Hard Case VI: The Killer Inside (John Harding Book 6) (21 page)

“Hi kids. You two look like you saw a ghost. I figured happy days ahead with summer vacation a day away.”

Jim, the spokesman, launched right into squelching any notion I had of the rumor mill fading quickly. “We heard you were in a gun battle, and there were dead people all over.”

“Yeah,” Kara added.

Al, of course, was giggling. I got right in front of the statement. “Now Jim… did you or Kara see dead people all over the place?”

“Well… no… but you prob’ly hid ‘em.”

“Would you and Kara like to come inside and check my house before we leave for school?”

“No sir!” Kara didn’t like that thought. “I don’t want to see any dead people.”

“Me either!” Jim looked ready to flee back to his house.

Al put hands on hips. “Hey, you two. I live in that house. There aren’t any bodies in there.”

Kara walked tentatively to Al’s side, grasping her hand. “He might have them under the house, Al. You can stay with us if you find out where John hides them. I think they’ll start smellin’ soon.”

I took a deep breath while Al went into laughing fits. “Let’s get going, kids. I still have a long day ahead of me.”

“Who are you killin’ today?” Kara spiked me.

I looked up at the sky. Somewhere in a dark bar, a happy customer was sipping a double Beam with a Bud brother kicker. God how I wished I was with him. Al grabbed my hand.

“C’mon, Dark Lord. I’ll make my minions leave you alone. You’re going to lose your Dark Lord title if you let the six year olds prank you though. We have to get going so Lynn’s not late hooking you in the Bay.”

“Gee… thanks for that lovely parting gift.”

* * *

I guessed right, whipped onto my back while launching the sweetest side-hand strike yet. It tore the pole out of Lynn’s hands as she yelped from the recoil of the strike. The pole dangled while I waved at Lynn. If she had a harpoon handy, I’d be making a run for it like the yellow Moby Dick. She suddenly grabbed the pole again, and I knew it would be hook the tuna time. The object of this hook drill was for me to sense it, spin while seizing it, and position my legs in perfect position to mimic an arm bar. If I did it correctly, when Lucas halted the Wolf, I would not feel a thing other than swinging on the pole as we came to a stop. If I didn’t get the right grip, the force of the Wolf’s stopping would slam me into the hook, nearly ripping my head off. I’d been in the water for nearly an hour, battling first Tommy and then Lynn. I had only been able to defeat the hook twice, but I learned quickly how to get into a position if I missed that would not cripple me.

“Get it moving, Pappy! War has just been declared.” Lynn was panting while holding her weapon. Lucas walked back and patted her shoulder while signaling me aboard.

“We have to dump bodies on the way to combat, Crue. I need Recon in one piece.”

Lynn shook her fist at me after throwing the pole down. “To the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee!”

I’m stroking like I had Jaws on my ass, hearing wild amusement at Lynn’s screams of vengeance. I’d have to skip the little satisfied wave after a good strike. You’d think nearly tearing my head from my shoulders numerous times would be enough, but damn… Ahab’s curse at Moby Dick… really? I scrambled aboard, keeping my head down until I saw Clint with an arm around his wife’s shoulders. Everyone else is laughing their asses off. I don’t trust her not to have some weapon so I stay hugging the fantail until Clint motions me forward.

“Damn, Cheese! You nearly busted my hands.”

I remained silent. I would be back in the water with Crue aboard again tomorrow unless I could get wounded. After that session in the Bay, I wouldn’t mind stepping in front of a bullet. Lord, was I ever stupid thinking I wanted to go to Vegas again to fight. I began stripping off my yellow banana suit, as the other guys drifted over. We needed to start the shark feeding. Lynn had already prepared the bodies with Clint’s help. I went below for a shower with the usual banter making light of my performance in the water. This trip we had Jafar with us. He spent the entire time aboard checking our EMP shielding in addition to creating his own small control room central on the bridge. Devon and Jesse watched our homes while we were away with Dannie, Amara, and of course Tonto looking after Clint Jr. Time between our gang adjustments had been so short, we couldn’t take a chance on retaliation. If I didn’t make it back in time, Jess would escort Lora to get Al and the twins from school.

