Hard Case VI: The Killer Inside (John Harding Book 6) (40 page)

“No thanks, Case,” Dev said. “The video in surround sound was as close as I care to come with the Dark Lord weaving a helicopter in and out of smoke and fire.”

“Second that,” Jess added.

Tommy pumped his fist. “Snow White Sands forever. I hope you get the camera on one from the ground, but I ain’t ever getting into an assault helicopter with all you lunatics in it.”

“I have another idea. We need to stitch together audio of the ‘Jaws’ theme and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ alternating through the sound system on the Sea Wolf.”

Lucas’s face went blank for a moment. “Oh my God, John… you’ve made me want to start a war just to do it. That is genius! We need to get another pirate mission in the Gulf!”

“It has to be,” Casey agreed. “We can’t waste creative genius like that. There’s always folks need killin’ in the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Aden. We need to get Clint to find something we can blackmail Denny with. Anna and Denny’s Maria have to get through their pregnancies and any complications though. Achmed the Dead Terrorist is ready.”

Then it was on. Three crazy monsters doing the staccato ‘Jaw’s’ theme music together. The Snow Whites enjoyed our Monster Trio. Dev grabbed his laptop case. He headed for what we called ‘The Wolf’s Bridge’.

“I can splice those two tunes together for you whackos and we’ll assault the dock.”

“Great idea, Dev!” Lucas was right behind him. “Can we at least fire the machine gun? That guy two boats down from us pissed me off a couple mornings ago making remarks about my flag raising. I almost shot him then. We can take out his boat with him.”

Dev stopped in his tracks, spinning around to do a ‘Different Strokes’ old TV show riff with furrowed brow on Ahab. “What you talkin’ ‘bout, Lucas?”

Lucas chuckled and patted his shoulder. “Just do it, kid. No machine guns.”

We drew a crowd as we assaulted our mooring area with the excellent sound system from the ‘Sea Wolf’ enticing many spectators as we steamed toward the docking area. We were again in ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ mode as we approached. I’m sure the sound carried as a hint on the wind, growing ever stronger, along with the ‘Sea Wolf’s’ majestic presence. It was so good, I thought I’d have to restrain Lucas from actually firing our M2 .50 caliber machine gun. When Lucas expertly docked the ‘Wolf’, Casey and I tied her down with very appreciative applause from the crowd beyond our pier.

“I swear, John,” Lucas said, grabbing my arm, “if Denny doesn’t get us another pirate mission in ‘Fractured Fairy Tale’ land patrolling one of the deadly Gulfs I’m going to assassinate him.”

That cracked me and Casey up, but I think Lucas was dead serious. He was on a ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ high, and he wasn’t coming down off the plateau any time soon. “It will come, Lucas. Be patient. Besides, although we can’t have gunfire or airburst weapons blasts, we can still assault the dock for the rest of my training time.”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah… that’ll have to do for now.”

* * *

The first thing I noticed when we returned to Pain Central from the Sea Wolf was Chuck and Trista were nowhere in sight. Agent Tonto had curled near the demarcation for the living quarters. Tonto glanced at us, snorted, and relaxed his head again. Clint worked his laptop with Jafar beside him at our main meeting table. Lynn held a sleeping Clint Jr next to Samira who had come along with her baby girl. Dannie sat on the other side of Lynn, working on her laptop. The minions were on hand also, mostly because of our holding cells being occupied. Clint waved for me to join him with a big smile.

“We have him, John. He owns a huge place on Exeter Rd in Massapequa, New York. Jafar is already tracking his electronic devices. We know exactly where he is, and who he’s talking to. Although his neighbors don’t have one, Nino has a gated fence around his place. That of course works well in one way because we won’t be in open ground assaulting his place, and he has a corner lot. On the negative side, this kind of community will have cops on our asses immediately. Even a smash and dash might get interrupted. I’m thinking a blackout of the area, EMP his house, and full frontal assault, quiet if possible, but prepared for noisy.”

“I like it, Clint. I’ll talk to Denny and see what kind of pull we have after saving the Northern Coast of California. Could you send him the data and your recommendations? Add a call John at the end.”

