Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) (19 page)

“It’s too narrow and circular.” Nick put away the gas canister with a sigh. “I’ll do it. Give me your vest, John. I’ll put it over mine. Clint, Casey, and Lucas can follow me down for head shots. There’s too much glass from the outer deck for an approach from there. They’ll see us and open fire through the glass. They won’t care about damaging the Admiral’s new ship. If this was easy, anyone could do it.”

Harding stripped off his vest, handing it to Nick. “He’s right. Let’s do this. We’ve iced these guys enough.”

Nick put on Harding’s vest over his. Laying the MP5 down, he retrieved his .45 caliber Colt. “The more time they have to screw around below decks, the worse our chances of capturing the ship in one piece. I need to get a prisoner so we know how many more guys they have on board.”

Walking over to the spiral ladder down, Nick smiled back at the others following him. “Remember… I’m the one with a bandaged ear.”

In the next instant Nick dropped down the spiral ladder, rolling painfully to the landing as AK47 weapons fire blasted into the stairs. Nick dived to the side, rolling once again into a shooter’s crouch, firing at muzzle flashes. MP5 fire from behind Nick silenced the automatic weapons fire. Screams of agony echoed along the bulkheads. Johnny gave Nick a hand to his feet.

“Are you okay, Muerto?”

“Yep. They stitched the material on my Kevlar but I’m okay. Get some lights on, Johnny and check for a live one we can question. I hear some unhappy candidates.”

Turning on lights as he circled the room, Johnny checked the bodies while Clint, Casey, and Lucas covered the scene and access points. The Dark Lord came down the spiral ladder with a smile as he checked his Kevlar vest covering Nick.

“They barely touched it, DL.” Nick took it off and handed it to John.

“I have a good one, Muerto,” Johnny called out as he helped a groaning man off the deck who gripped his shoulder in partial shock while staring glassy-eyed at his captors. “This one has a .45 slug through the shoulder but he can talk.”

“Good.” Lucas shot the screamer through the head. “This one took one through the nuts. He wouldn’t be much good for anything other than screaming. This boat has a crew of twenty-two normally. Counting these guys we’ve probably killed about that many. Don’t set the bleeder down anywhere that he’ll leave a stain, Johnny Five. We’ve already done enough damage.”

“Put him here, Johnny,” Nick told him, pointing at an already bloody chair. “Silvio? We have the main deck secured. Come aboard and guard the other decks with the minions. See what you can find on our dead guys.”

“Yes, Muerto.”

Johnny guided the man into the seat. Nick took duct tape from his bag, He wrapped the shoulder wound until it was covered and sealed. Nick straightened from his task as everyone else watched the interrogation chair along with the ladder leading down to the lower berthing, kitchen and dining areas.

“Who are you people?” The man spoke with a heavy Spanish accent.

“I am Dr. Muerto,” Nick said. “These are my companion surgeons, Dr. Ahab, Dr. Johnny Five, Dr. Nightshot, Dr. Dark Lord, and… ah… who are you again, Nowhere Man?”

“If you don’t want me to have Agent Tonto piss all over your leg you’d better keep a civil tongue in your head, Dead Boy,” Clint replied.

Nick chuckled. “Okay… those are the introductions. We need a couple questions answered.”

“Give me something for the pain! Do you know who you are fucking with? This ship belongs to Fernando Carone. He will have your badges and careers for this travesty!”

“What’s your name?” Nick smiled at the amusement the man’s declaration generated from Johnny and Harding’s Monster Squad.

“Paulo Riggs.”

“Now, Paulo… do you really think we could possibly be DEA or some other federal agents? We just killed all your comrades. If you answer my questions I’ll take away your pain. If you remain silent, I’ll have to do surgery on you. Believe me… you don’t want that. Where’s Carone and how many more passengers are below?”

Paulo looked into Nick’s eyes and saw his death. “I knew I should never have taken this fucking job. There are three women on board in the two cabins next to Carone’s master suite at the end of the passageway. He has two Cartel hitmen as bodyguards. They’re probably in the suite with him by now. The rest of us were ordered to repel boarders.”

