A Short Story: A Parcel of Rogues by Frank Sonderborg (Part 1)

Here is a story about, "The Moriarty" and a theft of part of the Yamashita Golden Horde: Enjoy

Images courtsey of Pixabay

A Parcel of Rogues by Frank Sonderborg (Part 1)

The name is Ernst Rechenbecker and I am a criminal mastermind.
How ridiculous that statement sounds, Dragan, coming from a Senior Lecturer of Eastern languages at the esteemed University of Durham.
I had reached a crossroads in my life and my next step, would prove if indeed I was the true successor, to the great Moriarty.
When you eventually find this, I will be long gone.
Don’t even think of coming after me.
I will see you coming like a bright lit haulage truck on an empty highway.
It was always going to end like this, you knew that.
Even when we sat and discussed the philosophy of our actions and how it would all impact.
You knew then. And you know it even now.
I know your story Dragan.
Do you know mine. Did you ever know mine?
Thought not.
Never your strong point Mr D.

When it comes to killing you are indeed the master.

But it seems the finer points of life where allowed to slip by.

I was not always called Ernst or even Rechenbecker.
I have no recollection of what I was or what name I went by before the selection.
I was selected by the organization using their smoke and mirrors process to be, “The Moriarty.”
And even that label was incorrect.
Added by a drug laden Holmes, as he strove to understand a mirror string universe of his own twisted soul.
Holmes believed Moriarty was the Napoleon of Crime.
The puller of strings.
The spider sitting centre in his dark web.
The evil most foul.
But Holmes had as usual oversimplified, an even more complex web, than the lone spider in his dark lair.
To pull off those incredible complicated scams, Moriarty and his sidekick Moran had access to a worldwide organization.
That really sat back and pulled the puppets.
Dragan, you too were selected and groomed for criminal stardom as an all action Shakespearian Globe stage actor.
For our own criminal home and away team.

I remember the night I went to meet you, with our next grand plan of action.
You, our trained officer and a gentleman in the British Army.
And then as a Hooligan in the famed Special Air Service. A loyal servant of King & Country. Dragan Moran Mikic, for that was your given name.
When you were selected as star child, of the organization.

Remember who we work for Dragan.
Let’s just call them business sucking vampires.
The organization needed money like, ‘The Night Walkers,’ need fresh blood.
An awful lot of money.
More money than any mere mortal could ever comprehend.
Money that was being pumped into their black economy.
Financing plans, for secret monstrous constructs that have been in place for generations.
We stole gold by the barrel load.
Shipped drugs by the container load.
Swindled treasury notes by the train load.
Notes that where as good as gold.
Bribed people.
Bribed Politicians. Bribed Governments.
Bought whole countries.

The official gold figures, as any trading gold merchant will know, are pure nonsense.
The Bank of England and the World Gold Council keep stating that only around 171,300 tonnes of gold has ever been mined in over six thousand years.
In fact, the actual figure today is much much more.

We know this because we have been stealing and wheeling with black gold for many years.
This has been feeding the frenzied fires of the vibrant black economy.
That really makes this utterly pathetic world go round.
But I was done with it, Dragan.
Done stealing for a faceless organization.
I wanted out.
I would assist in stealing the latest treasury notes but also help myself to a slice of the coming fever horde and then disappear.
But I needed you Dragan, to help.
If you were unresponsive to my plan. I would have to kill you.
But you know all this.
I liked you. You were my working companion.
But they had trained me well.
I could also kill without remorse without a thought. Without ever looking back.
Which of course Dragan, was part of the problem.

The St James heist was planned to perfection.

The organization moving their loot once again to the safest place in London.
St James Palace.
So Charlie, his squeeze and the Boyz could lick their lips at the sheer size of a yellow treasure, that would have made Smaug’s tail swing and his eyes water.

We were going to steal part of the Yamashita Horde from the organization.
Well, our part of the splintered organization.
Thirteen families ran the black world economy. Thirteen warring divided families.
We both were attached to one.
The bloodline of, well, never mind, you know it all, let’s just say they have a very long reach.

They were some of the first settlers to the New World. And they were as vicious and as uncompromising as all the land grabbing bastards that came after them.

Somewhere within this smash and grab. I was going to line my pockets. Fill my boots.
This time, would be Moriarty time. Bullion time.

The Japanese had been looting the East during the duration of their war of colonial liberation.
Sending back home, vast treasures of Art and Bullion.

When the USA finally got their boot on the Japanese supply line throat.
The Japs started stock piling their loot in the Luzon province of the Philippines.

One of the Japanese generals. Let’s call him Yamashita, was in cahoots with a Prince of the Blood.

Let’s for fun call him Yasuhito, as nobody in their right mind would believe any of this shit anyway.
And as for Kin no Yuri or Golden Lily, let’s hear no more of that secret organization.
They are all long dead now.
But the horde fever continues to pile up the bodies. They have killed them all.
Everybody who knew anything about the horde. Entombed the workers.
Murdered everybody else.
It seemed like the thing you would do if you had a big secret to keep.
The Nazis got away with it.
So why not a Rising Sun Prince of the Blood. Yamashita was caught and tortured by the Yanks.

Yes, they were doing it, back in the day, as well. Nothing new under the OSS sun.
Yamashita was executed as a War criminal in 1949. Sucked dry then disposed off.
But his legend lives on so Charlie and the Boyzz can enjoy the stinking sweet smell of gold fever, emitting from the Yamashita Horde.

Gold as you know Dragan is a precious yellow metallic element, highly malleable and ductile, and not subject to oxidation or corrosion. Symbol: Au; atomic weight: 196.967; atomic number: 79; specific gravity: 19.3 at 20°C.
Contact, any prolonged contact will induce a high burning, back stabbing, murderous fever.
Among the 6,800 400 Troy Oz 999.9 bricks of the Yamashita Horde will be the odd Black Eagle of Adolf’s mob.
But who’s counting or checking. Only in the last few centuries has it been used in anything else besides coins and jewellery.
It is now an essential ingredient of tools for the cyber world.
But still we just want to stare at the stacked bricks of yellow.
To jackboot down the yellow brick road.
Someone once put a value on Scrooge McDuck's fortune, at around $27 trillion.
He could swim in it.
Smaug could fly around it.
Let me tell you the organization has access to more than this, much more.

To Be Continued................................