No Return by Ridge King

Author:Ridge King [King, Ridge]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elsinore Press
Published: 2021-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Pozo drove his Chevy Malibu into Tavernier and went to the marina where Big Fish IV was docked. He used his cell phone and alerted Captain Chico DeCespede that he would be there in a couple of minutes, and when he pulled into the marina, Chico was waiting for him.

Chico got into the car and gave directions to a hangar a few miles down U.S. 1, and in short order they drew up to the place and parked.

Pozo got out of the car, heavy thoughts on his mind.

“The boats are looking good, Fernando,” said Chico.

Pozo didn’t say anything, but merely followed Chico as he led the way into a large Quonset hut style building.

Inside, workers on Chico’s payroll were busily detailing some boats: a 46-foot Utility Boat and two 40-foot Fast Response Boats. All three boats were in the process of being repainted with U.S. Coast Guard colors and markings. They looked like the real thing, even down to the swivel guns mounted fore and aft. The familiar orange stripes really made the boats look authentic.

“You’ve done well, Chico,” said Pozo.

“We’ll have all the uniforms by tomorrow or the next day, even fitted for my men who will make up the crews. I had them all get haircuts so they’d look like guardsmen. The boys with the best English will be the officers.”

“That’s very good, Chico.”

“You looked worried, Fernando.”

“I am just weighing conflicting reports I’ve been getting. I have to decide if we launch this operation or not. There are some additional risk factors I’ve recently been made aware of.”

He spent a few more minutes with Chico inspecting the work on the boats before walking out to his car, Chico right behind him.

“You carry on, Chico. The boats look very good. Even a trained eye would have a hard time telling they weren’t real Coast Guard.”

On the drive back up U.S. 1, he weighed the “additional risks” he’d mentioned to Chico.

Pozo had correctly figured that Vlad and Derek would use a boat to transport the cash to the Bahamas, and that through the Oyebanjos, he’d be able to ascertain when and where this boat would launch.

But he hadn’t foreseen them developing a plan as grand as that involving the Queen of Thailand. Even that curious choice he might have dealt with easily enough, but not with 300 or 400 partygoers cramming the vessel, each with a cell phone.

And he hadn’t planned for Vlad to transport the money on New Year’s Eve, when every Coast Guard boat large and small was guaranteed to be patrolling the waters.

Pozo’s intention had been to use phony Coast Guard gunboats and a larger vessel, the 46-foot Utility Boat, to intercept the vessel. The crew and passengers would be held at gunpoint and locked below decks while Chico’s men unloaded the money and continued the trip to the Bahamas to deliver the money to an entirely different set of people waiting for it who had never heard of the Oyebanjos. The money then was to be transferred to accounts Pozo controlled elsewhere in the Caribbean and Europe.

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