Текст книги "Golden Buddha"

Автор книги: Clive Cussler

Соавторы: Clive Cussler
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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

12

“THE sample checks out,” the software billionaire said over the telephone.

Spenser had dispensed with the voice-alteration equipment, but his words were tinged with a fear that made his upper-crust accent less polished than perplexed.

“Then you are interested?” he said.

“Sure,” the software billionaire said, “but I’ve decided that I want to make the transfer myself. I have the feeling you’re about as trustworthy as a hooker with a crack habit.”

Spenser frowned. His plan of thievery and deceit was unraveling. The costs he had already incurred made a quick sale his only salvation—there was no time to line up another buyer. He was in the worst possible place. He was a seller who needed to sell—with a buyer who was calling the shots.

“Then you need to come here and take delivery,” Spenser said.

“Where’s here?”

“Macau,” Spenser said.

The software billionaire stared at a calendar on his desk. “I’ll be there the evening of Good Friday.”

“I’ll want cash or bearer bonds then,” Spenser said. “No more bank transfer.”

“Fair enough, but don’t try anything, I’m bringing reinforcements.”

“You bring the money,” Spenser said, “and you get the Buddha.”

The billionaire disconnected and Spenser sat quietly for a moment.

He didn’t have long to go.

“MONICA’S a guest,” Cabrillo said as he glanced at the sheet of notes. “For this operation, she’s a minor member of the Danish royal family.”

“It’s all so common,” Crabtree said with a Scandinavian accent.

“You’ll need to fake a speech impediment with that accent,” Hanley said. “Stop by the Magic Shop and we’ll make you a mouth guard that will add a lisp.”

“Great,” Crabtree said, “I get to play a lisping lady-in-waiting.”

“It could be worse,” Cabrillo said. “Linda’s replacing the chain-smoking Portuguese party planner, Iselda.”

“Excellent,” Linda Ross said, laughing. “I finally quit smoking a few years ago and now the Corporation is going to get me hooked again.”

“By the way,” Hanley said, “we think Iselda also practices an alternative lifestyle.”

“So I’m a chain-smoking Portuguese lesbian party planner,” Ross said. “At least it’s not as bad as when I was a German transsexual dominatrix.”

“I remember that,” Murphy said. “You looked like Madeline Kahn in that Mel Brooks film.”

“I remember you being kind of turned on,” Ross said.

“We were going to use Julia, but we couldn’t, for the obvious reason,” Cabrillo noted.

Julia Huxley, the Oregon’s medical officer, grinned. “I always knew growing up that these big boobs would pay off.”

“You’d just better perfect your Pamela Anderson-Lee-whoever look,” Hanley said.

“I get to play a slut?” Huxley said happily.

“Girlfriend of one of the band members,” Cabrillo noted.

“Same thing,” Huxley said eagerly. “Can Max do me some fake tattoos?”

“Be glad to,” Hanley said. “We might even fake some piercings, if you like.”

“And now to the band,” Cabrillo said. “I’m playing keyboards—a lot of songs don’t feature keyboards, so that will give me time to sneak away. Murphy’s lead guitar, Kasim is our drummer, and the soul man Franklin is on bass.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lincoln said. “The pulsing beat runs through me.”

“And the singer?” Huxley asked.

“That would be Mr. Halpert,” Cabrillo said.

The entire conference table turned and stared at Michael Halpert. As the head of finance and accounting, he didn’t exactly seem to fit the job. Easily the most conservative of the crew, the rumor was that he ironed his handkerchiefs. The idea of him posing as a rock musician seemed as ludicrous as casting Courtney Love as the Virgin Mary.

“Unfortunately, the lead singer of the Minutemen is tall, thin and slim, and the owner has seen a videotape of the band performing. If no one can think of anyone else, Mike’s got to be our man.”

“I can do it,” Halpert said quickly.

“Are you sure?” Hanley asked. “There is only so much the Magic Shop can do.”

