Hard Case VI: The Killer Inside (John Harding Book 6) (10 page)

“Will do.” I turned to Tom. “Laredo will load you all on the street, so bring your men down, and give us a hand with the prisoner loading.”

Tom called his men down for a quick reunion with Smitty and Angela. They then carted our wounded prisoners out to the street as the sound of Laredo’s UH-60 approached. Clint and Casey handled street level security along with the Seals while they boarded. Denny loaded on board as we previously decided. He was too high profile a figure to leave dangling in Mexico. He would take charge of the Isis prisoners, including the woman Crue dragged along, when Laredo touched down. The minions would secure the Mexican side of the tunnel for us. We didn’t want Laredo flying back across unless absolutely necessary. Denny would also assume networking operations duty with Jafar at his side in case we needed full throttle authorization for something juicy. If these assholes were storing WMD’s for transport, we’d do the laser guiding of a strike to end the threat using a Reaper Drone. Once Laredo was again in the air heading to the USA, Casey relieved Lucas for covering outside movement.

I turned then to Gus, Silvio, and Quays. “We’ll be networked in with you three the entire time until we make our way to the tunnel. If a force moves on you, call Achmed. He’ll be in contact with Chuck and Sal. They’ll help hold the tunnel until we can retreat to you.”

“Not to worry, John,” Gus said. “We have enough firepower to hold off even a squad of Cartel soldiers. It may be though you’ll have to go to ground somewhere, and have Laredo meet you at a new LZ. Once they go to war at the tunnel, it won’t be safe for a crossing through there.”

Gus is really getting very good at this. “Right on all counts, Gus. If you have to retreat to the other side because we do go to ground, blow the tunnel.”

“Will do. We’re leaving you the big GMC we left for you at the tunnel to get here. Good luck. Hopefully, we will see you all soon at the tunnel.” The minions left in the Toyota they had driven Crue around in to get Angela. I went into the garage again where Lucas watched near the busted opening.

“Good op so far, Recon.”

I could hear the sizzle of Taser needles, so Crue was hard at work on Lut. I could see he wasn’t getting a chance to speak yet. His mouth was gagged. “I see Crue is barbequing today.”

Lucas chuckled. “Yeah, we should be on our way shortly.”

I rejoined Clint and Lynn near our key asset. Lut’s groin sprouted a couple of Taser needles. I could tell by his pain engulfed features that Lynn was nearly done with the warmup. She gave Lut another five second bolt of agony before glancing at me.

“I’m glad the Snow Whites left. Lut thought he was going to be a tough guy. He didn’t know I was going to repay him for his time with Smitty. I believe he understands we aren’t the regular federal authorities.” She reached out to grab his cheek. “You’re all set to take us to that other nasty hideout of yours, aren’t you Lutty?”

A virulent head nod indicated Lut would be most cooperative. Clint removed the gag. Lut started to speak, but Lynn smacked him in the face.

“Did I tell you to speak?”

Lut shook his head, lips tightening into a clamped line.

“We want the address of where your other house is, how many guards there are, and how many of you Isis fruitcakes are living there. Then I want to know what you bunch figure on doing at Coronado. Take a breath, and answer in detail. We have satellite coverage of anything you give us so we’ll be able to check on your information in real time. If you lie, you’ll be begging to die. Do you understand? Nod if you do.”

Lut nodded.

“Good. You record Cheese. I want to watch Lut’s face while Clint holds his head steady. I only want to do this once.”

“You’re on with Achmed already, Crue. He’ll check as fast as Lut can speak.”

Lynn nodded, and knelt in front of Lut, while Clint grabbed the man by his ears, holding Lut’s face absolutely steady. “Okay, Lutty, start talking.”

Half an hour later, we traveled toward our next destination, until Achmed the Terrorist broke in on the network. “John, you have two bogies on their way to you, leaving from the address Lut gave you. They’re driving two Humvees. Intercept in seven minutes at the speed you’re each traveling. There is an open area on your right in five hundred yards. It’s an open intersection.”

“Got it, Achmed. Nice work. We’ll take them in the open.”

