Love and Death in Chile

By Hal Graff

Love and Death in Chile

A Love And Death Mystery & Political Espionage Novel 

Volume 14

  &nbs

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harold Graff II Publishing
• Release date: Dec 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781962569156

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

IN THE WEEK THAT HAD PASSED since Harold Gatewood had returned to Gibson City from Virginia, he had spoken only to his parents, as he did not want to hear the political news.  He had unplugged his television set and had rested, sleeping over fourteen hours a day.  He had been too tired to dream, and sleep had offered him a peaceful hiding place from the tragedies of his life.

He had cancelled his reservations in Tahiti, as Ellie Aronson was now dead. He did not want to be anywhere but in his home in Gibson City where he could be near people he trusted. 

He had quickly grown weary of the turmoil of the political climate in Washington, D.C., and wanted the city and its nightmarish world of politics and deceit banished from his life.  He now knew how Napoleon must have felt when he was exiled to Elba. 

Politics was a rough-and-tumble business, a deadly game where many decent, honest people were chewed up in short order.  He had seen enough of it, and hoped never to be close to the tumultuous, character-destroying scene ever again.

He had heard his parents talking about the murders of ex-President Lance Edwards and his partner, who had served as his Chief of Staff, Govad Zal.  They had discussed the reports of the media and the left-wing radicals’ all-out offensive to blame current President Eric Clancy for a supposed role in the two men’s deaths.  Clancy’s daily death threats by the left-wing had intensified and security had been increased at the White House.  The president had made a speech to the country asking for calm and peace in the time of trouble and confusion.

The left’s minions had been whipped into a state of frenzy by the power brokers behind the curtain who paid for the demonstrations in the street, and their front men who spouted hate speech. 

Investigations rolled forward, with the ex-President Edwards’ party demanding answers to their questions.  Who killed Edwards and Zal?  How had the killer or killers moved the past security detail and into the house?  Was the assassination politically motivated?  Was Clancy’s political opposition party involved?  Were there any leads in the case? 

The questions were seemingly endless.  The barrage of insinuations and demands continued. Was someone trying to find out the relationship between Edwards and Zal? 

When would President Clancy be called before Congress to explain his supposed role in the killings?

Gatewood had asked his parents to not discuss the matter and they mercifully agreed to honor his request.  He was worrying about other personal matters that took precedence over the killings of Edwards and Zal.

He also wanted to be away from the parade of people and organizations marching toward him with his demise on their minds. 

The AIO, the Yakuza, the Columbian cartels headed by Rafael Carmelo and Mateo Amon, the Fabbri and Celestino Durante Mafia crime families, the Salvador Masas Stinging Hornet Mexican cartel, the Russian Mafia, and the OWFA one-world government organization were all intent on killing him. 

He knew that the odds were stacking up against him, as too many evil forces were monitoring his movements.

And, there was always Susana Richards, the beautiful, deranged stalker who had killed again and again to protect him.  She had also killed Luisa Gaicia, a woman he had loved.  He vowed that he would stay home, avoid his enemies, and bid adieu to his service for the CIO.

While it would have sounded impossible for Gatewood to have believed at the time, he would soon break his vow and be back in the action, and the danger, soon.

Chapter 1

OWFA

(October 14)

ALDOFITO IMANOL TRUDGED Up the stairs to the meeting room of the OWFA.  Despite his age, being in the mid-fifties, he was on a mission today, and took the stairs two at a time so that he would be able to quickly enter the office and organize his notes for the important tasks at hand. 

He was a successful, handsome man with movie-star quality looks, including a tall, six-foot-five-inch height, thin, muscular body, dark-black hair slicked back on the sides and top of his head, dark eyebrows, and piercing dark-brown eyes. 

His left eye featured an iris in a cat-like shape, which had led to the assignment of nickname, the evil cat, the El Gato Malvado.  The moniker was a perfect fit as his disposition could change from a relaxed state to a violent, abusive attack in a flash, much like the Andean puma, the puma concolar, of his native Argentina.

