Out of Bounds

Three men were waiting just outside the livestock barn as Romano’s little caravan approached. They were standing outside, in front of the building, behind a small table containing a laptop computer.

  Carlos and his two men got out of the car. “Do you mind if we look around?” Carlos asked as his men walked towards the livestock barn. It wasn’t a question.

  “It’s clear,” Carlos reported after a few minutes.

  Romano’s accountant got out of the car.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen. My name is Bob Murphy, a financial advisor to Mr. Montoya. Are we ready to do business?”

  “Sure, let’s see the product. I would assume you would like to verify that we have the money. Why don’t we get started?”

  “Rodger, why don’t you see what they have in those trucks, besides oranges? Mr. Murphy can sit down here and play with the computer. I think you will find that the funds are in place and can be ‘SWIFTed’ to your accounts as soon as everyone is happy.”

  Romano remained in his car while the account balances were verified and the heroin was inspected for purity.

  “It’s top grade,” Rodger reported to his boss after testing samples from three containers.

  Murphy double-checked the account balances using his own laptop. You can’t be too careful, Romano thought. It was like watching kids playing computer games; fingers were flying but there was little conversation. In 20 minutes, both sides were satisfied.

  Murphy went back to the car, “Everything looks good to me, Mr. Montoya. The money is there, and I have verified the authenticity of their accounts and banks.”

  “Okay, let’s do it, just as we discussed.”

  Murphy returned to the table. “We are ready to go forward, Mr. Jones. We would prefer to use our computer to make the transfer. As you can appreciate, we have invested a lot of time and money to encrypt our software to ensure these transactions are not intercepted by the authorities.”

  Ten minutes later, and a flurry of keystrokes, the money was transferred. Five minutes later Romano’s cell phone rang. Yes, the money was received in their U.S. Bank Account and had been transferred again to accounts in the West Indies.

  “Sam, Ron why don’t you give these gentlemen the keys to their trucks. The oranges are free.”

  Bedlam broke loose as Jones and Murphy shook hands.

  “Police, drop your weapons! Raise your hands, you are under arrest.” Police cars approached from all directions with sirens wailing. Two helicopters appeared overhead with automatic weapons clearly visible.

  Sam and Ron had thought better about trying to escape in the orange trucks and decided to give up peacefully when Sam realized he had given their keys to Ronald. They raised their hands to surrender, as did Murphy and Jones who were caught in the open with their computers.

  Carlos reacted and quickly dove into the car where Romano sat alone in the passenger seat. The car was already running and Carlos slammed it into gear and screeched away with the police in hot pursuit.

  Four men sought refuge in the livestock barn where they held out for fifteen minutes before surrendering. Their pistols were no match against a determined law enforcement group armed with assault rifles and stun grenades. One man was killed and another wounded before the others walked out with their hands above their head.

  Carlos led the police on a long, high-speed chase before crashing into a concrete light pole while traveling in excess of 120 MPH. Carlos and Romano were killed instantly. Steve Wilson took custody of the computers.