“For your information, I was raised on a commune in Colorado,” Halpert said. “I’ve forgotten more about the rock lifestyle than most of you ever knew.”

Cabrillo was the only one who already knew that—he was the sole officer of the Corporation who had access to all employment files.

“Man,” Murphy said, “I thought your baby clothes were a three-piece suit.”

“Now you know,” Halpert said. “My family got around. Jerry Jeff Walker was my godfather, and Commander Cody taught me how to ride a bicycle.”

“Man,” Hali Kasim said, “just when you think you know someone.”

“Let’s get back to the project,” Cabrillo said. He knew Halpert’s upbringing made him uncomfortable—the day Halpert had enlisted in the marines, his father had quit speaking to him. Ten years had passed before they’d talked again, and even now the relationship was strained.

Halpert waited for Cabrillo to continue.

“Right now we have two of our people posing as a landscaping crew. They will install parabolic microphones in the trees they’re trimming. The microphones record the vibrations on the glass of the house and we should be able to hear everything that is happening inside.”

“We’re having trouble monitoring the telephone lines, however,” Linda Ross noted. “Normally, we can tap into the mainframe, but since the Chinese took over the telephone system, they moved the major systems across the water into Hong Kong. We’ll try and install something at the junction box leading into the house, but we’re not sure how well it will receive.”

“So there’s a chance we will only be able to hear one side of the telephone calls?” Hanley asked.

“Right,” Ross said. “Anyone talking inside will cause vibrations on the glass we can read.”

“I’m not so concerned about that,” Cabrillo said, “but we do need to be able to cut the lines leading into the house—the burglar alarms work through the telephone lines.”

“That we can do,” Ross said, “but people will still be able to use cell phones.”

The hours passed as the planning continued. The party was less than thirty hours away.

LIKE a whirling dervish, the oracle began to shake and parade about.

The Palace of Exile in India was much smaller than Potala, but it served the same purpose. Home to the Dalai Lama and his advisors, it featured a temple, sleeping rooms and a large stone-floored meeting room, where the Dalai Lama was sitting on a throne chair now, watching.

The oracle was dressed in his ceremonial robes, topped by one of golden silk, its interwoven designs of yellow, green, blue and red encircling a mirror on the chest surrounded by amethyst and turquoise stones. A harness held small flags and banners, and the entire outfit weighed nearly eighty pounds. As soon as the oracle had been dressed and entered a trance, his assistants had placed a heavy metal-and-leather helmet upon his head and cinched it tight.

Had the aging oracle not been possessed by a spirit outside his own, the weight of the helmet and robes would have been too much for him to bear. Instead, once the oracle reached his deep state, the weight seemed to be lifted and he hopped about like an astronaut walking on the surface of the moon. He exploded in motion. Arms akimbo, he danced like a praying mantis from one side of the room to the other. Strange guttural sounds radiated from somewhere deep inside his body, while his left hand flashed a heavy silver-plated sword in a figure-eight pattern.

Then he stopped in front of the throne chair and shook his entire body like a dog after a swim.

Once the oracle became motionless, the Dalai Lama spoke.

“Is it time to go home?” he asked.

The oracle spoke in a voice unlike his own. “The Dalai Lama returns, but to a smaller Tibet.”

“The oracle explains,” the Dalai Lama said.

A backflip, a flapping of arms, a stillness again.

“The north holds the key,” the oracle said loudly. “We give the aggressors the land that once held Mongols, then they will go.”

“Can we trust the Westerners?” the Dalai Lama asked.

The oracle bent his knees and strutted around in a circle. When facing the Dalai Lama again, he spoke. “We will soon have something they want; our gift of this will help strengthen the friendship. Our power is returning—our home is near.”

Then all at once, as if a gust of wind had blown the skeleton from his body, the oracle collapsed on the ground in a heap. His assistants ran over and untied the helmet, then began to remove the sweat-soaked robes. They began to bathe the oracle with cool water, but it was almost an hour before he opened his eyes again.

