UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck (26 page)

He stopped running and started walking toward the ladder. By the time John reached the ladder, the Lipstick Woman was already on the terrace and waving to him, beckoning him to come up. John decided against being a hero, and climbed slowly, respecting his injuries. He remembered what the doctor had said. He would need at least another few days before he was fully fit. Once on top, they both laid down flat on their stomachs, with the binoculars in front of their eyes.

“John, do you see that room with the light still on?” she asked, pointing at the one room which still had its light on.

“I see it.” replied John.

“That is the room where the inspector is staying. Rather, he is just here to meet the messenger, who will carry the container codes with him. The messenger will go outside the room, drop off his package and leave. The inspector will then pick up that package. The messenger will probably stay in his car until the inspector gives him a signal that everything is fine. After that, the messenger will leave and that is when we will make our move.” said the Lipstick Woman.

“That means, we have nothing to do but wait.” said John, putting his binoculars aside.

“That is correct detective. We have nothing to do, but wait. Although, we are only about ten minutes early and the messenger’s car should be here in a short while.” said the Lipstick Woman.

“Okay, Lipstick Woman. We wait.” said John, turning and lying flat on his back. The Lipstick Woman continued to keep her eyes focused on the road that led into the motel. John kept looking at the stars, his mind going back to his stay at the University. He started thinking about how simple life was. Whenever he had time to spare, he would climb up the terrace in his hostel and spend up to a couple of hours on it, trying to figure out the beauty behind the calmness of the night sky. John loved the way the stars twinkled. Every now and then, just as it did now, a thick cloud would move across to block his view of the twinkling stars. He must have been lost in his thoughts for a while, and was startled when the Lipstick Woman touched his shoulder and drew his attention.

“Hey John! Our messenger is here.” she said.

John turned around and put the binoculars over his eyes. He was glad that the Lipstick Woman gave him the night vision gadgets for the messenger’s car was driving with its lights off. As they watched, the car moved slowly toward the room with the light still on. The light window wasn’t enough to light up the parking spots, so everything was still very dark. A person in a dark grey suit stepped outside, and dropped a cigarette on the ground and stamped it with his shoes. He closed the door and walked silently to the door with the lights still on. The man had a briefcase in his hands, which he placed right in front of the door. He knocked on the door twice, paused for a minute, and knocked two more times. The lights inside the room went out.

The moment the lights went out, the messenger returned to his car. The briefcase was still in front of that door. He started his car and then drove it away from the motel. Even as John and the Lipstick Woman watched, the car drove away a few hundred meters and stopped. Next, the door of the room that they were watching opened and a hand became visible. The hand picked up the briefcase and disappeared. The car was still standing. A few minutes passed and nothing seemed to happen. Then, the light in the room was switched on again. As if responding to that, the car on the other side drove away with its headlights still turned off. The two observers on the terrace kept an eye on it until it disappeared into the night.

“John, this is our chance. Let’s go.” she said, getting up.

“I am right behind you.” said John, also getting up.

The Lipstick Woman started sprinting, softly on the terrace, toward that room which was their target. John walked as fast as he could, not keen to hurt his body even more than absolutely necessary. They stopped after reaching the top of the room the inspector was in. The Lipstick Woman motioned John to be quiet and she quickly climbed down the terrace and dropped onto the ground, at the back of the room. As John watched from the terrace, he noticed that she pulled out a key from her pocket.

Even as he watched, she used the key to open backdoor of the room. She did not open it all the way though. She looked up and beckoned John to climb down. John nodded and climbed down and was next to her in just a few moments. She held the back door open just large enough so they could see what was going on inside.

They saw that a small candle was burning in the room. A man, wearing a blue t-shirt and matching jeans was standing next to the bed. An open briefcase was in front of him. He was holding a set of papers in his hand. He was checking them one by one, and John noticed that there were a total of five set of papers. He placed the papers back in the briefcase and snapped it shut. Then he turned away from the back door, not realizing that two people were watching him. The moment he turned, the Lipstick Woman spoke into John’s ears.

“Let’s grab him.”

John moved quickly despite his injuries and grabbed him from behind, with one hand folding his arms and the other on his mouth. The Lipstick Woman quickly pulled out a small syringe box from her pocket, from which she drew out a syringe.

“Hold him steady.” she said, pushing a needle softly into the arm of the person that John was holding in his grip. She then put the needle, which was spent now, back in the syringe box.

“Place him on the bed, detective.” she said, sitting on the bed next to the briefcase.

John did as she said, and sat on the space next to the briefcase, on the other side. The Lipstick Woman, lifted the candle off the floor and looked at the briefcase. Then she reached into the pocket of the now unconscious inspector to remove the briefcase key. She used it to open the in no time.

She grabbed the same five sheets that the inspector was looking at a few minutes ago, and the documents seemed to be legit. She handed them over to John, who folded them and placed them in his pockets. With their job done, the two stepped outside through the same back door. She locked the door and they walked back to the back door of their own room. Once inside the room, she secured the door locks and joined John on the bed and started studying the papers.

“Okay detective. We are doing just fine. These are the papers that will lead us to the containers we are looking for.” she said with a satisfied expression on her face.

“You want me to take his clothes so I look more like him?” asked John.

“That won’t be necessary detective. Your current appearance will do. Now, that we know the container codes, our next stop has to be the docks. How are you feeling? The injuries?” she asked.

“I think I am okay. I just cannot run fast but I am fine. Nothing a good night’s sleep cannot fix.” said John.

“That’s good enough for me. Get the car running detective. I will return the room keys to the reception and be with you in a few minutes.” said she, rummaging through her hair and ruffling up her clothes a bit. John thought it was a bit weird.

“I want the boys at the reception to think that we had sex detective. Trying to allay any suspicions about why a couple came, did nothing and left.” she answered, looking at his facial expression.

