Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (5 page)

“
He is such a
know-it-all jerk.”

“
Yeah. He tells
everybody he was a captain in Vietnam, but I know for a fact that the
closest he got to 'Nam was an R&R base in Japan, and he was only
a PFC, and a janitor there.”

“
Really?”

“
Yup. And Dave
told me he's out taking advantage of all the free Veterans Day stuff,
getting free meals, a free haircut and whatever else he can
scrounge.”

Rosemary laughed, but
then glanced up and saw Norm and Janet and two of the other couples
that usually sat together looking at them curiously, so she nodded
and waved.

“
Guess I'd better
go say hello, play Miss Naive again.”

“
Yeah, right.
Good luck with that.”

- 13 -

November
13, 2012
2:47
a.m. local time

100 feet above the
Aegean Sea

As the door hit the
wall, Cam again swept the room on full auto, but the lone occupant
was prone on the floor and fired back, forcing Cam to pull her weapon
back from the doorway.

Becky dropped to her
knees, shot around the doorframe at floor level and was rewarded with
a loud scream and another clattering of a rifle on the floor. Cam
ran in and head-bulleted the man.

“
What's that,
Becks, all of 'em?”

“
Two below, two
up here; yup, that should be it. But stay alert; we might have
more.”

“
Let's go; looks
like, ah, six doors to go.”

They repeated their
procedure six times, finding all the rooms empty.

“
Where's the
target, Becks?”

“
We must have
missed something. But where? No outbuildings, solid rock
underneath, no third floor, just that big empty room be- –
wait, where's the kitchen, bathrooms, storage?”

“
Not expecting
stainless appliances, are we, Becks? This was a monastery, after
all.”

“
But they must
have had some place to cook and poop and keep stuff. What are we
missing?”

- 14 -

November
12, 2012
3:1
5 p.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

On t
he
Red Sea

"Yes, Captain?”

“
Sir, we found
one survivor, photoed and printed him and we're patching him up now.
Do you want to see him?”

“
I sure do. Does
he speak English?”

“
I don't know; he
hasn't said anything since we pulled him out.”

“
Nothing at all?”

“
Not a word, just
moaning.”

“
Is he
stabilized?”

“
Doc says he will
be in about five minutes. But he doesn't think he's gonna survive
for long.”

“
Okay. Don't
give him any painkillers and don't speak to him at all until I get
down there. He's in the infirmary?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Okay, Captain.
I'll be right down. Out.”

“
Out, sir.”

“
Pam, JJ, either
of you want to join me? I think it'll be helpful.”

“
No problem,
Jake. We'd love to.”

“
It won't be just
for your looks, but we'll start with that, okay?”

“
Sure.”

“
JJ?”

“
Happy to help.”

“
Good. Best if
you stay in your suits, I think, but bring the coverups along.”

“
Okay. JJ, throw
mine over, would you?”

“
Sure.”

“
Just follow my
lead, okay? Here's how I think it might go.”

Jake outlined his plan
in the five minutes it took for them to reach the door to the
infirmary.

“
How's he doing,
Doc?”

“
He's coming
around, but slowly, and he won't live for more than maybe half an
hour. I wouldn't expect to get too much out of him.”

“
Has he said
anything yet?”

“
No, sir, just
the moaning. I haven't given him any painkillers.”

“
Good, good.
Any results from his photo or prints?”

“
Not yet.”

“
Okay. Let me
know as soon as the Captain gets anything back.”

“
Will do, sir.”

“
Thanks, Doc.

“
Okay, girls,
let's go.”

- 15 -

November
13, 2012
2:56
a.m. local time

100 feet above the
Aegean Sea

Becky and Cam retraced
their steps, examining each and every room on the second floor with
extraordinary attention to detail, but found nothing that could be an
access to the roof or a third floor, nor any hidden compartments,
nothing but monks' cells with solid stone walls and sparse
furnishings.

“
Back below,
Becks, I guess.”

“
Yup.”

They headed carefully
down the stairs to the big room below, stopping on the bottom step,
weapons at the ready, before moving through the archway. No gunfire
greeted them.

“
Let's check
that other arch, Cam. I must have missed something there.”

“
Right behind
ya, Becks.”

They ran to and
through the archway in the southeast corner of the room.

“
There's the
desk, right up flush to the wall behi- – ah, wait one.”
Becky looked up. “See how it goes up to the floor above, and
how far out from the other end of the stairs it is?”

