Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (8 page)

“We need to wake bright boy up again,” Nick added. “If he knew all about the new shooters, he’ll know about the boat escape route. Chances are the guy won’t be hanging around the pier. He’ll stay outside the bay until the shooting starts, then zip in to retrieve the shooters. Gilani will know, and I’m very disappointed he didn’t divulge the information without being asked. I think he needs more motivation.”

“That makes two of us,” Lynn said as she splashed the snoring Gilani, in between bitch slaps. “He’ll be telling us now. I know he lit your fire, Cheese, but we need to change tactics. I see Lucas giving you bad looks for making a mess in the van.”

“Crue’s right, Recon,” Lucas agreed. “What the hell was that all about with the ripping off the fingers in my clean van?”

I shrugged. It was stupid. “I think I have a little carryover from our China Basin atomic bomb caper. I’m sick of Isis and all their minions and enablers. Let’s leave it at that. I’ll clean the van, Ahab.”

“He’s coming around,” Clint observed. “We still have time to get the shooters and set a trap for the suspected boatman. Do you want another boat, Lucas?”

“Not if it’s some little speedboat. We don’t need anything else in our personal navy unless it’s as nice as the Sea Wolf. How about you guys, Nick?”

“We’ll pass, but thanks.” Nick grabbed Gilani’s chin, peering into his eyes as they blinked in misery. “If we’re going to trap this escape boat, taking it in the deep water and sinking it would be the way to go. I know we were going to go over the electronics at our place in Carmel Valley, but maybe we’d better check sooner if Gordon has the guy on speed dial or something. Coordinates would be nice. Are you with me, Gordon? I may be able to forgive your oversight in not telling us about your escape boat for Bitar and Touma. Tell us where we can find the boat and we won’t have to get nasty.”

Gilani’s eyes widened in shock. Lynn fired off her stun-gun, the bluish arc flashing brightly in the darkened van interior. “Fire in the hole!”

“Wait! I do know more… I was in pain.”

“We don’t care,” Nick broke in. “Do you have a boat in reserve to take Bitar and Touma off the pier after their shooting rampage?”

“Yes,” Gilani answered immediately, his eyes clearing. “The location is circled on a chart on my laptop’s desktop. It is near the bell straight out from the Point Pinos Lighthouse. The boat is a white thirty foot cruiser named ‘Falak’.”

“I have it,” Lucas said, after rummaging in the electronics gadgets they collected at the mosque. He held it up. “We took this one out of the cellar.”

“That is the one,” Gilani confirmed. He saw me moving into a position to put him to sleep again, and jerked back against the van’s side. “No… please… I will be silent.”

I pointed at him. “Okay, Gordon, but if you make a sound I will rip both your ears off. I can do it so fast you won’t know they’re gone until I show them to you. Want a demo?”

“No! I…I believe you. How can you people do these things? Are you not with the police or federal authority? I have rights… even as a combatant.”

“You’re no combatant, you pussy!” Lynn smashed Gilani across the face. “Damn… I think I’m as high strung about these assholes as Cheese. When I hear ‘rights’ spew out of their pie-holes I want to get to the cuttin’. I bet the intestinal bleach cleaning is a soul satisfying old school ending, huh Muerto?”

“Oh Lynn,” Nick said with a wide smile, “you have no idea how liberating it can be after reading about the exploits of these murderous vultures worldwide claiming to be a force of God.”

“They are all predators!” Cala spoke for the first time. “They maim and subjugate women in horrid fashion with beatings, loveless marriages, and mutilation. I would see them all cleansed as Muerto does. They are all cowards!”

Cala grinned and moved over near a cringing Gilani, poking her finger in his face. “I am Cleaner Cala. I will be most happy to fix you for disposal.”

I saw that Gus, John, and Nick were already chuckling at Cala’s threat. John patted her shoulder, urging her away from Gilani. “Easy, my love. This one has much to tell about our honeymoon cruise adventure.”

