overnight. In the business it’s similar to a Shearson Short-Stake Derivative. And they work all the time. So, let’s do it. Let’s save the country and make some money. Unless it’s too late to pay the fee?”
Maurice was suddenly excited again. He checked his watch. “We have about ten minutes. If you can access your account online, we can do it all right here. I have the secret gagnant Web site address; it’s just a matter of transferring the funds.”
Batman turned to Twitch. “Do you have any problem with this?”
Twitch shrugged. “Hey, we have a pile of money in Aden and it’s as much yours as it is mine. Plus the other guys might appreciate you saving their big payday for them.”
“My partner has spoken,” Batman told Maurice.
The little man pulled out a BlackBerry Torch.
But then Twitch groaned.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “We can’t do it here.”
“Why not?” Maurice wanted to know.
Twitch spread his hands to indicate the suite. “Because there’s no Wi-Fi here,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get it ever since we arrived.”
Maurice smiled; he looked very relieved.
“Not a problem,” he said. “Watch this.”
He snapped his fingers twice above the BlackBerry, then showed them the screen. A Wi-Fi icon had suddenly appeared and was pulsating with vigor.
Batman and Twitch were puzzled.
“How did you do that?” Twitch asked him.
Maurice just smiled again. “You guys have been out to sea too long. Wi-Fi is all around us. Just because you can’t get it on a laptop doesn’t mean it isn’t here. You just got to know where to look.”
He opened a page on the BlackBerry, then passed it to Batman. Two minutes of key punching later, ten million dollars from Whiskey’s account at the Bank of Aden had been deposited in the secret account of the Grand Gagnant.
“Now what?” Twitch asked.
“Now we wait,” Maurice replied. “Hopefully, we’ll get the location of the game in a couple hours and then we’ll start the ball rolling on this. I’ve got a good crew with me—seven people holed up at seven different places around the city. If everything goes right, we’ll either have the Z-box or a pretty good idea of its location in less than forty-eight hours. Then you guys get your money back and your big payday, all without breaking a sweat.”
There was a short silence. Then Batman asked, “One last question. How did you know when we were coming here, I mean enough to have all this waiting for us?”
Maurice smiled again. “The pilots—of that flying boat?” he said. “They’re on our payroll. It’s surprising how much you learn flying rich people around the Persian Gulf.”
He snuffed out his cigarette. “Now I suggest you guys relax, take a snooze, whatever—but keep a low profile. I’ll be back in a couple of hours after I put out the word on this asshole Audette and see what his sorry excuse is. In the meantime you’ve got to maintain this façade that you’re mysterious high rollers. The people running the game have no ethics when it comes to who plays, just as long as they have the cash. So don’t let anyone see you drinking cheap beer, OK?”
Maurice got up to go. He shook hands with both of them, thanking them profusely.
“It’s funny,” Batman told him. “All this time we thought we were getting this royal treatment just because we flew in on Emma Simms’s airplane.”
Suddenly Maurice’s eyes lit up.
“So I’ve heard,” he said. “What’s she like, by the way? As advertised?”
“If you’re interested in the lifestyles of rich and bitchy, sure,” Twitch said.
Maurice seemed embarrassed for a moment.
Then he lowered his voice and said, “Listen, when this is all over, if you guys could arrange for me to meet Emma Simms in person, I’d consider it a big personal favor.”
14
Indian Ocean
THE SECOND PIRATE attack on the Taiwan Song came as a total surprise.
The hours following the first assault had been hectic. Thinking the pirates were gone for good after being bested in their initial attempt, Nolan had washed the blood off the sides of the ship, just for Emma’s sake.
Once done, he’d headed for the bridge where, by switching around some of the dying electrical circuits, the ship’s crew had finally gotten the shortwave radio working well enough to produce static. When further adjustments were made to the ship’s battered antenna, the radio, like a small miracle, screeched to life. After a little more fine-tuning, the ship’s crew declared it able to reach stations along the west coast of India and