Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (2 page)

Casey hugged Nick again. “I love you man.”

“I like it,” John agreed. “How about it, Lucas.”

“Damn fine for a Marine wannabe,” Lucas allowed. “What about the suited pussies?”

“We end the threat, Lucas. After the op is over, I’ll keep an eye on our superiors. Anyone selling us out gets put down until the message is understood.”

“Will your companions go along with that?”

“We have an understanding of sorts, John. Let me worry about them. Someday, I may have to kill them so I don’t want to get too touchy feely concerning their long range survival. Right now, I believe they’ll do what I tell them. My boss is in this up to his eyeballs. He doesn’t know it, but I have proof he’s taking a payoff from Craig Reince’s competitor for the drug pipeline. Frank Richert will smooth the aftermath over for the rest of his cohorts. You know the golden rule, guys.”

“We leave no one behind,” John stated for all of them.

“That’s the one.”

* * *

The doorbell rang. Nick checked his security camera from his enclosed balcony. The brunette NSA assassin, Kate Fuller, stood alone at his doorstep. Nick went down with his Colt .45 in a clip on holster at his back. He opened the door and the screen, stepping aside as Kate slipped past him.

Two hours later, Nick’s right hand fingertips traced patterns down the insides of Kate’s thighs as she moaned with satisfied sighs. “So… Merry Christmas to me, Kate. What brings you here before we leave for the North Bay?”

“Can’t it be simply an early Christmas present?”

“Sure, if we were high school seniors on a prom date. What’s the angle?”

“Sam and I want to form an alliance with you. Richert’s operation is getting too cutthroat. We figure an early warning agreement would make life less hazardous in these black ops gigs.”

“You two want to be my besties, huh?” Nick chuckled. “Forget it, Kate. If I hear something concerning a hit on either of you, I’ll get word to you, no charge. If you can reciprocate, that would be nice. If not, no harm done; that is until I find out you or Sam could have warned me. Then we’re going to have a problem.”

“You really are a bastard.”

Nick moved over Kate. “Yeah… so what’s your point?”

* * *

Nick had pinpointed each car with drivers and guards. He killed without pause, only slowing to replace clips in his Barrett M82 with silencer. From his vantage point, no one could leave the warehouse area alive. While drivers and guards died under Nick’s pinpoint barrage, his companions lobbed grenades through crashed in doors and smashed windows. The explosions rattled the ground as if an 8.0 earthquake had struck the area. Nick shouldered his Barrett sniper rifle and M249 machine gun with pack. He dropped from the warehouse roof using his specially rigged line. Without pause, he hit the ground running.

Fuller and Jessops met him at the entrance in masked camo. “We’re going in from the front, John! We take the far quadrants.”

“Understood. We’re with you on the side. Say when.”

“On three.” Nick counted down. He and his crew went in blasting to the left away from Harding, Blake, and Lambert working the right.

It was a slaughter of the dead and dying. Within minutes only Nick and his cohorts remained alive. Nick stopped Fuller and Jessops.

“Go to the entrance. Stay there until I come for you.”

Nick then moved toward Harding, Blake, and Lambert. “On my way to you from deep on left, John.”

“Come ahead. We’re done.”

The men shook hands.

“Nice working with you, Nick,” John said.

“Same here. Take care of the rest of our family here, John.”

“Will do.”

“You need someone watching your back. This lone gunman shit is going to get you killed,” Lucas added.

“Lucas is right, Nick,” Casey said. “Things are changing. We retrieved Clint Dostiene out of a South of the Border fiasco where his boss left his ass to die. We’re watching each other’s backs from now on.”

“It’s all under consideration, Casey… plus a few other things I’m puzzling out,” Nick replied. “If you need me again, leave me a message on the internet drop I gave you. Ho… ho… Merry Christmas from old St. Nick.”

Lucas gave Nick a push toward the front entrance. “I should shoot you in the head for that line.”

* * *

“We’ll stay the hell away from you in the future, Nick,” Jessops stated. “Think about our offer though.”

Nick drove without comment, his right hand at the top of the steering wheel. He felt the barrel of Kate’s M249 at his right temple. Nick smiled.

