Hard Case VI: The Killer Inside (John Harding Book 6) (34 page)

“Understood. Talk with you later.”

I rode with Lucas and Casey. We knew we were only partially done for the night. No way in hell were we allowing Morsi’s ship to leave the area. The only thing I was certain of was he probably didn’t have a nuke on board with the ports we saw listed where he tied up at. Crue would find for certain what was on board, and exactly how we could capture the boat with Morsi in the lead if she didn’t kill him. Casey was driving. Lucas took a call, and looked back at me in the rear.

“The minions have a Morsi Death Pool on whether he survives the interrogation. It’s only a buy in if he doesn’t survive. They rip it up if he can still take us to the ship.”

“I’ll take four squares.”

* * *

Well, I can say this much, whatever objections Morsi had about being helpful were gone in about fifteen minutes. At the forty-five minute point of the interrogation I was watching my squares on the minion Morsi Dead Pool along with everyone else. Clint had been trying to reason with her gently about the time Morsi was repeating himself for the third time. He mentioned again the ship we still needed to capture. Fortunately, Crue reached the saturation point, looked up at the clock, and detached the sobbing Morsi.

“Jesus,” Denny said in my ear. “That guy may actually go to heaven after that forty-five minutes of hell. Do you think she’s done, or is she just getting him ready for something else?”

“I think she’s done.”

“I’m here until you get the ship, John.”

“Okay, Den. I’ll keep you apprised.” I exchanged glances with Clint. He motioned me over. “How you doin’, brother?”

“I’m good,” Clint replied. “I don’t think our pal Morsi is doing too well though. I’m hoping we can hydrate him enough so he can walk us on board his ship. Hey, babe, how’s your patient?”

Lynn turned to Morsi. “My husband wants to know if you’re in good enough shape to surrender your ship. I hope my good little helper is in shape, or I’ll have to get him in shape. How about it, my little helper?”

“I…I am fine,” Morsi sobbed, relief from the pain evident. “Please Mistress… I can get you the ship. I will get you the ship… and… and anything else you want.”

She patted his face. “That’s good. My minion Gus will take you where you can get cleaned and dressed. Behave yourself.”

“Yes…yes Mistress.” Gus moved to guide Morsi away.

I knew it was coming. I could think of no way to avoid it. Lynn walked to where Clint and I were standing. She clasped her hands behind her back, bending slightly forward at the waist while she walked around me as if doing an inspection. The only thing the inspection made me aware of was I didn’t have my Kevlar on anymore. Silvio and Quays were still in the room, but they inched toward the door.

“You’ve had a fine old time riding ‘The Wake of the Red Witch’ these past few days, Cheese. It’s rumored you’re blocking me from any further training runs on the Wolf. Is that true?”

“Yep.” No need to get wordy here.

She stopped. Lynn took a position inches away from me, looking up into my face with her snarly one. It was then I noticed I was standing at attention. “What’s your reasoning for that decision?”

“Because I was afraid you’d be injured flying off the railing into the ocean every day.”

Clint cracked up and the minions ran for it. I could hear Lucas’s braying laughter out in the main area. Lynn tried her damnedest not to crack a smile, but failed. “Anything else, Cheese?”

“I didn’t want you forced to explain how you lost the Great Banana at sea to Lora and Al.”

Lynn relaxed. “Yeah, that’s a good one. I shouldn’t be taking Clint Jr out there so often anyway along with Dannie and Amara. Okay, Cheese, you make valid points.”

Yea, me! “Thanks for your understanding, Lynn.”

“I guess we’d better go get the boat. My work is not done.”

* * *

The small boat crew knew something was up the moment Morsi approached them with us at his side. He warned Lynn they would be suspicious of anyone else with him other than his regular bodyguards. They drew as we came closer even though Morsi was screaming out to them everything was okay. Clint and Casey shot all four in the head. We weren’t there to take prisoners anyway. It did shed some light on how powerful Morsi was. We had our doubts when he explained the reaction we would get. Seeing up close and personal how quickly his own crew turned on him made us all suspicious about our chances on board the Sao Paulo.

“Well, Lucas, it looks like you’re the new skipper,” I told him. “It doesn’t seem as if we can hope for much help from Morsi.”

