Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 01 - Flapjack (33 page)

“
How did I do?”  She asked as we settled into our seats.

“
Fantastic.  You were incredible!” I told her and she beamed with pride.

“
Where to?”  She asked us. 

Galveston
thought for a moment.  “Let’s find a hotel.  Head for central D.C.  Tomorrow we’ll get out of here.  For now, let’s get some sleep.”

-Chapter 62-

“Excuse me, Senator?” the woman asked peering through the door to the large office.  Eastman was working late into the night.

“
Yes?”  Senator Eastman replied gruffly.

“
Your call sir, line two.”  Eastman dismissed the aide with a wave of his hand, and picked up the phone.

“
I don’t think I like the way things are going,” he said loudly into the receiver.

“
What do you mean Senator?” asked the voice on the other end.

“
I held up my end of the bargain, now where are my results?”

“
Relax Ed.  Things are going according to plan.  We have the prototype and the doctor is dead.”

“
Dead?  Who said?”

“
I found out from a reliable source,” the man on the other end said.

“
Does Placer know this?”

“
No, of course not.  Murray works for us, remember?  He did what I told him to do.”

“
If things go bad, I don’t want to be holding the bag,” the Senator announced.

“
That’s why we have Placer, isn’t it?  When Ecomax completes the battery then we can inform the Feds about Black Bear stealing the design from us,” the man said, placating the Senator.

“
And what about Murray.  Is it time for him to leave us?”  The Senator asked.

“
Yes, I have my man working on that now.  He’ll be out of the way.”

“
Good.  He’s the only one that can link us to all of this.”

“
I know.  He will be taken care of, don’t worry.  Just make a scene in Congress.  We need the demand to be higher.”

“
I’m harping on it every day.  It will get done, like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“
I hope so Senator and keep Placer quiet.  I don’t want him getting jittery.”

“
I agree.  I’ll keep him quiet.”

“
Good day Senator.”

“
Uh huh,” replied Eastman as he hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair as an air of contention crossed his face.

-Chapter 63-

Galveston called May from the front seat, and filled him in on the latest turn of events.  Placer was being set up.  May was shocked at the news.  At every turn there seemed to be a new wrinkle, but we were getting closer and we seemed to have the upper hand.

“
So what is Chase trying to do?”  I wondered aloud.

“
Well, we know he had Murray eliminate those men to stop any links.  That much is clear.  But why the Senator?”  Galveston thought aloud.  “Is it a money thing?”

The legislation
the Senator introduced was useless and would never pass.  But what if that was just a cover to a bigger piece of the puzzle?  How would they get Black Bear implicated without exposing themselves? 

Chase needed Black Bear to release the product
and implicate themselves in the disappearance of Dr. Sloan and the prototypes.  Chase already had tipped the FBI about the
Adamanthea
project, now the Feds would move in for the kill.   

Eastman had alternate plans
, I figured; probably a bigger piece of legislation.  I believed he wasn’t as interested in the money as he was in the glory of being the one who established the United States on a new energy course. 

Black Bear had one prototype
and Chase must have had the other.  Black Bear probably had the more inferior prototype.  Dr. Patelo likely had worked on both and that was the reason for the secrecy and the new lab location.  It was also why they had killed him. 

Chase needed
both of the prototypes engineered by Dr. Patelo.  The superior one went back to Chase in the U.S. for production, while the inferior battery went to Ecomax in Brazil.  Lucky for us Dr. Patelo had thrown a wrench in the works and bought us time, but it got him killed.  Now Dr. Sloan’s fake death would be the last piece Chase and Eastman would need to succeed. 

It was intricate and complicated, but amazingly simple. 
Chase’s band of instigators had used Black Bear to get their goal accomplished; to be able to produce their own battery while Black Bear took the fall.  He was just waiting to put the battery on the market.  Eastman would help him by introducing a piece of legislation that supported the sale of this battery in every way and no one would be the wiser.  But how were we going to stop them?  That was the essential question. 

We found a nice hotel in downtown D.C., just steps from the Capitol building. 
Galveston had Alex and Dr. Sloan return to San Diego from Mexico.  They were going to be busy setting up a presentation on Dr. Sloan’s technology and we needed Placer, Eastman, and Chase there with them. 

-Chapter 64-

Murray gathered his things into a bag and left his room at the downtown Chicago Hilton.  He had done his job and done it well.  He wasn’t proud about it in the least, but he had no remorse for his actions. 

Murray
received the message of Dr. Sloan’s death earlier in the day.  It wasn’t in the proper format the team had agreed on, but at this point it didn’t matter, he was just glad it was done.  The professor’s death essentially terminated his contract.  The money Murray made had been successfully transmitted to his account in the Cayman Islands and he now sat on over two million in funds.  It was an ample amount of money to live off of comfortably in a far flung paradise.

Murray
walked down to the lobby, checked out with the attendant, and reached for an old daily newspaper.  He had a few minutes to kill before his late flight to Los Angeles from Chicago O’Hare.  His final destination would be Bora Bora, in the French Polynesian Islands.  He decided he would stay there a few months until the havoc he wrought in the U.S. died down.  After that time, Murray planned to move to a villa in Italy he had purchased.  He figured possible extradition from that country would be difficult, if they could even find him.  The teams he put together to perform his tasks had been ordered to disperse and leave the country individually by tomorrow, with no exceptions.  Murray decided he was done with this business.  His hands were sullied from so much clandestine work. 