I liked the intersection Jafar picked out on Pradera with gated adobe buildings on the four corners. Their graffiti decorated walls didn’t blend our black GMC in very well. I drove onto the empty sidewalk on the left, where a small cement outcropping protected the corner building’s gateway entrance.

“I’ll go on top of the building with the M107. I’ll stop the Humvees before they get into the intersection. Do you guys think you can handle the travelers?”

Jafar and Denny, who had joined him, were enjoying the one liners I was immediately plastered with by my Monsters. Lynn in particular loved the thought of ambushing a couple of moving vehicles. I hurriedly moved atop the SUV, and onto the adobe building roof. I sighted in the street ahead they would be moving along. My companions moved into position to complete the ambush. The M107 ammunition we use will pierce armor. I didn’t want to simply put one through the driver. That would sometimes be the beginning of unintended consequences. If he jammed his foot to the floor on the accelerator as his last act, we would be in trouble.

I would put a few rounds through the radiator and block. Then I’d fix the driver. The Hummer following would slow, not knowing why the leader stopped. The second driver would be tricky, but our M107 fires a ten round clip of armor piercing incendiary loads. It was created for this. It’s not much of a prisoner capture weapon. When one of those ten rounds hits a person anywhere, the shock is enough to kill them. I spotted a dust cloud approaching. Clint fired a few rounds to discourage witnesses peeking or walking out of their dwellings to see what was going on in the intersection. They took the hint.

The Hummers traveled at what looked like a forty mile per hour clip. I waited until the front vehicle reached fifty yards from the intersection. I then put three rounds through the front grill and into the block. My next three wiped out the two occupants in the front. The last four in the clip stitched across the front seat of the second Hummer with bloody devastating effect. Lucas called out in Arabic and Spanish for the riders to come out. I popped in another clip, and put a round through the roof of each vehicle. Once the occupants endured that armor piercing wakeup call, they came out. There were eight of them who emerged calling out they were surrendering. I checked in with Achmed the Terrorist.

“No police coming your way, or anyone else for that matter,” Jafar said. “The fix is in. They figured to investigate after the Cartel soldiers finished with you. Gus says the tunnel is still clear. I doubt they thought the ones at the tunnel would need more than reinforcements.”

“Bring what you have home, John,” Denny said. “If there are any more addresses we need to get, I’m sure Crue will get them.”

“Damn right,” the aforementioned Cruella Deville cut in. “Cheeseburger scared the shit out of these weasels. The rest of us didn’t get to fire a shot. There will be blood!”

“We’ll need the second Hummer, Crue, windshield or not. Put the dead in the other Hummer, and clean the front seat for me.”

In the midst of appreciation for my cleaning order from our fellow monsters, I disembarked from the roof, listening to Crue’s favorite and very effective threat.

“Lucas and I have your ass Tuesday, Cheese. Gonna’ do some pokin’ then, boy. Yep. Gonna’ do some pokin’ then. By the time I get done with you, you’ll be huggin’ the sharks, begging for asylum. Oh please, Mr. Shark, please don’t make me swim so close to the boat.”

Not for the first time did I contemplate sudden retirement from the cage. The only way I had a chance against that big bastard Berserker though was the Bay poking jamboree. I kept my mouth shut. I decided as already planned to clean my own seat in the Hummer.

Chapter Four

Business as Usual

I flew us all home after parting ways with Chuck and Sal. We definitely cemented a solid connection with Lucas’s friends and Red Dragon Security. As Chuck claimed, they’d never seen any force move on a mission like we did. That we got Smitty back, and captured an Isis war party on foreign soil trying to pull off an attack on a US Naval Base, meant something much deeper to those two than a successful mission. Lieutenant Commander Tom gave us a pledge to repay us for what we had done with no questions asked, anytime or anywhere. Having a Seal Team on our pad was not to be taken lightly. Smitty was so happy to be alive with Angela, he threatened jokingly that he was going to quit the Seals and join us. His team threatened to put him back in Mexico. A good time was had by all before our flight home. We left the three Mexican Nationals with Homeland Security agents Denny called to take them off our hands. The seven ‘Other Than Mexican’ Isis cell members came with us. Tonto rode with me in the front as copilot.

