Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (43 page)

“No, I’m not,” I admitted. “If Laredo hadn’t given you his blessing, you wouldn’t be co-piloting with me now. Our passengers await. Let’s go get them aboard.”

After we opened the King up for boarding, I went down with Jafar to help with all the luggage. After all, a cruise of eleven days requires a lot of baggage. We only exchanged small waves and greetings while taking care of loading. Nick was all business until we were loaded and ready for takeoff. We all went through a formal introduction and re-introduction. John and Cala liked Jafar straight away because of some similar cultural problems they shared involving honor killings. I told Jafar to doze off after takeoff and invited Nick to sit in as co-pilot. I knew enough about his record to know this wasn’t his first rodeo in flight.

“You really opened things up with Moe,” I said as I shifted into autopilot. I bet Denny nearly passed out with Moe in his hands.”

Nick smiled over at me. “He was excited. Crue wrote me she had to prep him a bit more to be helpful. Moe must have thought he was being put into federal custody or something.”

I nodded, remembering Mohammed Al Sirani’s interrogation. “Yeah, he did, but only for a short couple of moments.”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll bet. Crue sent me all your fight videos, including your latest holding cell incursions. I’ve never seen a knife strike in real life to the heart. That was damn impressive.”

“I saw your ending of the number one assassin in the world, Muerto. I didn’t know you assassins did knife throws as part of your repertoire.”

“I admit having Felix Moreau trying to ace my ass in the midst of a family excursion threw me off my game. It worked, brother. That’s all that counts, right?”

“Yep. Did you teaching your daughter knife throwing have anything to do with it?”

“She is something. Yeah… it probably did. Jean’s went through shit no girl should ever have to endure. Jean wants to be like me and she’s damn near convinced me she will do exactly that no matter what I do to dissuade her. What about you?”

“Al loves me. She understands what I do. She luckily doesn’t want to follow in my footsteps. That must be scary as hell.” I remembered the knowing look of the killer on Jean’s face when she shook hands with me. I thought it was a misconception. With what Nick said, I think otherwise. “Jean has the look, brother.”

“Yeah, she does.” Nick leaned back silently for a few moments. “I love her and her Mom so much it made me think maybe I’m not as much of a psychopath as I once thought. Then, I thought about how many people I’d torture and maim to protect them. It’s a process, brother.”

“Amen. Let me know if you ever need my Monster Squad to protect or eliminate a threat. We’re in the process of establishing a go to island with defenses. If you need us, don’t hesitate to call. My outlook on our leaders here in America have taken a downturn of monumental descent. They don’t give a shit about anything other than election. We will back your play and give you safe passage to our island if need be.”

Nick looked at me for a long moment before extending his hand to shake as men of like mind. “Thank you. I hope to God the idiot leaders will recognize what’s been going on in Europe and all over the world with this Islamist cancer. I’m hopeful if we force their hands in the Iranian port they will choose their own citizens’ wellbeing instead of throwing us under the bus.”

“I don’t even care anymore.” Nick struck a note in me I’d been ignoring. “I want that damn port to burn with those bastards instigating this shit with their heads on pikes as it flames.”

“Well damn, brother… now you’re talking. Let’s get ‘er done. It would take a clandestine inland incursion to procure these dastardly assholes. Could we do something like that in a timeframe without major air intervention?”

“We have guaranteed backup from your buddy heading the CIA. I have the same guarantees from his underling, Denny Strobert.” I paused. “Can I ask you something personal without you taking offense?”

Nick waved me off. “Don’t give that shit a thought, Cheese. We’re connected at the hip from now on, brother. Lay it on me.”

“I know you and CIA Director Gilbrech are tight. Would he by any chance use this Iranian incursion to eliminate you from this dimension? I know Strobert. I guarantee his word as if it were my own.”

Nick remained silent for more than a few comfortable moments. He turned toward me at last with a winsome smile of question I recognized very well.

“Paul Gilbrech is a man I would count on without question. I hate guaranteeing his honesty. I’ve been burned so many times in the past doing so beyond brothers in arms I’ve survived combat with, I don’t do so lightly. Paul’s a Marine. That means something to you and me as well.”

