Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (43 page)

One glance at Clint, and Moronas stared down at the table. “Anything you want done… I will do.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

* * *

Isaac Kalu thought he heard something. He sat up in bed next to his mistress, trying to figure out what had awoken him. He stared into the darkness, his dream of sexual pleasures rushing away from his mind like a fast moving stream. Then he heard a woman’s chuckle. Kalu looked toward his female companion, praying it was her. His paramour did not stir at all, even when he nudged her.

The bedroom light flashed on, blinding his night vision. Kalu reached for the Glock 9mm he had in his bedside stand drawer. A hand slapped his sharply.

“Keep your hands at your sides,” Isaac heard the order from a masked apparition near him with gloved hands.

“Oh baby, you have it all, don’t you, Isaac,” a female voice asked him as he blinked with hand shading his eyes from the light. “You keep your mistress here, while telling your wife and four kids you’re on a business trip. Nice. Unfortunately for you, you’re dealing with terrorists in our country, and on our radar. We don’t allow that. We have some friends in danger I’d cut you into sugar cubes to keep safe. We’re here for info to keep them safe.”

“Who are you people?” Kalu continued to shade his eyes as they adjusted to the light. “I don’t think you know who I am.”

“Did you hear that, Cowboy? The big timer thinks we don’t understand who he is. Actually, we’re enjoying our moment waking you from your girlfriend’s side. Now that you’re awake Isaac, we can get down to business. I want you to explain every detail of the transactions going on between you and Phoebe Christova.”

Kalu folded his arms over his chest, looking away. “Arrest me. I will tell you nothing. I will have your badges when this is over.”

“Badges?” Lynn repeated, complete with accent. “We don’t need no stinking badges!”

Clint manhandled Kalu onto his stomach, plastic tying his wrists behind him, and then his ankles. After rolling the Nigerian onto his side, Clint straddled him, jamming his head still against the bedding.

“Wait! What are you doing?” Kalu tried to move his eyes to see, but could not move a fraction of an inch.

“I will explain to you why you’re going to tell us everything we want to know before your girlfriend wakes from our extra dose of dreamy sleep potion.” Lynn held a small bottle where Kalu could see it. “This my reluctant informer is a slightly diluted mixture of sulfuric acid and water. I am going to get a tiny bit into this eyedropper. That drop into your inner ear will make you think your brain is about to explode.”

“No! I…I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything!”

“Ahhhh… so helpful,” Lynn said. “Wait until I put this drop in your ear. You will beg me to let you be helpful. Just a little taste to get you on board the helpful train.”

Lynn slowly uncapped the bottle, handed the cap to Clint, and received the eyedropper. With Kalu pleading, and actually spewing out details, Lynn released a small droplet down into Kalu’s ear. The pain left the man breathless. His body bucked under Clint in silent horrific vibrations. When he found his voice, it was a gasping, gagging breathless scream.

“I think he gets it now, babe.”

“I should give him one more to grow on,” Lynn stated. “He’s too noisy. One more drop will quiet him down.”

Kalu heard through the pain, turning his screams of agony into a prayerful begging to be able to tell them anything. Lynn squirted a neutralizing baking soda solution into his ear.

“You and Jess can come in now for pickup,” Clint said.

“I don’t know why we have to transport Gizmo to the safe-house. We could have recorded everything here.”

“Denny wants to make sure. The excitement in his voice when he called us at the hotel meant Laredo must have found something extra out about Mr. Kalu. We’ll drop him off with Denny and go back to the hotel. We have a big TV filming day tomorrow. Besides, we already had fun helping Jet retrieve his belongings. I talked with John’s lawyer friend who runs the show. He loved your recruiting of Jet. Chad told me Jet will be the missing ingredient as far as insights into places where they need to shoot scenes when our crew isn’t with them.”

Jess peeked into the room, earning a hands on hips look of displeasure from Lynn. “Get in here, Snow White. We have places to go.”

“I have to be careful, Crue. If I barf, I have to clean all the DNA before we leave.”

Lynn and Clint enjoyed that pronouncement as Devon and Jesse lifted Kalu bodily from the bed, carting him out to their rented SUV.

“I hope Denny can make this extra crap with Kalu worth all the trouble,” Lynn said.

