Chapter 13 – Swashbuckler
Benjamin’s fear of an imminent attack on him and his family to get to Priscilla was more like a premonition. He was extremely cautious of Rory Medvev’s intentions. The trust board would be the sole discretionary body to decide upon Guss’s huge fortunes in case Priscilla met with an eventuality.
The American Government was out of bounds to Guss’s accounts since they were safe in a Liechtenstein, a self – declared neutral nation. The money of the arms & drug mafia, human traffickers, senators, politicians and dictators were all stashed in the vaults of the ultra – rich banks whose names wouldn’t even be listed in the yellow pages of third world countries.
Benjamin soon found out from his affiliates in the Israeli Intelligence operating in sleeper cells in New York that a certain group of suspicious looking men had been inquiring about his family back in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“These are dangerous men; they have the tenacity of pursuing me to my hometown! I guess money can indeed buy everything” Benjamin said to himself after hearing the news.
“What do they want from you Benji?” asked the intelligence officer.
“I do not know! They have already killed my brother and his wife. The trust holds most of their money. May be they are after Priscilla, he did say that if Priscilla dies before her 18th, then the trust controls everything” Benjamin told him.
“Could you?” asked Benjamin, the officer.
“You don’t have to say it brother, our men are already on the case” the intelligence officer held
Benjamin’s shoulder in a mark of assurance. Benjamin himself being an able Intelligence officer swung into action almost immediately after he landed in New York. Cincinnati was still far at 500 miles from NYC. But that was the closest he could get without being sniffed out by villainous hounds. The Israeli Intelligence’s sleeper cells operated in sizeable numbers in the city and he felt quite at home in this marvelous city.
Benjamin was wary about the figure that Rory had quoted. $120 million was too much for a Hollywood producer to get hold of, in such a short span, unless all of his movies if he had made a 100 of them would be block buster hits.
“Guss obviously dealt with bad company” Benjamin’s spy instincts were on high alert.
After a series of investigations, roundabouts, working undercover with drug suppliers, smugglers, human traffickers & arms dealers, Guss was finally able to trace a single name.
Sergeant George Gillmore.
Benjamin soon delved deep into Gillmore’s murder at the park and the murders of his brother, his wife and Stephen, whose name came up only when could trace out from the police records that a certain Stephen Rudolph was also found murdered in execution style at a farm out of New Jersey.
From the autopsy reports that he stole from the New Jersey District records section with the assistance of his friends, told him that Stephen was killed in an old Chinese execution style.
He later learns that his brother was in the arms business and gotten himself into a lot of trouble with the authorities and the Federal Government, though he enjoyed the patronage of some very influential senators.
“It could be anybody Goddamnit! It’s a dog eat dog world out there!” rued Benjamin.
“But why was Guss killed? And why in such a monstrous manner?” asked Benjamin himself day after day.
“It would have to be someone he knew for sure. Someone betrayed him. But who?. Guss was a film producer to the outside world, so no common man would be his enemy. Perhaps it was his other career as an arms mediator that caught up to him. Now he was close to very few people, Augustine & Stephen, both died around the same time as he. That leaves us with someone in the syndicate & someone that knew far too much about Guss”
Being part of a nation’s intelligence network proved to be of the utmost benefit to Benjamin as he could quickly lay his hands on the ongoing investigation into the involvement of army men both serving or otherwise; that the Department of Internal Affairs and the Military Police was looking into along with spooks from the International Police or Interpol.
He could also learn about the deaths of two of the syndicate’s members, Sergeants James & Franklin, on whose activities both DIA and MP had trained their hawk eyes.
While the syndicate and Teddy strongly suspected Benjamin’s hand in the deaths of their colleagues, Benjamin was getting extremely close to finding out Teddy’s involvement behind his brother’s family’s slaughter.
“He is getting very close; it’s not good for us. Our spooks say he is Israeli Intelligence” Lt. Sam Perez was on the line with Teddy.
