by Mike Dagons
Jamal was stilling holding onto the tank. I released him when Rayce started swimming with him in tow, and followed them out the cabin door.
The van continued to slowly sink into the darkness. Rayce stopped when we were clear of it, and pulled the oxygen tube from Jamal’s mouth, and stuck it in mine. I took a much needed breath, and then handed it back. Rayce took a breath through it, and then she put it back in Jamal’s mouth.
She started swimming up right away, and Jamal relaxed and let her pull him with her. Whoever said black people couldn’t swim, hadn’t met Rayce. She swam underwater like a fish, paddling her feet gracefully, effortlessly slicing through the water like she had fins.
Since she was hauling Jamal solo, my ascent to the surface was easy. The water became clearer as we neared the surface, and I could see Choc. His legs were barely making any ripples in the water.
He was taking cover behind a floating dead body, and I surfaced behind him quietly. He was busy watching some men hiding in the water under the pier. There was a lot of action on the beach, and we were a good distance out, so they hadn’t noticed him. That changed when Rayce shot up out the water with Jamal like a geyser.
Gunfire was redirected at us, and a round hit the dead body. “They’re using a M16, so we need to move back out of range if we can,” he shouted.
“You think Blue needs some help,” I asked. He was doing a good job of keeping the men on the pier distracted, but now we had the attention of the one on land.
“He can handle the ones he can see, but the men in the water are safe from him as long as they stay hidden behind those piles,” Choc stated the obvious.
Rayce went back under with Jamal, when a round hit the water near them. Choc returned fire, but we both knew the Glock simply didn’t have that kind of long range capability. “I got this,” I said, and then bobbed up, took in a deep breath, and dived.
Chapter 9
Chocolate Baltimore was the first person Blue had ever met that always stayed frosty no matter what the situation. There was no sound of urgency in his voice, but the echoes of rapid gunfire he heard through his link, made him gun the Harley. “I’m here, come on out!” he shouted over the roar of his motorcycle, and hoped they heard him.
“Ryan, you copy? We need a copter at the lake near the old north pier. Melvin, you copy?” he repeated, when he didn’t get an answer.
Blue guessed he hadn’t turned his receiver back on. He was going to talk to him about letting the personal shit get in the way of the job. “Dammit, somebody answer me!”
“I got you, man,” D’Agon answered. “I’m on my way to you, now, ETA eight minutes.”
“Roger that,” he responded, and then went silent.
Blue had spotted the eight man attack team standing on the pier unloading a hail of bullets on the slow drifting van, before he hit the beach.
He hadn’t thought it was necessary at the time, but now he was glad Ryan decided to spend the extra dollars to have all company vehicles armored, or they would probably already be dead from multiple gunshots.
The reinforced vehicle was heavy, and normally heavy things sank fast, but the van had polyfoam bags inside the wheel wells. He had installed the bags because they gave airborne vehicles a smoother landing. That was important in their line of business, and he was happy to see the damn things worked so well. They were keeping the van afloat, until a couple of lucky shots hit the rear bags, and deflated them.
Blue hit the sand popping a wheelie that sent him sailing onto the pier. He leaned hard, laying the Harley on its side, and skidding into the group of men firing at the van. A couple of them dived off the pier into the water, and the others scrambled to get out of the path of the big bike.
Blue brought the M1911 pistol up and tagged two of them as he rolled off the Harley. He got up on the run, machine pistol fire chasing him off the pier, rapid fired rounds biting, and spitting hot splinters at his heels.
Before he reached the end of the pier, Blue sailed into a body rotation while unloading a clip in a spray of bullets. He tagged two more men before he hit the sand, sliding into a rough landing on his back. Scrambling to get his footing, he ran, and then dived behind a rotten tree stump for cover.
Tucked away out of sight, Blue was stretched out on his belly watching the men who were still standing on the pier. “C’mon Choc, let me know you good!” he whispered in his transmitter, but nothing came back.
