Fortunes Obsession (33 page)

Collins proceeded to relate the locations of six explosive charges which would be detonated from a radio controlled location by Bey and his group.  He also related the story of the fake factory in Cocoa Beach before he abruptly got up and ran out the back door.

Peter’s first impulse was to chase Collins but he realized that his first job was to get the location of the charges to the agents, so instead, he ran out the other entrance to the spot where he had left Dara. When he returned to Dara, Clark and a group of security people were just arriving.He hastily blurted out the story of his meeting and the security men took off in the direction of Collin’s departure while Clark patiently listened to Peter’s story.

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     Bey was furious.   Collins was nowhere to be found and he was castigating his men with a fury.  “ You stupid idiots.  You were supposed to keep him in your sight”.

His operatives looked bewildered.  “ We watched his car.  We thought that if he tried to get away , it would be in his car.”

Bey shook his head.  “ There are a number of ways he could have eluded us.  He could still be hidden in the museum building or he could have taken the bus.  He was, of course, wearing a security uniform, so he could have been on foot.”  He singled out two of his most trusted operatives.  “ Go to the main building and look for him.  If you do not find him quickly, take the road toward Orlando.  Find him and dispose of him.  Do you understand?’ The two men swung into immediate action.  Bey dispatched two others to the museum building to scour it.  He wasn’t too worried.  All of the charges were placed and he decided not to wait for the launch after all.  He would proceed back to the, “ Factory”, and set off the charges immediately by radio.  It would not be as effective as sabotaging a launch but the Colonel would be happy.  He took three more men with him, all heavily armed and headed for Cocoa beach.

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      Clark was on his cell phone to Ruth Halloran, dispatching agents to the Cocoa beach address.  He was reasonably sure that a warrant was probably issued at this time but if it weren’t, tough luck.  He put in another call to the bomb squad, already on alert and arranged to meet them with the location list.  He silently prayed that they would not be too late and that Collins was right about the radio detonation from the Cocoa beach site.

He turned to Peter.  “ Now this time I mean it.  We appreciate everything you’ve done but it’s time to butt out.  You’re going to get hurt if you hang around any longer.  Do you have a car here?”

“Yes , Peter said and pointed in the direction of the parking lot.”

“Okay then, get in it and head for the Orlando airport and go home.  You’ll read about everything that happens in the newspapers.  Can I trust you to go to your car and head for home, or do I have to waste a valuable agent escorting you?”

Peter threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender.  “ Honestly, we’re going.” He shook hands with Clark, took Dara’s hand and walked to the parking lot.

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The bomb squad quickly found all of the charges and stayed   in their vicinities awaiting orders.  Millard, who was coordinating the search hoped that Halloran and Yamashita were in place in Cocoa beach.  His cellular phone was in his hand, anxiously awaiting their call.The traffic seemed to be crawling as the team of agents, clad in their assault jackets, inched their way down the main street of Cocoa beach.  They passed the enormous, block square RonJons surf shop and realized they were still a good ten blocks away.  They had avoided using their portable roof light and sirens so as not to alarm the terrorists but they realized that there was no other way.  Halloran slapped on the roof light and turned on the siren.The traffic, little by little, gave way and they were at last making time.

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Bey, Mahdi and their crew , arrived at the back entrance  .  They opened the trunk of their vehicle and removed five assault rifles, an Uzi machine gun and several grenades.  Each of them was armed for any action as they opened the rear door of the building.  Bey reached out to turn on the lights and nothing happened.  He was livid.  “ A fucking power failure, I don’t believe it.”  Mahdi laughed nervously.  “ You know these Florida power failures. They last for a short time and happen constantly.”  Bey paced nervously and walked to an electric clock and was somewhat relieved to see the power had only been out ten minutes.

Probably one of those short, temporary failures.  He lamented the fact that they had failed to think of installing a gasoline powered generator.  With all of the money they had spent on this operation so far, it probably wouldn’t have cost more than about five thousand dollars. 

