Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) (48 page)

“They confronted our inside source, my brother Benny. He has all the weapons bagged with the drugs each perp had on him. They’ve all been digitally fingerprinted and recorded with what they carried along with their pictures. It’s all been sent to Chief Dickerson’s private e-mail file. Benny will testify at any trial if the DA doesn’t get them to plead out. We’ll back him.”

“How do you people get away with this?” Officer Bently, still stung by the way Jean easily disarmed her, couldn’t let the incident fade. “You could be charged with-”

“Shut up!” Jean held a cautioning hand in Bently’s direction. “A thank you would have been fine, but since you’re too stupid to put this into perspective, just hold your tongue until Chief Dickerson gets here. You’re beginning to bore me.”

Red faced, Bently surged toward Jean. Her partner missed his holding attempt. Jean finger locked the officer to her knees, exerting pressure until Bently cried out. Jean smiled. She decided a more impressive lesson was needed.

“Jean,” Sonny murmured quietly. Jean paused at the sound of her husband’s voice, but incrementally increased pressure while trying to calm the heat inside.

“Daughter of Darkness!” Rachel’s voice ended Jean’s lesson. “She’s a cop. We don’t hurt cops, you ninny.”

Jean released Bently and helped her up, wishing she could mouth about ten insults on her Mom while doing it. “Chief Dickerson will be here shortly. Go over by your patrol car, Officer Bently. If you stay here, I will arrest you for impeding a federal investigation and case.”

Bently eyeballed Jean, rubbing circulation back into her hand.

Sonny walked forward with a hand in cautioning manner. “Please do as Jean says. Your meat wagon and the Chief will be here shortly. We’re not your enemy. The only action Marshal McCarty had was to kill this young man before he turned his hideaway weapon on us. Quinn? Escort Officer Bently over to her patrol car.”

Quinn grinned at Bently as he moved to do Sonny’s bidding. “C’mon, Suz. The only thing that could happen here is Jean kicking the crap out of you. We’re here to help, not get into fights with police officers.”

Quinn’s voice had a soothing effect on Bently, who looked up at the six and a half foot tall Quinn’s lean features with an acknowledging nod. She let him lead her over to the patrol car. Furlough moved nearer the still kneeling gang members who Benny had motioned Sammy over to watch.

Furlough gestured at Squiggy’s crew with exasperation. “This shit happens on an increasing basis here. Pacific Grove was a tourist’s favorite destination, where we literally used to only have a mild theft arrest or disorderly conduct charge. For the last decade gang intrusions mixed with the escalating terrorist refugee problems have turned a simple tourist city into a small war zone at times. Ah… here comes the Chief.”

Chief Neil Dickerson had already left his vehicle and driver with the Monterey County Coroner’s vehicle and an incarceration arrest vehicle right behind it. Neil walked with an annoyed persona straight for Officer Bently, standing next to Quinn by her squad car. She straightened as Dickerson neared them.

“What the hell didn’t you understand about aid and assist these federal agents, Bently?! Marshal McCarty called me on the way over here to let me know you aimed a weapon at his daughter. You’re damn lucky she took it off you before he blew your head off! From now until the end of time you make sure you follow my orders to the letter when I ask in a federal intervention. We have these scum now that have been terrorizing the school and surrounding area. Marshal McCarty’s son, Benny recorded the entire event as bait to draw this gang in front of the school with weapons and drugs.”

Dickerson put a hand over his head in a thought gathering process while Quinn grinned at the mortified Bently. The Chief waved a hand finally in dismissive fashion. “How close, Quinn?”

“With Mom spotting, probably a heartbeat. She doesn’t take kindly to Jean getting drawn on. I think Officer Bently understands we don’t exactly operate within local police guidelines, Chief. We all make mistakes. Jean didn’t frisk the leader, having already wounded him. Dad had to kill him. The little gangster went for a hideaway at his ankle.”

“Oh shit! Rachel was spotting for Nick. Good Lord, Bently! I should put you on administrative leave. You’ve used all your luck up on this one. Stay here with Quinn until I sort the rest of this out.”

“Yes, Sir,” Bently answered.

