Globusz^® Publishing 

Henry borrowed a car from the police in Batumi and drove up to Tbilisi to get on the western road and catch up to Tafar Rasulon. What immediately caught his eye for some unexplainable reason was the number of churches that sat on hillsides throughout the Georgian countryside.

After the long night with next to no sleep and the aroma of freshly cooked food emanating from the many cafes that lined the main street in Tbilisi, he decided that some coffee and a snack could be just what he needed to keep his alertness high. He quickly ran into a diner, grabbed a coffee and pastry to go. When he walked out of the diner eating the pastry, he saw something that immediately caught his eye. Across the street at a hotel there was a line up of identical BMW motorcycles parked out front where a few of the bikers were standing around chatting about their itinerary for the day. Henry walked over to them and was relieved when he heard them speaking English.

“Sounds like you boys are having a good tour of Eastern Europe,” Henry said.

“Yeah, not bad,” one of the bikers said.

“These are nice bikes,” Henry said, “Good power, good gas mileage, comfortable seat, I could see why you would want one of these out here on this terrain.”

“Yeah, their okay,” another biker said.

“I wouldn’t suppose I could buy one of these right down the street.”

“Not likely,” another biker said, if we need parts, we have to call Germany and get them sent over-night to us.”

“But these are good quality, you shouldn’t have many problems at all, what does something like this sell for, five or six grand?” Henry asked leaning over to inspect one of the motorcycles.

“Yeah, somewhere around there,” another biker said.

Henry straightened up from looking down at the bike and set his coffee cup on a nearby newspaper stand. He threw his leg over the seat and sat down on the motorcycle to get a feel for it. He then said to the more personable biker, “I’m kind of in a hurry and I could use one of these, I’ll give you ten grand for it.”

The bikers looked at each other in disbelief until the biker that Henry made the offer to replied, “Damn, that’s really tempting, mister, but, no, I don’t think so.”

At that moment a tall muscular biker came out of the hotel and walked up to the group to see what was going on.

“If I told you I was on official business for the American Government, would that make a difference?” Henry asked.

“Actually, were taking a vacation over here to get a way from the American Government,” the biker said to the laughter of his friends.

“Henry rocked side to side and balanced himself on the motorcycle when the big biker said, “I don’t think there’s a deal happening here, mister, so you’d better get off the bike and move along.”

Henry stepped off the motorcycle and ignored the big biker as he pulled out his wallet and walked up to the biker that he thought might be considering his deal.

“I’ll give you ten grand and my phone number, you could call me in one week, tell me where you are and I’ll have the bike flown to your location, and you get to keep the money.”

Before the biker could say anything, the big biker stepped right in front of Henry and said, “You don’t hear very well, mister, I said to move along.”

Henry looked up at the biker that was a full head taller and said, “I wasn’t talking to you, would you kindly move aside.”

“No, I won’t move aside, I asked you to move on,” said the biker as he grabbed Henry by the shoulders with his big hands. Henry quickly uppercut the biker with two swift punches from both fists. As the biker fell back against a wall, Henry moved up to him and with a simulated leg kick, he held his leg high keeping his foot against the big biker’s neck, choking and holding him against the wall.

“I need to finish my business, and I’ll need you to leave me alone, do you think you could do that?”

The now stunned and bewildered big man nodded his head affirmatively. Henry released the big biker who fell to his knees, and walked straight over to the other biker and said, “Ten grand now and if the bike and I make it, I’ll return it to you in one week.”

The biker threw his keys to Henry who in return handed the biker a wad of money.

“We’re probably the same size, I could sure use those too,” Henry said as he pointed to the biker’s leather coat and gloves. The biker removed them without hesitation and handed them to Henry who put the leather coat on.

“Do you want mine?” Henry asked, thinking that his light jacket might be of some use if the biker had to ride on the back of one of his friends’ bikes until Henry returned his.

“Thanks,” the biker said more for the sake of not wanting to offend Henry. He knew that with ten thousand dollars, he could certainly buy a much better coat.

Without missing a beat, Henry grabbed his coffee that he set on a newspaper stand, gulped it down, jumped on the bike, started it up and pulled it over to his car to unload what he would need to continue his pursuit of Tafar Rasulon.