Murray
reached in his bag and pulled out a small digital recorder and placed it on his lap.  He then pulled out a pre-printed FedEx pack.  He placed the recorder in a bubble wrap protective holder and slid it in the pack.  The address on the package read, “Walter Monroe, Hanley, Grop, and Associates, LLC, Chicago, Illinois”.  He slid in a handwritten note beside the recorder, sealed it, and walked to the lobby desk.

“
I would like this to go out tomorrow,” he said to the hotel receptionist.

“
Yes sir.  FedEx has a scheduled pickup in the morning.”

“
Good.  Thank you.”

He walked back to his seat
, zipped up his bag, and headed for the elevators that would take him to the parking garage and his rental car.  He looked tired, and couldn’t wait to sun himself on the beach tomorrow. 

Murray
travelled down to the lowest level and walked slowly to his car.  It was late, about 11 P.M., and this level of the garage was deserted.  He opened the trunk of the car and placed his bag in, closed it, and moved to the door with the keys of the car in his hand.

All of a sudden he heard a soft
, muffled bang, followed by another.  Murray immediately felt pain in his back.  He dropped the keys and crumpled to the ground until he lay flat on his side, his eyes level with the concrete floor of the garage.  The pain emanated throughout his body, and he felt a warm trickle of blood going down his back while his breathing became labored.  He forced himself over and squinted at the lights overhead. 

He made out the form of a man coming toward him slowly, his features dark against the light background. 
Murray noticed with horror that the man held a gun down at his side with a silencer attached.  As the man’s face grew closer Murray recognized him, but from where?  As his vision began to blur he remembered where he had seen the man, at the bar the night he met Chase.  It was Chase’s bodyguard, Campbell, and he had just mortally wounded Murray in the back.  He tried to form some words, but it was too late as the massive blood loss made speaking impossible.  This was how it was going to end, he thought.  He should have expected this to happen.  He momentarily flashed to what all those men he had callously cut down must have felt, and he had an instant of remorse before he was dead.

Campbell
walked over and knelt down next to the body and felt for a pulse, nothing.  The man was gone.  He checked through his pockets and found what he was looking for, a ticket to get out of the parking garage.  He picked up Murray and placed him in the trunk of the car, stuffing his body awkwardly into the cramped space.  He used some clothes from Murray’s bag to quickly wipe up the puddle of blood that had been under the body and drove the car slowly up the ramp to the exit of the hotel.

-Chapter 65-

We awoke the next morning with renewed energy, all thanks to a good night’s sleep.  We needed to get out of D.C. and back to San Diego as quickly as possible.  Galveston already talked to Alex who was traveling back to San Diego from Mexico with Dr. Sloan.  Galveston quickly laid out the plan to Alex and enlisted him to come up with a presentation for Dr. Sloan’s device.  They had a day to get it done and the pressure was on.  It needed to be fantastic and incredible.  A tall order to be done in one day, but if anyone could do it, it was Alex. 

Alex had told the doctor about the demise of his friend, Dr. Richard Blout, on the drive from
Mexico.  He had taken the news hard, as any friend would, but it fueled his desire to do whatever it took to bring these men to justice.  The two men were in relatively good spirits under the circumstances.  Dr. Sloan was beginning to realize the repercussions of his device.  If he would have known the problems it produced he would have destroyed it in an instant.  The world was not ready for such a revolutionary idea.

Galveston
contacted Placer at his home in D.C. and informed him of the date and time to get the Senator to San Diego.  It would be an easy task for Placer to convince the Senator once Eastman got the pictures of the two women who would be there to meet him.  Luckily, Jane and Elizabeth didn’t yet know about this part of the plan.  I planned to leave it to Galveston to tell them of their role.

We arrived in
San Diego at 2 P.M. and Galveston arranged a meeting of all our team members in a downtown San Diego hotel.  We still didn’t know who was after us and what they might do to find us. 

All of our team members gathered in a room of the hotel. 
“Now to the good stuff,” Galveston told us in the impromptu meeting.  “This is how we’re going to bust these bastards.”

Galveston
began to work the room like an evangelical preacher hopped up on caffeine and the glory of the Lord.  He continuously sipped on a 44 ounce Big Gulp and barked orders like a general, which made us sit at attention.

“
We’re going to get this bozo, Senator Eastman, here in San Diego.  Jane and Elizabeth, you two are in charge of the Senator when he gets here.  You’re the contacts for him at the unveiling.  I’ve informed Placer of your role in this.  Elizabeth, I want you to set up a private jet for Eastman out of Reagan National in D.C.  Dr. Sloan, I need the working prototype and a lavish display of its capabilities.  It needs to be eye popping, and whatever you need, we’ll get you.  Alex, contact the newspapers, TV, technology mags, anybody and everybody you can think of that would be interested in seeing the latest and greatest in new energy technology.  Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  Any questions?” 

Galveston
finished and sipped the rest of his soda in one big gulp, breathless from the long oration.  We all sat wide eyed after the deluge of information.  We had our marching orders.

“
Okay everybody,” Galveston clapped his hands together in front of him, “go get some sleep.”

Everyone left until
Galveston and I were alone in the room.

“
Why do I always have to room with you?” I asked, pulling out my night bag.

“
Hey, I’m just saving us money.  You think I like hearing you snoring every night.  That’s lesson 23.”

“
Now you’re just making those silly rules up as you go,” I chided him.

“
No, that really is a rule.  No snoring, it gives me a headache.  Now get some sleep, we have a big day tomorrow.”