Something In The Weather-Chapters 19-22
And the beat goes on…...
Chapter 19
The Police Chief got a call as soon as he had arrived at his office. He picked up the phone to see who would be disturbing him so early in the morning. He hadn’t even had time to make a pot of coffee. When he heard that there had been a killing at the clearing site again, he was angry, upset, hungry, and extremely curious. An American named Kenneth Porter told him that someone had tried to shoot them at the site and had been killed. They had been expecting trouble ever since the death of the first guard at the site. Ken briefly explained about the explosives found and that there was a team on its way to clean it up. Ken reassured the Police Chief that the proper officials of the Venezuelan Government had been notified and they would be on site in a couple of hours. Ken suggested that the Chief get on the road now and get on the site for a briefing before they arrive. He told the Chief about the body bag he had ordered and suggested he get there soon also to make an investigation into the killing so that he would have something to report to the Venezuelan officials.
The Chief thanked him for the advance warning and told him he would be there in an hour or less. He hung up the phone and grabbed his hat and raincoat, just in case.
As the Chief went outside to go, an old truck drove by him at what he thought was an excessive speed. He looked at the driver and saw a fat man that he had noticed around his small town a few times. He is lucky, the Chief thought. At any other time he would have chased him down and written out a speeding ticket for going so fast in his town. There were children playing in the streets here. The Chief shook his head and got into his old four-wheel drive SUV and cranked it up. He put it in gear and roared off for the race to get to the site before the Government officials got there. He dreaded the long and bumpy ride but nothing could be done about it now. Maybe he could get a cup of coffee there, he thought.
Before dawn, Ken had made the call to The U.S. State Department after he had made a call to the Company to keep them from being blindsided by these events. They advised him to make the call. They asked him to ask the State Dept. to inform the Venezuelan Government so that they could also tell them about the discovery of the archaeological site. It was a tricky thing to explain, why they had not notified the Venezuelan Government of the find. The main thought was that the discovery was accidental when the bodies of the three men in the chopper were recovered. The stone that John had recovered at the site had been loaded into the recovery casket of one of the men because of the blood and body parts on it. Only later was the significance of the script found on it noticed. That was the story that would be told by the State Dept. to the Venezuelan Government. The guard sent there to protect the site was killed and the team led by Ken Porter was there to investigate. The archaeologist had been sent when the stone had been cleaned off and the script had been noticed. The story was plausible and only ignored a few facts, but should pass muster if it was told by the accomplished liars of the State Dept.
Only time would tell how the Venezuelan Government would react to the news. The one thing no one could account for was the presence of the explosives and ammunition cache. That was the only redeeming factor in the case. It explained the deaths of the three men in the chopper that was shot down, the death of the guard by the sniper who had blown up the slab to prevent the discovery of the cache and finally, it explained the death of the sniper who tried to kill Ken and his team. Everything should be neatly wrapped up and explained. All he had to do now was wait for the EOD team, The Police Chief, the Venezuelan government officials and the inevitable visit from the U.S. State Dept. officials. What a lineup, he thought. He walked over to the cook tent to get a cup of coffee.
John and Sarah showed up within a few minutes of each other, Ken noticed. John came over and poured a cup of coffee and sat next to Ken. He was silent for a minute, then cleared his throat and started to speak. Here it comes, thought Ken. John explained to his friend about his feelings for Sarah. He told Ken that he was thinking about getting into some other line of work. What had happened in just the last few days had given him pause to think about where his life was going. He made a good living doing body recovery, but it was starting to affect his thinking and feeling about other people, the living ones. He wasn’t getting the feeling of satisfaction that bringing back the remains of someone’s husband, son, brother or whatever used to give him. Now it was so impersonal, it was just a job that he did. He wanted to try something new in his life. When Ken asked him if he was going to try horse farming, John was startled; then he was angry at Ken’s implication, especially since it was true.
