One man is wounded and stuck in a remote and extremely isolated location. There is a river nearby, the clock is running down. According to my CIA World Fact book the river (the Komoe in Burkina Faso) could support a seaplane.

The rescue is coming from a few hundred miles away (Bamako the capital of Mali which is one of the bottom 5 poorest countires in the world), helicopter not an option. Only this is an unexpected twist so no one in the support group had planned on a seaplane contingency.

Their under the gun and need to be bold. Solution. As good American's they throw money at the problem. The Niger river (3rd largest in Africa) runs through Bamako. It would be acceptable that a person would have a seaplane.

Only this isn't Tampa or Seattle or something, the idea that they could just walk into a dealer and fly away in fifteen minutes seems too much deuxma machina (excuse my frantic spelling). So I want them to make a seaplane owner an offer they can't resfuse. Twice the value of the plane (about 450k) in cash for the ignition keys.

I also don't want to take what might be a complicated financial transfer in a counrty like Mali and make it seem so easy readers go "oh, BS!"

Because of the plot parameters a tech trade is out. Diamonds are rife in the area as Liberia floods the region with blackmarket stones to get around UN sanctions -- as does Sierria Leone. But if the average person was offer a cool mil in stones would they be comfortable enough as a gemologist to know the rocks weren't cubic zirconium?

Maybe they should just steal the plane. Streamlines everything I guess.

I like you guys.

Writers are problem solvers.

Here's how I decided to solve this problem. I didn't understand seaplanes very well so I was just going to have them buy their way out of trouble by purchasing a seaplane.

Apperantly pontoons can come in kits. I already had a plane they were using for support in the operation. Instead of trying to find a seaplane for sale (charter wouldn't work because they're going into hot LZ and know it so they couldn't let some West African puddle jumper walk into a ambush, plus op-sec)) all they need to do is have enough money for a conversion kit and a extra for baksheesh to get the mechanics to do it NOW.

This was a really minor bridge scene to get to the finally climax -- I just didn't want to seem like a chump writing about bank transfers and bulk money. Like in Miami Vice when a million dollars comes in a 8" by 10" briefcase or something.

Good ideas all around. If anyone would like their name used for somebody Bolan kills just let me know

---

VIEW IMAGE

It would work. I avoid using it for a couple of reasons, some more sound than others.

In the original thought process we were talking about a nealy a million dollars. A money order for a million dollars? Okay, Steve Forbes sends Donald Trump a money order for a million dollars they have a real estate transaction and Donald's bank accepts Steve's money order.

Is a grease monkey or shady pilot in a 3rd world country going to walk into a bank in a repressive regime and turn that over with no problem? Maybe, but it feels wrong somehow to me. Also this was a bribe designed to get the person to circumvent normal procedures and simply hand over the keys to a plane, no questions ask. For emotional impact on this suspiscious businessman a pile of cash shoved in his face seemed to have a little more oomph.

Also this operation is black. A system of money tracking, identification requirments and bank records now leaves a money trail that could point to where a plane used in a shootout within the borders of a soverign nation came from. How did the guy picking up the wire transfer prove himself to bank clerks? They wont just take his word for it. Did he show a passport or other photo ID? Are copies made in transactions over a certain amount which would show the picture? Ect, ect. Then the money order would have to be cashed by the person it was given to. A paper trail linking plane to owner, owner to buyer, buyer to illegal operation, operator to a photo ID involved in an unusual business transaction. A complicated 'black' financial network would have to be put in place.

Now it is simply a matter of bribing a local aircraft mechanic to perform a perfectly legal conversion on a plane already 'clean' for operational purposes: immediately. A cashier check or money order from the state bank to cover the cost plus generous bundle of cash to get them to do it right now seems a lot less fraught with potential anti-money laundering procedures than walking into a bank in a crap-hole country in Africa and walking out with 60+ lbs of cash.