Guns for Hire - Script Fifty Four

Reinard Beach, Palawan Island 9.23am 30/08/17

Skinpin through a few more sticks & poured himself another coffee & continued, half-heartedly, to T-Bird, Vrasten & Alex's arguments on how they could facilitate the requirements of the contract, personally he couldn't see what all the fuss was about, armoured car or not, big fucking bomb, blow the fucker up; sorted.

Reinard Beach, Palawan Island 10.17am 30/08/17

Deeply engrossed in the discussion, well, apart from Skinpin who was idly poking a Starry Eyed hermit crab he'd found in a rock pool earlier, they all missed the approaching noise as yet again the power boat from the presidents residence cruised the shore line towards their position. Eventually it attracted Vrasten's attention sufficiently for him to alert the others.

Unlike its nocturnal visits this time there were three occupants, the driver & watcher they'd already seen & a third goon sat on the running board casually holding a rifle across his knees.

Vrasten stood & waved at the familiar face, the watcher, polite as before, nodded in acknowledgment however unlike his previous visits he dropped over the side of the boat into the shallows & waded ashore. Again he reiterated the private nature of the area north of their camp but this time added that it was indeed the presidential retreat & the president was in fact in residence, showing feigned astonishment at this they told the watcher they'd be on their way shortly & apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Comforted by their lies the watcher returned to the boat & it returned towards the president's retreat.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 11.43am 30/08/17

Back at the hotel they sorted themselves out & arranged for the hire car to be fueled up before again heading north, they'd, with some difficulty had a look on the hotels intermittent Internet access & picked up the position of a number of community airstrips dotted around Palawan as well as the many surrounding islands, before making any definite plans they wanted to see just how remote these strips were, armed with a local map, a full tank of gas & directions from the hotel receptionist they headed back out of town.

Puerta Princesa Road North, Tulariquin, Palawan Island 1.57pm 30/08/17

T-Bird slowed as they again passed the head of the track leading to the beach residence occupied by the presidential party, again the truck, hood now closed, was parked at the junction to deter any uninvited access, the presidents security goons were again loitering around the truck & watched them pass north.

Inandeng Community Airstrip, San Vicente, Palawan Island 3.07pm 30/08/17

A couple of hours later T-Bird pulled the hire car onto what the map suggested was the airstrip, other than it was flat, well, nearly so, & their was a space where a gate used to be there wasn't a lot to suggest it was indeed an airstrip. Walking along the strip was clear however that it did occasionally have air traffic, there were a number of old oil lamps & the strip was compacted with most of the rabbit holes filled in.

For half an hour or they paraded up & down the strip to see if anybody would take any notice or come & investigate from the coastal municipality of San Vicente that was maybe a dozen miles further on, completely ignored they headed onto the next spot on the map.

Del Pilar Community Airstrip, Roxas, Palawan Island 4.28pm 30/08/17

As they approached the location of the airstrip they dismissed its potential use immediately, there was a sizable & relatively township surrounding the coastal strip & whilst it was again only a grass runway there was a number of shacks & an old truck suggesting the strip may see occasional use, playing along however they sought out a local café come bar & enjoyed the local cuisine as well as a couple of beers before heading back to the San Vicente area for an overnight reconnaissance.

Inandeng Community Airstrip, San Vicente, Palawan Island 6.14am 31/08/17

Overnight they'd seen only one vehicle on the road heading towards San Vicente; nobody had remotely paid them any interest, happy with this they headed back to Puerta Princesa.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island am 9.02am 31/08/17

Back at the hotel & somewhat adrift of days they collectively realised that not only had they missed the weekly Thursday ferry back to Manila, confirmed by the receptionist as having sailed around an hour earlier that morning, but coincidentally their visitor visa also expired today.

Deciding they best not ignore it they headed down to the immigration buildings down at the water front.