Morsi started to cry. Lynn patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “Be more considerate, Cheese. You know how emotional Hassan is right now. Buck up, my little helper. You have to attempt to be helpful when we get to your ship. We’re not too crazy with what we’ve seen so far of your importance. You did what you could when we arrived. Since we’ve gotten by your boat people, can we expect the same on board, or will they trust you more on board?”

“I will… I will be more forceful, Mistress. They should not have drawn their weapons before knowing what I had to say.”

“Good point.” Lynn left the eager to please Morsi by himself. I doubted if he’d even scratch his nose without asking. “Did we get spotted or something? Morsi’s right. These yard-birds should never have drawn on us with Hassan out front. I wonder if after the tugboat disappeared on his watch maybe someone in the organization demoted him to dogcatcher.”

I had another thought. “What if the someone powerful enough to write him off flew on board today? Hey, Hassan, does the Sao Paulo have a helicopter pad?”

“Yes! It has landing area for two, Sir.”

“You may be right,” Clint said. “Should we back off tonight and go at them with full military backing?”

“We’ll lose the surprise factor,” Lucas pointed out. “No matter whether they wrote Morsi off or not, that call we had him do may have somehow tipped off the guy who doesn’t care whether Morsi makes it back alive. Whoever’s still on board would be wondering, because we made sure to cover their phone communications. There hasn’t been a single phone call made to Morsi.”

“Join us, Hassan,” Lynn ordered, gesturing at him with her finger. Hassan ran to her side like a puppy. “Wasn’t it strange for you not to receive a phone call from anyone since you left the Sao Paulo?”

Hassan shook his head. “We try not to communicate because we could risk detection. It has not been long enough to make anyone suspicious, Mistress. I do not know why the boat crew did as they did.”

“Could someone have flown on board while you were gone, and decided to go in a different direction without you?” I had already decided, but I needed to ask. I thought Lucas was right. We needed to move on these assholes now.

“It’s possible… I…I just don’t know.”

Lynn patted his shoulder. “It’s okay. Go stand where you were.”

Hassan jogged back into place.

“Full armor, full weapons, Full on Cheeseburger charge and take the first hit, right John?”

“That’s how I’m seeing it, Case. Our weak point will be the entry platform. Jafar sent me the pics of the ladder on the side we would have to scale a few rungs to reach the access stairs on the side. Lucas is right. We have to move on them now, especially if we have the chance to take the big bopper dead or alive. Having their regular shuttle here will help, but we’ll need a spot picked out on it where Lucas can maybe kill everything that shows its head until we can get on deck and let loose the dogs of war.”

“I’m liking this more every second, girls,” Lynn said. “Let’s pull up our big girl panties and get to it. I have a feeling there’s something else on that stupid ship even my little helper doesn’t know about.”

“That thought would fit them shooting on sight,” I replied, giving serious consideration to Lynn’s theory. “Only one way to find out. I’ll call Denny. He’s pointing satellite imaging on the Sao Paulo right now because of the info Lynn’s already gathered. Jafar’s ready to coordinate with Denny and Laredo. I’m glad you brought Tonto in the van, Clint. This smells more like his kind of show all the time. I’ll carry him every step of the way to where we need him, but he gives us an edge we don’t have otherwise.”

“Agreed,” Clint answered. “If we had been accepted on Morsi’s word to get aboard, we’d have the ticket in we needed. Going in hard and fast, we need Tonto’s nose. Lucas can give us the time we need to get on deck. After that, we’ll have to take the ship section by section until we find out what this is all about.”

“I saw the pics of the access along the side of the Sao Paulo where you all would have to get above deck, and I don’t like it,” Lucas said. “I say we go get the Wolf, drive both boats out with me hanging back dark in the Wolf with Lynn in reach of either nest. She’s had plenty of practice with the fifty. We’ll have the minions meet us at the Wolf’s dock, and help crew both ships. Gus can steer the Wolf with me on the M107. Having the Wolf there gives us range, firepower, and a place for you bunch to retreat to. We can blow the whole damn thing up or EMP it with the Wolf on hand.”