13

“ONLINE,” the corporation technician whispered.

On board the Oregon, a radio operator adjusted his receiver. The sound of a maid came through his headset. He flipped a switch to a recorder, then keyed his microphone.

“Okay,” he said, “we’re recording.”

Climbing down from the tree, the technician gathered up the limbs he had trimmed, then spent the next few hours working on the bushes. When he had finished the job and loaded the rented truck with the debris, it was just past lunchtime. Walking around to the service entrance, he handed a bill to the manager of the mansion. Then he walked back to the truck and drove away.

Back on the Oregon, the radio operator monitored the conversation in the mansion and made notes on a yellow pad. Nothing much was happening, but that might change at any moment.

BELOWDECKS in the Magic Shop, the band was rehearsing. Kevin Nixon motioned for them to stop, then adjusted the control panel.

“All right,” he said, “from the top again.”

Murphy started strumming his guitar, and the opening bars of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Fortunate Son” filled the shop. The rest of the band added their parts. Halpert’s voice was surprisingly good. After being washed through the computer, it was hard to tell his rendition from the original. His moves were good as well—unlike those of most of the band.

Cabrillo on the keyboards came off as Liberace on methamphetamines. Kasim moved like Buddy Rich in a neck brace. Lincoln was slightly better—he kept his eyes closed and strummed the bass guitar and managed to tap his foot in time; the problem was that his hands were so large it looked like he was not moving his fingers. Nixon waited until the song was finished.

“It’s not bad,” he admitted, “but I have some videotapes of live bands and I suggest you men watch them so you can work on your choreography.”

Three hours later, the band was as ready as they would ever be.

THIS was the part of her job Iselda loved best—the last-minute nagging details.

She reached in her handbag and found a pack of thin brown cheroots. Unlike most smokers who stuck to a single brand, Iselda stocked her bag with three or four different kinds. She selected her poison depending on many factors. The aching in her lungs, the rawness of her throat, the amount of nicotine needed for the job. Menthols for that minty fresh buzz; thin cigars when she needed a boost; long, thin, brightly tipped tools when she needed to punctuate a conversation by using the burning sticks like a maestro’s baton. She fired up the cheroot and took a drag.

“I specifically requested glacier ice for the cocktails,” she screamed at the caterer, “not the round highball cubes.”

“You asked for both,” the caterer said, “but the glacier ice has yet to arrive.”

“You’ll have it here?” she asked.

“It’s in the warehouse, Iselda,” the man said patiently. “We didn’t want it to melt.”

Iselda stared across the tent to where a worker was adjusting the devices that made clouds of smoke from dry ice.

“We need more smoke than that,” she shouted, then quickly walked across to the row of machines and began to berate the worker.

After a few minutes of adjustment, the man flipped the machine on again. Clouds of dense, cold gas billowed from the machine, then began to settle on the floor.

“Good, good,” Iselda said. “Now make sure we have plenty of dry ice.”

A technician was adjusting the light display and she raced in that direction.

ON board the Oregon, the technician monitoring conversations in the mansion made a note on the yellow pad, then reached for the shipboard communication microphone.

“Chairman Cabrillo,” he said, “I think you need to come up here.”

THE limousine slowed outside the gate leading to the runway at the San Jose, California, airport. A guard with a holstered weapon stood blocking the way. The driver rolled down his window.

“New security regulations,” he said. “There’s no more driving onto the tarmac.”

The software billionaire had rolled down his window as well. This was an unwelcome inconvenience. Intolerable, in fact.

“Wait a minute, now,” he shouted from the rear. “We’ve driven out to my plane for years.”

“Not anymore,” the guard noted.

“Do you know who I am?” the billionaire said pompously.

“No idea,” the guard admitted, “but I do know who I am—I’m the guy that’s ordering you to turn away from the gate now.”