Just then, Sarah burst out of her tent and walked over to the table where John and Ken were sitting. She looked at John for a moment, then said “Good morning, Ken”. Ken laughed and returned her greeting. She asked about what they were going to do this morning. Before Ken could answer, the three marines came up from the hole in the ground. One was still wearing his bomb-proof suit. It made him look as big as a gorilla. But since he had taken off the large, bulbous helmet, his head looked way too small. He must have been used to the looks, because he grinned and waved his helmet. As the EOD team leader came over to Ken, the man in the suit began to take it off. The leader of the team told Ken that all of the boobytraps had been disabled. He said that everything was checked and it was safe to remove the explosives. He said that his team would stay until they were removed from the hole and taken away by the Venezuelan Government people.
As he spoke, his two men were packing up all of their equipment and placing it out of the way but near the landing pad for the chopper. The team leader looked at Sarah and asked if she wanted to dance. Sarah looked at him funnily for a minute and then laughed. She said no, thanks, she already had a dance partner. He looked deeply into her eyes, with a move that usually worked with most women, and then said that that was too bad. He smiled, and knew that John was the lucky man by the way she kept glancing at him.
He finished his report to Ken and then walked over to his men to supervise the loading of the robot and all the equipment back into their packing cases. Just as they finished packing everything, the Chief of Police pulled his SUV into the clearing and parked well away from the landing pad. He got out and walked over to where Ken was waiting in the cook tent. Ken stood up and introduced himself. He asked the Chief if he had a chance to eat breakfast. The Chief said no, but that he might be convinced to have a cup of coffee. Ken asked Raul to bring one over for the Chief.
The Chief sat down and introduced himself. His name was Pedro Morales and he had been the Chief of Police of Brocada for six years now. Raul asked the Chief how he wanted his coffee. Black, he said. Raul set a large mug in front of him and poured it full. He then re-introduced himself to the Chief. The Chief said that he remembered him, that it was only a day or so since the last time he met him. To Raul, it seemed much longer than that, but he smiled and walked back to his make-shift kitchen.
Now that the introductions were over, Ken briefly reviewed the facts of the attempt on their lives. He explained about the sensors that Raul had installed around the site and how Raul had predicted where the assassin would set up to kill them all. He explained how Raul had set up a claymore mine in the spot and how well it had done the job when it was detonated. He went on to explain his theory about how this must have been the same person who killed the American guard and the two local men hired to keep the pile of rocks clear of vegetation. He said that it was his opinion that the assassin was hired by the people who were responsible for the large pile of explosives and ammunition in the hole.
The Chief listened patiently, thinking that Ken was very thorough about explaining things. He said that he would have to make his own examination of the area. Ken got up to show him the place where the assassin’s body lay. He showed him the weapon, which the Chief took possession of. He showed him where the claymore had been set up and he showed him the sensors that Raul had set around the site. He even walked up the road and showed him the hidden sensor that Raul had set up to let them know that someone had come for them. The Chief examined the body carefully. He didn’t know this man but he suspected that this was the careful man who had stayed in the hotel in his town. He was sure later when he backtracked and found the four-wheel drive truck hidden just off the road a half mile from the clearing. He found the man’s bag in the brush and brought it back to the clearing.
As he was entering the clearing with the bag and the assassin’s semi-automatic weapon, he heard the sound of an approaching helicopter. He hurried over to the cook tent and left the items on the table. He asked that no one touch the items. Everyone agreed. Just then, Raul set off one more of the smoke cannisters to let the chopper pilot know which direction the wind was coming from. It was coming from a new direction this time. The winds here were just off the mountains a few miles away and they seemed to change direction frequently.
The chopper touched down and this time, several groups of people got off. There were two men from the U.S. State Dept., there were three officials from the Venezuelan Government, three men were sent to remove the explosives and one man was here to assist with the loading of the equipment that belonged to the EOD team. When everyone got off. He began to unload the ordered supplies. The body bag was the last item he unloaded. He walked over to the group of people standing around and asked which one was Ken Porter. Ken raised his hand and asked the man to give the bag to the Chief of Police. Then Ken walked over to John and asked if he would mind giving the Police Chief a hand loading the body into the bag. John said,”Of course”, and hurried over to the body with the Chief. Both groups of men walked over, as well.
