Chapter 32: Finding Judith

Ray and Percy were working in Ray's study. The costs of the hunt for Judith were piling up. The two men were streamlining Ray's regular businesses to be able to extract the maximum profits from them.

The protection of their families and the constant searching for Judith was placing a strain on the money.

They were working on squeezing a few more nickels out of one operation when the secure phone rang. Percy had grown in Ray's eyes so he was now allowed to answer that phone. Percy was now recognized as the "Don's" successor by the men on the other end of those calls.

Percy was developing those "hard eyes". For Judith's sake he had crossed the line. He was now on the wrong side of the law.

A very heavily accented voice said, "We have information on where Judith is being kept," was how the phone call started. Percy put the phone on speaker and carefully asked the speaker to continue.

"She is being held on a Caribbean island," and the speaker went on to explain.

Percy and Ray gathered as much information as possible from their caller. While Ray was marshaling the troops, Percy called Russia.

Anatoly arrived 36 hours later and the planning began. Only this time there was a rush put on. No one knew how long Judith would last. She had been in the kidnapers hands for over a year.

And they were starting to return pieces of her.

The first trick was to locate where Judith was being kept on that island. Percy was no longer surprised when satellite photos of the island appeared. They were of the same quality as the photos produced by the CIA. Percy admired the quality and said so. Anatoly just smiled and Ray laughed.

Percy wondered just how far the tentacles of these men went.

At first glance the island looked empty. There were no buildings, roads, or any signs of life. Percy was disappointed thinking it was a false alarm. But Ray just shushed him up and pulled some heat signature pictures out of the pile.

There it was, a huge red hot spot where there was nothing to generate heat. They had found a hidden building. Now all they had to do was determine if this building contained Judith and then construct a plan to save her.

"I have a tramp freighter in the area. I'll dump the cargo and make room for our guys," was Anatoly's offer.

Ray agreed but Percy asked, "Won't you lose a valuable cargo? Couldn't we just off load it a port?"

"It's cocaine, Percy. Most ports don't want us unloading a ship full on their soil," said Anatoly laughingly. "Don't worry, there's more where that came from."

Three days later Percy and Anatoly were standing on the deck at the rail of a small freighter looking at the island. They were using very high powered binoculars and still didn't see a sign of life, let alone the hidden building.

"Don't worry Mr. Holmes. The building is there. My men found the hidden entrance and the small submarine used to supplies in to the building and "visitors "out to their supply ships.

"This is the now the main training and sales center since we started our campaign. Inside that hill is where they have rebuilt their facilities," said one of Anatoly's men.

"We're going in tonight. Wanna come?" asked Anatoly.

"Won't they know we're here?" ask Percy.

"They already do. They have been painting us with radar for the last four hours," said one of the crewmen.

"Then how..." started Percy.

"Do worry," interrupted Anatoly. "We're about to break down and drift ashore. They can't do anything about us. Remember, they don't exist."

Percy heard a loud banging starting below decks as well as clouds of black smoke pouring from the stack. Soon he heard radio chatter between the freighter and one of the larger islands. I was decided that it was too late to send out a tow and an anchor would be dropped in the lea of the small island.

As the sun was setting, the anchors were dropped. A bunch of men in black wet suits climbed out of a small hatch on the side of the freighter out of the island's sight.