Dictator s Daughter (30 page)

“Is it safe to use that?” Ryan asked.

“Probably not. However, it’s the only way to
be contacted.” Sean said as his phone chimed to say he had voice
mail. His heart jumped. He called his mailbox and listened to the
message. He motioned with his hand for Ryan and Jacquline to follow
him in the bedroom so everyone could hear the message at the same
time. He reset the message and turned on speakerphone.

The angry growling voice of Victor Rawlings
sounded through the room. “I’ve had enough of you and your pathetic
family! That is
my
money and you
will
transfer it
back today! Or I will kill Eliwese!” The call ended.

Everyone sat quietly. They looked at each
other for a second and Sean said with a huge smile, “It’s going to
be a lovely day.”

“What do you mean, Sean?” Sara asked.

“Dishing out insults and issuing commands is
a sign of loss of control. He’s desperate, and desperate men are
foolish.” Sean got up and pocketed his phone.

“And dangerous,” Lyndee added.

“I am going to walk to the library. I can
transfer money from that location, plus, our other disguises are
already in place along with the other car. Jacquline, would you
watch the surveillance cameras for Eliwese, Riley, and Rawlings to
leave?

She nodded.

“If all three do not leave at the same time,
I need to be told. I wrote my cell number on this piece of paper.
Ryan, Mom and Lyndee, wait till Jacquline gives you the all clear,
put on your disguises and then drive north to the border.”

“That’s a sixteen hour drive.” Ryan
complained. “What about Jacquline?

“Jacquline, you need to make sure these guys
are not seen leaving your room. There cannot be a trail leading
back to you. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Ryan, here is a copy of the account
numbers and the password, just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Lyndee asked.

“Lyndee, this whole operation is risky. You
know what I am talking about. Ryan if you don’t hear from me in two
hours time, log in and move that money. Keep your heads low and be
safe. Ryan, give me your hat and sunglasses. I might need those. I
love you guys.” With that, Sean hugged everyone and left the
room.

Out in the hall, Sean placed Ryan’s hat on
his head and waited for the elevator. From what Jacquline had told
him, the guards wouldn’t be paying attention to patrons leaving the
hotel, and she was right. He exited out the main lobby door and
proceeded to the library six blocks away.

The walk was refreshing to his senses. The
cool autumn air was crisp and Sean knew the snow level would soon
drop to the valley floors, he could feel it in the air. Normally,
this would invigorate him, but not today. His awareness was on high
alert watching for followers.

He arrived at the library and went in and
signed onto a computer. He then went to the men’s room and
retrieved one bag of clothes from the vent and added the glasses
and hat to its contents. He took the bag back to his desk. Along
the way, he noted no other library guests, only two older women at
the librarian’s desk.

Once Sean had the bank information pulled up
on the computer screen, he took a deep breath and dialed the phone
number from the caller ID.

“Cutler, where is my money?!” the angry voice
sounded immediately into the phone.

“What? You lost some money?”

“What have you done with my money?!”

“Calm down, I haven’t done anything with it.
It’s sitting in my bank account. I don’t understand why you’re so
bent out of shape over this, aren’t you worth four times that
much?”

“I thought I was done with you and your
despicable family.”

“Now, now, insults will only cost you
money.”

“What is it you want, Cutler?”

“Eliwese and five-million, no, make it
six-million dollars because you insulted my family.”

“And what elaborate plan have you drawn up
this time? Are we to meet at the park? Will we negotiate over the
see-saw? Maybe this is part of the first plan, get Daddy to
transfer too much money and then
blackmail
him with it.”

“You transferred too much money all on your
own, buddy, and yes, now I’m blackmailing you with it.”

“You won’t win, boy.”

“Maybe not, but I’m still going to try.”

“So, where do we meet?”

“Who says we need to meet at all? Send
Eliwese into the public library on Sixteenth Street. Once she’s
here, I’ll transfer the money to you via the internet.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, do we have a deal or isn’t she worth
ninety-four million dollars?”