Crue was particularly caring with Carla, tossing her to our special finned disposal units personally with a wide grin. That was another oversight Denny didn’t know about yet. He wanted Carla around for a while. Crue didn’t like that request, but I talked her into the nod and smile routine while I made sure the minions knew we would be taking Carla with us for final deposit. There was no way in hell we would be taking the chance Carla Guitierrez would be put in prison somewhere she could issue Cartel orders for retaliation. Crue patted her cheek this morning, and gave Carla a hotshot to hell. Then we bagged her like the others. This was no chess game with Denny using Carla as a bargaining chip – too dangerous. The minions knew to act as if everything was great with Carla in holding. We knew at some point today Denny would find out about our adjustment of his orders.

We finished the shark feed with our old buddy, Jeron Thomas. He’d been awaiting his final time in the water for a while. By the time he went overboard, we had a real following of my finned friends. The only news Denny wanted to hear from us since our holding cells were nearly empty was if we could get him more prisoners. I kept a straight face while listening to him. He had stayed behind with Laredo in Central Command. The others were taking turns drifting behind his image on the laptop while doing the Psycho movie shower stabbing scene strokes with imaginary knives.

“We’ll investigate the situation when we intercept, Denny.”

He sighed. “You’re blowing me off. I can tell. The others are doing blasphemous poses or imaginary stabbing at the laptop screen, aren’t they?”

Lucas poked his head around. “We wouldn’t have to if you’d take five seconds, remove your head from your ass, and realize we’re stopping a ship on the high seas full of explosives. We’re going to EMP that sucker dead in the water, and kill everything aboard it with a heartbeat. Is that clear enough for you?”

Denny sighed. “Understood, Ahab. Thanks for asserting your control, Cheese.”

“I’ve learned to be more polite. I said I’d examine the possible prisoner situation. Then, we’d EMP the sucker, and kill everything on it with a heartbeat. You could have entertained thoughts of prisoners until we returned, mission completed, but no prisoners and a great story about how we almost had them. It would have been a great fish that got away story.”

“Could you at least look over the situation before massacring everyone aboard?”

“Sure, Den. Wait one. I stood with hand at sunlight shielding position to my brow as if searching for the white whale to much amusement from my crew. I turned finally toward the screen. “Sorry, Den. It looks like prisoners just won’t be possible.”

“Yeah… thanks for looking… prick. Captain Blood out.”

“Sometimes when Denny gets some really good wins under his belt, he begins losing touch with reality,” I explained. “He’ll be okay once he thinks about it.”

“You don’t have to keep sucking up, Cheese,” Lynn knifed me. “He isn’t even on the screen.”

“This is about the pole strike, isn’t it?”

Lynn smiled. “Everything will be.”

* * *

Lynn kneed me in the shoulder as I awoke with a start. “Wakey… wakey… Cheeseburger.”

After spending the late night on ‘The Roma’ mission followed by escorting Al and the twins to school, the hour in hell with the poke and hook drill made it imperative I doze off for a short time. Naturally, they sent Cruella Deville to awaken the sleeping Cheese. “Hi, Lynn.”

“We have pictures of our target moving into position. The Roma is right where she should be, on the course given us by Pooky. How are you feeling after your first ‘poke and hook’ drills?”

I chuckled while pushing out of the chair I’d been sleeping on below decks. “Why? Were you going to pretend to care?”

Lynn shrugged. “I’m sure someone does somewhere. Your first grade teacher probably cares, but I couldn’t reach her on the phone, so you got me. You haven’t even thanked me for inventing the wonderful training tool.”

“Thank you.” I climbed the ladder to the main deck of the Wolf.

“That sounded insincere, Cheese.”

“Very perceptive, Crue.” On the bridge, Jafar monitored four screens.

Denny ordered an AWACS in the air for our mission without a problem. When a high visibility target like China Basin becomes reality, they pull out all the stops for support. Denny confirmed the mission, because they could have used the Coast Guard, with full military response. Word passed down to Denny. They issued orders to send the Monster Squad with only one rule of engagement – the threat disappears as if it never existed. A judgement to keep the terrorist networks in the dark about everything, including success or failure, would they hoped lead to chatter around the world questioning results - traceable and distinctive enough to produce many more leads. We knew the request for prisoners came from Denny. If they launch the Monster Squad, they want assassins not soldiers. We’re both. Plus, Denny knows he has his interrogation wing, which in this case seems to have stirred his prisoner request idiocy. Then I got thrown a curve by the last person I figured to suggest plan alterations concerning prisoners.

