Sea of Terror by Stephen Coonts Page A

Neither MI5 or Interpol has much on him. He doesn't appear to have had any organized crime connections, but he does have travel visas for half a dozen European countries, including Great Britain. I think Darrow had contacted Erbakan and arranged to buy half a kilo of coke. Erbakan gets picked up at the terminal security station. Darrow doesn't know this, and meets someone else, maybe someone pretending to be Erbakan, maybe someone claiming to work for Erbakan. Darrow takes the money for the exchange and hides it in the Dumpster before the other guy shows up . . . and then the other guy shows up and puts three bullets into him."
    "It sounds like you have the puzzle pretty well put together, Mr. Mitchell," Sir Charles said. He tried to sound casual, and failed. "Exactly how does this affect Royal Sky Line?"
    "It all fits together very neatly," Mitchell agreed. "Maybe a trifle too neatly, one might think."
    "Did Erbakan tell you anything?" Llewellyn asked.
    "A little. He seems to want to cooperate, but we're not sure he's telling us everything. He claims a man named Darrow met him a week ago in Le Havre, and arranged for him to smuggle the coke on board today."
    "Well, then, it all rather seems open-and-shut, doesn't it?" James Alcock said. He was a sour, precise little man who worked in Royal Sky's legal department.
    "Almost," Mitchell replied. "As I said, it's neat... but there are a couple of loose ends dangling, and they just don't make sense. Why did Erbakan try to board the ship when he could have simply met Darrow on the pier and not risked going through the security check? If he did get on board as a passenger, why not meet Darrow when the ship was at sea?
    "And, most important, who killed Darrow?"
    "The Mafia, perhaps?" Vandergrift suggested. "Or one of the other crime syndicates? They could have seen this . . . this transaction as competition."
    "Yes. That's what we thought at first," Mitchell acknowledged. "But it's not really their style, you know. A half-kilo deal is nothing for the big guys. Chump change. They might've demanded a percentage, or broken Darrow's kneecaps as a warning, or even killed Erbakan and told Darrow he needed to buy from them in the future ... but they wouldn't have just killed the guy like that. Not unless they thought Darrow was working for someone else!'
    "Sir!" Phillips said, angry. "Are you suggesting that we're operating some sort of drug ring off of my ship?"
    "The thought did cross our minds," Mitchell admitted. "Especially when we looked at the records of some of your passengers."
    "What?" Sir Charles snapped, startled. "Since when does MI5 have the right--"
    "Please, Sir Charles," Mitchell said. "There's nothing new in any of this. We have access to police records both here and abroad, and we use them. It's our job ... and if you have an issue with that, take it up with Parliament the next time they pass intrusive legislation. Or the Americans with their Patriot Act.
    "In any case, one of the passengers on the Atlantis Queen is a Ms. Gillian Harper. American. She's been in trouble half a dozen times. Two years ago she got a suspended sentence and a rehab order when she tested positive for cocaine.
    "And there's a stock trader... Adrian Bollinger. Another American. He did three years for possession back in the eighties. And there's--"
    "Just what is the point of this inquisition?" Alcock demanded. "That some of the people on the Queen's passenger list use drugs? Or have in the past?"
    "Mr. Alcock--"
    Captain Phillips interrupted, his anger barely contained now. "I think the latest statistics say that somewhere between one and three percent of the adult population either use or have used cocaine. Out of three thousand people on my ship, that's at least thirty! So what are you going to do .. . question every person on board? Treat them all like criminals?"
    "Mr. Mitchell," Sir Charles said. His heavy face had gone florid, and he was perspiring freely. "Are you seriously considering