“I’ll be there in three hours.”

“You’re already here. You have ten minutes.
That’s all the time it took me to walk here, you can surely drive
faster than that.”

“Ten minutes isn’t enough time.”

“Sure it is. Listen, I leave here in ten
minutes, either with Eliwese and six-million, or alone with
one-hundred million dollars.” Sean hung up on him.

Sean watched in both amazement and amusement
at the flurry of men and vehicles swarming on the library. He could
only imagine the chaos echoing through the private radios, the
cussing, the stress of moving the equivalent of an army six blocks
and positioning strategic snipers and intelligence officials in the
best prime places. It brought a smile to Sean’s face. It also gave
him an indication of how desperately Rawlings wanted his money
back.

Ten minutes to the dot, Eliwese entered the
library wearing the same clothing as the day before. Sean stayed in
his chair and waited for her to come to him as a safety precaution.
No sense in walking into snipers’ cross-hairs. As she came near, he
could tell she’d been beaten again. She had new bruises on her arms
and face and one nasty looking black eye. Her walk was slow and
pained. She hadn’t even recovered fully from her surgery before she
was subjected to another beating.

“Sean, why didn’t you listen to me? This will
only get us killed. The whole building is surrounded. This won’t
end well,” she said in a quiet, weak voice with moist eyes.

He stood up and hugged her carefully and
tenderly. He pulled his head away from her but kept his arms around
her. “Look at you! He will pay for this.”

“How are we going to get out of this? Why did
you have to be the hero?” The pain in her eyes made it hard for
Sean to swallow.

He handed her the bag of clothes. “Go to the
men’s room and change. Hurry as fast as you can.” He winked at
her.

His eyes followed her as she entered the
men’s room. He walked briskly to the librarian’s desk where the two
women busily checked books in from the drop box.

“Excuse me,” he drew their attention. He
pointed out the large picture windows to the mass sea of black
vehicles. “Those all belong to Victor Rawlings. He has the place
surrounded. Do you have a safe place you can go to right now? I’d
hate for you to be caught in the cross-fire, should there be
any.”

The two frumpy librarians looked quickly at
each other, their half circle reading glasses nearly falling off
their noses.

“What are they doing here?” The older one
asked.

“It’s a showdown and you two need to get out
of here, now.”

They scurried through a door into a back room
and Sean’s phone rang. He took a deep breath and thought to
himself,
here we go
.

He answered the call with, “Did you think I
would overlook your treatment of Eliwese? I would say Riley just
cost you another four-million dollars for that beating you allowed
him to do.”

“Damn it! Transfer my money!”

“Patience, patience, this dial-up connection
is super slow. I need an account number to send this money to.”

Victor rattled off a set of numbers and Sean
entered them into the appropriate line. Victor then ordered
forcefully, “Now, transfer my money!”

Sean asked sarcastically, “So how many men do
you have surrounding this place? Ten? Twenty? Ninety-million?”

“Your confidence is outstanding; I’ll make
sure your headstone reflects it. Transfer the money!”

“You want to know what I think? I think you
are running a little short on funds about now. I think you
transferred all the money you own in the whole wide world and now
it’s sitting in my bank account. You’re sounding like a broken
record saying ‘transfer my money’ over and over-”

Victor cut him off. “The two of you will not
leave this library alive.”

“I changed my mind, Vic. I am only going to
transfer twenty-million at this time and the rest of the money will
be transferred once I am safe and sound, somewhere else.” Sean
entered in the transaction for twenty-million dollars and pressed
enter.

“We will storm the building and force you to
transfer it all!”

“Now, how would you do that? Kill me if I
don’t transfer the money? I am the only one signed on this account.
Killing me won’t get your money back, but I don’t have to tell you
that.”

“I have other ways to get you to comply.”

