The Irishman's Apprentice: Jack Wellington UN Attaché

By Gerald Goble

Jack Wellington a recent graduate of Princeton finds himself on New Years Day of the year 2000 suddenly a UN Preservationist and off to South East Asia to help countries preserve their cultural artifacts after a tsunami. As an intern to an Irish Preservationist, he finds himself suddenly immersed in the world of drug lords, fight promoters, and pirates, and armed with only the Irishman’s guidance of “Read, Shakespeare Me Boy.” His first task is to find a large Buddha washed into a bay. When the Buddha is pulled ashore the large ruby in its stomach is missing and was stolen just before the tsunami. A drug lord has it and the Irishman says, "Look to his wife me boy she is Lady Macbeth!" Getting it back restores the Buddha, but creates enemies. Jack must now rush off to another country to deal with pirates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Goble
• Release date: Jul 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370136247

Gerald Goble

Gerald Goble has PhD in Theoretical Physics and has been a research scientist, teacher, federal employee, businessman, manager, and martial arts instructor. He is author of several scientific publications, U.S. Army Publications on Ammunition and Explosives, non fiction books "The Way of Two as One“, "The Bear Slayer – Women’s Self-Defense“; the fiction books, the Bunko Club Murder series, and the Jack Wellington UN Attaché Series, Westerns “Jacob’s Coat”, "Strays" and "Warrior Woman" and Science Fiction, "The Majestic Committee."

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The Irishman’s Apprentice

By

Gerald Goble

The Irishman’s Apprentice

By

Gerald Goble

The Irishman’s Apprentice

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical including photocopying, recording, taping by or by information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author with exception of brief quotations.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either, the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

US Copyright 7/13

For Joan

My Friend My Love

Chapter 1

The edge of the pulled curtains allowed just a ribbon of light in the room. Between the window frame and the curtain, the frost on the outside of the window muted the harshness of the morning light and the cold breeze outside rustled against the window. The radiator at the bottom of the wall creaked from the swelling of the hot water pumped through it. The comforting sounds were background for the heavy regular breathing of the sleeping man on the bed his mouth open giving out a slight snore. The digital clock on end table soundlessly turned over to eight.

The cell phone on the end table next to the clock vibrated causing a hollow sound from the end table. The man on the bed reached for the phone but the tips of his fingers failed to grasp the plastic surface and the motion caused the phone to land on the floor next to the bed. The phone vibrated again, and he grabbed it and placed it on his ear. He croaked, Yeah.

The man on the phone asked, Is this Jack Wellington?

Jack swept his tongue around his mouth making a face, then said, Yeah, it’s eight in the morning on New Years Day this better be important.

The man on the phone said, This is Warren Oats from the UN. I interviewed you last September at Princeton. Are you interested in a position with the UN?

Jack rolled over, sat up, rubbed his eyes and unconsciously swiped at his disheveled brown hair.

Jack said, Yes, but its New Years Day. He stuck out his tongue out several times and closed his eyes at the bad taste in his mouth.

Warren said, Can you come over to the UN today. In addition, er, do you have a passport? I’m looking for someone to go on a trip tomorrow.

Jack closed his eyes and placed his right hand on his head. Jack said, I guess I can come over by ten. But I need a shower, something to eat, and a couple of aspirins.

Warren said, Good there will be a pass for you at the guard station.

The Office of the UN Protocol on Cultural Preservation was a small office with no windows, two desks, and a filing cabinet. Warren was at the desk away from the door, in a blue suit coat that required unbuttoning when he sat down. A thin woman with short brown hair sat at the second desk behind a computer screen in front of the door.

The door opened and Jack entered, hair combed, wearing a jacket and tie. Warren got up from the desk and shook Jack’s hand, Jack, glad you’re here. This is my secretary Fran Weaver; she will help you with anything you need to get you settled in the job.

Jack asked, Thanks for calling me in, what have you got?

Warren offered Jack a chair and said, I’m sure you know about the tsunami that hit in the Indian Ocean last month, well, I need another person to go there and make an additional survey. It is an intern position.

Warren paused at the frown on Jack’s face then continued, It is a paid position of fifty K per year with expenses. As I said in the interview, we operate under a protocol to assist membership countries on maintenance of cultural entities during disaster relief and mitigation. Are you free take on a trip to South Asia for a month or two? You are twenty four and not married right.

Jack blinked; leaned back in the chair for a second, nodded, and then asked, What will I be doing?

Warren said, I have a man in the field now, a James Morrissey. You will be assisting him. He is completing a survey of the cultural entities that fall under the protocol, but the area is vast from Indonesia to India.

Warren paused for a quick look at the clock on the wall, Now the conditions will be rough. The tsunami washed away everything. You will be living in a tent in a UN compound. Do you think you can handle that?

Jack looked down at his clothes and said, Sounds like I’m over dressed. Just what will I be doing?

