No Turning Back by Freddie P Peters

Author:Freddie P Peters [Peters, Freddie P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller/suspense
ISBN: 9781999337315
Published: 2019-10-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

From a distance Pole could see Andy standing at his desk and gesticulating, whilst talking on his mobile. He stopped abruptly and bent down to jot some illegible note in his notebook. Pole smiled. Working with his newly promoted DS was a treat. There was something almost childlike in the way Andy engaged with his job so enthusiastically. Pole’s DS hung up but kept talking at the screen as if reprimanding it for not delivering the answer quickly enough.

“I am not sure it will take any notice,” Pole said.

“Guv,” Andy turned around with a small jerk but Pole’s amused face gave him confidence. “I’ve got some really interesting news.”

“Very good, shoot.” Pole leaned against the desk, arms crossed.

“I confirmed, well I think I confirmed, the route that Visconti was taking to smuggle the art pieces and artefacts out of the Middle-East war zones.”

Pole nodded, “Go on.”

“I am ninety-nine per cent sure he’s been using the African route: Libya, Malta then Italy.”

“What’s the alternative?”

“From Tunisia to France or sometimes Southern Spain.”

“Are there no direct routes? I mean from the Middle-East?”

“Not really. The most direct route would be to Turkey or Greece.”

Andy had brought a map of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean onto the screen. He had drawn the routes in different colours, making them easier to distinguish.

“What leads you to believe Visconti was taking the African route?” Pole said. “Choose a less obvious route to avoid detection?”

“That’s one of the reasons I think, but it may also be that it is where he had the best contacts for smuggling.”

“Who else is using that route for trafficking?”

“The Narco unit told me that drugs are smuggled along a completely different route. People trafficking drugs established their routes before any of these were mapped and they don’t like to mix.”

“Armaments, as you suspected?” Pole bit his lip. This case was getting bigger by the minute.

“That’s much more interesting because that’s where the lines are getting blurred and Libya is in such a state of flux that weapons transit through it all the time.”

“To where, do we know?”

“The whole of Africa. CT Command was pretty adamant.”

“Nowhere else?”

“Nope.” Andy moved his mouse and new lines appeared on his map of the Mediterranean and Africa. Pole moved to the back of Andy’s chair to take a better look.

“How about migration?”

“You mean people?” Andy turned around surprised.

“Why not?”

“That’s an interesting idea, Guv. I’ll dig around.”

“How about INTERPOL?”

“Haven’t had much luck.”

“Let me make some calls too. In the meantime, take me through the chart.”

“As far as weapons are concerned, African trafficking goes through the Libya–Tunisia route then moves to Malta and Italy. The Middle-Eastern trafficking goes through Turkey; they have various entry points through the Arabian Peninsula.”

Pole was following the various colours on the chart with his fingers. “That’s a pretty good map you’ve put together.” Pole straightened up and resumed his previous position, leaning against Andy’s desk. “Visconti departed from the norm. He took the risk of taking a much longer route for the trafficking of his goods, I presume to avoid detection.

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