Red Horizon

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “If we pull off the confiscation of Carone’s superyacht Tempest and Al-Kadi’s compound at Pilot Hill, we’ll have some valuable launch sites. I bet those two guys have a couple of nice offshore accounts to share with us too. We’ll have the budget of a small country soon.”

  “We’ll have to create some discreet defensive systems on board the superyacht, Recon.”

  “I know, Lucas. Carone probably has some good systems already. We know his radar is first rate. It’s a nice touch it can launch Panga boats from its interior. We’ll have our own ‘Mother Ship’ although the Valkyrie with the helicopter launch pads and RGM-84 rocket array is already a battleship. We’re approaching superpower status, Ahab. I think we need to get you an admiral’s uniform.”

  “One more ship and I think we need to attack Saudi Arabia,” Lucas replied in character.

  I threw a line in the water again. “I’m beginning to believe we should do just that. We need to watch them closer. Maybe we could find proof of something horrendous we know they enabled. We could hit them hard under the same circumstances as we did Iran.”

  “Well… aren’t you the cutest thing,” Lynn said. “Put that talk on the back-burner for now, Cheese. I need to direct a real movie before I’m put to death by my own country.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m glad we’re networking with Nick. He has a knack of turning over rocks and revealing new leads to threats and people. Dangerous times, my friends.”

  “It’s a dangerous time for Carone and Al-Kadi,” Lucas stated. “I see a bad moon rising for those two and everything they own.”

  “As Dead Boy would say – absolutely,” Casey stated.

  * * *

  “I told you, Cracker.” Jean smirked at her partner in crime.

  Sonny’s mouth tightened into thin lipped frustration. “I didn’t doubt you. I told you we should take this to your Dad.”

  “I have to see this through. We’re good together, Cracker. We see things no one else does. Dad’s into some big ops. He doesn’t have time for this small stuff.”

  “Small stuff? This is an extortion ring,” Sonny hissed. “They’re collecting money for protection. These three guys are small time hoods, pretending they’re connected. That doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous.”

  “We spotted them in the market near the school,” Jean whispered. “Keep your voice down. There’s no question these guys are shaking down the owners for money. Our next step is to get the owners together. We have all the evidence to bring these guys down. The only part to fill in is testimony. Once the owners know there’s no mob behind these guys, they’ll testify against them. This is our case.”

  Sonny watched the three men, dressed in three piece suits, with dress fedoras. They looked very impressive. He and Jean followed them. They had the license plate number for their Lincoln MKX. From that, Jean had used Nick’s satellite uplink laptop in the safe-room to learn the address they listed. It seemed to be a small time operation with thug type, heavy-handed threats. Three drive by shootings listed in the news happening at businesses on the thugs’ list convinced the business owners to pay for protection. The three entered the last restaurant on their list while he and Jean moved behind the building’s edge they were conducting their surveillance from.

  “Hello there, you little twerps!” Rachel grabbed Jean by the ear, shaking her. “What the hell is wrong with you, ‘Daughter of Darkness’?

  “Ow!” Jean looked around sullenly, seeing Nick and Gus, with John and Cala behind them holding Quinn. Sonny had jumped into a defensive stance. He relaxed with shoulders slumped. “We may as well wear clown clothes with signs saying ‘Stupid is as Stupid Does’, Cracker. The entire band of cartoons snuck up on us.”

  “I can’t believe this! When your Dad told me he had something to show me, I thought it would be a nice surprise. Instead, it’s my two ten year old charges following dangerous thugs on the Sunday night they’re supposed to be at a movie. Did you two even go inside Lighthouse 4 movie-theater when I dropped you off?”

  “I can’t believe Dad ratted me out.”

  The innocent observers restrained amusement until then. The ‘ratted out’ tagline generated a laugh-out-loud moment until Rachel turned on them with hands on hips. “You knew what they were doing all along, didn’t you, Muerto? Don’t think for a moment I’ll forget this you Unholy Trio nitwits. I’m really surprised at you, Cala.”

  “What? I didn’t do anything.” Cala pointed accusingly at Nick. “It’s Muerto’s fault! He called it innocent fun. Besides, we’ve been tracking them. No one was in danger.”

