Dark Watch (Oregon Files 3)

“Hold on.” Juan used his cell phone to call the Oregon.

“Law offices of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe,” Linda Ross greeted in her high-pitched voice.

Cabrillo calculated the time difference between Switzerland and the South China Sea. “Good evening, Linda.”

“Chairman, how’d it go?”

“Smooth as silk. Listen, have Murph and Eric been monitoring the news here in Zurich?”

“Sure have. Let me get them.”

Mark Murphy came on the line a moment later. Juan could hear the speed metal music blaring from the headphones Murph had pulled down around his neck. It sounded like someone using a chain saw against a piece of railroad track. “Chairman, from what I’m getting from CNN and SkyNews, the Swiss don’t have a clue what happened. At first they thought it was a structural failure of some kind, and then they thought they were having their own 9/11. From what I can get from local police chatter, there’s been a couple mentions about the missing armored car and unknown gunmen at the scene when the explosions went off.”

“Are they closing borders or delaying flights?”

“No. They think this is a local thing.”

“So we’re safe for the time being.”

“It’ll take them so long to add two and two they’ll need to include interest.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a joke. You know, Swiss banks? Interest? Hey, that was funny.”

“Stick to being a connoisseur of fine music and leave the humor to the professionals, like Max. How far are you from Sumatra?”

“A few days still, why?”

“Rudolph Isphording said the guy who controls the Maus is named Shere Singh. He owns a company called the Karamita Breakers Yard. Check them both out. Also track down another floating drydock called the Souri. Singh owns it, too.”

“How do you spell that?”

Juan did and added, “It’s French for mouse.”

“Got it.”

“Thanks, Murph. Tell Max I want you to break off from the Maus and make best practical speed for the Karamita Yard.” Best practical speed was far slower than the Oregon’s top speed, but running that fast during daylight hours or without radar jamming would give away one of the ship’s most important secrets.

“I’ll pass it along.”

“See you in a day or so.” Juan killed the connection and turned to Linc and the others awaiting orders. “It seems the police don’t know what happened, so we’re in the clear for now. We’ll all be out of Switzerland within six hours, so set the charge for eight p.m. Isphording and the guards are in for an uncomfortable day, but they won’t dehydrate by the time the local fire department arrives and discovers the missing armored car.”

Cabrillo fired up the SUV’s throaty V-8. He had a long drive to Munich ahead of him where he’d catch his own flight out of Europe. He hoped that by the time he got there, the adrenaline still pumping through his body would dissipate, because his hands remained shaky and his stomach was still knotted. He also hoped that Mark would find that the Maus’s sister ship was operated as a legitimate drydock and not involved in hijacking on the open seas, but he knew the chances of that were longer than Hali Kasim giving the keynote sermon at next year’s hajj to Mecca.

18

JUAN Cabrillo knew the type. The man behind the desk opposite him dressed poorly and took little pride in his personal appearance other than to follow the tenets of his faith. His turban was wound tightly around his head, but the fabric was frayed and stained with sweat. His shirt was of cheap cotton, and the dark circles under the arms looked permanent. Bits of food clung to his beard and mustache.

The office was also staged to present a particular image. The desk was covered with papers, and the file cabinets were filled to bursting. The furniture was cut-rate and uncomfortable, and the posters on the wall were most likely given away by the Indonesian tourist board. The computer behind the desk was old enough to be in a museum of ancient technology.

The woman who had shown Juan into the office was perhaps the only genuine article about the whole setup. She was an elderly Indonesian woman, stick thin and tired. Her clothes were as cheap as those worn by her boss, but Cabrillo suspected it was because he paid her a pittance and not because she was putting up the front of a struggling business.

After reading a complete dossier put together by Mark Murphy prior to the meeting, Cabrillo knew more about Shere Singh and his family than he’d ever wished to. He knew their estimated net worth was nearly half a billion dollars. He knew that the family’s patriarch lived in a five-hundred-acre compound in a house large enough to keep his eleven children and their families under one roof. He trusted his sons-in-law only to a point. It seemed that the sides of the business they were in charge of were for the most part legitimate. It was Shere Singh’s own sons who ran the illegal operations. Abhay Singh, the eldest, was the representative for the Karamita Breakers Yard.

He maintained their offices in a run-down district of Jakarta, near enough to the docks to occasionally hear a ship’s horn but far enough that one had to search to find it.

Setting up this meeting with Abhay Singh had been simple. Cabrillo had contacted the company while en route from Munich to Jakarta, representing himself as the captain of a ship he wanted to sell for scrap. He wanted to know what Karamita Breakers Yard would bid for the hulk.