complicated than just a ship. He finds himself an island situated just right, makes a deal with a country to claim it and then leave him alone with it, and he’s set. He gets a lot of his business from the yacht and small boat trade in the Gulf, and the rest of it from the rich Texans. They come from Houston and San Antonio and Corpus Christi and Austin. They come from as far away as Dallas and New Orleans. They spend money on that God damn island like the stuff was going out of style, and not a penny of it comes to us.’
Karns got to his feet, began to pace the room. His face and voice and movements showed him feeling again an old irritation that hadn’t eased with time. ‘For six years,’ he said, ‘that son of a bitch has sat out there and laughed at us. We told him he couldn’t operate without us, we offered him a fifty-fifty split, and he told us to go to hell. He never moves off that island so we can get at him, and as long as he’s on the island he’s safe from us. We can’t pressure him with our own law people because he’s outside everybody’s jurisdiction.’
Parker said, ‘So you want me to take his money away.’
‘Right. I want you to pluck him like a chicken, scrape him clean. Don’t just rob the place, burn it to the ground, rip it right off that God damn island and throw it in the sea. Gut it, like Couffignal. Or don’t you know that one either?’
Parker didn’t. He said, ‘What’s in it for me?’
Karns spread his hands. ‘Whatever’s on the island. He must have a million stashed there by now, maybe more.’
Parker shook his head. ‘The guy you’ve been describing isn’t stupid. He’s got a week’s proceeds there at the most and you know it. The rest is in Swiss banks.’
Karns shrugged. ‘It’s a possibility, I admit it. But even a week’s proceeds will be plenty.’
‘How much?’
Karns squinted into the middle distance, finally said, ‘I suppose about a quarter million.’
‘Make that a guarantee,’ Parker said.
‘What?’ Karns turned to look at him. ‘How could I do that? You want me to send accountants in?’
‘You make up the difference,’ Parker told him. ‘We go there, do the heist, burn the place down like you want, and you make up the difference between our take and a quarter million.’
‘Well, now,’ Karns said. ‘Well, now, wait a minute. That’s liable to be a lot of money. I don’t think I could go along with that.’
‘You called for me because you need a professional in my line of work. When you want a professional you’ve got to pay for him.’
‘Well, of course, I know that, but still and all. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money.’
‘It was your figure,’ Parker reminded him.
‘For a top,’ Karns said. ‘I was estimating how muchit might be.’
‘Estimate an average.’
Karns frowned, looking like a man with an ulcer. It was obvious he didn’t want to pick a number low enough for Parker to figure the job wasn’t worth it, but on the other hand he didn’t want to pick a number high enough for his organization to have to make up the difference between it and the actual take. Finally he said, ‘For an average, for what I’d guess would be the average general amount of cash you might find on the island, I’d say a hundred and eighty thousand.’
‘Say two twenty,’ Parker told him.
Karns looked surprised, and then laughed. ‘Are we haggling? Do we settle at two hundred thousand?’
Parker said, ‘Is that your number?’
‘Yes,’
Parker said, ‘Plus front money.’
‘What? What front money?’
‘Every job,’ Parker told him, ‘has expenses beforehand. There’s weapons to buy, other things. If this is an island, we’ll need a couple of boats.’
‘We can supply everything,’ Karns assured him.
But Parker shook his head. ‘No. We buy everything before the job, use it just once, destroy it afterwards. That way there’s no links between us and the job.’
‘This time,’ Karns said, ‘you won’t have to worry about things like that. There’s no law out at the island, no one will ever be after you for this job.’
‘It isn’t my first job,’ Parker said, ‘and it won’t be my last. I won’t leave things around.’
‘In other words, you’ll do it your way or not at all.’
‘Yes.’
‘Is it all right if we supply the materiel and leave its disposition up to you?’
Parker shrugged. ‘Just so you don’t expect anything back.’
‘I understand that. All right, so you’ll do it for guaranteed two hundred thousand dollars take, plus materiel.’
‘If the job can be done,’ Parker said.
‘You mean it isn’t an agreement yet?’