  “So why wasn’t I told about it?”

  “You are too close to the T-Rex. You cannot be trusted with information from the inner circle,” Cala stated, shifting Quinn into a human shield with a squeal as Rachel moved on her.

  “Give me Quinn. I’m going to show you an inner circle… of birdies, when I clock you upside your head, traitor!”

  “Calm down, hon.” Nick only regained the ability to initiate coherent speech a moment before. “We could never have fooled Jean if you’d known from the beginning.”

  “Dad’s right, the traitor! I read you like an old Diego novel,” Jean remarked, enjoying the attention shifting to Rachel. “Cracker and I have the goods on an extortion team. We were ready to move on them when you ruined our surveillance gig. These guys will get away with it now.”

  “What exactly were you and Cracker going to do,” Nick asked, taking Rachel’s hand. “You both know we’re in dangerous times right now with my alter ego.”

  “It started out as a game. We saw these three suits taking the store owner into the backroom where we stop for an ice cream when you allow us to walk Deke with the com units in. Hey… you’ve been bugging us! You rigged our com units to transmit even when we don’t activate them, didn’t you?”

  Nick waved off Jean’s waving finger. “Think of it this way, doody. If something happens to you like a stray bullet from a drive-by, what do I tell your Mom… whoops?”

  “But…but we have them. You can’t stop Viper and Cracker now!”

  Nick pointed at the store. “Just watch.”

  Three police cars drove to the curb a couple of car lengths away from the front of the store without lights or sirens. They had a perfect viewing when Neil and his partner stepped away from their car with the others following suit. It was all perfect until the three emerged from the store. At the first shout, the one in the middle with sharkskin suit and deep gray fedora yanked a mini Uzi from inside his custom suit. In a flash, everyone saw the cops had not drawn weapons, unsure if it was anything but a dress-up con. No one saw him move. The loud bang from Nick’s .45 Colt sent a hollow point slug into the man’s forehead from seventy-five feet away across the street. Gus and John immediately pulled everyone against the building side. The police drew weapons, pointing everywhere. Neil kept his sidearm pointed at the remaining suits.

  Once the two suits were handcuffed and the coroner called, Neil gestured at Nick, who was peeking out, making sure he wasn’t shot by the good guys. “C’mon over, Nick.”

  Nick turned to Gus. “Take everyone home, Gus. I’ll see you all on the deck sometime soon, I hope.”

  “Will do, Muerto.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” Jean said, hugging Nick.

  “We’ll talk about it later, Viper. Good instincts as always, Sonny.”

  “We really weren’t going to confront them, Sir.”

  “I believe you. I’ll see you all at the house.” Nick kissed Rachel. When he saw Neil watching, Nick proceeded like a convict walking the ‘Green Mile’ death row final jaunt to the electric chair.

  “Knock it off,” Neil ordered. “You’re killing me here.”

  “No,” Nick pointed out, “they were about to be killing you here.”

  “Thank you for our lives. We should have treated this situation with more respect,” Neil stated. A heartfelt echo sounded from the other police officers. Neil turned to one of the veteran officers
. “Take over, Bill. I need to speak with Marshal McCarty.”

  “Sure. Nice shot, Nick.”

  “Thanks, Bill.” Nick followed Neil away from the scene.

  “Jean and Sonny really did this on their own?”

  “John, Gus, and I took turns monitoring them. Jean scoped the protection con guys using my satellite uplinked laptop. I have a program to see anyone’s keystrokes from the moment it’s used. She used it during the time I had to have her in the safe-room with Rachel, Quinn, and Sonny during a time I was away. We looked into it. It was my decision to allow her and Sonny to play detective. The moment the kids gathered enough evidence to get these clowns to plea out, I called you. Rachel didn’t take it well. The kids have been using deception to do their surveillance with Rachel as the unknown enabler. I had no clue the chumps were packing machine pistols though. I’ll be hearing about that when I get home.”

  Neil chuckled. “The kids did damn good. Can we keep the police arrest as quiet as we can without documenting our rookie approach?”

  “Of course. Do you need my Colt?”

