Release the Dogs of War Read online

  Johann turned to the left side, where lounge chairs and a bookcase made up a comfortable area. Johann sat down and settled comfortably, “Thanks for seeing me, Congressman.”

  “George, please.” He spoke, eyes half laughing, “I know, it’s all official until I say otherwise every time with you. However, after six conversations and six amicable separations, we have never done any business. Why do I sense that this time is going to be different?”

  Johann smirked, “Because a birdie told you something?” He continued, “Because you have an important person in your area that we are concerned with, and finally because the fifty-thousand dollar check from one of the companies I represent was cashed.”

  George said, “Yes, an interesting situation there. It seems I have become one of the most important senators recently since I represent Miami and the surrounding areas. Those areas contain some very, very rich people and for that reason I have always had a certain amount of influence, but it has become a night and day difference right now.”

  Johann nodded his head in agreement, “I imagine it has. Not too many people have access to quite so many important contacts as you nor do they know them that well. The Colorado representatives have not had much luck since the area was previously an Army base, and so they did not focus as much in that remote area.”

  “So, what is it that you are asking of me?” Congressman McKinney interrupted, “Because I’ve had a conversation with a former Congressman, who was kind enough to go out of his way to ‘accidentally’ run into me and warn me not to mess with a certain individual. Would you know why that is?”

  Johann’s eyebrows drew together. He wasn’t sure which Congressman McKinney could be talking about.

  “No guesses?” McKinney asked. When Johann finally shook his head in the negative, Mckinney told him, “I’m going to give you a hint, “salt.”

  “Pepper?” Johann spoke, “Didn’t he leave for health reasons? I mean, not the ‘typical’ health reasons, but real ones?”

  “Well, if you allow mental problems to be considered as health issues, then certainly.” George McKinney continued, “But no one here knew why he quit. Oh, a lot of people knew he had something fishy going down in South America and would fly down from time to time. But, with Florida an important hub for flights and business, that isn’t strange for us to do that. However, he came back from one trip and within ninety days he was gone. His own secretary mentioned that he seemed to be off after the trip until he finally left.”

  “Ok, but what does that have to do with the CEO of TQB Enterprises?” Johann asked, “I can only imagine that everyone, including Tom Carpenter, who just left, is focused on what TQB was going to do to interfere with their businesses.”

  “Yes, everyone is, and no one can explain to me exactly what is going on to frighten them so much.” George stated, “as far as I can tell, TQB hasn’t upset anyone here on Earth. Oh, I know she is giving NASA a fit, but when I ask someone on that committee, everyone admits they don’t get involved with anything. Regardless of how much money is thrown at them, everything is ignored. You cannot buy them,” he finished.

  “We know that.” Johann leaned forward in his chair, “What do you know about Sean Truitt?” He asked in a tight and quiet voice.

  George leaned in towards Johann, “The CEO?” Johann nodded. “I was led to understand his was a missing person case? That happened what, a few months ago?”

  “Three,” Johann admitted. “They have found him. He was at the very bottom of Cle Elum Lake. It was him and his car in over three-hundred feet of water.”

  “Ok?” George replied, “So, am I to take it from what we are talking about that you believe something amiss happened?”

  “George, that part of the lake is a few hundred yards from any location which could be arrived at by car without a miracle happening. He didn’t drive his vehicle off the road, across three hundred yards of water to then sink down. We believe he was dropped.”

  George sat back in the chair, “You guys think that TQB retaliated for the attacks on their base? Why?” George asked.

  Johann was annoyed. George had never taken any of their carefully worded requests and certainly never accepted any of their donation checks, and he was just as big a pain-in-the-ass as Johann had expected. Too many questions and too few overt offers to help.

  Dammit, he was going to have to be blunt with this idiot.

  “George, we only know of one technology that can float anything metal, and that would be TQB’s containers to the moon. So, the working theory is one of them was placed on the car and when Sean got close, it took him out to the lake and dropped him right where he was found. Well,” Johann corrected himself, “three hundred feet above where he was found.”

  “Ok, but why?” George asked. “Let’s suppose you are correct and they are behind the killing. Why did they do it?”

  Johann shrugged, “Who knows? Maybe Sean asked for a date from their CEO and she took offense.”

  “Sean Truitt was married, I’ve seen the sobbing wife on TV,” George replied, dryly.

  “Yes, I merely make a point of saying we don’t know why Sean Truitt would have been a focus. But, if they are going around killing high-level CEO’s, do you think they will stop at that level? What’s to prevent them from coming after congressman and senators?”

  “Why, have some of them done something to piss them off, too?” George asked.

  “Of course not,” Johann replied while thinking, ‘Hell yeah they have, and they are doing more.’

  “Don’t lie to the Congressman; he doesn’t believe you.” George retorted, “Of course there are people on Capitol Hill who are looking to either get in TQB’s good graces or get something out of them so they can be on someone else’s good graces list.”

