Mega #02 Baja Blood (26 page)

“Because I wasn’t talking to them,” Darby said. “I was talking to you two.”

Dr. Morganton leaned forward and looked closer at Darby.

“Oh, fuck, no,” she gasped. “Not you.”

“Yes, me,” Darby smiled. She spun and put two bullets in the man that suddenly appeared at the doorway then turned back. “Hello, Dr. Morganton. Ballantine sends his regards.”

***

Thorne pointed at Shane then at the last corner that stood between them and the passageway to Gunnar’s lab. Shane nodded and crouched low as he slowly walked towards the corner. Thorne stayed high and followed his nephew.

The men by the lab door were busy shouting back and forth in Spanish to Diego held inside. Thorne knew some Spanish, but not enough to catch what they were saying.

Shane held out a hand to him and stood up.

“Hola!” he called out. “Ustedes necesitan un poco de ayuda?”

The men all turned and looked at Shane, some of them even lowering their weapons. They died quickly as Shane opened up on them.

“What did you say to them?” Thorne asked.

“I asked if they needed any help,” Shane said. “Then I helped them. Helped them die!”

Thorne groaned.

Diego’s screams from the lab filled the passageway as Shane and Thorne walked cautiously to the hatchway.

“Gunnar?” Shane called out. “You cool?”

“Yeah,” Gunnar replied.

“Pearlman?” Thorne asked.

“Solid,” Mike replied.

“FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL!” Diego screamed.

Thorne and Shane walked into the lab, their carbines sweeping the room. They could see Diego thrashing on the far table, and Mike below giving them the thumbs up.

“Gunnar? Where are you?” Thorne asked.

“The safest place in the room,” Gunnar replied. “Behind the big, giant pile of drugs.”

***

“Cougher,” Kinsey said as she and Max stepped into the engine room. “It’s us. You can come on out.”

They walked a few more feet then a shape popped up from behind one of the diesel engines. It was actually two shapes. One was Cougher, the other was a man with his arm around Cougher’s throat and a pistol to his head.

“Hey, guys,” Cougher said. “Someone found me.”

“We can see that, Cougher,” Kinsey said. “Habla Inglés?”

“Yes, I speak English,” the man snapped. “I was born in El Paso.”

“Good, good,” Kinsey said. “How about you let our friend go and set the gun down? We won’t shoot you if you be cool, okay?”

“Bullshit,” the man spat, shoving the barrel harder against Cougher’s temple.  “I let him go and you’ll blow my head off.”

“No, we won’t, will we, Max?” Kinsey replied.

“As long as Cougher stays alive, you stay alive,” Max said. “Scout’s honor.”

The man watched them for a second then turned the pistol from Cougher and towards Kinsey and Max. He got off one shot before Max put a bullet between his eyes. His body fell away from Cougher and the engineer turned and kicked the corpse.

“Fucking cocksucker,” Cougher said. “Teach you to fuck with Team Grendel.”

Kinsey and Max stepped forward, turning this way and that, as they made sure there was no one else in the engine room.

“Can I turn a light on?” Cougher asked. “I can’t see shit.”

Max fished a flashlight from his belt, turned it on, and handed it to Cougher.

“Thanks,” Cougher said as he took the flashlight and walked past the operators towards a bank of switches. “Now, how about I get all the lights back on?”

He threw a switch and said, “Ta da!”

But nothing happened.

“Shit,” Cougher said. “That guy’s bullet must have hit something important.”

“Like what?” “Max asked.

“I don’t know yet,” he replied as he held out the flashlight. “Hold that so I can find out.”

***

“What happened?” Ballantine asked.

“Bullet hit the main breaker,” Kinsey reported. “Cougher’s working on it now, but it could be a while before we can get the power back up.”

“Can he reroute it?” Ballantine asked.

“He’s trying to do that,” Kinsey replied. “And it isn’t going well.”

“I’m sending Carlos down there,” Ballantine said. “I need you or Max to come get him.”

“Max is on his way,” Kinsey said.

“I am?” Max responded.

“You are,” Kinsey stated. “Move ass, cuz. And watch yourself in case we didn’t get all the sneaky bad guys.”

“I hate it when bad guys get sneaky,” Max said. “Them and their sneaky sneakiness.”

“We’ll be waiting for you,” Ballantine said. He looked over at Lake and frowned. “This throws things off.”

Lake just shook his head. “If you say so. I can’t keep up with your schemes and plans so I’ll just let you worry about it all.”

“That’s my job,” Ballantine said. “To worry about it all.”

***

“Who the hell is Ballantine?” McCarthy asked, looking from Darby to Dr. Morganton. “Is he another cartel boss?”

“In more ways than he’d like to admit,” Dr. Morganton snorted. “She’s his enforcer.”

“But less forgiving than Espanoza’s El Serpiente,” Darby replied.

She whirled around and put two bullets in a man’s forehead as he ran towards her from outside the office, his rifle firing wild. Then she took out the three men that were busy reloading on the other side of the hangar. Darby spun back about and sent a bullet into the floor an inch from the gun McCarthy tried to pick up.

“Jesus Christ!” McCarthy yelled, yanking his hand back.

Standing slowly, Darby kept her attention on Dr. Morganton and McCarthy while also looking out the door for more men. There were plenty of men, just no longer alive. Confident she wasn’t going to be ambushed, Darby turned fully to the two in the office.

“Talk,” she said to Dr. Morganton. “And know that what you tell me determines how I deliver you to Ballantine.”

“Let me guess,” Dr. Morganton glared. “Alive or dead, right?”