“So the beaver is more of a mole rat, he is blind for now, but he will grow eyes, soon!” said Teddy.
“We also know he is already in the US! He left Tel Aviv long back, Bastard’s been on our trail and we were just sitting ducks all the while! This is gotta end now!” Sam was angry.
“Get your men to shut him up, this has to happen fast!” instructed Teddy.
“They left for New York last week” calmly came the response from the other end.
It was a game of Black Spy versus White Spy. Benjamin’s friends were quick to tip him off about Cooke and Guerrero. They were driving all the way from LA to New York, just to wipe off their entire trail. The cops usually check for rail, air, car rentals and buses for hunting for suspects.
It would take another three days to reach New York.
Benjamin’s undercover spook friends could not do anything to help Benjamin directly but provide him with valuable tip offs, firearms and an escape plan.
Guerrero and Cooke arrived in New York in their compact Chevrolet Corvair, 10 days after they left LA and they were men on a mission. To seek and hunt their nemesis – Benjamin.
“We must leave the city Edna, it is no more safe for us here” Benjamin confessed with Edna.
“But what have we done to them! We don’t even know them” Edna was in tears as her life had suddenly turned topsy - turvy for her.
“You must get out of here, Benji, they are armed and dangerous, they are troopers, here take these keys to the car I have arranged” said Benjamin’s friend from one of the sleeper cells.
“But! I don’t even know who killed my brother, these two are just minions” rued Benjamin.
“Keep low for a while, Benji, we do not want American blood on our hands, our country does not need this kind of attention now” the friend warned.
“I understand, I will be off to Cincinnati where the trust board has started the school’s construction, I will contact you or someone” Benjamin took the keys and left to collect his family and whatever he could gather from his new home in NYC.
He was reduced to acting like a fugitive, hiding and running away from agents of death. Cincinnati would be an overnight journey and he quickly packed the trunk of his Plymouth Valiant. Edna sat behind with Priscilla.
Both Benjamin and Sam Perez had excellent networks spread all across the city and a dozen eyes were on Benjamin and a similar number of eyes watched the two Privates. The only advantage Sam had was that Benjamin was in his territory, he was the trespasser and Sam would be the persecutor and his punishment was most severe.
The Schneider family’s exit to Cincinnati, Ohio was eventless and they soon met the darkness of the night.
“We need to stop somewhere, dear, the child is hungry” said a worried Edna who herself was tired with the packing and the moving always fearful about her fate.
“I can’t take chances Edna, we cannot afford to get spotted, next stop is in Ohio where we have our contact waiting for us, it’s all planned, we cannot be late” explained Benjamin who had pushed down the pedal hard and the car was rattling at 65 miles / hr.
They had come quite far away from NYC and were on the freeway to Ohio and all this while Priscilla had been a symbol of discipline, always smiling and never complaining like all 3 years olds do.
An small pile up on the freeway had completely blocked the evening traffic and trouble was mounting. Since Benjamin could not afford to wait for the traffic to clear, he took a short cut, an old route through an Amish village. Little did he know, that the ‘accident’ was orchestrated by Teddy in order to navigate Benjamin’s route himself.
The black compact Chevrolet Corvair received a radio signal on a dedicated frequency and it was soon on the trail of a sky blue Plymouth Valiant. The iron stallion revved up to catch up with the tiny red dots on the horizon which were the tail lamps of the Valiant. Benjamin also could see in the rear view mirror a pair of darting yellow lights, lunging menacingly towards him. He could immediately realize that the car had his would be assailants and Benjamin shifted gears and pressed the gas harder to throttle up the engine in an effort to increase the distance.
“How could I have been so foolish! God!” cursed Benjamin to himself as he had unknowingly fallen prey to his enemy’s plans.
“What happened dear? Why are you so worried all of a sudden?” Edna enquired oblivious of the danger lurking behind her.
