“The boss says that we’re to attack the camp on Wednesday night and destroy it,” Ardez told them.
He, Grosset, Premba and Rattigan were in the room.
“We know that King, Brad and Jack are in jail. It is their gang, which is fighting against us. It means that there are other leaders of the gang that we don’t know about,” Ardez continued.
“We saw Churchill down there. I lined him up with my gun, but if I had shot him, they would have known that we knew about them,” Premba explained. “I was wondering who he was working for but it’s those guys who’s employing him.”
“We don’t need any more evidence than that,” Grosset agreed.
“The boss wants us to make it one thing and clean them out once and for all. This will be a mission of destruction,” Ardez stated.
“I’ve heard about Mose and Bucky before. Can’t say it was any good,” Rattigan told them.
“You wait until I catch them, I’m going to chop them up for what they did to Jacob,” Grosset threatened.
“You do that Grosset, I know of quite a few people and organizations, who want those two dead or alive, maybe they’ll even reward you for killing them,” Rattigan declared.
“Whoever is employing those two must have lots of money,” he finished.
“They must be paying them lots of money,” Grosset speculated.
“Jack Marriot, Brad Elliot, Danny King and their other gang leaders must have made some good money off that weed to be paying them so much,” Ardez stated.
“I think they’ve brought down those men to fight against us. I feel that they’re going to attack the Factory and the boss’ house because they can’t reach us up here,” Grosset opined
“I just hope we catch the top men this time,” Premba stated. “I’m sort of tired of going all over the island looking for them.”
“The gang’s big, about twenty men. Bucky and Mose have about six men under each of them. The big men don’t stay down there, they only go there to plan strategy,” Premba continued.
“We might have to take one of them prisoner and make them tell us where their bosses are,” Ardez told them.
“Are you certain that those two women won’t tell Mose and Bucky about us?” Grosset asked.
“They liked us and the money that we gave them was plenty more than what they got from those two guys,” Premba assured them.
“From the information we have, the camp is guarded
around the clock. We’re going to attack them at around eleven o’clock. Premba will be the group commander, he and Grosset will lead the attack. Rattigan will be the technician on the raid,” Ardez explained.
“We’re going in fast and coming out fast, only Bucky and Mose are expected to give us any trouble. Although the house is made of block and steel, it has a zinc roof. Once we set the roof on fire they will have to`come out. When they rush out we can pick them off one by one.”
“How long is this operation timed to last?” Grosset asked.
“Two hours, the trucks are leaving at one o’clock. Don’t make it leave you, because we aren’t doing any search and rescue operations.”
“Real commando style operation,” Grosset remarked.
“Those guys want war and we’re going to give it to them,” Ardez opined.
“It surprises me how those two tripped up themselves so easily. From what I’ve heard about them, they’re top notch fighters. I’ve a feeling that they’re getting old and careless or else they’re treating this job like a vacation,” Rattigan remarked.
“How are we going to get rid of the guards?” Grosset inquired.
Rattigan lit a fresh cigarette, Premba lit a cigar off it.
“They change every six hours and they start watching from seven o’clock. They change at twelve o’clock and that’s why we’re going to attack them at that time as we believe that they won’t be fully alert. Premba says he’s going to let Lance and Decker take care of them and then we can firebomb the house.”
“We’re taking our best marksmen with us,” Premba stated.
Ardez looked at the map Premba had given him, he went to the wall and pinned it up.
“We have a map of the place,” he told them. He took up a piece of stick.
“I didn’t know Premba was such a good artist,” Rattigan remarked.
“It’s Joey, his father taught him. He used to do it before he started planting weed,” Premba told them.
“It’s a big house, about five bedrooms and everybody sleeps there. It seems as if it’s sponge they sleep on because we saw them sunning them. You see that it’s in a valley and how high the hills are. To reach there we have to come through the pass where they post the guards. After Lance and Decker get rid of them, Rattigan and Troja will move in and throw their firebombs on the house.”
“Premba’s group will move in and take up a position facing the front of the house. Grosset’s group will come in and face the rear of the house. Rattigan, Decker, Troja and Lance will be controlling the northern end of the pass. Some of Grosset’s and Premba’s fighters will be to the south, so nobody can escape.”
“We aren’t going to rush them because once the house catches fire, they’re going to rush out. As I said before, we can pick them off one by one,” Ardez finished.
“They go out every night? If that’s so they might see us coming in and make an alarm. As far as I hear, the whole camp was out on Friday night,” Grosset remarked.
“As this is a Wednesday, I doubt if they’ll be going out. My bet is that this is Mose and Bucky’s final week in Jamaica,” Ardez stated.
“There’s no discipline at that camp? You think that Mose and Bucky can control their men?” Grosset asked.
“That’s true Grosset, but they made a mistake when they left their base and went to party with Leta and Tena. The guys whom they’re training, aren’t going to take them seriously again. I
feel that they’re going to run once we start shooting at them,” Premba stated.