With nothing else to say, the limousine driver backed up and steered toward the terminal, then parked in front and waited for his employer to climb out. The encounter put his boss in a foul mood and he could hear him muttering as he carried the bags a safe distance behind.

“Good God,” the billionaire said, “for what I pay for hangar space, you’d think I’d get some service.”

As they approached the door leading out to the taxiway, a smattering of expensive jets sat awaiting their owners. There were a trio of Gulfstreams, a Citation or two, a half dozen King Airs, and a single burgundy behemoth that looked like it belonged to a regional airline.

The software billionaire was big on appearances.

If the rich had private jets—he wanted a large one. An airplane that screamed success and excess like a dog collar made from diamonds. The billionaire’s choice was a Boeing 737. The aircraft was fitted with a single-lane bowling alley, a hot tub and a bedroom bigger than many homes. It was fitted with a large-screen television, advance communications equipment, and a chef trained at the Cordon Bleu. The pair of dancers he had ordered from the service were already aboard. The entertainment for his flight was a California blonde and a redhead who bore a striking resemblance to a young Ann-Margret.

The billionaire wanted some way to pass the time on the long flight.

He burst through the door leading outside without waiting for his driver with the luggage, then made his way over to the 737. Then he walked up the ramp and inside.

“Ladies,” he shouted, “front and center.”

Thirteen minutes later, they were airborne.

INSIDE the Oregon, the technician was entering commands in the computer when Cabrillo opened the door and walked inside.

“What have you got?” he said without preamble.

“Ho just had a telephone conversation with an insurance adjuster who is coming out to the mansion to inspect the Buddha.”

“Damn,” Cabrillo said, reaching for the microphone. “Max, you better get up to communications, we’ve got a problem.”

While the technician continued to trace the source of the call, Cabrillo paced the control room.

Hanley arrived a few minutes later. “What is it, Juan?”

“Ho has an insurance adjuster coming out to inspect the Golden Buddha.”

“When?” Hanley asked.

“Four p.m.”

The technician hit a button and a printer spit out a sheet.

“Here’s the location of the call, boss,” he said. “I have it overlaid on a map of Macau.”

“We need to come up with a plan,” Cabrillo said, “posthaste.”

WINSTON Spenser was juggling chain saws.

Only his long stint as a customer of the bank had earned him an increase on his business line of credit, but the manager had made it clear he wanted the balance paid down in no less than seventy-two hours. His credit cards were at their limits, and calls had already come into his office in London, inquiring about the situation. For all intents and purposes, Spenser was, at this instant, in dire financial straits. As soon as the deal with the billionaire went down, he would be as flush as he had ever dreamed—right now, however, he could not afford an airplane ticket home.

All he had to do tomorrow was remove the Buddha, transfer it to the airport and receive his ill-gotten gain. Then he’d charter a jet and fly off into the sunset with his fortune. By the time his customer in Macau realized he’d been duped, he’d be long gone.

14

JUAN Cabrillo sat at the table in his stateroom and studied the folder for the third time.

In nine minutes, the hands of the clock would pass twelve and it would officially be Good Friday. Game day. There was always a fair amount of luck combined with flexibility when the Corporation launched an operation. The key was to minimize surprises through rigorous planning, and always have a backup plan in place.

At this, the Corporation excelled.

The only problem was the object itself. The Golden Buddha was not a microchip that could be slipped into a pocket or sewn into clothing. It was a heavy object the size of a man that required effort to move and stealth to conceal. Any way you cut the cake, the movement of the icon would require men and machines to transport it to a safe place.

The mere size and weight of the Golden Buddha made that a condition.

Then there were the players themselves. The art dealer, Ho; the people at the party; the Chinese authorities; and now the insurance appraiser. Any one of them could throw a wrench into the works, and the stakes and timing were such that retreating and regrouping was not an option.

Cabrillo hated operations where a clear path of retreat was not available.

