ourselves. He is too high-profile. Our plan must succeed. For that to happen, we have to be free to operate without the authorities investigating us, so we cannot engage in any activity that might attract such scrutiny. I know how we can deal with this.”
“How?” Botros asked.
“You cannot give the authorities information you do not possess,” bin Osman told Botros. “Just have faith that I will handle the problem. Unlike the way your men failed to handle our problem in Qatar last week.”
Bin Osman hit a sore spot with the Saudi. The Malaysian had been enraged when the American gasoline peddler had escaped from the boat, but Botros had managed to calm him somewhat by reminding him that they still had the plutonium.
Getting the plutonium into the United States had been ridiculously easy. Team Free Flow had smuggled it into the country with all its other racing equipment. No customs inspector could ever hope to understand the esoteric collection of hardware and data-acquisitions electronic equipment used by a modern MotoGP racing team. It had been relatively simple to disguise the components needed to make a nuclear weapon among the racing equipment, even the Type B container used to transport the plutonium.
“When do you want us to move the material to the lab?” Botros asked, changing the subject.
“We’ll be ready for it on Saturday, so plan to move it tomorrow night. But at the moment don’t you have an appointment with the American?”
“Yes, he should be here soon. Do you want us to take care of him?”
“Like you took care of him last week? I think not. You and your men are to take no more risks, especially at the racetrack. I will take care of Mr. Cooper. Besides, I wish to meet a person who could dispatch five of your best men with such ease. Arrange for him to meet with me when I get to San Francisco tonight.”
4
“I’m sorry I missed you last week Mr. Cooper,” Botros told the Executioner after he sat down in the cramped office area set up in the back of the garage complex, “but it couldn’t be avoided, as you know.” Botros gave Bolan an artificially sweetened smile. “A terrible tragedy, and a blow to our organization,” he said, referring to Darrick Anderson’s death at Losail.
Bolan thought the man didn’t seem terribly upset, especially given that the team’s second rider, an aging Brazilian, was a perennial back marker who hadn’t won a race in over a decade. Any chance of the team scoring points had died with Darrick Anderson, along with the attendant publicity his star power would have generated. Darrick’s notoriety guaranteed television exposure whenever he was on a racetrack, even if he was only battling for eighth place. The only time the Brazilian racer ever appeared on a television screen was when he was getting lapped by the front runners.
In addition to his apparent indifference to the team’s professional loss, Botros seemed not to have experienced a personal loss, either. In the close-knit fraternity of motorcycle racing, a racer getting killed devastated all the teams, especially the dead racer’s team. It seemed as if the other teams grieved Darrick’s loss more than Team Free Flow. Eddie’s theory about his older brother’s death could very well be true. Bolan knew firsthand that Team Free Flow was affiliated with people who were more than capable of murder.
“I tried to contact you several times over the weekend to reschedule,” Botros said, “but I couldn’t reach you. I assumed you were indisposed.”
“I was fishing,” Bolan said. Botros’ smile wavered momentarily at Bolan’s reply, but returned more sickly sweet than ever.
“Well, Mr. Cooper, I hope you won’t disappear on a fishing expedition this week. Musa bin Osman, Free Flow’s vice president of racing, is flying in from Kuala Lumpur. He will be in San Francisco this evening and would very much like to meet with you. Our recent difficulties have been problematic for him. Free Flow’s CEO is starting to question the expenses of racing, especially after the unfortunate incident last week. Getting sponsorship from your company would help smooth over the situation.”
“You don’t think this will create friction with Arexpo?” Bolan asked, referring to Team Free Flow’s primary sponsor.
“Arexpo is an oil exploration company, not a refining company. They do not provide us with fuel. We purchase that,” Botros said, referring to an Italian fuel company. “Of course we would have to analyze your fuel at the factory, then conduct extensive testing before we could come to an agreement. You really must discuss these details with my superior.”
Bolan arranged to meet with bin Osman that night.
FOLLOWING THE MEETING, Bolan rode over to the Ducati garages in search of Eddie Anderson. Perhaps his supposed proof of his brother’s murder might help him find the missing plutonium. It was a long shot, but right now it was the best shot Bolan had. No one at the Ducati garages had seen Eddie. The soldier overheard Daniel Asnorossa remark to his crew chief in Spanish, “Maybe he’s off getting drunk, like his older brother.”
Bolan walked around behind the garage area to where the riders’ motor homes were parked. When practice got underway the following day, security in the area would tighten up, and by race day he knew he wouldn’t get near the motor homes without an official escort, but this early in the week the area was practically deserted and security was lax. Only about half a dozen truly driven riders like Anderson and Asnorossa had shown up this early; everyone else would drift in later that night or early the next morning.
He found Anderson’s motor home with the door wide open. The latch had been broken, and there were signs of some sort of struggle having taken place within the vehicle. Cushions had been knocked off the sofa and a broken cup and saucer lay on the floor in the kitchen area. A burner was still on under a stainless steel espresso pot on the stove and finely ground coffee was spread all over the counter and floor. Small drops of blood mixed with the coffee grounds and left a trail leading out the door. Bolan looked out the window above the stove and saw three men trying to stuff a struggling figure into the back of a Chevrolet Impala.
The Executioner exited the motor home and in several long strides he was almost to the car. The sight of the big man charging them momentarily distracted the kidnappers. Anderson took advantage of their paralysis, driving his knee into one of their crotches so hard he felt soft tissue rupturing in the man’s groin. He may not have been a physically large man, but what mass he had consisted of strong bones wrapped in corded muscles, the result of constant training, years of wrestling the most powerful motorcycles on Earth around racetracks and good genetics. The wounded man collapsed to the ground, only to be replaced by two others, the driver and the front-seat passenger.
Bolan reached the melee at the moment the driver stepped out of the car and pointed an AK-47 his way. He had no time to draw his own weapon but from the angle at which the man held the rifle against his hip the soldier could see that the shooter’s aim was high. The Executioner dived into the grass beneath the stream of bullets, sliding into the shooter’s legs and knocking him back into the car. Bolan leapt to his feet, grabbing the hot rifle barrel on his way up and wrenching it away from the shooter’s hands.
Meanwhile, Eddie Anderson fought like a demonic howler monkey against the two would-be kidnappers, but they were proving too much for him. Bolan raised the gun barrel over his head and brought the wooden stock down square in the shooter’s face. When he pulled the stock from the man’s face, which no longer bore any resemblance to a human face, he spun around and slammed the gore-covered rifle butt into the temple of one of the men attacking Anderson. The man fell to the ground.
Anderson had the other attacker
