Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (40 page)

All smiles, Frank held his phone to my face cycling through pictures of a lean, mean Miguel in dress uniform, and in khaki’s with other Marines in a dry sandy looking place I figured wasn’t anywhere around here. “He’s in Afghanistan. I did one of those Skype conversations with him last night to tell him what you were doing. I just sent him the video of the fight. He texted me a moment ago, he thought you lost.”

“Yeah, that’s the popular opinion, Frank. I’m sorry I came so close to leaving the Crips in charge of your neighborhood. If there are any loose ends, you know who to call. Godfather Gus will take care of it.”

Frank shook my hand. “It was never in doubt. I heard Lucas scream ‘Recon’ when you slammed the Crip’s head into the cage. I have to go home and tell my wife the good news. She was ready to force me to move when I just got the house paid off. I thought I’d end my days in a prison cell after going Crip hunting.”

“We can’t have that, my friend. Let us handle your light work.”

Frank chuckled as he walked away with a wave. “Will do.”

“How much you lose on the fight, Ray,” Tommy asked as if he cared. He hated Ray Alexander. “I tried to get a piece of that action, but I heard you’re on limited funds.”

“None of your fuckin’ business, Sands!”

“Wait for us elsewhere, Ray,” Alexi ordered.

One look at his boss, and Ray walked off with his fists clenched.

“He dropped five large,” his former partner, Jim Bonasera admitted. “Alexi nearly had to take a bunch off Ray’s debt, because odds were at three to one against Dragon Hands. We’ve already had a hundred thousand hits on the YouTube fight. It’s titled Asian Crips’ Dragon Hands nearly decapitates John Harding in the cage.”

“Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.”

“All is set for celebration at The Warehouse,” Alexi said. “Your FBI friends, Sam Reeves and Janie Labrie, contacted me, wondering if you’d be there after the fight. They have a special request after you briefed them on your hoped for arrest of Michael Moronas.”

“I owe them a meeting. I didn’t think they’d give a crap one way or another about Moronas, but with a fugitive arriving from overseas, I wanted them to be apprised of what we were doing. I hope they haven’t been spreading the word, or the Moronas gig will fall through. Even Sam was gracious when Dev, Jess and I brought his Mom to the San Francisco office.”

“They convinced her I wasn’t lying to her,” Jess added. “Between getting her neighborhood back, and finding out I’m not a criminal, my Mom’s happy as hell. She’s told all the neighbors I’m with the FBI and the security firm. I’m golden with her and the family now.”

“I wonder what Sam and Janie want,” Dev said. “They sure helped Flo to see the light. It’s nice not to have her think I’m the instigator that turned Jess into a criminal.”

“I’ll get a shower, and we’ll go solve the FBI mystery with the Bud and Beam brothers.”

“Dragon Hands squeezed your damn neck so hard, you’ll probably have to use a straw,” Tommy said.

Chapter Thirteen

Duty Distribution

The Warehouse called to me. We worked our new Oaktown Cartel endeavor every spare minute. The minions handled every facet with extraordinary skill. Watching them in action entertained us without peer anywhere in our crime busting lives. Dev, Jess, and Tommy alternated driving the limo for the minions and enforcer crew. We never allowed them to only go with gangbanger recruits. Clint, Casey, Lucas, and I alternated in pairs to make sure nothing happened to our Oaktown Cartel Godfathers. Lynn lived vicariously through live feeds of every action. She and Dannie looked after Clint Jr like a couple of mamma lions. Clint told us Lynn was in the best shape ever, just as she claimed. The moment the baby didn’t need to be isolated, Lynn promised to be all over everyone’s business.

Denny now controlled our leak obstacle in the Christova operation. He turned Senator Kaline Nikolov from New York with a Laredo and Jafar onslaught of offshore transactions, communiques, and even sexual dalliances. He owned her, and we had eyes and ears on everything she did. She fed Christova whatever the hell Denny wanted her to concerning our movements, and that we were stumped by her disappearance. We kept waiting, since we ended her imported EMP threat in the planned port takeover, but she left her yacht, the Orion, at different intervals we had yet to track down. We hoped to use Moronas to make sure she was on board when we came for her in the Sea Wolf. Once we finished our business with Christova, Senator Nikolov would have three choices, die, resign, or become our pawn in a much more complicated game.

