The Road Ranger - Softcover

Milde, Karl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1491717750 ISBN 13: 9781491717752

Verlag: iUniverse, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Meet Tom Smith, the entrepreneur-founder of "RoadWheels" a hugely successful company that carries people and their cars from city to city in uniquely designed, double-deck tractor-trailers. While tailing a car that his company brought north from New York City and unloaded at Niagara Falls, a car he believes is smuggling contraband into Canada, Tom is ambushed, knifed and left for dead. An alert Canadian border official, Alonzo Sierra, saves his life by bringing him to a Toronto hospital. During his recovery, Tom decides to feign his own demise and continue his investigation incognito, his true identity known only to the top managers of his company and to Alonzo. Wearing silver aviator glasses to mask his face, Tom follows a trail that leads him from New York City to a remote island in the South Pacific. As he gets ever closer to finding his attacker, a vicious killer known as the "Enforcer" and the Enforcer's boss, an evil woman who leads the smuggling operation, he loses his ownership of RoadWheels and unknowingly enters their deadly trap. While following the twists and turns of his investigation, Tom meets one person after another who desperately needs his help. He takes time to stop whenever and wherever he finds injustice to protect the innocent and bring the wrongdoers to task. Step by step, Tom finds his true self, and a hero is born. He becomes the "Road Ranger" destined to travel the highways with his all-black tractor-trailer and silver motorcycle, accompanied by his young companion, Alonzo, whom he has dubbed "Toronto"

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Karl Milde recalls sitting by his family's staticky radio (he lived on a farm a long way from New York City from where the signal was broadcast) at eight o'clock each Wednesday evening to hear the program, The Lone Ranger." Karl liked the music (excerpts from Rossini's William Tell Overture and Les Preludes by Franz Liszt) and over time he grew to know and love the characters: John Reid, a Texas Ranger who was ambushed by a vicious gang and left for dead, and Tonto, a Native-American, who found John in the wilderness and nursed him back to health. When John woke up, he asked Tonto what had happened. Tonto replied, "You only Ranger left... Others killed. You lone Ranger."Hearing this, John decided to dedicate his life to thefight for justice. He donned a mask to hide his true identity and adopted the name, "The Lone Ranger." Affectionately calling him "kemosabe," which means "friend," Tonto promised to be his faithful companion.The Lone Ranger owned a silver mine that provided him with funds as well as silver for his matched set of silver six-guns and his famed silver bullets. He named his pure white stallion "Silver" and outfitted him with silver horseshoes. Tonto's horse was a golden Palomino that he named "Scout."The Lone Ranger never drank alcohol or smoked, always used correct grammar, and never shot to kill his adversaries. He had the ability to shoot the guns out of his adversary's hands.Inspired by this radio program, Karl wrote this book as a homage to these legendary heroes. The names became "Road Ranger" and "Toronto" (a Latino who grew up in Toronto), and the horses became motorcycles, but he otherwise tried to remain true to the original Lone Ranger story. Karl hopes you enjoy reading this book as much as he enjoyed writing it.Karl lives with his wife, Cheryl, in Somers, NY, a suburb that's due north and a one-hour train ride from New York City.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

THE ROAD RANGER

By Karl Milde, Bob Berry

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2013 Karl Milde
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1775-2

CHAPTER 1

Bonnie came running out of the RoadWheels office when she saw Tom pull into the Clarence Travel Plaza with his all-white tractor-trailer and ease to a stop, air brakes hissing. Bonnie reached Tom just as his tall, lanky frame swung down from the tractor and his cowboy boots touched the tarmac. Without so much as a "Hello! How are you?" she let him have it with both barrels: "Houston," she said urgently, "we have a problem."

"Let's talk" was all Tom said to her as he motioned to Bonnie to follow him and pressed a hidden button on the underside of his trailer. A powered doorway on the side flipped outward and down, forming a staircase. Tom climbed up the few steps into the building on wheels and, when inside, took another narrow stairway to a second floor deck. Bonnie gave her blonde locks a quick shake, kicked the stairs to knock the dust off her UGG boots, and dashed lightly up, two steps at a time, following the tall man up to his spacious office.

Bonnie sank into one of the comfortable seats at a conference table. Tom took a seat facing her and nodded. "Okay, talk to me," he said. "What's going on?"

"For some months now I have ... noticed things," Bonnie began, slowly and deliberately. "I think we have become a link in a chain of smuggling into Canada."

"Smuggling? What, drugs?" Tom stared at her, startled, his square jaw tensing.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Why would anyone use our system?"

"I think ... to avoid detection. Possibly getting stopped on the highway by the police."

"Stopped for what?"

"For anything. Speeding, changing lanes, broken taillight. DWFB, whatever. The police have their quota."

"DWFB?"

"Driving while female blonde," she said sarcastically, giving her shoulder-length blonde tresses a toss for emphasis.

