Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) (12 page)

“If those idiots weren’t tied into the Islamic death cult and racist bullshit, the community ideals they have of hard work, two parent families, and belief in God could turn around any inner city problem in existence,” Lucas said. “Knowly called me a houseboy. I want you to beat him until he cries for his Mamma, Recon.”

“I’ll make a note. Let’s get a drink. I need the brothers to wash down this episode of stupid people walking.” I led the way back to our place at the bar, waving the all clear sign to the three Oakland PD officers. They waved back and returned to their dart game. Marla had my drinks ready. I drained my Beam brother and half of brother Bud. “Oh my… that’s much better.”

“A baseball bat, Psycho? Really?” Tommy wasn’t letting Lynn’s adrenaline rush negotiation alone without an accounting.

“Oh calm down, Snow White Sands.” Lynn gave him the wave off. “We need to start charging a penalty for the number of times these posers claim they’re going to beat Cheese to death in the cage. I need to direct an award winning documentary of the fight tomorrow night with the title ‘Before Bragging About Beating John Harding To Death In The Cage, Watch This’. You’ll need to bloody him, Cheese. Tommy let you out of poke drills this weekend. You need the work in the cage”.

“Ah… I think there may be a little more to this.” Jafar held his tablet for us to see. “Knowly is a Northern California MMA Heavyweight Champion – twenty-three wins, no losses. He fights under the name Black Jihadi. Alexi would know more than I do about it, but I think Knowly’s angling to get into the UFC. So far, all he has is a few local TV appearances. It may be how the Nejem family interested him in making this about Amara and Samira.”

“Jafar’s right,” Alexi agreed. “If Knowly beats John handily in a made for YouTube video, he could catapult into the upper levels of UFC with one appearance. Do you still wish to do it, John?”

“Sure. This at least takes the mystery out of Knowly’s annoying visit.”

“I will arrange all the specifics for tomorrow night. I’ll call Earl and ‘Rique for security. Do you wish to bar the politicos?”

“Nope. I know the betting’s good with them in the house. We’ll have tight security, right Gus?”

“Yes. I will call in the Asian Crips to work the outside area,” Gus Denova said. As acting Godfather of the Oaktown Cartel, our absorbed gangs did our bidding.

“You can bill it as Hard Case versus Black Jihadi the MMA Northern California Champion too,” Tommy added. “You have other business too with Nick’s newly found nest between us and Tahoe.”

“It’s good business for us and the country. If we hit the compound in a precise killing manner, Nick has it in mind for us to confiscate it. I’ve seen the pictures. The surrounding acreage looks like a mountain paradise. The compound has hot tubs, huge rooms, fireplaces, and only one way in, or out, by road. Muerto’s thinking helicopter pads, and possibly an airstrip. It would mean being able to launch at least a helicopter strike without anyone knowing where it originated.”

“I want in on the assault. A luxury mountain retreat would be a terrific escape for a few days, especially if we could fly there,” Lynn said, with everyone else echoing her sentiments.

“I’ll fly the mission to get a piece of that,” Laredo said. “Traffic into the mountains toward Tahoe is the pits in the winter. If it’s not blizzard type weather, either me, John, or Jafar could fly there. We could have a Monster Christmas in the snow at our retreat.”

“Agreed,” Lucas said. “This op took the bad taste of Knowly away. You must be thinking stealth insertion on the outskirts of the compounds acreage.”

“Exactly,” I replied. “There’s a bunch on the grounds right now, including this Saran Al-Kadi. Can you get us satellite surveillance 24/7, Denny? It’s vital to know their routes around the compound in case they have anything booby-trapped.”

“I’ll get it started tomorrow morning,” Denny agreed. “There could be a treasury of info in a place like that. You’re not thinking of using an EMP bomb on it, are you, Cheese.”

Silence, crickets, clinking of glasses in the background. I shrugged as amusement set in at the Spawn of Satan reading my mind. “Yep. That was exactly what I had planned. I figured on a blackout when we reached assault positions with Agent Tonto. Between our super-dog and night-vision gear we could practically walk in and shoot everyone in the head.”

“Could you at least consider an info gathering mission? I’ll fly with Laredo and Jafar. With Nick’s crew and Tommy, Jess, and Dev, we can have all the backup we need, including land vehicles on the main road waiting in reserve.”