Cala was no dummy. She could see the beast lurking behind Gilani’s fearful eyes. I figured she had firsthand knowledge of these creatures’ activities on a personal family level. I remembered Nick’s mention of a family he might have to exterminate. I wondered if he’d like some help. Islamophobia means a fear of. That’s a joke. No American citizen has Islamophobia. We harbor the fear our government will put us in a position where we will have to fight the assholes on our own soil when we could simply cut the flood of fifth column saboteurs and murderers from ever reaching our shores. With me, I have a new precept. I treat Middle Eastern people on a case by case basis. John and Cala were golden with me, but the other millions would take more time than I had left, hence cutting the horde off until I could adjust.

I shook Gilani’s hair a bit, wagging his head back and forth. “Do yourself a favor and keep silent unless we ask you something. Mention rights again and you will eat your tasty ears. Do you understand?”

Gilani nodded enthusiastically. I released him reluctantly.

Lucas brought the chart to life on the laptop’s desktop screen. It showed the intended positioning of the Falak. Gus drove to the curb and took the laptop from Lucas. I could tell he recognized the boat’s mooring. He handed the laptop back to Lucas.

“I know the Point Pintos area quite well. We’ve deposited a few of our less savory characters in the waters beyond there. The Falak is holding position near the bell. We have implements for shutting it down and destroying the Falak if Denny can possibly alert the authorities to look the other way for maybe a Homeland Security issue at sea.”

“I’ll take care of that issue immediately,” Denny began making calls while Gus drove toward the Stagecoach Lodge. Gilani leaned against the van bulkhead with eyes closed and mouth shut.

“My male family members are thugs and predators,” Cala explained stoically. “We may have to remove them from this dimension.”

“If you need help, girlfriend, call me,” Lynn said. “We had a similar problem we needed to resolve in much the same manner. We have a mutant Muslim strike force, don’t we, Cheese?”

“We do indeed,” I confirmed. “I’m beginning to consider a widening of our duties to include any place having even a small problem with the un-assimilating horde the government and media seem to love. I like your style, Nick. This is your territory. How do you want to take these shooters at the motel?”

“My suggestion is we make Gilani call them and confirm they’re in the room. We pick the lock, open the door, toss in a grenade and walk away.”

Nick grinned as everyone but Denny and Gilani laughed. “Okay… okay – we toss in a flash-bang, and go in to do what we do best with murderous illegal aliens. We can probably take them alive for disposal later. Cala, we have the freezer cleaned out, right?”

“Yes, Muerto. Gus and John took our last occupants out for disposal last week.”

Denny gave out a sigh with long intake of breath. “Yes, let’s do that, Nick. Thank you. I like your operational offering. We may need to ask the two shooters a couple of questions and I’d rather we didn’t need to do so with a medium or the kid who sees dead people.”

Gus drove us to the lodge, but parked a block before the entrance. “How’s this? I didn’t think you’d want to drive to their door for retrieval until it’s a done deal.”

“Quite right, Gus,” Nick said before turning to me. “I’m thinking Lynn knocking on the door. When the jerks answer, we lob a banger inside and hold the door shut. We then go in, collect our test subjects and Gus drives in for retrieval. We’ll be in and out in moments.”

“I like it. We don’t want a big presence at the door, so how about Clint and I backing Lynn at the door, Muerto?”

“That’s good with me. There’s no use in drawing unwanted attention where we can avoid it. One flash-bang should put those two on their asses. We’ll sweep in like EMT’s to retrieve our captives and be gone in moments. I have a request if this takedown pans out and we move on to the boater we missed yesterday.”

Nick was grinning so I figured the request would be fine. “I’m certain we can grant the request. I guess you’ll explain it when we collect our disappointed shooters. Let’s go get this done. We’ll have to return and make good with hotel management. For right now though, we’ll concentrate on our targets. We’ll test our com units on the way.” I switched to Arabic to make a point. “It’s time for you to call your friends, Gordon. Take a deep breath, steady your voice, because you will be in for a lot of pain otherwise. Remember this too. As you can hear we speak your language.”

Denny called the Stage Coach Lodge, asking if his two friends had arrived safely after giving the hotel attendant the names and room number Gilani mentioned they checked in under. The Lodge operator confirmed their arrival. Denny disconnected and called the number Gilani gave him for the couple’s throwaway cell-phone. He held the phone so Gilani could speak into it. Emir answered the phone, confirmed his orders to remain at the Lodge, but asked if their boat escape was in place. Gilani assured him it was. Denny disconnected.

