The Plan

Chapter 40.

MICKEY TRIED TO REACH HIS MOTHER THREE TIMES THAT morning. Finally, he remembered her cell phone and dialed the number off the Rolodex from his office in the Jerse y h ouse. It rang three times and then a man answered.

"Who is this?" Mickey said to Kazorowski, who was just pulling his car into the motel parking lot with Cole Harris sitting beside him. Kaz recognized the voice from half a dozen wiretaps he'd heard of Mickey Alo over the years.

"This is the intercept operator." Kaz was flying blind, trying to keep Mickey on the line, not sure what to do. "Hey, shit-for-brains, there's no such thing."

"Hi, Mickey. How's everything in Goombah City?" "Who the fuck is this?"

Kaz was out of the car now and moving toward the motel with the phone to his ear. Cole got the door open and, as Kaz moved into the room, Lucinda got to her feet. Ryan was still asleep on the bed.

"Ms is Solomon Kazorowski."

"Whatta you doing with my mother's phone?"

"Confusing how shit like that happens, ain't it?" Kaz wrote "Mickey" on a piece of paper and showed it to Lucinda.

"Let me talk to him," Lucinda said.

"I've got somebody, wants to say hi." He handed the phone to Lucinda.

"Don't you dare send anybody else to hurt him, Mickey. Don't you dare!"

"I don't know what you're talkin' about, Sis."

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. You sent a killer to try and get Ryan. Leave him alone, he doesn't mean anything to you."

"Hey, little sister, you don't have a clue what means anything to me. You wanna play teacher to a bunch a' retards, I could give less of a shit, but you get in my world, you start fucking with my action, and you're dust. Put Kazorowski back on."

"I never knew you at all, did I?"

"You knew what I wanted you to know."

She didn't have to see him to know that his eyes were shining and blank. She handed the phone back to Kazorowski, trembling with frustration.

"Yeah."

"A million dollars right now, no questions asked, you deliver them both to me."

"Y' know, that's funny, Mickey. You and your friends think the world stops for money-but there's other things that count, greaseball. You took away all I ever wanted. You set me up ten years ago, because I was costing you money, but I don't give a shit about money. Ya know what gets my dick stiff…?"

"What?"

"Sending guys like you to the asshole academy, and I ain't gonna quit till I put you there." He disconnected the phone before Mickey could answer.

"He offered me a million bucks to sell you out. I think your big brother means business."

"We've gotta get Bolt outta here. Mickey'll send out foot soldiers. He'll find you," Cole said.

"How?" Lucinda asked.

"He's no dummy. He knows Ryan is hurting. He'll look for street doctors like Dr. Jazz."

"I knew a mob guy once who sent button men down a highway with photographs, showed 'em to every gas station on the interstate," Kaz finished Cole's thought.

"Does Ryan still have his boat in Marina del Rey?" Cole asked Lucinda.

"I don't know."

"I'm sure he does. He took me out once when I was in L. A."

"That's perfect," Kaz said to Lucinda. "We get you two out to L. A., you get on that boat and get away. Don't tell anybody where. Drop anchor, stay outta sight. I'll hang onto this cell phone if you need to talk to me."

"Shouldn't I tell you where I am?" she said.

Kaz shook his head. "If Mickey catches either Cole or me, I can't guarantee we won't give up your location. A man tends to start talking when he's doused with kerosene and his clothes are on fire."

"You gotta drive," Cole said. "He'll be watching the airports."

"I can't drive him all the way to the West Coast in this condition. It'll kill him," Lucinda said.

"I've got a way to fly him out of here," Kaz volunteered. "Mickey will never find this airplane 'cause officially it doesn't exist."

Kaz was on the phone for almost two hours, trying to find Deke Metcalf. He finally found him through Deke's sister, who gave Kaz the number of his girlfriend's house in Vermont. Half an hour later, he had Deke on the phone.

"Kaz, I can't steal government equipment," Deke said after he heard what Kaz wanted. "That shit is all over with. They busted all the ranch hands outta Covert Ops.

"Look, Deke, I never asked you for anything, but you've gotta get this guy to the West Coast."

"Who is he?"

"You're better off not knowing. I'm gonna take him to the rabbit farm. You can pick him up there."

"How the hell did I ever end up with you for a friend?" "We were both fucking the colonel's wife at Fort Bragg, remember?"

"Oh yeah, right. Okay, I'll work something out. Meet me there in two hours."

Kaz doped Ryan up good for the flight, got him stretched out in the back of Cole's van, then called Dr. Jazz and told him Ryan needed more antibiotics. Kenetta met them in a Pay-Less parking lot with the drugs. She checked and redressed the wound while Ryan lay unconscious. Lucinda opened her purse and pushed several hundred dollars into Kenetta's hand. "Thank you; you and your father saved his life," she said.

Kenetta smiled and gave her instructions on how to guard against infection.

The rabbit farm was just that, a breeding farm for medical supply rabbits in the southwestern part of New Jersey. There was a long, paved runway east of the rabbit coops that could handle most MATS propeller aircraft, including the large C-54 that was currently sitting at the end.

Cole pulled the van out on the tarmac under the wing of the four-engine plane with no VIN or tail markings.

Deke Metcalf turned out to be a handsome, forty-yearold black aviator, tall with coffee-colored skin and a roguish air. He flew planes for Air America, the CIA covert ops airline. He and Kaz had worked more than one federal case together.

Ryan never woke up as they opened the back of the van. "You didn't tell me he was gonna be junk on a bunk," Deke said.

"Drank too much Old Grand-Dad," Kaz said, looking at the plane. "Where'd you get this antique?"

"That's another thing. I can't guarantee we ain't gonna prang it in a cornfield. Bird's a ruptured duck. I volunteered to transport it to Lockheed in Van Nuys for an engine overhaul. Officially, this flight ain't on anybody's board. It's a black ops flight, and to make it interestin', the number-two fan is cooked. This was the only ride I could get my hands on."

"Can you get off the ground with three engines?" "I already did it once but it's a groaner."

Kaz reached out in a strangely formal gesture and shook Lucinda's hand. "You're okay, Miss Alo. Sorry if I came on strong a while back. You take care of both a' ya."

"I accept the apology." And she leaned forward and kissed Kaz on the cheek.

The three men managed to get Ryan into the cabin. He never woke up. Then Deke helped Lucinda in, pulled up the rear door, and secured Ryan in one of the seats, belting him in. He got behind the controls and, one by one, started up the three good engines. The inboard engine, on the port side, didn't turn on. It stayed feathered as Deke made the run-up, looked at his gauges, tapped a few, and shook his head in disbelief. "I get better odds in Vegas," he said to himself as he pushed the throttle forward and eased off the rudder brakes.

He taxied to the end of the runway, crossed himself, and started the roll. He had filed no flight plan and no radio contact. His transponder was squawking on the CIA frequency, so he would be cleared through military channels, but as far as the F. A. A. was concerned, this flight never happened.

Kaz and Cole watched with concern as the C-54 thundered down the runway and finally lifted off. The cumbersome transport barely cleared the trees on the far end of the field, straining up, over a set of power lines, missing disaster by feet.

He knew it was impossible, but as the plane banked to the east, Kaz thought he heard Deke let out a rebel yell.