“I’ll do it right now.”

“Don’t you want to know how your outlaws are doing, Cheese?”

“Having dealt with Trista, I’m afraid to ask. In my defense, I restricted them to the living quarters, Lynn.”

“That’s fine, except I could hear the skank all the way out on the street. We brought the babies. We like a quiet atmosphere. I had to quiet her down.”

“Understood.” Yes! A Cruella Deville adjustment for Trista. “No blood, no foul, right?”

“There may have been a little blood. I needed to get her attention,” Lynn explained. “Chuck felt he should be protective so Clint adjusted him slightly too. They’re both happy as clams now that they understand the house rules.”

Sounded good to me. If Nino would have kept his eye on target, he would have never been brought into a Monster Squad bullseye. He should have simply killed the cling-on when he found her and let it go. Chuck could have grieved, found out Nino saved him a ton of money, and visited Al. No one would have missed Trista.

“I’m sure they’re fine. I’ll check on them. Guess what we did.”

By that time, all my boat partners were standing around the table with shit eating grins. Lynn glanced at all the smiling faces, and immediately gave us the furrowed brow death ray look. “Okay… what the hell did you bunch do without me. Damn it! You took the Snow Whites out for fun and left me with the skank adjustment. There will be blood!”

I explained our assault on the docking area with the new ‘Jaws’ and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ format. “We’re going to take the first mission we can in the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Aden.”

“That is very entertaining. Are we allowed on for the next assault on the dock,” Clint asked. “Lynn will bring the baby, and we’ll strictly enjoy the cruise and dock assault, right babe?”

Silence.

“Babe?”

“I’m thinking. Okay… fine. I would like to come at the dock with the music. I wish we could find a target in our neck of the woods. I’m not going near the Sandpits while Clint Jr is little. I wouldn’t mind a ‘kill mission’ on our coast. We’ll put the IT guys on it. There has to be a target somewhere around here that needs killin’.”

“Crue’s right,” Lucas agreed. “While Denny finds us something, let’s look for a target closer to home – maybe some scum-bag drug runners or something.”

“I will search the Coast Guard and FBI databases and see if they have anything on their radar,” Jafar promised.

“We’re heading home, John,” Tommy said, indicating Jess and Dev too. “Call us when you need the homesteads watched while taking care of Nino.”

“Will do, T. Thanks, guys.”

“That was fun today, brother,” Dev said.

“What he said,” Jess added.

“I’ll go check on the houseguests.”

“Take the first aid kit, Cheese. Skank might need a bandage change,” Lynn told me.

“Will do.” I didn’t care what was wrong with Trista, but I hoped Clint didn’t need to adjust Chuck too much.

I needn’t have worried. The two were huddled together on the bed like they were in Stalag 17. “Okay, Trista, let me see your boo-boo.”

Trista jumped to her feet, pointing at her neck while making sure Lynn wasn’t right behind me. Then she whispered in a harsh tone. “She cut my throat!”

I took off the makeshift bandage Crue probably tamped into place. After I washed it off with peroxide, it looked like just what it was: an attitude adjustment with a slice about an eighth of an inch deep. I put Neosporin on it with a few Band-Aids. Good as new.

“What are you going to do about her?” Trista actually thought I gave a shit if her throat was slit.

“Not a thing. Those are killers out there, not security guards. If they tell you to shut the fuck up, you had better shut the fuck up, or as you found out, they’ll shut you up. Luckily, the two of you are still alive. Stay quiet and live. Piss off my people, and you won’t have to worry about Nino.”

“I…I think I have a cracked rib, John,” Chuck said.

I kept repeating the words Al’s Dad… Al’s Dad over and over while I checked the spot he indicated. I felt it. Yep. It was a fracture, but not broken. “You’re okay, Chuck. It’s fractured, but not broken. I’ll wrap you.”

After I finished with Chuck, I waved them back down on the bed. “Stay quiet. We’re taking care of this as quickly as we can.”

I rejoined the Monsters.

“How’s the boo-boo?”

“She’ll live… unfortunately for Chuck,” I replied.

I went for coffee, and brought the pot back to refill everyone’s cups. I made another pot. By the time I was done with my domestic duties, Denny called. “Hi Spawn.”

