Daniel Ganninger - Icarus Investigations 02 - Peeking Duck (30 page)

“
If we let him go, this thing will never stop.  He’ll try to hunt us down.  He’ll try to kill us,” Galveston said emphatically.

“
Then what do you propose—magic?”

Galveston
surveyed the situation.  Olvary wasn’t moving farther down the tunnel, probably because he was waiting for help, or he was trapped.  Either way it wasn’t a good situation.  We did have the element of surprise since Olvary didn’t really know where exactly we were, and he still didn’t know we were unarmed.

“
What’s in your backpack?” Galveston asked.

“
Huh?”

“
Your backpack, what do you have in there.”

I pulled open my pack and dropped the contents.  I had mostly clothes and some shoes.  We only wanted our backpacks to look full so we could pull off the whole
roaming college student routine.  Galveston opened his and dumped the contents.  Out fell nothing but food products; ground coffee, cheese, a sausage, and a bottle of wine.

“
What the hell?” I asked him.

“
I threw this stuff in from the store.  I thought it would look bulky.”

I only shook my head. 
Galveston brought food products to a gunfight.

“
Look, we can still come up with something,” he said, and then paused.  “I have an idea.”

Galveston
laid out his last minute plan, and it was quite incredible.  My adrenaline was clouding my judgment, and for some reason I agreed to his half-cocked idea.

He handed me the ground coffee
.  I opened it while he loaded his backpack full of the rest of our items, bulging his pack and making it heavy.

It was then that
Galveston motioned for me to look at the floor ahead of us.  I saw a pair of leather shoes sticking out, partially hidden behind a pair of low lying pipes.

 
Galveston did a charade routine that explained that he would go at him from behind while I took the front. 

I shook my head as many times as I co
uld to get out of the situation, but Galveston showed his insistence by nodding his head in time with mine.  I then heard his statement in my brain, “If we don’t get him, he’ll never stop trying to kill us”.  I understood it had to end here.

Galveston
walked in a crouch until he was almost on Olvary’s position.  I moved slowly to the front, hidden from view by the large steam pipes in the tunnel. 

Galveston
nodded his head, and I moved forward within ten feet of Olvary.  My heart quickened.  I pulled back the bag of coffee and then let loose with a torrent of coffee grounds, directed at Olvary’s face directly behind the pipes.  The grounds spread wildly in the air and covered the man.  He was shocked by the bits of coffee bean in his hair and eyes, and momentarily let down his guard.  Olvary threw his hands to his face to try brush the grounds away. 

Like a cat pouncing on a rat, and with Olvary partially blinded,
Galveston took the heavy pack and swung it at the man’s feet, as hard as he could.  The force of the pack filled with food and a bottle of wine caused Olvary to sling to the ground like a rag doll.  The gun had come loose, and Galveston had already moved around the pipes to jump on top of him.  I charged like a bull and jumped at Olvary from the front. 

The man was larger than we had anticipated, and he fought to push us off. 
Galveston managed to get the man subdued, with his hands behind him, as I sat on his chest.  In one last effort, Olvary pushed us away temporarily, and got to his feet, but we sent him against the pipes in front of us.

We
now each had a hold of his arms and kept him pressed against the pipes.

“
Now what?” I yelled, as the man continued to struggle.

“
I will kill you both!” Olvary screamed.

“
Shut up, man.  We got you now,” Galveston told him. 

But the man wasn
‘t going to quit.  He pushed hard against us, yelling obscenities.

We heard rapid footsteps approaching, and a look of horror crossed my face.  What if this was Olvary
‘s men coming to save him?  Galveston heard the steps too, and he craned his neck to see who was coming in the tunnel.

We had no way to move the man, he was too large.  We were stuck in the worst of situations.

The footsteps stopped and through the light steam of the tunnel, two men appeared.  Galveston’s face grew into a large smile.  “Larout!” he announced.  “Am I glad to see you!”  

I knew the name and was relieved at the sight.  Larout stood in front of us with another agent
.  Both men had their guns drawn and pointing at Olvary.

“
Galveston, glad to see you.  We’ll take it from here,” Larout said moving toward us.

Olvary saw Larout and knew who he was, but he didn
‘t stop struggling against us.  The man’s heavy frame was becoming almost impossible to control. 

The other agent holstered his gun in an attempt to help us move the man, but it was an ill
-conceived idea. We loosened our grip ever so slightly, and Olvary noticed the change.  He was trained in the martial arts, and in one quick move sent Galveston and I reeling backwards behind him.  The agent stood shocked and unable to react quickly enough to draw his gun as Olvary pulled the man down.  Olvary reached for his holstered gun and grabbed it.  In a flash he was back on his feet as Galveston and I watched helplessly from behind.

