Stephan’s vehicle retraced its path to the highway. Wade was in no rush, knowing that Stephan was headed back to the safe house in Belmopan, having replaced the weaponry for the Belize mission.
Back in Belize City, Wade joined Max for a dinner of fine local seafood.
“So how did it go with Yari?”
Max unwrapped his silverware and set it on the table. “Fine. I gave him the address and street coordinates, and he said he would have something by the end of the day. He asked us to call him tonight for an update.”
“Did you speak with your explosives instructor about the cases?”
“Yes, I think we’re both on the same page as to what the cases might contain. He gave me a few ideas on how to approach the mechanism from the outside.”
“Wow. I’m still freaked out by all this. Did he say anything about that weird locking mechanism in the handle?”
“It’s probably Russian. He’s seen it before.”
Wade took a sip of water. “What about dismantling or disarming these things?”
“It’s pretty complicated, but I’m comfortable with dismantling them.”
“In other words, you’re saying the details are over my head.”
“I just need you to okay the move forward, so I can get the tools I need to complete the job. It’s your call.”
“I need to think about it tonight, okay?”
“Sure. We just have to find a location to work on the cases where no one is around.”
Wade’s eyes widened in question. “You mean a location where no one will see us? Or one where innocents won’t be harmed if the case explodes?”
“Both.”
“Let’s call Yari after dinner to see if he’s learned anything new. I also have to make a call to my agency. If you don’t mind, perhaps you can do some library research while I’m on the phone?”
“Not a problem.”
The dinner was awesome, as each man tried a different local fish dish preceded by two rounds of conch ceviche. They made it to the library an hour before it closed. Wade made the call to Yari while Max went inside to continue his research.
“It’s me — Wade. Were those location coordinates helpful?”
“They were great. I got four calls just today. I now not only have Stephan’s location pinned down, but I have the two other operatives’ phone locations as well. I wasn’t able to get any confirmation on the name Stephan Woretz, though. It’s an alias. The credit card and passport in that name are also bogus.”
“I thought that might be the case. What did you learn from the calls?”
“It sounds like Stephan is calling all the shots, just as you suspected. I didn’t see any communication with Condor. It’s like Condor has now dropped out of this operation.”
“Did you get anything more on Stephan?”
“Yes, I had one of our accent specialists listen to the calls. He determined that German is Stephan’s primary language from birth. At some point during his youth, Stephan also learned to speak Russian — we know because he spoke to one of the other operatives in Russian. Our language specialist thinks the Russian is very natural. He thinks he probably learned Russian while he was young, but only after he learned German. His English is okay, but probably learned much later in life.”
“What about the other operatives?”
“It looks like you’ll have the company of two additional people. They discussed a third operative, but Stephan rejected his involvement.”
“Do we know anything about them?”
“From the conversation, it seems both of them know and have worked with Stephan in the past. One operative is Bulgarian, and the other was calling from a phone in Chile — but he spoke with an Eastern European accent. Our language specialist says he’s from one of the Soviet bloc countries, but he’s not Russian. They all speak English. In fact, 80 percent of the conversations are in English. There were just some references to personal items that we had to translate.”
“I want to know what those personal items are. They may be important. But let’s not get into that right now. Do you know when they’re scheduled to arrive in Belize?”
Yari cleared his throat. “The Bulgarian arrives the day after tomorrow. The guy from Chile is tied up on another job. He’s scheduled to come in a day or two after the Bulgarian. They’re supposed to confirm all flight information with Stephan tomorrow.”
“Good work.”
“Are you ready for them?”
Wade sighed aloud. “We’ve got lots to do, but we’ll be ready. I’ll call you tomorrow for the flight info.”
“Say hi to Max for me.”
“Will do. By the way, our target took delivery of weapons today from a small private airplane. Here are the tail numbers. See what you can find out about the owners of the plane.”
“Will do.”
“Oh, and I need a patch for my call to the Agency.”
“Call back on this phone in ten minutes. I’ll set it up.”
“We’ll talk soon.”
For ten minutes, Wade scribbled a few notes on his pad before picking up the phone.
He smiled when she picked up. “Hi, it’s me.”
“Hi, you. I thought you might be calling today.”
“I would’ve called earlier but I was tied up with some Brahma bulls.”
“Are those the one with the big humps on their backs?”
“Yes. The ones they ride in rodeos.”
“I hope you didn’t get near them.”
“Not too close. Did you discover anything on your end?”
“I’m not on a secure phone right now on my end.”
“Just keep it general. We’ll be okay.”
Again Wade didn’t mention that he had already secured the line.
“There’s one U.S. senator who has introduced a bill supporting a stronger U.S. presence in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s pushing hard to gain support in the Senate.”
“Who’s that?”
“Senator Charles Lanier.”
“You might check on his background. Did he ever serve in Vietnam, or in any intelligence services? That should all be public record.”
“I’ll do that. The only other thing I found is that the Russian-Cuban affiliation is cooling off. Cuba expected more from the relationship, including more financial aid from Russia. All they got were a lot of promises. Apparently when the Russians didn’t get the missile bases they wanted, they didn’t want to play house any more. I also question the involvement of other Central and South American countries. Several are playing footsies with Cuba, but I didn’t discover any unusual activity.”
“Anything more on Spencer’s death?”
“Nothing yet, but I’m working a new angle. I’ll let you know when we have a more secure connection.”
“I have a busy day tomorrow, and I’m dead tired right now, but we’ll talk again soon.”
Chapter 25
Max and Wade were in Max’s car five miles outside of Belmopan when they turned off the highway. Max made a couple of strange turns onto dirt roads, which caught Wade by surprise.
Then Max stopped the car and turned to Wade. “I thought this might be a good spot.”
They both got out and looked around. Max waved to Wade. “This way.”
A short path led to a clearing in the middle of the jungle lined by thick overhanging branches and a dark jungle behind, something indigenous Indians might call a rest area. Standing in the middle of the clearing, Wade turned up the palms of his hands, looking confused.
“What’s this? When in the hell did you find this place?”
“After we changed watch yesterday, I followed the jungle line along the road. I just had a hunch.”
A morning sunrise had just started spreading its rays over the mountainside, but it was still dark underneath the jungle canopy. Wade realized he had given Max the okay to examine the cases more closely, but still wasn’t sure what Max had in mind.