User blog:Sydneygb/Journal Entries: Vanderpool

Airline ticket to Amsterdam: $5000. RailEurope ticket: $30 Being away from Colombia base, Over Kill, and all that distracts me: priceless.
 * 16 July, 2007:

Yes, yes, mainstream crappy culture reference, shut up.

Now to see to the payoff: one "Eli Vanderpool". I'm actually hoping, on some perverse level, that there is some trouble in Rotterdam. A bit of a chase might be just the thing...

[hasty, carelessly scrawled words at the bottom of the entry, written with enough force to imprint them on subsequent pages:] What the HELL was I thinking?

The worst of all possible scenarios was what I faced tonight in Rotterdam: not only had Steen tipped Vanderpool off that he was being targetted, he brought Hawk and Snake-Eyes with him! I managed to get up to Vanderpool's room with the help of one of the little accoutrements I've grown accustomed to carrying on these occasions. I thought I'd try the Australian Federal Police badge - Vanderpool's wanted by so many countries for fraud and embezzlement, why not Australia too? That way I didn't have to put on another accent. The less complicated, the better. Not that it mattered tonight. The nurse who led me to the room turned out to be an MI-5 agent! She was the only thing between me and Hawk, so I dragged her along with me down a stairwell to keep the Joes from shooting me up. Snake-Eyes cut me off by coming up the stairwell behind me, but I shoved the MI-5 agent at him, leapt the railing, and managed to get away. There was some kind of music festival in the streets which helped cover my escape. I didn't see hide nor hair of Vanderpool, but with the Joes around, it's unlikely I'll see him at all. Next time I see that little medic I'm gonna pound the living daylights out of him.
 * 17 July, 2007:

I'm cooling my heels in a nice little suite in a hotel on the river for now. I'll sleep on it and decide on a course of action in the morning. If I hang around, I might be able to pick up Vanderpool's trail. If not, it'll be back to the drawing board. I expect he'll switch to another alias, now that he knows everyone in the known universe is after him under that one. Damn Steen and his GI Joe mates.

Things are looking up ... Pennington has come through for me. With her wiretapping, satellite-mastering skills, she's determined the date and approximate time, not to mention the method, of Vanderpool's transfer from St Franciscus Hospital. Thanks to her help, I don't have to go risk my neck tangling with the Joes again ... unless they end up as part of the transfer process. She also told me they're holding Vanderpool in a room in the basement, under 24-hour surveillance and heavy guard. I barely made it out of there last time - there's no way I'm going back in. The Joes are waiting for me to do just that so they can double-tap me and have me bagged and tagged. Not this boy. Didn't get this far by being stupid.
 * 18 July, 2007:

So I need a few things before I can make another attempt to snag Vanderpool, not the least of which is a body bag, or the equivalent. Wonder if I should hire a thug or two to act as a distraction and maybe help me load the carcass into my rental car. One thing's for sure: I won't be flying back to Colombia on a commercial airline. I'm sure the Twins will be happy to have me and my cargo picked up. This is their party, after all.

Now for some sleep. I've a long day ahead of me tomorrow.