Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (13 page)

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. I shoulder hugged another cold blooded killer with real emotion. “Yes! You have it exactly right, Gus. We have this game in play where we don’t have to worry about being ready. We are ready. It may be now though we’ll have to wait for our targets to deal with having chess pieces they were counting on removed from the board. That’s all good though. We need to see the whole picture.”

“It is good you trust us to do this work, John. If ever you need something done out of the public eye or your crew, let us know. We will get whatever it is you need done an accomplished task. No… we don’t care what it is you want done.”

Damn, that’s plain enough. “I will keep that in mind, Gus. Between us, I don’t think of you bunch as minions. I never did.”

“We are proud to be the minions to the mistress of the unimaginable,” Gus argued. “She broke us, and remade us in her image.”

Very true. “Tomorrow I’d like you, Silvio, and Quays to hit the streets. Spread money, favors, or whatever you need to as quietly as possible. We need a hint of what’s going on behind the scenes that would require such an elaborate ruse to capture the media’s attention.”

“We will work all our sources. Do you think they have any others like this Comstock guy running around looking for headlines?”

“Good question, Gus. Keep that in mind when you’re on the prowl tomorrow. The fact dead Gavin had a personal connection from the past with me and Tommy makes Kornev and his operations the prime suspect. As you say, we need to find more puzzle pieces. I heard you minions are also putting together something with the ‘Hollywood Bounty Hunters’ for Crue.”

Gus looked a little surprised. “I don’t think she wanted anyone to know about that yet. I guess we left too many trails for our IT guys, huh?”

“Nothing gets past Laredo and Jafar, especially with Clint doing intermittent checks on security and content. What’s with the secrecy? Lynn knows she can do anything she wants. Jafar told me they want to film another episode with a turnover of a bad guy to the cardboard FBI cutouts, me and Clint.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Gus replied as we finished depositing Gavin for the night in the freezer with his cozy trunk holder. “We will be helping as ‘grips’ on set, managing, arranging, and getting our director anything she wants. We’ll find the site she wants, and do all scene setup operations.”

Lynn relieved our team of any active part on set. Very nice, especially if it brought her more directing gigs. Maybe when our pirate operation comes about, she’ll be whisking around a movie set with Clint Jr. strapped to her, and won’t make a lot of racket about not going. “You’ll keep me informed of all this, right Gus?”

Gus smiled at me. “Only if you are cleared by the mistress of the unimaginable.”

Great… I’ve been degraded in the chain of command below the minions.

* * *

Light rain hit overnight, but after retrieving our overnight freezer occupants, the sky cleared into a hazy sixty degree day. The Nigerians, bundled off for trade by Denny at dawn, left behind a wealth of information, but little of it useful in our present mission. Laredo and Jafar both arrived early to decipher the data, and confirm as many facts as possible. They would be concentrating on the money threads from all activity we uncovered. Comstock’s twenty-five grand came from a front company in the Cayman Islands, Jafar busily went on the hunt to investigate. Denny was still in place, hungry for intel, and overseeing our IT forensics boys.

“The Nigerian government wanted the Boko Haram goons desperately,” Denny told me. “They’re willing to offer support and permission for anything we wish to do in the Gulf of Guinea. It seems they’re having another increase in Boko terrorism against business interests in the country, along with hijackings in the Gulf. They confirmed what our overnight Boko boys claimed about container ships hijacked, and refitted for movement of drugs, weapons, contraband, and people. They realize it’s only a matter of time before something very bad happens, and it is traced to their shores. They don’t want to become another Somalia.”

I shut our smaller company van door, while listening. I still didn’t hear any theories about what all this intricate bullshit with bringing in Bokos, and hiring media grabbing serial killers had to do with anything. When Denny paused, I hit him with my concerns. It didn’t faze him a bit. He even grinned in anticipation of my running out of words, so I cut it short. “I see in your face you’re not confused at all. What’s in the Spawn of Satan crystal ball you haven’t told me?”