“We don’t want to rebuild the place after the assault, Spawn,” Casey said. “The good part of John’s assault is possibly holding the mayhem and destruction to a minimum. Uh oh… I just thought of a drawback to the EMP bomb. I’ll bet a great place like that has everything wired on computer controls, with apps for turning on lights, hot tubs, music, and even fireplaces. Maybe we should take a chance on Denny’s more circumspect plan of attack. We’ll send the minions in to take the first hit.”

“That’s just mean, Case,” Sylvio complained.

“He’s only kidding, right Case?” Quays’ brow furrowed when Casey grinned instead of answering. “This… after we went shoulder to shoulder with you into Chabahar, waiting for Iranian jets to turn us into dust particles.”

“Calm down, my fellow minions,” Gus Denova soothed. “The Monster Squad has an assault crew and we aren’t it. I’d step up and take the first hit though to have a chance at the mountain retreat vacations. We’re only a short jump to that small air field at Lake Tahoe too. We could cruise there for a night at the casinos.”

“I like your thinking, Gus,” I told him. “Let’s wait for a couple days of satellite surveillance before we decide. It may be Al-Kadi’s crew are complacent in their hideaway. Nick told me Al-Kadi won’t know how we accessed the location. We’ll have to be ready for anything though. Paul contacted you and confirmed the kill mission, didn’t he, Denny?”

“Yes. It doesn’t mean we can’t make room for prisoners. I’ll take care of them. It’s a black op though on USA soil. We’re contractors with the CIA. It wouldn’t take much of an investigation to trace our roots. We’ve been lucky so far with the threats we’ve handled on US soil. The nitwits in DC know how close we came to an atomic bomb hitting China Basin on board Alexi’s tanker. I know how stupid the rules of engagement are. Paul Gilbrech is the best CIA Director I’ve ever worked with. He got those Iranian jets splashed before they wiped the Monster Squad and Unholy Trio out after Chabahar. Paul wants this Al-Kadi and the rest of his Isis shitheads removed from this dimension. He’s trying to rig us a silent approval of operation where we can move as a contracted strike force with congressional backing.”

“All the more reason this expansion of strike bases we can launch from makes sense,” I added. “If we could get an exception made for our operations on US soil, it would be much less difficult to move on a target. I saw your facial expression when Saran Al-Kadi was mentioned during our discussion before dinner, Claude. I was hoping you knew him.”

Chardin nodded. “I didn’t say anything then because we were meeting with your whole team now. I needed to think through the complications that may arise for me. Al-Kadi tried to have me killed in France. I stopped taking contracts from the Saudis. Whether rogue elements of the government initiate these branches of Islamic murderers or the plague is systemic, the fact is they fund nearly everything from behind a curtain of payoffs to political figures all over the world. As I’ve explained previously, that ‘Arab Spring’ bullshit was the last straw for me. I can tell you this much, once Al-Kadi knows of your team, he will stop at nothing to destroy you and your families. That is why I needed time to decide. I am in with you on this. I see you are committed to fighting these bastards by any means available.”

“We protect our own too, Claude,” Denny said. “I have an idea for a way in without blowing the place apart. It carries some danger of course. If you’re interested, I’ll call Nick and see if he likes the idea.”

“I do not care about the danger part. I only care about protecting my family once Al-Kadi knows I am involved. What is it you would have me do?”

“You know of Nick McCarty’s elevation in ‘Dark Web’ lore to the number one assassin in the world since his killing of Felix Moreau. It would be a bold move if you and Nick arrived at Al-Kadi’s compound at the front door. If you two could get inside, I believe the distraction would be enough to enable the rest of our assault team to enter with a minimum of destruction.”

Wow. Thinking it over silently, Denny’s idea seemed not only plausible, but perfectly suited for the op if Al-Kadi’s curiosity could be stirred by the arrival of two world class assassins. I kept my mouth shut because Claude needed to make up his own mind. I could tell from the faces around me, I wasn’t the only one who liked the idea.

“What you describe would be very bold,” Claude acknowledged. “If Nick will join me in this, I will do it. You do know once Al-Kadi knows it is me on his doorstep, he may tell his men to open fire.”