“If those two flunk up on this job they won’t be worth one hundred dollars per job after this. That’s how low the underworld rates failures. I was wondering if they came down here through any of those syndicates,” Rattigan speculated.
“You mean our enemies are working through a syndicate. Hell, I doubt that,” Ardez opined.
“They must have some contacts in the States. How else could they have reached here?” Rattigan asked.
“How do they get their contracts?” Premba asked.
“The trend is to work through an agent or a syndicate. Those guys work alone,” Rattigan replied.
“It’s a whole lot of people involved. But we must find out who they are,” Ardez told them.
“Anybody who’s hiding behind them will have to come out when we hit them,” Grosset remarked.
“We’re going to flush them out, Grosset,” Ardez agreed.
“I hope that all of you understand about the raid. Remember to pack your war bags with plenty of bullets. After you leave here you are to report back with your fighters by twelve
o’clock to begin training for the mission. Tomorrow we’re going to have a final briefing with all of the fighters, who are going on the raid. That’s going to start at four o’clock. You’ll be leaving here at seven o’clock,” he finished.
“Suppose we meet any policemen?” Grosset asked.
“K’s people will be pulling all patrols from the roads you’ll be taking. They don’t know about the camp and by the time they hear about it you would have returned to base,” Ardez replied.
He would have liked to have gone with them, but he had set up something with Yasmin for later tomorrow night. He had been sleeping with her for about a week now, he knew that Rattigan was sleeping with her too, having almost put out Camilla, who was sleeping in a back room of his shack. He had wanted to sleep with her, but she had refused him. He gave Yasmin money and other gifts. She would come to him late at nights after hearing his coded whistle and they would bed down in Pennant’s shack. As he thought about her he couldn’t help smiling to himself at the way the girl had virtually landed in his bed.
“It’s time to go to work,” he said as the rest stood up and filed out of the room.
***
The night was cool outside, but Bendoo felt hot and suffocating in his cell. The man, who had brought him his food, was reluctant to say anything about what was happening, but something was going on as in the morning there was a lot of shooting and shouting as if there was training going on. By now McDonald must have written off the mission as a failure. Maybe the raid they were training for would provide him with a chance to escape.
***
“I’m glad that you caught the man, who was spying on us,
Mose,” Burke congratulated him. They were sitting in the room that had been Jacob’s prison before his demise.
“We don’t know what he wanted. No amount of torture could make him talk so we decided to kill him like you ordered,” Mose replied.
There were five of them in the room.
“It’s one of McCreed’s fighters, he’s spying for him,” Wally put in.
“We went for a walk up on top of the hill. Heard a tree limb shake and there he was up in it,” Bucky told them.
“Wonder if he alerted any of his friends?” Burke asked.
“Hardly likely, I have a feeling that he has a field somewhere near here and that’s how he saw us. We made some searches for the field, but with no success so far,” Bucky replied.
Mose smiled to himself, Bucky had provided adequate cover for both of them.
“I don’t think we have anything to fear. Any more of them and you give them the same medicine,” Burke ordered.
“You let them come, they’ll taste hot lead like they’ve never tasted it before,” Mose warned.
“You’ll do Mose, you’ll do. I hope that you can put those words into action on Sunday night. Ever imagined yourself pumping a belly full of that bazooka of yours into McCreed?” Burke asked.
“Sure, I have, I just can’t wait for Bucky and me to rip into them. Hell, it will be like chicken feed.”
“I want McCreed destroyed, Mose, so we are depending on you and Bucky to do it for us.”
Benn Sanderson lit a cigarette.
“Suppose they beat us, Burke?” Wally Judge asked.
Mose and Bucky turned to look at him.
“Bucky and I’ll go it alone, Wally,” Mose declared.
“We’re paying them too much money for them to foul up on this operation. They know that if they fail, their international reputations will be permanently damaged,” Burke warned.
“We won’t fail, Burke, you can bet on it. We’ve survived too many wars. We’ll win this one and many others to come,” Bucky stated.
“I hope so, Bucky, Ken’s due down here tomorrow. Benny and Wally will be staying until Saturday. Dickson will be down here tomorrow too.”
“I’m returning to Kingston but I’ll be back down here
on Friday. You know that I have an office to run.”
***
Fred hung up the phone after talking to Lorena about Paul Eason; the damned fool had messed up bad. He had denied everything, denied that he knew him in college in the United States and that it was he who had set him up on her. The girl was in tears and had slammed down the phone on him, after vowing never to talk to him again. He should have used Rory, but he wasn’t sure he could control that man and he didn’t have the kind of goods on him that he had on Paul. He had pictures of him peddling drugs and handling weapons that he could always show to Lorena if he fell out of line. If Wednesday’s raid was successful, he would begin to move. He would teach her a lesson. Without her dad she would be a pawn in his hands. At Wareika he had a loyal commander in Grosset and he would come in handy when he started to move against Mc Creed.
***
Ken Stone arrived from Miami that Wednesday afternoon and decided to stay with his other woman and son in Linstead.