Hidden Agendas. Paul Boardman
I would need them.”
“Name a few,” growled Phil.
“Hell no! I didn’t come here to threaten you.”
“The sons of bitches audit the be-Jesus out of you. Might create a few immigration problems for me, seeing as I’m Bahamian. That sort of harassment,” spat Michael.
“That’s a good start. Sometimes the SOB’s get even nastier,” said Tom.
“Such as?” questioned Phil.
“You have to understand. To fight the king pins of the drug cartel, you have to be a thoroughly determined person. The Director qualifies! I’m just an analyst. I got this assignment by mistake, but having said that, I intend to see it through.”
“Getting back to the nasties,” demanded Phil.
“Look. It’s like this! The Director sends a guy out and the guy gets blown to smithereens. Well guess what. Sir Drug Lord sends out guys and they get killed too. Not much difference. They are both alpha males. They both run huge organizations. They both get good pay, though Sir Drug Lord gets way more. But they are both committed to winning. They both need to win. It’s in their genes and they’ll stop at nothing. If someone gets killed they just move the next in line forward. The cost of doing business is just a cost. Neither the Director nor Sir Drug Lord will ever refuse to pay, despite the lethal cost. They will both use whatever tools are necessary to win. Neither one will ever earn the title of Mr. Nice Guy.”
“Explain the nasties,” repeated Phil, dryly.
“I told you, I don’t like making threats. If you guys say “no” I’m demoted back to analyst which is what I should be, anyway. You guys walk away and we begin training a new man to go out and get himself killed.”
“Hypothetically speaking, if you prefer. What are the nasties?”
“This wasn’t my idea. I tried to make the boss take it out of the bag of tricks. Some other asshole made a strong case for it and it stayed in.”
Tom looked up at Phil who was staring him down. He fought back momentarily and then gave up. “They’ll crucify Linda Wilson. Now Linda Farris. Drag out an audit for months … years even.”
Phil looked over at Farris, who appeared calm despite the fact that he was seething inside.
“Guess you got there before me,” thought Phil as he looked over at his friend’s grim face.
Farris spoke up. “Who runs this operation?”
“Me.”
“Who is our contact?”
“Me.”
“We’ll let you know in the morning.”
Tom plastered on a fake smile. “See you guys, later.” He clapped Phil on the shoulder as he rose to leave.
He stopped at the bar to pay the bill and spoke quietly with the owner. A few minutes later she stopped at Phil and Michael’s table.
“OK. You are all forgiven. You guys left a big tip yesterday and the other guy left one today. Fines paid. You can all come back, again.” She smiled a sexy smile.
“Did you tell the bouncer?” asked Farris.
“Bouncer? That guy? The Hawaiian? Naw, he’s just giving me a quote on some new plumbing.”
The waitress spun on the heel of her cowboy boot and sashayed back to the bar, hips swinging. Michael turned to Phil.
“I guess we have to tell them.”
“Watch the sparks fly. Judy will go ballistic.”
“Think we should take them out to dinner?”
“Wouldn’t work.”
“Right. No way to avoid it. OK. Drink up! Let’s get this over with.”
The girls knew something was wrong when Michael failed to pull out his bicycle bar and started to mix drinks in the galley instead. Once drinks were passed around Linda, who read the signs correctly, asked her husband, “So what’s wrong?”
“Lots,” said Farris. “Best you have a drink first.”
Everyone took a sip but Judy. She didn’t touch hers. There were a few moments of silence before Farris began to relay the day’s events.
“It’s all very simple. DEA wants Phil and me to go undercover and smuggle a load of cocaine into the States from Colombia.”
Following that statement both Farris and Phil carefully studied the teak deck refusing to make eye contact with their women. Linda stared hard at the top of Farris’ head her eyes slowly turning to ice. Judy sat in shock, her mouth drooping. Eventually she found her tongue.
“So why not just say No”, she asked. “Isn’t that what the drug ad on TV says? Just say No!”
“No is a word these guys don’t understand very well,” answered Phil.
“Meaning?” questioned Judy.
“Meaning that option would result in IRS audits for the three of us and immigration problems for Michael.”
“They can’t do that!” exclaimed Judy.
“Sorry babe. They can and they will. Add three more letters to your alphabet soup. IRS. That’s not the really bad part. You and I would survive the audits without too much hassle and although there might be a few questions about how we ended up with part ownership of this boat, I believe we could get around that. The real problem is Linda.”
“My finances are all above board. Why me? What’s the problem?”
“Nothing a quarter of a million in accounting and legal fees couldn’t handle. It’s the foundation,” answered Phil.
“They wouldn’t go after the half-way house?” asked Linda, coldly.
Linda had been mesmerized by Michael Farris when they first met. The infatuation mellowed into a deep and lasting love that had resulted in marriage a year later. Linda had learned about Michael’s career as a professional smuggler and had insisted that he retire from that business as a condition of marriage. Farris had reluctantly agreed. He had been a smuggler all his life, as had his father and grandfather, The smuggling market had formerly been relatively tame, consisting of smuggling precious stones, gold, sometimes booze and then marijuana into the United States and returning with consumer items such as TV’s, stereos, car parts and other miscellaneous items back into the Bahamas. Since the early days of development in the Caribbean, the Bahamas had been a port of call for all types of pirates, slavers and privateers, many of whom were fully supported by the Kings and Queens of Europe. Smuggling had always been considered an honored profession in the Bahamas prior to its transition into a drug trade. The nature of the business began to change with the astounding growth of the marijuana business but then morphed again as cocaine became so popular and profitable. Farris admitted that the social impact of cocaine was devastating and accepted his fiancée’s demands at least regarding drugs. As a wedding gift he provided the capital to build a half way house in Florida for recovering addicts.
“You said that Michael provided seed capital, as a wedding gift,” stated Phil.
“That’s right.”
“My guess is, before they finish, they’ll be accusing the foundation of money laundering, via a large gift, courtesy of Michael, from the Bahamas.”
“That’s crazy,” spouted Judy.
Linda looked angrier than any of the other three had ever seen her before.
“Those sick animals. I’ll advise my lawyers in the morning,” she finally said in a calmer but still vehement tone of voice.