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

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

“Hell of an op,” Denny said. “You’re both right. Let’s finish this. It will be important to give our IT team a little time to rip apart the hard drives, and play Robin Hood with the ill-gotten gains. I’m hoping Tannous has that other bitch’s billions under his control. If we can leave Rouheni penniless, we’ll knock out one more terrorist money source.”

  “I won’t speak for Lucas,” Casey said, “but I want to see this done now, even if it means a boat trip. Hell, we’ll take the poles and some beer along.”

  “Taking that little girl didn’t sit well with me,” Lucas said. “I don’t often enjoy watching Cruella work, but I sure enjoyed it today. I’m anxious to find out what prompted Tannous to do it at this time in particular.”

  “Only one thing though,” Clint said. “Put on your mask, Hamburger. It’ll give us all a break, and get you in practice for your in-law’s visit.”

  Holy shit. “Damn it, Clint! That was just mean.”

  * * *

  Tannous was a mess by the time we got him out of his bag. We let him shower with an ice bag held on his blistered nuts. All Lynn had to do was look at him, and he stopped whining. If he knew what might be in store for him if he wasn’t cooperative, Quays would have probably killed himself on the shower knob. The shower scene did become humorous though. I think he had thoughts about trying something while his hands were free. When he found Tonto waiting for him outside the shower, the look on his face was priceless. Tonto does not have a happy face with prisoners. His face when guarding a prisoner would freeze the blood of most people. Seeing him in action, and then playing at the park with Samira’s dog Naji, is an amazing incongruity.

  “Get on the clothes laid out for you, Quays,” I told him. “Make a sudden movement, and Tonto will tear a piece off of you. I set out some sweats so you can keep the ice pack on your balls.”

  “This… this is a travesty of justice! How can you people be allowed to pervert the law like this? I-”

  Before conscious thought took hold in my head, I had him snatched up above my head making ready to break his back in a slam over my knee. Lynn, who had been amusing herself with Tonto’s guard dog routine from outside the shower room door, rushed in, her hands gesturing in my face.

  “Hamburger! What the hell? Are you trying to screw up my time with Quays? C’mon, John… don’t do this… I’ll tell on you!”

  Damn it! My in-law’s visit must be making me mental in combination with the nagging suspicion rattling around in my head of something not right. I shook Tannous up above my head in frustration with Tonto looking on in calm sit down mode. “Sorry, Lynn.”

  I eased Tannous down and dropped him at my feet. “I’m getting sick of hearing about us perverting the law from terrorists. I hope to hell he doesn’t cooperate. Like Lucas, I’m beginning to anticipate a very painful session with Mr. Tannous.”

  Lynn sighed. “I am too, but I doubt if this pussy will give us any trouble. Come along, Quays before you say anything else, and get your head ripped off. Tonto!” Lynn made a chomping sign with her fingers tapping into her thumb. Tonto prompted Quays with snarling snaps at his calf right through the door, and toward the interrogation rooms.

  Lynn shook her finger at me as we followed. “I’m watching you. Get your head in the game, Hamburger! Damn… you were going to break that boy in two.”

  I shrugged. “Guilty as charged. I’m okay now. I could have really screwed things up. We still need to find out why he took Mishy on top of everything else. Thanks, Lynn.”

  “Welcome to my world. All I can think of is keeping the mission in my head, like you usually do. Otherwise, you know me, I could get to be a real problem.”

  I enjoyed that line right into our lineup of interrogation rooms, where Tonto had Quays standing in position while Voltaire, Vanga, and Ruelas stood face to face with him. They stared at each other in disbelief. It definitely added to our leverage in this devilish game. I’m certain, Voltaire and her boys never in a million years thought they’d see Quays here too. My crew smiled at each other down the hallway, but Voltaire and her crew registered nothing but shock at seeing Quays in a drab gray sweat-suit holding an ice pack at his balls. Let the fun begin. I installed Quays in our interrogation room with Tonto. Lynn and I went over to observe the highlights going on in the Voltaire room.

  “You watch when they set me up in there, Hamburger. I will own their asses! Hell, we won’t need to threaten, screw around, or anything. This gig is getting too easy.”