They looked at the body of the sniper and the scene around him. One of the Venezuelan officials looked closely at the face. He said that he thought he knew the identity of this man. This looked like Pablo Montoya. It was hard to believe that one of the most wanted assassins from his country lie here at his feet. When he explained what he thought, the leader of their group took a small camera from his pocket and handed it to the man looking at the body. The man took all the pictures in the small disposable camera. He took pictures from all sides and some of the site where the assassin was killed. When he was finished, he handed the camera back to the man in charge. Then the State Dept. man stepped forward and took many photos with an expensive-looking 35mm camera. He told the Venezuelan Official in charge that he would send him a copy of the pictures. This seemed to satisfy him and he walked back to the cook tent and sat down to make some calls on his satellite phone. The rest of the group looked around for anything that they may have missed. Finding nothing, they returned to the cook tent area. John and the Chief loaded the body into the new bodybag.
The man who had unloaded the supplies from the helicopter had assisted the two Marines with loading their supplies and equipment back into the chopper. He noticed three cases of beer with their supplies but no one said anything about that. He kept that in the back of his mind and walked over to tell the EOD team leader that he had his equipment loaded. The leader thanked him and asked him to inform Ken that they were loaded up. When he walked over to tell Ken Porter, Ken asked him to wait a few minutes. Ken needed to talk to the Police Chief about the body in the body bag. The Chief said that as far as he was concerned, they could take the body. He had an agreement with the US State Dept. that they would send copies of the photos to him for his police report. The Chief had the same agreement with the Venezuelan Government officials. The body would go with them and they would send a report and copies of the autopsy results. The man and one of the Marines loaded the body bag onto the back of the chopper with the equipment.
The Chief went back to the rifle and the bag that the assassin had been carrying. He opened it to find a pair of pistols, a small bag with extra magazines for them and some explosives with another small bag containing detonators of some kind. He called for the EOD men to examine the bag and it’s contents. The EOD team leader looked inside the bag and carefully removed the explosives. He said they weren’t dangerous unless they were connected to the detonators. He asked the Chief if he wanted them to take the explosives and place it with the rest of the explosives in the hole. The Chief said that would be fine. The teamleader took the items over to the hole and went inside to place them with the rest of the cache.
The Chief said that he was finished with his investigation. He asked the Venezuelan Government officials if they needed a copy of his report and they said they did. They also wanted a copy of the previous report. The one about the deaths of the American guard and the two local citizens. The chief agreed and made his exit. He had a long drive back to town on an hour of bad road. He envied the Venezuelan Government officials. They got to ride back in a helicopter.
The Venezuelan officials told Ken Porter that a group of men in two large military trucks would be here within the hour to take away the weapons and explosives in the hole. There was only one small matter left to be discussed. The significance of the archaeological find was important and worthy of further investigation. It, however was their wish not to have a large team of people and a lot of publicity about this. They were declaring the site off-limits to all but the parties involved. There would be a representative of their government present during any and all digging and exploring. Everyone agreed that this was for the best. With that, the officials, the State Dept. men and two of the three EOD team members boarded the helicopter. When the last man, the man who had unloaded everything boarded, the chopper cranked up and took off for Maracaibo. Ken thought about things for a minute and wondered why no one had said anything about the high-tech sensors and Claymore mine that Raul had used. But he kept his thoughts to himself.
Chapter 20
The Chief was bone-tired when he returned to his office. He was sore from being bounced around on the bad road and from not having any breakfast. He was not sorry that he hadn’t eaten. The site of the bloody and torn body of Pablo Montoya had killed his appetite. But his blood sugar was low and he always found it difficult to control his temper when his blood sugar was low. He went to the steel locker where he kept the evidence he collected on investigations. There he put the bag with the two guns and the semi-automatic rifle.
He walked back to his desk and began the long process of filling out the police report. After a few minutes, he stopped and went to eat at his favorite restaurant. He needed to eat something, and to see the waitress there was better than eating the food. She always flirted with him when he went there. Of course, she flirted with everyone, but the Chief always thought that she cared a little more for him than anyone else. He ordered his favorite breakfast and flirted back. It was a game he liked and it cost nothing to play it so he teased her until her face was flushed with excitement and laughter. She went to place his order with the cook. As he waited, the door opened and a man came in and gave him a message to call the Police Department of another town. He rose quickly, left some money on the table and left.
