After about five minutes I sat up and dialled Fiona’s mobile number. She answered immediately.
“Jake,” she said.
“Fiona, have you heard the news about Hawkworth?”
“Yes, my boss phoned me this morning. Good result if you ask me.” She said matter of factly.
“Um, that’s what Tats said.”
“What’s happening with Robert Flackyard?” Fiona asked.
“Hassan has picked him up in Marrakech and is holding him there until your lot can bring him back to the UK.”
“Well that sounds promising, and what about the Rumples. Have they been tracked down yet?” She asked.
“No, they’ve gone to ground, and you can rest assured that’s where they’ll stay until things settle down. LJ seems to think that they might, have absconded with Harry Caplin to Cuba.” I said a sheepishly, adding.
“And what about his consignment of opium that we’ve still got hidden on that German submarine in Dorset?”
“What about it? The local police will have it brought up, I suppose.”
“Oh no, that can’t happen. That sub has to remain a secret, Fiona. If plod go crawling all over it. Well, for a start it’s location will be leaked and that will attract every amateur weekend diver down to it. Remember, there’s still live torpedoes on board. No, we’ve got to blow the charge that I left inside the chamber.”
“So, do it.” Fiona said
“I can’t, I’m already talking to you on my mobile. You do it.”
“Okay, hang on a moment, while I go and get my phone, its in the other room.”
Fiona returned a moment later with her mobile phone. “Okay, Jake. Tell me what I’ve got to do?”
“Press nine and then send.” I said.
“Okay, I’ve done that, now what? Wait a minute, there’s a video message coming through,” I could hear Fiona lightly breathing at the other end of the phone. “Well I’ll be damned.”
“What’s that, Fiona?”
“You know exactly what, Jake Dillon. But I’ve got to admit it, this is pure techno genius.”
“So you approve, then?”
“Approval given. But when did you plant the video camera in the U-boat?”
“As we were leaving, I thought it might be useful to have a method of surveillance. All I had to do was wedge it alongside one of the torpedoes in the rack. Once we were on the surface, I simply used my mobile phone to hook-up with it as and when I wanted to take a look. The best part is, that when you detonated the explosive charge in the chamber, from that point, the camera recorded everything in real time, and then converted it into a video message. This was then instantly transmitted to everyone whose number I’d programmed in.”
“So who got the message, apart from you and me?”
“There were only two other numbers. One of them was LJ, and…”
“Not Harry Caplin?”
“I simply couldn’t resist it. By now he’ll know what we’ve done, and I’d really love to be a fly on the wall, wherever he is.”
“So what happens now?”
“Nothing. Now that the remote detonator inside the chamber, has been blown. Those opium sacks will have been automatically disintegrated. But without doing any damage to the sub itself. I’d say that there’s likely to be a few very light headed fish swimming around that U-boat right now!”
Fiona remained quite at the other end of the phone and then said. “So, Jake. Back to Harry Caplin, who’s now safely back in Cuba. Thanks to you.”
There was tension in her voice.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that he was that safe there, Fiona.”
“Well, what would you say, Jake? After all, if it hadn’t been for your Lone Ranger bravado in Dorset. I’d have had him locked up by now.”
“Ouch, Don’t remind me, I’m embarrassed enough already. I know what I did was a mistake, Fiona. But, I promise you that I’ll put things right. All that I ask is that you don’t shut the book on me just yet. Deal?”
“I suppose, but you’d better be as good as you think you are, Jake Dillon.”
I broke the connection with Fiona, pondering about whether the Rumples were with Harry Caplin in Cuba, after a moment I’d made my decision.
“Tats, first thing tomorrow morning. Could you book me onto the next available British Airways flight to Florida. Oh and I’ll need a 4x4 Jeep on arrival, please.” I said, rotating my head from side to side in an attempt to relieve the tension in the back of my neck.
“Is that all, sir?” Tats said rolling over onto her back, stretching and yawning as she did so. “Why don’t you roll over here lover boy and I’ll see what can be done about relieving that tension.”
“What a massage?” I said enthusiastically.
“Well sort of,” she sat up and unfastened her bikini top, discarding the flimsy piece of material. “I was thinking more along the lines of a distraction.”
Until the next time…