Imanol had grown up in the Southern Patagonia region of the country as the only son of a father who was a wealthy cattle baron and estancia owner, and a beautiful mother who was a talented singer and dancer, one of the best in the country.  The aristocracy-influenced combination of his parents’ wealth and talent had given him a sense of entitlement and a fierce passion to succeed at a high level.  He wanted to please his parents, and become even more respected as they were.

His mother had died while Imanol was in his teens.  As the only child in the family, he developed an intensive need to make his father proud.  He quickly followed into family business, running the estancia after his father had suffered a heart attack that made him weak and dependent on his son.

The younger Imanol expanded the cattle operation, set up fishing lodges to capitalize on the world-famous sea-run brown trout that returned to the area’s rivers, accumulated banking interests, entered the entertainment industry as an agent and producer, and soon became involved in politics. 

He did not hold office, but was in a more-lucrative end of the political game, that of using his money to bribe, control, and manipulate the political officeholders in ways that would increase his wealth and his further advance his beliefs in a one-world government, with himself as the leader of the movement.  Corruption was his mighty sword that made his goals attain fruition.

Aldofito was a ladies’ man, and changed mistresses as often as he changed his socks.  He had beautiful women from not only Argentina, but from all over the world who were staggering adornments on his arm.  He used them for his personal pleasure and goals, and was seldom seen without a trophy attached to his arm. 

He had avoided the matrimonial trap and had never had the urge to have a child to pass on the family tradition and name.  His legacy would be the attainment of his one true love, a one-world government that would make the world a better place, especially for the elite such as himself who would be in control of the power, wealth, decision-making, and the proletariat class, the sheep who would follow the elites’ dictates. 

Once he had arrived in his office, Imanol had taken time to consider how he would present his important message about the death of ex-president Lance Edwards and Govad Zal to the OWFA committee.  He watched as each member entered the outer office and entered discussions with the other members already present.  When all members had arrived, he walked to the meeting room, followed by the other OWFA committee office holders.

Imanol surveyed each member, sizing up their personalities, egos, loyalty to the movement, and personal makeups.  He had accumulated damming personal files on each member, in case he would ever have to use the information as a political lever to swing a vote in his agenda’s direction.  Imanol loved the power he held over each member, and never hesitated to use it.

Twenty-five men sat around a long, rectangular table, each sporting a concerned look on their face.  The blue, green, and gold flag of their organization was on the wall on the right side of the room.  Their organizational name, in the abbreviated capital letters OWFA, was housed in a ten-foot long by six-foot high glass case.  The letters represented the organizational name, One World for All.

Imanol, the World Commander, called the meeting to order and asked for the reports from each of the twenty-five regional commanders.  After the reports were delivered, the OWFA commander, Aldofito Imanol, the Argentinian multi-billionaire who was the main funder of the organization, spoke. 

"Comrades, the last time we met here we discussed three matters of importance, our upcoming strike on the terror cells in America, the follow up sleeper-agent strikes, and the situation with Lance Edwards and Govad Zal.

The discussion on the attacks on the terror cells scheduled for September twenty-eighth ended in agreement that the plan’s failure was a disgrace.  All details of the plan had seemed sound, and the cadre of military and paramilitary in charge of each cell had been determined to carry out the attacks. The follow up strikes by the sleeper agents were also set, as the agents had infiltrated America for many years and had been waiting for the order to be given."

Imanol then mentioned the Lance Edwards and Govad Zal situation. Comrades, when we picked Edwards to be our patsy as the figurehead of America, we thought he could handle the mission.  Our decision has proven to be an error, as he was a disgrace as the leader of the country, and has caused our movement a loss of direction and embarrassment.

He continued, "Edwards was able to further our cause and initiate change by using executive orders. Despite our successful efforts to gain majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in America’s government, he was not able to move his agenda by the traditional method of enacting legislation.  It is now a fact that that he, and our success, is being erased by new President Eric Clancy by that same executive order power.  All of our gains and efforts to make Edwards a success have been wiped out by Clancy’s popularity and determination to again lead America to the pinnacle of the mountain of world leadership. 

Edwards has led the left-wing, radical political party that supports our goals, into oblivion, as they have lost thousands of political elections at the federal and state levels.  We have been neutered by Edwards’ inability to handle the mission."