He spotted someone in the water, crouched behind one of the big piles, and trying to line up a clear shot. He couldn’t see the men he’d forced into the water. They were staying out of sight and quiet, but he knew they were far from dead.
Blue couldn’t be certain they were Yeltsin’s men because although they were speaking Russian, which he understood, they didn’t look Slavic. It made him wonder if there was a third party interested in procuring information about the auction.
Suddenly, the man behind the pile walked up out the water and sprayed the beach with bullets, forcing Blue to hug the ground. “We only want the big nigger!” he shouted. “Give him to us, and we let you live!”
Blue wondered if they thought that he was stupid enough to respond and give away his position. He did think about shouting, which big nigga to taunt him, even though he was clearly talking about Jamal, since Choc who was over six feet, looked short next to him.
A minute passed, and then the man sprayed the beach again. “Your friends must give him to us, now!” he shouted, and now he sounded British. “This is your last chance to comply. Give up now, or you all die with him!”
“Who the hell are these people?” Blue uttered in a quiet voice that was not meant to be heard.
He raised his head just enough to peer over the top of the stump, and he couldn’t believe what he saw. The fool was standing on top of the pier in plain sight reloading.
While he was fumbling with inserting the mag, Blue sprang up and hit him with a double tap, center mass. The rounds knocked him back. He fell faced down on the deck, and his partner’s head shot up with a rifle ready and aimed.
Blue already had him sighted, and took him down with a single headshot. The deck was clear, but he believed there were still men in the water. The only way to be certain was to look, but that would be like poking his head in a hornet’s nest…he was bound to get stung.
D’Agon would be there with the bird soon, and he was prepared to wait them out, and then he heard Severe’s shrilled scream. “BLUE, HELP, BLUE!”
“Fuck the hornets!” he stripped off his jacket and dived into the water.
Chapter 10
Melvin pulled the Explorer to a stop in front of the nanny’s apartment building. Valow opened his door and started to get out. “No, you stay with the truck. I don’t want too many of us showing up at the door. It may scare the girl and her nanny. What’s her name?” he asked Jamil.
He hadn’t spoken a word since Melvin told him he didn’t know about Melvina. “Her name is Lisa. She knows you’re her daddy.”
“Who—the nanny, Lisa?”
“Nah, Melvina…she knows you’re her daddy, and she knows what you look like.”
Melvin’s shocked expression made Jamil start to shift uncomfortably in his seat. “What the fuck was Janie thinking?” Valow asked the question he could see Melvin was having a problem vocalizing.
“Janie told her that I’m her father, but she didn’t tell me?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The kid probably hated him.
“No, I did. Janie doesn’t know that Melvina knows.”
“Why the fuck would you do something like that?!” Melvin barked.
“She was asking about you, man! She wanted to know who you were, and I didn’t agree with Janie’s decision not to tell her. I felt like she had a right to know. It didn’t matter how I felt about you. It didn’t change the fact that you are her father.”
“What did you do, tell her a bunch of lies about me being a shitty father?”
“Nah, I didn’t. Even though I
thought it was exactly what you were,” he shot back. “I had a shitty father, and I wouldn’t burden my niece with the pain of that knowledge so early in her life.”
“If I had known about her, I would have stepped up.”
“I didn’t know that, man! I didn’t know the truth!”
“So how did you explain my absence?”
“She started asking about you last year, after she started JK. I told her that you worked for the government as a secret agent, like James Bond, and you couldn’t come home because it would put her in danger. I told her that you loved her, and I bought her presents that I told her were from you for her birthday, and Christmas. I showed her pictures of you. Janie had a few around from when y’all were together. I told Mel that her daddy loved her, and she could never let anyone know she was your kid because it would be dangerous for all of us.”
“Damn,” Valow whistled. “That’s some heavy shit, Ryan. You sure you want to let the kid see you before you talk to Sam?”
