Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (5 page)

Nick took Lynn’s hand, pulling her forward. “Rach, Jean… this is Lynn, Clint’s wife.”

Lynn of course melted from her cold blooded persona to the killer mommy she now was as she greeted Jean and Rachel while ogling young Quinn. “He’s adorable.” Out came the iPhone with a parade of pics featuring her son, Clint Jr for Nick’s ladies to see. It was a good greeting.

Nick’s Jean latched onto Lynn’s arm. “Dad told me Mr. Strobert says you are the deadliest woman he’s ever seen with a knife. Dad taught me a lot about knives. Can I show you after your meeting?”

Lynn’s eyes brightened. “Sure kid, I’d love to see what you can do.”

“My tag is Viper,” Jean told her proudly.

“Mine’s Cruella Deville. You can call me Crue, Viper.”

“That is so cool!”

“Denny told us all how you and your Mom met Nick. Very scary.”

“Yeah… Dad had to kill a bunch of wankers that were set on killing us.”

“Jean!” Rachel tugged on Jean’s hair while Crue enjoyed the exchange.

“I’ll tell you about the raid when Clint dragged John’s team along to get me out of a drug cartel’s clutches in Mexico while you’re showing me your knife handling.”

“No… you won’t,” Clint said.

“Damn censors,” Lynn whispered loudly to Jean. “I’ll give you a toned down version later, Viper.”

“Okay, Crue. I hope my friend Sonny comes over soon to meet you.”

We followed Nick to his deck. The vista that morning combined a misting fog and streaming sunlight with small clear areas of ocean, houses and mottled sky. Nick’s table, set with coffee cups, finger pastries, and thermal coffee urns looked very inviting. Nick sat down with Deke the dog lying at his side. A tall lean black man and a slightly under six foot Middle Eastern man stood to shake our hands.

“Gus Nason and John Groves… meet John Harding, Denny Strobert, Lucas Blake, Clint Dostiene, and Lynn Dostiene.”

“We feel like we know you all because of the videos Muerto’s been exchanging with Lucas,” Gus said. “The interrogation videos get Muerto sexually aroused so we have to limit his time with them.”

After we all enjoyed Gus’s zinger while seating and serving ourselves, John Groves spoke rather hesitantly to Lynn. “We are very interested in your new interrogation technique with the acupuncture pins, Lynn. That is amazing. There are no marks and the results are incredible.”

“We stick with that one now,” Lynn told him. “It’s boring as hell but going old school is messy. I love the one you guys do with the scalpel and bleach.”

“Muerto only does that one when we can escape the cleaning usually,” John replied. “I am like you in that I need only show the video now as Lucas has explained you do.”

“I have to see your chamber of horrors,” Lynn said with enthusiasm. “Where the heck do you have that place?”

“It is near my house in Carmel Valley. I hope you will have time for me to show it to you. It may be possible to bring this man, Gilani, there. We shall find out everything he knows.”

“I like it,” Lynn declared. “Step up, Den. Let’s get the details ironed out. Time’s a wastin’.”

Denny explained our suspicions about Gilani. We also suspected he imported an Isis cell into the Salinas area because of the helicopter assaults we did on the compounds in our area. They hoped to make the Salinas area into a staging ground to replace the ones we devastated. Best of all, they didn’t know we were on to them yet. It was our understanding Gilani knew something about the Starlight of the Seas assault.

“Cheese can explain the rules of engagement,” Denny ended his talk. “Nick will be op leader, but Cheese has to determine who lives and dies according to the pictures we have of suspects we’re hoping will be with Gilani. Is that okay with you, Nick?”

“Who is Cheese?”

I took a deep breath while my crew appreciated the moment. “That’s me, Nick. I got sliced and diced in the octagon by a fighter named Rattler. It earned me the nickname Cheeseburger because of my face after the fight… Cheese for short. Please feel free to use it since your friend’s name is John too. As to the rules of engagement, I’m figuring Gilani alive, but damn if I care whether we execute the rest. The media keeps inventing this term called radicalized. I figure we’ll un-radicalize a bunch in this mosque you guys found hiding Gilani.”