"Yeah." Tom smiled, conveying he liked the joke. "So how do you know there's a problem?"

"Their cars are—uh—different. They've been modified."

"Modified?"

"They're Mini Coopers—very heavy, like they're carrying lead. But they're powerful. Been souped up."

"How do you know this?" Tom asked.

"We drive them on and off the trailers, remember? The guys have even weighed these cars."

"Weighed them?"

"We became suspicious, so we got some road scales. Like the ones they use at the truck weigh stations." Bonnie's voice inflected upward as if she had asked a question. "Placed them at the end of the ramp and weighed the cars as we backed them out. Nobody could guess what we were doing."

"What'd you find out?"

"We knew the standard weight of that model Mini Cooper. We knew the weight of the driver. We just subtracted them from the weight we measured."

"There was a difference?" Whatever the difference was, Tom knew, was probably contraband.

"It varied a bit from car to car. But the average load on those Mini Coopers was about one hundred pounds."

"What about luggage? That could explain it," Tom probed.

"I suppose. Pretty heavy luggage, though. And you could see into the trunks of those cars through their back windows. The luggage compartments were empty."

"So the cars were extra heavy. That's it?"

"No. There's more," Bonnie continued.

"Oh? What's that?"

"The cars would never travel south with us to New York City. But we noticed these same cars kept coming back from New York. It was always one way."

"Same cars? How did you know?" Tom looked at her skeptically.

"Good question. The license plate numbers were always different, but we checked the VIN numbers on these Minis. Our guys became familiar with these cars. It got so we could easily identify them."

"Did you check out the license plate numbers?"

"Yes, we did. Those plate numbers were issued to real people, all right, but when we checked on these people, it was clear they weren't the ones who owned those cars. The plates on the Minis were fake. Made with forged numbers."

Tom paused for a moment to reflect. "Did you alert the police?"

"No. I wanted to speak with you first. We don't want this to affect our business. It might scare customers off."

"Don't worry about that," Tom said assuredly. "I want RoadWheels to do the right thing. But the police might spook these guys. Once they're onto the police, they'll just stop doing what they're doing and the police won't have enough evidence to get a conviction. Maybe I should check into it first."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Bonnie warned.

"Oh? Why not?"

"These cars trickle in on a steady basis. When they arrive, there's this kind of entourage of forces that meets them here at this RoadWheels station and follows them north toward Canada."

"Entourage?"

"Nothing too obvious. It's just that if you were here, operating this station as long as I have, you would start to notice things. Whatever's in those cars must be very valuable and worth protecting. Those guys have guns. I've seen them."

"How do you know they're heading for Canada?"

"My boyfriend's a customs officer at the border. He tells me things."

"Things? Like what?"

"Like the Mini Coopers that leave here always cross into Canada."

"If your—uh—boyfriend suspects them, why doesn't he check out the cars at the border?"

"No probable cause. They can't just tear a person's car apart with no good reason. The drivers have passports; the plates appear legal."

"What about that entourage? Doesn't that raise enough suspicion?"

"That's just it. Those guys with guns never cross the border. My boyfriend's never seen them."

"Do you think another group meets the car on the other side?"

"I don't know, but I would think so. They're going to a lot of trouble to make sure the cars get to wherever they're supposed to go."

"Well, it should be easy to find out just where those cars are going. Just tail one of them," Tom said definitively. "I can do that."

"Don't let them know you're following," Bonnie cautioned.

"Don't worry, I can stay well back—provided you do one thing for me."

"What's that?"

"I want you to attach this device to the next suspicious Mini that comes in." Tom stood up and, reaching over to his workbench, picked up a black object that looked like a small hockey puck. "It has a magnet on the bottom, so it will stick to the car wherever you put it."

"It's a bug?" Bonnie asked.

"A locator. I'll be able to trace the car with my computer."

"Wow, that's great! You just sit here in your office and watch where it goes."

"Unfortunately, it only transmits a couple of miles. And if you put it out of sight under a car, it can't transmit to a cell tower or a satellite. I'll have to follow with my van on ground level to pick up the signal."

"Got it. No problem. I'll take care of it," Bonnie replied, getting up from her chair and starting to leave. She wore a form-fitting sweater and tight jeans that showed off her contours.

"Thanks," Tom said. "So how long do you think it will be until the next Mini comes in?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, my men are unloading one as we speak."

CHAPTER 2

"Don't call the police just yet," Tom said. "As soon as I come back, we'll talk and make a plan."

Bonnie stood and faced Tom squarely as he also rose to leave. "Please be careful," she admonished with real concern in her voice. "These men are dangerous. There's no telling what they'll do if they find out you're on to them."

Tom nodded as if...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: iUniverse
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1491717750
• ISBN 13: 9781491717752
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 372
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: KreGa Onlinehandel GmbH; 4950000000000; info@krega-onlinehandel.de; ; Birkenweg 31; Brakel; 33034; Deutschland