“What are you going to do, hold a gun to your
own daughter’s head if I don’t make the transfer? You’re too late
for that. If you check the city records and blueprints, you’ll find
a series of tunnels under the library. My brother sent her through
a tunnel as soon as she arrived here. She has a ten-minute jump on
you already. In fact, she probably already exited the tunnel and is
being whisked away in fashion to an undisclosed place. She’s long
gone,” Sean said proudly. “Oh, and my mother and sister left town,
so unless you captured them,” Sean really hoped that wasn’t the
case, “and are going to hold them hostage for your money, I don’t
see any other way to convince me to transfer all your money right
now. Also, if you think using my brother would have an effect on
me, think again. Ryan is ready to die to protect his family.”

“Transfer my money and I’ll let you
live.”

“You are forced to let me live because I made
sure the account password is sixteen characters long with numbers
and letters. It’s unhackable. Kill me and you’ll never get your
money back. How about this: you let me leave here with my brother
and I’ll transfer you more money in forty-five minutes. The safer I
feel, the more money I’ll send. I’ll keep doing this as I travel
further away from you.”

“How can I trust you?”

“You are not capable of trusting anyone, so
don’t exhaust yourself trying. I’m sure you know by now that I’m
good for my word; I told you I’d transfer twenty mil and I did.
Just sit back and wait and I’ll hold up my end of the bargain. But
remember, no one else is signed on this account. If I am killed,
your money will get held up in court battles for months, possibly
years. Now, in a few minutes, we’re going to come out the back door
and we sure do want to feel safe. Can you make us feel safe,
Victor?”

A long silence hung ominously before the
defeated voice followed. “Yes.” Sean looked over and saw Eliwese
exit the bathroom holding the sunglasses and hat and looking a lot
like his brother Ryan.

Now
was the time to take Riley down.
“One more thing, Victor, your number one guy, Riley, he’s not your
friend; he’s been playing you. You know, my last crosser was a man
who discovered your personal money laundering scheme and you
ordered Riley to ‘take him out’. But I’m guessing you meant to kill
him, not take him out of the country; yet, Riley probably told you
he had completed the job. Isn’t he a good liar? Boy, I wonder what
else he’s lied about. How about your personal secretary? You
thought she was dead too, I bet, but she’s fine, thanks to Riley.
In fact, even Eliwese knew Riley was the secret source for leaving
your country. A couple of months ago, he discovered my mother,
Sierra, was alive, but I bet he never told you. He kept a close eye
on her and when Eliwese defected, he placed her with my family so
he could watch over both of them at the same time; Riley knew where
Eliwese was all along. He sure duped you, didn’t he? If you don’t
believe me check into his banking; you’ll find more money than what
you pay him, probably millions more. Perhaps he can reimburse you
for the four-million dollar beating he gave Eliwese last night!”
Sean hung up the phone.

“Why did you do that?!” Eliwese was
scared.

“Just one last jab, that’s all.” Sean said
casually, but inside he hoped for something else. He placed Ryan’s
hat on her head. “Come on now. Put on the sunglasses to hide your
black eye. You’re supposed to be Ryan, so try to walk like a
guy.”

Victor Rawlings’ eyes sought out Riley who
stood nearby as Sean ended the conversation. Victor closed his
phone and called Riley over.

“What is it?” Riley suspected nothing and
knew nothing of what had transpired on the phone. He was also
unaware Eliwese had exposed him the night before as an opportunist
in the quest for an heir.

“The two Cutler boys are coming out and no
one is to fire upon them. All guns are to await my orders.”

Riley relayed the orders through his
radio.

“Riley, what did you do with my
accountant?”

“What did I do with him?” Riley wasn’t sure
what the question was.

“You killed him, right?” Victor’s face turned
red with bottled up fury.

“Yes, that’s what you wanted.”

“It is what I wanted, but I don’t believe you
did it.”

“What, do you need proof?”

“I do. But I also know you can’t get it for
me because the
son of a bitch is alive
, living here in
Baylend!”

“I don’t—”

“You hid my daughter here! You knew all along
where she was! How could you betray me like this? After everything
I’ve done for you!” he hissed.

“How could
I
betray
you
, you
ask? It’s because of everything you’ve
done to
me!
”