Melvin closed his eyes for a minute and tried to think. He didn’t have time to even begin to sort this out. He studied Jamil for a beat, and then he took out his cell and called Sam.
“Sam Jawlins. Would you like to make an appointment to see me privately, sir?” she answered provocatively, because she saw it was him on her caller ID.
“Sam, I’ve got a situation that I need to discuss with you. It’s sensitive, and I can’t talk about it over the phone.”
“Okay…what you need me to do?” her tone was no longer playful, but serious.
“Get Kendall and go to Northbrook. I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
“What about my sister, Cynthia? Do I need to call her?”
“No, she’s not in any danger. Neither are you and Kendall.”
“Then why am I leaving work in the middle of the day?”
“I need to tell you something that can’t wait.”
“What is it, Melvin?!”
“Sam, I’m in the middle of an op. I need my head in the game, so please just meet me at my parent’s house.”
“Okay, I’ll leave now,” she ended the call.
He was on edge, and his abrasiveness had no doubt pissed her off. It wasn’t what he intended to do, but he couldn’t dwell on it, now. “Janie has made a mess of this,” he grumbled.
“She loved you! If you hadn’t used her as your personal sex toy, there would be no shit to mess up!” Jamil barked.
“Man, once again, you failed to get the true story,” Valow said. “Your sister tricked him into bed when he was wasted. She used him as a sex toy. He didn’t use her.”
“Blue told you, when?” Melvin asked.
“Back at headquarters after Janie told you that you had a daughter. You didn’t do nothing wrong, Ryan. This man obviously ain’t got a clue about his selfish bitch sister.”
“I know that she got me and my brother involved in this shit, and then she was going to just leave him hanging. I know that she’s selfish, self-centered, and she’s manipulative. I know she has issues because she wasn’t accepted as white or black, and she spends as little time with Mel as possible because she can’t have her daddy. I know my sister better than either of you, but the person I’m concerned about is Mel. She is a sweet kid who is starving for a little love and attention. You remember that when you see her, Mr. Ryan. We can agree that my sister is a real hard ass bitch, but Melvina don’t need to be the one who pays for it,” he growled.
“I’m not going to do anything to hurt the kid,” Melvin said. “I promise we’re going to sort this out later. Now, let’s just get her to safety.” He got out the truck.
Jamil got out and followed him. “If I misjudged you, I’m sorry ‘bout that. Thanks for saving my brother, and coming for my niece.”
Melvin gave him an understanding nod. “Valow, am I transmitting?”
“Yeah, I hear you loud and clear.”
Jamil led the way inside the building. The vestibule door was unlocked, so he just went up the stairs to the apartment without stopping to ring the bell.
Jamil rapped his knuckles on the door, and when Lisa didn’t answer after a minute, he knocked again.
“Maybe she’s not here,” Melvin said.
“She picks Melvina up from school at noon, and her car is out front.”
Melvin pulled Jamil to the side, and put his foot to the door. The frame splintered, and it slammed open. “Go back to the truck,” he ordered in a whisper, and then he eased into the room with his Glock out in front of him in a two hand grip.
“Daddy!” the little girl shouted when she saw him, and reached her arms out to him.
“Please come in, daddy, and lower your weapon or she dies,” the man holding her securely in his lap spoke quietly.
Melvina stared at Melvin wide eyed, and he could see she was scared to death. He only had to look at the pool of blood spreading under her nanny to see why. It angered him, and broke his heart at the same time. “It’s going to be alright,” he gave her a reassuring smile, but he didn’t lower his weapon. “Who are you, and is the nanny dead?”
“I am Petro Yeltsin. You call me the Russian,” he answered calmly. “And no, the nanny is not dead; she is unconscious because she is not good at following instructions.”
“What do you want, Mr. Yeltsin?” Melvin still had his weapon at the ready.
One of the two men flanking the Russian trained his gun on the kid. The other kept his trained on Melvin. “Put down your gun,” the man with his gun pointed at Melvina’s head ordered.