  I knew one thing: once any guest in this place met Lynn in her death persona, compliance was the only option. “You are the best at what you do, Lynn. Even mixing prisoners so they could share their experiences with you would probably cut some corners. I saw how getting Alexi’s granddaughter affected you though. It’s nice to be the good monsters, huh?”

  Lynn grinned, pointing at our one way mirror. “They’re almost ready for me.” She met my smiling gaze without hint of what went on between those ears of hers. “Just enjoy, John. This ain’t your part.”

  Small doubt about that. Although Lucas, Casey, and I had been very proficient at extracting information, no one I’d ever come across equaled Lynn. She remained the undiscovered country of information extraction. “No questions asked. You tell us what you want done, and we’ll back you up.”

  “In our best interests, I need to find out why Quays took Mishy. If something deeper exists because of her kidnapping, we need to know what that is.”

  “I agree. That question has to occur first to move on. How do you want to play it?”

  I’ll march into the room with the other three, notebook in hand. I’ll gauge their reactions, and wing it. I hope the accounts are all under Tannous’s control. We’ll be able to knock out a huge player in the funding war.”

  “We will indeed, but I know there’s something more to this than money. Money is what keeps their stone-age bullshit going. Without it, they won’t have networks, recruits, or plane fare. The monetary hits are huge. What’s going on between these suckers goes beyond all that. This network they were establishing has to have more to it than we originally suspected. I think it was going to be a major strike. Something they needed a network to disperse.”

  Lynn looked at me curiously. She grinned. “You don’t think these boys were working to set off a couple bombs or shoot somebody big. You think they were going for the golden ring. What? A nuke… a dirty bomb… no… well spit it out.”

  “I haven’t told anyone this, Lynn, not even Denny. It all seemed so stupid, but what other reason could there be for Tannous to take Michelle Tolliver? He never expected Alexi to come right to us or that we would launch a strike the moment we heard. Quays really thought having Michelle would convince Alexi to find a way to slow us down. Instead, the old man came right to us. I’ll keep my suspicion to myself as to what they have planned. I don’t want to color your interrogation with my thoughts.”

  Lynn smiled. “Fine. If you won’t tell me what’s going on, I have three in there that surely will. Don’t get too comfy. This won’t take long.”

  I moved to our observation mirror while Lynn walked in amongst the three with Clint joining her.

  “Okay… playtime’s over, kiddies. Did you see our new guest? I could tell you recognized him. It’s good old Quays Tannous. I had to give him an object lesson on why my crew doesn’t allow the kidnapping of little girls. You know me. By the time I did a quick reeducation class, Quays was begging to tell me where he had our girl. He also had a lot to say about you three.”

  Lynn propped herself on the table where the three were seated. “This is the fun part. I know what he knows. Each of you, or all three together in a conference type informative meeting, will tell me what you’ve been holding back for days. Time’s up for being coy with me. You three best be telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth in five seconds or hell on earth is about to descend. Comprende?”

  “You already know about the network I agreed to set up for Tannous,” Voltaire said, but her featur
es tightened imperceptibly, at least to a normal person. Lynn wasn’t normal by any stretch of the imagination. “You have Tannous. What other truth can we tell you?”

  Lynn wagged a finger at Voltaire. “You dear, have been playing me, and these two playmates of yours have been helping you pull it off. I guess I must be losing my touch. No worries though. Tannous set us straight, and now I’m going to get confirmation of the plan from you three. I’ll make you a deal. Confirm what Tannous told us, and you three will go out in style. Make me work for the info, and I am going to make death seem like going to Disneyland for you.”

  There it was. Our guests had the hope we’d let them go at some point, or turn them over to some higher authority. Lynn hammered that hope into dust. They stared at her like helpless bunnies surrounded by wild dogs.

  “Tick tock, kids. Time is not your friend.”

  “You… you are going to kill us anyway?” Voltaire began to sob.

  Vanga started to stand up, but Clint patted his shoulder. “Try to stand up again, and I’ll have to alter you a bit, amigo. Did you folks think opening up terrorist networks was going to get you a slap on the wrist? You must be thinking of the kinder, gentler terror war. Our crew belongs to the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth terror war.”

