Hard Case IV: A Violent Life (John Harding Series Book 4)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Maria walked into Denny’s arms. There is a glow about us monsters when we find someone special. I could tell in Denny’s face he wasn’t putting on an act to keep the heiress to billions in line. He was in love. She stroked the side of his face, giving him a quick kiss.

  “They tell me we’re headed for the zombie apocalypse if we procreate, dear.”

  “Prophesies from guys like Casey are a known suspect in many scams and con jobs. Pay no attention. You should hear what he has to say about Hamburger here and Lora having a baby. We’re golden compared to that prediction.”

  Maria giggled. “I’ll keep that in mind, hon.”

  Alexi Fiialkov entered then. He waved at Marla, and shook hands down the line with my brethren. They know a good guy when proof has been given and amplified. He was a friend, and in our small cliché that meant family. We had been able to turn over the killer of his brother without authorization. Alexi does not forget something like that. Maria hugged him as he neared us. He then shook hands with Denny and I.

  “I am sorry to interrupt your celebration of what I think was a most satisfying bust on this hideous ‘knockout’ travesty. Would it be possible to speak with you two gentlemen outside?”

  I straightened away from the bar, gauging how lucid I was. It is a mistake to assume too many things. Haphazardly dealing with a man I respected for his incredibly sharp insights and knowledge, while handicapped by the demon brothers is not a good idea. I felt stable enough to have a go at it. I could tell Denny felt the same way.

  “We’ll be glad to, Alexi,” Denny spoke for both of us after getting my nod.

  We left through the side entrance just past where we were at the bar. My first meeting had been right in this very spot with Alexi. It was a get to know each other meeting where I knocked out first one of his men, and later a second. We had a great understanding after that.

  “I come tonight to plead for your help. Quays Tannous has my granddaughter. She was taken this morning. He and I have been enemies for some time in the business world of arms sales I no longer am a part of. This came out of the blue. Perhaps my involvement with your faction caused it. There is no way for me to know at this time. That is of no importance or meaning. There is no one to blame but myself for inadequate protection for my little Mishy. She is the love of my life. I need clarity in what must be done. I know they will kill her no matter what I pay or do. I need a trump card. Everything in this will be a trap except for one thing they do not know. I know where Tannous is, because I have kept abreast of his holdings. I know he owns a place in Arizona he does not believe anyone else knows about. It has been his hiding place for the last three years whenever he gets into trouble, or he doesn’t want any contact. He is there now. I sent someone to check I trust implicitly. He does not have Mishy there.”

  “You need us to get Tannous in order to bargain for your granddaughter’s life,” Denny said. “We need Tannous too. I hate coincidences like this. In my experience there is no such thing. Laredo and Jafar have been unable to trace him. We can do this, Alexi. I give you my word your granddaughter will be the one and only first priority. You know John. I’m telling him right in front of you we want your granddaughter back. Do you understand the mission, John?”

  Hell yeah I understand it. Another statement needed to be made about taking family. “We’re men who understand there are no guarantees about something like this. We’ll leave tonight to get this done. Send the logistics to Laredo. We’ll move into position immediately. We’ll rest while we get into position. Stay here and get Jafar networked with us, Denny. Stay in constant contact, so if anything changes we can redirect. We need Tannous, but we’ll try and question as we go.”

  “You know they won’t let her loose, John. Even the exchange will be a trap,” Denny replied. “They may or may not trade straight up for Tannous. The hope would be Tannous is paying them, which appears obvious, but we’ve been in the game long enough to know that may not be the case. Our best bet is to locate her, and go get her.”

  “I agree.” I looked at Alexi. “This is a dangerous game, Alexi. We can guarantee nothing, except we have someone I can guarantee will find out where your granddaughter is being held if anyone, including Tannous knows.”

  “Thank you. I will send logistics, building blueprints, and everything we have on Tannous’s place. I will not speak of thanks at this time, but know I will be in your debt no matter the outcome.”

  “We don’t keep family on the pad, Alexi,” Denny said. “You will stay with me while we see this through. Come along while we have a troop call up.”