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Peter and Dara cruised leisurely toward Orlando.  Peter had mixed feelings.  He was somewhat relieved to be out of harm’s way but on the other hand he wanted desperately to be in on the ending of the whole story.  They were on route four, nicknamed, “ The Bee Line”, when they saw Collins on the side of the road , hitching a ride.  Peter passed him by before he recognized him and pulled up on the shoulder about two hundred feet later.

Collins saw the car stop up the road and thought that it was a slow reaction to his hitch hiking.  He broke into a trot and headed for the car.

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The agents pulled up to the front of the building and tried the door.  The front door was flimsy at best and caved in immediately.  When they reached the office, they found a massive steel door between them and the factory.  They tried the lights to no avail and were puzzling over that problem, when suddenly the power was activated.  They pounded on the steel door and hollered on top of their collective lungs.  “ FBI, we have the building surrounded.  Open up.”Bey had hardly experienced the elation of the power going on, when he heard the shouts of the FBI agents.  The fools still hadn’t figured out the back entrance.  The detonation system had a series of fail- safe features which required the turning on of several transmitters and an intricate series of codes.  Bey surmised that it would take ten full minutes to detonate the charges.  He started the routine and sent four of his, “ soldiers “, to the front of the building to eliminate the agents. Halloran and her crew were setting their own charges to blow the thick steel door off, when a car pulled up to the front of the building and four men charged in firing Uzis as they ran.

The FBI agents returned fire as the door was blown off and Ruth Halloran felt as if her right thigh had been hit with a baseball bat and lost her hearing in the blast.  When the smoke cleared, two agents were dead and three of the four attackers were dead.  The fourth attacker ran out the door and was followed by Yamashita, who was on his tail while firing his pistol.  Halloran crawled through the doorway, bleeding profusely from her leg wound.

She could feel herself becoming dizzy as she trained her Sig Sauer 9mm pistol on the now hazy figures in the room.  She lifted her gun and fired, the bullet harmlessly ending up at floor level about twenty feet ahead of her.Bey couldn’t believe it.  A ricocheting bullet had hit one of the transmitters and although he had done everything right, nothing was indicating that he had been successful in his detonation process.   He never saw Yamashita about thirty feet from him and never felt the bullet that penetrated his brain

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Collins reached the car and was about to thank the occupants when he recognized Peter and a cold chill went through his body.  As he approached the driver’s door he pulled his gun and aimed it at Peter.  Simultaneously, Dara screamed and Peter aggressively opened the car door, momentarily stunning Collins.  He jumped from the car and threw Collins to the ground , the gun falling out of both of their reaches . 

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When the smoke cleared and all of the ambulances had left, the operation had attracted hundreds of spectators.  Greg Millard, after briefing the local police, headed for the hospital to check on any wounded agents and wrote down initial facts of the operation in preparation for his massive paperwork tasks later.  Ruth Halloran would live but several other agents from the Orlando office were dead.  The only saving grace was that the terrorist operation had been thwarted and America did not have to suffer the major crisis that would have resulted from it’s success.  He couldn’t believe when he was told that Peter Fortune had brought Farley Collins into the Orlando office at gunpoint.  It seemed that he had wrestled with Collins and Dara had picked up Collins gun and trained it on him.

Together, they brought in Collins.  He shook his head.  It seemed that every time he got mad at Fortune for meddling, something good happened.  No one would ever know but without Fortune, they never could have broken this case.

SIX MONTHS LATER

Peter and Lance looked at the front page of The New York Times.  Farley Collins had been convicted of treason and would spend the rest of his life in a federal prison.  Millard, Yamashita, Clark and Halloran had all been decorated for bravery.  Millard was now Agent in Charge of the New York office.  The role of Peter and Dara had never been publicized or acknowledged.  Dara and Peter had been married two months ago and were living happily in Peter’s apartment.  Dara was easy to live with but she had one quirk.

She would become angry if Peter even suggested taking photos in Central Park.

THE END