Читать книгу The Isle of Olympia - Andreas Karpasitis - Страница 10

The dial tone kept ringing. This was the second time in five minutes that he was trying to contact one of his very close friends and ex-partners at the CIA headquarters. He kept pacing around the enormous hangar as the pilot was boarding the private jet. The tall, hangar doors every few seconds would shake and tremble under the heavy pressure of the strong winds. The heavy rain, hitting the metal roof, resonated throughout the hangar.

“Come on, Karl, pick up the goddamn phone.” Murphy rubbed his weary, reddish eyes.

Suddenly the persistent ringing stopped, there was a quick clicking sound and then a deep sign.

“Who is this, and what’s so urgent that you won’t hang up?” an angry voice replied from the other end.

“Oh Karl, thank God. I need your help; it’s been a messed-up night.”

Karl would prove to be a tremendous help, as his position in the CIA and his close relationship with Murphy, were all significant assets at that specific, moment. They had known each other for a long time, but they got tighter in the past few years, especially after the New York incident, at which point Murphy would have died if it wasn’t for Karl. He was there at the right moment; even a minute later and Murphy would have bled to death. Not only that, but after the shooting, he never left his side until he fully recovered and was back on his feet.

“Murphy? Is that you?” Karl whispered, surprised.

“Yes, I’m in New York. I need your help,” Murphy spoke in haste.

The sound of Karl shuffling around on his chair could be heard through the speaker.

“Guys, I need to take this call. Go over the stuff we talked about and proceed with plan A; I will be back in five minutes, try not to mess this up.”

Murphy could hear Karl’s vigorous footsteps and the door shutting behind him.

“What the hell did you get into Murphy? Do you have anything to do with the dead body and gunshots that just took place in New York?” The tension in Karl’s voice was evident.

Murphy took a deep breath. “Yes, I was there. I don’t— How did you know already? It’s been literally twenty minutes. Maybe thirty.” Murphy checked his watch.

“Murph, what the hell, man? Of course, I know. Do you have any idea the shit storm you have just created? There is a dead ex-MI6 agent on American soil, brutally shot, and I hope not shot by you. Gunshots fired inside and out an upscale hotel. The New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are both there now looking into everything, trying to understand what the hell is going on. What were you doing? What happened?” Karl seemed anxious to learn what was happening.

For Murphy, it was still incredibly fresh. He was trying to digest and process everything as calmly as possible.

Murphy took a deep breath as he imagined the whole chaos of the situation. A lot of people could place him at the scene. His face was going to be on every security feed in and around the hotel.

“That’s it! The security cameras; you should check the security camera’s Karl. There were at least two guys, they were outside the hotel, in a black sedan. Check them out and find what you can.” Murphy quickly realized that together with his face, the two men’s faces would also be in a lot of security feeds.

“What did you get yourself into Murphy?” Karl asked one more time.

“You know me, Karl; I had nothing to do with the death of that man. I knew him from back in the day. I was following specific instructions from director Ford. I haven’t contacted him yet, but—” Murphy’s explanations were getting a bit perplexing. “I was supposed to meet him and convince him to cancel his plans for divulging information to some reporters. I was supposed to get this information. We met and everything turned to hell in a matter of minutes.” Murphy paused and took a deep breath. “If you check the security feeds, you will see that I had nothing to do with his death.”

“What kind of information?” Karl asked oblivious to what Murphy was talking about.

“It’s not the time to talk about this right now. I need to look into this further, and this is actually the reason that I am giving you a call. I need you to cover my back and check these two guys out. Whatever information you find, please let me know. Can you also update director Ford? I am about to depart from La Guardia.”

Murphy could almost feel Karl’s heavy breathing through the phone’s speaker. He took a short pause.

“Can I trust you? Will you have my back?” Murphy tried to get an affirmation.

There was a brief moment of complete silence.

“I will keep you updated,” Karl’s replied. “But please don’t keep me in the dark, I need to know what is going through your head. Keep me updated and I will get back to you. Now I need to go back and answer a lot of questions for something I don’t have a clue about. Meanwhile knowing that one of ours is involved with this enigmatic situation. Like the good old times, right?” Karl chuckled nervously.

“Thanks a lot, Karl, I owe you a big one.” Murphy knew that he could count on him; they were like brothers. They would stand next to each other at all times and in all situations.

Karl’s influence in politics and the CIA was enormous. He had the right connections with the right people, and he knew how to deal with any situation. Murphy was also confident that he would be able to keep director Ford off his back for a while. Karl was good at negotiating, diffusing situations, and handling furious people. He had this special way of calming the waters.

It seemed that whenever Murphy was in New York, he was destined to be involved in some significant event. Murphy was assigned to a case in New York, around five years back. A large part of the CIA was working on that case. Stationed in downtown New York, Murphy was part of a small quick response team that Karl had joined too. Even though they knew each other from before, that was what brought them much closer.

For three months, they were following a terrorist cell that was planning major attacks in the city. Two months in their assignment, they knew everything about the people involved, their locations, their plan, and even the exact dates that the attacks would take place. The problem was that the director of the CIA at the time decided to push it a bit further. He wanted to extend the apprehension of the potential mass murderers in an attempt to retrieve more information on their contacts’ locations and get to the root of the problem.

The mission went awry when suddenly the attack dates were moved forward. It caught everyone by surprise. It was uncovered by intel that Murphy and Karl collected by listening to the conversations that took place in a tiny studio apartment in Brooklyn. Everything went to hell from that moment on; they had less than twenty-four hours to act. The hasty decisions and actions ended up with Murphy being cornered by two of the terrorists in an alley in downtown New York, minutes before the planned attacks. Murphy knew that if Karl hadn’t been covering his back, he would have been dead now, him and another thousand people in Times Square. Seconds before one of the terrorists pulled the trigger, Karl magically appeared to save the day.

It was a miracle that Murphy came out of that unscathed. It turned out that the two suspects, including three others that got apprehended in two other locations in downtown New York, were carrying backpacks, packed with homemade explosives, enough to wreak havoc and spread death everywhere.

As Murphy hung up the phone, he felt reassured. He knew that he could now have some grace period before the spotlights turned back on to him, even though he had no idea what was waiting for him next.