An Absence of Light

“Half an hour. Maricio’s ‘tooner trip is the same as Wade’s, drop off the cash and the client and back to Las Copas. I’m doing anchor. Same routine as the others.”

A small plane that had landed on an opposite runway came wheezing by the hangar. It was the first one that had come close since they had been there, and they all turned and looked at it. Graver turned back to Redden. The pilot was staring at the nose gear of his plane. Graver guessed he was reworking what he had just told them about the night’s schedule. He imagined that in light of what he had learned from Graver about the other deaths, Redden was having second thoughts about the implications of the new schedule.

“Let’s get back to the guards,” Graver said. “When the client comes to the airport and gets on the plane with his money, does he have guards who go along to guarantee the delivery?”

“No, huh-uh. That’s not part of the deal. Kalatis hates high profile, hates all those guys strutting around carrying automatic shit. Deal is, when you bring your money on board Kalatis’s planes Kalatis is responsible from there on. If you don’t trust him by this time, don’t give him your money.”

“But what about traveling to the airport?”

“Kalatis allows the client to have two guards travel to the airport from the hotel. One of Kalatis’s men is with them. The plane is inside the hangar. We open the door, the car drives in. All the loading is done in here out of sight. The client’s heavies have to leave before we’ll take off.”

“Then there is one guard who makes the actual trip with the money.”

“Right.”

“Then Kalatis actually will have four guards at Las Copas.”

“Yeah, I guess that’d be right Three on the ground, one in the plane. But that one guard always stays with ‘his’ load. He goes on to Kalatis’s pier. That poor bastard’s life is tied to each box of money. If he loses one, he loses the other-sooner or later.”

“You don’t think there will be changes in the guards’ routines too, like there were in yours?”

“I can’t say about that I just know it wasn’t mentioned when we were going over the plans.”

“What about the amount of time you’ve got to make the pontoon flight from Las Copas to Kalatis’s beach house and back to Las Copas? Is that enough time?”

Shit, barely. It’ll be damn close. The jump across Chocolate and West Bay’s not the problem. It’s the time on Las Copas going in, off-loading the client and cash, going the seventy-live yards to the ‘tooner and on-loading the client and cash. They’re giving us twenty minutes on that, then there’s the fifteen-minute jump to Kalatis’s dock, ten off-loading at the dock, fifteen-minute jump back to Las Copas, ten to dock the ‘tooner, get back to our planes, and get outta there. Then they’ve given us a ten-minute cushion from the time one plane leaves to go home and the other lands on Las Copas.”

“And that’s not enough.”

Redden dragged on the cigarette and then shook his head as he pulled down the corners of his mouth. “Nope, not enough. Doesn’t leave time for screw-ups… There’s always screw-ups, especially when you’re running out of a little ol’ dirt strip like Las Copas. You’ve got to be careful with radio contact in there. It’s crazy. And those damned generator lights. It’s gonna be touchy.”

Graver nodded and studied Redden a moment.

“Okay,” he said. “What about a contingency plan? What happens if something goes wrong somewhere along the line?”

“Yeah, always a backup plan. Actually there are two.” He used the toe of his boot to tap an ash off the cigarette. “If something goes wrong before the money’s delivered, we call a coded number and tell Kalatis what happened. He makes a decision. If he’s going to change airports, he’s got to coordinate the money delivery, and he’s got to make sure the guard who’s going to be baby-sitting that load knows the score. Then he calls us back and tells us the alternate pickup site.

“If something happens after the pickup, there’s a prearranged destination. It’s prearranged because after we’re airborne everybody’s got to be thinking the same thing. Personnel will be spread thin because the guys at the original drop site-Las Copas-will be out of pocket. Kalatis’s troops will be spread thin. That’s another reason the inflight alternate destination will be the same for all three pilots. Kalatis wouldn’t have enough people on the ground to spread them out to cover three alternate delivery sites.”

Graver looked at him. “You mean everyone meets at one airport.”

“That’s right. But the timing stays the same.”

“Which airport?”

Redden raised his hand dangling the handcuffs and pointed an index finger down to the concrete in front of him.

“I’m sittin’ on it,” he said.

Graver stared at Redden. “Have you ever had to use a contingency plan?”

“Once.”

“How did it go?”

“Clockwork.” He shrugged. “Everybody’s a professional. They can handle contingencies.”

Graver nodded. The tin walls of the hangar crackled in the heat.

“Did you tell Kalatis you had your doubts about the schedule of the timing at Las Copas?”