Love and Death in the Caracas

By Hal Graff

Welcome to the eighteenth exciting episode of the Love and Death Mystery and Political Espionage Series.

     After returning from the armed conflict with North Korea in the China Sea, and after cheating death, Harold Gatewood vows to

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harold Graff II Publishing
• Release date: Dec 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781962569125

Hal Graff

Dr. Hal Graff holds a doctorate in business administration. He is a native of Gibson City, Illinois. Hal is a proud father and grandfather. To date, he has published 104 books, including 96 novels. He has published over 6 million 900,000, words.

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Prologue

July 28

Harold, that was wonderful. Your journey to the location of my tattoo was perfect.

Yua Hayato, the beautiful Yakaza crime family head from Tokyo who had unexpectedly knocked on Gatewood’s front door in Gibson City, was his early Christmas present. She kissed Gatewood softly on the lips, and stroked his hair with the long, slender, soft fingers of her right hand. She knew that she had found the man she had dreamed of, and that her cousin, Kimiko Hayato’s description of Gatewood had been accurate.

She looked into his eyes and said, Harold, will you please make that journey again?

Moments later, as Yua and Harold lay in each other’s arms and talked, he realized that he was more comfortable with her than he had been in a very long time. He had been involved in dangerous missions for the CIO on a continuous, frantic pace for a time longer than he cared to admit.

After being shot by past AIO leader Ekain Koldo in Phoenix, Arizona during the first game of his second successful comeback to major league baseball, Gatewood had spent months in a coma fighting for his life. Once he recovered, he had headed to Washington, D.C. to scout for the Washington Senators.

Headquartered in Virginia, he had dodged assassins from the AIO, the Durante Mafia crime family, and a free-lance Russian hitman who was hired by Mateo Amon to take revenge on him, who Mateo blamed for his daughter Sofia’s death.

Gatewood then found himself in the middle of a constitutional and American crisis that could have shaken the world’s political order. The United States government was being undermined by an ex-president who had ties with an American-Russian double agent, the United Syrian Freedom Fighters, the One World For All organization that believed in a one-world government, and numerous criminal enterprises.

Treason, sedition, the Russian Mafia, a billionaire super-patriot named Damon Justice hired an assassin to eliminate the anti-American ex-president, and Gatewood’s guardian angel, a female assassin and his ex-lover, Susana Richards, were also elements in his adventures in Virginia.

The world silver market was soon set on fire after Gatewood’s return to Gibson City after his experience in Virginia. The discovery of a massive find that helped make Chile the world’s leading silver-producing country, and propelled it to the position as the most powerful force in South America, played havoc with his plans.

After returning from his mission in Washington, D. C., Harold tried to go into self-imposed isolation to escape the tragedies that had dogged his life. He returned to service with the CIO to train the national baseball team of Chile, and to help the Rick Owen’s organization protect American interests in South America.

In Chile, Gatewood also helped repel takeover actions from the countries, terror organizations, and the power-hungry one-world-government crowd, the OWFA, that wanted to gain control of the Chilean government through the rigging of the national presidential election. He worked with the beautiful Larissa Noemia, the re-election campaign manager for the president of Chile, Curro Anibal. Love blossomed, and soon Noemia and he were involved in high-level espionage and between-the-sheets-lovemaking.

Gatewood’s death had been the goal for assassins from the OWFA, AIO, Solntsevskeya Bratva Pravda Russian Mafia, TCPLM, and two independent contract-for-hire-killers, Vasili Platon and Gatewood’s former lover, Susana Richards.

After his trip to Chile, his involvement in the Anibal presidential campaign, and the loss of Larissa Noemia, he had returned to hopefully enjoy his quiet life in Gibson City, Illinois and vowed to stay home and out of the spy game. His plans soon changed as he was enticed by major league professional baseball to head to Paris, France to serve as the ambassador to the Universal Baseball Competition.

Once in Paris, he enjoyed the offerings of the City of Lights and meeting the stunning art director of the world-famous Louvre Museum, Colette Fleur. An intense romance immediately took place and the couple becomes inseparable.

Harold and Colette’s love affair had been impacted as assassins from the AIO, OWFA, and the USFF were determined to settle the score for Gatewood’s interferences with their organization’s devious undertakings. Harold’s demise then became imminent as the organizational assassins vied for his head.

A plot to detonate a pompe sale, a dirty bomb, in a world-famous landmark in Paris, an event which would change the city into a radioactive wasteland, also added to the intrigue of his action-packed, fast-paced, time in Paris, as he helped thwart a dangerous political espionage plot.

