Quinn took a deep breath watching some of the deadliest killers in the world laughing at another killer, his Uncle Johnny, feeding the birds with them flocking around him in a cloud. “Yep. They’ve acquired a huge fortune but never quit doing what they do best.”
“We’re going to do the same thing, huh Kong?”
“With Sis prodding us, I doubt we’ll have a choice. Don’t rule out being a doctor or something else in the medical, engineering, or restaurant business. We do own a restaurant. Your grades are super. You’ll be able to do anything you want. We could use a good medic, although our luck has been holding.”
“Do you really think I could be a doctor?” Benny had come to a dead stop at the rock wall bordering Otter’s Point.
Quinn was surprised at Benny’s question. “Hell yeah. Dad and Mom would send you to Harvard if we can get you in with grades. Dad would probably donate an entire wing to some college to get you in. You excel in biology, chemistry, and all the math courses past analytical geometry and calculus. Keep it going, Ben. The sky’s the limit.”
“Could I still learn to fly our fleet like all of you?”
“Sure. Cala’s a great teacher. Sonny’s the one you want though for flying our jet. If he didn’t love what we do he’d be flying as a commercial pilot. Cala mostly loves the stealth copters we have.”
Benny laughed. “Fillets for Flipper, juice for Jaws.”
Quinn sighed. “Yeah, the Cleaner is a bit graphic when jettisoning our recalcitrant bad guys for the final time. Uh oh… Mom’s giving us the Trailer Trash Momma evil eye. We better get down there.”
“Want me to take the weapon pack?”
“No… I got it. Best give Sammy his freedom. He looks ready to shoot off like a rocket.”
“Shit!” Benny knelt down to take off the unnecessary leash. “Sorry, pal. Go play.”
Sammy streaked at the cringing party of family and friends, sliding to a stop before prancing into their midst for pets and hugs. Sonny, Jean, and Al joined them at the steps. Jean hugged Benny.
“Now that was entertainment. The streaming live scene of the attitude adjustment for that Bart prick was enjoyed immensely. Trashy wanted to buzz kill the beat down to make sure you didn’t get hurt. Dad said, ‘the boy has Kong and Sammy. Calm the hell down’. It was hell-a-funny with everyone watching down here.”
Benny embraced Al with affection. “I’m glad you came with your Dad, Alice. It’s good to see you.”
Al patted his face. “It’s nice to see nothing’s changed down here in Grove-Land. You bunch are more active than my whole FBI department. You’re a junior this year, right Benny?”
“Yep, and I’m in the star program to graduate a year early. Quinn says I could go on to pursue being a doctor.”
“Hell yeah,” Al replied. “Nick and Rachel would be in heaven to see you go through med school.”
“I’ll do it in conjunction with the Marine Corps though,” Benny stated. “I’m going to be a Marine like my brothers and sister.”
“Damn, kid… you don’t have to be a Marine,” Jean said. “The way we’ve been training you, the Marines would be a letdown in the skill department.”
“Sacrilege! Don’t let Mr. Harding’s friend Lucas hear you say that. I hope he visits soon. I want to tell him I’m going to serve my country in the Marines,” Benny stated. “The best surgeons in the world served in support positions where they handled the wounded. Quinn’s right though. I can be a doctor.”
“No doubt about that,” Sonny said. “C’mon. Mom will be over here yanking us along by our ears in another minute.”
Al put an arm around Benny’s shoulders while they stepped carefully in the sand. “That would be wonderful if you could get to be a doctor, Benny. I guess that Bart guy you clocked has been riding you hard, huh?”
“I was working undercover to set up the bust, but yeah, Bart led the pack at school taunting me,” Benny admitted. “I may have let a little too much feeling seep into the payback.”
“No such thing,” Jean stated as they moved amongst the adult group.
Quinn shook hands with John Harding, Clint and Lynn Dostiene, and then faced his Mom. “There was no danger, Ma.”
“Don’t you disrespect Momma, Kong!”
“Bart boy decided to stake out our bust, Ma. Sis sent me to shadow Ben. It turned out great. Ben didn’t have to let Sammy rip apart everyone in Bart’s crew. We’ll keep track of them, right Ben?”
Benny hugged Rachel. “Quinn’s right, Ma. We were fine. Sammy was perfect.”
Rachel’s lips tightened, but she nodded in agreement. “You all did just right. I’m glad we ended that fuckin’ Squiggy.”