People could be captured, injured or killed when the plan was to execute the operation at all costs. The last time the Corporation had sustained losses was the operation in Hong Kong, where Cabrillo had lost his leg and others had been killed. Since then, he had consciously avoided ultra-high-risk assignments. The Golden Buddha assignment had started out fitting the lower-risk profile, but it was becoming more and more dangerous as time passed.

Just pregame jitters, Cabrillo thought as he closed the folder. Sometime tonight, they would have the Buddha and begin the process of transferring it back to the Dalai Lama. A few more days and the Corporation would be cashiered, out of the loop and sailing away to another part of the globe.

WINSTON Spenser gulped Glenmorangie whiskey like it was ginger ale.

Spenser’s brilliant plan of deceit had hit a speed bump that had ripped off the oil pan, and now it was leaking its fluid onto the ground. Ho had called earlier in the evening and his words had been an ice pick to the brain.

“Please come to the party early,” Ho had said. “I’d like you to be here when the insurance man examines the Buddha.”

One day more and Spenser would have been long gone.

Uruguay, Paraguay, one of the South Pacific islands, anywhere but here. The fake Buddha was good—he’d paid a princely ransom to ensure it could withstand scrutiny—but if the insurance inspector was top-notch, he’d see through the ruse. The gold itself would probably pass muster. The problem was the precious stones. If the inspector was any sort of gemologist, he’d realize the stones were just too perfect. Massive rocks of the size that adorned the Golden Buddha were extremely rare. The existing stones that large almost always had flaws.

Only stones produced in a laboratory were lacking inclusions.

He drained the scotch and walked over to the bed and lay down.

But the bed was spinning and sleep was hard to come by.

SINCE his exile from Tibet, it would be easy to imagine that the Dalai Lama had lived in a vacuum concerning events inside his country. Nothing could be further from the truth. Almost from the time he’d stepped across the border, an ad hoc system of local intelligence had begun filtering south to his headquarters in Little Lhasa.

Messages were passed from mouth to mouth by a series of runners who breached the mountain passes far from Chinese scrutiny, then delivered their messages either in person or through intermediaries. With hundreds of thousands of Tibetans loyal to the Dalai Lama, the tentacles of the operation reached into every part of the country. Chinese troop movements were reported, intercepted cables sent south, overheard telephone conversations disclosed.

Snow tables and water flow from the rivers and other environmental concerns were memorized and transmitted. Tourists were monitored and casually engaged in conversation to glean more facts about the Chinese and their attitudes. Merchants that sold to the Chinese soldiers reported on sales and the troops’ general demeanor. Times of alert were noted and sent south, as were times when controls over the population were loosened. Briefings were held for the Dalai Lama and his advisors, and most of the time the exiles in India had a better picture of the conditions in Tibet than the hated Chinese overlords.

“The troops seem to be buying more trinkets?” the Dalai Lama asked.

“Yes,” one of his advisors noted, “things that are uniquely Tibetan.”

“When has this ever happened before?” the Dalai Lama asked.

“Never,” the advisor admitted.

“And we have reports that the fuel stocks at the bases are low?”

“That’s what the Tibetan workers at the bases report,” the advisor said. “Excursions by trucks into the countryside are being curtailed, and we have not had a report of a tank on exercises in nearly a month. It’s as if the occupation is moving into a stagnant time.”

The Dalai Lama opened an unmarked folder and scanned the contents. “This coincides with the reports from the Virginia consulting group we have under contract. Their latest report shows the Chinese economy in dire straits. The Chinese have the largest increase of any country in oil imports, while at the same time the value of their investments overseas are decreasing. If President Jintao doesn’t make some much-needed adjustments, his country could be plunged into a full-scale depression.”

“We can only hope,” one of the advisors noted.

“That brings me to our main topic of discussion,” the Dalai Lama said quietly. “If we could take a moment to meditate to clear our minds, I will explain.”

THE burgundy 737 was a flying sybaritic palace in the sky.