  “Let’s give them an easy one to start with,” Lynn suggested. “You three should know this one. Why was Tannous so anxious to have a very dangerous guy like Alexi Fiialkov’s granddaughter taken and held?”

  Ruelas spoke right up. I could tell on his features he had no intention of screaming to die over a deal he knew would not be happening in his lifetime. “Tannous wants access to Fiialkov’s container ship SS City of Hope. He wants to put two containers on it after it leaves the Port of Tokyo. We were to take possession of the containers for distribution to the cells formed along our drug networks.”

  “Very good, Silvio,” Lynn complimented him. “Now, what’s in the containers? Yes, it’s a trick question.”

  The three stared at each other, as if silently asking if the others knew the answer. It seemed they didn’t know the answer, or extremely adept at showing no sign of knowing.

  “We assumed it was shipments of arms,” Vanga said. “Tannous needed Fiialkov’s connections at the Port of Oakland to get the containers loaded for shipment to Victoria’s estate, where they would be broken down and distributed to the men you’ve already taken.”

  “We…we don’t have a clue what’s inside of them,” Voltaire said. “We also were supposed to just give the contents inside the containers over to the men making up the cells without questions. We were told they would obtain the trucks to take away what we distributed.”

  “Okay… good start,” Lynn said. “I heard a slight discrepancy I’m going to go over with Tannous. I’ll be back in a while. That was a very good session.”

  Outside the room, Clint and Lynn looked at me with grim faces. “It seems like you were sure right about this kidnapping not being an isolated incident to blackmail Fiialkov into screwing with us. He was to play a part too. You don’t think it’s an arms shipment, huh?”

  “I don’t think so, Lynn. Let’s take what we’ve learned over to Quays, and find out what is in the containers he was blackmailing Alexi into helping with. If Alexi had not come to us upon hearing from Tannous, we’d be playing catch up in a real life horror movie.”

  “That Tannous would approach Fiialkov in such a manner sets off my alarm bells,” Clint said. “Tannous knows the old mobster lives by the feud. Something like taking the girl for a smuggling gig involving two containers smells of desperation… or disaster.”

  Amen to that. I knew we weren’t blessed enough to be done with this in a lucky coincidence of being after Tannous, and getting him handed to us. “We may need to keep this bunch alive until we see this through, including Quays.”

  “You’re still skirting what you suspect might be in the containers, Hamburger,” Lynn accused me. “I know you have a suspicion. Spit it out.”

  Unfortunately, I had a bad one. “I considered the money. They don’t have a lot of it, or big time backers since we took down Brannigan. That leaves them with either nuclear waste which they’re too stupid to handle, or some type of bio weapon they’re also too stupid to handle. It may be, Tannous or his backers, have found a way to put whatever they’re using into foolproof dispensers even trained chimpanzees could handle. I doubt they could do the dirty bomb gambit spread out over a network. I believe it’s a bio weapon.”

  “That does fit my disaster theory, and most of the other illogical crap that’s been going on,” Clint said. “If Lynn hadn’t corralled Laredo into pissing off the jihad jerks, God only knows where we’d be now.”

  “Forget all that, cowboy,” Lynn said. “We have a son on the way in a little over six months. I’m going to find out everything Quays knows about those containers. I’m not overjoyed with my impalement method. It works wonderfully, but not if we have to keep Quays around. It takes too much doctoring on my part. Our little mean girl is the last one I’m rehabbing with that implement. Let’s go with a tried and true method from our recent school bombing suspect. Quays nuts are in an uproar as it is. I hit him with the needles, and crank him up – then I think we can get him to cooperate.”

  “Clint and I will go prep him. We’ll make him go to the bathroom first, but then we’ll strip him, and tie him up spread eagled against the bars. By the time you get in the room Lynn, we’ll have him in the mood to speak. Maybe we won’t have to do much.”

  “Let’s do it. You boys get him prepped, and I’ll go change into something comfortable. Want me to ask Casey and Lucas to put away our trio for now?”

