Good morning Abdi, how are you?’

‘Well, I was expecting your call yesterday. What happened?’

‘Oh, were you? Sorry about that, we had some final detailed planning to do. Hobyo is a long way from most places Abdi.’

Abdi was a little shocked but tried not to show it. ‘Um, yes, it is. I hadn’t told you where the ship is. How did you know?’

Finlay nodded at John, this was a good pressure card to play and John evaded directly answering the question by saying ‘Abdi, we have known where you are for a long time now.’ He stopped to let that sink in.

Abdi filled the gap. ‘OK, and do you have a plan on how to get my money delivered to me? I won’t put any of my men at risk, so if I don’t agree the deal is off.’

‘I understand Abdi. In a moment I am going to send you a written instruction using the fax machine on the Bridge.

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