Texas Tango: A Flint Rock Novel (13 page)

"Is she available to talk?"

"I'll check."

"Flint," Zeta said with a glad tone in her voice.

"Hey Zeta.
 
Thanks for getting Ava to save my hide.
 
Tell me more about Mo Bahaar and the DSM Four."

"The report I read focuses on a particular combination of asocial and antisocial traits.
 
Bahaar was a loner as a child.
 
He has a suppressed sadistic tendency, and he has never met anyone who knows as much as he knows.
 
He is for real exceptionally well read and has a phenomenal memory.
 
He has concluded that he is exempt from all laws and rules.
 
He has so far not been caught fracturing the rules; however, if he ever is cornered, he knows that he can out think anyone who tries to curtail him.
 
Flint, do be very careful because he wants to find someone who is a worthy opponent.
 
He likely thinks Dr. Milan is a challenge.
 
If he gets to know you, you will inevitably provoke his competitive jealousy.
 
He will automatically try to annihilate you.
 
He will torture and kill Dr. Milan simply to annoy you.
 
That is his nature."

"I'll stay alert Zeta."

"Flint.
 
You ever read Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories?"

"I've indulged in a few."

"You know the character named Professor Moriarty?"

"Yes, the personification of evil in some of the stories."

"Bahaar seems to be a real life Moriarty.
 
He looks benign but pleases himself by causing pain to others.
 
But he doesn’t get caught at it."

"I hear you.
 
Thanks again for watching my back.”

Flint hung up.
 
The military police officer questioned Flint.
 
The other white skirts took the minions of Bahaar behind one of the G-Wagens.
 
As Flint answered the officer's questions, loud protests came in Urdu from one of the captives.
 
The officer left Flint for a few minutes,
then
returned.

"Our captives wanted to claim diplomatic immunity, but a couple of my men have persuaded them to talk instead.
 
Seems you were being set up.”
 
He pointed to the olive drab colored tube.
 
“They were instructed to shoot this shoulder launched, multipurpose assault weapon into the Parthenon.
 
It will fire an explosive rocket accurately from this distance.
 
Then they were to kill you and make it look as if they interrupted you destroying a sacred Greek temple.”

“You got a lot from them quickly,” Flint said.

“That’s the other interesting thing,” the officer said smiling.
 
“We found a vial of what appears to be a Russian developed truth serum.
 
The Russians call it SP-117.
 
Tasteless, odorless, quick acting, without obvious side effects.
 
It is highly effective, and the person on whom it is used doesn’t remember afterwards that he swallowed it.
 
The Russian secret service has used it extensively, including on its own agents and a couple of politicians.
 
More reliable than sodium pentothal or sodium amytal.
 
At least that is what my brother tells me.
 
He's a forensic specialist."

Flint asked, "
and
were they planning to use it on me?"

"Yes, it seems so.
 
They want to know everything you know about the woman psychiatrist at the Bretagne who asked me to help you."
 
The officer paused.
 
"We used the truth serum on all three men and they are talking nonstop.”
 
He led Flint around a vehicle to where the white skirts had them cuffed with their legs tied.
 
They were seated on the ground and were speaking in Urdu.
 
One of the Greek soldiers translated.

“Ask them what Bahaar wants from Dr. Milan,” Flint requested.

“I have asked.
 
They don’t know, but they know that she is important to his plans.”

“What do they know that might
help.?
” Flint inquired.

“Does it help to know that their employer wants you to hurt before you die?”

“No big surprise.”
 
Flint gave a phone number to the translator and the officer in charge.
 
“Call me if you learn anything I need to know.”
 
They both entered his number into their cell phones.
 
Flint turned to the officer in charge.
 
“I need to get back to the Bretagne Hotel to locate Dr. Milan.”
 
The officer agreed, sent two English speaking soldiers to drive him in one of the G-Wagens.

Flint asked the room number of Mohammed Bahaar.
 
The woman behind the desk demurred until one of the soldiers spoke with her in Greek.
 
She said his room was the entire fifth floor, their premier VIP area.

One soldier knocked at the door.
 
No response.
 
They waited, knocked again.
 
The door was opened by the man who was talking to Ava when Flint was hustled out of the hotel.

Bahaar was nowhere in the suite.
 
His well-spoken emissary, Jafe, could not say when his employer would return.
 
He had been called away suddenly.
 
Mr. Bahaar had asked Dr. Milan to examine the woman who reclined on the sofa seeming to be asleep.
 
The woman's companion from the restaurant was no longer present.
 
He had left when Bahaar departed.

Ava picked up Mary's hand bag and walked toward the door.
 
Flint followed her out.
 
One soldier left with them.
 
Downstairs the soldier said that the officer in charge of the detail would be back in touch if they needed to talk further.