“If Dead Boy’s with you, he’ll shoot them in the head before they can aim,” Clint said. “We’ll be in position as a strike force to move quickly if something goes wrong. Lucas will have a sniper nest picked out with full view of the main house front. You have to be careful with Dead Boy though. He’ll sneak a grenade in and our vacation retreat will be a pile of rubble.”

Clint’s warning provoked much amusement.

I think the Nick and Claude approach fits. “Denny’s plan works for me as well. If we can get Nick and Claude inside before the men frisk them, they can hold the entrance until we double time inside. Then it may get wild. I’d like to gas them through their ventilation system like we did the mobsters that time in Tahoe, but if Al-Kadi does have guards, it would be nearly impossible to do it without discovery. Then we’d be back where we started with a shootout at the ‘Okay Corral’.”

“We’ll stream the satellite footage and make a final decision after reviewing what we get,” Denny said. “Now, that aside, why the hell do you need to fight Knowly tomorrow night?”

“We have to keep the Nejem family and their plots in our sight,” I replied. “Knowly saw a chance to snag some money and get a shot at making a splash in the UFC. The Nejem family turning over fifty grand for him to put a whoopin’ on me goes beyond suspicious. I wonder if a few of their representatives will show at fight time.”

“This is my fault,” Denny admitted. “If I hadn’t turned Daddy Nejem and his crew over to the police after he answered my questions, this wouldn’t have happened. I thought with the video and audio evidence he wanted to kill his own daughter he’d be in lockup for at least a year.”

“Don’t worry about Amara,” Clint said. “Lynn and I will make sure she’s safe. We’ll take her to the classes she has over at the college. Maybe we’ll spot some suspicious guys paying too much attention to her. The fight will be a key place to start looking tomorrow. I wonder if Papa Nejem is stupid enough to attend the fight. After what Lucas did to him, he’d piss his pants if he saw Lucas. I’ll take sniping duties if you want to attend the fight inside, Lucas.”

“Hell yeah! Thanks Clint. I’d love to see that woman beater again. This time he goes on a cruise. Amara doesn’t have to know. Better yet, Jafar can practice his helicopter skills. He can fly us way the hell out over the ocean so I can drop Daddy into the drink alive.”

Lynn in particular enjoyed Lucas’s final solution for Mohammed Nejem, Amara’s Father. “I wonder what he thought would be accomplished by this fight. He knows John won’t be the only one he has to contend with. His demands for a challenge smack of stupidity so deep as to be laughable. I’m thinking there must be more to this – a diversion maybe.”

“Case? You take sniping duties,” Clint said. “Lynn’s right. Nejem would know we’d all be at the fight in anticipation. I’ll stay at the house with Dannie, Amara, and Clint Jr. Lynn needs to be at the fight. Achmed? I want video of Lynn stirring the Farrakhan dupes into a rage.”

“Will do,” Jafar agreed.

“I’ll handle the sniping,” Casey added. “I should have been spelling Lucas in the nest anyway. Do you want the minions to back you at the house, Clint?”

“Did you just insult me, Case?”

Hilarity ensued.

* * *

Oh yeah! I smelled the perfume of desperation, excitement, and fear. When politicos and rich celebrity types mix with gamblers, street goons, and mobsters, they create an ambrosia of anticipation which permeates the cage battleground. UFC fights in the spotlight of giant video screens, howling thousands, and filtered air conditioning acted as a tame entertaining background; but this sheet-metal warehouse surrounding still awakened my origins with a splash of violence unattainable anywhere else. I was home.

Our entry into the fight night building went without incident. Although a large crowd filled the upgraded cage facility, security from Earl and ‘Rique, along with Alexi’s force, provided enough presence to keep interactions at a quiet drone of gambling exchanges and fight talk. Jack Korlos, Alexi’s right hand man now, led my corner crew to the cage with my Monsters in the background, assessing the crowd. Out of nowhere, a phalanx of bow-tied dupes blocked our way to the cage with some weirdo in front, featuring some inner rage he must have been whipping into life on the sidelines. He spiked a fist at me, I imagine as a gesture. Unfortunately for him, Jess planted the idiot with a right that probably broke his jaw.