“Sounds good to me, Cheese. I like your tag. What’s your tag, Lucas?”

“Never mind what my tag is, boot-camp!”

“It’s Ahab,” Lynn immediately informed Nick. “He treats that damn boat of ours, The Sea Wolf, like his own private chariot of fire. Clint’s is ‘the man from nowhere’ or Nowhere for short.”

“Thanks, hon,” Clint said as Nick and his ‘Unholy Trio’ expressed their appreciation of the added humor.

“We laugh our asses off when we see the newest ‘Unholy Trio’ YouTube video,” Lynn said. “El Muerto, Payaso, and the formidable El Kabong. Well guys, what do you have in mind for our wayward masjid?”

“It is a blasphemy,” John told us with conviction. “We should bar the doors and burn it to the ground.”

“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Lynn exclaimed. “I’ll bet the guys here who did time in the sand pits overseas felt like we should have that as the first rule of engagement - hit mosques with bombs, rockets, and then troops. We would have taken care of the enemy leaders hiding there along with their armories.”

Clint, Denny, Nick, Lucas and I exchanged knowing glances. Lynn hit it dead on right. There were no mosques in the Middle East anymore, only armories and troop barracks with religious symbols on the outside.

“Lynn’s right. Add in the assholes using hospitals, schools, and even their ambulances for transporting, storing, and launching assaults for the completed picture,” Nick agreed. “As to our operation today, John and his wife Cala will infiltrate with audio and video gear so we’ll know whether they have a kids’ group on the premises. They will also try to find where Gilani is. No matter what they find or don’t find, this is too important to pass up. We assault with smoke grenades if kids are inside, but if it’s mostly adults we throw in flash bangs and salt the earth inside. I’m figuring Lucas at the sniper’s nest I have picked out for the op. He’ll make sure we’re not interrupted. Gus will be his spotter. He’s done it many times for me, Lucas. How’s the outside police interference, Denny?”

“We will have a two hour action window under the auspices of a Homeland Security operation,” Denny answered. “I contracted a private cleaning firm I’ve used in the past for the final wrap-up. They’ll take care of bodies and bleaching. Do you and Cala have a retreat spot, John?”

“Yes. She and I will take Gilani if we find him. We will then keep under cover in a room to be called in later. Cala will smuggle in a couple of weapons along with our breathing masks under her burka just as the snakes do when they attack a public place. We will have red tops on under our regular masjid clothing so we will not be executed for hiding while Muslim.”

We took a lighthearted moment over that line before I spoke again. “When would you like to hit them Nick?”

“Friday is the Muslim congregation day. They’ll be reeling over their spoiled Saturday murder rampage. John believes Gilani will call his cohorts into a backroom or cellar meeting today. He and Cala will go in to pray at noon during the Dhuhr break for prayer. The chauvinistic pigs make the women pray behind the lines of men, but we’re thinking the crowd will be small. Cala will be able to get close behind John, ready for action. Chances are the hypocrite Gilani will join the people in the main hall for prayer. When prayer ends John will let us know how to proceed from there. If it goes as planned, he may be able to call Gilani aside to be controlled while we attack.”

“It sounds like a lot of collateral damage,” Denny said. “Are you going to allow the mosque prayer visitors a chance to leave before we hit it?”

Nick looked at me in confusion. “Whose idea was it to bring Snow White to the meeting?”

Even Denny cracked up at Nick’s retort. “Sorry, Nick. We’ll play this out according to whatever John and Cala find inside the mosque. We’ll have six thousand lives and an international propaganda nightmare if we don’t discover every detail we can about the Starlight of the Seas assault.”

“I figured Paul had explained he wants this masjid made into a lesson the cannibals in Isis and their enablers will understand. This will eventually hit the media as a hate crime. Since everything done by law against these bastards is considered a hate crime, what do we have to lose? We’ll show them what a real hate crime looks like. Paul plans to explain any fallout like the government does now when the religion of peace followers blow up or gun down innocent American civilians – they issue a statement that it was an unfortunate incident. We’ll be chalking up an unfortunate incident with proof of an armory and dead Islamist criminals, many John believes are here on false passports, imported to do Gilani’s bidding.”