“Alright.” said John, pushing the papers back into his pockets and heading to the car. He walked to the car and started the engine. He watched from a distance as she walked to the reception cabin. John noticed that she was walking a little differently, like a woman who was tired after a hot session of intercourse. He could see that she was a pretty good actress. John could not help but continue to be impressed with her. A few minutes passed and then he watched her as she exited the reception, walked to the car, and got in. Once she had her seat belt on John switched gears and took off toward the docks.

“I already have information on the vessel that our five containers are being loaded on. I know a man at the docks who will help us and lead us to the port, which as you know, is a fairly guarded place. The same man will lead us to the container vessel. Once on the vessel though, we would be on our own, John. I don’t know if you have dealt with cargo security before. Stepping unauthorized on a ship is like trespassing into a bank’s vault. There is every chance that we might get shot.” said the Lipstick Woman.

“We just have to be careful.” said John, focusing on the road and thinking about the task at hand.

They reached the dock in about twenty minutes, and John had stopped the car at a spot indicated by the Lipstick Woman. They got down and she made a call. A minute later, a man wearing a head cap and a full beard joined them. John tried to figure out who he was, but couldn’t. The Lipstick Woman handed him an envelope, which looked like it contained cash. The man with the beard smiled and motioned them to follow him, without speaking a word. They both followed him through what looked like a scrap yard. At a distance, John could hear the noise from the dock. John figured that they were still pretty far from the actual dock. Soon enough, they came to a manhole cover. The bearded man bent down and dragged the cover off the manhole. For the first time since they met, the man spoke.

“Get inside. Go straight and take the second right turn. You will find a ladder, climb up and you are in. Your ship is right next to the manhole you walk out of. Good luck. Thanks for the money.” he said, walking away from them and disappearing behind a wall.

John allowed her to climb down the manhole first, and then got down after her. As he stepped down, he pulled the cover over the manhole. Once down the ladder, she led the way with her torch. Just as the man had indicated, they took the second right turn. At about a hundred meters ahead, they reached the ladder the man had told them about. On reaching the ladder, John climbed first, pushed aside the manhole cover that was blocking the exit. He pushed it away, and climbed up. He waited on the surface for the Lipstick Woman to come out. Once they were both on the ground, John closed the manhole cover. He stood up and looked around him. He was right next to a large container vessel.

“This is the vessel, detective. Time to locate our containers.” said the Lipstick Woman.

“I hate to be the guy who gives the bad news. There are like two hundred containers on that vessel.” said John, looking at the huge container vessel in front of him.

“I have got that covered. Let’s go.” said the Lipstick Woman, beckoning him to follow.

They ran along the length of the ship for about fifty meters and then she stopped. John followed her lead and stopped as well. He noticed that the place where she stopped was the darkest possible spot along the length of the vessel. She proceeded to kneel down, placing her backpack on the ground. From the bag she pulled out a thin but lengthy rope, which John estimated would be about fifty feet. She placed the rope on the ground and then dug back into her bag and pulled out what looked like four corner hooks which was shaped like dart guns. She plugged one end of the rope into the dart gun shaped device. She pulled it twice to make sure it was in place and then she pointed the shooting end of the dart towards the edge of the ship, which was about forty feet away.

She stood up, with John instinctively moving backwards, and shot the gun. The rope shot up like a rocket with a long tail. It then curved towards the vessel and the hook latched onto the side of the vessel. She pulled the rope down and found that the grappling cable had found its home. She turned to John, smiled, and grabbed the rope and started climbing it. Even as John watched, he noticed that she climbed easily and in less than a minute, she was already at the top and climbed over on the vessel.

She then looked down and motioned to John to grab the rope. John noticed that she understood that his injuries wouldn’t let him climb up. John grabbed the rope with great difficulty, his arms paining like crazy. The moment he was holding the rope firmly, she started to pull him up. Given his weight, it took her a little over two minutes to pull him all the way up. Once he was high enough, he climbed over the railings and was on the vessel as well. She pulled up the rope and placed both the rope and the gun in the bag. They hid behind the closest container, and then knelt down.

“John, the time right now is one am. I don’t know if you know this, but this is usually the time when the vessel’s security takes a break from their night shift security beat. We have about fifteen minutes before the beat resumes. You need to know that these containers are ordered in rows of twenty. As you noted earlier, there are about two hundred containers. Check with the first container number, and use that as a reference to find the container we are looking for. Do you have a list of the containers we are looking for, John?” she asked.

“Got them right here.” said John, tapping his phone inside his pocket with his arm.

“Good. I will start looking for the containers from container number hundred. You start with the first one. Based on the numbers, you should find two of them and I will find the remaining three. Here, take these.” she said, handing him two tiny marble shaped metal balls. Looking at his confusion, the Lipstick Woman continued her explanation.

“Do you notice the flap on one side of the ball? Very good. Tap them and the trackers built into them will become active and the balls will attach themselves to the surface. Once you have got both the containers, you will return to this spot. Once I find and attach my three trackers and I will come back. If anything goes wrong, let’s just agree to scream for help for each other.” she said.

John nodded, stood up, and ran toward his row of containers. As he ran, he turned back to see that she was already behind one of the containers and was no longer visible to him. John kept running one container to another, looking for the first of the two that he was responsible for. He ran two rows and had just passed the fifth container in that particular row, when he found his first container. He double checked the number on the container and then tapped the marble that was given by the Lipstick Woman. He could feel a buzz coming from within and placed it under the container surface. Just like she said, it attached itself onto the bottom surface. John then continued to run and found the next container in the next row. He did the same to that container as well. With his job done, he found his way back to the original location where they stood when they climbed onboard the vessel. He found that she was already there.