  “Like yourself?” Johann asked. “Not to put too sharp a point on it, but you did accept our donation and Tom left pretty happy.”

  He waved a hand. “Tom is easy.” George replied, “I don’t believe anything TQB has is going to come out into the commercial telecommunication sphere anytime soon, so what does it hurt to support something that won’t come to pass?”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” Johann admitted, even if it did annoy him to think that his one major leverage point wasn’t going to do him any good.

  “So, let me ask you again, Johann. What is it you want me to do?” George asked, politely.

  Well, he considered, I’d like you to tell your buddies to arrest the bitch by knocking down her front door, but since that doesn’t look to be in the cards… “How about sharing the rumor with a few important ears that there is some back-channel talking about TQB possibly being responsible for Sean Truitt’s disappearance?”

  “This is what you want for your donation?” George asked, surprised.

  “How about that and one additional conversation, when we have something a little more concrete to speak about?”

  George considered his request for the necessary amount of time before nodding, “I can agree to this and I have three relevant contact names to share this information with this afternoon. Two are local down in the Miami area; one is down there, but is Fed.”

  Johann stood up. Now that negotiations were complete, the congressman would need to move on to his next appointment. He stuck out his hand, “Congressman McKinney.” He smiled at the joke.

  George stood up, “You ass!” But didn’t keep the smile off of his face.

  Johann left that office and worked his way to the other side of town.

  He had another meeting to attend, and this one was going to be a little more candid.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Fort Lauderdale, Florida - USA

  When those three arrived, Sheldon felt a bit intimidated. At first, it wasn’t a big deal as they had just ‘arrived’ and knocked on the door. It wasn’t until Darryl checked out the cars and confirmed they were clean that it became apparent just how they had arrived.

  By air.

  Darryl had Sheldon open th
e door into the warehouse. When it was fully opened, a black…something… came down from above and then glided into their area. Tim was quick enough to start the door closing as William opened the pod and started pulling white boxes about a foot square and six inches in height. There was a total of eighteen of those, and then three larger boxes. Sheldon found out that six were to be installed underneath the car and then one large device put into the trunk.

  It took William twenty-three minutes a car. When he finished with one, then Marcus would start talking to himself and typing furiously on a laptop he had with him. They had pulled up a rolling table to place the laptop on so he could type and then take a few measurements and then type some more.

  “Sheldon?” Marcus had called over to him.

  Sheldon was watching William working on one of the cars, high on a lift, and had to jog back over to where Marcus was working, “Yes?”

  “Can I get something destructive?” Marcus asked.

  Sheldon was confused and slightly alarmed. “Destructive? Not to be too concerned, but these are very, very expensive cars, and I’d prefer they didn’t get hurt while they are still in our garage.”

  Marcus looked over at the sales guy for a second, “Oh, nothing like that! I just need something like a long metal rod or something like a bat.”

  Sheldon’s eyes opened a little wide, “Still not liking where this is going…”

  Marcus dipped his head down to look over his glasses, “Young man, these cars will not be scratched.” Sheldon looked at Marcus for a moment before turning to search for a long metal bar. “I expect,” Marcus finished quietly.

  A minute later, Sheldon came over with a long metal bar used for full-size car jacks. Marcus touched a couple of buttons on the laptop and then typed in a sentence and waited for a reply before holding his hand out to grab the bar. It dropped some when Marcus caught it since he wasn’t expecting it to be so heavy.

  “This will do nicely,” Marcus said. “Here goes nothing!” To Sheldon’s immediate horror, the man grabbed the bar in both hands and swung it over his head to land on the hood of the first beautiful F12.

  “What the HELL!” Sheldon asked as he jumped to pull the metal rod out of Marcus’s hand as he let go and stepped over toward the hood. He rubbed the location where the bar had slammed down.

  Marcus looked up at the surprised salesperson, “See, nothing!” He waved a hand for Sheldon to come and take a look. Sheldon rubbed over the location he knew he had seen the rod hit, but it was spotless, and more importantly, dent less.

  He continued rubbing the spot while turning his head to look up at Marcus, “How?”

  The man smiled back, “It’s a feature of the engines we installed. Since we aren’t changing the glass like we would on her SUVs, we are making damn sure it has a protective field enveloping her.” “Mind you ... I’d prefer you didn’t tell anyone.” Marcus admitted after a moment.

  “I’m not,” Sheldon agreed, “This whole piece except the pictures and whatever she decides to video for me won’t be talked about by me.”

  “Good…good,” Marcus said, “now for the second part.” He turned back to the rolling table and stepped back a few more feet pulling the table with him; “Ah, you might want to come over here with me.”

  Sheldon quickly stepped closer to Marcus.

  He typed on the laptop another time and then Sheldon watched as the F12 Berlinetta lifted off the ground six inches. “What the hell,” Sheldon murmured. He stepped closer to the car and went down on his knees to confirm all four wheels were off the ground.

