‘He could come in off the sea in a fast inflatable.’
‘Possible, but that would have to have been hired or bought in either French Guyana or Surinam. Or he is dropped from a freighter offshore, whose captain he has bribed for the job. He could motor in from twenty miles off the coast, dump the inflatable, puncture it, sink it. Then what?’
‘What indeed?’ murmured Devereaux.
‘I figure he will need equipment, a heavy load of it. Where does he make landfall? There are no beaches along San Martin’s coast, except here at the Bahia. But that’s full of the villas of the rich, occupied in August, with bodyguards, nightwatchmen and dogs.
‘Apart from that, the coast is tangled mangrove, infested with snakes and crocs. How is he to march through all that? If he gets to the main east – west road, what then? I don’t think it’s on, even for a Green Beret.’
‘Could he land off the sea right on our friend’s peninsula?’
‘No, Paul, he couldn’t. It’s girt on all seaward sides by cliffs and pounding surf. Even if he got up the cliffs with grapnel irons, the roaming dogs would hear the noise and have him.’
‘So, he comes in by land. From which end?’
McBride used his forefinger again.
‘I reckon from the west, from Surinam, on the passenger ferry across the River Commini, straight into the San Martin border post, on four wheels, with false papers.’
‘He’d still need a San Martin visa, Kevin.’
‘And where better to get it than right there in Surinam, one of the only two consulates they run? I reckon that’s the logical place for him to acquire his car and his visa.’
‘So what’s your plan?’
‘The Surinam embassy here in Washington and the consulate in Miami. He’ll need a visa to get in there as well. I want to put them both on full alert to go back a week and from now on pass me details of every single applicant for a visitor visa. Then I check every one with the passport section at State.’
‘You’re putting all your eggs in one basket, Kevin.’
‘Not really. Colonel Moreno and his Ojos Negros can cover the eastern border, the airport, docks and coast. I’d like to back my hunch our interloper will logically try to get all his kit into San Martin by car out of Surinam. It’s far away the busiest crossing point.’
Devereaux smiled at McBride’s attempt at Spanish. The San Martin secret police were known as ‘black eyes’ because they and their wraparound black sunglasses struck terror into the peons of San Martin.
He thought of all the US aid heading in that direction. There was no doubt the Surinam embassy would cooperate to the full.
‘OK, I like it. Go for it. But hurry.’
McBride was puzzled.
‘We have a deadline, boss?’
‘Tighter than you know, my friend.’
The port of Wilmington, Delaware, is one of the largest and busiest on the east coast of the USA. High at the top of the long Delaware Bay that leads from the river to the Atlantic, it has miles of sheltered water, which, apart from taking the big ocean liners, also plays host to thousands of small coastal freighters.
The Carib Coast Ship and Freight Company was
an agency handling cargoes for scores of such smaller ships and the visit of Mr Ronald Proctor caused no surprise. He was friendly, charming, convincing, and his rented U-Haul pickup was right outside with the crate in the rear.
The freight clerk who handled his enquiry had no reason to doubt his veracity, all the more so when, in response to the query, ‘Do you have documentation, sir?’, he produced precisely that.
His passport was not only in perfect order, it was a diplomatic passport at that. Supporting letters and movement orders from the State Department proved that Ronald Proctor, a professional US diplomat, was being seconded to his country’s embassy in Paramaribo, Surinam.
‘We have a cost-free allowance, of course, but what with my wife’s passion for collecting things on our travels, I fear we’re one crate over the limit. I’m sure you know what wives are like? Boy, can they collect stuff.’
‘Tell me about it,’ agreed the clerk. Few things bond male strangers like commiserating about their wives. ‘We have a freighter heading down to Miami, Caracas and Parbo in two days.’
He gave the capital of Surinam its shorter and more common name. The consignment was agreed and paid for. The crate would be seaborne within two days and in a bonded warehouse in Parbo docks by the twentieth. Being diplomatic cargo it would be customs-exempt when Mr Proctor called to collect it.