Clint and Lynn followed me toward the Stage Coach Lodge. Lynn had grabbed a clipboard. She stripped down to her blouse which looked great after buttoning and straightening. Lynn then tied her hair back tightly into place. With clipboard in hand she looked very professional. Clint made ready a nice banger surprise for when Emir or Bibi opened the door. We separated, allowing Lynn to approach the cottage alone while Clint and I slipped to the sides, out of sight from their windows. Lynn knocked.

“Hello? Motel management. I need you to sign a reference form for me, please.”

The door opened with security chain in place. I hit the door with a shoulder, popping the chain. Clint threw in the banger and pulled Lynn to the side. I at first opened the door into the face of Emir before slamming it shut. The resulting small explosion was most satisfying. We were all inside in seconds. It appeared Bibi suffered the worst of our surprise stunner. Blood exited all the passages in her face, including from her eyes. Emir twisted to confront us, but he was in no shape for further resistance. I threw him on his face and made him immobile with our quick connect plastic restraints. Lynn did the same for the injured Bibi. Clint gathered all their belongings while I called for Gus. It was a tight squeeze getting the action van in there, but Gus managed. We were again loaded and ready to leave within minutes. Nick handled a frightened manager approaching us with his FBI badge. He assured the man we would make good on any damages during the apprehension of the fugitives.

Gus eased us to the street, proceeding directly toward Carmel Valley. Lynn wiped off Bibi’s face, giving her oxygen and finally an adrenaline shot. Nothing worked. I hooked up our paddles while Lynn continued pressuring her chest. Denny warned ‘Clear’ and charged Bibi’s chest while I held the paddles in place. We brought her back from the dead on the third voltage upswing. Emir watched us with sullen eyes, gasping and shaking his head to clear the effects of our flash-bang. He saved a few glares for Gilani, but he was wasting his time. They would all soon be dead. Emir would have to seek retribution in the great beyond. Maybe he could put a claim in for half of Gilani’s virgins.

“Where are you taking us?” Emir appeared the type to annoy us unless instructed properly. Lynn lit him up for a nice fifteen second stun-gun charge.

“We’ll get to the question and answer phase later,” Lynn informed him with a pat on the cheek. “I like to call it my version of ‘Truth or Consequences’. If you’re smart you’ll be thinking of all the wondrous facts you can share with us to avoid my ‘Consequences’ part of the game.”

“I will tell you nothing!” Emir got ready to spit on the floor, but Lucas popped him right between the eyes with the butt of his Colt .45.

“You spit on my van floor asshole and I’ll have Lynn peel your face off for a napkin to clean it with!” Lucas didn’t have to do anything else. Emir no longer cared to express his outrage. His eyes didn’t uncross for about five minutes.

Chapter Four

Planning, Procedure, and Practice

We reached the Carmel Valley home of El Kabong and Cleaner Cala soon after. The ranch style estate could not be seen from the road or surrounding properties. I would have draped the groggy body of Bibi over my shoulder to follow Nick, but Gus and John produced heavy duty gurneys. I deposited Bibi on one. John brought along the empty after explaining he and Gus needed to transport the bodies back and forth. Lynn kept entertained watching Cleaner Cala taking measurements of the still living bodies even during transport. The underground facility stirred memories of horror movies I’d seen as a kid. Gus demonstrated the black-lights which could be switched on with the accompaniment of music from the movie ‘The Exorcist’, complete with what John explained were real screams and a kaleidoscope of torture images.

“Muerto built this before he even knew us,” Gus explained. “He’s been disturbed in the head for a very long time. We don’t try to guess at how long. Only a few people ever enter here and emerge at anything but room temperature.”

Lynn was in heaven, dancing around under the black-lights with our prisoners gawking at the room with undisguised terror. “Oh my God, Muerto! This is incredible. Clint? Take movies for the minions. They need to build me one of these.”

Clint smiled and began filming with his high-tech video cam he did Lynn’s movies with on the fly. “I think you’re scaring our guests, dear.”