“Pull over, you bastard! Did you think we’d let you walk after what you did to us!”

“Nope.” Nick held the grenade with pin removed in his left hand where Fuller and Jessops could see it. “We all live, or we all die, Kate. Lay your weapons on the floor. I’ll pull over. Then I want you two out and walking away. Don’t look back.”

Jessops put a hand over Kate’s hand as Nick stopped the vehicle turning to face a red faced Fuller. “He means it, Kate! Like he said, let’s walk.”

Kate and Sam left the vehicle unarmed. She pointed at Nick. “This isn’t over, McCarty. Frank will send us for you one day. We won’t let you off the hook next time.”

“For your sakes, I hope Frank never sends you two Snow Whites after me. It won’t end well for either of you. Merry Christmas!”

Nick drove away with a smile as Kate shouted curses he could hear for half a block. “Merry Christmas indeed.”

* * *

“What did you think, John?”

Lucas helped me and Casey with the mundane task of gathering all electronic devices, weapons, and body identification. Denny was making sure we weren’t disturbed. A cleaner awaited our completion of the gathering aspect. We usually did our own cleaning, but this needed to be done fast. Denny requested a crew. His request was granted. We did drag the bodies and parts into the warehouse center because we needed to ID them anyway.

“I think it’s nice to have a guy like Nick nearby. None of us are supposed to be doing this stuff, NSA or CIA. We’re getting away with a lot more because of the private contractor tag. Having a guy only a little over an hour south of us we know can do the work without question eases the chances of us getting hung out to dry. I’d ask him to help out in a heartbeat. I also trust he knows his own outfit well enough that as long as he’s with them it would have to be sparingly.”

“Yep. That’s how I feel too,” Lucas replied.

“Make no mistake about Nick,” Casey added. “He’s part of the club – a cold blooded killer, but he never lets down a friend… ever.”

“The damn punk can write too,” Lucas said. “I heard from Denny that Nick’s boss sent a couple killers after him because he wouldn’t quit the New York Times Bestseller Author gig. Nick sent their teeth back to his boss, Frank Richert. I’ve met that prick. Never turn your back on him. We’re in a rough business for picking and choosing people. For every one of you I trained who made the grade there were hundreds who couldn’t cut it. It’s one of the reasons I wanted back in the field. When Denny offered me a chance to come in on this private contracting gig with you two, answerable to only Denny, I jumped the training ship without a backwards glance.”

“I hope Nick gets out of the NSA black ops deal he’s in,” Casey said. “That Richert guy will have him killed if he can.”

“Seems as if Nick stays a couple steps ahead all the time,” I replied. “He’ll need to in that outfit. The two he was with, Fuller and Jessops, I didn’t like on sight. Nick handled their end well. There was an undercurrent of tension as if those two were looking for a way to kill Nick along with getting the job done.”

“I smelled that rat too,” Lucas agreed. “Nick can take care of himself. He’s a brother for sure. Anyone tries recruiting me to take him out gets a bullet in the head.”

“That wraps it for now,” I said, bagging the last piece of bloody electronics gizmos. “I hope we can get Clint to join us. Denny said he’s working on it.”

“He’s doin’ some serial killer gig with the FBI,” Lucas replied. “That Clint knows computers and killers. I don’t know if we could tempt him into the mix again after his stint South of the Border.”

“Clint enjoyed his work,” Casey said. “I doubt he can stay out for long.”

“Trust Denny to wait for an opportunity. If Clint can be reached and brought into the fold, Strobert will do it.” I led the way out of the warehouse. Denny had the city looking the other way, listing our op as a building demolition. I liked McCarty’s style. I decided to keep track of him for the future.

Chapter Two

Cold Blooded Help

After a knock on his door, Paul Gilbrech beckoned his visitor in. He stood to shake hands with his most successful assistant director, Denny Strobert. “Thanks for coming, Denny. I like your work on the West Coast. Harding’s crew stopping the China Basin assault charged us all up back here in DC. That was one damn fine job.”