“Many regular worshipers have stayed away from the masjid since Gilani’s arrival, suspecting it has become a hideout and armory which will eventually become an FBI target,” John explained. “There will possibly be innocent people there. We will all be masked. If they dive to the floor and do not interfere maybe they will survive. If not, they will also become a lesson to other masjid members. It needs to become dangerous for Muslims to attend false masjids acting as hideouts and armories.”

Nick clapped his hands together. “If we’re all through discussing the innocents about to give their lives for bad decisions, shall we lock and load? John will leave to get ready from his place. I saw you drove down in the big action van. I like it. I’ll show the masjid layout a few more times and go over the operation once inside. Then I brief Lucas on the sniper’s nest location and layout before we get him in position. Anyone need a grenade? You know… in case something goes wrong we need a more destructive force for.”

Nick noticed our smiling silence. “Okay… okay… no grenades. Let’s get busy. Hey Clint, where the hell do you come from?”

“None of your business. I don’t answer questions from cartoons.”

Nick frowned. “That’s very hurtful, Nowhere Man.”

“You cartoons are a bit too sensitive for my liking.”

I liked this guy. The fact Lucas and Clint thought of him as family was only part of it. I could tell he thought of Denny as a means to an end. I cared a bit more for Denny but I thought of him in much the same way when we worked together.

Chapter Three

Radicalized Solution

“What do you think, Lucas?” I watched John and Cala enter the mosque with only a small episode with two men clearly discouraging the noontime prayer arrivals.

“I have outstanding sight on all but the rear door, Cheese. If someone exits there, Gus will keep them in sight until I can get a bead on them at the sides or front. Their fence acts in our favor.”

“Nick will give you the word when to pop the greeters the moment John finishes his recon and either gets Gilani or decides we’ll have to hunt for him after the initial fireworks.”

“Understood.”

I turned to Nick. “It’s probably a plus they’re discouraging regular prayer seekers.”

Nick smiled and shrugged. “I really don’t care. I’m sick of sorting these ghouls. If they’re too stupid to understand we’re getting tired of them playing the innocents game while enabling murderous Muslim jihadists then too damn bad.”

Now that’s funny. Nick thinks I give a shit about the enablers. “I meant it will be easier for John and Cala to possibly find Gilani.”

“Sorry. I’m dealing with an ongoing Muslim fanatic factor related to John’s wife, Cala. We’re still not sure if we’ll simply have to wipe out all male members of the Kader family. I’ve already killed enough of the wankers they should be in hiding, but they keep popping up from nowhere like roaches out of a porous wall. This business where we keep trying to differentiate the good Muslims from the bad while they try to kill us trips my psycho wires.”

“I hear you. We dealt with the same family mess with one of our new recruits who works as Lynn’s assistant. Her name’s Amara. She had a Dad who wanted to do an honor killing because Amara wouldn’t accept an arranged marriage. We’ve adjusted her family’s male population. I have the same outlook as you with this catch and release crap. I like Gilbrech’s decision. He knows these mosques… masjids… whatever, will be used for harboring fugitive terrorists and active armories. All the while the assholes in DC let them stream in like soldier ants covering a honeycomb.”

“Well, Cheese… we’re going to show the soldier ants we ain’t quite as sweet as they think we are. Paul’s a good man. He’d take a bullet for us. I’ve already pushed the cartoon torture and kill ops past the comfort zone for DC bureaucrats but Paul keeps backing our plays no matter what. He knows we can’t win this damn war without decimating the Muslim population to the point they reform or die. I’ve watched the burka cadets in the sandpits overseas doing their shrill dances of joy over anything bad that happens to us. I give them movies like my Cincinnati hangar blast to remind them some of us don’t plan going quietly. I saw your Isis compound assaults. Those were some righteous illustrations we’re all through playing nice. Who the hell thought up the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ accompaniment?”

“That was mine,” I admitted. “I had a bad time over the prior days. We needed to make war on the bastards in our area. We did, but it seems we drove them down toward you.”