“I’m in position,” Valow reported in his ear. “Take a step to your left. I don’t want this NATO I’m about to put in the back of Yeltsin’s head to hit you on the exit.”
“Hold up, Valow! Don’t kill him yet.” Melvin spoke into the com-device loudly because he wanted the Russian to know he wasn’t there alone. “Sitting in front of a picture window wasn’t very smart, Mr. Yeltsin. My sniper has you sighted, and I assure you that it will only end badly for everybody if this persists.”
He hoped that Valow understood that he didn’t want him to take the shot because Melvina’s head was in direct line with Yeltsin’s. If the round hit him low, it would probably take off the top of her head.
Yeltsin tensed the way men do when they know they’re about to die. “It looks like we have a Mexican standoff, daddy,” he grinned uncomfortably.
The nanny started moaning as she began to stir into consciousness. Melvin hoped she wasn’t getting up because it would put her in the line of fire, but he didn’t take his eyes off Yeltsin to see, and his bodyguards didn’t take their eyes off him.
“Why don’t you tell me what it is that you want, Mr. Yeltsin, and maybe we can come to an amicable agreement.”
“Your woman took money from me, and she didn’t deliver the product. You killed a lot of my men because she failed to uphold her end of our bargain. I want the information I paid her for, and I want the money back that I paid her to compensate for my inconvenience.”
“You are ballsy,” Melvin smiled deceptively. “Your men got killed on the offense. Why should I let you hold me accountable for it?”
“I was conned out of a million dollars!” he shouted, and Melvina jumped and hiccupped a sob.
“Melvina,” Melvin called her name softly, and when she looked at him, he said, “nobody is going to hurt you, baby. You’re safe, okay?”
She nodded a frightful yes, and then stuck her fist in her mouth.
“Mr. Yeltsin, I don’t want to shed blood in front of my daughter, so I’m willing to negotiate. Please, ask your man to take his gun off my kid’s head. He is scaring her, and if he continues to do so, I’ll have no choice but to have my man take your head off, and then I will kill your guy with a headshot before he even thinks about pulling the trigger. Please, let’s do this the easy way,” he fixed Yeltsin in an unwavering stare that could not be mistaken for a bluff.
“Lower you gun, Ivan,” he ordered his man. “We don’t want to frighten th
e child.”
The guard redirected his aim towards Melvin. “Thank you for that. Now, I assume you paid Janie for information about the bid for the AI card. Can I also assume that you want to be invited to the auction?”
“Yes,” he huffed.
“The bidding for entry to the auction starts at five million dollars, and only the top thirty bids will receive invitations to attend. The bidding ends tonight. There are already thirty bids recorded, and the lowest is ten million.”
Bender had cracked Steven’s code. The information he was sharing, had been reported to him while they were en route there.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“It’s the information that you paid Janie to get for you.”
“The information is late coming. If the bidding is closed, what good is it?”
“Are you assuming that it’s closed because you killed Steven?”
“I did not order his death, but I do believe it means he’s no longer accepting bids.”
“It’s not too late for me to get your bid on record.”
The information Bender ascertained was priceless, but it would be of no value if they didn’t put the computer back in place before Tyler Basin discovered Steven was dead. This conflict with Yeltsin was inconvenient, and needed to be squashed quietly before Basin got wind of it.
Melvin didn’t like the idea of being blackmailed, but the quickest and quietest way to handle the situation was to strike a deal with Yeltsin. Nothing he was telling him would affect the outcome of the bidding anyway.
“What about my humiliation, and the damage this stunt has done to my reputation? People will think that it’s okay to fuck the Russian if I just accept this information you offer now,” he snarled.
“In an effort to resolve our difference quickly, I’m willing to go a step further. You release my daughter and forgive her mother, and I’ll guarantee that your name is high enough on the bidding list to secure you an invitation to the auction.”