“Yeah… it does,” I admitted. “I guess we’ll be stuck with an open ended trust we have no way of counting on. We’ll have to kill so many of the enemy, maybe they won’t have anything to do but run.”

“I like that goal anyway,” Nick replied. “Depending on people in authority is a loser. When they come through, it should be nice unneeded surprise. Anything else is a setup to disaster.”

I tried to think of ways I could disagree, but even Denny worried me. “Count on me and my Monsters. We’ll bring the game when promised, Nick.”

“You have the Unholy Trio on the pad, brother. We’ll bring the heat anytime you ask. I know with Cruella Deville your team doesn’t need any extra heat, but count on us for any backup you do need.”

“Agreed, Nick. This Victor Sopa project is a loose end from the near disaster at China Basin. This will be a kill mission. I don’t know about the fallout from who we end up killing in addition to Sopa, but he dies… period.”

“Understood. Do you think he knows any extra ingredients in the Starlight mission?”

“I’m hoping we have him alive long enough for Crue to find out.”

“If Moe gave you accurate locations, we should be able to trap Victor easily,” Nick replied. “These bosses don’t run into combat, guns blazing. They hide under desks or in bedrooms until the shooting ends. I have a great gimmick for getting the hoped for prisoners to come out.”

“No grenades, Muerto,” I told him.

“You’re no fun, Cheese. Actually, my gimmick involves a grenade, but the pin’s still in. I tell the perp I just want to talk, but if he doesn’t come out, I’ll throw in a grenade and kill him. If he doesn’t believe me, I throw in a live grenade with the pin still in place. It bounces and I count seconds. They dive out of their hideaway and I retrieve my grenade.”

“Has that worked for you?” I could picture it in my head. Most of the guys we go after are dumber than a bag of rocks. It seemed Nick didn’t overestimate their intelligence.

“It’s worked every time I’ve tried it so far. Of course there’s nothing wrong with using a nice live grenade too, just messier.”

“Agreed. I think we’ll adopt your grenade gimmick, Nick. I already like the live grenade usage. New York is a tough place for major kill operations. One of the places Victor loves is way the hell high with a wide open view of everything on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Moe told us Victor moved most of his official business cover front into the place.”

I smiled at my co-pilot who started laughing uproariously, but quickly quieted with furtive looks into our passenger area. “I’m getting the feeling you have something to share, Muerto. What’s up?”

“Can you put the address for Sopa’s favorite hangout in Manhattan on the screen, Cheese? I’m probably finding amusement where there is none, but I’m feeling the cosmos closing in so humor me.”

“Sure.” I entered the Upper East Side of Manhattan address onto a monitor screen Laredo had rigged specifically for updates from official sources, networked into our entire crew’s electronic devices. When Nick stifled himself, rocking in his seat, I assumed we’d hit an unexpected gold mine. Little did I know how golden it was for our New York endeavor.

“Cheese. This is just the best.” Inexplicably, Nick pumped a fist, looking upwards as if in communion with a higher power, and whispered, “Oh yeah. I’m coming home once again.”

For the next half hour, Nick explained the Manhattan office property to me. He knew everything a sniper knows about their intended stalking zone, including the nest he knew of, easily accessible. He had killed some guy named Hayden Tanus I remembered from his records. What wasn’t in the records was a gangster named Lino Verducci. Lino rented the Hayden Tanus killing zone for a great price. Unfortunately for him he crossed Nick McCarty, as did his Manhattan property predecessor, Hayden Tanus. Lino bought a fifty caliber ending to his dreams of mafia whatever. I understood Nick’s amusement. It seemed no one in their right mind wanted anything to do with the property but gangsters who thought they were smarter than the thugs who rented before them.

“Damn, Nick. That is the best indeed. It might mean we won’t have to hit this problem with a sledgehammer. Your story about Lino renting the same office complex as Tanus is incredible. You must have looked around wondering ‘holy shit’.”

