Free Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition by CD Moulton Page A

chatted awhile, then Clint decided to
make his call. He hesitated before he punched the number, then
called Manny instead.
    “ You have
anything to do with a bit of a minor shootout in the Atlantic a
couple of hours ago?”
    “ It was
five and a half hours ago and to what doest thou refer thus and
thusly?”
    “ Thanks
from about six governments around the world. Did you ever learn
anything about any of the others involved in this crap?”
    “ Not
really. They’re very adept at hiding their trails.”
    Clint told him they found the stuff. He knew
it. They talked a minute, then Clint made the call. To Armakov.
    “ Hi!
Surprised Eladio didn’t answer! How are things?”
    There was a silence.
    “ You
there?”
    “ Clint.
What, I mean, you caught me off guard. People seldom do. You are a
very surprising man it would seem.”
    “ You had
to know I’d figure that out. I just want to know what the real
motive is. Or was.”
    “ To stop
them. I told you that.”
    “ Good
enough! Now the rest of it.”
    “ To get
my hands on the uranium. You seem to have prevented
that.”
    “ Nobody
needs that kind of thing.”
    “ It would
only be for our protection.”
    “ At
first, maybe. In a few more months or years someone would want to
do to others as others almost did to them and it would be the same
thing, just another one at the top. You know it.”
    “ There
wasn’t yet enough to make the device. That is the thing that would
not be explained.”
    “ But the
threat, not the actual device, was the power play.”
    Armokov sighed. “I have worried about that.
Perhaps it is better if things remain the way they are, as bad as
they are. It would probably only get worse.”
    “ I’m
afraid it will, anyhow. That’s ingrained in the psychology of the
area and no one’s trying to change that.”
    He sighed again. “True. Sad, but true.”
    “ It’s
over. Stop the psychology here. That will be a start.”
    “ But time
is extremely limited. You don’t know the plans many have. There are
those in Panamá as well who plot and plan. There are those in
Brazil and Ghana and Egypt and Germany and England and Australia
and any other place you care to name. I fear civilization as we
know it is very near to extinction.”
    “ I agree.
I don’t care to be part of that.”
    “ You, as
an Indio, can go into the jungle and escape the horrors to come. We
in the cities of the world cannot. It is something we, as a race,
do to ourselves.”
    “ That’s
the thing none of you will actually accept. You say it as rhetoric,
that’s all. You do it to yourselves.”
    Armakov sighed again. “That is true. Hasta
lluego.” He hung up.
     
    Back With Friends
    Clint sipped the coffee and took a bite of
the hojaldre, then waved at Judi. She waved back and called that
she had some news. He said he’d be over later.
    After taking care of the things around his
house he checked over the boat. He would go out later anyhow so put
his gear in the boat and went to Judi’s deck dock. She told him
that Nando was supposed to go straight to Changuinola, had left
Almirante and no one had seen or heard a word from him since.
    Clint wondered if he had enough savvy to be
able to disappear himself or if others had caused the
disappearance. As stated several times, he knew the rules when he
got in the game. To sit around crying about it when it didn’t go
your way was to sit around and cry about it when you’d lost. There
was one way out of that and that was to die. Clint held no sympathy
for the type.
    Earl came by to say he and Ben had a sort of
promissory deal. He would go back to the states and would quit his
job, take care of unfinished business, then move here. If things
worked out the way they seemed headed he would be a permanent
fixture around the place. He swore again that Ben wouldn’t ever be
in any danger.
    “ I have
some things to guarantee they’ll leave me alone. I’m not important
enough to be in deep. It’ll be better to let me out