While Gatewood had been in Paris, world events had continued to march forward. Drug shipments from the Columbian drug cartels, aided by the TCPLM, had continued to flow into Europe and North America. Criminal actions by the Russian and Sicilian mafias, the devastating events in the deteriorating country of Venezuela, and the actions of a freelance, contract-for-hire killer, Gatewood mistress Susana Richards, also added to the backdrop of world events.

While the above world events were severer in nature, they paled in comparison to the threat in the orient.

After being home from the Paris for less than three weeks, Gatewood was recruited by the CIO to engage in shuttle diplomacy in the orient with three leaders with whom he had forged a special relationship, his ex-father-in-law Guo Gang, the President of China, Dae Do-Yun, the President of South Korea, and Jun Haneul, the quirky and dangerous Supreme Leader of North Korea.

In his attempts to address issues related to the South China Sea and the North Korean nuclear missile testing program, he had also crossed paths with the Basque AIO, OWFA, USFF, TCPLM, Columbian and Mexican drug cartels, Sicilian and Venezuelan mafia crime families, the Solntsevskeya Bratva Pravda Russian mob, and the Japanese Yakaza.

Lady Luck had smiled upon Gatewood during his time in the orient as he had been pursued by three beautiful women intent on making him their own, Jia Al of China, Ju Won of North Korea, and Yakaza crime family head Yua Hayato, the woman he now held in his arms.

After his diplomatic efforts for the CIO, Gatewood had journeyed to Mongolia for the world-class hunting trip for ibex that he had always dreamed of making. His adventure had included unplanned dangers, and a surprise ending. He had also traveled to Inner Mongolia to pay tribute to his deceased wife Akemi Gang Gatewood, his one true love, and their unborn son Tai, and to relax and make love with his mistress, the beautiful but severely-deranged serial assassin Susana Richards.

After returning from the orient, and a round of shuttle diplomacy designed to stabilize a dangerous situation in the China Sea, Gatewood had headed back to Paris to be honored for his heroics during the USFF terror group’s attack on the Louvre. He was awarded the Ordre de Bonapart, Bravoure Honorifique Civile for bravery, which enraged the USFF, and put his life at risk once again.

Increased dangers in the China Sea had drawn Harold back to the orient for another round of talks with the leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia, and North Korea. Also awaiting him were the loving arms of three dynamic and beautiful women he had left behind at the end of his first trip to the orient, Jia Al of China, Ju Won of North Korea, and the tattoo-sporting Yakaza crime family head Yua Hayato of Japan.

Gatewood’s efforts were designed to help preserve peace, and the balance of power in the region. Attacks by a splinter group of the USFF in the Philippines, the CFFA, and the maniacal actions by the Karaoke Kid, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Jun Haneul, had lead Gatewood into danger, and the world’s super powers to the brink of World War.

Events had become harrowing for his survival, but the threat in the region had passed, for now. He had then returned to Gibson City, and had been surprised by the visit of the gorgeous and dangerous woman who lay next to him.

Gatewood looked at her as she napped in peaceful slumber. She was exquisitely unique and gorgeous. He smiled as he remembered how he had first noticed her cousin, Kimiko Michi Hayato, years before on a television program about the world’s biggest crime families.

Harold scrutinized Yua Hayato, whose first name meant affection, and knew that his initial impression of her had been correct. She was a world-class beauty, cut from the Hayato mold, but striking in her own right. She was a carbon copy of Kimiko, but only better in terms of body build, which was saying something because Kimiko had been unbelievably blessed with an hour-glass figure, and mountainous breasts.

He looked at her and was thankful that she had knocked on his door. He liked her and wanted her to stay for an extended visit, as he needed to hide from the events that had sapped his energy in the China Sea. He wanted to lock out the dangerous and cruel world for a while, spend time with her, make love with her over and over, and relax.

He was tired of assassins, danger, travel, high-level espionage, and political crisis after political crisis. He kissed her passionately, awakening her, then started another search for her tattoo, hoping he could forget the inevitable call that he knew would soon come from Rick Owens, asking him for his help once again.

Chapter 1

R & R

October 10

YUA HAYATO STAYED WITH HAROLD FOR two weeks, and both of them loved every minute of it. Her disposition was not that of a ruthless crime boss, and Harold was amazed with her sweet, down-to-earth nature.

They relaxed, worked out, walked, played miniature golf in Bloomington, went to the golf course with Harold’s parents, and socialized with his friends from Gibson City, Elliot, and Foosland. Her favorite activity was to go to the double-screen drive-in and watch movies on both screens. She had never seen anything like it, and made Harold take her several times before she returned to her Yakaza lifestyle in Tokyo.