“I have an idea about getting prisoners without risk,” Lynn tells us, but with her Cruella Deville smile because she’s expecting what she gets – groans and moans. “I know with all the explosives on board it will be risky. You guys know Denny’s going to be pissed I sent Carla scuba diving without any gear, not that we care. We could have a little fun though.”

“Fun? This isn’t for fun, Psycho!” I forgot Tommy came along for the training aspect. He told me this was a good mission for him to go on because we would be taking care of business at a distance with backup. He was not too crazy about close order combat on the high seas like we had before the Rattler fight with everyone on board. That experience with getting left dead in the water by an EMP blast from an attacking ship left Tommy with a leery view of sea battles.

“Excuse me?” Cruella issued her intruder alert, nasty face and all. “You shouldn’t even be on the bridge, Snow White Sands. We allowed you along for training purposes. That doesn’t include you running off at the mouth about mission procedure. Get below decks, White Sands.”

“Fine!” Tommy looked around at the amused audience to Crue’s small tantrum. “Man, I hope you guys find your balls before Psycho gets them blown off. I’ll be below, awaiting death and dismemberment. Nice training hour though, John, especially when you nearly fractured Psycho’s wrists with the last strike. I’ll go down and ponder the look of pain and fury on her face when you rattled the pole right out of her hands.”

“You do realize she’s going to take that out on me tomorrow, right T?”

Tommy waved as he went by. “It crossed my mind.”

“Let’s hear it, Crue,” I told her. “Before you go on though, it is clear to you we don’t know what or how many explosive charges they’re planning to transfer, right?”

“All the more reason to do this my way. We have all the scuba gear on board, along with one of your regular black wetsuits.” Lynn paused, smiling at me, as the features in my face went slack along with my jaw.

“Don’t even say it out loud, you sadistic-”

“Stow it, Cheese! This is business. It’s time you stepped up. I think all this estate planning and screwing around with Denny at the conference stages has dulled your edges. You’re not selling real estate you big baby. This is your kind of operation.”

“Recon!” Lucas pumped his fist. Naturally, the old crank backed Lynn’s play. Lately, he’s been feeling like he only has a finite number of missions left, especially aboard The Sea Wolf. Extending this mission from a hunt and kill to a risk filled debacle suddenly sounds good to him, since it involves my being hung out to dry.”

It started as a chant, a shitty, no good rotten piece of peer pressure with all of them joining in. “Recon… Recon… Recon…”

I sat down dejectedly in defeat, waving off their comical chanting. “Get on with it. What kind of suicide mission did you have in mind, ‘Wake of the Red Witch’?”

Tommy had quietly rejoined us after hearing the background chant. He knew I was about to be railroaded. “Red Witch suits you, Psycho.”

“I thought I locked you in the crew quarters, White Sands. If you’re going to remain on deck with the Monsters, you’ll have to rein in that mouth. Now, where was I before White Sands popped up again like an infected boil? Oh yeah… so here’s how I see it. Achmed EMP’s the tugboat with all of us in our shooting positions. Lucas stays at the wheel of the Wolf. I’ll take one nest, Casey can take the other nest. Clint man’s the M107 sniper rifle, and Cheese goes for a little swim. They won’t be able to move, and anyone showing a head on deck gets it blown off. I’ll fire a couple of airburst rounds from the XM25 to juice the decks, while Casey lights up the bridge with the fifty. We’ll have survivors below decks ready for plucking by the Cheeseburger after he makes his little mile approach in the water. There probably won’t be more than six to a dozen guys left below decks. Jafar will have an exact number relayed from the AWACS. Cheese slaps around the survivors, and deed done. Denny gets prisoners, and we get a look at what kind of explosives they were going to use on China Basin. I’d do it myself, but my scuba form’s a little weak.”