Ed Mcbain - Money, Money, Money

Money, Money, Money

Ed McBain

1 .

THE TWO MEN ON THE NARROW DIRT STRIP were both wearing white cotton pants and shirts. They stood beside the Piper Warrior III in broad daylight, waiting for Cass to hand over the locked aluminum suitcase. She gave it to the larger of the two men, and watched as they walked to a dark blue Mercedes-Benz glistening in the sun alongside the cornfield. The doors on either side slammed shut into the stillness, and then there was only the sound of insects racketing in the scraggly woods nearby.

Today was Pearl Harbor Day, the seventh of December, though it didnt much feel like it here in Guenerando, Mexico. Cass stood beside the airplane, sweating in the afternoon heat. She assumed there was money in the aluminum suitcase. She further assumed they were counting it over there in the Benz. She guessed that the cargo theyd be turning over in exchange for the money would be dopeeither heroin or cocaine. She didnt care much either way. She stood in the shade of a spindly eucalyptus for almost forty minutes. At last, the two men came out of the Benz and handed the aluminum suitcase back to her. The one with the mustache was grinning. He handed her a long white business envelope with a rubber band around it. The other one watched solemnly, expectantly.

Open it,por favor, the one with the mustache said.

She slipped the rubber band over her wrist, opened the envelope. There was a whole bunch of hundred-dollar bills in it.

Count them, the serious one said.

She counted them.

There seemed to be ten thousand dollars in that envelope.

For me? she asked.

Para ti,the one with the mustache said.

Damn if they werent tipping her!

Well thanks, she said.Muchas gracias.

Muchas gracias,the one with the mustache said, grinning.

Muchas gracias,the other one said. He was grinning now, too.

She couldnt help grinning herself.

THE BABOQUIVARI MOUNTAINS STRETCHED northward to Kitt Peak. She flew low behind them. There was an anti-drug radar blimp in the sky over Fort Huachuca, but she had talked to other pilots whod made the identical run dozens of times and who knew there was a so-called radar deficiency within plus-or-minus four degrees of the Kitt Peak Observatory. If she flew northward through Gringo Pass, as the security gap was called, she could avoid detection. Besides, shed be on the ground again near Avra Valley in eighteen minutes, so even in the unlikely event that she did show up on radar, there wouldnt be enough time for Customs planes to take off and chase her.

She didnt even know the last name of the man who was paying her $200,000 to do this little job for him, a quarter of it already in a bank account back East, where shed rented an apartment within ten minutes of laying her hands on all that cash. Shed first met him in Eagle Branch, Texas, after one of her whistle-stop hops. What she did was fly light machinery, chickens in crates, melons, computer parts, sandals, what have you, all over Mexico in single-engine planes that were new when Zapata was still a boy. Shed occasionally been dating a Texas Ranger named Randolph Biggs, who made frequent trips to the Rio Grande where he helped the border patrol dissuade wetbacks from entering the sacred shores Cass had gone to the Persian Gulf to preserve and protect. In a bar one night, hed introduced her to this guy named Frank. Kind of cute, but no last name. Just Frank. Franks enough, hed told her. She wondered now how much Randy had got for introducing him to a good pilot willing to take risks.

Instruments on the Warriorsuch a mighty name for a single-engine light aircraftwere kindergarten compared to the Chinook helicopter Cass had flown during the Gulf War. Way they played it on television back home, everything was a surgical strike and nobody but the enemy suffered any casualties, which of course was a crock. More hardware up there in the Iraqi skies than shed care to fly through ever again in her lifetime. Little different here in Arizona. Better pay, too.

She could see the lights of some quiet little desert town down below in the near distance. Whats a bad girl like you doing in a nice place like this? she wondered. Dont ask, dont tell. Man says fly four shipments for me from Texas to Mexico, Ill give you fifty grand a trip, two hundred total, you tell him Mister, youve got a deal. This was the last of the four trips. Rented the Warrior in San Antone, nice little rig that handled like a dream. Shed drop the plane off at the Phoenix airport later tonight, as pre-arranged, hop a commercial liner back East, be snug in her own apartment long before Christmas.

There.

Just below.

The signal light.

She flashed her own wing lights, dipped in lower for a better look. When you came in low over Baghdad, it was to drop a smart bomb down Saddam Husseins chimney. Only trouble was theyd never got to him, ended the war too damn soon. Well, some you win, some you lose. She guessed.

She made a pass over the site, and then swung around for her actual approach into the wind. A cars headlights came on, illuminating the strand of sand more fully. It was long and narrow. She watched the altimeter, pulled back on the flaps, leveled the pedals, glanced at the speedometer, this would be a piece of cake, douse your lights, boys, who needs them?

The strip here was level and flat, she felt the wheels touching, hit the brakes, lowered the flaps, and rolled along the beach to a full stop some twenty yards from where shed seen the headlights. She cut the engine. The night was still. Immediately, she took the forty-five from the flap pocket of her jump suit.

She waited inside the cockpit, in the dark.

Kept waiting.

In the Gulf, shed packed a forty-five automatic in a holster at her waist, case she got shot down, a distinct possibility. Lots of unfriendly people down there, waiting to get their hands on an American pilot, well, who could blame them? A female pilot, no less. Cassandra Jean Ridley, Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 714-56-32, thats all she was obliged to tell them. Didnt even have to say she was with the 101st Airborne. Here, she didnt knowwhod be waiting for her. But she knew she had a hundred and fifty thousand coming for delivering this last suitcase. Money like that, a girl couldnt be too careful.

The rap on the window startled her.

She slid it back, right hand tight around the walnut grip of the Browning in her lap. She had to pee. First thing you did when you got back to base was rush to barracks to pee. The male pilots just unzipped and pissed right where theyd landed.

Welcome to Arizona, someone said.

Cheerful voice, the speaker nothing more than a blur in the dark. Two other men with him. She did not loosen her grip on the automatic. She was waiting for the single word that would tell her these were the people expecting the shipment. Buried any which way in whatever sentence they chose to use. But until she heard it, she sat right where she was with the gun in her hand and her finger inside the trigger guard.

Nice night, one of the men said.

Try again, sweetheart.

Hasnt been much rain.

Rain.

Bingo.

Whos got my money? she asked.

Wheres the suitcase?

She released the door lever, climbed out onto the wing, and dropped to the ground, the gun dangling lazily, familiarly at her side.

You wont need that, one of the men said.

Gee, I hope not, she answered.

The desert air was a bit chilly. She wished she had on her flight jacket. One of the men was carrying a small leather case the size of a laptop. He placed it on the rim of the door, snapped it open. Another man turned on a penlight. She was looking at a lot of U.S. currency.

A hundred and fifty thousand, one of the men said. Final payment. As agreed.

Wheres the suitcase? another man said.