Hard Case VI: The Killer Inside (John Harding Book 6) (11 page)

“Chuck and Sal were surprised once they started doing a private sector investigation for us on tunnels. It didn’t take them long with some very basic investigative methods. It makes me wonder about our government’s dedication to keeping us safe by letting thousands of illegal voters swarm across our borders.”

“We’ll have to shelve that question for the time being until we see how this plays out. Although they said they would keep tabs on border incursions for free, I put Red Dragon on the payroll to help us as an early warning system like Alexi does at the ports along the coast. They said they’re going to create a network of informants on both sides of the border. It will be a great investment for us. Our agencies are trying to work with their hands tied behind their backs.”

“That sounds good to me. I-”

“Wait one, John.”

Denny came back in thirty seconds. “Achmed the Terrorist called. He’s on the way to the hospital with Samira. He asked if you could take care of Naji for him. I’ll head there with Maria. Can you and the minions settle our guests in?”

“Yep. I’ll be landing in less than twenty minutes. I’ll tell the gang Achmed’s line is about to extend. You know Lynn will be heading there with Clint and the baby, along with her entourage of Dannie and Amara. I have Tonto next to me in the copilot’s chair. He loves messing around with Naji, so I’ll take them both with me.”

“See you then sometime tomorrow since you won’t be in the Bay.”

“That’s for sure. We have to sort out our new helpers. Besides, Lynn promised me a double poking session Tuesday. Lucky me.”

“I saw the Viking. You better start living in the Bay. It would be nice if the vacation at the Mandalay Bay didn’t end with a funeral.”

“Gee… thanks for that, Spawn.” I get no respect.

“I’ll call with updates, John.”

“Cheese out.”

I used the intercom. “Crue to the bridge.”

Lynn arrived about a minute later with Clint Jr. in his pouch, and Clint steadying them both although I had our plane as steady as any plane can get.

“What’s the matter, Cheese? Did you want Tonto to relieve you?”

“Denny said Achmed’s heading to the hospital with Samira. I’ll take Tonto, and pick up Naji if you and Clint want to take Dannie and Amara with you to the hospital.”

“Oh yeah! I have to see my baby Sis through this.”

“Will you be okay settling in the prisoners without me,” Clint asked.

“We’ll be fine. You need to go in case something unforeseen happens. Denny will be there; but it would be best to have you there too when Achmed faints dead away, and you have to take his place. Lucas and Casey will stick around for a few minutes until the minions and I get them settled in.”

Clint knew what I meant about the unforeseen things that can happen to the Monster Squad. He and Lynn enjoyed my take on Achmed’s mental state as a soon to be Dad in the delivery room.

I thought of the other somewhat complicated potential visitor. “I’m not sure he’ll come, knowing how much of a price is on his head, but Grandpa Karim may want to see his new granddaughter. If he does, we’ll have to protect him. He lives in a compound in Saudi Arabia due to his efforts on America’s behalf in Afghanistan. I’m sure Denny’s already giving it some thought, but I wanted you two to know. Badee Karim is one tough old man, but he’s not bullet or bomb proof.”

“If he comes, we’ll take care of him,” Lynn said. “If worse comes to worse, we’ll round up the usual suspects and execute them before his arrival.”

I admit to laughing inappropriately at that protection plan.

* * *

I walked with Gus, Quays, and Silvio to our main conference room at Pain Central with Naji and Tonto following us. Casey and Lucas sipped coffee, awaiting the outcome of our prisoner care. After the inflight movies, there had been nothing but silent acceptance of fate after they convinced even Cruella Deville of their willingness to do anything she said. Luckily, after our last major prisoner housing shortage, we had increased our security lockdown cells to ten. We were able to give Fahima her own cell. If they were unhappy about anything, they were unhappy silently. I had collected Naji from Jafar and Samira’s home. He and Tonto amused the Monsters on the way to Pain Central with the prisoners. Whenever one of them would even shift positions, the dogs snarled at their legs.

“We’re stopping by the hospital on the way home,” Lucas said. “Samira gave birth in an hour and fifteen minutes after arrival. We barely have enough time to visit before she’ll be coming home.”