“Wrong,” Darby said. “In pain or in agony. No matter what you say or do, I’m taking you out of here alive.” She looked at McCarthy. “You I don’t know and don’t care about. Keep out of my way and you’re free to go when this is all said and done.”

***

Max moved quickly from deck to deck, very aware that cartel men could still be hiding anywhere. He cleared one passageway at a time before he made it to the Toyshop.

“Someone call a taxi?” Max asked as he turned his back to the Toyshop, his eyes watching the passageway.

“I don’t know why I need to go down there,” Carlos complained as he walked up behind Max. “Cougher knows the engines better than I do.”

“Because he could use a hand and neither Mr. Reynolds nor Ms. Thorne have the technical expertise that you do,” Ballantine replied.

“Fine,” Carlos grumbled. “Whatever.”

“While tips are not expected, they are appreciated,” Max said. “Where to, sir?”

“Why can’t you take anything seriously?” Carlos snapped. “You kill people for a living!”

“You just answered your own question,” Max said, his tone turning cold. “When you have the amount of blood on your hands that I do, see how far you’ll go just to fight back the darkness.”

“Oh...right,” Carlos replied quietly.

“Plus the chicks dig the funny ones,” Max chuckled. “They like it when you tickle their funny bones.”

“God, I hate you,” Carlos said. “Can we go now?”

“Do you have everything you need?” Ballantine asked.

Carlos patted the case he held. “All right here. I’ll get the engines up soon.”

“Good.”

Ballantine waited until they were gone then turned to Ingrid. She nodded and hurried off into the Toyshop.

Lake looked from Ballantine to the guts of the Toyshop then back to Ballantine, unsure of what had just happened.

***

“Can someone shut him the fuck up?” Thorne asked as he struggled not to put a bullet in the screaming Diego Fernandez.

“Ballantine wants him conscious for the big reveal,” Gunnar said. “Which should be coming soon, I hope.”

“I can’t believe that asshole killed Beau,” Shane said, struggling with the noise just as much as Thorne. He squatted next to Beau’s corpse and dragged him off to the side, folding the man’s arms across his chest. “I get the chance and I’m killing Espanoza myself. All I need is a clean line of sight.”

“I’ll load the cartridge for you,” Thorne said.

“What about Darren? How’d he look the last time you saw him?” Gunnar asked.

“Pretty shitty,” Shane said. “Once we get the lights on you can go check him out.”

“Can you take me down there now?” Gunnar asked. “I’m not needed up here.”

“You’re supposed to stay put,” Shane said.

Gunnar slid the piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Shane, his finger to his lips. Shane frowned, but took the paper and opened it. He quickly read it and walked over to Thorne, handing the commander the paper.

“Actually, I better take Gun down to check on Ditcher,” Shane said as Thorne looked up, eyes wide. “Unless you want to go?”

“No, you better handle this,” Thorne said. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things.”

***

“Ballantine?” Darby called. “Can you read me?”

“Barely,” Ballantine said over the com. “You are faint. We’ve had some com issues here on the Beowulf III. Hopefully they have been all sorted out.”

“I can hear you fine,” Darby said, looking over at Dr. Morganton. “And I found the target.”

“Did you now?” Ballantine said. “Can you patch her through?”

Darby looked at McCarthy. “I’m guessing you can handle tweaking the com system. I need to patch it into mine so Ballantine can have a quick chat with the doctor here.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure,” McCarthy said. “What’s the channel?”

“What channel?” Darby asked Ballantine.

“88A dash 64C,” Ballantine replied. “Tiger protocol.”

Darby repeated that to McCarthy and he set the hangar’s com system to the correct channel. “You’re good to go.”

“Great,” Darby said, looking at Dr. Morganton. “Now, start from the beginning.”

***

“Sir? I’m picking up what you asked for,” the ensign said to Espanoza. “I am hearing someone refer to a Darby and...” He paused, his head tilted as he listened. “Ballantine. He’s finally contacting her, sir, like you said he would.”

“Put it through,” Espanoza said and began listening to the voices on the com. His face grew red as he heard what was being said.

***

“You were in on this too?” McCarthy said. “From the beginning? You bitch.”

“Like you didn’t know,” Darby laughed.

“I didn’t!” McCarthy insisted. “I swear! I mean, I knew Espanoza had his hand in a ton of shit, but I honestly thought the subs were for the Mexican Special Forces, not to run cocaine up and down the coast.”

“Well, now you do,” Darby said. “And innocent men lost their lives because of your carelessness.” She looked over at Dr. Morganton. “Do you have anything else to say?”

“No,” Dr. Morganton replied. “I’ve done what I’ve done and there’s nothing else to be said.”

“Did he pay you well?” Darby asked.

“You have no idea,” Dr. Morganton.

“Bitch,” Darby said as she ejected the magazine from her pistol and put in a fresh one.

“What are you doing?” McCarthy asked.

Her answer was to shove McCarthy out of the way. She raised her pistol and fired, shooting Dr. Morganton twice in the belly then twice in the chest.

“Jesus!” McCarthy said. “You fucking killed her! You said you wouldn’t!”

“I lied,” Darby said. “Want to be next?”

“Fuck no!”

“Then get us out of here,” Darby said.

***

Espanoza had a cell phone to his ear as the shots rang out over the com. He stopped speaking and listened.

“Ballantine will pay for this. I paid good money for that woman,” Espanoza snarled then turned back to the cell phone. “Send them in! Send them all in! I want Darby alive, you hear me? I want her alive!”

***

Doors burst open and armed men streamed into the marina hangar. Darby whirled about to face the men, but McCarthy tackled her about the waist. Her pistol went flying out of her hand as the two of them hit the floor. Darby tried to get her hands up, but McCarthy was faster and slammed a fist into her face again and again.