When he got to his office, he called the Police Chief of the small village some distance away. He learned that there was an accident on the mountain road about forty kilometers from his town. The other Chief told him that a man was killed when he drove his truck off the road over a steep ravine. The man’s body was unidentifiable but there was a receipt from a hotel in his town found in the man’s luggage. He said he would send the details of the accident to him as soon as was possible. The Police Chief asked the other Chief what the man’s name was and what hotel he had stayed in. The other Chief told him and filled in some other details but the main thing that interested him was that the truck involved was the same one that was speeding past him earlier that morning.
He thanked the other Chief for calling him and hung up the phone. Another police report. That was three major police reports within one week. Well, at least he wasn’t bored as he usually was. He put away his paperwork and walked over to the hotel where the fat man had stayed. It was still early in the morning so the fat man’s room had not been cleaned up yet. He asked at the desk to keep the cleaning woman away until he checked out the room. He got a key from the main desk and walked up the stairs to the room.
The fat man had been a slob. He left a mess throughout the room. Even the bathroom was filthy. The fat man had obviously gotten very drunk and puked in the commode. The Chief was disgusted by all of this mess, but kept on with his walk-around check of the room. He finished his examination of the tiny room and went back downstairs to the front desk to return the key. He asked that they keep the room locked for another day in case he had to come back again. The clerk agreed and the Chief went to the back of the hotel to the Saloon. It was closed for business, but the Bartender was cleaning some glasses at a small sink at the back of the bar. The Chief noticed some Tequila bottles that were empty at the back side of the bar and in front of the small mirror. One had a funnel in the neck. He smiled to himself and asked the bartender if the fat man had come to the Saloon last night. The bartender told him he had and that he sold him one of his refilled bottles of Tequila. He knew the Chief and he knew there was no use in lying to him. When he heard that, The Chief guessed the reason that the fat man had driven off the mountain road. On his examination of the fat man’s room, he had seen only one empty bottle but found the brown paper bags for two. As he thought back , he was sorry he didn’t stop the man when he was speeding out of town earlier that morning. He might still be alive if he had. The Chief just shook his head and headed back to his office to finish the Police Report. When he got there, he found the breakfast he had ordered from the waitress on his desk. She had left him a note under the plate. He knew what the note would say.
Chapter 21
Raul kept the coffee pot going and kept a supply of sandwiches on the table for the men who had come in the two big military trucks. Every half hour or so, the men would take a break from loading the explosives into their truck. The Sergeant in charge of the men didn’t want them to get careless because they were tired, so he had them take a break frequently. Naturally, they grabbed up the delicious sandwiches that Raul had set out. After several hours, they were nearly done, but they had to stop for a heavy cloudburst that muddied the clearing. Ken had gone down into the hole to check on their progress. The men had most of the big boxes moved and were working on gathering up the loose items and putting them in duffel bags they had brought.
As Ken was watching the men work, he noticed that the rain water was going into a channel that had been cut in the rock. It worked something like a gutter to move the water away from the stair area. He wondered where the water was going, so he walked over to the channel and saw that the water was going into a hole in the stone facing of the stairway. The water was drawn away from the stairway by gravity. The hole was at an angle downward. He took a small flashlight he kept in his pocket and shined it at the hole. After a minute of examination, he decided that this was very slick, very well engineered for just a set of stairs. Whoever built them had planned on occasional flooding and provided a method for keeping the stairway from pooling water. Very thorough, he thought.
He walked back over to the Sergeant in charge and asked him how much longer he thought his men would be. The man explained that with the big boxes gone, it would be just a matter of minutes until the bulk of the small items were picked up and then it would be safe to walk here again. After looking at the drain system, Ken had begun to notice the shape of the small room by the stairs. Now that it was empty, he could see that it had a hole in the back of the room that had been filled up with rubble. But this wasn’t rubble from the blast earlier. It had been placed there to block access to something. Ken began to have an inkling of an idea that it might lead to another stairway down. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he might put the idea to Brian Porter. They would have to plan out another excavation of rocks. He hurried up the stairs to find Brian and tell him about the new hole.