  “See any problems?” Marcus asked, concern in his voice.

  “Problems?” Sheldon asked, looking back up at the scientist, “If by problems you mean a wheel is touching the ground, then no. They all seem to be at the same height. The problem,” he continued as he turned back around to look under the car, “Is that we shouldn’t be watching a Ferrari floating.”

  “You get used to it,” Marcus admitted.

  “No,” Sheldon whispered, “I’m pretty sure I’m always going to find this cool-as-shit.”

  —

  Sheldon was waiting at the front door at fifteen minutes past seven when a darkened SUV turned into the dealer parking lot. The morning sun was reflecting off the white dealership walls highlighting the palm trees that were around the building.

  He started jogging towards the back of the parking lot. The red garage door started rising, allowing the SUV to drive into the garage area as Sheldon followed them in and the garage door started closing behind them.

  There, in front of the SUV were three F12Berlinettas all in the beautiful dark red Rosso Fiorano color Bethany Anne had requested. Each of the three was slightly ahead of the other like they had been staged for a calendar picture.

  Which, interestingly enough, they had been.

  Sheldon nodded to Mark Koeff, who had been setting up his camera and lights for the last few hours. When Mark arrived, Sheldon gave him the news just who he was photographing, and even Mark was impressed.

  That was saying something for a man who had photographed luminaries such as actor/governor Schwarzenegger to astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and had met others such as Christie Brinkley, Raquel Welch, Ringo Starr and Michael Caine in his many requests to come and shoot exclusive events in LA.

  Mark turned out to have a story for just about everything, but was kind and soft spoken. If there was ever a more down-to-earth person who had survived working in the glitz and glamor of California's LA and Orange County, Sheldon was hard pressed to figure out who it could be.

  When Mark admitted he had done a project for a friend, for an Orange County MINI Cooper dealership with their cars, Sheldon thought it was perfect!

  So, Mark set up the cars and explained how he wanted to set up the shots with Bethany Anne leaning on the first car, and her security on their own.

  The front doors of the SUV opened, and John, then Eric stepped out and nodded to everyone. “Morning guys,” John grunted.

  Sheldon had his team of three guys off to the side and TQBs three people, Marcus, William and Darryl were standing with them.

  Darryl broke from the ranks and walked over. “They are clean, and they are ready. Although, I have to call bullshit on you two getting this ride first!” He grinned.

  “Kiss my,” Eric started before changing his sentence, “tell me you didn’t make sure it went up and down correctly as a ‘security’ measure.” He challenged Darryl, who shrugged but didn’t answer the question directly.

  “That’s what I thought,” Eric continued, “besides, you get to take the SUV back to the house.”

  “Woohoo!” Darryl squealed as he twirled his finger around in a circle up in the air. “Be still my bleeding heart. SUV or Ferrari with flight capabilities. Gee, I wonder which one I would pick?”

  “The one you’re told to.” John interrupted the two, “Let’s make sure we get out of here correctly guys. Enough horseplay.”

  Eric mouthed ‘sorry’ to Darryl for getting them off track. The two of them separated, and Darryl stepped to the back of the three cars.

  The door behind the driver in the SUV opened up, and Bethany Anne stepped out. She had on large dark sunglasses and ruby-red lipstick, with a short, tight leather jacket, red pants and mid-height white topped leather red-soled shoes.

  She could hear the photographer snapping images. That was all right, as Sheldon had held up his end of the bargain, and this was the first of her plan to give the finger to everyone who wanted her technology. She stepped over to Sheldon and held out her hand. “Thank you, this is exactly the type of service I was hoping to receive. You’ve done your profession proud.” She turned to smile at the photographer, “Mr. Keoff, how are you?”

  Mark looked up from his camera in surprise. “Fine?” he answered before smiling, “Ok, I’m a little sleepy from the red-eye and this atrocious timezone, but other than that?” He shrugged, “Fantastic!”

  Bethany Anne walked over to shake his hand, “I’
m excited that Sheldon was able to procure your expertise. I’ve reviewed a lot of your work under your Mark Jordan name and approve. Excellent work, beautiful eye.” She looked back at the three beautiful cars, “Where do you want me?”

  “Ahhhhh,” Mark studied the beauty in front of him and the cars. He turned to the largest of her guards, “Is there any way I can get some sunlight in here? The fluorescents are going to wash out her skin color.” The big guy snorted, and she pointed a finger at him, but it didn’t cause him to hide his grin.

  “Sure,” John answered Mark, “Let’s get the paperwork done real quick and that way if anything happens we can leave quickly.”

  Mark spent the next ten minutes taking a lot of photos of Bethany Anne as she signed the paperwork and then with all of the guys who had worked to prep her cars through the night. When they each had their time, the men were respectful.