Losing It

"What usually happens is that we intercept the container and fit it with a tracking device, then we release it, and when it is picked up follow it."

"But surely that only nets considerably below the top of the food chain."

"The way that we figure it, if we keep chipping away at the small targets eventually we'll find somehow to reach higher targets."

"Meanwhile a lot of product slips through."

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

"I think so. This would appear to be a trial run of a new method which, if it succeeds will lead to it being used again. Having said that, I think that the real reason is that, if this succeeds, Hendricks stands to make a fortune selling the method to other importers, even a world-wide operation. That way he's not involved in the actual importation. If we are going to get him for this, it will have to be this run, and I'm betting that he will be there for the unveiling."

Emily and I preserved the façade of a marriage in trouble, in public at least, so that Hendricks would not get suspicious about the take-over of that part of my business.

She answered the door one morning to find Hendricks standing there with a smug look on his face. "Oh it's you."

"I would have thought that you'd be a little happier to see me than that. Have you spoken to your father lately?"

"Yes, he told me that the casino has cancelled his debt." What she didn't tell him was that she knew that he wasn't instrumental in the debt being cancelled.

"So don't I get any thanks for that? You could at least invite me in."

"I don't think that wise. Graham's having me watched in an effort to find something that can gain him leverage so that he can screw me over the divorce, so the less I see you the better, and definitely not here or anywhere else in private. You had better leave now because we have already been photographed talking."

"What?"

"If you take a look up the street as you leave, you will see a van parked on the side of the road. It has been there pretty much every day for the past week." Which it had, although that had nothing to do with me or Emily, Roberts had agents watching us to make sure that we weren't harmed in any way. If Hendricks made any attempt to enter the house they would have been there in a flash because, along with the illustrated man, his photo was taped to the shelf above their control centre.

It was a week later, and according to the shipping news in the morning paper, the container of orange juice was due in port this morning. I was expecting a call from Roberts as soon as they had tested the cargo. I had been feeling pretty good with myself having worked out that Hendricks and his friends had wanted my frozen orange juice concentrate contracts so they could import cocaine from South America and pre-curser chemicals from California. But something about it still didn't seem right. I was going over the paperwork for the sale of my business when something caught my attention. It was hidden amongst the different companies that they owned, and in itself it would seem totally innocuous, but in light of what was going down, it took on a whole new perspective. I was reaching for the phone when it rang. "Inspector Roberts for you." Isobel told me. "Putting you through." She told him and I was talking to him.

"Graham, we've analysed that juice in the container and it is pure unadulterated juice concentrate."

"I know."

"What? How did you come to that conclusion?"

"There was something that I've only just picked up on. It's the container, rip the insulation out of the container and you'll find your drugs. One of Hendrick's companies manufactures insulated shipping containers for use in transporting refrigerated goods. Once the stuff is packed in, the container is sealed, and filled with liquid nitrogen to keep it chilled for the duration. What could be simpler than to take the insulation panels out and place the drugs behind it and then re-assemble it? If the cocaine can be formed into a thin layer, even stuck to the back of the insulation panel, the x-rays will not pick it up. As for pre-curser chemicals, they can be impregnated into a thin porous sheet, something like an open cell foam, and placed between the insulation and the panel surface lining so that they are frozen by the liquid nitrogen and won't settle to the bottom creating an uneven layer that the x-ray can pick up."

"I'll get back to you." He hung up.

I wish that I could have been there when the container was unloaded from the truck in a warehouse. It had been met by Hendricks and a deputation from various potential customers. "Gentlemen, this container has undergone a thorough examination by both Customs and The AFP, yet here it is with its cargo intact. Samples of the orange juice were taken and the result was negative. This has been a success, and it has nothing to do with the cargo. Pete, you may unload it." Pete climbed onto a forklift and proceeded to extract the pallets containing cartons of frozen juice. When the shipment was standing in a stack by the wall, Hendricks walked into the container. Pete, if you would."

Pete took a battery powered drill and proceeded to take the screws out of the panels and stack them on the floor. "Now we come to the secret of our success." Pete began to strip the layer from the back of the insulation panels. "Here gentlemen, is our shipment of cocaine. There is approximately two million dollars sitting here, more depending on how much you cut it. An adequate return on your investment I'm sure you'll agree."

