"Hey, you know...you're my go to guy...but look, I understand." Flynt said.
"I might be able to help you out because we go so far back, but there will be a premium, and you know I wouldn't do shit for the CIA and there is no credit...they've fucked me for the last time. I need cash up-front, monthly, with a healthy pension. How many men you need?"
"At least fifty and I need a pilot with a light plane, King Aire maybe."
"I got Ferre in the back."
"Come on Guy, you know I can't stand that Fag." "Calm down Mick."
"Not him, I mean it."
"Listen to me Mick. You have to over-look the guy’s kinky ways. That is an act to disguise his pain and the depression because he is dying man, of an incurable cancer. Most of all is the fact that he is the most dependable pilot that you will ever meet and the most capable son-of-a-bitch I have ever seen, and he has the best contacts in aviation. You may not believe this but his cash cow is Onassis. Yeh, that Greek bastard comes down here all the time and Ferre' goes out to his yacht and cooks Cajun meals for Onassis and his guest. Ferre' always comes home with a satchel of dough...you know he has been hurt in Cuba too." Guy said.
"Hell from what I hear Bobby Kennedy has Onassis by the nuts." Flynt said.
"How did that happen?"
"True story, surprised you haven't heard it. Before the Kennedy's took over in Washington, Onassis bought a fleet of tankers, with a contract to bring oil, coffee, rice and smack destined for the major ports. The paperwork had been resolved but the license had not been released. Bobby and Onassis had rapped at some function and Onassis had a snoot full and gave Bobby what for, and Bobby trashed the deal for the license the next day, citing security risk and Onassis associations with known felons.
Onassis went haywire and threatened to get revenge with "Bugs Bunny"...jokingly saying that he was sending the bunny some carrots...does di bunny need something to chew."
Guy laughed at the story.
"And so Onassis takes a big hit and no one can move Bobby off the dime. Cost Onassis millions and he has hated the Kennedy family ever since."
Banister took out a new fifth of Old Frankfort. Flynt had warmed to the taste of the cheap Kentucky product...offering his cup.
"We're taking munitions, weapons and explosives to a sight in the Keys." Banister said.
Flynt knew Banister well enough to know his rage for the government and he had touched the right button. It was more than the confiscations and the raids by the CIA, it was revulsion of the transformation of the elected servants who become addicted to the power and the trappings and soon begin acting like they are royalty. Guy's hatred measured by the status of the office and none more vulnerable for his ire that Kennedy. It took on its own power, it gave him the energy to meet the day, deal with the job loss, and his health from too many stake-outs and then the way the FBI booted him out the door.
Flynt saw the look in his old friends eyes in a nanosecond, the memories flooded his brain and caused him to turn away. Old friends conjuring the same images of loss, sadness, convictions and the loss in Cuba made it hard to talk return for Castro.
"So we need the cash up-front?"
"That is no problem this time Guy...trust me... now what about the shooting in Dallas?"
"The shooting of Walker?"
"My guess it was a racial thing?"
"Now when I fill the order what do I do with it?"
"Just hold it for me."
"Can you tell me who is in this deal?"
"It’s me Guy."
"This is my last dance Mick."
"I want to get a copper credit card issued to you in five days with an initial credit line of One Million Bucks’. Good anywhere."
"Because I have to know there is complete trust between us."
"You do know, you have my word and it’s always been good."
"There is only one thing on the mind of folks like you and I...once we are pushed out, how do we take a seat on the front porch swing?" He asked the hum drum of the guiding light won't cut it for you and me. We're not into fantasy Ray Ray...we are cut and slash guys.
"There isn't much room for fame and fortune.
"In the John Birch Society we have over One Hundred Thousand members...that is a lot of right wing haters. Then here comes General Edwin Walker, going on tour with this Waco Reverend Billy James Hargis. They got their politics all mixed up with the second coming of Christ." Banister said.
"No Guy, they think they are Christ."
"Now you know that we are closer than brothers. I know where you are going. This is the Big Show. You must have a team that is small and efficient and you can't have theory and debate. You have to have the strongest leader who will not waiver, ever. Just boom, it’s over. No more than three men to do the dirty deed."
David Ferrie' walked in, he had on a straw Panama hat and a Hawaiian shirt and loafers with no socks which flapped on his heels.
"What do we have in the storeroom?" Guy asked.
"Some very old Winchesters, a few thirty-ought-six, got M-Ones, a bunch of cheap Baltic Mousers taken by the Russians, we have some M-4's and we have some scopes which will not work on these pieces."
"Where would you park a light plane, like a King Air near the Mexican border?"
"I would take her to Matamoros near Brownsville there is a wonderful field there for the King Aire... but you know that craft requires two pilots...sweet plane though. If you need to go deep into Mexico, you can fly along the dry beds of the lakes. I would avoid any of the populated areas." Ferrie' said.
After Ferrie' had left Banister spoke again, "It’s not just Kennedy himself, it’s what the people see in him. It’s the glowing picture the media keeps shooting to us, 24/7...the first President to have that access and the press has turned him into a rock star. The liberal press is trying to make us believe he is the hero of all ages. Have you ever seen a man in such a blasted hurry to be crowned King? He believes that he can remake this society. He is trying to reengineer who we are and turn us into a kinder and gentler people."
"Do you know what Charisma means to me? It means he holds the secrets. All the dangerous secrets in the world used to be held outside the reach of the government. So that guys like J. Ed Hoover and the nuts in the congress could not use them in an indiscriminate manner. Franklin D. Roosevelt changed all that...he came from the monied folks, so now the government that has the lock on the secrets that matter...not the guns or munitions, I'm talking about the shit that makes us all tic-tack-toe. Now all the danger is in the White House, from the Nuclear weapons to the real skinny...What is Kennedy plotting with Castro? What kind of back door Agreement with the Russians. There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that a movement exists in the executive branch of the government which is devoted to the communist."
"Well in fairness, if we had a Republican we no doubt would be leaning toward a dictator." David Ferre' interjected from the hallway.
Banister and Flynt looked at each other; there was no need to speak what they communicated in a glance, the deeply felt belief that there are events which compel men to act. Call it a historical imperative; call it a whim but what passes in the blink of an eye...passes into the ages.
Good men died along Blue Beach because Kennedy at first delayed the air cover for the men on the beach and then he chose to deny his promise.
The invasion took on a Hitchcock thriller with thousands of gulls smashing into the asses of brave men with their heads in the sand.
After Flynt left Banister, He recorded the conversation, repeating his belief that getting the weapons and men from