ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

“Yeah, we may be able to appeal to his ego, which we know is huge, and make him think we’re the same way,” O’Reilly added, “while making him feel like he’s the smartest person in the room.”

“That might make us seem less of a threat. I don’t know; it’s hard to guess what this guy is thinking. Suppose he is the head of this Brotherhood. In that case, he’s no dummy, but if his machismo kicks in, he might be gullible enough that we could buy ourselves some time and divert his attention to the competition from the Europeans; rather than what we might be onto.”

“We’d have to be pretty darn lucky to pull that off,” Doc said.

“And good actors,” Joe added.

Chapter Six

I picked up the room phone on its fourth ring, “Hello.”

“Dr. Burnett?”

“Yes,” I replied to a voice I did not recognize. “This is he.”

“Dr. Burnett, this is Giuseppe Tagliano. You don’t know me, but it is urgent that I speak with you as soon as possible.”

If the name hadn’t given it away, the Italian accent would have. “Mr. Tagliano, how can I help you?” I replied cautiously.

“No, Dr. Burnett, this cannot be discussed over the phone, and I don’t have much time; we must meet as soon as possible.”

Now, my Spidey sense went into full tingly mode, an Italian wanting to meet right away. This could be our first encounter with the men Paco had warned us about. But there was something about his voice—it sounded scared, not what I would expect from our professional “friends.” Maybe that was part of the ruse. I knew I had to be careful.

“I need to know what this is about before I agree to a meet.”

“Senor, it concerns your search and your safety… and the Jesuit priests.”

Okay, now, he had my undivided attention. “My safety?”

“Si, Signore, and much, much more. Please, I implore you; we must meet.”

“All right, where and when?”

“Tomorrow morning, I have left a message for you at the front desk with the time and location. Again, Dr. Burnett, this is of the utmost urgency.”

“Fine,” I said, “tomorrow morning.”

“Gratzi, gratzi,” he said, and after the slightest of pauses, “and, Dr. Burnett, make sure you are not followed.” Then the line went dead.

As I hung up the phone, I thought, what the hell. What kind of briar patch are we being thrown into now? I picked up the phone and called Doc and the crew and told them to meet me in my room in 30 minutes. I hung up and went down to the front desk. Just as he had said, I had a message. I didn’t look at it until I got back to my room. It said meet 11:00 a.m. Parque Calderon, bench by central pine tree, nothing more…?

Thirty minutes later, the team started showing up. As they gathered around the table in my sitting room, I placed the note in the center.

“Well, folks, here we go again. I just received a strange phone call from a Giuseppe Tagliano. He said he wants to meet with me; it’s very important.”

Doc was reading the note and said what I had thought, “Who is this guy?”

“I don’t know; guess we’ll find out tomorrow,” I answered as he passed the note around.

“You know this could be a trap. These new guys in town may be setting you up,” Joe said.

“I thought of that, but something in this guy’s voice says he’s for real—either that or a damn good actor. He sounded scared and nervous. He also said for me to make sure I wasn’t followed. Not something I think these new guys would say.”

“No, I don’t think they would,” Dimitri said, “but what the hell could this be about?”

“Are you really going to meet him?” O’Reilly asked. “I know you said you believed him, but…?”

“This seems all too coincidental, and I’m sure it’s not. So, yeah, I’m going to meet with him and see what he has to say. Doc, I want you along. We were at this park in our early orientation visit to the city back a year or so ago, so it’s not totally unfamiliar turf, and it is in the main city square. There are three tall pine trees in the park; our meet will be on the bench by the middle one. This is a very public place and not someplace I would plan an ambush. But just in case, I want the rest of you to position yourselves there before the meet time and make sure you have a clear line of sight to the bench he’s talking about and the area around it. And, yes, we need to be carrying just in case this does go sideways; we all need to be armed.”

All agreed, and although not completely happy with me meeting this guy, they said they would be ready. We spent the next hour looking at our city map and Google Earth to determine the best vantage points. With that completed, we headed out to Diego’s place for drinks and dinner, all running scenarios and responses through our heads and not speaking.

Dinner was good, as always, and soon our talk turned to more speculating about tomorrow’s meeting.

“So,” Doc began, “I wonder if this guy has a connection to our new guys in town. As you said, Colt, this all seems like too much to be coincidental, but if not, what’s the connection?”

“Vatican mercs checking us out, a new Italian stranger saying he has to talk with you just about the time we are leaving for the mountains… they’re related; I’d bet money on it,” Dimitri said.

I had to agree with Dimitri; this was too much for coincidence. But where would it lead?

“I agree,” I said, “but we’ll deal with tomorrow… tomorrow. For now, let’s talk about our trip to the mountains.”

We spent the next hour going over the plan. We would drive to the farm and park like last time. We would rent or