~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“How many men would you be able to round up if necessary Carlos?” I asked.
“We have a severe shortage of usable guns. If I had a supply of guns I would have no trouble getting two thousand to respond to the call to arms.”
“Two thousand huh, let me see what I can do,” I said as I grabbed the satellite phone and called the ship.
“Danny I need to talk to my brother Chris,” I said on hearing Danny’s voice.
I’ll call him to the bridge for you Rick, hang on for a couple of minutes,” Danny responded.
“Well good morning big brother. What can I do for you this morning?” Chris asked on answering the phone.
“I need you to call Rusty and see what kind of price he’ll give us on semiautomatic AK47 assault rifles and ammunition.”
“How many of these rifles do you need to buy?” Chris asked over the phone.
“I want two thousand rifles and a million rounds of ammunition for them. Tell him there’s a bonus in it for him for fast delivery.”
Chris gave a low whistle. “That’s five hundred rounds of ammunition for each rifle Rick.”
“I know, it sounds like a lot but figure each rifle needs to be sighted in and each fighter needs target practice before he can be of any use in a fight.”
“I’ll give him a call and see what he can do for us Rick. Give me a little while and I’ll call you back when I have an answer.”
“He made the last delivery by floatplane. He should be able to deliver to you on site.”
“I’ll do what I can Rick,” Chris said again. “If he wants our continued business he’ll deal.”
Chris looked up Rusty’s number in my address book and called the gun dealer.
“Hi Rusty, this is Chris Chambers. How is everything in Canada these days?”
“Summer is just around the corner so everything is good. What can I do for one of my favorite customers today Chris?”
“I need some AK47 semiautomatic assault rifles and ammunition for them. We want to buy two thousand rifles and a million rounds of ammunition. Will you be able to handle that big an order for us?”
“Holy shit Chris, What the hell are you doing starting a revolution down there somewhere?”
“You don’t know how close to the truth you are Rusty. Can you get them for us and how fast can you make delivery.”
“I have maybe four hundred rifles on hand. I know where I can get the rest though. I’ll be able to scrape together the ammo for you too.”
“Now for the important questions, how soon can I get them and how much are they going to cost me?”
“I can sacrifice the rifles for $250 each and the ammo will cost you forty cents a round.”
“I guess I’ll have to call our secondary supplier for this order Rusty. Your prices are way too high for us.”
“Come on Chris, I have to make a profit or I may as well not be in business,” Rusty tried to explain.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll give you $200 per rifle and a quarter a round for the ammo.”
“Now that’s just plain highway robbery, that’s what it is! Once in a while you have to loosen up on the purse strings a little bit. No one is going to want to talk to you anymore. This is going to be the lowest I can go Chris. I’ll agree to give you the rifles for $200 each but the ammunition still will cost you forty cents a round. That’s it; it’s the best I can do for you.”
“I can live with that. Now how soon can you get them to me? If you can get them to me in two days I’ll give you a ten thousand dollar bonus for fast delivery.”
“Now that’s more like it Chris. All you got to do is open up a little bit and people get along with you a whole lot better. Where do you want them delivered to?”
This ought to be fun, Chris thought. “I need them delivered to Cuba.”
“Cuba! Awe hell, I’m going to spend the next six hundred years locked up in a Cuban jail. You want me to overthrow the Cuban government. What did Cuba ever do to us? For all I know Fidel might be a nice guy to smoke a cigar with and watch a ball game along side. If it ain’t your brother trying to get me killed or tossed in jail it’s you.”
“Rusty, I’m not asking you to fly into Havana. I want them delivered to the Sea Eagle. We’re twenty miles south of Cuba in international waters.”
“Well why the hell didn’t you say so Chris. Are you trying to give me a heart attack or something? I always did think that Castro was a prick. I’ll have those guns to you day after tomorrow.”
Chris finally called me back. “That Rusty winds up pretty easily. He needs to find a new line of work before he strokes out or something.”
“Did you buy the weapons from him Chris? What did you say to get him so excited?”
“We’ll have the guns the day after tomorrow. I just told him he had to deliver them to Cuba. The next thing you know he wanted to smoke cigars with Fidel and relax in a Cuban prison.”
I laughed at my brother’s explanation. “He is a pretty excitable guy for a gun runner. That’s why I like dealing with him. There’s a certain entertainment value just talking to him over the phone.”
“I’ll call you just as soon as I have the rifles in my possession,” Chris promised me as he disconnected.
“I turned back to Carlos and Francisco. “Start recruiting your men we have rifles coming. We need a rifle range set up where they can’t hear the gunfire from the fort. Once the rifles are here your men will enter my boot camp.”