Cold Blooded III: Sins and Sanctions (Nick McCarty Assassin Series Book 3) (6 page)

“It’s all here on the memory chips he kept of everything, including locations. I’ll leave them next to Berringer’s body for the cops. I’ll leave the other contents of the safe for the cleaners in an obvious spot by the Hamas dupes.”

“Understood,” Gilbrech replied.

“You can stop recording, Payaso. I’ll call when I’m done.”

Nick returned to the kitchen, where Berringer writhed in agony from his shoulder wounds, and Nick’s interrogation method. He ripped the clothing apart covering Berringer’s chest, and opened his pants. “I found what you have done. I can’t spend the time I’d like with you, but I’ll make due with quality over quantity. El Muerto leaves a distinctive feature behind with predators like you, much like you left on those memory chips. I missed out on my last one because the victim was there. Such is not the case this time.”

Nick took a sheathed scalpel from the inside of his jacket. He watched the terror emanating from Berringer’s eyes, as they remained transfixed on the scalpel, while Berringer shook his head violently from side to side. “El Muerto has examined you, Big Tex, and found you rotting inside. I have something to make you sparkling clean again. El Muerto is something of a surgeon, and the doctor… is in.”

Without hesitation, Nick eviscerated Berringer. He poured bleach over the piling intestines. During the fourth application, a blood vessel popped inside Berringer’s head. Nick left the plastic case with the memory chips on the side of Berringer’s head. After making sure he had his equipment in the bag, including his bleach container, Nick went to the door. He knew Brenda and the other little victims wouldn’t feel any better, but Nick did.

“All finished, Payaso,” Nick said. “Dr. Muerto has another appointment yet. We have miles to go before we sleep, my treasured sidekick.”

“That’s creepy, quoting Robert Frost, Muerto. I’ll be there in five seconds.”

“Goodbye, my friends,” Nick waved with grandiose style toward the dead. “El Muerto… away!”

“That’s even creepier.”

* * *

John Mazdaki awoke with sluggish certainty he was in trouble. Before opening his eyes, John tried moving his arms, legs, and twist at the waist – all to no avail. He could flex his fingers, and move his head, but was otherwise immobile. John opened his eyes, squinting slightly in the low light illuminating what he recognized to be his kitchen. He cursed under his breath, realizing he was duct taped to a kitchen chair. In four hours’ time, John would have flown out of Boston to first New York, and then France. A masked man with what he thought looked like a homemade Zorro mask crouched slightly nearer to peer into his face.

“Hi honey, I’m home. It’s El Muerto, your host for this early morning’s procedure. Dr. El Muerto hurried over to your little bungalow from his last surgical case to discover a few things from you.”

“This must be a misunderstanding. I have done nothing wrong. Who are you? If you’re here to rob me… do so and leave. Take anything you want.” John saw nothing in the masked man’s face resembling interest in anything he had to say. John shut up.

“What I need from you John is the exact location and number of explosives you attached to the USS Constitution hull. Before you insult my intelligence with meaningless lies, let me show you something. Pay close attention. I filmed Mel Berringer’s demise a short time ago. He mutilated and murdered little girls along with selling out his own country. El Muerto made him pay for his sins. Watch.”

John watched the evisceration and bleaching on the tablet screen for only the first two minutes. He looked away, vomiting violently.

“Sorry… El Muerto should have brought a barf bag with him.” John felt himself pulled away from his spew. The masked man peered at him once again. “I don’t think you wish to die like that, John. Since you don’t murder little girls, help me out so I won’t have to end you in the same way.”

John spat the bile sideways, his mind grasping for something he could sell to keep on living. The masked man gave him a drink, holding the cup to his mouth. “Can…can I live after I give you what you want?”

The man patted his shoulder. “I’m a psychopath, but not a liar. I brought something along to make your passing painless, since you’re just a traitor. If you delay any longer in helping me, I’ll start considering the innocent men, women, and children who would have died when the Constitution blew into pieces from your planted explosives. That will bring out Dr. El Muerto. The good Doctor will find out everything, and you will die like your pal, Berringer.”