“Are the women part of the operation or entertainment?”

“Crew and entertainment.”

“I like you, Paulo. If you’ve told me the truth we’ll put you into the hands of a guy from the CIA. For now, I’ll give you something for your pain.” Nick retrieved a syringe from his bag and injected Paulo with it. In less than ten seconds, Riggs was dead.

“Ah… Dead Boy,” Clint said. “You killed him.”

“Sorry, Clint… was he a friend of yours?”

“We thought you were going to give him over to Denny,” Lucas said.

Nick met his old friend’s gaze with a grim set to his features. “No prisoners, Lucas. I don’t care what Denny and Paul want. Anyone we leave alive at our back will be a danger later, especially Carone. I’ll tell you what, if the women stay in their cabin until Kabong and I put on our black masks, I’ll blindfold them for Denny. If they see our faces, they get an eternity shot. Can we get Lynn landed for the interrogation?”

“We’re on with you now, Muerto,” Lynn remarked. “Let me know when you get Carone secured and I’ll be right down.”

“Thanks, Lynn.”

“Do you have any ideas on the lower compartments,” John asked Nick.

“If it’s like Paulo said we’ll stick to our original plan and let Tonto sniff the people out. I’m thinking the grenade trick would be a good one for Carone’s cabin. If it doesn’t work, we can throw in a live one.”

“I swear you have me on my last nerve with the damn grenades!”

“Calm down, Lucas,” Nick urged. “You have to admit the unloaded grenade trick works pretty well.”

Lucas shrugged reluctantly. “It’s worth a shot.”

Nick didn’t wait. Taking his MP5 from Harding, he slipped down into the interior corridor running from one end of the ship to the other. Ready to take weapon’s fire, Nick hugged the bulkhead until he was sure the corridor was empty. “C’mon down with Tonto, Clint. I think poor old Paulo was right. It looks like Carone and his banditos may be hiding in his room waiting for an all clear sign he ain’t ever getting.”

Clint and Tonto, followed by John, Lucas, Casey, and Kabong joined Nick at the bottom of the decorative ladder staircase. Clint gestured Tonto into action. Tonto sniffed at every door, moving on while two men then searched the cleared room. With Lucas and Casey guarding for movement into the corridor, Clint, Nick, John and Johnny moved with Tonto, clearing each room, below decks kitchen, dining room, engine room, and every space where someone could hide or lie in wait. The work, tedious and at times nerve wracking, ended once again at the main corridor. Tonto showed no interest in any room until reaching the area housing the master suite.

Harding knocked on the door from the side that Tonto indicated first. The rest of his companions stayed tight to the bulkheads on both sides. “Hello in there. If you are women, say so. Then, stay in your room until we tell you to come out.”

“Who are you,” a woman’s voice asked.

“Never mind that. Do as I say. Is there a man in there with you?”

“No.”

“Where are the other two women,” John asked.

“Next to me, the one before the master suite.”

“Stay put.” John moved to the next door, knocked and repeated his initial greeting. A woman answered and acknowledged another woman shared the cabin with her.

Automatic weapons fire shredded the center top part of the master suite door streaming down the corridor. Nick dropped down in prone position and fired an MP5 burst through the lower door center at knee level. Screams wailed in shocked agony. Nick’s action drew general amusement from his companions as he rolled again to the bulkhead. When the screams softened to sobs interspersed with cries of pain, John moved to one side of the master suite door with Nick opposite him with the grenade. When Nick had fired into the lower door, he had made a nice round hole by design that would accommodate his grenade.

“Hi there,” John called out. “Come out with hands locked behind your head and you won’t be shot.”

“Fuck you! You’ll kill us anyway… you bastards!”

Nick shrugged with a smile when John glanced over at him and mouthed. “He’s right.”

John grinned and nodded. “If you don’t come out in thirty seconds, my companion will toss a grenade inside your cabin. It doesn’t matter to us if you’re alive or dead. We’re here to arrest you, Carone. You and your men will be questioned. Otherwise, we execute you.”

They heard hoarse angry voices inside, accompanied by the plaintive cries for a doctor from the wounded man.

