Gus leaned forward in his beach chair with an earnest look. “I’ve studied pictures of Carone’s super yacht. It’s magnificent. Is there any way we could confiscate it, Muerto?”
“I don’t know, Gus. Mostly, we can’t spend what we do have without attracting the attention of our government. We have the money to buy one or custom make one of those super yachts. To stay under government radar we had to get special permission to get a helicopter through government channels beginning in the CIA Director’s Office, and that was with us paying for it. It’s the money that will be our undoing. I can talk to John Harding. They have an escape island. If we could pull it off, John might let us build a pier to accommodate it.”
“It’s a waste,” Tina said. “You cartoons would turn it into a battleship anyway.”
“Stay out of this, T-Rex,” Cala said. “It would be beautiful going on cruises in our own yacht. By the way… who are you calling a cartoon?”
“Oh… I forgot you’ve become a cartoon too,” Tina retorted. “What was it they call you… Clammy or Crabby… something like that?”
Cala giggled. “Good one, T. Let’s do it if we can, Muerto. Think of having our own super yacht. Gus mentioned it’s 240 feet long. Doesn’t that take a lot of professional crewmembers?”
Gus nodded with a sigh. “That’s the drawback. Most are automated to a point they nearly run themselves. A full crew would probably be about seventy members and more, depending on if the yacht can be chartered to the wealthy or not. On a stationary ‘Mother Ship’ that moves only rarely, a skeleton crew of around fifteen would be about right. Maybe crewing with John Harding’s people would be close to the only way we could go on a cruise safely. Even if we hired Issac on a permanent basis, we would need a lot more people. Vetting them to sail with us would be nearly impossible. I could train all of you, but we’d still need Harding’s people too. It’s probably a bad idea.”
“Don’t discount it yet. I’ll talk to John and see what he thinks,” Nick said. “It would mean an armed assault on the boat against nearly twenty killers. I had planned a full on kill mission. I would mine the ship to blow. After the explosions, we would move in for weapons free destruction until nothing was left. An armed assault to take the ship would mean a bloody battle or my getting on board with some form of toxic gas after everyone is asleep, depending on sentries. I would have to kill them first from long range before going on board with the gas. It would be a tricky mission for one guy.”
“You and John mined Port Chabahar together,” Johnny said. “The Tempest is a three decker nightmare to assault, especially crewed by killers. I think it’s a bad idea, Muerto.”
“Did you just insult me, Johnny?”
That drew laughter from even Rachel. Gus was the first to speak. “When Muerto went on board to end Jason Bidwell and Max Stoddard, he rigged the whole thing by himself, including the interrogations. After that gig, if Muerto says he can do it, he will. If the sentries are roving around the inside of the yacht instead of standing watch, they’ll be tough to spot.”
“I’ll talk to John. As you pointed out about the crew, we may not have enough able-bodied people to sail a yacht the size of The Tempest. What if we took care of the crew and flew on our own crew of professionals to sail the yacht to ‘Monster Island’. They wouldn’t know what happened to the crew. You could captain your new vessel to the island then, Payaso. I can use CIA people through Paul to make ‘The Tempest’ under a completely different registry. We’ll create a dummy corporation to be the front desk owners of the yacht.”
“Damn, Muerto… that’s brilliant,” Gus admitted. “Talk to John. We’ll need him on board for this. We’ll need a well-built docking facility. They may already have one built for their own boats. A 240 footer would require a dock far larger than even their ‘Valkyrie’.”
“No harm in finding out. I’ll call John today before we empty the freezer and go hunting for The Tempest tomorrow. Can you prepare our fish food for tomorrow morning, Cleaner?”
“Of course, Muerto,” Cala answered. “Johnny will help me. We’ll be going now though. We need some sleep. Although Johnny has only had one coffee, I am designated driver for Payaso and T-Rex too. Let’s go lushes. We must prepare for our cruise.”
“Don’t you be issuing orders, Nurse Ratchet! Kabong? You need to keep ‘Crabby’ in line. She’s been hanging out with you cartoons too much.”
“My love,” Johnny said, taking Cala’s hand. “Don’t aggravate the T-Rex. She will take it out on Payaso and he’ll whine all day tomorrow.”
“You are right. I am so sorry. Please take your time joining us at the humble Groves mobile,” Cala replied, waving at Nick and Rachel. “See you tomorrow, Muerto.”
“Viper? This is Payaso,” Gus called out on his com unit. “Return to base.”
“Understood, over,” Jean replied in his ear.