  “Yeah, thanks, Lynn. We’ll see you in a while.”

  * * *

  Clint and I watched Quays Tannous squirming with hands, feet, and chin restrained against the bars. He couldn’t move much. We didn’t answer his questions, or react to his threats, pleas, or bribes. I’d already checked with Laredo and Jafar. All of Tamara Rouheni’s fortune Tannous controlled now belonged to the West Coast Avengers. Denny issued a rumor through intelligence circuits into Jordan, letting them know they were allowing a broke fugitive to remain there.

  Lynn came in then wearing her Girl with the Dragon Tattoo outfit on. She wore a sleeveless vest which made her nearly three months pregnancy bump unnoticeable. The black eyeliner, lipstick, and eye shadow with her features as she strode into the room were most impressive. Having taken a torch to Quays’ nuts already, his eyes widened at the sight of her outfit to unbelievable proportions.

  “Shall we begin?”

  “Mr. Tannous is prepped and ready,” I said the only line I had in this play, and stepped back across from Clint.

  “You know what, my little preppy? I had a talk with your three drug cartel partners. They told me all about why you took Mr. Fiialkov’s granddaughter. You needed it as leverage to use his container ship SS City of Hope to do an at sea pickup of two containers from origins unknown. Then the containers were to be transported to the Port of Oakland for distribution to the terrorist cells along the drug pipeline. I see on your face recognition of all I just said.”

  Lynn walked up and gripped Quays’ chin in her hand and held up her Taser. “We want to know what’s in the containers. Otherwise, I shoot the needles into your nuts and give you a hummer like you have never had before, bright boy. What’s it going to be? You know what happens when I start counting.”

  “Anthrax! Please… don’t shoot me with that thing. Please!”

  Lynn grinned. She patted his face. “We’ll see. Those idiots we rounded up at the speech are too stupid to handle weaponized anthrax. Did someone invent an idiot proof method of dispersal for you?”

  “Yes!” Tannous writhed against the bars as Lynn slowly backed off while drawing a bead on Quays’ nuts. “The anthrax is sealed in pressurized cylinders which can be placed anywhere. The reinforced cylinders are nearly indestructible.”

  Lynn’s finger hovered on the trigger, a
nd even I thought she was going to zap him. She relaxed slightly as Quays started to whimper. “Let’s get to a few facts on the table. We own you. We have already whisked away all your secret accounts, and the Rouheni fortune. Has this shipment of anthrax been paid for?”

  “Yes! They await only the details of my ploy to get Fiialkov to transport the containers after picking them up at sea outside Japan’s territorial waters. The ship will be a smaller cargo ship under a Syrian flag.” Tannous suddenly got an excited look on his face. “I…I can help you capture them. I can tell them all has been prepared. You can load the containers! Then take possession! Can…can I live if I do such a thing?”

  Lynn grinned over at me and shrugged. “I don’t know Quays. What do you think, Hamburger?”

  “I’m thinking Alexi will be a very hard sell on letting bygones be bygones with our new buddy, Mr. Tannous. I can talk to him. How soon were you to get in touch with the shipper?”

  “The City of Hope is due in Tokyo Port next week. I would need to give them the go ahead in the next five days so they can prepare to meet the container ship. I can do this! This faction of the Muslim Brotherhood would be crushed! They have pinned all their hopes in rising to prominence on this gambit!”

  “For a dedicated jihadist, this doesn’t have the ring of truth,” Clint told him, stroking his chin. “Maybe an hour getting lit up would make sure he hasn’t left out any important details.”

  “No!” Quays screamed out as Lynn nodded, bringing the Taser back up on target. “I…I can prove it right now! I care nothing for jihad! I used the Muslim Brotherhood connection to acquire control of Tamara’s accounts. I knew I could cipher off huge amounts of the money into my own hidden ones. Yes! I would kill millions and never blink an eye! That is what you want to know. It is true. To save my life or to keep from being tortured I would sell out my contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood without hesitation!”

  “You may say that now,” Clint continued, “but how do we know you won’t tip them off? I guess we could put you on a delay.”