“Why do you think this has something to do with drugs?”
“Because everything in Colombia — everything that’s dirty, anyway — has something to do with drugs.”
Cat had heard that before.
Holland reached down, unzipped his canvas bag, and removed a large magazine, printed on yellow newsprint, called Tradeaplane. Cat had seen it around the flying school. “We’re going to need an airplane,” he said.
“What for?” Cat asked, surprised. “Don’t the airlines fly to Colombia?”
“Oh, sure,” Holland said, “but I don’t have a passport; they took it away before my trial. And anyway, I expect my face would light up a few computers in both Colombian or U.S. Customs and Immigration. Then, once we’re in the country, we have to be able to move around without the police paying too much attention to me. There’s always police in airports.”
“Then where would we land a light aircraft?”
Bluey grinned. “Well, there’s airports and there’s airports.”
Cat remembered that he had a passport for Holland, but he remembered Jim’s advice, too. “Okay, if you say so.”
Holland waved a hand. “Your house, your car — you look as though you can afford a good airplane.” He began flipping through Tradeaplane. “I reckon we’ll need to spend somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand bucks, depending on what’s available locally. Of course if you want to go looking around the country, we could save some money.”
“I’d rather save time. We’ll get whatever you want.”
Holland stood up. “I’ll start looking today. You got a car I can borrow?”
Cat went to his desk and got some keys. “There’s a Mercedes station wagon in the garage.” He tossed Holland the keys.
Holland fingered his suit. “I’ll need to pick up some gear as well.”
Cat took a banded stack of bills from his desk drawer and tossed it to Holland. “There’s your ten thousand,” he said. “You’ve got yourself a job, Mr. Holland.”
The Australian stuck out his hand. “Call me Bluey,” he grinned.
Cat grinned back. “I’m Cat.” He liked the man, but he still felt a little uncomfortable with him, knowing what he did about his past. Now, he was giving him ten thousand dollars and Katie’s Mercedes. What the hell, he thought, he could never do this on his own. He needed Bluey Holland, and he would just have to trust him.
That night Cat lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and conjured up Jinx’s face, but it was not the face he had most recently seen. It was younger — twelve or thirteen. He could not quite form her image at a later age in his mind. He wondered if, eventually, he would not be able to remember her at all.
“I’m coming, kid,” he said aloud into the darkness. “I’m coming to get you.”
9
“Cat? Bluey. I think I’ve found our airplane.”
“Great, Bluey. What’s it going to run me?”
“The neighborhood of seventy-five grand — that’s purchase price — we’re going to need an annual inspection for five hundred to a grand, a loran navigator, and a fuel-flow meter — call that another six grand. Plus, we’ve got some fuel modifications to do south of here; say, a total of ninety grand all found.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Can I have a look at her?”
“Sure, I’d want you to. I’m out at — what’s this bloody field called?”
“Peachtree Dekalb?”
“That’s the one. The airplane’s sitting out in front of the tower. She’s red and white; her tail number is 1 2 3 Tango.”
Cat laughed. “I like her already. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
At the airport, Cat parked near the tower and started looking for a light twin-engine airplane with the right tail number, but to no avail. Then Bluey came out of a hangar and pointed. Cat’s eyes came to rest on a single-engine Cessna, and he came to an abrupt halt. “Jesus, Bluey, you want to fly us over a thousand miles of open ocean in a single? That thing’s not much bigger than the little trainer I’ve been learning in.”
“Listen, sport,” Bluey said indulgently, “let me give you a fact or two about airplanes. First of all, the fatality rate for singles and twins is identical. Second of all, if you have an engine failure in a twin, you have a very difficult airplane on your hands. It takes a lot of practice to fly a twin on one engine, and where I’ve been, they didn’t offer that sort of leisure-time activity. And there are certain advantages in fuel efficiency with a single. Flying over water, I’ll take a well-maintained single any day.”
“Well...”
“This is a Cessna 182 RG, RG for retractable gear. It’s one hell of a lot more airplane than the 152 you’ve been training in. She does a hundred and fifty-six knots — that’s a hundred and eighty miles an hour — on about thirteen gallons of fuel an hour, and I can land her or take off in seven hundred and fifty feet of runway. She’ll lift anything we can put in her with full fuel aboard, and not many airplanes will do that. She’s only got four hundred hours on an engine that’s designed to fly two thousand between overhauls, she’s loaded with good equipment, and she’s got long-range tanks. We’re paying about five thousand over market value, but we’re in a hurry, and airplanes this good aren’t easy to come by. Now, if you want to hang around here for two or three more weeks while I find a decent twin and practice flying it on one engine, that’s okay by me, but this is a damned good airplane. What do you want to do?”
Cat threw up his hands in surrender. “Sold.”
“Good. How quick can you get back here with a cashier’s check for seventy-five thousand dollars, made out to Epps Air Service?”
Cat glanced at his watch. “It’ll have to be tomorrow morning.”
“That’s good. I’ll get them started on the annual inspection. If the mechanic doesn’t run into any unusual problems, we should be able to leave in about three days.”
“As long as that?”
“Yep, that’s good time for an annual and installation of the extra gear. We’ll be stopping in Florida for a life raft and another modification or two on our way. I’ll have you in Colombia in under a week’s time, if there’s not a hurricane in our way.”
“Okay, you’ll have your money first thing in the morning.”
“Cat, you’re going to need to take a lot of cash along.”
“How much?”
“Well, the Florida modifications will come to a few grand, we’re going to have to grease a lot of palms south of the border, and they don’t take American Express in the Guajira or the Amazon. We’re going to be buying goods and services from people who are used to dealing with customers who pay for things with fistfuls of hundred-dollar bills. You don’t want to get caught short down there.”
“I can probably arrange for my bank to wire me whatever I need down there.”
Bluey shook his head. “We’re liable to be in places where that won’t be convenient, or even possible.”
“Well, how much then?”
Bluey shrugged. “Well, I think you probably ought to have a hundred grand in walking-around money, just so people will take you seriously. Apart from that, well, we’re talking about the possibility of ransom, aren’t we? If we find your daughter alive, you may have to buy her from whoever has her.”
“I see,” Cat said, because he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Cat had a busy three days ahead of him. He paid for the airplane, then he saw his brother-in-law.
Ben listened quietly to what Cat had to say. “Cat, this is a crazy thing to do, but in your shoes, I guess I’d do the same thing. You really don’t have another alternative, do you?”
“Thanks, Ben,” Cat replied. “You’ve still got my power of attorney. Do whatever you think is best with the business.”