We entered The Warehouse to cheers from our Oakland PD friends. They knew we were the Oaktown Cartel. They also knew how we were achieving our limiting the gangs to certain areas of the city where they could be more easily monitored. Unfortunately, we knew there was no way to shut off drugs in our city. That would take an act of God. We could only limit it to areas where neighborhoods of real people weren’t affected. Our PD friends understood the difference. They lived it from one day to the next without backup for what they had to do. Earl and ‘Rique were the first to greet us, having come over directly from their security gig at the warehouse cage fight.

“Damn, John, that was a close one,” Earl said.

“We thought you ate the big one when Dragon put the leg triangle on you,” ‘Rique added. “I thought you guys who fought UFC were tougher than that.”

I endured the roasting in good humor as Marla delivered my brothers Bud and Beam. I downed brother Beam after toasting my PD friends, and then quaffed half of my Bud brother. We adjourned to the reserved part of the bar for our meeting after I complimented Marla on her superb timing. She served my companions as efficiently as always at our spot. It was then I spotted Sam Reeves and Janie Labrie. They approached us with some reluctance. I motioned them over.

“Monsters,” Sam said, nodding his head in comical form.

Janie hugged me. “We thought the young gangster ended your reign as street champ tonight, John. That kid was awesome.”

“Thanks for the great meeting with Jess’s Mom. She’s finally convinced Jess is on the straight and narrow. I heard from Alexi, who should be here shortly, that you two have something to discuss in reference to our planned Moronas arrest. How can we help?”

“Janie and I know it was you and Clint that accepted Gus’s handover from the Hollywood Bounty Hunters,” Sam Reeves stated. “We know you bunch don’t do anything half-ass, so we know you have the goods on this bastard. If you think we at the FBI don’t hear his absolute bullshit, think again. We can’t stand his fat ass. I’d like to burn his ball cap off with a torch.”

“We’d like to be the FBI agents your Hollywood people hand Moronas over to,” Janie said. “We could use a few comments of course about Sam and I being the consulting agents on the case. What do you think, John?"

“I think it’s a great idea. Clint will be busy helping Lynn, and I’ll be out of the country.” I looked up as Lucas, Casey, and our Red Dragon Security guys arrived. “There’s Lucas with his Southern California security contacts. I’ll introduce you all, and get this Moronas handover set in stone. One thing we need to get straight though. We’re questioning Moronas before you touch him. He will probably claim all sorts of bad things having to do with our treatment of him. Can we possibly downplay his crap?”

“After what he said in the news about our youngsters on the front lines being cowards, I’d settle for him being able to breathe,” Sam said.

“Ditto,” Janie reiterated. “Talk about the scum of the earth… that fuck is it!”

Lucas led his friends to our bar position, grinning and shaking a finger at me. “You know only your last ditch stumbling mayhem into the cage with Dragon Hands saved you from a dressing down of biblical proportions, right Recon?”

I lowered my head in pretend anguish. “I am so ashamed, Grandpa.”

Lucas gave me a V8 smack on the forehead I had lowered in comical deference to his statement. “I’m watching you, boy. Don’t make me have to get into your training first hand again.”

“Sam and Janie would like to do the handover of Moronas into FBI hands in the TV segment. They know we have to question him first. I told them Red Dragon Security is collaborating on the capture.” I then introduced everyone.

After the introductions, Jess hugged Sam and Janie. He figured never to be looked on as anything but a criminal mastermind by his Mom. The FBI agents took his effusive thanks with good humor, knowing Jess was probably more capable and trustworthy than half the agents on their own staff.

“Anytime, Jess,” Sam said. “I thought for a moment Flo was going to have a stroke.”

“She was pretty emotional,” Jess admitted. “She told me she figured a couple guys would jump out and clamp handcuffs on me, and the joke would be over. It turns out Sal and Chuck were doing a security gig at the same time Dev and I were in the sandpit, protecting some contractors flown in for a construction consult.”

