Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (33 page)

Rosemary, Jill,
Carie, Dallas, Janet and Sharon all waved. The
sergeant
and his deputy walked over to them.

“
Okay,
what's going on here?”

Dallas was the
first to speak up. “The FBI kidnapped our friend and we have
no idea where they've taken him or what they might have done to him.”

“
What do
you mean, kidnapped?”

“
They
took him out of our New Year's Eve party, and nobody at the FBI will
tell us why or where he is, and they've denied taking him
at
all, even the top agent there. He said the guys that took him
weren't agents at all,” Rosemary said,
beginning to sob, “and we're
all worried about
him.”

“
This is
not Argentina, but it's like they've disappeared him,” Jill put
in.

“
Wait a
minute. You mean that author guy, Jake Devlin?”

“
Yeah,
but that's his pen name; his real name is Gordon – but I
can't
pronounce his last name,” Dallas said.

“
Did you
check with the FBI under both names?”

“
Yes, I
did,” Rosemary said. “They all said they had no record
of his being arrested, detained or even picked up, even the top guy.
It's like Jill said, they disappeared him.”

“
Off the
books,” Sharon said.

“
Wait a
minute. You said the SAC told you the guys who took him weren't
agents. Why are you aiming your protest at the feebs?”

“
Who else
is looking for him?” Dallas asked.

“
If they
even are looking, if they don't have him,” Jill said.

“
The SAC
could be lying,” Sharon added.

“
We're
just prodding them,” Carie said, “not protesting.”

“
Okay,
okay, girls,” the sergeant said. “As long as you're not
chanting or disturbing the peace, these signs are fine. And I'm
going
to check with the feebs, see what they tell
me. But don't expect much, okay? They're not too friendly to local
cops. How can I reach
you, other than here on the
beach?”

Dallas gave him
one of her cards, and Rosemary wrote her name
and
phone number on the back of it. The sergeant gave them each
one
of his.

“
Sergeant
… Dooley? Thomas Dooley?” Rosemary asked.

“
Right.”

“
You're
the one who broke up that abortion bunch, right?”

“
Yes,
ma'am; that was me.”

“
I
thought you looked familiar.”

“
I've
also got a personal interest in this. I wanted to tell him it was
okay with me that he used my name in his book. So I'll do
whatever
I can to help get him back.”

“
Thanks,
Sergeant,” Rosemary said, smiling as best she could.

“
I'll be
in touch,” he said, as he and his deputy left the beach.

Later in the
day, two TV reporters showed up and interviewed the women, took
several shots of the signs and did standups near Gordy's lounge. The
stories were the first stories on each of those local stations'
evening and nighttime news shows, accompanied by edited portions of
the video Carie had shot on New Year's Eve.

- 87 -

January
13, 2013
6:03
p.m. local time

Fort Myers, Florida

Still reeling
from the news of his father's death in Spain, the SAC only partially
saw the news reports, but when he saw Carie's video, he cursed,
bolted out of his recliner and turned the TV off, forgetting
that
he had a remote sitting on the table next to him.

“
George,
are you okay?” his wife shouted over the noise of the
dishwasher in the kitchen. “What's wrong?”

“
Nothing,
Anne.”

“
What?
You know I can't hear you when the washer's running.”

“
Nothing,
dear,” he shouted, then slumped back into his chair, waiting
for the call he knew would be coming shortly.

- 88 -

January
13, 2013
6:03
p.m. local time

Lehigh Acres, Florida

“
Holy
shit, Leon! They got our pictures plastered all over the
news.
That ain't good.”

Leon snorted
another line and looked up at Charlie.

“
Yeah. I
never thought about confiscating all those cell phones. Shit!”

“
So what
are we gonna do?”

“
Shut up,
Charlie. I gotta think.”

“
We
oughta call George.”

“
Nope;
he's just gonna hang us out holding the dry bag. Now
shut
up; I gotta think.”

“
Maybe we
should just go in and whack him now.”

“
Shut up!
Lemme think.”

- 89 -

January
13, 2013
6:03
p.m. local time

Bonita Springs,
Florida

“
Yesss!
That oughta get 'em moving,” Rosemary exclaimed, raising her
fists in the air like a high school cheerleader. “Yes!”

Jill, Carie,
Norm, Janet, Dallas, Wayne, Linda, Joel, Rona and Sharon, gathered
around the TV in Rosemary's condo, all echoed her cheers.

“
Time for
a toast,” Rosemary said, working the cork on a large bottle of
champagne until it came out with a loud explosive pop.

- 90 -

January
13, 2013
6:03
p.m. local time

Vercaud, India

“
Did you
hear that, Robin?”

“
Yeah.
Sounded like a .22.”

“
Or a .45
with a silencer.”

“
Could
be, Kitty. Sounded like it was up by the temple.”

“
I'll
check it out. Cover me.”

“
Will
do.”

But as soon as
Kitty slithered out from the bushes she'd been camouflaged in, more
gunshots sounded, some silenced single shots and some unsilenced
automatic rifle fire. She backed up to where she'd been hiding.

“
Whoever
that is, they may have met their match.”

“
Hope
they're not after our target.”

“
Got that
right, Bird.”

“
Now
what?”

“
We
hunker down and wait.”

But when
bullets started shredding the foliage above them, Kitty and Robin
backpedaled further down the hill, taking cover below and behind two
of the boulders littering the hillside.

When the
gunfire finally ended, nine or ten minutes later, the women slithered
back up the hill to their previous position, covered the area around
the temple with binoculars, but saw only several bodies lying over or
sitting against the low wall surrounding the
temple
proper or on the steps leading up to it, none moving.

“
What the
hell?” Kitty mumbled.

“
Let's
go.”

They
low-crawled up the hill to the wall and started checking
pulses.
Every body they checked had none.

“
All
dead, Bird.”

“
Same
here.”

“
Well, at
least they all look like believers in reincarnation.”

“
But
they're all in body armor. So maybe not true believers.”

“
No
markings, so not police or army. What the hell?”

“
Let's
see what else we can find.”

“
Or who
else. Hope our target is still alive.”

“
We'll
see what we see.”

“
When we
see it.”

Positioning
herself to one side of the door, Robin pulled out her
periscope
and looked into the temple, lit dimly by the setting sun and the many
candles inside, but brightly by the lamp mounted on her scope.

“
Nothing,
no movement.”

Robin dropped
to her belly and low-crawled through the door and across the room,
quartering it with her weapon ready.

“
Here's
one with no armor, and she looks Caucasian.”

“
Get some
pics, Bird. Maybe Amber can get an ID from that.”

Two white
flashes illuminated the area. “Done. And I've got her gun,
silencer and two mags.”

“
Anything
else?”

“
Nothing
– wait one. Something over in the corner.”

She walked over
to the mound she'd seen.

“
Oh,
crap; it's our target. And he's – yup, he's dead. One, two,
three – uh, five holes in his chest and one in his head.”

“
Aw,
shit. Well, I'll take some pics and we'll see what Amber wants to
do.”

“
But we
better get going. That Salem-Vercaud Ghat Road is treacherous even
in the daytime; gonna be a real bitch now.”

When they were
clear and on their way to Mumbai, Kitty and
Robin
reported to Amber, who told them to consider it their first completed
job, in spite of the fact that neither of them had fired a shot. Two
days later, finally arriving in Mumbai and settled in a safe
house,
they celebrated with a bottle of champagne.

“
To the
Catbirds' first job.”

- 91 -

January
13, 2013
7:19
p.m. local time

Lehigh Acres, Florida