Road to Darkness (11 page)

Chapter 29

     Krautenhammer watched the police and firefighters sifting through the rubble that once was Ramos medical. He had gotten the call less than an hour ago. By all accounts, this should be an easy job. Some middle aged guy who decided to play gangster too late in life and bit off more than he could chew. Somehow, this guy managed to nearly take down an entire operation. This was why Krautenhammer worked alone. There was no one to drag him down with them.

     He had already checked Tony Ray’s house, and there was no sign of him. His phone buzzed with a text message. It was from his associate. The client had called them. Tony Ray was in Mexico. Some cartel guys had him down there. It was no problem. Krautenhammer had gone head to head with the cartel before. They did not frighten him.

     As he started the car, another text came through. This one saying the client wants to cancel the job. Krautenhammer replied with one word. “No.”  The drive took several hours, but it was not a problem.

     Krautenhammer began killing as a boy at the age of thirteen in the city of Cologne, Germany. His father died when he was an infant. His mother had trouble making ends meet, so in his teens he took to the streets. He’d first stumbled across the man he knew as Uncle Dieter. Uncle Dieter took better care of him than his mother ever could. He bought him food and other needs. All the boy had to do for Uncle Dieter was deliver envelopes of cash each week. There were a few dozen of them he dropped off. Young Krautenhammer didn’t know what the money was for and didn’t ask.

     All was fine the first few months, until on one delivery, some guy tried to rob him. At first he’d thought it was a joke. Everyone around town knew who Uncle Dieter was and wouldn’t dare cross him. But this guy stuck a knife in Krautenhammer’s face and demanded his knapsack full of envelopes. At first he turned and ran, but the man caught up to him and tackled him.

     The man was bigger and stronger than the boy, but
Krautenhammer wouldn’t give up. The boy bit the man hard on the arm, drawing blood and forcing him to drop the knife. The boy picked up the knife and thrust it into the man’s neck. He’d never seen so much blood in his life. It sprayed everywhere. It got onto the boy’s clothes, in his hair, on his shoes, and everywhere else. He grabbed his knapsack and ran back to Uncle Dieter’s pub.

     “What happened to you?” Uncle Dieter asked.

     “Some man jumped me. He had a knife. I bit him and stabbed him with his knife Uncle.”

     “Did he get any of the money?”

     “No Uncle. I got away with all of it.”

     Uncle Dieter stroked his beard and patted the boy on the head.

     “Good. You did good. I gave you this job as I figured no one would suspect a boy with so much cash. I suspected wrong. But you are still of use to me.” Uncle Dieter took him upstairs and gave him a change of clothes. Over the next few weeks, he found out who the man he’d killed was. It was a man from a rival gang who had been looking to move in on Uncle Dieter’s territory. It was then he received his new assignment.

     “You will go to this man, his name is Kristof. He’s at the address on this paper. You go see him and tell him you have message from Dieter. He will trust you because you’re a boy. Tell him you need to see him alone. You get close to him, and shoot him, then you run out the back door. Do not stand around or wait for his men to come in. You understand?”

     “Yes Uncle,” the boy said as he nodded.

     “Good. Now go.”

     The address was a restaurant. Krautenhammer stepped inside.

    
“Can I see Kristof?” He asked the man at the counter. “I have message from Dieter.”

     The man nodded and walked him into the back room.
Kristof was a fat, old man sitting at a table eating a large steak.

     “What is this?”
Kristof said. “Dieter sends a child to do his business? I guess that makes sense. Taking him out will be like child’s play,” Kristof and his men burst out laughing.

     The boy held firm and tried not to let his nerves show. It would be years later before he realized just how much danger he had been in during this meeting.

     “Dieter said for me to give you message in private.”

     “Oh he did, did he?”
Kristof said.

     “You can give him messa
ge in front of me, boy.” Kristof’s henchman said. Kristof waved him off.

     “It’s ok. What is the boy going to do? Beat me with his stamp collection?” The men laughed again as the henchman stepped outside.  “Ok. We’re alone boy. What is this important message
?”

     The boy took a few steps closer, so he was now just feet from
Kristof, pulled the gun from his knapsack and shot Kristof between the eyes. He fired two more shots for good measure and ran out the back door, just like he’d been instructed. He ran all the way back to the pub without ever looking back. He ran inside and slammed the door shut. He turned and saw Uncle Dieter sitting at a table with a group of men playing cards. They all looked up at him in surprise.