  “We already have the Colt on file. Keep it. Did you get any video of your intervention on behalf of cocky cops, Deadshot?”

  “John filmed it. I’ll send the file when I get home along with my report. For the record, you approached the guys with hands on weapons. It wasn’t a situation calling for all of you to descend on the scene with guns ready to fire. I’m glad none of your crew threw a shot off in my direction. That was very nice restraint.”

  “Thanks for the charity support,” Neil replied wryly. “I’m hoping we can get the two survivors to cop a plea. Their Uzi carrier being black could have some impact on the case with the usual criminal enablers who seize on anything to make us reactionary Nazis.”

  “Yep. The only way the police are ever in the right nowadays is if they die in the line of duty.” Nick smiled. “We were doing a cartoon movie when one of our perps decided to pull the ‘Black Lives Matter’ card. Payaso pulled off his mask and got busy on him. John and I of course expressed outrage at his brutality.”

  “I’ll bet. I’ve seen you testify. You’re the best in any court testimony of facts I’ve ever witnessed. If it hadn’t been for your main witness Dan dying before the Kensky case, I’m certain the jury would have convicted him with your testimony. I saw the way you ate Kensky and his lawyer’s lunch in front of the media outside the courthouse. If Kensky had really known you, he would have confessed again just to get put in prison for life.”

  “That would have been disappointing,” Nick replied. “I’m glad Gerald was freed to make a new life for himself. He had dreams, needs, desires, and passion.”

  “Right. How many hours did he have to enjoy all those wonderful treasures of freedom?”

  Nick shrugged. “He had what seemed an eternity to ponder his transgressions. Gerald paid his debt to society in a way he never dreamed possible.”

  Neil’s features contorted in distaste. “I’ve seen your Isis videos. Yuck. I’m glad you’re not doing those in our town. You three cartoons are together so much, someone would put two and two together. We received calls about gunshots early in the morning right after I talked with you at the Point. Did I miss something?”

  “As it turned out… yes. It was a thread going somewhere I haven’t had a chance to brief you on. I’m working on making the morning’s adventure a onetime occurrence. We learned about a Kingpin of crap is off the coast causing gang, drug, human trafficking, and terrorist problems. I believe any bleeding back into Pacific Grove already happened with the calls you received. No other trace of that event will come to light.”

  Neil took in a deep breath. “I remember when the only criminal activity in the ‘Grove’ was an unruly tourist once in a while.”

  “I have it on good authority these incidents will be on an upswing because of our importing terrorists on a stupidly steady basis. California politicos rival any terrorist enablers I’ve found. I’m networking with another under the radar group I mentioned to you. They stopped a terrorist attack using a tanker to ram China Basin with an atomic bomb aboard.”

  “You mean John Harding, right?”

  “He’s the one. We’ll be collaborating to get rid of the offshore threat. I know you’re like me, hoping for authorities to waken from their naïve sleep of idiocy. Since they refuse to do so, we’re on our own to confront these assholes. I am going to make their life miserable until we hopefully live through this politically correct nonsense where we have to commit suicide to appease the cave dwellers.”

  “Amen, brother. I’ll call you if I need you at the station. Your report would be great as soon as you can send it.”

  “Will do. Watch your six, brother. I can’t be watching your back every moment.”

  “Ouch,” Neil muttered, walking away with his head down.

  * * *

  Nick heard laughter coming from upstairs as Deke greeted him. “It sounds better than I thought it would, Dekester. Did you intercede for the Daughter of Darkness?”

  Deke muttered an under the breath humming grunt while burrowing his head into Nick’s lap as his human master crouched near him.

  “I bet no one thought to give my dog brother a beer… did they?”

  Deke went wild in place, all four paws marking time, with tail wagging so fast it blurred to the human eye. Nick roughed his head with amusement. “Okay, lead the way. I-”

  Deke streaked up the stairs before Nick could finish a thought in words. He grinned and followed Deke upstairs. In his enclosed balcony, family and friends watched the Jean show as she pantomimed one of her teachers at school who had recess duty during the week. She walked, talked, and recited clichéd lines so well, Sonny couldn’t breathe, he was laughing so hard. Jean wound her act down as Nick entered, going to the bar and pouring Deke a beer in his bowl.