It would soon be an hour past midnight.
 
Ava asked Flint how he felt about heading back to Naples.
 

"Let’s go," he said.
 
He quickly told Ava about the Russian truth serum and Bahaar’s intent to get information about her from Flint but that the Greeks had used it on his captors instead.

"I have things to tell you," Ava continued, "but I will do it as we fly.
 
Let’s get out of here."

Flint changed enough money for the taxi.
 
They stayed silent during the nine mile drive that took twenty-seven minutes.
 
No point in giving the driver information to sell to anyone.

The Sabreliner was on the ramp.
 
Flint removed the wheel chocks, performed a normal preflight inspection, entered the cabin door after Ava, and took the left seat.
 
By then the sleepy line-boy had the Auxiliary Power Unit connected.
 
Flint filed IFR with air traffic control while the left engine fan spun faster and faster.
 
He was saying the clearance details back as he lit the engine’s fire,
then
did the same for the right engine.

Ava squeezed Flint's arm as he taxied but stayed silent because he was busy with a check list.
 
As the nose gear lifted off the runway to a climb attitude, Ava started telling him what had transpired in Bahaar's room.
 
Eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds later.
he
leveled at 33,000 feet, set the throttles for Mach .71, trimmed for efficient cruise.
 
By then he knew that Mo had threatened Ava with exposure as a teen aged call girl if she did not hypnotize the bronze beauty in his room.
 
Flint also knew that the purpose of the hypnosis was to program the woman to have sex with four men whose names Bahaar had supplied.

"So what did you do?" Flint asked.

"I used an instant induction and she went into a deep trance," Ava confided.
 
"I didn't do it to keep Mo from exposing my past.
 
He will probably do that anyway.
 
He likes to inflict pain, not only as a pressure tactic but also to watch a person hurt for no reason."

"He told you that?"

"He only hinted, but I know his personality type.
 
He implied that you would be tortured if I failed to cooperate.
 
He left the impression that someone else had made that decision, but he lied.
 
He can't rest unless he knows that he is supremely in charge."

The reason I want to get out of Athens fast is that I took a big chance."

"Tell me."

"I had Pagana, that’s the woman’s name, in a deep trance quickly.
 
I spoke to her in Italian.
 
She doesn't know English and I don't speak Greek.
 
Pagana knows Italian fluently as does Mo who was right there watching and listening.
 
Suddenly he got a phone call that sent him out the door.
 
His unexpected departure left his factotum, Jafe, and me with Pagana.
 
I did some fast experimenting and concluded that Jafe doesn't know Italian.

"So you didn't do what Bahaar ordered you to do?"

"That's right.
 
In fact I did the opposite of what he directed.
 
I learned from Pagana that she is a party girl who likes sex but does not need money.
 
She had sex with Mo three times about a month ago.
 
He has since watched her once with Jafe, but he has expressed no more erotic interest for himself.
 
She does not know the four men whose names Mo handed me written on a sheet of hotel letterhead.
 

I hypnotized Pagana to
not
have sex with the four guys.
 
In fact I hypnotized her to have no sexual interest at all for the next thirty days.
 
And I put a hypnotic seal on her so no one else but me can hypnotize her.
 
I suggested that she would spend private time with each of the four and that she would tell anyone who asked that she
did have sex
with each during the private time.
 
I left her with no conscious memory of the suggestions that I made during the session."

“That was a bold move!
 
Hats off to you,” Flint said in admiration.
 
“What happened to her escort?"

"He left with Mo.
 
I think he is part of the Bahaar coterie."

Flint caught Ava up on his conversations with Zeta and Harry.
 
By then, Napoli Radar assigned Four Six Double Tango the Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to runway 24.
 
Fog had settled in.
 

Visibility was down to fifty meters.
 
Any less and the airport would have closed.
 
Naples approach handed the Sabreliner off to the tower.
 
On final, Flint could see no light outside of the cockpit.
 
Crossing the middle maker with half a mile to the runway, still no outside lights were visible.
 
Flint’s right hand was poised on the throttles.
 
Seconds ticked off on the elapsed time readout.
 
One more second and he would push the throttles open, declare a missed approach.
 
Intense runway approach lights began to glow fuzzily.
 
Suddenly Flint saw four dim dots of light on either side of the runway, not distinct but enough.
 
He pulled the throttles back as his left hand kept the nose up until the main tires squealed.
 
Then he let the nose wheel touch.
 
Reverse thrust and brakes applied, Flint’s eyes were on the directional gyro which did not vary from 240° as the aircraft slowed noisily.
 
He might get chewed out for too many decibels of reverse thrust, but it was better to awaken the neighbors at 2:27
A.M.
than run out of runway in the fog.