"Maybe not, Chuck. I've got a hunch I'd like to follow up, and if it pays off, we can rip the lid off this whole scheme. Let's go back to the office, I gotta talk to that Schroeder twerp..."
Specky was hacking at his own version of his favorite game, "Global Thermo- nuclear War" when we found him. Faster then you could say Adam Osborne, he hooked into a telephone line and had us talking to the computer at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"Ok, Specky, here's the deal - I wanna know who's buying up the Ivory Coast cocoa commodities, and what percent of the currently available market they own so far."
"No problem, Mr. Guts." Specky went to work. Three minutes later, I had my answer. "Recent purchases indicate 59% of the cocoa crop this year has already been purchased by Thomas & Epson Co., based over in San Francisco."
Chuck started - "Epson? As in Harold Epson?"
I nodded. "It all adds up, Chuck. Epson buys up the Ivory Coast cocoa, using money the General gave him to invest. But Columbia ends up having an unexpectedly good year, which threatens to drive down the price of cocoa. Then one day, he's in the General's office, and hears about the auction. He comes up with this scheme to destroy the incoming Columbian crop shipments, but having invested all his money, he makes a deal with Joe Kaljoy to embezzle the funds he needs for the Army surplus gear, and bribes Patton to fix the bids on the lot, planning to murder him all along. But we get wise to the auction, and the gear gets impounded and shipped to LA. So as the General issues the orders for the transfer, he excuses himself, heads back to his office, and makes arrangements to hijack the train, and ends up getting the stuff without even having to pay for it."
"It's a brilliant plan too, because we don't know where they're going to strike, so we have no way of stopping them. Our only chance now is to find the gear before they use it."
"Good point, Chuck. Where does one hide a Tiger tank?"
"Why not ask the computer?" It was Specky, wearing one of those 'Isn't technology wonderful?' looks on his face. "We can plug into the government computers to find out if he made any recent land or building purchases, or set up any dummy corporations to own it for him."
"You gonna talk, or you gonna type?"
As it turned out, a Santa Cruz company called Discum, Inc., (Harold Epson, Chairman of the Board) had recently purchased serveral acres of land, along with an old warehouse, overlooking an isolated section of the Pacific coastline from atop a high sea cliff, south of San Francisco. From that vantage point, the tank could easily shell and sink an unguarded freighter passing by.
It was a moonlight night by the sea, as I scraped through the underbrush in search of the warehouse. It was the evening of the 9th, and the ship was due by this point in 5 hours. I went ahead to scout out the area, while Chuck summoned up the National Guardsmen.
As I exited the undergrowth, I came upon a large clearing, several hundred yards wide. At the opposite end, I could make out a large, worn-out looking building, with many a light burning in the windows. I crept up slowly, close to the ground, weaving my way ever closer, which was a rather stupid thing to do, as they hadn't posted a guard. I finally made it to the edge of the building, and flattened myself against the wall. The window above me was open. Catlike, I inched my way up the wall, and peaked inside.
The tank, the guns, the personnel carrier, they all were there. There were also about 45 men dressed in brown uniforms tending the equipment. I inched my way back down. As I got to the ground, I turned around just in time to see two guards about to bash my skull in with their rifle butts. As the blows came down, one of them said, "You're right, Jake, there WAS somebody weaving around out here..."
Blackness.
TO BE CONTINUED...