“You’ve already forgotten my wife’s brother’s empire built on chaos. Terrorism and crime bloom like wild weeds in chaos. Sure, we have to see this through while staying ahead of the game, but this shouldn’t be a mystery to you, John. I’m even looking ahead to when the fight takes place you’ve agreed to. If you win, things will get real exciting on this new port and container ship front.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too. I’m betting the next move on Yuri’s part is moving the fight date to as soon as he possibly can without my backing out. Tommy or Alexi will hear about it from him the moment he starts trying to contact assets that no longer exist, or are on their way to Nigeria. Jafar and Laredo have all their burner phones, so they’ll be able to tie in Yuri with his Nigerian buddies in a nice tight package.”

“Although you worked over Rattler in the second fight without a lot of damage, are you willing to allow them to schedule the fight sooner, John?”

“Yesterday proved to me I’m still in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I could be talked into an earlier meeting with Marko. I’ll have Tommy make such a change very expensive for Yuri. I am liking an earlier fight date before these weasels import a whole army of thugs looking to make your chaos theory viable.”

“That would be my take on this too. Are you taking Al to school this morning?”

“Yep. I’ll drop my dead weight off at ‘The Lora’ first. I’ll still have plenty of time to take Al and the Sparks’ twins to school. I might be able to let my across the street neighbors know everything is okay with their daughter Callie. They already know she’s been going off the good girl reservation, so I’m figuring they mean to clamp down on her anyway.

Denny stayed silent for a moment. “Those are some impressive goals for the day. I won’t insult your intelligence by saying I like all of them.”

Denny grabbed me for the first time ever. “Listen to me, John! You’re right about all of this. Something’s wrong we can’t hope to know in time. I wish I could decipher this shit, but I get more confused every second I look at it. That tells me we’re somehow ahead of the game. I’m warning you this business with Yuri is a time bomb. I’d like to dismantle it before we lose the East Bay. We may have to go to war on American soil right now, brother.”

I detached myself from his grip with slow assuredness. “This isn’t like you. I told you I had a hunch at the beginning. We’re playing it out. It’s the only thing we can do. I have everyone, including the minions, hitting the streets today. If we miss something it won’t be from lack of trying. I’ll take the crew and snatch Yuri and Marko if you want. We’ll take them straight out on a boat ride. Crue will know everything they know before ‘The Lora’ ports again without them.”

“If the Bulgarian arms dealer was with them, I’d volunteer to drive. There’s chatter about a weapon to be smuggled here in pieces. They mean to overcome the way we struck the Anthrax threat months ago.”

“It would mean the chances are slim to none it’s a bio weapon,” I replied. “I’ve been so wrapped up with the Yuri and Marco show, I’d forgotten about the damn ‘Ghost’. So the fight is still our key ingredient to drawing him out, unless we find what they’re planning to strike with. Do any of your contacts have a clue as to what the hell type of weapon we’re supposed to guard against?”

“Not yet, which may be why we need to get the ‘Ghost’ into Crue’s hands,” Denny admitted. “Get going. If I find out anything, I will meet you at the dock. Text me when you return to port.”

“Will do. Calm down, Denny. I know we have a lot riding on this. Nothing else would get me back in the Bay playing shark tag while getting hammered with poles.”

“I have a feeling it will be worth the dedication on this one, John. Could I ask one more favor? When you see Clint, please ask him not to make threats to civilian girls’ softball parents.”

Yeah, I chuckled over that one. “Sure, I’ll ask. I don’t know if it will do any good though. I guess Maria found out from her BFF what he said to the opposing coach’s husband, huh?”

“Say another word, and you’ll wake up with me next to your bed, and I won’t be there to tuck you in.”

Yep. That’s the one Crue told us. “I’m glad the guy had the good sense to let his survival instinct kick in. Like I said, I’ll make the request. Clint said it quietly, so no one else heard. I’ll keep an eye on the husband, so he doesn’t do something tragically stupid. This softball coaching mission is proving to be fraught with danger.”

“Yeah,” Denny replied, “to the other teams’ coaches.”

I nodded and waved. “Text you later.”

