Payback

Finally the phone rang and Diego quickly answered. 'This is Diego.'

'Bring the money to the pier at Sag Harbor. Come alone or your father dies violently,' the same digitally disguised voice said and quickly disconnected the call.

Diego put out his cigar, finished his drink and thought one last time about not paying the ransom. Since he knew he had left himself no choice to the matter, Diego picked up the briefcase with the money and drove out to the Sag Harbor. Before he left, Diego instructed his men to give him a ten minute head start and then head out to the harbor, just in case.

When Diego arrived at the pier, he got out of his car and walked up and down the pier, with five million dollars, but his phone never rang. He never was a patient man and he hated being kept waiting. All he wanted to do is get this over with.

Then a very pretty Latino woman dressed in a very short skirt and a very tight tee-shirt began walking toward him. Diego’s smile widened as she got closer to him. 'Hello, Diego,' the woman said and stopped in front of him, but before he could speak to her, Diego felt the gun in his back. 'Hello, Diego,' the gun man said, while relieving Diego of his gun and handing it to the woman.

'You will come with me,' the woman said and led Diego to a small boat. Diego’s men got there in time to see the small boat sail away. While the men watched Diego, the woman piloted the boat out to sea. As they got closer to it, Diego could tell that he was being taken to his father’s boat. 'You are holding my father hostage on board his own boat?'

The man and woman looked at each other and laughed. Once they reached the boat, Diego was taken aboard and brought to the upper deck. When they got there, one man stood on deck waiting. 'Mike Black.'

'Hello, Diego, my friend,' Mike said.

'I should have known it was you, but I didn’t think you were this stupid. Of course you know that I am going to kill you for this?'

'That remains to be seen.'

'Kill you the way I should have a long time ago.'

Quickly becoming bored with Diego’s threats, Black said, 'Whatever, Diego, just put the money on that table and back away from it.'

'Where is Gomez? I want to see that my father is safe first.'

'Diego you are in absolutely no position to even think about callin’ any shots.'

'Where is Gomez?' Diego shouted.

'Calm down and stop shouting, Diego. I’m right here.'

Diego turned quickly and saw his father, Gomez, coming out of the cabin with drink in one hand and a woman on his arm.

'Papa?' a very confused Diego said as Gomez stood next to Mike.

'He was always very excitable as a boy,' Gomez said to Mike. 'Don’t look so confused, Diego.'

'What is going on Papa?'

'It should be obvious, even to you, what is going on, Diego,' Gomez said and turned to Mike. 'He was a slow learner as well. I would always have to explain things two or three times before he would understand me.'

'Why are you telling him these things, Papa?'

'A whiner, too,' Gomez whispered.

'Stop it!' Diego shouted. 'Why do you always find a way to embarrass me?'

'See what did I tell you? Very excitable. You must learn to calm down and relax.'

'I am calm, Papa. Just tell me what is going on?'

'I was never kidnapped, Diego,' Gomez said and put his arm around his son. 'I was never a hostage on board my own yacht. That would be embarrassing. Black came to see me. He came with respect, Diego. Respect, Diego, something else you must learn.'

'I must learn?' Diego jerked away from Gomez.

'When Black told me of the things you’ve done, I was ashamed to be called your father.'

'So you went along with this kidnapping idea?'

'No, Diego. The kidnapping was my idea,' Gomez told him. 'Why do you treat this man with disrespect? We have no quarrel with this man. His business is not our business and he has not interfered with our business. You must make me understand why you chose to do this, Diego.'

'Papa, you are taking his side over mine, again.'

'Not his side, Diego, the right side. The honorable side. I blame myself for this. It was I who allowed his mother to spoil him as a boy. She breast feed him well past his second birthday.'

Everybody on deck laughed at Diego, who by this time was fed up. 'Shut up! Shut up I said!'

'Diego,' Gomez said calmly. 'Did you bring the money?'

'The money!' Diego yelled.

'Yes, Diego, the ransom money, did you bring it?'

'Yes, I have it.'

'Give it to me,' Gomez said

'You put me through this for nothing! Then you bring me out here and embarrass me in front of this dead man-and I am going to kill you Black.'

'Whatever Diego.' Mike said and smiled at him.

'Now you want the money. Well here is my answer!' Diego reached in the briefcase and pulled out a gun. He began walking toward Mike and Gomez and shooting wildly. Mike grabbed Gomez and they hit the deck. The man and woman both fired at Diego. He hit Diego in the back, but he didn’t go down. She hit him in the arm and he dropped his gun. The man grabbed Diego around the neck. 'I’ll kill you!' he yelled and struggled to get free. The man hit Diego in the back of the head with his gun, and Diego slumped to the ground.

Mike helped Gomez get up from the deck. 'Take Diego below,' Gomez said. 'Have my doctor to give him something to make him sleep for a while.'

'What have I done, Black? I never meant for it to come to this.'

'I’m sorry, Gomez,' Mike said and put his hand on his gun just in case.

'Don’t be, it was not your fault.'

'I never thought that Diego would try to kill me. You should go now, Black. My people will take you back to shore.'

'What about Diego?' Mike asked.

'I’ll take him back to Peru. You have nothing to fear from Diego.'

Mike bowed slightly in a gesture of respect to Gomez and turned to walk away.

'Aren’t you forgetting something?' Gomez asked.

'What’s that?' Mike said and turned slowly with his hand still on his gun. He expected to see Gomez standing with a gun pointed at him, but was surprised to see him holding out Diego’s briefcase.

'The money, take it.'

'I can’t do that, Gomez. It wouldn’t be right. Diego took no money from me. I can’t take his money,' Mike lied, knowing that he had already taken some of Diego’s money.

'I insist Black,' Gomez said.

'Of course, Gomez,' Mike said and took the briefcase.

Gomez’s people took Mike ashore where Bobby was waiting. On the way, Mike thought about how things had turned out. Earlier that day he had Jackie and Vonda pay a visit to Frontier Pharmaceutical. Dressed in short dresses and showing plenty of cleavage, most of the men and quite a few of the women in the building were so distracted that nobody noticed Jackie when she attached a keystroke emulator to the computer in the main conference room where hours later Diego would complete his transaction. At that point it was easy for Travis, with Monika’s help to hack into their network and get the password to Diego’s account. Once the money was transferred in, Travis transferred it out to another account. Mike got off the boat and walked toward Bobby’s car thinking that there was one other person he needed to see.

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