“
Yeah, must be
15, maybe 20 feet of space in there.”

“
Let's find
out.”

Becky started to pull
the desk out, but it wouldn't budge.

“
What the hell?”

Cam joined Becky in
pulling at the desk, but it was impervious to their efforts and still
didn't move.

“
Wait one, Cam;
something's hinky here.”

They backed away from
the desk and out through the archway into the main room, still at
full alert.

- 16 -

November
12, 2012
3:1
5 p.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

On t
he
Red Sea

Entering the infirmary,
Pam and JJ in the lead, they saw a bony body barely raising the
sheets on the bed, swathed in gauze from head to chest, only his left
eye, mouth and part of the left cheek visible, with a few scraggly
bits of a dark brown beard poking out between the strips of gauze.

As Pam and JJ came into
his view, his eye first widened and then squinted at them, and a
wheezy moan
gurgled
through his bloodied, swollen lips.

Pam slipped to his left
side, leaning over his chest and looking deeply into his eye, her
perky breasts barely contained by her skimpy bikini top. JJ slid to
the right side of his bed, near his feet, her thonged backside to him
as she reached up to stash the coverups on an upper shelf. Jake
stayed at the door, watching the man's face closely as his open eye
swiveled back and forth between JJ's bottom and Pam's breasts.

Pam reached down and
gently ran her index finger over the man's lower lip.

“
Does that hurt?”
she whispered. The man nodded and moaned. She reached down to his
chest and pressed lightly.

“
How about that?”
He nodded again, moaning until a coughing spasm overtook him, and
blood began dribbling out of his mouth. Pam took a tissue from the
nightstand and gently dabbed the blood away.

“
Better?”
she asked. The man nodded, but kept coughing.

“
Want some
water?” The man nodded again. Pam turned away, stepped back
and Jake moved in.

“
Well, well,
well, so you speak English,” he said in the gruffest voice he
could manage. The man's head swiveled so he could focus his eye on
this new presence, but his coughing got worse.

“
While she's
getting you some water, I've got a few questions for you.

“
First, what's
your name?”

“
Allahu Akbar,”
the man whisper-chanted, glaring cyclopseanly at Jake. “Allahu
Akbar.”

“
No, no, no; your
name.”

“
Allahu Akbar,
Allahu Akbar.”

Jake pressed on his
chest, much harder than Pam had. The man cried out, until another
coughing spasm drove more blood out of his mouth.

“
Want some
water?” Jake asked gently. The man nodded weakly, still
coughing and spewing blood.

“
As soon as you
tell me your name, I'll give you some.”

“
Allahu Akbar,
Allahu Akbar.”

“
Okay, so that's
how you want to play it? Fine.”

Jake pressed even
harder on the man's chest, then slapped him on the left cheek,
ignoring the man's cries of pain, then again on the right cheek. The
man moaned once and went silent.

- 17 -

November
12, 2012
3:12
p.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
Four or five a
week? Really?” Rosemary asked, incredulous.

“
That's what I
heard. Think it was on one of those medical shows I clicked into
accidentally.”

Dallas, a pretty 50-ish
brunette who'd been noodling nearby, cut in, “I can have four
or five an hour. Sometimes in ten minutes with the right guy.”

Gordy chuckled. “Or
the right batteries.”

Rosemary blushed
through her tan, almost, but not quite, stifling a nervous giggle.

“
Sorry, Rosemary,
couldn't resist. That was too good a setup to ignore. But that's
what they said, that it was healthy and helped women live longer.
So, Dallas, you'll probably live a couple hundred years.”

Now it was Dallas' turn
to blush, but she did no such thing. She laughed a hearty belly
laugh instead. “Got that right, ol' man. Maybe three
hundred.”

“
Okay, three
hundred. And in twenty years, when you get to be our age, you just
might have a chance to be as sexy-looking as Rosemary is.”

As Rosemary blushed
even more, Dallas glanced over at her and said, “I sure hope
so. What's your secret? How do you keep that great figure?”

Rosemary, still
blushing, stuttered for a moment, but finally said, “I graze.”

“
You what?”

“
She grazes,”
Gordy said, “eats a little bit all day long, not ever
over-eating. So her stomach doesn't expand three times a day, like
most people's do, and she doesn't have those mid-morning and
mid-afternoon and evening hunger pangs that most people get.”