Brian was working on the translation of the slab when Ken knocked on his tent pole. Ken stepped inside and began to tell Brian what he had seen in the hole. Brian could see the shine of excitement in Ken’s eyes. He’d seen that look before. That was the look of the beginner that began to understand that they were on the edge of a discovery. He smiled and told Ken that he thought the hole went much further down into the Earth. Ken thought that was true, but he hadn’t considered that it would go that far down. Brian had a partial translation that spoke of a previous civilization that built this stairway down into the earth. He wasn’t able to tell exactly how far down, because there were no comparisons to modern-day measurements, but he knew it was a substantially deep hole. He thought that the slab was a marker of a shelter for a small-town sized group of people. Ken whistled his amazement. This was way over his head, but he wouldn’t have traded places with Hugh Hefner right now. The possibilities just kept on going. Ken told Brian about the other hole in the back of the small room but Brian wasn’t surprised. He knew where it would lead. Brian was now in the history books as the discover of a new civilization and he had John to thank for it. Ken excused himself and went to check on the progress of the men clearing the explosives cache.
Sarah was writing a letter to her parents explaining about how she met John. For security reasons, she had agreed not to mention what she was doing or even that she had left the country. Her letter would be scrutinized by the company officials that kept their employees out of the news. She wasn’t allowed to talk about the company or even the specialized training she had received. She thought back to her days in “boot camp”. That’s how she thought of it, boot camp. She had to undergo some physical fitness training and a crash course in the use of weapons and some highly specialized military-style equipment, like the night vision gear she’d used when she first met John. It was made clear to her that she wasn’t a spy, but she would have to use some of that equipment in her job. Sarah didn’t mind. In fact, she thought it was exciting. But as she thought back to that moment, she remembered the bullets punching through John’s front door and the clunking sound they made when they hit the back of the van as she drove away. Sarah hadn’t thought about that before because things had happened so fast. Even the helicopter evacuation from the airport had been exciting. She’d never been in one before. She had no idea that they were so loud. She finished up the letter and put it in an envelope for Ken, got up and went to the mess tent for a cup of the tea that Raul had ordered from their supply base at the airport in Maracaibo.
Everyone had gathered there except for Brian. They were all waiting for the Venezuelan military men to finish loading the explosives and give them the all clear signal. The first truck had been loaded and had left the site earlier. The second truck was backed up to the hole and the Venezuelan men were about to finish loading. One of the men came from the group and asked to speak to Ken. Ken got up and walked over to the rock pile to talk to him. The man explained that all the explosives had been cleared and they were ready to go, but he had been asked to talk to Ken about not going into the hole until the representative from the Government arrived to assist with the archaeological exploration. Ken agreed and the man went back to his men and told them to pack up and go.
Before they could crank up and go, the chopper arrived again and Raul once more set off another smoke canister. When the chopper touched down, the pilot kept the engine running. Two men jumped down to the ground and one went over to the mess tent to find Ken Porter. He was the Venezuelan Liason official who would be present during any exploration. After their formal introduction, Ken introduced him to the rest of the party. He would be seeing a lot of everyone there except for the teamleader of the EOD team who had begun loading his gear on the chopper. When he finished, he came over to say goodbye and made one more pass at Sarah, who quickly rebuffed him. He laughed and made his exit. The other man had unloaded the official’s bags and gear and had reboarded the chopper. The Marine teamleader waved to everyone and got on board. The chopper pilot wasted no time getting airborne for the trip back. The weather had turned and rain was closing in on the landing site. The pilot didn’t even circle the site. He just turned and headed straight for the airport at Maracaibo. As the heavy downpour closed in, Ken pitied the truck drivers who had to travel that dirt road in the pouring rain with a load of explosives.