  Inside the bar, the crew took one look at our faces, and put down their drinks. I moved in close. “Alexi’s granddaughter has been kidnapped. He knows where the man who ordered it is. It’s our guy Tannous. He’s in Arizona. He will know where she’s being held, but he won’t want to tell us, and he’ll have a lot of people around him.”

  “Well, damn!” Lynn said. “I thought this was going to be just another boy’s night out. Buckle up, and take Auntie Lynn to where this guy is that likes to have little girls kidnapped. You’re wrong about him not wanting to tell us where, John. He’s going to beg us to let him tell us. Laredo… you old goat… you better not be smashed already. We need to go airborne.”

  “I’ll get you there,” Laredo stated. “I may have to make you barf a couple times doing it though, Cruella.”

  Lynn leaned over the bar toward Marla. “Save our places, Mar. We’ll be back soon.”

  Marla grabbed her hand. “You all come back in one piece, Lynn. Take care of Hamburger and the boys.”

  Lynn patted her hand. “You bet, Mar. See you on the other side.”

  We waved at Marla, and left for Pain Central to lock and load before flying out. Denny went into action on an all points round up of what we’d need. The converted warehouse and all the specifications appeared on our pads after Denny received them from Alexi. Laredo went over the maps and location when we reached our op center.

  “I can fly the Global 6000 into Kingman Airport. We’ll only be a couple of hours away from Tannous’s hideout in Parker. If Denny can fix us up with a copter when we get there, we can hit them in the dead of night. There’s a patch of desert I can drop you all at.” He shifted his laptop around. “It’s a big flat building with approaches on all sides. We should take Tonto and an EMP unit to knock out their visuals.”

  “Perfect. The building’s pretty isolated. What say we forget stealth, and hit it with a hammer? We’ll blow the main door with the M136, and follow up with flash-bangs.”

  “Damn good, John,” Lucas agreed.

  “Let’s load up and get in the air with the gear,” Clint said. “I’ll go get Tonto and meet you all at the hangar. You need anything from home, babe?”

  “We have pliers and a torch in the kit. I’m good.”

  Chapter Six

  Arizona Hit

  By 1:45am we were in a UH-60M Blackhawk helicopter, and we were loaded for bear. We had on full armor, and night-vision helmets. We picked Casey’s favorite firearm for this op in honor of his night shot: the MP5 9mm. Each of us carried our own choice of handgun, along with flash-bangs. Since it was my idea, I carried the M136 launcher. Lynn had the choice seat in the back. I co-piloted with Laredo. The UH-60M Denny rounded up for us had stealth capabilities.

  “Three minutes to touchdown,” Laredo called out. “I won’t do any fly overs. I’ll put her down one hundred yards away, and shut down immediately. I’m networked with the kid and Denny. He has a bird overhead that God only knows how he requisitioned. I’m getting the works for updates, including heat signatures on eleven bodies. I just sent the positions to your pads. With trusty Tonto along, I doubt you’ll need much of a detector. If you’re using the M136 to knock on the door, you won’t need the EMP zapper, so I expect to get back real good hard drives so I can steal Tannous blind and give our other agencies some info to feed on.”

  “It’s less than twelve hours since Alexi’s granddaughter w
as taken,” I added. “We’ll have to move fast once we have a location. Let’s maim them first, so we can sort out the intel and the faces. Tannous is the only one leaving the premises. We’ll have to pack up any drugs we find too, leaving the locals thinking it’s another drug war.”

  “Fifteen seconds to touchdown, quiet and easy. Good luck, kids. Have fun.”

  One minute later, we were headed in spread formation toward the warehouse. Dark skies made the approach over the dry open terrain a breeze with the night-vision helmets. Tonto scouted ahead in a zigzagging pattern, streaking back and forth, happy to be on the ground finally. We halted near a large pull-up door at the front. Clint made a circle wave with his hand, and Tonto tore off for an around the building inspection. When he returned, he crouched next to Clint, signaling the perimeter was clear. I fired the M136. The missile disintegrated the door. I fired a second through the opening. It streaked into the back of the warehouse with similar results.