Warren smiled and said, You will need a suit too. You may find yourself in talks with some government official in one of the affected countries. But, what I’m going to do now is turn you over to Fran. She will walk you through the building and see you have everything you need including personnel forms, UN identification, work clothes, communications equipment, bedroll, and anything else you need.

Again, the quick look at the clock on the wall, I have to go talk to a couple of ambassadors to assure them I am bringing someone on board to handle their problems. Warren and Jack shook hands again as they both stood. He said, I’m sorry to rush off, but we will talk more when Fran is finished getting you onboard. He turned and went out the door with some papers in hand.

Jack turned to Fran who had a smirk on her face. Fran said, Did we have a late night, New Years Eve?

Jack said, Well thanks to Warren’s call, I got about four hours sleep. What have I got myself into?

Fran said, In general it is not this frantic, for the most part things occur at the frightening pace of a turtle. It has been this way since the twenty-sixth of last month. If you are anything like Jimmy Morrissey, you will enjoy it. In general, it is just about helping people. How are you with English Lit? Jimmy compares the people he meets with characters out of Shakespeare’s plays so he knows what they will do next. Funny thing, it almost always works. I figure he will tag you with Orsino.

Jack said, Who?

Fran laughed, You’ve got a lot of work to do, better get the Cliffnotes.

Fran led Jack out of the door. She continued, Well first we need to get you UN identifications and papers, then Finance and Accounting, then Travel. It is going to be a busy afternoon. Jack nodded. Fran continued as they walked down the hall, The girls in F. and A. are going to like you. Most of the men around here are married and near fifty.

At three O’clock in the afternoon, Jack came back into the office. Warren asked, Well are you all set up?

Jack said, I guess so, I have tickets, a passport, visas, UN identification, a cash advance and a lot of equipment. They said I could leave the equipment down by the entrance.

Warren said, OK sit down we need to talk about how you do your job. Jack took a seat and glanced at Fran. She had a smirk on her face. Warren continued, Now I don’t think you are someone who walks around with a gun in his belt. But just in case you don’t know, this is the UN we prefer diplomatic solutions and when we need Peace Keepers they are provided by the member states not UN personnel. No guns, no physical violence just Negotiate. I am saying this because in this job you are going to be confronted with every type of human being there is.

Warren paused and then said, Suppose you find Mr. X stole a widget worth say ten grand and can sell it on the black market for say three grand. What do you do?

Jack said, I suppose I contact the local police and have him arrested.

Warren said, Well your mission is to get the widget back not to go around dispensing justice. What you do is you go to Mr. X and say I know you are a man of knowledge and considerable resources. There is a widget missing. I thought if you were to know that the UN is offering a finders fee for the widget no questions asked of ten percent of its value you might know someone who has access or knowledge of the widget. Now I understand that the black market value is more than the ten percent but the UN funds are clean and not subject to tax or confiscation by the police.

Jack sat there for a moment then said, I have found in this building that if you have concerns it is best to get them all out in short order or things drag on and on. He paused, So, isn’t that giving a reward to the thief? And, does the UN have the money to go around offering rewards for every antiquity that is stolen? Will the host country approve of this method? And how do I do this, do I walk around with a briefcase full of money? Jack glanced down at the thin leather folio given to him earlier.

Warren said, You learn quick, the first priority is to get the widget back. I will go to the member country to get the funds for the reward, and they are happy to get their widget back. What I have here are letters of credit. You fill them out and the person you give it to goes to a bank. The bank calls for approval. Doing it this way you don’t get knocked in the head for cash and with out your approval the letters of credit are useless.

Jack said, I see what you mean about having to deal with all sorts of people.

Warren said, There is one other thing. The protocol we operate under said you are not to give the widget back unless you are sure it will be protected. This makes the member country assure the place they keep their widgets is good, so we don’t have to do it again.

Jack said, I can see there is a lot of discussion required with that. Can I get a copy of this protocol? And won’t the member country bureaucrats feel like I am mixing in their business?

Warren smiled and said, Well that is why you are an intern and why I am sending you to work with Jimmy. Jimmy is a natural sweet talker; you know can sell someone in the Sahara sand. But, the general method is to go to someone higher in the government. The higher ups have less ego invested in the process.

Jack was quiet for a moment then said, In this job you can annoy a lot of people. I guess that is why the guy from protocol went on and on how people see you in light of their customs.

Warren said, Most of the time people don’t look on you as a threat, annoying but not a threat. So now Fran said you have everything you need and the Information Tech. guys have shown you how to use the satellite communications gear, so you are on your way. The two men stood and shook hands one more time.

Jack picked up the pad of letters of credit and an embossing seal placed them in his leather folio. Fran handed him a document.

Fran looked up at Jack, Here is a copy of the protocol. Now, we don’t have a wall full of pictures of dead attachés, try not to start one.

Jack smirked, "Sounds