“I know. Lora was so jealous, I think she was considering heading to the hospital and slapping Sam around a little. Lora was in labor for twenty hours with Al. Denny said they’re going to allow her to come home with the baby tonight.”

“I hope Anna lucks out with a delivery like Sam’s,” Casey said. “She’s already sweating it because long hard labors run in her family. I expect we’ll see you on the boat Tuesday. You’re lucky we finished this caper in time for you to take Monday off. You better get home, walk the dogs, and enjoy tomorrow’s blessed off day.”

“I’m going to work out inside for a few hours, and watch the Viking videos Achmed the Terrorist gathered for me. The prick warned me not to watch them before I went to bed. Otherwise, I could kiss sleep goodbye.”

“Are you taking The Sea Wolf out, Lucas?”

“Yep. We have to keep the Wolf primed. Did you guys want to do some fishing while Lynn and Tommy poke the Great Banana?”

“Since John will be in the Bay every day, we figure we can take turns with the prisoners, and get some fishing in from the Wolf. There’s a lot more room, even with Dev and Jess on board,” Quays said. “How’s the Wolf been running since being returned to you from overseas?”

“Real fine, and since they protected it against EMP attacks, there won’t be any more dead in the water episodes like when those fools tried to get us on that family day cruise. That was dicey. After that one, my wife said she’s never cruisin’ with me.”

“We’re ready to back you if you get any hits on the bank robbers, John,” Casey said. “Have you figured how you want to take them?”

“If they’re in a bar, Tommy and I are going to go in nice and friendly. Then I’m going to Gronk the guy with Tommy sparking the woman if she makes a move.”

“I’m surprised Crue knows about the bank robbers, and doesn’t insist on getting a piece of the take down. That’s a dangerous oversight, partner.”

“Lucas is right, John. What were you thinking?”

With the amused agreement from the minions of Casey’s declaration, I gave it some more thought. “I think I’ll call Crue if we get a solid sighting.”

“You have chosen… wisely,” Gus finished me off.

* * *

“We need to get a dog, Dad

“We have two of them right here, Al,” I reasoned. We were walking around Lake Merritt with our killer canines. Both Tonto and Naji were trained attack dogs. They got along like two pups out of the same litter. Tonto, of course, had gone through extensive combat and prank training. The combat training Clint had done, including live fire missions, Tonto excelled at. Lynn, seeing how trainable Tonto was, infected Clint with an imaginative prank training regimen where Tonto reacted differently when addressed as Agent Tonto. He could be ordered to do everything from pissing on the Cheeseburger’s leg to pissing on prisoners’ legs and property. Tonto was very good at it I might add.

“They don’t belong to us.”

“They love us, and we can borrow them anytime we want.” Lora was not a dog person. She liked being around them as long as they belonged to someone else.

“It’s because of Mom, huh?”

“Oh… you noticed the facial expression when I brought home Tonto and Naji for a visit,” I replied with a grin. “If it wasn’t for my pointing out the importance of Clint and Lynn being with Samira and Jafar, I’d be sleeping on the couch tonight with Tonto and Naji. You didn’t see her grabbing a jacket to come along on our little walk with the dogs, did you?”

Al smirked a little, and walked on, nodding her head. “Yeah, she really doesn’t get excited when she sees these two, and they’re the best dogs in the world. When Clint had Tonto pee on your leg with only a gesture, I thought that was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. That reminds me, since we’re looking after Naji. Why do you call Jafar Achmed the Terrorist? I’ve seen the comedian, Jeff Dunham, do those skits with the different puppets, but doesn’t Jafar get mad?”

“We referred to him as Achmed the Terrorist as a joke one time. He liked the nickname so much, Jafar talks about himself in third person as Achmed.”

“That’s funny. I can’t believe it. You guys hunt terrorists. I guess it’s a better nickname than Cheeseburger.”

Ouch! “Very funny. It’s getting dark already. I should have been paying more attention. We don’t come out here enough. It’s beautiful. Too bad your Mom gave us the brush off on our Lake trip. Tonto and Naji like it out here.”