  “I’m glad this latest ten-year-old’s surveillance gig ended today. What have we learned today?”

  “Never trust my Dad not to rat me out to Mother Gorgon?”

  “Why you little turd!” Rachel went after Jean, but then returned to her seat without initiating an attack when Jean crouched behind Deke. “How did it all go with Neil, Muerto?”

  “Very well. I told him John recorded the event. I’ll be sending him our files on Jean and Sonny’s case. He said there would not be any repercussions. I even got to keep my Colt. I won’t have to testify unless one of the accused makes a scene at the station.” Nick paused, putting a hand on Jean’s shoulder. “I recognize your impersonation. I’ve met that teacher with the Full Monty of liberal ideology you were disrespecting at the PTA meetings. I don’t know what she’s capable of in a classroom. I hope she’s sticking to covering the subjects she’s assigned to teach. Public schools are getting weird.”

  “I know kids in her class,” Jean said. “Ms. Nazari teaches the five pillars of Islam. She encourages prayer rugs and beads! I thought teachers couldn’t teach religion in school.”

  Sonny regained his voice at the reality message Jean imparted. “Ms. Nazari is in charge of recess. She doesn’t like Jean.”

  “I make fun of her in ways she can’t get back at me for,” Jean admitted. “I do stuff like I was doing when you walked in. She only realized I was imitating her when the kids started laughing.”

  Nick took a deep breath, looking longingly at the Bushmill’s bottle. He remembered making a Nazari family member his reentry into the Company when he killed Sheik Abdul Nazari in the sand. Rachel came over and poured him a drink from the bottle in spite of his reservations. “Relax at the table with us, Muerto. I’ve gotten over the unknown surveillance operation under my own nose. Gus and John explained you three cartoons were watching out for the kids. This Nazari bitch pisses me off too. She seems to think she’s in an Afghan cave. Insisting on wearing a headscarf, of course, even in the classroom, Florence ‘Islamic idiot’ Nazari isn’t teaching kids… she’s indoctrinating them. Jean drives her crazy which is the only reason she isn’t groun
ded until turning eighteen after hatching the protection racket, gang surveillance plot with her Igor.”

  Nick sipped contentedly while listening to Sonny’s denials of being in thrall to the ‘Daughter of Darkness’, much to the amusement of his audience. He sat down at the table next to Rachel, glad his two thousand word goal in the new novel wasn’t hanging over his head. The new scenes with Fatima entrapping Diego, Jed, and Leo in a Caribbean gang plot unfolded on Nick’s keyboard in less than two hours during the day.

  “What’s the ramifications of Viper’s assaulting Florence each day? I imagine she’s a new convert, having married a foreign Islamic national, right?”

  “Oh yeah,” Rachel answered. “She’s one of those wild-eyed newbies, dedicated to screwing the rest of us female non-believers. Jean can tell you. I’ve arrived at the school in an attractive dress for working at the Monte Café, only to get the beady-eyed stare of retribution. You know how well I take to that. The first time, I didn’t give it a thought. The third time she eye-balled me, I went right into her face.”

  Nick smiled. He could tell Rachel had imbibed a couple glasses of wine. It appeared Cala was again the designated driver for the others. “Okay, Rach… are you going to tell us what happened or do we have to beg?”

  “I told her I don’t appreciate you staring at me like I was some kind of freak. She thought about playing the Islamophobia card, but thought better of it when I jutted a finger into her face and told her I’d bitch slap her into next week if she pulled it on me. Flo the Islamist mole runs when she sees me. I’m at fault for Jean’s behavior. I told her Flo has no right to push religion in a public school. Jean, knowing all the unsavory facts about Islam, challenges Flo on a daily basis. Flo would like to make Jean disappear. Instead, knowing she’s in the wrong, Flo has quieted her proselytizing to moments when Jean’s not around. Unfortunately for her, the rest of the kids have begun adopting Jean’s attitude toward Islam. I think they’ve talked about Flo to their parents. The parents have reinforced Jean’s take on Flo and complained to the principal.”