When she left, the couple made plans to see each other as soon as possible. Yua told Harold that she wanted to take him to her favorite place in Japan, the Isle of Shima, South of Tokyo, where they could relax, hike, watch the free divers harvest Mother of Pearls, and make love.

Gatewood settled down into his usual routine once Yua had left, working out, walking, managing his farm properties with his dad, and further developing his baseball training and motivation business. He was especially happy to have made inroads with the Russian government in terms of working with their national team, as he had always wanted to visit the country.

In mid-August, Jia Al visited him from Beijing and they renewed their romance in a grand fashion. The time apart had not diminished their feelings for one another, and they spent two loving weeks together before she had to return to China.

She wanted a commitment about their relationship from Harold, and he had told her that he loved her but that he was not ready to marry, as he needed to decide if he was going to retire from the CIO. Jia agreed that she would not be comfortable with him risking his life as a CIO agent when they were married. He agreed to make a decision after talking to his parents, and Rick Owens at the CIO.

Her visit had been enjoyable, and productive, as they were both thinking about a future together. When he drove her to the airport in Bloomington, they kissed at the gate, said their truly-meant I love you comments, made plans for Harold to come to Beijing. When Jia reached the door of the gateway that led to the plane, she turned, smiled at him, and blew him a kiss.

He waved, and returned the kiss, and watched her walk toward the plane. He then thought about how lucky he was to be loved by two such wonderful women as Yua and Jia. He knew he had decision to eventually make, but he also knew that he would let events take their normal course, and the right decision would materialize.

Two weeks after Jia returned to Beijing, Harold and his dad boarded a jet at the Bloomington airport and headed to Saskatchewan, for fourteen days of hunting for Hungarian partridge, sharp-tailed grouse, and water- fowl. After landing in Saskatoon, the two Gatewood hunters drove to the Southwestern corner of the province near the Canadian / American border and checked into Harold’s outfitter’s lodge.

The lodge was beautiful, the meals were delicious, and the hospitality was wonderful. The terrain was the perfect habitat for the high bird density, being the only place in North America where a dozen coveys of birds could be raised in a morning’s hunt.

Rolling hills and prairies, deep coulees similar to the ones General George Armstrong Custer galloped down toward the Indian village at Little Big Horn in Montana, sand hills, sloughs, creek bottoms, and deserted farm homesteads dotted the landscape. The results did not disappoint as the shooting was fast and furious.

Both hunters easily limited out each morning and then ate lunch, napped, and fished in the pond in front of the lodge until supper time. Both men were in good shape, and the walking was easy due to their fitness level. The pointing dogs were well-trained, and a pleasure to watch work, as they picked up a scent and followed to a sitting bird’s location.

The location received little hunting pressure, and was easy to reach from Illinois. The second week of the trip was spent hunting waterfowl. They had timed the trip perfectly as they were hunting in the best week of the waterfowl season.

The hunts were conducted from behind blinds in fields and potholes. A large spread of decoys were spread in front of each blind, and were perfectly placed to allow the landing birds to approach from the correct angle in the sky, and to set their wings and land.

The species of birds available included Lesser and Greater Canadian geese, snow geese, speckle belly geese. Also included were mallard, pintail, widgeon, Gadwall, blue and green winged teal, canvas back, and golden eye ducks. Three fourths of the bird species were North American ducks born in Saskatchewan. All were using the Central Flyway to migrate South for the Winter.

The group of harvested ducks made a colorful, spectacular picture, one which Harold enlarged and gave to his dad as a gift, to remind him of the trip.

Each day, the hunters shot until their shoulders were sore from the recoil of their twelve-gauge, automatic, over and under double-barrel shotguns. The amount of shooting was surpassed only by the piles of empty shotgun shells Harold and his dad had stacked up each day when they had gone to Argentina to hunt doves and parakeets.

After arriving in Gibson City, Harold dropped his dad off at his house, hugged him, and told him what a great time he had enjoyed on their hunt. He then went home, unpacked his bags, cleaned his shotgun, and threw his clothes into the washer. He then sat down in his favorite chair in the living room, opened his mail, and admired his friends the birds and the squirrels in the yard.

The rest and relaxation Harold had enjoyed over the last two months had done him a huge amount of good, as he was rejuvenated and was feeling great. He smiled as he thought of Yua Hayato’s tattoo, and Jia Al’s beautiful smile. He was indeed a lucky man, one who looked forward to