Puerta Princesa, Customs &n Immigration Hall, Palawan Island 9.48am 31/08/17

On arrival at the ferry terminal all could see they'd not long missed the ferry, indeed Vrasten, care of his enhanced optics, reckoned he could see it on the horizon, walking into the immigration hall there were still a number of people milling around post ship departure including a couple of nondescript Mapang-api Lalaki.

Approaching the uniformed officer at the immigration desk Alex adjusted her top to expose just a little more cleavage & sweetly explained their predicament, with a sigh the immigration officer inspected their passports & visa & agreed they were now all illegal immigrants & this would unfortunately incur a processing fee in order to reissue the visa etc & that, despite his assumption that that Ms Price & her friends would not cause trouble, they would need to repeat the security previously carried out on their initial application & therefore, as illegal immigrants, they would be subject to certain security measures on the island.

Pouting, Alex asked what this fee was the officer apologetically confirmed it was 17,200 PHP each, around $400, sliding $2000 across the desk Alex asked if this would cover everything. Slowly the immigration official glanced at the nearest Mapang-api Lalaki & then Alex's cleavage, grinning he crossed out the expired date on the visa slips & stamped them for one additional week,

"Have a pleasant holiday Magandang Binibini, Senyor's"

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island am 11.18am 31/08/17

Having extended & paid for their extended holiday accommodation & hire car the four of them put their feet up for the rest of the day but decided to check out a couple of the community airstrips south of Puerta Princesa the next day.

Rio Tuba Community Airstrip, Bataraza, Palawan Island 11.32am 1/09/17

Having driven the one hundred & forty miles south from Puerta Princesa to Rio Tuba they immediately dismissed this as having any potential for a discreet landing, pretty much the town & the surrounding district was overrun by the nickel mining industry which no doubt continued to provide financial support to the Balelang regime, turning about they headed for Tagbita.

Tagbita Community Airstrip, Rizal, Palawan Island 2.16pm 1/09/17

Approaching the west coast of the island on the Palawan Circumferential Road they thought they'd maybe missed the turning for the airstrip, it was only when Vrasten U-turned on a long straight stretch of the dirt formed highway they realised they were already on it, not bothering to run down to Tagbita itself they headed back north.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 2.19am 2/09/17

After a leisurely morning doing fuck all they met for lunch & to further discuss the potential for removing 'el presidente' consensus seemed to be that a hit at the coastal retreat was the better option, whilst it would involve an encounter with his entourage it was at least remote from any support forces in Puerta Princesa itself. Vrasten was inclined to a waterborne approach however the others preferred Skinpin's thoughts of a big bomb, or at least an adaptation of an ambush on the road when the president was returning from the retreat, putting the details aside until they returned to Mariposa Vrasten hit the keyboard for satellite & map images of the retreat, whilst the resolution wasn't fantastic it did give them a reasonable idea of the retreats layout.

Thinking in terms of required equipment & whilst hey liked the idea of a plane ready & waiting on the Inandeng airstrip the time it may have to wait for all to see despite the airstrips remoteness was a an issue, looking further field at the neighbouring islands they found a couple of likely looking spots on the two main islands just off the main coast to the north of Palawan.

On the larger island, Coron, there was a real runway complete with a tin hut buildings & a shop, whilst on the smaller more southerly island, Culio, there was a distinct lack of anything other than a tree cleared strip of land. Both had definite potential.

During the evening they decided to have a look around the next morning for a bolt hole somewhere near Inandeng.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 8.12am 3/09/17

Before leaving the hotel the next morning T-Bird inquired at the hotel reception if there was any mail for him having been winding the others up that after his photograph with the President the week previous he was expecting An invite for lunch, surprisingly there was an actually an envelope baring his name.

Casually he opened the envelope & found a signed 'to my american friend' A4 colour head & shoulders photograph of his encounter with President Kuratong Balelang, proudly he showed this to the others before asking the receptionist if she could get it framed for him, in a suddenly less familiar tone than they'd been spoken to for the last month she took the envelope from him & turned away.