They rode first class in the back with Crue and the minions warming them up for their stay at Pain Central. Naturally, I had the show on audio and video while I piloted. Our leaving the area immediately had been one of the conditions for everyone on the USA side of the border to look the other way. The mayhem on both sides was blamed diplomatically on the drug cartel lore of territorial wars for drug distribution. Crue’s main components in the back were Fahima and Lut. God help those two, because she had taken a liking to them. Every moment she wasn’t with Clint Jr, she would wander by her two new toys, stroking their cheeks, or brushing back their hair. The minions showed inflight movies of Crue’s classic interrogations. Midway through the first movie Fahima was bawling her eyes out. Crue handed off Clint Jr to his Father. She crouched down in front of Fahima. Crue slapped her across the face hard enough to bathe Lut’s face with snot and tears. They were both restrained.

“Shut the fuck up, girlie. The boys here are warming you two up for the real action. Pay attention. Those movies will inspire you. When we touchdown if Cheeseburger can land this thing, I want to hear you two beg me for the opportunity to help us. Do you understand what I just said to you?”

“Yes, Mistress!”

I saw Crue smile. “That’s better, my little apple dumpling. Now no more whining and crying or Momma gonna’ punish.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

Crue grabbed Lut’s ear, shaking the terrified man’s head. “You don’t look motivated, Lutty. Your bitch knows how to answer when I’m speaking to her. If you don’t get respectful real quick, I may have to start on you without the warmup. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mistress!” Lut understood.

“That’s a little better. Our group has been reading all these big time headlines about Isis this and Isis that, and Isis will attack America at will. You can imagine, since we think all of you are nothing but chicken-shit baby killers, that we’re getting tired of the headlines. We’re the ones the government dick-wads call when they decide America’s had enough. Guess what, we got the call. Watch the movies, and contemplate how many ways you can help us so I don’t have to make all of you stars in your own videos.”

“Yes, Mistress!” That response came in a chorus. I saw Gus chuckle, and restart the movies.

I switched to audio with Denny. “What did you think, Den?”

“I think those movies are worth their weight in gold. I know Crue will probably hate not having her hand in every single interrogation, but she has a child now. Maybe she’ll be okay with handling the ones the movies don’t scare.”

“So far, that would be zero.” The movies were so effective, Lut in the warehouse was the first one in a while she had personally interrogated. The gangbangers we had taken for questioning never made it through one showing before they told us anything we wanted to know.

“She has her Hollywood Bounty Hunters to direct too, if you’d quit screwin’ around and catch those bank robbers for the Feds, Crue can make a nice little handoff episode. We will also get a big IOU on our behalf from the Feds. Don’t forget about the ‘Riverbank Strangler’ case.”

“Not to worry. Clint’s been putting together an attack plan since the MIB’s made a surprise visit at the soccer game. He has a small problem in that Dannie and Amara both want to act as bait because the Strangler has killed four college age girls from either Sacramento State or the University of Davis. Dannie’s taking classes at Davis along with her regular schedule at Cal State East Bay. Amara was already a student at Davis and Sac State when she was in Sacramento.”

“Has he found anything the Feds haven’t for a pattern?”

“Not yet, but we’ve been a little busy as you know. Clint and Lynn will work the ‘Riverbank Strangler’ while Tommy and I take a look around the seedier side of San Jose we have some connections in. We have a bunch of barkeeps on the tab down there. I texted Tommy about a payoff if Bonnie and Clyde are spotted. He’ll let our contacts know. If those two have a touch of the stupid in them, we might get lucky. Otherwise, we’ll have to go down and look around. I know you have your feelers out about border problems. How’d we do foraging into Mexico?”

“So far, so good,” Denny answered. “That we got Smitty back in one piece is enough juice for the government weenies to turn a deaf ear concerning tactics or methods. Red Dragon gave us their info on other tunnels, which Homeland Security is busily sealing even as we speak.”