“If you want to hit Nino tomorrow morning, I have a window between 0200 and 0400 hours just as you described. I can black the grid, and you can EMP anything he has for backup systems. You’ll land at Mitchell Air Force Base. I’ll have two SUV’s ready for you and three handpicked men to make sure our jet gets refueled and ready for the trip back. Did you decide whether to do a smash and dash?”

“We’re not taking prisoners. We don’t want any innocents hurt, but who knows. We’re bringing Agent Tonto. He loves kids, so in case we run into a delicate situation, we’ll leave it to Tonto. I will take a look at the fence gate. I’ll progress inside as far as I can go before I have to start shooting people. In those hours, they may have their guard down. After all, they’re the big bad Nino Romanski Mob. Thanks, Denny.”

“No one touches or threatens our people or our families. If they do, they die. I’ll be awake with Laredo here to smooth any rough edges, and to make sure it’s dark in the neighborhood. Check in after it’s done, brother.”

“Will do.” I disconnected. “We’re on for 0200 to 0400. Who has guard duty?”

“We’re all staying until you return,” Silvio answered. “That way if Tommy, Jess, or Dev need relief for a while, we’ll be on hand. We have quite a few prisoners too. This is the last shit before Vegas fun. We need to make sure everything stays tight here.”

“Tase that skank if she even shows her face outside her boundary,” Lynn ordered.

“By your command, Mistress of the Unimaginable,” Silvio answered.

“Wheels up in one hour.”

* * *

“Are you sure little brother?”

“I have satellite confirmation on all twelve inside the house. Three are prostitutes who arrived together. One is with Nino. The other two are with his men. He has one man stationed at the gate, and one on roving patrol around the grounds. The rest are inside. One bad thing. They have dogs with the roving guard.”

“Don’t worry about the dogs,” Clint said. “We have tranquilizer dart guns. They work fast. If Lucas puts the guards down first, the dogs will be disoriented enough to wander around a bit. We’ll hit them with the darts before they make any noise.”

“You do know how weird it is we’re darting the dogs and killing the guards, right?” Casey was leaning to peer into Clint’s face.

“The people made their choices. The dogs didn’t,” Clint replied as Lynn reached to clasp his hand.

“I can take out the one at the gate while the other is out of sight,” Lucas said. “You can see what you can do at the gate then. When the other guard comes into sight again, I’ll tap him before he gets near the front.”

“I’m hoping the Denny initiated blackout will pop the gate circuits and it has an electric latch. Then if Clint and Tonto can handle the guard dog so we don’t have to shoot it, we’ll go barge inside, and get the party started. How’s the latch look, Pappy?”

Lucas zeroed in on the gate latching mechanism. “It’s an electric latch, but has a manual backup. You’ll have to be standing next to it. Otherwise the failsafe manual trigger will lock the gate. The house is back nearly forty yards from the gate. You could dance a jig before anyone would notice. You and Clint sneak down there. Kill the gate guard and knock out the dog. I’ll nail the roving one. You’ll be home free then to walk in with Tonto and dart the other dog. We’ll drive through, close the gate, and join you all inside. We’re overthinking this.”

“He’s right. Let’s do this.” We each carried Night-shot Casey’s favorite weapon, the MP5 with silencer, along with a favorite handgun. Lynn carried the EMP weapon while Clint’s extra burden was the tranquilizer dart rifle. When in sight of the front gate, we crouched down. I watched the gate for a moment longer with Tonto nosing me in the side. “You didn’t tell Agent Tonto to pee on me did you?”

“No, Cheese,” Lynn replied. “He’s wondering if you’re ever going to move your ass.”

“We’re moving toward the gate, Achmed. Can you hear me now?”

“Yes. I hear you. Will you please stop with the ‘Can you hear me now’ crap? I hate that.”

“Light him up, Case.”

Night-shot stood, sighted, and shot the gate guard through the head with a double tap. Clint followed with a dart through the gate tines into the dog’s shoulder from the tranquilizer rifle. We then streaked to the dual slide gate. I grasped it at the center. “Lights out, Achmed.”