Now that was a plan with teeth. “Damn… I like it, Lucas. Let’s move out. I’ll crew the shuttle with Lucas. Lynn, get the action van, and we’ll bag the bodies for later disposal.”

* * *

With Silvio and Quays piloting the shuttle boat, Casey, Clint, Tonto, and the Cheeseburger waited out of sight as the minions took us alongside the Sao Paulo where the access ladder to the retracted mounted stairs lay against the side of the ship. We had fine-tuned Lucas’s plan to a Cheeseburger assault on the main deck with Lucas and Lynn providing cover from the already in position Sea Wolf. The moment Silvio eased the shuttle near the ladder, I jumped on it, and raced up toward the main deck. Armed with an MP5 and my .45 caliber Colt, I would be lowering the retracted stair ladder down to my mates, hopefully before any crew members investigated what we planned to attempt with the arriving shuttle. No such luck.

Bodies tumbled into the water with parts of their heads missing.

“You have company, Recon,” Lucas said in my ear. “It’s going to get messy.”

As I neared the main deck the Sea Wolf’s fifty caliber machine gun opened up, and so ended the Cheeseburger Ninja approach. I scrambled on deck, staying prone in a crawl under my covering fire. I knew the layout of the Sao Paulo’s retractable ladder system on the side. There were three dead bodies near it. I didn’t peek around for enemies. I worked the ladder down to our shuttle so I could get Clint and Casey with me. I would go back to the boat for Tonto after we secured the deck and bridge. An armed crewmember popped up on my rear with machine pistol taking aim. The fifty caliber burst nearly tore him in half. I finished anchoring the ladder at my end as Clint and Casey scrambled upwards to me.

“There’s too damn many, Cheese! Hug the ship’s side with the boys for a moment. Mama has to fire a couple of shots from our XM307. Heh…heh… duck you suckers!”

The 25mm grenade air burst shots rattled us near the ladder, but at least we expected it. God only knew what the deck looked like. “Say when, Crue!”

Another shot burst rattled our perch and our teeth. “Okay, boys. Watch your step. The deck’s probably a little slick.”

We didn’t wait for another invite. The three of us spread out on deck ready for anything. The deck was littered with bodies. I didn’t need to count them to know these mangled guys weren’t ship’s crew. They were armored and armed. Lynn had already raked the bridge. I saw the armor piercing M2 .50 caliber holes across it. We did a section by section search until we completed a sweep of the entire main deck.

“You guys watch the below decks accesses. I’ll go find out if Crue left anyone alive up there.”

“Man… those 25mm shots sure ruined these guys’ days,” Casey observed. “By the looks of those bridge holes, I doubt there’s anything alive in there. It would be nice if we had a couple live ones to take below with us. We might be able to pull off the same trick you did on our captured tug.”

“Lynn aimed high,” Clint added. “If any of them dropped down in time, there should be a couple alive. She wouldn’t have fired at all if she hadn’t seen people, right babe.”

“There was definite movement on the bridge,” Lynn confirmed. “If there are guys alive in there, they haven’t shown their faces since I raked the bridge. Lucas and I have been watching. He still has the M107 trained on the island.”

“On my way up.” I did it in typical Dark Lord fashion. Subtlety is not my area of expertise. I banged through the hatch, ready to kill or capture. It was unnecessary. Two men had been nearly decapitated near the door. Two more men sat huddled together in a corner with their hands clasped behind their heads.

“Do you speak English?”

“Yes.”

“Get on your feet. Lace your hands behind your heads, and walk down to the main deck.” They did as they were told. I grabbed the first aid kit off the wall before following my prisoners. When we reached the main deck, Clint frisked them for me with professional thoroughness.

“I don’t know what could be going on down below, but after Lynn finished on our main deck, there hasn’t really been any movement below. Did you want to send these guys down with an offer?”

“Maybe.” I turned to the two bridge survivors. “What the hell is going on here? We brought Hassan Morsi to the shuttle, and they were going to shoot him on sight. Not that we didn’t expect opposition, but you guys had an army ready to repel boarders. Before I call upon our torturer supreme to come aboard and roast your balls, why not make it easy on all of us and tell me what is down below?”