Inandeng, San Vicente, Palawan Island 1.43pm 3/09/17

On route north Alex, to busy talking, had become somewhat blasé in her driving ability on the occasionally treacherous Palawan roads, as they neared the San Vicente area she almost managed to pile the hire car into a thirty-five foot deep ravine, fortunately she recovered in time & paid somewhat more attention to the road ahead.

Having scouted out the area they had happened upon a gated track that bore several faded warning signs, intrigued these were ignored & the gate opened.

Down a rutted track they found themselves in a small abandoned quarry, scattered around were several rusting bits of quarrying plant & the remains of a few tin shacks, anything useful having long been removed. Poking around the quarry looked as if it had several feet of water in the base quarry face rose some twenty feet above the water line.

Whilst it had potential for a last stand there was some disagreement as to whether a last stand was really what they wanted.

Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 7.26pm 3/09/17

Driving back into Puerta Princesa that evening T-Bird glanced out of the rear windshield & frowned just for a moment he was positive they'd picked up a tail as they drove through the city streets.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 7.57pm 3/09/17

Back at the hotel Alex watched from reception, across the road a nondescript car was sat against the kerb maybe eighty yards short of the hotel parking lot, she was sure it was the car T-Bird had spotted earlier, after around twenty minutes it drove away, as the car drove past the hotel Vrasten picked out two male occupants, the passenger on the phone, both glanced towards the hotel as they drove by.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 10.38am 6/09/17

Satisfied that all that was to be accomplished had been the four decided to spend the last couple of days again being tourists & wandered happily around Puerta Princesa for a couple of days in anticipation of catching the Thursday ferry on the following morning.

Several times since driving back into town on the previous Sunday they'd felt themselves being watched rather more keenly by members of the Mapang-api Lalaki brotherhood or at least local thugs acting on their behalf however doing nothing more than strolling around the cities streets they were happy to let it pass without causing trouble.

Hibiscus Hotel, Puerta Princesa, Palawan Island 6.04am 7/09/17

With hire car off hired & hotel bill settled & T-Bird proudly carrying his framed print of himself & the president they headed down to the ferry terminal & with no fuss or problems boarded the Manila ferry.

Pier 2, North Harbour, Manila, Philippines 8.42am 8/09/17

After an uneventful trip back to Manila Vrasten hit the booking office in search of flights back to San Francisco, they were lucky as there were still seats on that afternoons' American Airlines flight out of Ninoy Aquino, with check in starting in around two hours they took a taxi straight to the airport.

T-Bird sulked, he'd been hoping for an overnight stay & a renewed friendship with Mindy & friends.

SFO, San Francisco, Southern California 3.27am 9/09/17

Twenty-two hours later but with the clocks telling them they'd only taken off around thirteen hours ago Alex, T-Bird, Skinpin & Vrasten stumbled off the Y3 Ecoliner & sleepily followed the signs for passport control, ahead of the queue Alex dragged her bags towards the nothing to declare passage trying to ignore T-Bird wittering about looking forward to seeing the girls faces when he gave them their presents.

Distracted she didn't pat attention at first to the immigration officer who asked her to answer a few questions.

For the next hour an a half all four answered immigrations questions concerning their trip to a 'blacklisted' destination, eventually satisfied that the four didn't represent a danger they were allowed to repack their bags & leave the airport, fortunately, Vrasten & Skinpin's, still traveling incognito, false ID didn't let them down.

Outside of the arrivals lounge Skinpin asked how they were getting back to Mariposa.

SFO, San Francisco, Southern California 5.08am 9/09/17

After waking Hercaclio & demanding he get his arse on the road & come collect them Alex relented but having then had to listen to just how busy he was she told him to stay where he was as they'd get a taxi.

Uzzit farm (AKA Wildgoose Sanctuary) Mariposa 2.27pm 9/09/17

Jet lagged they pulled up in front of the ranch & stepped out of the taxi, Vrasten paid the bill & subconsciously added it to the expenses, as the taxi pulled away they turned as the barn door opened . . . . .

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