After the meeting with Sterling, Max phoned Carla and they planned to meet at the tender, for dinner on board the Ocean Raider. Back in the privacy of their cabin, Max told Carla all that had happened; he did not want to discuss anything in front of James and Amy, because this meeting with Jason Sterling had turned sinister.
Carla agreed with Max, the probable recording of the phone conversation, and the certain recording of Max’s appearance at the meeting was suspicious. Jason Sterling could have just waved a friendly goodbye from the window, when Max had turned suddenly, but he reacted furtively, as any guilty person would.
***
Jason Sterling reviewed the audio recording and saved a still image of the webcam video he had taken of Max. It was simple to set the webcam running and minimize the window, whilst giving Max a slide show. The reason why he had made Max peer close to the screen, was to ensure he captured his whole face without manipulating the screen.
A phone call to one of Jason’s trusted colleagues and backer, included the audio, video and photo by e-mail. Jason wanted Max killed - not disposed of, erased, dispatched, eliminated or any other euphemism - killed! “Also, find out who he is with and who is behind the man, and kill them as well!”
Philippe, the trusted colleague, represented the archetypical Columbian drug baron depicted on the cinema screen. He was tall, lean but muscular, dark hair, olive complexion and handsome, except for the left side of his face. It had been scraped away, along with his ear, on the wall of a tunnel, high in the mountains of southern Italy.
The moment he saw the picture of Max, his normally cool-and-collected, always-in-control demeanor, evaporated like a snowflake hitting the sun. He exploded with a seething rage that made a wounded and charging rhinoceros look like a cuddly toy; he went ballistic.
***
It was not Max’s fault Philippe was disfigured, it was the fault of Carla, his daughter. Philippe and his three men had kidnapped Carla, and were taking her to Philippe’s boss, Marco. At that time, no one knew Carla was Philippe’s daughter.
Carla had stolen a large quantity of heroin and cash from Marco and he wanted it back. She planned her escape and had struck unexpectedly, from the back seat of his Mercedes, while travelling at speed.
The resulting car wreck left only 2 of the 5 occupants alive. Carla walked away with bruises and Philippe was so badly injured, Carla thought he was dead. She robbed Philippe of all his cash and stole his briefcase, which contained the priceless computer discs of Project Oracle. To hide the fact she had been in the car, she had rigged it to catch fire after 30 minutes, but Philippe regained consciousness as flames were burning his leg. This is why he hated her, and since that day, she and Max had always trumped him!
Philippe had the reputation of being the devil, in human form. He was evil, cruel, cunning, resourceful, and held a grudge. It is true that he never held the grudge for long, just until the victim died; but in Max and Carla’s case, they were the exception. It is probable that had Philippe not been so consumed with hatred for them, he might have secretly admired his adversaries, like in the movies; Blofeld and Bond for example.
Philippe last encountered Max and Carla in Cairo, when he tried to force them to return a priceless statuette they recovered from the jungle in India, before he could find it himself. As it was, Philippe had been on the verge of execution.
In spite of Philippe’s careful planning, Max and Carla had outwitted him again and ordered his execution, by two mercenaries who were employed to recover the artefact, by its genuine owner.
Philippe had done a deal with the mercenaries, so he survived. Many times, he had planned to track down Carla and the old fool Max, but he had found an alternative distraction. Deep in his subconscious, he believed that to tackle either one was risky, but as they were always together and worked as the perfectly matched pair, it would probably be safer to skinny dip with piranhas.
Carla was undoubtedly his daughter; she had her mother’s beauty and his intelligence, cunning, resourcefulness and instinct for survival, yet he hated her for all these admirable attributes. Killing her would be dramatic, but quick. The drama would be there, to emphasize to her his point about the inconvenience she had put him through, and not to mention spoiling his perfect looks! He would make it quick, out of respect for such a close member of his family, pretty decent of him actually!
Max, the old fool, simply made Philippe’s blood boil; there was no reason for this geriatric degenerate to have slipped from his clutches on so many occasions. The witless cretin had somehow kept at least one step ahead of him on every encounter, and now was the time to even the score.
Torturing and then killing Max would be like lancing a particularly large and festered boil; the searing pain of the full yellow head was Max alive. The bitter-sweet pain as the needle lanced the head, draining agony away to nothing as the puss gushes out, would represent the blood pooling around Max’s dying body.
Using the available information on the audio recording, Philippe laid his plans. He was familiar with the Ocean Raider, he had been on it briefly during an earlier raid in the Maldives. Then he was trying to recover the statuette. Philippe had lost several men to his competitor for the statuette, who had also sneaked on board, but given time Philippe would have prevailed.
Max thwarted him by flying off the ship in a helicopter. The old fool couldn’t fly, but none the less, he managed to fly to Malé, land it and escape.
Philippe was a very busy man, he would normally delegate this sort of work to one of his men, but there would be no pleasure in that for him. He calmed down and planned the kill.
First, he needed to beat Max and Carla to Kendrick’s home, kill Kendrick, then ambush Max and Carla. Philippe knew The Organization would be untouchable, regardless of Sterling’s orders to kill them as well. Still, during their torture, he could glean information about others who might be involved with Max and Carla’s quest against Sterling.
Philippe chartered a flight direct to Locarno Airport and made inquiries about Kendrick there. He could have contacted the post office or police, but did not want to be a suspect when they found Kendrick’s body.