Chapter 22
Ramon Morales knew something was wrong. Pablo Montoya never missed a meeting. He was so disciplined that he only smoked three cigarettes a day. Ramon thought about the carton of Marlboros he brought for Pablo. They were hard to find on the black market but Ramon always got them for Pablo. He was the coldest assassin Ramon had ever known, and he’d known plenty of killers in his profession. Ramon was a little afraid of him but knew that when Pablo agreed to something, his word was golden. So when Pablo said he would take care of the problem of their ammunition and explosives cache, it was as good as done. So he knew something was not right. He decided to leave the Cantina where they had first recruited the fat man. It had been their rendezvous for years. It was well away from the usual places that guerillas hung out. This was where the oil workers came to blow off steam. He summoned the woman who ran the place and payed his bill. She liked customers who paid well and didn’t try to start fights like the oil workers. Ramon disappeared into the night, thinking that Pablo would have to contact him through the mail. That was their back up plan in case something went wrong. Ramon took extra care not to be followed or even noticed.
Ken knocked on Brian’s tentpole again. As he stepped into the tent Brian was talking to the Government official and showing him the picture of the stone that he had pieced together with his special software package. He stopped and asked Ken what he wanted. Ken told him they were cleared to go into the hole whenever they wanted. He mentioned that they still had some rubble to clear before they could explore the other hole. Brian stood up and introduced Mr. Ramirez. He was the archaeology liason with the Venezuelan government, Brian explained. Ken shook his hand and excused himself to leave.
When he came out of Brian’s tent, he walked over to the mess tent. John and Sarah were talking quietly and Raul was preparing the evening meal. As usual, he had a big pot of coffee prepared and Ken poured himself a cup. The rain had stopped but it had cooled down what was left of the day. Ken walked over and sat by John and Sarah. While he talked to them about going back down in the hole, Brian and Mr. Ramirez appeared and walked over to the hole and went down the steps, talking. Ken expressed his thoughts about starting again tomorrow and explained about the other hole filled with rubble in the back of the little room at the bottom of the stairs. They still had some rubble to clear away from the first pile but most of the path was cleared by the EOD team and the soldiers that took away the explosives.
After a few minutes, Brian and Mr. Ramirez came out of the hole and walked over to the mess tent. They were talking about how to proceed with the exploration and what should be done first. They came to the same conclusion that Ken had, that the other hole had to be cleared to see if there was another set of stairs going down. In a few minutes, Raul set the table for the dinner meal and surprised everyone by walking up to Mr. Ramirez and hugging him. He explained that they had known each other since childhood and had served together in the military for a couple of years. Ken said nothing but smiled and joined in with the small talk. He had spotted Mr. Ramirez as ex-military from the time he stepped off the chopper. Ken wondered why Raul had said nothing about knowing Mr. Ramirez until now. He filed the information in the back of his mind and asked Raul what was for dinner.
Later that evening, just at dusk, Ken walked over to the edge of the hole and stood for a while, thinking. After a few minutes, Brian came up to him and asked what he was thinking. Ken just smiled and mentioned a few things about how they should proceed tomorrow. Brian explained that now it had to be a joint decision with Mr. Ramirez. They couldn’t just jump in and do what they wanted any more. They had to clear things with the Venezuelan Government archaeologist now. Ken laughed and told Brian that he thought that Mr. Ramirez was no more an archaeologist than he was. Brian was confused at first. He asked Ken about what he meant. When Ken explained that he had suspicions about Mr. Ramirez’s connection with Raul, Brian suddenly remembered about seeing Raul with a satellite phone that one night and mentioned it to Ken. Ken thought about that for a while but kept coming up with the same theory, that Raul, and now Mr. Ramirez had some part in this affair that was more than coincidental. He asked Brian not to mention that they had talked and walked back to his tent for the night.
Ken lay on his cot thinking about the events of the day. He couldn’t shake the feeling that Raul and Mr. Ramirez were not just friends. And when he thought about the satellite phone, he was beginning to get a funny feeling in the back of his head. He knew that Raul was not one of the bad guys because he had had plenty of opportunities to eliminate them, but hadn’t. He began to come to a conclusion about the two of them. Ken resolved to talk to Raul privately in the morning. He decided to keep an eye open from now on to see if his instincts were right. After he came to that decision, he turned on his side and turned himself off like a switch and was asleep in less than a minute.
Chapter 23
At first light, Ken was up and on his sat phone to the company. Centrilux Corporation had an innocent sounding name that drew little attention from most people. Some folks thought they made vacuum cleaners and no one discouraged that idea, but they were really a private company that worked closely with the US government.
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