There was approving nodding all round as the potential buyers surveyed the drugs. That approval quickly change. "AFP, stay exactly where you are!" Pete decided that he'd make a run for it, if he was arrested again he would not see daylight for at least twenty years. He jumped onto the forklift and drove it straight at the group of policemen. "Stop or we'll shoot!" came the order. He ignored it and a shot rang out, blood spurting from his shattered right shoulder. With no-one controlling the direction, the forklift veered to one side and crashed into the stack of orange juice, bursting many of the cartons. The floor was soon sticky with a layer of juice as the prisoners were ushered to the waiting police vans. An ambulance was called for Pete.

All of this never would have happened if Emily hadn't tried to convince me that she was Hannah, her twin sister who had died as an infant. Once Isobel had identified her as Emily I investigated and found the subterfuge. She had been forced to act as she did because of the position that she found herself in, and this was her way of triggering my natural curiosity, forcing me to look deeper into what was happening. When Hendricks had questioned her about my refusal to continue with his 'medical treatment' she was not lying to him when she told him that she was doing as he had asked. She had put her arse on the line for me and I was going to have to find a way to reward her.

My phone buzzed at me, waking me from my reverie. "Emily's here." Isobel announced. I was just about to say 'send her in' when the door opened and she was in.

"I was just thinking about you." I told her as I took her in my arms.

"So I'm back in the good books am I?" She smiled at me, she already knew.

"Of course, I'm going to have to do a lot of grovelling to get back in yours, I can see that."

"No you won't. Until those drugs had worn off you weren't thinking straight, so I can't blame you for thinking that I was one of the bad guys."

"But if it wasn't for you I might still be thinking that." We were in the middle of a kiss when the fucking phone went off again.

"Sorry to disturb you boss, but Inspector Roberts is on the phone again."

"Graham, you were spot on, and lucky for us we hadn't released the container. We stripped the insulation out and found a large amount of cocaine stashed between the insulation and the container wall, just as you said it would be. We put it all back and released it, along with a tracking device, and traced it to a warehouse. We didn't have to wait long for them to arrive, and it wasn't just the little guys this time. Hendricks was there bragging to his buyers, some of the major dealers in this country, about how his system would fool both Customs and the AFP when we strolled in and arrested the whole lot of them. My superiors have suggested that I should sound you out to work for us, they could use someone with a devious mind like yours to help us counter any new and sophisticated methods that the bad guys might come up with in the future. What do you say, are you in?"

"I'll have to confer with my wife, I need thinking time."

"Take as much time as you like, and while you're thinking you can expect a phone call from our Director offering you an obscene salary to sweeten the deal."

"You guys know how to play dirty, don't you?"

"It's a dirty game this drug enforcement." He hung up.

"You are one smart woman, have I ever told you that?" I was lying beside her, a finger tracing circles around her recently kissed lips.

"Only a million times in the past hour, but don't let me stop you telling me again." Her hand was occupied trying to induce my exhausted cock to rise again.

"By the way, what do I call you, is it Hannah or is it Emily?" this had become a sort of running joke between us.

"You can call me darling, that way you'll avoid the confusion."

I looked closely at her, beginning at her lips and proceeding to her breasts, familiar now that the drugs had fully worn off and cordial relations have been resumed. Their soft roundness tipped by a swollen areola and capped by her hard nipples were one of the reasons that I had fallen in love with her. Having taken in their beauty, I moved on to the hollow of her navel with its little puckered bud in its centre reminding me of the times spent with my tongue in there. Up the slope and down to the copse of hair that, from this perspective, hid the final goal from me. My hand reached down and brushed lightly over the tuft before sliding over the slope and into the valley between her legs. My finger entered her and this brought a sob from her lips. "That's not fair, I'm ready but you're nowhere near it."

"I thought that I'd amuse myself while I'm working up to readiness, you don't mind, do you?"

"It beats nothing I suppose. Hurry up, I don't know how long I can stand this." It wasn't very long at all, a combination of two fingers inside her and my tongue on her clit brought her to a rapid and intense climax. "Will you promise me something?"

"What is it?" I asked distractedly.

"Will you promise me that, in the future, you will avoid walking headfirst into any blunt object, especially one wielded by a person with malicious intent?"

"I promise, and now, as you might already have observed, I am ready."

After she had completed the mounting and insertion manoeuvre she looked down at me. "Do you think that you can ever be serious?"

"Never."

"Just as I thought." She laughed, cried, kissed me and did wonderful things to my cock, all at the same time. "Have I ever told you that I love you?"

"Only a million times in the past hour, but don't let me stop you telling me again.