The two dogs scampered around on the extended leashes, but immediately heeled at sight of an oncoming person, with an animal or without one. The other dogs we ran across were not so well mannered though. One look from Tonto or Naji, and their manners improved. As always, no matter where the Cheeseburger goes, trouble follows. The clear, darkening sky, highlighted by a gentle breeze, and temperature in the high sixties – all doomed by Cheeseburger Karma. I saw them coming toward us. I may not have mentioned it’s a better idea to see Lake Merritt in the daytime. As nightfall arrives, it transforms the Lake path into a more dangerous zone. There were six of them in a group, grab-assing around, taking up the entire pathway.

“C’mon Al, let’s go down to the water.” We were in the loop near Adam’s Point. We were approaching the place where I usually turn us around anyway. Tonto and Naji liked the idea to go off the pathway too. Unfortunately, the penguin pants bunch decided to follow us. I’m nearly six and a half feet tall in my shoes, and I have two dogs who look like they could be pulling a sled in Alaska. How smart is it to mess with a combination like that even if you did think having a young girl along might give the guy and his dogs second thoughts? The only thought it gave me was to pull my .45 Colt, and shoot them all in the head. I thought maybe they wouldn’t want to get their Air Jordans wet in the grass. No such luck.

“Yo… big man!”

If it wasn’t for having Al with me, this would be fun. I knew what Tonto and Naji could do. They didn’t. “Stay behind me Al.”

“Okay, Dad. There’s a lot of them.”

“Not to Tonto and Naji,” I whispered back as I turned to face the penguin pants crew. I saw some very colorful underwear sticking out for me to see. How nice. I was already thinking of genius ways to defuse the situation when the two big ones in the front attacked, one with a knife. Shit!

The guy with the knife lunged. I hit him so hard I probably killed his whole family and three or four squirrels nearby in the trees. His partner found out what my side hand strike felt like as I leaped and broke his collar bone. “Guard!”

I stood back then by Al as Agent Tonto and Naji reduced the remaining four to screaming, writhing piles on the ground. If Al had been home, I would have said the other magic word, and left their bloody corpses next to the lake. “Hold.”

Agent Tonto and Naji stopped ripping at appendages, and leaped about their victims with fangs grazing necks while snarling blood curdling promises of violent intent. I let them have some fun for a few moments while I called Earl’s cell to see if maybe he was on duty. He answered on the first ring.

“Dark Lord. How may I assist you?”

“By telling me you’re on duty with ‘Rique, and you can send a meat wagon to Adam’s Point without pissing off the cops who actually have this area on their beat.”

“Done and done. Deaths?”

“I don’t think so, but Tonto and Naji raked four of them, and I broke a collar bone on one of them.”

“How many were there, John?”

“Six, but you’ve seen Tonto and Naji.”

“Yeah, I have. Should we wait a while for you to question them?”

“No. There’s too many, and Al’s with me. I’ll do some preliminary questioning, because I’ll need to know if someone put them on to me. This looks like a setup, either planned or incidental. They may have recognized me, and the Oaktown Cartel is getting pretty well known. Thanks for doing this, my friend.”

“No problem, John. It’s a quiet night here in your area. Maybe you should have stayed near your own neighborhood.”

“Gee, thanks for that, Earl. It’s great as a preview of what will be coming from Lora. See you in a while.”

“Would you turn around for a moment Al. Check out the beautiful moonlight on the water for a few moments, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.” She turned around, and also covered her ears comically.

I walked over and kicked broken collar bone in the face. He was making too much noise. After moving the knife away from Mr. Out-cold, I crouched near where Tonto and Naji were having a good time doing what they were trained to do. See, dogs love people naturally, but they also love performing feats they learn in training.

“Okay, guys, who wants to tell me who turned you bunch onto me?

“38
th
Locos! They… got a price on your head, Harding.”

Interesting. We might have to erase one of the gangs from this plane of existence. “Did you follow me here, or see me walk the path?”