“Thanks, Paul.” Denny sat down across from Gilbrech. “I know you have your own small force of infiltrators only a little south of us. I saw McCarty’s comic book movies on YouTube. When you told me he was El Muerto, I laughed my ass off. How in hell does he get away with half the stuff he does? That was Nick who stopped the Boston Harbor incident, wasn’t it?”

“He fired that damn traitorous bitch Diane Cameron from the Senate too. Please tell me you didn’t share any of what I told you about Nick.”

“Did you just insult me?”

Paul chuckled. “Sorry. Nick’s damn dangerous. If he finds out I told anyone off the cuff about his cartoon trio you’d find me along the side of the road like they did old high and mighty Frank Richert. Good old Frank thought he could play Nick. It didn’t go well for him. His daughter Jean nicknamed him the Terminator during the jaunt across the country with Frank hounding him.”

“I heard the Sarasota gig he pulled off destroyed Frank Richert’s secret branch of NSA he used as his own Praetorian Guard. McCarty took out Kate Fuller and Sam Jessops down in Florida too. Once Nick sanctioned those two without breaking a sweat Frank should have run for it. No, I didn’t even tell my own troops about Nick and his cartoon unholy trio. I’m afraid they’d try and do something similar. You’ve seen the movies Clint’s wife, Lynn did for interrogation purposes. She’s the deadliest woman I ever worked with.”

“I saw them. I heard all you have to do is show your interrogation subjects the videos. They piss themselves and tell you everything you want to know.”

Denny grinned and nodded. “That’s very close to exactly right. My guys nicknamed her Cruella Deville. She lives for the adrenaline rush. Lynn handles knives like Edward Scissorhands. Anyhow, you don’t have to worry about a leak from me. I’ve heard rumors McCarty’s cartoon movies have pointed suspicion his way though, especially after the Cincinnati mission. Nick’s cartoon trio executing those guys in their own hangar blew up the Internet.”

Paul sighed. “Tell me about it. Nick has his fingers on the pulse of everything in his area. I don’t think he even cares anymore. He’s made a bunch of pointed illustrations as to what can happen when you front him anywhere. I’m telling you the bad guys steer clear of Nick’s adopted hometown. He kills on sight - no hesitation, no fear, no mercy.”

“I need Nick on the Isis plot Clint and Lynn discovered. They believe Isis has plans to assault the cruise ship, Starlight of the Seas.”

Denny’s target of the plot stunned Paul. “The new Oasis class ship in the 227,000 ton range? Good God, those ships can carry over eight thousand guests and crew.”

“Yep,” Denny replied. “They have airport type security getting on board the ship, but their security force on board isn’t armed. We don’t have much time. This will be a gamble, Paul. We can turn the info over to anyone you like and have the Navy shadow the ship with AWACS planes in the air to stop this plot. We both know since the plot has already been formulated, Isis or whatever other murderous bastards from the sand will simply try it some other time.”

“You’re thinking a kill mission, once and for all, no names or agencies connected. It will put the fear into them they can be struck anytime they try it.”

“That’s my plan. It may have to be repeated too. These huge cruise ships are ripe for sabotage on board which is exactly what Clint and Lynn heard rumors of on the Starlight. They data-mined for clues after getting vague information from one of our transient detainees.”

“The detainee didn’t know more?”

Denny chuckled. “Believe me, Paul, if that guy knew any more than he told us, I would be presenting it to you. After seeing Lynn’s demo videos on interrogation techniques, the guy offered to blow himself up inside an Isis meeting if we agreed to keep Lynn away from him.”

Gilbrech enjoyed Denny’s word picture for a moment before going on. “What’s your plan? I hope it’s a bold one. First… tell me how they can get the ship.”

“We knew this kind of operation wouldn’t work without an inside contingent,” Denny replied. “We’re figuring Isis will need between thirty and forty infiltrators working in the crew. They’ll be the ones responsible for holding key points on the Starlight. The ship can be outrun by anything in a patrol boat size. We figure they’ll sabotage communications and hold the helicopter landing pad at the forward part of the ship that can also be approached by a boat.”