  We ran forward and threw our military grade flash-bangs inside the entrance, and beyond, with Lynn holding Tonto back a safe distance. They exploded, followed by screams from some who were caught near the blasts. Inside, we spread and threw more flash-bangs in all directions we could reach from the inner entrance. Then it was time for the close in round up, with Tonto leading the way. Disoriented is only a word for the squirming bodies we found. Seven who had rushed out of the converted bedroom living quarters writhed helplessly on the warehouse floor, blood seeping out of all orifices. Lynn plastic tied each one. Clint and Lynn remained in position to watch our backs.

  Tonto ran point from there finding the closed rooms with inhabitants. Casey blew the doors with a small charge, followed by a flash-bang. We weren’t here to have a gunfight. Tannous was the second one to get hit. Lucas dragged him out for Lynn to get started, while Tonto, Casey, and I found the remaining two. By then they had a clue what was going on, firing through their doors. It didn’t help them. We blew the door, and then the room without a shot fired, keeping Tonto back. In fifteen minutes time from blowing the front door, we had eleven bodies against a wall.

  Lynn wasted no time. Clint helped her strip the bleeding Tannous, and duct taped him to a chair. Lucas left with Tonto to patrol our perimeter while she worked. We gave him a booster shot to get his ass conscious, while Casey took pictures of his crew for uploading to Denny and Jafar. Our shot had Tannous straining at his bonds, rage making him actually leapfrog the chair. We watched him for a minute, and then Lynn walked over, lit the propane torch she had. She did a quick swipe over his groin, turning pubic hair into dust. Boy, did that get his attention. Quays screamed out his duct taped mouth in what emerged as squeals. Lynn tore off the duct tape when the screams subsided to whimpers.

  Lynn bent down to look in Tannous’s face. Hard, merciless eyes devoid of humanity or a hint of compassion is what Tannous stared into. “I’m going to make this fast and easy for you, Quays. You have Alexi Fiialkov’s granddaughter. Where is she? I count to three, and then I warm up your balls again. Three, two, one,” Lynn rattled off too fast for Quays to react even if he had wanted to.

  She scorched the screamer again. This time Tannous was screaming out the location, a Motel 6 nearby, only ten minutes away. Lynn patted his cheek. “You learn fast, Quays. Suck it up pal. You and I will be going over there to get her. We’ll go right to the room, and you will tell them to bring the little girl out. If you fuck this up, I will blacken you one inch at a time for the next two days. Do you understand?”

  “Yes!” Quays howled his answer.

  Casey, detailed to collect the peripherals like drugs, money, and hard-drives, emerged with his bag full of contraband. We needed to get the hell out of there. I moved off to the side for a conference with Denny.

  “How about our ten little Indians?”

  “Give them all the hotshot, John. They’re bad and useless to us.”

  “Pullout in five.”

  I took out the syringes while Clint found us a working vehicle outside, Tannous was happy to point out. It took only moments to send the ten little Indians to their just rewards. I turned to my crew. “Okay, Lynn, Clint, and I will take it from here with Tonto. You and Lucas take off with Laredo, and we’ll call in for a pickup once we get out in open ground away from here, Case.”

  “On it, John.” Casey left while I gathered up Tannous and hauled him out the front.

  Tonto sat patiently watching Lucas and Casey double time it back to Laredo. We loaded up in Tannous’s Mercedes. It took less than the ten minutes to reach the Motel 6 I had calculated. Everything was dead quiet in the pre-dawn hours, in spite of the explosions from our warehouse visit. We parked in front of the room on the lower level, Tannous pointed out. Lynn grabbed his chin.

  “Get your shit together! I don’t give a damn about your fuckin’ pain! I want you to knock on that door, and tell them who it is, and what you want. How many are with the girl?”

  “Two… please… I…” Tannous shut up, as Lynn click-clacked her butterfly knife into position near his right eyeball.

  “Did I tell you to talk? You don’t speak until I tell you to. Then it better be exactly what I said.”

  With Tonto hovering near the door’s edge, Tannous knocked on the door, announcing himself. We heard muttered curses and sleep filled voices. Then the door opened. Tonto ripped the throat out of the one who answered, dragging him to the floor without a sound. His partner was reaching for something when Clint pistol whipped him. Michelle Tolver, Alexi’s granddaughter, was bound and gagged against the wall. Lynn shushed the sobbing little girl, cutting her free of her bonds, while I repeated my syringe work on the two minions in the room. Clint took their pictures for removing from databases they might be on.