Every member at the meeting pounded the table in wild agreement.

"We knew that despite our efforts to portray Edwards as an intelligent man of high IQ, he was an empty suit who could not have attained admittance to a decent college on his own.  His background had to be scrubbed to hide that fact, and others.  We had to build a false profile to hide his shortcomings.

His personal life and lack of interest in the opposite sex made it difficult to portray him as a family man.  His lack of masculinity also presented a problem.  We spent countless dollars training him how to speak the proper form of English, how to deliver speeches in a believable manner, and how to say nothing material while talking.  We have poured multi-millions of dollars into his training, and to our comrades in the media to protect his life from being exposed to the public, and to push his agenda forward. 

In short comrades, we have been shortchanged by not getting our money back on our investment in the folly known as the Lance Edwards Project.  If our upcoming strikes against America did not succeed we needed to decide on how to eliminate Edwards and his roommate Govad Zal."

A spirited discussion followed the world leader’s comments. No comments of support for Edwards and Zal were heard.  The discussion was marked with vile hatred for what Edwards had done to the OWFA mission.  It was not a matter of if Edwards should be eliminated if the terror attacks failed, but it was a matter of when the elimination should take place, and who should be hired to perform the action.

It was decided that the organization would wait until the terror strikes had been completed to remove Edwards from the earth.  The choice of the person who would perform that mission was tabled until after the attack dates.  The scenario of the hit was agreed to by the members present at the meeting.

Edwards would be killed by a right-wing fanatic who was bitter that he had lost his job, and was upset for what Edwards had done to America while he was in office.

"Comrades, we needed to hope for the best in the terrorist strikes.  Whichever way it went we could have had our stooges in the media blame Edwards for the devastation.  We decided we could then find other people to groom to take over governments around the world who will advance our goal of a one-world government led by we in this room.

The reality of the recent developments has presented us with an opportunity.  The terror attacks were put on hold after a joint force of American Marines and Mexican attacked our camp on the American-Mexican border and brought attention to the presence of our terrorist camps in and out of America, eliminating the advantage of our surprise attacks. 

As a result of the incident, our training commander, Adb Al-Qadir, was killed.  It is a small matter as we have already promoted his replacement who is hard at work on our plans for the next scheduled attack. 

We also lost our head mole in the CIO, Aamir Jawdat and his wife Bahiyya are in CIO custody spilling information in order to gain a life sentence rather than being executed for treason.  They will not hurt us much as even they do not know the name of the replacement who has already taken over Aamir’s role at the CIO.

We also had to cancel the follow-up sleeper cell attacks as the element of surprise was minimized by the attack on our border camp.  We can initiate that action any time, and all hades will break loose in America. We have successfully infiltrated America through legal and illegal immigration over the last thirty years.  We owe the American politicians a thank you for their stupidity in allowing us that unopposed bonanza.

The killing of Edwards and Zal has allowed us an excellent opportunity Comrades.  Our investigative sources and knowledge of all of the major contract-for-hire-independent assassins and organizations in the world has led us to the source.  We have tracked the whereabouts of the assassins on the day and the time of Edwards and Zal’s murders, and have now devised a plan that will allow us to take full advantage of the situation.

We owe the killer a debt of gratitude, as we were planning on exterminating Edwards ourselves since he was out of office and had proved to be totally incompetent in his eight years of terror.  Now, we don’t have to worry about that, and can proceed with our plan, which I am now going to cover with you.

The assassin was Susana Richards.  She was paid for the hit, but would have done it for free as Edwards had a hatred for her lover, Harold Gatewood, a retired baseball player of all things, from America.  Edwards had hated Gatewood from the first moment he had seen him accompanying President Clancy and President Leal Servidor of Mexico at the baseball game in Washington, D.C. 

We think he hated Gatewood because he was athletic, handsome, and famous for his actions in San Toro De Lidia, Spain where he helped stop the AIO’s attack on the Plaza de Heroes and helped the police solve the San Toro De Lidia serial killings. 

Richards is hopelessly in love with Gatewood, and will do anything to be with him.  We will follow Richards and Gatewood