of the employees taking off unannounced. He must have panicked when the cops started questioning employees. They picked him up on the highway, chased him and the guy lost control. He ended up in the local hospital with two broken legs, smashed ribs and a fractured shoulder. They found a stash of uncut diamonds in his luggage. His pay for the job. It seems he’d been contracted by Hegre to filter off diamonds from a number of batches between being lifted from the mine and weighed up. He was a production foreman and had a gambling and drinking problem. In debt up to his ears. Hegre paid him to arrange the thefts. He hid the cache in a metal toolbox and had it added to the road train cargo. All this came out in the hospital. The guy couldn’t wait to confess once the cops confronted him with the evidence.”
“How were the diamonds taken out of the country?”
“The guy came clean on that. Pretty slick operation. The heist team simply drove across country. Two thousand miles plus, to the coast and the diamonds were to be placed on a freighter out of Port Hedland on the Australian West coast.”
“Any trace on where the cache was heading?”
“The guy didn’t know that. Or the name of the ship.”
“Damn.”
“Don’t give up so easily, Striker. I have more.”
“You found the ship?”
“Don’t sound so surprised, my friend. Our young master of the cyber universe ran checks on all the vessels that left Port Hedland in the timeline we had and has come up with the answer you will love.”
Kurtzman explained how the tracking had been achieved and Bolan chalked one up to Akira Tokaido, the youngest member of Kurtzman’s cyberteam.
“Only three ships left the port in the timeframe we were looking at. Akira ran in-depth checks on them. Ownership. Destinations. Arrival dates. Two were quickly discounted. The third turned out to be the one we wanted. The Echo Rose, registered in Manila. She’s had more owners than you can shake a stick at. The tramp of all tramp ships. She carries mixed cargoes of every shape and size all round the region. When Akira ran his check on who has her papers currently, he hit a spiderweb of fake titles and shaky companies. All covers for the real owner of the Echo Rose.”
“Hegre?”
“Very loose connection, but the buck does stop at the Hegre corporation. Akira logged into the ship’s manifest. The Echo Rose was on a cargo run that would take her up through the Timor Sea, delivering cargo all the way up to Hong Kong and Kowloon.”
“Ties in with what Brewster said before he died. Hong Kong and Kowloon.”
“Brewster?”
“A bought agent. Joseph Brewster. We might be looking at other leaks.”
“Other insiders?”
“Anything and everything, Aaron. We have names from last time around. Start to pull strands together.”
“On it.”
When Bolan went back inside, his food had just been delivered. He glanced at the enormous platter then across at Mitchell. She was enjoying her meal.
“Are we eating for the whole diner?”
Mitchell smiled. “A big guy like you needs his food.”
“Let’s hope we don’t have to do any running for the next couple of days.”
“So?” Mitchell asked.
Bolan knew what she was angling for. It was time to update her on his talk with Stony Man.
“Hegre is involved in a deal to supply uranium for the Iranians. I don’t have the full details, but it looks likely the stuff came from Kazakhstan. Hegre will do the deal on behalf of the Iranian connection. Iran finds it difficult to buy uranium on the open market, especially since the nuclear deal it struck with the six world powers. Once Iran’s name comes up, most countries back away. Hegre steps in and does the buy for them, shunts it around locations until they can finally ship it to Iran undercover. The stolen diamonds help Hegre raise plenty of cash for working the deal, and they’ll get it back in triplicate once the client pays up.” Bolan added, “Hegre lost a big load of cash when a North Korean deal went sour. The diamond heist will have helped boost their reserves.”
“Not if we could take it away from them,” Mitchell said.
Bolan did not fail to pick up on the we. The look on Mitchell’s face told him that she was not joking. The FBI agent, already deep into the Hegre mythology, was as committed to the organization’s downfall as Bolan. She had already proved her worth under fire and she had a sharp brain. Her unflinching attitude was well suited to Bolan’s way of operating.
“Hong Kong isn’t downtown U.S.A.,” he pointed out.
“Don’t you believe I can handle it?”
“I do. I’m not so sure China can.”
Mitchell smiled across Bolan’s shoulder as she spotted a familiar figure crossing the diner’s parking lot.
“Here’s someone else who probably feels the same,” she said, watching as SAC Drake Duncan pushed open the door and stepped inside.
He spotted them and made his way to where they were sitting.
“Sir,” Mitchell said.
“They told me you two had headed out for some peace and quiet,” Duncan said, not unkindly.
“That was my idea,” Bolan said.
“I’m not complaining.” Duncan surveyed the meals they were eating. “Looks good. I haven’t eaten all damn day.”
Bolan waved the server over and ordered a meal for Duncan, adding a request for more coffee.
“Coffee would be good,” Duncan said. “My head is still reeling after that flight from Washington. I got the go-ahead to get a flight courtesy of the Air Force. And I thought regular airlines moved fast.”
Bolan ran through what they had learned about Hegre, the diamonds and the uranium. Duncan listened patiently.
His coffee arrived and he sipped it.
“Good,” he said. He looked from Bolan, to Mitchell, his thoughts almost visible as he digested the information. “I am getting the feeling there’s something unspoken, and I’m certain I’m not going be too happy about it.”
To his credit SAC Duncan did not explode with righteous anger as Bolan brought him up-to-date. He remained silent as Bolan gave him the details of Stony Man’s revelations, though he refrained from revealing his information source. The FBI man only glanced at Mitchell a couple of times as he absorbed what Bolan had to say, especially when the soldier asked for Mitchell to be allowed to accompany him on the mission.
Mitchell remained silent, for once holding back from making any kind of remarks, facetious or