Nick leaned back in the seat, nodding in agreement. “Some things are stranger than fiction, brother. I know every aspect of that Manhattan address intimately. I know how your crew can attain a position while I cause distress from a distance that will lead to a quick kill mission and exit.”

“We had a drink in your honor the other night in celebration of the hit you did on Felix Moreau. It seems Felix had a bead on a couple of my players.”

Nick turned serious. “I measured it, Cheese. This assassin shit is not to be taken lightly no matter how I play it off in relation to the shithead being duped into a stalking incident. I’d been starting to get complacent so on the family excursion to Salem on the ferry I decided to scope out anomalies. Felix fit the bill to an uncomfortable level. Then, my Rachel took a hand in the outing and it all went wild from there.”

“So you took precautions to find out if Felix took an interest?” This was some great stuff.

“Exactly,” Nick admitted. “He began stalking us after Rachel fronted him. It was on then, brother. I knew he’d kill us all and he was a long range threat. I’m not much of a reactive type. Felix wanted me. He got me.”

I chuckled. “Good enough. It seems because of this other assassin’s convergence you also have our new target in line too. Damn, brother… you’re like the ‘Magic Man’.”

Oh boy did Nick enjoy that one. “Okay, Magic Man, any idea how you want to do this Manhattan project?”

“I do indeed, Cheese. It may take patience we can’t afford. If he likes the place as much as Al Sirani indicated, he’ll do his meetings and everything out of there. Let me tell you, that wonderful view is incredible for a lot of reasons. One is he doesn’t have to stand in front of the window to get tapped. I’m thinking we could wait for a meeting with a few of his boys. I’ll nick him, no pun intended, and begin executing his staff. You and your Monsters can flush the rest from the outside.”

“I like it. We’ll have to hope we get him in the window we need before we go on mission. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll have to go with our original loud bang theory.”

“Absolutely.”

* * *

Rachel watched her husband moving amongst the dozing occupants of what she thought of as a war soon to be engaged. She caught his appraising glance with a smile and flash of her breasts. Nick’s mouth tightened to her amusement while he pointed threateningly at her. She waved him off while slipping her hand into the front of her pants with eyes partially closed. Nick was forced to deal with a situation unseen by the rest of the passengers. He knelt down next to her with purpose.

“You know of course… this means war.”

Rachel cringed comically. “Oh my… I’m so frightened. Whatever will I do?”

Nick grinned with promise. “At some point, I will show you.”

“La la la,” Rachel intoned. “That’s a lot of big talk and no action. Hey… what were you laughing about in the cockpit?”

Nick explained it all to her in a whisper. He enjoyed her reaction, which was mostly facial contortions at first.

“That’s not funny! It seems more like the Karma train arriving at the wrong station. Tanus, Lino Verducci, and now this Victor Sopa all showing at the same killing spot. What’s wrong with this picture, Muerto,” Rachel asked in a hushed whisper. “You’ve corrupted the dimensions, Muerto! Doesn’t this shit make any impression on you?”

“Sure. I’m liking the timing. When bad guys approach you, rather than you hunting them, get out of their way.”

“That’s a short sighted piece of crap.”

Nick gathered Rachel into his arms. “It’s all I have right now. I promise to fix all the loose ends. How’s that?”

“I hope you can do it, Muerto.”

“Me, too. Hey… did you just insult me?”

Chapter Sixteen

Sopa and the Mission

“Have any of you heard from anyone on the West Coast?” Victor Sopa looked sternly at his associates. “I know we were supposed to reduce any interaction for security purposes. This is bullshit! I expected an info interruption from my people out there of at most half a day.”

“It may be that cluck Al Sirani managed to quiet the bad vibes out there, Boss.”

“I never trusted that bastard! We have our own guys in place out there. The only thing posted on the news is some unknown gang deaths. I don’t like it, I tell you!” Victor Sopa stood away from the meeting table and walked to the window. The moment he reached the window, the bullet resistant glass he had installed met with an accident. The uranium tipped fifty caliber bullet passed through the glass, tore Sopa’s top left shoulder to shreds, and killed one of his lieutenants at the table. Sopa rocketed to his back from the force, passing out in shock for a moment.