“One thing I know about Denny,” Clint replied, while gathering Kalu’s clothing and belongings into a bag, “he doesn’t order anything extra. Kalu knows something Denny wants.”

“Works for me. I need to hone my skills down a bit more. What did you think of my reusing my old sulfuric acid drop method?”

“I love that one, babe. If we could figure a way for it not to leave a mark, I like it the best.”

“I’ll check Kalu’s ear when we get back. It all depends on the amount of time between the drop being administered, and when we add the neutralizing solution. Practice is a key.”

“Yeah, it is,” Clint agreed. “All set. Let’s go make memories.”

Chapter Fourteen

On the High Seas

“Incoming!”

“We just got here, Case,” I called to our lookout. We entered the Gulf of Guinea in Nigerian territorial waters only an hour before.

“We can outrun them,” Lucas said from his position at the helm of The Sea Wolf. “What kind of boat, Night-shot?”

“Nigerian patrol boat, complete with flag. Have Achmed the Terrorist call out to them on the radio.”

Jafar came up from below decks with the prototype EMP handheld weapon our benefactors provided us. They knew an at sea firing would not be ruined by collateral damage. In place of a nuclear basis, the HERF gun Jafar held used high energy radio frequency microwave pulses. We didn’t want trouble, but we needed to know how far the Nigerian government was in bed with Christova.

“I think Achmed is rewriting our script guys.” I saw the worried look on Jafar’s face. “Easy kid. What’s the problem?”

“How close do we allow these guys to approach, John?”

“What’s the effective range on the weapon?”

“A 150 meters for a moving target. I do not wish to be fish food before we get started on our objective.”

“Why you little pussy!” Lucas always takes exception to doubt.

Jafar smiled. “I knew that would get him.”

The kid had already been out with the rest of us pirates on a couple of missions. Since becoming Achmed the Terrorist by acclamation, Jafar reveled in his new nickname status. “Don’t worry, Lucas. Achmed will protect you.”

“You better hope that patrol boat has a dinghy, Achmed!” Lucas took the verbal shot from Jafar with revenge in mind. “You’ll need alternate transportation when this encounter is over, you little mole on the asshole of a camel!”

Jafar was soon bent over at the waist while enjoying Lucas’s threat. “I do not take threats seriously when mouthed from antique relics who barely have skills to steer a boat. I’ll bet we could have recruited Justin Bieber to play your part in real life.”

Silence for a moment before loud, guffawing laughter floated to us from the bridge. “Good one, Achmed.”

“They’re hailing us,” Lucas said a moment later. “We are to stand down, and show ourselves with hands in the air.”

“Yeah… that’ll happen,” Achmed mumbled while sighting our EMP weapon. “Whenever you’re ready, Cheese.”

“We’re testing weapons here, Achmed. Start firing, and I’ll do the range finding chores.”

“On it.” Jafar began aiming at the patrol boat approaching at flank speed. Nothing happened until it reached nearly a hundred yards away.

“It’s drifting,” I told him, watching through the range finders as the patrol boat slowed to dead in the water. “Now what? You can bet they have conventional weapons.”

“I see only one alternative to killing them,” Jafar said. “We can leave the boat without going any closer, and claim they are mistaken if they’ve reported us. It would not bode well for us to do so. We can also interact with them, which I don’t see as a viable alternative.”

“Ditto,” both Casey and Lucas said.

“I’m of the same mind, but we have no idea that will work toward our safety with meeting the other boat. In fact, we have to assume these guys reported us already before making their approach. I thought Denny had the Russians interceding on our behalf, along with the Nigerian government people he gave over our Boko’s to.”

“They’re not liking this new development.” Casey kept the patrol boat under observation from his perch. “I see some guys roaming around on the deck with conventional weapons, and then there’s the-”

Machine gun fire stitched the water ten yards behind our fantail. Lucas sped away at flank speed.

“Machine gun,” Casey finished his report. “Damn! This is a little early on this excursion for rogue government elements. We can’t risk damage to the Wolf at this stage.”

“Or any stage,” Lucas added in my ear, having put on his com gear. “Achmed needs seasoning. Let him fire an XM307 25mm airburst on their asses while we contemplate our predicament with Denny.”