* * *

After an active forty-five minutes of torturous Bay training, Lynn forgot to vary her striking times. When she poked me twice at fifteen second intervals, the third time the pole never reached me. I rotated after counting to thirteen, and hit the pole end with a knife-hand strike so potent, it ripped the pole out of her hands. She was not happy, as the rest of my crew chortled in appreciation of her cussing me out for a minute solid while rubbing her stinging hands together. I flipped over on my back, waved, and smiled. Then I stopped smiling. Only Clint’s quick action saved me from getting Tased with my less than compassionate crew egging her on.

“Let me go! I’m cookin’ the Cheeseburger!” Lynn struggled mightily, but was unable to break free.

I’m no dummy. My mind said dive… dive… dive. Down I went, reversing my direction, and grabbing onto the fantail while keeping my head down. After a few moments of hunching under cover in my banana suit, Jess walked over and waved me aboard, a big grin splitting his face. Tommy clapped me on the shoulders as I climbed aboard gingerly, scanning for Lynn’s location. Not seeing her, I heaved a sigh of relief. Clint must have taken her below deck to warm up.

“That was hell-a-good!” Tommy helped me strip out of my banana yellow dry-suit. “How many in the pattern?”

“Only twice, T. Lynn was probably getting tired. I should have flipped and tapped it away. I didn’t mean to piss her off.” I put on my sweats over the long underwear I wore under the suit. I usually took a shower immediately following the workout, but I figured below decks was a dangerous place for me at the moment.

“I’ll spell her sooner tomorrow,” Tommy promised. “Crue was enjoying herself because she was getting more pokes past you than the first time we went out. Clint’s trying to cool her off while reminding her we still have softball practice in a few hours. You did damn good, John. If that Bulgarian bastard can beat you in a match, I’ll eat the damn mat.”

Dev handed me a cup of coffee. “Want anything in it, brother?”

I shook my head, letting the coffee mug warm my hands. “Nope. I can’t do all this and coach softball while enjoying my usual painkillers. Are you and Jess shagging balls today, or working?”

“We have an escort gig in SF. The traffic will be murder. Lora talked the couple into letting us escort them on the Alameda Ferry. She told them the view of the bridges is spectacular, and that we would bring them back after dark, so they can watch all the lights from the boat.”

“Outstanding. Did you hire one of our cohorts on the other side of the Bay for driving duty?” We trade favors with three limo services on the San Francisco side for this reason. We don’t trade much in rides though, since SF is much more popular than the East Bay. We trade muscle for them occasionally doing a limo ride for our clients. See, if they have questionable clients, or places to go, as when some adventurous idiots want to see the Tenderloin District, they call us. Either Tommy and I go with them, or Dev and Jess do it.

“Marty’s driving for us,” Jess answered. “He’s still hyped over you and Tommy helping him escort those high maintenance dildos pretending to be made men from some crime family back East.”

I laughed, remembering the two wise-guys. One of them tried to intimidate Tommy when we first met them, claiming they wouldn’t pay extra for half ass protection, walking into Tommy’s airspace. He let out a sudden burst of air with Tommy smiling at him. ‘know what I have shoved down the front of your pants, Tony Soprano’.”

The guy did indeed. When his buddy reached into his jacket, I snatched his wrist. Sometimes people think they’ve had their wrist snatched. If I snatch a wrist, there is a symphony of protesting bones, and the feeling if I squeezed any harder I could simply rip it off. After the demonstration, our two East Coast goombas decided to enjoy their tour of SF rather than try and prove what bad-asses they were. My Dad told me my Mom was Italian, so when I began excelling at languages in the Marines, I learned Italian too. I practiced on the wise-guys. It was a fun night, and Marty got a huge tip. Anyway… that’s how it’s done if you don’t want to constantly fight the damn traffic into Bagdad by the Bay.

“Tell Marty we enjoyed the tour with Tony Soprano and his acolyte. No blood, no foul. If you guys need anything, I’ll be at home tonight with Lora and Al.”

“The most excitement Dev and I expect is when we get to play at the 7D Experience on Fisherman’s Wharf with the couple’s two boys. Man, I love that zombie killin’ game.”