“Ten seconds,” John began counting down.

“I’m Carone! We are coming out!”

“Fingers locked behind your heads or we shoot you in the head.”

The cabin door swung open. A medium built man with thinning black hair and a mustache walked through the doorway with fingers locked behind his head as ordered. The man behind him was much larger with a full beard. His fingers weren’t locked. As they cleared the doorway, the second man pushed the first man aside, bringing a mini-Uzi to bear.

“Kill, Tonto!”

Tonto leaped before the man could get the Uzi down from his back, jaws locking on his neck, fangs ripping his throat out, blood spurting in a cascade of red rain. Tonto’s momentum jarred the dying man to his back where the dog ripped until certain of his kill. John had thrown Carone to his face, holding him there on the deck until Tonto completed his mission.

Nick kept an eye from a crouch on the other man, huddled into a fetal position, gripping his legs with small yips of pain and pleas for a doctor. Nick waited until Tonto moved off his kill, returning to his master’s side with dripping jaws. He then went inside the cabin, securing it first with care, after which Nick killed the wounded man with another syringe from his pack. Nick tore the bedding from one of the beds and rolled both dead men into the bedding. After soaking towels in cold water, Nick threw one to Clint for Tonto and then swabbed the deck, leaving the towels to absorb the blood.

“Thanks,” Clint said as he wiped Tonto’s face. “It wasn’t necessary though. I would have had Tonto wipe his face on Cheese as always.”

“Thanks from me then.” John dragged Carone to his feet. “Was that your dumb idea, Fernando?”

Carone remained silent.

“How’s my toy, Cheese,” Lynn asked.

“Very quiet, but I’m sure he’s waiting for the proper motivation to be your good little helper,” John replied to much amusement. “Come aboard, Crue.”

“On my way. Sylvio has my mobile kit ready to go on one of the lounges amidships, so take Fernando to his interrogation site. Dr. Deville is on her way.”

Carone’s eyes scanned the smiling murderous faces around him. “Who…who is this Dr. Deville person? You cannot torture me. It is against International Rights Laws!”

“Oh… so only you Cartel lunatics and murderous Islamic horde frog hopping from one nation to another, can torture, huh?” John smashed Carone across the face with a bitch slap from hell. “Welcome to the new neighborhood, Fernando. I’m going to warm you for this meeting with the foremost torturer in the world today. She’ll be angry, but in your case, I don’t care. She will make you feel pain you thought impossible – pain so great you’ll crack the teeth out of your head. You’ll be able to make her pause by telling us every fact about how to get your untold fortune to put into our accounts, and every single detail about your terrorist connections. Then I’m going to ask Dr. Deville to take you to the undiscovered country of pain until you die!”

Nick smiled, watching the transformation flowing over Carone’s features. Staring into the darkness of unendurable pain etched in John Harding’s grim features, Carone broke. Having measured the hatred Harding compartmentalized for these Islamic enablers and their murderous horde, the chances of any plea for mercy would fall on deaf ears.

“Wait! I will give you everything! Take…take these numbers and account descriptions!” Carone began reciting his bank account numbers, passwords, and locations. Lucas grabbed John’s arm, whispering in his ear.

Harding nodded at Lucas’s input. “Slow down. We’ll check. God help you if your info proves false. I will keep you alive as chum for the fish, feeding you to them one bite every few minutes for three full days until there’s nothing left of you but your beating heart and open eyeballs.”

Fernando repeated everything, although Nick was sure Jafar had begun investigating the financial leads from Carone the moment he overheard them on the network from the beginning of their open network access. By the time Lynn arrived in person for her Dr. Deville foot inspection, Carone had spelled out every aspect of their operation and his financial transactions. Only when he began repeating himself, and reached the end of his helpfulness concerning terrorist connections, did John give him a pop in the forehead.

Fernando shut up immediately. “How was that, Denny?”

“Achmed and I are working it, DL,” Denny replied. “I will have confirmation within the hour. Relax if you can. We’re here on the Valkyrie, including Laredo and the Stealth. He says he can launch again in minutes if you decide to put the ship down.”