     “Uncle Dieter,” Young Krautenhammer said. “It’s done.”

     The thoughts faded as he arrived in Monterrey. As the compound came into site, he parked far enough away not to be seen. He grabbed his binoculars and rifle and climbed a nearby hill. From that vantage point, he could see everything at the compound. There was a car there matching the description of Tony Ray’s car. He was in the right place. Now he just had to wait for the right time.

Chapter 30

     Adams’ caravan pulled through the front gates. There were armed guards there waiting for them. One of the guards pointed toward a small road that wound around the back of the building. They followed the road to a small shack sitting a few hundred yards away from everything. Coming down here hadn’t been Adams’ first choice, but he couldn’t hardly risk escorting a bunch of drug lords around South Texas and being seen with them.

     He insisted on bringing his security detail along, which Esteban had granted. They arrived outside the small building and were greeted by more men with guns. One of his security guards stepped out and let him out of the SUV. Adams climbed out and adjusted his suit and walked toward the shack. As he stepped inside, Esteban was seated behind a table. He stood
and walked over to greet Adams.

     “Jonathan. So good to see you old friend,” Esteban said as they shook hands. In all the years Adams had known Esteban, the man hadn’t aged a day. His hair was still jet black and he appeared to have no wrinkles. Adams was fifty-eight and Esteban was close to him in age. He was tempted to ask him his secret, but there were more pressing issues.

     “Hello, Esteban. Good seeing you as well. It’s unfortunate it’s under these circumstances.”

     “That is true. So what can we do to resolve this?”

     “You can stop hijacking my trucks for one. Though after yesterday, I’ll be out of business for a while.” Adams said.

     “Yes, that is very unfortunate. I do apologize for the way I’ve initiated this whole transaction. I should have come to you first.”

     “That would have been nice.”

     “You see, I have other businesses as well. This is the only one in which I am the middle man. I do not like that. It’s too easy to be cut out down the road, and my piece of the take is just too small. It’s simply not worth it for me. As you know, quitting isn’t an option. So I figured we simply move into the supply side.”

     “And you planned on doing this by stealing from me.”

     “It was a risk
, yes, and a foolish one. So instead, I’d like to buy you out.” Esteban said.

     “Buy me out? Who says I’m selling?”

     “Oh, come on, Jonathan. You’re running for governor, maybe even president in a few years. Why would you want to still do this? Especially now? You have to rebuild. I already have the facilities. I’ll give you fair value for your trouble and you can move on with your political career.”

     Adams sat and considered it for a moment. It would be one less thing he had to worry about. He could use the cash from the sale toward his campaign. Though
, he did like to borrow one of the girls from time to time. He could always take care of that some other way. But he knew another thing that appealed to him about this line of work that he would miss was the danger. Part of him felt like an old west outlaw. That thrill wasn’t something he could obtain running for office.

     “Just what do you consider to be fair value?”

     Esteban took a piece of paper and wrote on it. He folded the paper and slid it across the table to Adams. Adams unfolded it and looked it over. His blood boiled the instant he read it. It was a large zero.

     “Is this a fucking joke?”

     “No my friend. No joke.”

     “You call me all the way down here to insult me? You don’t know who you are fucking with!”

     “I’m afraid I do.” Esteban held up a flash drive. “On here, is a recording of every single phone conversation we have had. Every piece of correspondence and your own security videos, since some of your men will flip for a few dollars. You take my offer, or one of these gets sent to every media outlet from here to Dallas.”

     “You fucking cocksucking, bean eating bitch!” Adams yelled as he stood, pounding his fist on the table. One of Esteban’s men took a few steps closer, causing Adam’s men to encroach as well.

     “Now, now, no need for insults. Please, sit down.”

     Adams looked around
at the confrontation about to take place and sat back down.

     “Look, I might just send this to the media anyway. You’ll be ruined. Federal investigations and all sorts of fun stuff
,” Esteban said.

     “And you don’t think they’ll come after you too?”

     “So what if they do? They can’t touch me down here. I own the police here.”

     Adams could feel the blood rushing to his face.

     “What do you want?” He asked.

     “I want you to go back to Austin and never come back here again. You’re done with this business. Run your other legitimate companies, run your politics, whatever it is you do. I’m doing you a favor. But I’m not paying you a nickel to walk out of here. Just get up and walk away. I know many in this business who would have loved that opportunity. I’m offering it to you.”