Olvary raised the gun and pointed it at Larout, ready to fire, his eyes red with anger. 
It was as if everything happened in slow motion.  I was beside Galveston on my back, and as I sat up to survey the situation, I heard the ghastly click of Olvary’s semi-automatic pistol.  But the Frenchman reacted quickly and sent two shoots that struck Olvary in the chest. The sound of the shot reverberated through the tunnel and was deafening.  Olvary stood over us for just a moment before he crumpled to his knees from a shot that sliced through his chest and back, his gun falling harmlessly to the ground in front of him.

Galveston
and I could only look at each other.

“
Francoise, if I said I was glad to see you again it would be an understatement,” Galveston announced.

“
Good to see you again, Galveston.  Next time let’s make it under better circumstances,” Larout answered with the gun still trained on the body of Olvary.

None of us wanted to see someone gunned down, but this was a bad, bad man.  He would have killed us if he had been given the chance.  We hel
ped the other agent to his feet and walked towards Larout.

“
Francoise, Roger Murphy, my partner.” 

I could only sheepish
ly raise my hand to shake his.  “Thank you, Francoise, and very nice to meet you.”

We stared at the body of Olvary, and
the agent checked him for life.  He had died almost instantly from the well-placed shot by Larout.

“
What a bastard,” Larout started.  “Three years we have been tracking him, and you guys get him in three days.  You are both a couple of supermen.”  Larout said.

“
Or super fools,” Galveston added.

I laughed
nervously.  “Can we get out of here?  This place is giving me the creeps.  Plus I want to see Jane.”

“
His love interest,” Galveston informed Francoise.  “I introduced them.”

“
So you will be getting a divorce soon too, eh?” Francoise asked smiling at Galveston.

“
He thinks he introduced us, but he had nothing to do with it.  That’s why it will work,” I interjected.

Larout laughed.  This man would be our friend for life.

We worked our way back to the train platform, which by now had become a ghost town.  Only the INTERPOL agents were milling about, with Olvary’s henchmen lined up in handcuffs. 

I saw Jane sitting in the distance, drinking a bottle of water.  I threw down my backpack and ran toward her.  She saw me as she was taking a drink and leapt up.  I threw my arms around her and gave her a hard kiss.

“Jane, I love you.  I’m so glad you’re safe,” I told her and held tight, not wanting to ever let go.

“
Thank you, Roger.  I love you so much.  I knew you guys would get us out,” she said, tears forming in her eyes.

I embraced her again
before Galveston had to insert one of his insensitive comments.

“
Don’t make me get out the crowbar,” Galveston said, smiling.  Jane released her grip from me and planted a kiss on his cheek followed by a big hug.  “Does this mean we’re dating?” he joked.

“
Not on your life, bub,” Jane responded.

I grabbed her hand as we surveyed the formally chaotic scene.  I wasn
‘t sure how we had done it, but we had.  Another fantastical case solved by Icarus Investigation.

“
Jane, where is Maddie?” Galveston inquired, not seeing his love interest around.  He was hoping for the same response from her as Jane had given me.

“
She went to the bathroom.  She said she had to pull herself together.”

Galveston
asked one of the agents to fetch her, but the agent came back with unsettling news.  He couldn’t find her.

“
Where could she have gone?” Galveston wondered aloud.

We were at first worried, until another agent approached
Galveston with a folded piece of paper.  “Monsieur Galveston?”  The agent asked.

“
Yes,” Galveston replied.

“
A note for jou.”  The agent handed him the paper.

Galveston
opened it and it read:

Dan Galveston, words can’t express how grateful I am to you.  I had to leave before the French authorities found out some things about me.  I hope you understand.  You are a fascinating and wonderful man.  I will see you soon when things die down.  Love, Maddie Jenkins

Galveston was shell shocked and clearly saddened by the letter.  We tried to boost his spirits, but he had been looking forward to having some one-on-one time with Maddie.  I felt bad for my friend, but sensed that he wouldn’t stay dejected for long.

I was lucky to have Jane
, and I gave her another hug.  I noticed she was staring at one of Olvary’s men, cuffed on the ground. 

“
Is something wrong?” I asked.  She pulled me toward her and whispered, and my face grew red hot.

The man sat with a scowl on his face
as I walked to him.  I dropped my backpack at his feet and turned to Jane, who was mouthing the words “don’t be stupid” to me.  Well, I was going to be stupid.  No one messed with Jane.

“
Ah, darn.  I dropped my backpack,” I said loudly, smacking myself on the forehead.

I retrieved the bag and simultaneously swung it around, catching the man squarely on the jaw.  The force threw him onto his back.  He grunted in pain from the unexpected shot. 

“Sorry about that, fellow,” I told him, as I pulled him back to a sitting position.  I leaned down and whispered, “You should never hit a lady.”

