The Black Box by Paul Carr

Author:Paul Carr [Carr, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Lewis

Time to give Igor a ring. I used the senator’s phone, which I had lifted after putting a bullet in his head.

“Who is this?” the person on the other end said. The voice sound altered.

“This is Ethan Lewis. Are you Igor?” When he didn’t reply, I said, “You don’t sound Russian. And I believe you’re speaking through a voice changer. Am I correct? I know about voice changers. I’ve used them myself from time to time.”

The meds had me jabbering. Had to watch that.

“What do you want? I told Sterling Pound to fire you. Nobody was supposed to die, and you left a trail of dead bodies.”

“Not my fault. And forget about Pound. I have secured the location of the spacecraft, and you’ll be dealing directly with me from now on.”

“You have the location?”

“That’s what I said. I don’t know what you already paid Pound, but you need to get a refund. He wasted your money on the losers he recommended to help me. Now, I’m going to need some cash and divers to get to that craft. It’s in 150 feet of water in the Bermuda Triangle.”

After a pause, he said, “I’ll pay you for the location. Assuming I can verify its validity beforehand, of course.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” I said. “It won’t work that way. I need to see this through, and I’ve found a barge with a crane to bring it up, but I need $5,000 for a deposit. I also need to hire divers to go down and survey the site so we’ll know what equipment will be required.”

After a pause he said, “I will provide the divers and a boat to check it out. If the ship is where you say it is, I’ll pay you $30,000.”

“Take it,” Murray said. “It’s the best deal you’ll get.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to think.”

“Pardon me,” the altered voice said.

“Not you. My nutter mate is talking in my ear. Anyway, I need a lot more than that.”

Silence on the line, then, “All right. If the spacecraft is there, I’ll pay $50,000.”

“That isn’t enough. Considering the hardships I’ve endured to get the location, I need twice that much.”

“Sorry, I’ve already spent too much without any results. I can’t go any higher.”

“Then you can forget it. I’ll find another buyer.” I hung up.

“You should’ve taken the fifty,” Murray said. “You can get your face repaired with that money.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, if I go to another hack. Apparently you don’t keep up with the cost of plastic surgeons. I can sell the location of the spacecraft to somebody else for a lot more.”

“Like who?”

“Like the U.S. or the U.K. Government.”

“Good luck with that. Nobody is going to believe you.”

“They’ll believe me. Senator Klaus believed Dwight Ridge.”

“Yeah, but he’s dead, and he only took the bait because he thought he could sell the technology to an enemy.”

“Right, right, right. Maybe I was hasty.” I dialed again.

The altered voice answered and I said, “Okay, I’ll take the fifty K.”

****

I arrived at the marina and hurried down the dock to the dive boat.

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