John hung his head for a moment, before looking up again. “The plans and locations are on my laptop computer in the bedroom. They are in a file labeled Caspian Sea. My password to get into the computer is Avesta.”

“Let me go make sure you have been helpful, John. I’ll be right back.”

“There is a pint bottle of Stoli in my freezer. Can I have some before you kill me?”

The masked man went to the freezer, opened the pint bottle he retrieved, and gave John a long pull off the vodka bottle. John coughed a little, his eyes watering. “Thank you.”

“De nada.”

* * *

Nick opened the laptop, entered the password, and within minutes accessed the ‘Caspian Sea’ file. “It looks good, Payaso. I have internet here so I’ll send the file to our drop immediately. If it looks as good to Paul as it does to me, I’ll send Johnny boy on his way, and we can go home. I see no indication in the diagrams of secondary triggers or traps. I’ll keep him alive until Paul can get a second opinion. On the way to you now.”

“I have it, and so does Paul. He’s on with us again now.”

“Give us half an hour to go over this, Nick,” Paul said. “Great work!”

“Thanks. I’m keeping my Berringer movie. I believe it will help in negotiations with scum-bags, and cut down on the time factor for info gathering.”

“Small doubt about that,” Paul agreed.

“El Muerto awaits.”

Nick returned to Mazdaki. He gave him another swallow of Stoli while they waited. Mazdaki, already a little buzzed, thought Nick needed conversation. “Would you like to know why I turned on my country? When I grew up in Chicago, I-”

“Tut tut, Johnny boy,” Nick cut him off. “I believe you have me confused with someone that gives a shit. I’m a killer not a priest. I’ll give you another gulp of Stoli if you entertain yourself internally.”

“I’ll take it.”

Nick tipped the Stoli bottle for him a couple more times until Gus confirmed the info. Nick jammed the hypodermic into Mazdaki’s neck. “There you go, Johnny boy.”

Nick watched eternity arrive to claim Mazdaki a moment later. “All done, Payaso.”

“Don’t say it!”

“El Muerto… away!”

Chapter Three

The Wedding

“Do you think Dad’s okay?”

Rachel paused in helping Jean with the back of her dress. Gus and Tina’s simply planned wedding ceremony, only hours away, seemed more complicated the closer it drew near. The only two not stressed were Nick and Gus. They had been joking with each other while trading one liners with married life the main subject. She knew the two men had been involved in saving a little girl, who claimed over and over a superhero named El Muerto rescued her with his sidekick Payaso, the dark man. Rachel suspected a terrorist act rumored to have been avoided had also been Nick and Gus’s doing. For plausible deniability, Rachel and Jean kept silent reluctantly, keeping their questions to themselves. They speculated on the quirky adventures of El Muerto and Payaso with much amusement, but only while watching the news, and only to each other.

“Give me a hint. What is it you think isn’t okay with him?”

“He used to let us in on more of what he does. We’re his team. I thought since he did so much for the government agencies lately, Dad could tell us more.”

Rachel put her hands on Jean’s shoulders, shaking her slightly. “Do you really think the Company is receptive to Nick creating El Muerto? He knows if we start tossing his new goofball creation amongst us as a joke, one of us will slip in public, and we’ll all be in trouble. If he knew we were speculating while watching the news, believe me, he wouldn’t like it. I’m happy he’s not taking jobs overseas. I look forward to going to Europe someday, but I’d rather it was on a book tour than as a mission cover. I do think he’s more uneasy about your interest. He doesn’t want you to be an assassin. Come to think of it… neither do I.”

Jean’s face reflected the ongoing war within her when considering how much she could safely confide in her Mom concerning her future plans. “I can’t be exactly like Dad, but I can help people, and get bad guys. If I do find my way in writing novels, I need real life experiences. Maybe someday I could tour with Dad while on a mission together.”

“You’ve certainly managed to scare the crap out of your old pregnant Mom.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention taking Quinn along as my apprentice,” Jean replied.