“It’s nothing, hold on to something and hold Priscilla, it’s going to be rough” Benjamin sped up the screeching automobile.
The yellow lights soon came precariously close to them but Benjamin was not ready to give up yet. He had seen a huge tractor parked on the wrong side of the road. Since it was a village by the freeway, it’s people did not expect such high speed chases on the narrow lanes of their restive laid back farming village.
Benjamin had pushed the Valiant to its extremities, when he was within a 100 meters from the tractor, Benjamin immediately turned off his lights to the shock of the pursuing Corvair. The two Privates had little time to react and though Cooke swerved the car to the far left, the right side still caught the tractor’s trailer and the impact at such a high velocity threw the Corvair up in the air, rolled on to the gravel and then on to the fields.
The Valiant stopped at a distance and the lights were turned on. Benjamin drew his pistol and came slowly towards the Corvair that had turned turtle. One of its inhabitants lay dead or unconscious dripping with blood while the other was not to be seen.
Benjamin went further towards the field when a bullet grazed his left shoulder, taking with a small tear of his shirt and a smear of blood. His training kicked in and he shot a volley of bullets in the direction and at least two of them had found their mark. Two shots had penetrated Private Guerrero’s lungs and he was gasping for breath.
“Who do you work for? Why did you want to kill my family? Answer me” screamed Benjamin as he pulled up the fallen Private by his collar.
“Screw You”, the Private mumbled as he choked on his own blood.
“Benji!” screamed Edna at a distance, standing outside the Valiant “I see another pair of lights, there” Edna pointed from the direction they had been driving for a while now.
Benjamin could identify from the roar of the car’s engine and the low rimmed head lights that it was a Ford Mustang, a fast and mean car. His source of information was by now dead and Benjamin sprinted towards his own car.
Another car chase ensued and the Valiant was proving to be no match to the modern Mustang. Benjamin soon realized that he was going to lose the battle and the least he could do was protect his family.
“Edna, I will slow down for a few seconds, I see a hay stack on the left, Jump out of the car with Priscilla” Benjamin was expecting too much from his homely wife.
“I can’t Benji, I’m scared!” Edna cried as the Mustang approached closer.
“You have to! Now!” yelled Benjamin from the driver’s seat just as he hard pressed the brakes & swerved without control to the left, to the surprise of his pursuers who swerved right and sped past for a while. Edna was petrified to jump but she did manage to throw away little Priscilla onto the hay stack and she shut the door again.
“Oh Edna! Why didn’t you?” said a sullen Benjamin as he revved up the Valiant. The Mustang too had screeched to a halt and had blocked the path.
Benjamin went ahead full speed expecting to smash his way through the swanky Mustang. His adventure proved a little too much as a volley of bullets from two semiautomatics punched a dozen holes on the Valiant’s hood and wind screen, one penetrating Edna’s heart, Benjamin could see his hunters’ faces – It was Sam and Teddy, firing away. He went on with the intention of bringing the two fiends under his wheels only to be brutally thrown out of the windshield when his front tire burst open due to the force of the bullets.
The swashbuckler had at last died but he managed to save Priscilla. He was just 20 miles from Cincinnati, but fate had other plans for him. Benjamin though, had made a backup plan. A radio transmitter fitted on his person would give his contact in Cincinnati a real time idea of his locations. If he had stood at one spot for more than 10 minutes, then the contact was to assume that Benjamin had been compromised, but Priscilla was to be protected at all costs. His contact later found Priscilla at a villager’s home, sleeping blissfully. She was found by the villager’s dogs resting on his hay stack. Fate keeps a plan B too.
“Wait a minute! Weren’t Peeya’s parents killed in a car crash too? And she was the only one who survived! This is all making sense now! Perhaps Kunal Roy Mukherjee was indeed not Peeya’s biological parents and someone else was. Peeya had been trying to tell us something! I wonder what it could be. This book definitely is the key”.