Chief Dickerson walked over to the scene where the last of the gangbangers were being loaded into the detainee vehicle. The coroner worked quickly around the aforementioned Squiggy, completing his analysis quickly before his two assistants loaded the body for transport. The coroner, Donald Waverly, gave Dickerson a small wave of acknowledgement.

“He’s dead, Neil.”

Dickerson enjoyed that pronouncement for a moment. “Thanks Don for arriving so quickly. I’ll get the first responder reports and my own observations to you before the end of the day.”

“No hurry. I’ve handled Marshal McCarty’s sniper backup operations before. A head shot with his .50 caliber M107 leaves very little need to puzzle over cause of death.” Waverly knelt next to Sammy, stroking the dog’s head. “Damn. I remember this big mutt when he was a small ball of fur yapping around your ankles, Benny.”

“Yes Sir, Sammy’s all grown up and super-smart,” Benny said.

Waverly moved toward his vehicle with a wave. “Good seeing you all. Tell your Dad and Mom hi for me, Jean.”

“Will do,” Jean answered. “Take care, Don.”

“Take Bently and follow the meat wagon, Jim,” Dickerson told the officer.

Jean turned her attention to the Chief then. She shrugged. “I screwed up a little, Uncle Neil.”

“So I heard. Thanks for not ending Bently. I heard from Quinn it was close.”

“Yeah… it was. The second mistake we made was not just following her order to kneel until you arrived. She pissed me off. I nearly got her killed and I did get Squiggy killed.”

“The right one got dead, kid. I asked you all in on this. Thanks to Benny, we’ll be ending this damn invasion of the school. I didn’t know what else to do. Everyone griped and complained but no one had the backup to bring this bunch down. Did Gus and John observe?”

Jean pointed over at a window tinted SUV across the street. The driver’s side window opened and Gus Nason waved at Dickerson. “Cleaner’s in the back too. We weren’t sure if we could pull this off the way we hoped.”

Dickerson gave Gus, John and Cala a quick smiling salute before Gus drove away. “I will let your Dad know if the DA screws this bust up in court. Any ideas on your newest venture with Harding’s crew from the Bay?”

Jean glanced at Sonny, trying not to let the startled feeling at Dickerson’s words reach her features. Sonny shrugged. She turned again to Neil. “Dad briefed you about that, Uncle Neil?”

“Nick knows I’d cut my own tongue out rather than betray him. He informed me because Santa Cruz County is in the neighborhood and no one is certain when they will strike. Your Dad told me… hey… do you have Nick in your ear?”

Jean shook her head. “Mom and Dad know Gus, John, and Cala are with us. They packed it in. We’re meeting at Otter’s Point when we finish. You’re invited.”

“I can’t. I’m staying on this gangbanger bust to the end. Anyway, Nick told me there are as many as a hundred Middle East refugees operating in a hidden compound behind a ranch front along Glen Haven Road, building a small town with new arrivals every day. It’s meant to be one of those No-Go Zones where they plan to install their own guards and Sharia Law, complete with training facility. He put me on alert in case I get word of anything happening suspiciously down here. I put out a vague alert to the Carmel and Monterey departments so we could exchange any hint of attacks or suicide bombings. It’s tough though. We’re hanging on by a thread as tourist retreats. I hope to hell you all end them. I’m sick of this shit.”

“I hear you,” Jean replied. “We’re discussing finalization on our joint action. John Harding, along with Clint and Lynn Dostiene are meeting us to discuss a way to proceed. As usual we have to map out the collateral damage in some politically correct format. It’s either that or a kill mission. You’re not the only one sick of this Sharia Law No-Go Zones like Dearbornistan. Dad and Harding tackled a No-Go Zone near Santa Clara when I was a kid. The Muslims of the Americas tried to begin an enclave there with Sharia Law posters and copied Dearborn, Michigan’s creeping jihad idea of incrementally seizing control of an area.”

“Nick said this bunch have kept their recruitment completely under the radar,” Neil replied. “He told me they built the gated community with armed guards.”

“During their undercover building project, some of the Santa Cruz County’s stranger inhabitants began disappearing,” Sonny said. “Since it has happened in that area before, it took multiple disappearances before anyone in authority paid any attention. Inquiries to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department drew Clint and Lynn’s attention. They’re the early warning system for Harding’s crew involving Muslim jihadist activity.”