          Before Adams could respond, one of his security guards ran into the room.

     “Sir, we need to get you to a secure location now
,” he said.

     “What is going on?” Esteban asked. “What’s the meaning of this?”
     Some of Esteban’s men came charging in as well.

     “We need to get you to the bunker sir. Something is going on
,” one of them said.

     “What’s happening?” Adams asked.

     Several security men grabbed both of them and dragged them out to the SUV’s and threw them inside. The SUV’s peeled out, kicked a huge dust cloud into the air as they headed for Esteban’s bunker. In the distance, the sound of automatic gunfire echoed through the compound.

Chapter 31

     Krautenhammer returned to his car and popped the trunk. He slid his large flack vest over his head, and swung a heavy backpack over his shoulders. In the middle of the trunk sat his minigun. He had personally modified it. It was a short barrel, but normally too bulky for practical use. He’d rigged a smaller power supply to the base and set up the ammo to feed from the backpack. It had worked wonders on the firing range. Now was a good time to see how it worked on human targets.

     He walked up to the front gate, with the gun slung over his right side. The man at the gate had was holding a rifle at the ready. Before he said anything, the man saw the gun at Krautenhammer’s side. As he tried to move into position, Krautenhammer fired a short burst into the man’s torso. The gun made a sound like paper tearing extremely loudly. The gun fired around four thousand rounds per minute. With that short burst, the man’s upper body was ripped to shreds.

     Krautenhammer walked up and looked down at the guy admiring his work. He looked at the minigun and smiled as he walked through the gate. There were other men moving about. He was shocked at how long it took for anyone to notice him. Finally one man yelled something in Spanish. Krautenhammer turned and fired, tearing the man in half. Several more men came running up as he let loose with his longest burst of rounds yet. Before any of them got a single shot off, he’d blown them to pieces. He fired another burst at their dead bodies, leaving nothing left but a large pile of organs, blood, bones and tissue.

     Off to his left another man looked on in horror. He sat his rifle down and put his hands in the air. Krautenhammer was not in the business of taking prisoners. He fired a burst into the man’s face, turning his head into a bright, red mist. By now, the rest of the men were running for their lives. A gunshot ricocheted just a few feet in front of him. He spun around to see a shooter on the roof of the warehouse. He fired, knocking what was left of the man off the roof.

     He fired at a parked car near the warehouse. It burst into flames, sending three men running out from behind it. He mowed them down with another volley of gunfire. One of the gunman ran directly in front of him and fired at Krautenhammer with an AK-47. He dodged to his right, but one round clipped his left shoulder, knocking him back. The flack vest absorbed most of it, but he’d have one hell of a bruise later. Krautenhammer returned fire, blowing the man’s legs out from under him.

     As he walked up to the man, he could the guy’s legs were mangled shreds of meat and bone. The guy was sobbing as he crawled away from Krautenhammer. He stood over the man, looking down at him.

     “Where is prisoner?” Krautenhammer asked as he removed the picture from his pocket. He held up Tony Ray’s photo. “This man.”

     The man on the ground pointed toward the warehouse. Krautenhammer nodded and fired into the man’s head from just a few feet away. His head exploded like a watermelon at a Gallagher show. Brains and blood got onto Krautenhammer’s shoes.

     “Dammit. That was a new pair,” he muttered to himself as he walked toward the warehouse. He kicked open the main door and sprayed gunfire into the room before entering. As he stepped inside, he saw the remains of several men strewn throughout. Footsteps sounded from his right, he turned and fired, but whoever it was had run off. Oh well, he didn’t have time to mess with him. He walked through the warehouse looking behind boxes, pallets and doors. Most of the rooms were empty. There was one empty office with a half-eaten pizza on the desk. He looked around but there was no sign of anyone.

     There was one back room where he found two large cages. Inside the cages were a dozen young girls and women. All were naked and many were crying. It wasn’t something he was expecting to see. He figured he’d come across drugs, but not this. He looked the girls over and opened fire. Some of them managed a scream before being blown to pieces. Skin, blood and hair was caked along the bars by the time he was finished.

     He left the room and checked the other rooms and doors throughout the warehouse. Occasionally someone was hiding in a room or under a table. He shot them without a single word. Finally there was one room left he hadn’t checked. Something told him that is where he’d find his mark. Slowly he walked toward the door and turned the handle.