Primary Valor, Jack Mars [black female authors .txt] 📗

was wearing a light blue dressshirt with the letters DWI over the left breast. He was awake, he was alert. Hewas clean shaven. His hair was perfect.

Max recognized the man, but hedidn’t care to search his own mental databanks to get the man’s name or hisposition. He could very well be the CEO of Dark Waters International. One ofthese guys definitely was.

“I don’t know who they are,”Darwin said. “That isn’t clear. Assassins, CIA agents, I have no idea. But theyattacked my property here. They killed four of my personal bodyguards, as wellas several Honduran military personnel who were assigned by that government toprotect me. They kidnapped two of my guests, and also my pilot. They stole myairplane and crashed it into the jungle.”

“And you think they’re Americanoperatives?”

“I KNOW they’re Americanoperatives,” Darwin said.

Max nearly laughed. Darwin soundeddrunk. He sounded overwrought and dramatic. He should be in a play on Broadway.

“I met one of them. He spokeEnglish, like an American. The survivors of the plane crash met at least oneother operative, were picked up by a helicopter, and went to a secret Americanairbase in the Rio Platano reserve, near the border with Nicaragua.”

The major from CentCom raised ahand as if to say STOP. “Let’s be clear,” he said. “There is no Americanairbase in the area you describe.”

“Whatever it is, whatever you wantto call it, they went there. And from there they went to Jamaica. They leftJamaica in a private jet registered to an American company called Apex DigitalManagement. We know this is a front company for an American intelligenceagency, but we don’t know which one. They are flying on a heading that willbring them to the Washington, DC, area later tonight.”

There was a long pause.

“There’s a girl on the plane,”Darwin said.

Max shook his head and smiled. Nowthey had arrived at the meat of the issue.

“She was reported missing about aweek ago from North Carolina. I believe there’s been a police investigation. Shewas with me. The lobbyist Miles Richmond was her grandfather.”

Max eyed the speakerphone closely.They had gotten him out of bed for this. Miles Richmond was a name familiar tohim. Last Max knew, Miles was an old duffer who was also alive and well.

“You say he was hergrandfather?”

The retired general looked over atMax. “Miles Richmond was murdered earlier tonight.”

Max smiled. “I guess someone’sbeen having themselves a day, huh?”

“There’s a lot here,” Darwin said.“If I go down on this, they’re going to want things from me. Not everyone inthat room may know the scope of what’s going on. But suffice to say there’s alot at stake, a lot that is jeopardized by this situation.”

“A lot that you’ve jeopardized,”Max said.

“A lot that I’ve made possible,”the Darwin King voice squawked.

Max knew all about it. It was Max’sjob to know about things. There was a rebel group operating in the Darien Gapof Panama. The Darien was a lawless jungle, out of reach of the Panamaniangovernment. For years, the rebels had allowed drug mules from Colombia to passthrough their territory. Recently, for reasons not entirely clear, they hadstopped doing that, and had refused to negotiate further.

So now they’d been labeled aterrorist organization. They had to go. A force of elite American soldiers fromJoint Special Operations Command were going to go in there and clear them out. Peoplein this very room stood to make money from this, a lot of money. Darwin hadnegotiated the terms of the payments with the cartels, and Colombian officials,and Panamanian officials. Drugs were big business. There was plenty of moneyfor everyone.

And of course, it was importantthat the flow from South America, up through Central America into Mexico, andfinally to the United States, remain impeded. That was practically a naturallaw. We had alphabet soup agencies whose mandate was to stop the flow. Meanwhile,we had other alphabet soup agencies who quietly guaranteed its safe passage. Itwas fun and games. No one knew what anyone else was doing.

No. That wasn’t quite true. Somedid. Max did.

He looked around the room at thefaces gathered there. Max was done speaking to Darwin. Darwin was now besidethe point. He was the child who had done the bad thing, and now it was up tothe adults to fix it.

“What are we doing to mitigate?”Max said.

A man nodded. He was a sandy-haired,youngish guy in an open-throated dress shirt. He was unshaven, a bitbleary-eyed. Maybe they had gotten him out of bed, too.

“We’re tracking the plane. We’vegot Navy fighters on patrol that are shadowing it. We haven’t made contact yet,and they’re ignoring our presence, but we assume they know we’re there.”

“Do we have any grounds tointercept the flight?” Max said.

“Plenty. They left an unregisteredairfield in Honduras. They didn’t submit a flight plan to the Honduranauthorities. They changed planes in Jamaica at another unregistered airfield. Theyare not communicating with United States air traffic control. They appear tointend to unlawfully enter American airspace, and proceed to an unknowndestination.”

“Drug plane,” Max said.

The man shrugged. “Could be. Drugsor other contraband. Human trafficking, in this case.”

“Can we divert it?” Max said.

“Of course. What choice do theyhave? They can go where we instruct, or they can get shot down. The Navy pilotsdon’t know any better. They’re just doing their jobs. There’s a mystery planein the air that left Central America.”

“Then I think that’s what we do,”Max said. He looked at the retired general. The general had a flattop haircutand hard eyes. He clearly kept himself fit. He looked irritated. This thing hadprobably messed with his 7 a.m. tee off.

“Divert it,” the general said. “Somewherewe reliably control.”

“Then what?” Max said.

“Max, you run the show,” thegeneral said. “We trust you implicitly. Take the girl back. Capture the agents,whoever they are. If they surrender without a fight, lock them up somewhereuntil they agree none of this ever happened. We’ll bring some people in to talkto them. They’ll understand. National security. That sort of thing. If we haveto smooth out some rough waters later, we will. Could be an agency budgetaryissue. Could be a couple of citations for bravery are in order. I don’t know. Whateverit is, I’m sure it’s fine.”

“I’ll need men