War Tactic. Don Pendleton

Чтение книги онлайн.

       CHAPTER SIX

      Fitzpatrick entered Rhemsen’s office and helped himself to a chair without being asked. As he always did, Rhemsen glared through that frozen plastic face of his, but there wasn’t much he could do about Fitzpatrick’s liberties. After all, Rhemsen knew as well as Fitzpatrick did that without Blackstar men to provide muscle for RhemCorp’s operations, there would be nothing between Rhemsen and a half dozen major enemies the man had already made.

      Some of those enemies, like the Mob, wouldn’t hesitate to start knocking over RhemCorp holdings if they thought they could do so without provoking a war. But with Blackstar guarding Rhemsen’s assets, and given just how many men with guns Blackstar could put on the street, even the mafia knew better than to poke that hornets’ nest with a stick.

      “You look nervous, boss,” Fitzpatrick said. “More nervous than usual. Nervous even for you, I mean.”

      “What do you think, Jason?” Rhemsen said. He was drinking something with a lot of ice in it. The glass clinked when Rhemsen snatched it and gulped the contents down. His eyes were wide when he looked up again. “There are powerful forces that know what we’re doing.”

      “Which powerful forces are those, Harry?” Fitzpatrick said, grinning. He knew that Rhemsen hated being called “Harry.”

      “Don’t be a fool,” Rhemsen said. “Government involvement was inevitable. But it’s too soon. It throws off my timetable considerably.”

      “Wait a minute,” Fitzpatrick said. “I thought you said you had this all figured out. That’s why we grabbed those guys. That’s why you said it was okay to disappear them. How deep are you digging this hole? I don’t want to end up in prison for the rest of my life.”

      “I’m the reason you aren’t already there,” Rhemsen argued. “Don’t forget that, Jason. Without me, without my lawyers, without my financing, Blackstar wouldn’t even exist in its current form. The corporation that now bears the name isn’t the first to hold the moniker, nor will it be the last before we’re finished. If you want to stay one step ahead of Uncle Sam and his investigators, you need me as much as I need you.”

      “Would you calm down already?” Fitzpatrick said. “You’re worse than my mother. Or you would be if she was still alive, that miserable broad. Look, I know that, all right? I just want to know what you think this means for the operation.”

      “What do you think it means?” Rhemsen shot back. “We’re going to have to suspend our sales pipelines outside the country until we’re sure we aren’t compromised. And I need you to mobilize elements of Blackstar in the Philippines. If the government is sending agents to my doorstep, it means they’re certain RhemCorp hardware is involved. They just don’t know what they can prove yet as far as I am concerned. So they’ll be investigating both ends, and that means there will be government agents sniffing around the ports in the South China Sea. Set a trap, if you can. Lure whomever the government has sent and make them disappear. That should stall things, at the very least, as they try to figure out where they went wrong. Make sure your men coordinate with my pirates.”

      “Listen to you,” Fitzpatrick said. “Your pirates. You’re paying a bunch of broken-down, sea-going thieves and you’re hoping for loyalty. That’s not going to end well. They’re not professional soldiers. Not like me. Not like my men.”

      “They’re vicious and, for a price, they take orders,” Rhemsen said. “That is precisely what I require them to be. Isn’t that what you call it? ‘Pay to play.’ Isn’t that how Americans refer to trade with China? America hates China, paints it as the aggressor, disrespects the nation with the largest standing military force on Earth…but then, for a price, sells its manufacturing to this nation it so reviles.”

      “You talk like you’re not part of that,” Fitzpatrick said. “Last I knew you were part of the American capitalist machine, Harry.”

      “So I am,” Rhemsen replied. “Fortunately for both of us I’ve spread enough of the proceeds around that capitalist machine in Washington, in the form of bribe money. It will serve to slow the process of any investigation that will arise. Or at least, I thought I would do so. These men…it worries me, not knowing exactly who or what they represent. Money will only take us so far if forces inside Washington have decided to take direct action against us. This is unusual. Direct action is usually last on a long list of delaying tactics in the government.”

      “It doesn’t matter,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ll break those agents. If their leader doesn’t crack, one of his two subordinates will. I’ll kill one СКАЧАТЬ