“We appreciate the extra cloak of accountability on taking Moronas in,” Chuck said. “We will handle all scene security, and make sure this happens for Director Montoya/Dostiene just as she wants.”

“I have to admit,” Sam said with a shake of his head, “that episode was incredibly good. It bothers me a serial killing psycho can be so good at so many things, but Lynn has talent. I bet you guys don’t know we contracted her husband to catch her when she was killing rapist/murderers. He even went down with the rest of this bunch to get her from the Cartel she ran afoul of down in Mexico. Now, she’s upset the balance of nature, and given birth to a baby fathered by one of the most dangerous men on earth. Clint Dostiene and Harding killed four assassins in the hospital she delivered the baby in. God knows what’s next for that poor child.”

“One of these days, Sam,” Janie admonished her partner. “Clint will take offense at one of your cute little zingers and rip your throat out.”

I gestured at the entrance, where the rest of our crew were arriving. “There’s Clint now, with Casey and Jafar. Maybe you’d like to entertain Clint with a reenactment of your take on his child, Sam.”

Dev put a hand on Sam’s shoulder as he was about to speak. “I know how caustic you can be, brother. Do us a favor, and don’t say anything that could get you killed right here in the bar.”

“You’re on our plus list after being a standup guy at the FBI office,” Jess added. “Don’t piss on the good Karma.”

Sam grinned. He’d been through the verbal wars with Clint before. He also knew what Clint was capable of. “Understood.”

Clint walked right into my airspace. “Hell of a fight, John. I wish I’d seen it in person, but it was awful good on our big screen in surround sound from Jafar’s hook-up. He told me he explained about almost committing suicide by cutting our feed accidentally. I don’t know if I could have saved him from Cruella Deville’s retribution. Clint Jr. started crying when the Dragon Hands put you in the triangle leg choke. Lynn’s been doing the skin on skin therapy with the baby, and he can detect even the slightest mood change in Lynn. It’s funny as hell. Lynn has to throttle herself down when she’s in direct contact.”

Clint gestured at Sam and Janie. “Who ordered the federal hand puppets? Are they finally making a Disney movie or something?”

Okay, sure… the Monster Squad may have enjoyed that a bit too much. Chuck and Sal definitely liked the interchange after hearing Sam’s initial remarks. I did a rehash quickly so we could get down to business.

“I’m glad you guys will be with us on this,” Clint told Chuck and Sal. “My wife is the most dangerous woman on the planet, guys. Sometimes we’ve run into situations during filming best handled in advance rather than during filming. She tends to allow her real life persona blend into the make believe scenes. I’ve known Sam and Janie for a while now. They’ll do what they can in their roles as FBI agents. Frankly, I think I should stand in for Sam. God only knows if he can handle even a two word transfer scene.”

Janie nearly came unglued during Clint’s roasting of Sam. To his credit, Sam put an arm around Clint. “I deserve that. Congrats on your new son, psycho.”

Clint shook Sam’s extended hand. “Thanks. Lynn and I will be on our best behavior down in Southern California. We’ll have our son along to keep us in line.”

Janie hugged Clint with real emotion. “I’m so happy for you two. It will be a real pleasure seeing Lynn with your son. Sam and I will make sure everything in this goofy ‘episode of the tragic and pretend’ proceeds perfectly. Do you think it will be safe enough to bring your son along, Clint?”

“Safe for whom, Janie?”

Janie laughed, patting Clint’s cheek. “Yeah, that was a stupid statement. Thanks for approving our tapping into this bust. We need a little boost. We’re living in a ‘what have you done for me lately world’ at the Bureau.”

“No problem,” Clint replied. “We need you and Sam. These times are getting more desperate by the moment. Think about the consequences if our crew had not been in on this EMP infiltration and production crap. Good Lord, they sent some bozos in with a prototype and took out my very expensive security setup. If someone upstairs doesn’t get a handle on this immigration and infiltration cluster-fuck, we may as well start buying our damn prayer rugs now. That Moronas mutt is a prime illustration of liberal idiots with money, willing to back anyone who professes an anti-American agenda. I wish to God we would elect a God fearing American who declared actual war until we beat these bastards!”