The man stared back in surprise and then put his head down.  He had been the man posing as a French
customs agent, and he had made the unfortunate mistake of striking Jane. 

I let my anger subside and strolled past the INTERPOL agents interrogating the men.  They only gave me a quick look, as if nothing had happened, and returned to their work.  I didn
‘t feel proud about what I had done, but it had sure felt good.

We said our goodbyes to Larout, and he conveniently didn
‘t ask about Olvary’s money.  He was not concerned with it.  Larout had gotten his man; that was all that mattered to him.  He did ask us about Lee.  We simply told him that Lee was shot by the pirates while aboard the
Trusian
and didn’t survive the gunshot wound.  We explained the crew had buried him at sea.  I was sure Dimitri would back us up on this little fib.

As we were leaving, I observed Larout talking to a pair of Chinese gentlemen, obviously security agents for the Chinese government.  We knew Larout didn
‘t believe our story, but it didn’t mean the Chinese wouldn’t.  Lee had just been given a new lease on life.

-Chapter 64-

We arrived back at our hotel in genuinely good spirits after our harrowing ordeal.  Jane gave Alex a long hug and thanked him for his work.  She was finally able to take a long bath while the rest of us ordered food.  We relived the harrowing moments of the last few days and toasted our success.  The adrenaline from the day eventually wore off, and we decided to leave Paris the next day.  I wished we could have spent more time in the city, but we all decided it was best to leave soon, before the questions and the media started to arrive.

As we were enjoying our liquid libations
, I excused myself for a moment so I could make a call.  I was relieved to hear everything was in place.  It was just my last bit of insurance to know that Lee would be safe.

The hours stretched on, and as we were beginning to
tire from the partying, there was a knock on our hotel door.  Galveston pulled himself away from his latest joke to answer it, and he was shocked at who was there.

“
Hi,” Maddie said quietly as the door swung open

Galveston
couldn’t speak and instead gave Maddie the long awaited hug and kiss he had hoped for.  “I’m so glad you’re okay and that you came back.  Come in, join the fun.”  He hugged her again.

“
I don’t think I can,” she said seriously.

“
Why, why can’t you?” Galveston stammered.  We noticed him at the door and heard his words, but couldn’t see who he was talking to.  “You have to at least tell us why.  You owe us that.”

“
Okay, but it needs to be quick.  This isn’t easy for me, but it has to be done.”

Galveston
was confused and let her in.  “Look everybody, it’s Maddie,” he said without the emotion we expected.

“
Maddie!” we exclaimed in unison. 

But Maddie
‘s demeanor wasn’t what we anticipated.

“
Hello, everyone.  I can’t stay, but I want to tell you how grateful I am for what you all did.  I will never forget it, and thank you Jane for being so strong.  I couldn’t have gotten through it without you.”  Maddie said, and Jane nodded and smiled.  Maddie seemed to be choosing her next words carefully.  “Galveston, I need you to look out the window, to the street.”

Galveston
flashed another confused look and went to the hotel window.  He looked down at the street below, and I noticed the blood rush from his face.  His emotion turned to anger as he looked back at Maddie.

“
What is going on Maddie, and why are there agents staking out our hotel?”

But
Galveston realized why they were at the hotel, and now he had a good idea of who Maddie really worked for.

She paused again. 
“I’m not who I said I was.  I don’t work for OceanLogic.  I am a NSA field agent.  I was tasked with acquiring Kim Su Lee from the CIA.  We hired you to find the ship because you were a small, unknown agency.  If something went wrong, no one would notice.”

“
Well, that’s nice,” Galveston chided.  He was embarrassed Maddie had pulled one over on him.

Maddie tried to ignore the rebuff. 
“We had four containers on the
Trusian
, and when it landed in L.A., we were going to offload our containers to the CIA and take theirs instead, including the one with Lee.” 

“
Why?” Galveston asked, clearly annoyed.

“
It doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that you give us Lee now.  I convinced my superiors to let me talk to you first, plus I had to air out my conscious.  I didn’t mean to hurt any of you.”

Galveston
grunted in response.

“
So I need Lee.  If you don’t give him to me, the other agents will arrest you.  That’s just the way it is.”

We sat dumbfounded by
her confession.  She had fooled us all—well, almost.

Galveston
stood with his hands on his hips.  “I honestly don’t know where he is.  He was supposed to be here but obviously he’s not,” he shot back at her.

“
Then I’m going to have no choice than to take you all with me.  I can’t be responsible for what laws are thrown at you.  I can’t protect you.  I’m trying to be diplomatic, but my hands are tied,” Maddie said, almost pleading but stopping short.