“Dad found out from Clint that they plan to keep expanding separating walls, along with making the inner compounds impervious to most conventional weapons. Once Clint alerted Harding’s tech guy, Jafar, they coordinated an attack on the so called community of Ramoi until Jafar infiltrated every communication sent, received, and shared there. Those creepy munchkins, as Cala calls them, think they have the makings of a new Caliphate out of the public eye.”

“The Michigan militias are still fighting to control Dearbornistan and the surrounding enclaves there,” Quinn said. “At some point we’re going to need a more substantive action in the big Muslim population zones. Half of their population are still playing the wait and see card. They aren’t assimilated Americans. They’re waiting for the opportunity to jump on the dying corpse of America the moment their brethren lie and murder their way to our destruction. The government won’t intercede on a large scale, nor will the authorities in charge locally.”

“Jean, is it okay if I walk Sammy down to Otter’s Point from here,” Benny asked. “He needs a longer outing and walk.”

Jean hugged her adopted brother. “You did great today, Benny. Sure… go ahead. I’ll keep my com unit in. You do the same. Dad would bite my head off if I didn’t take precautions like he used to.”

“Absolutely,” Benny said with a grin. “Nice seeing you, Uncle Neil.”

“Take care, Benny.” Neil watched Benny and one of the most savage dogs he’d ever seen in action walk away. “Great kid. What the hell ever got into Nick to suddenly adopt a child of the abyss? That place you all hit to get Benny and those thugs was a hell-hole.”

Jean shrugged. “Same as Dad adopting Sammy the Werewolf. His hunches are scary good.”

Neil chuckled. “Sammy the Werewolf, huh? It fits him. I knew Nick would miss Deke’s passing too much not to adopt a replacement. Benny and Sammy are like they’re joined at the hip.”

“More true than you think,” Quinn agreed. “If we ever wanted to discipline Benny, we’d have to shoot Sammy with a tranquilizer dart.”

“You’re right about Deke’s passing. It hit Dad harder than Mom and me. Deke was his beer buddy for over a decade. You saw the contraption Dad made for Deke when his hind legs gave out to arthritis. Dad would still carry Deke upstairs to our ocean viewing room he writes in.”

“Yep. The damn dogs thread into our lives so tightly we can’t think of them as anything else but a family member. Call me if you need anything on this new venture. I will call Nick if I hear anything related to the latest menace created by idiot politicians.”

“Will do, Uncle Neil.” Jean hugged Neil. He shook hands with Sonny and Quinn. “Tell Bently no hard feelings, okay?”

“Sure thing. I think she wants to have Quinn’s baby, so it may all work out anyway.” Neil walked away chortling over his Quinn zinger.

“What were you doing over there with Officer Bently, young man?” Jean posed in her Rachel imitation with hands on hips.

Quinn watched Chief Dickerson walk away with a contemplative look on his face. After Jean bopped him in the back of the head, he returned his attention to his sister. He held a torn paper in his hand. “She gave me her phone number. Neil must have noticed, although I thought we were alone when she did it. Uncle Neil hangs out with Dad too much.”

“Maybe Harding’s daughter Al is coming with them to visit,” Jean said. “She’s still single. You’ve always had a crush on her.”

“Yeah… when I was five,” Quinn replied. “Al’s engaged. You’ve seen the pictures. If she comes it will be to hang out with you and Sonny. After all the adventures you three had, she has a great time showing you her knife skills, or spotting and sniping, that improve from each succeeding visit. After she got her law degree and became an FBI agent, Al likes to rag us with the fact we were issued our credentials.”

“Let’s go hit the beach,” Sonny said. “I doubt Al will want to be around any talk of a black op, kill mission. Enough about Al. Who shadows Benny from here? He’s out of sight.”

“I’ll do it,” Quinn volunteered. “I haven’t jogged yet today. I’ll pace him down to the beach. With Sammy, I’m not sure tailing him is even necessary, but if something happened to him after an op like this, Dad and Mom would beat us like monk penitents.”

“Okay, but you keep your earwig in too, Kong,” Jean ordered.

Quinn smiled. “I will. Do you think I should call Suz, Sis?”