“Agreed.” I popped out both the XM307 grenade airburst and .50 caliber machine gun nests. “I’ll get on my M107 for single targets, little brother. When Lucas swerves into position, I’ll call out the range, and you let loose over them as we practiced.”

“Will do.” Jafar climbed into the nest, while I readied my M107 sniper rifle in the other nest. “I am ready when you are, John.”

Casey climbed behind the .50 caliber machine gun for support. I steadied the M107. “Okay, Lucas. We’re ready for a strafing run.”

Lucas circled the patrol boat’s position. I called out range as Lucas slowed to dead stop, flanking the boat. Jafar fired a burst. The carnage through my scope after the blast looked complete. The patrol boat did not sink, which made the next decision all the more important. If Jafar’s burst sank the boat, we would drift amongst the wreckage for useful debris. If it stayed afloat, we’d decide whether to board it or not. We had time now, because the Wolf was safe from stray fire. Lucas called in to Denny, who was in Command Central at the House of Pain with Laredo. The Wolf had extensive radar equipment, but Laredo could provide satellite imaging while watching our backs for unseen visitors. We timed our high seas adventure in conjunction with a carrier group in the region.

“Very nice, Achmed.” I scanned the patrol boat’s devastated deck and bridge. If there was anything alive, the survivors would be below deck. “Let’s adjourn for a pirate meeting with Captain Blood.”

Lucas turned the shielded satellite laptop so we could give Captain Blood a few amusing pirate talk lines. Achmed in particular performed our pirate ritual with enthusiasm. Captain Blood, and Laredo enjoyed the show while checking on other possible rogues on the water.

“Okay… enough you pirates,” Denny (Captain Blood) said. “I ordered an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft launched to watch the Guinea Gulf for intruders until we can get you into range of Christova’s yacht. Clint and Lynn have Moronas. We’re working on an added player in the game now, a Nigerian named Isaac Kalu. I’ll keep you informed as to what we find. I will leave boarding the patrol boat in your hands. If you don’t like the looks of a boarding, make the boat into dust. We’re working on a live feed from Crue so she can harass you guys.”

“Arrrhhhhh… we’ll make you walk the plank for that one, Blood,” Lucas said.

“That’s better than getting tuned up by Crue,” Denny replied. “I’ll be in touch. We’ll leave this line open from now on unless we lose your signal.”

He signed off, but Laredo came on a moment later. “I’m here, so shout if you need something.”

“Will do.” I turned to my pirates. “Input?”

“It would be good to check the boat,” Jafar said. “What if they have another EMP device? That would be helpful to know. Think about a Nigerian patrol boat being rogue, and disabling anyone they feel like out here.”

“Achmed’s right,” Casey agreed. “It wouldn’t hurt to swing by, and check the boat. You and I could snap some pictures of what’s left for faces amongst the crew, John. Laredo can cross reference any faces, and let us know if we have a hot one. We can find out if our own EMP gun worked below decks too. It sure turned their bridge control off.”

“Let’s do this,” Lucas said. “We need to get clear of this area. You guys keep watch for anything moving on the boat while I do some closer passes.”

“Aye… Ahab, you tool,” Achmed acknowledged. Lucas is quick. Jafar barely cleared the bridge in time. Lucas returned to his control seat, pointing at me and Casey.

“I blame you for this continued disrespect, Cheese.”

“Of course you do, Ahab. C’mon, Case, I think Ahab’s getting ready to blow, and he doesn’t have a white whale to blame it on.”

“On your six, Cheese,” Casey said, waving at Ahab.

Lucas did maneuvers near the patrol boat, hoping for a reaction. Not succeeding in that endeavor, he flanked the patrol boat broadside, while the rest of us scanned the deck. Nothing but dead bodies polluted the boat, at least on the topside. When I say we scanned the deck, I mean we each had our own personal area to graph, looking for any sign of danger or something interesting. Failing that, we decided to board. Lucas eased us in close, and I jumped aboard with Casey and Jafar backing my play with MP5’s. We didn’t use car tires to prevent damage along our railing. Casey inflated our buffer zone, and I tied us together. Casey leaped over then, leaving Achmed to guard our backs, with Lucas ready to speed us away. I detached the Wolf, allowing her to float away. We could not have our ship tied to this hunk of junk.