The software billionaire was dosing himself with a carefully calculated mixture of Ecstasy and male impotence pills to pass the time. The Ecstasy made him loving, but the impotence pills offset that by fueling his sexual appetite, which was a little aggressive.

At this instant, in a forward part of the jet, a flight attendant was making notes on the pad of a personal digital assistant. Once he was finished, he plugged it into the air phone and hit send. Now all he had to do was wait for a reply.

The other flight attendant seemed more concerned. This was her first flight on the billionaire’s 737, and she found the debauchery unnerving. Turning her head away from the rear section of the plane, she addressed the blond-haired man.

“You ever worked this gig before?”

“First time,” the man admitted.

“If I didn’t need the money,” the brunette said, “I’d make this trip one-way.”

The blond-haired man nodded. “Tell me about yourself,” he said.

Thirty minutes later, the blond-haired man smiled. She’d fudged what he knew as the truth—but not by much.

“There’s an opportunity you might be interested in,” he said easily.

Just then, the buzzer from the rear rang and a voice was heard.

“Bring us another two magnums of champagne,” the billionaire ordered.

“You keep that thought,” the brunette said. “I’ll go water the horses.”

IN Macau the streets were filled with late-night revelers. Two men drove slowly along Avenue Conselheiro Ferriera de Almeida through the throngs. The man in the passenger seat stared at a portable GPS mapping unit and gave directions. Turning at Avenida do Coronel Mesquita, they headed northwest along the road until they were at a side street that led to a residential area within a half mile of mainland China.

“Find a place to park,” the navigator ordered.

Pulling to the side of the road under a tree, the driver placed the van in park, then shut off the engine. The navigator pointed to a house set back from the road up the street.

“That’s the house.”

“Shall we?” the driver asked.

The navigator climbed out of the van and walked around to the front and waited while the driver reached under the seat, removed a leather bag, then met him in front of the van.

“You notice almost no one here has a dog?” the driver said.

“Sometimes,” the navigator said, “you just get lucky.”

Both men were dressed in dark clothing that blended into the night. Their shoes were rubber soled and their hands covered by dark vinyl surgical gloves. They moved with the certain sense of unhurried purpose that comes with competence, not arrogance. Slipping unseen to the front wall surrounding the home, they paused for a second at the gate. The driver reached into his pocket, removed a pick, and a second later sprung the lock. He opened the gate, allowed the navigator to pass inside, then closed the gate behind them.

There was little need to talk. Both men had memorized the plan.

Walking around to the rear of the house, where it was dark, they disabled the security system, jimmied the lock, and then crept silently into the house. Pausing at the foot of the stairs, the driver flipped open a small black plastic box and slipped an earpiece into place. Pointing the device at the floor above, he listened for a moment.

Then he smiled and nodded at his partner.

Placing his hands together, he tilted his head and placed his hands alongside his cheek, using the universal hand signal for sleep. With one finger, he pointed to the far end of the floor in the left corner. With the other, he pointed a distance away to where another bedroom was located on the second floor. Then he pointed a fist toward the spot on the left side. Primary target there, secondary target there.

Doing a kind of curtsy, he spread his hands apart.

Then he unsnapped a pouch clipped to his belt and handed an eight-inch leather case to the navigator and smiled. Taking the case the navigator slowly began to climb the stairs. Several minutes passed as the driver stood silently on the landing.

Then he heard the voice of his partner.

“I don’t know about you,” the navigator said as he began to walk down the steps, “but I’m hungry.”

The driver removed his earpiece, stuffed the cord inside, then folded the case back together.

“Then let’s eat,” the driver said.

The navigator reached the landing and flicked on a tiny flashlight. “We can’t ask our hosts what’s good,” he said. “They’re in sleepyville.”

“And by the time they wake up,” the driver said, “we’ll be long gone.”

The two men made their way to the kitchen, but nothing looked good. So they walked back to the van, drove through town to the casino and ordered a meal of ham and eggs.