Rachel pointed a finger at her now giggling daughter. “Oh… you laugh now. Wait until you have a child of your own. You’ll think back on these days with commiseration for what you’re putting me through. Quinn will listen to his Mama, and be a good boy.”

“He’ll follow in the footsteps of his heroic older sister. I’ll make sure he calls you at least once a week.”

* * *

Screams from the room next to where Gus and Nick were drinking coffee, brought the two men scrambling in to witness the headlock and noogie being applied by Rachel to the squirming Jean. Both were fully dressed in their wedding outfits.

“Ladies!” Nick shouted.

Rachel stopped her assault, panting while still retaining a firm grip on Jean’s head. “She started it.”

“Did not! Get her, Dad. She’s out of control,” Jean said from her head-locked position.

“Honey?” Nick walked over to soothingly rub Rachel’s shoulders. “I’m sure Jean didn’t mean to upset you this much. Remember now, we have Gus’s wedding to attend as honored guests. This is not the behavior of friends on a wedding day.”

Rachel released Jean reluctantly. “She got me on my last nerve in an instant. You don’t know her Nick. When this little Jean the assassin grows up, she’ll drive us into the mental ward.”

“Uh oh. I thought we discussed this, my beloved daughter.” Nick drew Jean in with his other arm. “We were to work all aspects of education and training so you will have a myriad of options to choose from before college, always sparing your poor Mom from confrontations of this nature.

Jean rubbed her head. “Mom gave me a noogie on Gus’s wedding day. She should be punished.”

“Why you…” Nick tightened his hug on Rachel to prevent a reengagement of hostilities.

“Easy, Rach, I know there’s some tension with the ceremony. Let’s call a truce. I have a feeling the rapid flow of events these past days on tour are beginning to wear you two out. If this is getting to be too much of a strain, I can order a couple first class tickets home, and I’ll keep Deke with me.”

“Actually, the tour’s fun, but we’d like to be more in the El Muerto/Payaso adventure loop,” Rachel said. “Dagger is getting into trouble, because she’s projecting the unborn Quinn to assassin status, under her supervision, while on missions overseas with El Muerto.”

“In that case you deserved the noogie. I’m thinking of giving you one myself for that outrage, young lady,” Nick threatened.

“You can’t stop Dagger. She is a force of nature.” Jean folded arms over chest with chin up in distain.

Gus ruined the solemn upbraiding of Jean with suppressed laughter from the next room.

“I heard that, Payaso,” Rachel called out. “Maybe after the wedding, I’ll take this brat with me to Charleston to see Rick’s Mom and Sister. We’ll visit for a week before your book signings there. It will give us a chance to cool down while you and Payaso close out the East Coast stops. Are you sure Deke will be okay? We can take him with us.”

“He’ll be fine. Deke’s been getting three walks a day, and dog specialty foods. He’s in doggie heaven. I think you have a great idea about an early start for the family visit. I’ll miss you two, but Charleston is as you said, only a week away. El Muerto and Payaso are on an official break, so you won’t miss anything. Our hotel is moving Tina and Gus into the wedding suite, and it is fabulous, right Gus?”

Gus emerged from the room he eavesdropped from. “It is incredible. This would be a great time for you and Jean to scout out our hotel surroundings in Charleston while visiting family. I’m sure Nick has us booked into the best available, and you have to admit this tour in first class everything is an addictive treat.”

“I can’t argue with you there,” Rachel admitted. “I miss our place in Pacific Grove though. It’s the best place I’ve ever lived in. Hell… I even miss waitressing at Joe’s.”

Nick embraced Rachel. “The simple life is incredible, and I share your passion for it, my love. I knew we were soul mates the moment I saw your picture.”

Rachel pushed away. “Wait a minute. The first time you saw a picture of me was when you were issued a contract to kill me.”

Nick shrugged while Gus and Jean enjoyed the moment loudly in amusement. “Well… yeah… there is that. I think you destroyed my soul mate moment, you Philistine.”

Not even Rachel could comment on that statement for many moments with both Jean and Gus succumbing to Nick’s one liner.