Maddie pulled a phone from her pocket and
dialed.  “Come on up.  It’s not working.”  She then turned to us.  “I am sorry.  I didn’t want it to go down like this.”

Within seconds more NSA agents appeared at the door, ready to take us into custody.

“Hold on, hold on,” I started.  “I’ll tell you where he is.”

“
Roger, don’t tell them a damn thing.  What are you doing?” Galveston exclaimed.

“
It’s okay, the jig is up.  If I tell you where he is, you guys will leave us alone, right?”  I directed the question to Maddie.

“
Yes.  I can guarantee that,” she answered.

“
I wish that made me feel the warm fuzzies, but I’m going to have to trust you once more,” I said bitingly.

“
Good,” Maddie said not missing a beat.  “Where is Lee?”

“
Room 406, down the hall on the right.  Knock three times, and he will answer the door.

Galveston
just looked at me in shock and awe.  “What are you doing?” he mouthed.

I shook my head and smiled. 
“Here, let me show you,” I told Maddie.

I le
d her and four other agents out of our hotel room and down the hall.  Galveston followed closely.  We arrived at room 406, and I gave the required three raps of the door.  The door opened and a tall, young Chinese man answered.

“
Yes?  What you want here,” he answered in broken English.

“
Mr. Lee, these agents are American.  They are ready to take you,” I told him.

“
Good, finally.  I go to U.S.A. now?”

“
Yes, U.S.A.,” I answered.

“
Come with me Lee, we have a car waiting,” Maddie told him.

“
Me no go ‘til we have deal.”

I motioned for him to tone it down a little. 
Galveston stifled a smile.  He knew what was going on.

“
What kind of deal, Mr. Lee?” Maddie asked.

“
You get no information ‘til I get to U.S.A.  You understand?”

“
Agreed.  We’ll get you out of the country within the hour,” Maddie promised.

“
Good, let’s go now, me hungry and want American hamburger.”

I coughed to cover my laughter.  This had been money well spent.  I reached out my hand to the fake Mr. Lee. 
“Good luck,” I told him.

“
Thank you much.  You very nice man,” he said smiling.

I leaned in to give him a bro hug and whispered in his ear. 
“The rest of your money is in the account.  Get them as far away as possible.”

The fake Lee nodded again. 
“Good burger, eh?  I try that place when I get to America,” he lied.

The agents le
d the fake Mr. Lee down the corridor and onto the elevator.  Maddie stayed behind briefly.

“
I am truly sorry.  I really do like you.  I wish we had met under different circumstances,” Maddie said directly to Galveston.

“
Yeah, me too.  It’s too bad, I’m a good catch,” he said dejectedly, but with the satisfaction that he would have the last laugh.

“
Goodbye, Roger.”

“
Maddie,”  I replied.

Maddie left us standing alone in the hallway, and we didn
‘t speak until we knew she was out of sight.

“
And who the heck was that, you sly dog,” Galveston exclaimed.

“
Maurice, an aspiring, and I’ll have to say, darn good actor.  He’s a 2nd generation Frenchman of Chinese descent, doesn’t even know how to speak Chinese.  I made a few calls when you were busy trying on your ridiculous costumes.  Alex made sure he would be a good fit and set him up in the hotel room.”  I began to laugh.  “I told him we would pay a bonus for how far he got them out of the country.  Maurice had the closest likeness to Lee that I could find.”

Galveston
was roaring with laughter.  I’m glad I at least made him feel better after losing out on his latest love quest.

“
Brilliant, just brilliant,” Galveston said with a smile.  “Then where is Lee?” 

“
I don’t know.  Alex took on that task.  He could be halfway around the world by now.  At least he’s safe.”

“
Good job, Roger,” he said patting me on the back. “You never cease to surprise me, but how did you know?”

“
It just hit me walking toward the costume shop that her whole story was odd; the CIA has four containers, Maddie has four containers.  We never knew what she was carrying in those containers.  There were flashes where I would notice a strange bit of behavior from her when we were getting too close to her operation.”

“
I never would have guessed.  It just didn’t seem that obvious at the time,” Galveston said.  “But, how did you know she would show up here?”

“
I was never sure about that, but I figured if she didn’t come calling, then some other organization would.  When I realized how many people would be after Lee, Maurice became our safety valve.”

“
Well, you did a fine job.  You deserve a raise.”

“
I would like that in writing please,” I retorted.  “Let’s get going, just in case Maurice doesn’t play this through.”

“
Agreed.  Time to leave old Paris.”

We walked back to the hotel room and gave Jane and Alex the synopsis of what had
just happened.  We packed up the room in minutes and left the hotel. 

Our plan was to find another hotel outside the city to board up for the night.  In the morning we would catch a flight out
of the country and back home.  I knew it would only be a matter of time before we were called on to solve another impossible case.