Free Paradise Gold: The Mafia and Nazis battle for the biggest prize of World War II (Ben Peters Thriller series Book 2) by Vic Robbie Page B

the German Army Research Centre at Peenemünde. It’s the work of the Luftwaffe. Called the V-1. Should be able to launch it from the French coast. Will hit anywhere within a radius of 150 miles.’
    ‘Christ.’
    ‘Won’t worry you in the Caribbean though.’ Smee rose to his feet. ‘Got you a hotel. Just around the corner. I’ll see you to the elevator.’ In those awkward moments waiting for the elevator to arrive, he seemed preoccupied and kept glancing over Ben’s shoulder as if looking out for someone.
    ‘Durant, Durant, old boy.’ Smee shouted and waved at a man approaching them clutching a bulky briefcase and looking as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Hearing his name, Durant looked up with the hint of a smile, or was it a grimace, as if Smee were someone he’d rather not meet.
    ‘This is the chap, Ben Peters. I told you about him.’ Smee patted Ben on the shoulder.
    Durant looked like a man who had somewhere to go in a hurry although out of decency he stopped and extended a hand. ‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Peters. I understand you’re off to Martinique.’
    ‘Yes, to research my next book,’ he said, wondering whether he should step into his new role already.
    ‘Mmm,’ Durant said as though he didn’t believe him and glanced at Smee, who looked away. ‘I wish you luck. Be careful out there, it can be a dangerous island.’
    He was about to respond when a man stepped up to them and raised his right hand. And the flash of white light blinded him.

13
New York: Monday, October 20th, 1941
    D urant hadn’t heard anything for almost a week, allowing him the sliver of hope that they had forgotten him. Perhaps he was off the hook, and they were pursuing another target more indebted to the Mob. After all, Paradiso told him on Long Island it wasn’t the amount he owed but the principle of not paying the debt. Maybe they’d give him time to pay back the money and some other unfortunate gambler was being taken out to be made an example of. Every day he scoured the New York Times and listened to radio news bulletins to find out if a body had been discovered on Long Island. There was nothing. It made him all the more nervous. He was finding it impossible to relax, to concentrate, to eat properly, to sleep, expecting at any time he would be grabbed and spirited away.
    They came for him on a wild evening when a heavy rain swirled with malevolence. Two large, unsmiling men in double-breasted coats and with Derby hats pulled down so low the brims almost touched their noses escorted him from his home with the confidence of never having been refused. They pushed him into the back seat of their car and got in either side of him, wedging him in so tight he couldn’t lift his hands to wipe the rain dripping from the end of his nose. Up front, a driver chewed gum and didn’t talk for the duration of the journey lasting over an hour.
    He tried to get some idea where they were headed, but the rain was so powerful the windscreen wipers failed to cope with the deluge. And when he glanced right and left he was met with a stone-faced glare, and after a while he gave up trying to look out for landmarks.
    ‘Where are you taking me?’ he asked, but the slap, slapping of the wipers was all he heard.
    They were somewhere out in the country now and all around was blackness save for the occasional weak light flickering in the distance and the headlamps of an approaching vehicle lighting up the interior of their car. A wind picked up and buffeted the car and the rain came in bursts like someone pouring buckets of water over the windscreen.
    They were slowing and the car swung left and pulled in at a double metal gate, guarded by four men. One stepped forward and looked into the back of the car, his eyes dwelling on him before shouting an order to his colleagues, and the gate swung open slowly. The man shouted something to the driver and threw a casual salute as they swept through. They progressed up a