  Lynn sat in the backseat with Michelle in her arms, and Tonto in the middle next to Tannous on the other side. Clint drove, and I kept an eye on the back.

  “Move, and Tonto tears off a piece, Quays,” Lynn told him. “Frankly, I could care less, so move if you want. Mishy, your Da is very worried about you. Do you think you could talk with him if I get him on my iPhone?”

  Mishy nodded happily, the tears still streaming down her cheeks. In minutes, Alexi’s face came into view on the screen. “Da!”

  She started crying, with Alexi talking to her soothingly. “It is all right, child. My friends have you now, little one. They will bring you home to us, and this will never happen again. Are you hurt, Mishy?”

  “N…no, Da. I was scared.”

  “Good… good… Mishy… all is well now. I will see you soon. I love you, Mishy.”

  “I love you too, Da! Th…thank you for sending your friends to get me.”

  “I did not have to send them, Mishy,” Alexi said. “It is what they do. Goodbye for now.”

  “Bye, Da!” Mishy gave Lynn the iPhone back. She then huddled close in Lynn’s arms.

  “Laredo,” I said over com, “there’s an open gravel lot next to highway 95 opposite the Motel 6. Want to touchdown there for a moment?”

  “On my way, brother. Touchdown in five minutes.”

  Clint drove across the darkened Route 95, lighting up our projected LZ with the Mercedes headlights. Laredo landed the whisper soft Blackhawk a moment later. We turned off the Mercedes. In seconds, we were on board and in the air. I gave Tannous an injection to knock him out for the trip, and loaded him into a body bag with air holes. The transfer to our Global 6000 went without a hitch. One of Denny’s contacts collected our Blackhawk. Lynn kept Mishy with her at all times. Tonto stayed instinctively at their side, entertaining with all his tricks, including catching a ball in the air down the aisle repeatedly for Mishy.

  Denny, Alexi, and the Tolivers met us at our hangar. We had all been quiet during our trip back, allowing silence instead of our usual insulting banter to calm the little girl. We stood around like happy monsters, watching the reunion. I loaded the body bag into our SUV for transport back to Pain Central. This had worked out very well, but proved we still had vulnerab
ilities. We now had the one responsible for the terrorist cells being planted inside a drug network, and the woman running the network. Oh what fun we were going to have… or Lynn was going to have – the sooner, the better. Alexi walked over to shake hands with each of us.

  “I am forever in your debt. That debt will prove very valuable for you in the future. I promise you. I wish I could have this Tannous though.”

  Lynn hugged him. “I like you, Alexi, but I’m not done with Quays. When I get done, he won’t be much use to you anyway.”

  Alexi smiled. “Yes… I am certain of that. Please ask him if my family is on anyone else’s list for me.”

  “I will indeed.”

  “Goodbye then, my friends. Get some rest, and The Warehouse Bar tonight will be yours, or anything you can think of.”

  “I have an unfinished date with the Bud and Beam brothers, Alexi,” I explained. “Come join us if you’d like.”

  “I will if I can, John.”

  After Alexi left with his family, Denny and Jafar joined us.

  “I saw it in your eyes, Hamburger,” Lynn said right away. “We’re not going home yet, are we?”

  She was right. I smelled a rat. Nothing added up about this supposed coincidence. This idiocy went far deeper than any of us were aware. We were in front of it, but I didn’t know how far. “Nope. I didn’t figure you’d want to nurse Quays’ balls back to health. I know I don’t. Want to finish up this crap with the prisoners this morning? We have all the ingredients. Laredo and Jafar can work over the hard drives we confiscated, while the rest of us put our three other guests through their paces. I’m betting they’ll be awfully surprised seeing Tannous.”

  “I’d cut his balls off before I nursed them,” Lynn replied. “Let’s do this. We rained on their parade hard. Let’s bring on the lightning. We need to see what made Tannous go after Mishy. It would mean they were trying to get leverage against us possibly, knowing the old man does favors on our behalf occasionally.”