“Ma!” Jean did a for shame gesture at Rachel, with forefinger of right hand brushing over the forefinger of her left with everyone else enjoying the interaction with vocal appreciation. “The Marine Marauders oversaw all action with care and dedication.”
“I like your new trio tag, Viper,” John Harding said. “Lucas of course loves it, as do those two ancient Marine coots, Chuck and Sal from Red Dragon. They all should have retired together to a pond where they could fish and exchange memories. That damn Lucas has busted my chops so much lately I’m thinking of retiring before him.”
“Yeah… that’ll happen,” Al scoffed. “We’re all here, Dad. Can Clint and Lynn get to it before Johnny goes out for more bird treats? Do something with your husband, Cala. Gus says he’s been pulling this bird shit for over a decade.”
Cala Groves couldn’t speak. She was laughing so hard at Johnny’s gasping reaction to his private bird interaction, it took many moments while avid appreciation of Al’s critique was enjoyed by all, for her to voice a response. “My husband is very addicted to his bird friends. It is a blessing. We give him scraps for the flying rodents. He distracts them from us if we are eating – very useful.”
Johnny shrugged, having run out of bread scraps, he joined his friends and family. “It is as Cala states, my disrespectful life’s partner to be punished later for her transgressions.”
“Oooohhhh… you are so forceful.” Cala embraced Johnny with stilted speech to much amusement. “I am so scared.”
“Should we stake out Bart’s crew,” Gus asked, holding tight to his wife Tina in the chilling wind breezing across the beach.
“Let me follow the situation in school, Uncle Gus,” Benny replied. “It may be that the serious ending of Squiggy, and the arrest of his crew, will quiet this situation. I’ll be able to tell. If the police can keep the suppliers in jail, the thugs like Bart and his gang should fade.”
“Want to sit with us, Benny,” Nick gestured at the ring of lawn chairs.
“Is it okay if I walk Sammy down to Lover’s Point with the kids?”
“Sure. We have you on audio,” Nick replied. “You watch out for Little John. He thinks he’s sixteen instead of six.”
“His older sister fusses over him so much I doubt she’ll let him near anything,” Cala said. “I can’t believe Lila will be a teenager soon.”
“Go on, Benny,” Johnny said, giving his wife a shoulder hug. “Dan takes orders from Lila, so Little John will be fine.”
Benny and Sammy went to gather Johnny and Cala’s kids for the long walk.
“How old is Dan?”
“He’s ten, Lynn,” Cala answered. “He’s quiet, but the one we keep an eye on all the time. He has taken to the knife like a kid in the candy store.”
“Really?”
“Oh Lynn,” Jean said. “He’s better than Sonny and I were at that age. Dan has the bug. He loves the throwing knives.”
“I saw you pin that Squiggy creep’s paw to his chest. You put some snap into that toss, girl. Maybe we’ll get some sparring time this visit.”
Jean hid the absolute adoration she had for Lynn Montoya Dostiene with effort. “I’d like that very much. Sonny, Quinn, and I spar constantly. I’m hoping we’ve gotten at least near to you in skill.”
“I’m certain of it, kid,” Ly
nn declared as the adults sat down together for the more serious subject of a massive kill mission. “I’m losing a step. I need a replacement, right, babe?”
“Not hardly,” Clint answered.
* * *
“That was a great visit, Dad.”
I looked over at the spitting image of my wife Lora with a nod of acceptance as I drove the stretch limo toward our North Bay base. “Yeah, it was. I liked Johnny’s idea of infiltration with Cala into their midst for confirmation. I don’t like them continuing to do this crap. We all know what they’ll find. The bastards don’t congregate in secret except to establish their damn No-Go zones.”
“You know Kabong, Cheese,” Lynn said. “He’ll be filming the hell out of everything. Jean’s going in as their daughter. She speaks the lingo like a native. They’ve done this crap before. We need to find out if the place is a hive training center, or a congregation community geared as usual to provide the chicken-shit assholes with kids and women to act as shields.”
Clint chuckled at my silence. “I think Cheese is at the point he wants to start doing some Hiroshima drops.”
“I admit it. We’ve been allowing this seeping poison for over two decades. We now have whole American cities under unannounced Sharia Law. That all of us citizen dupes are now armed to the teeth is the only reason they haven’t moved on us as they have in Europe. While we’re cleaning this nest out, we should go to Washington, DC, and take care of some traitors there selling us out on a daily basis.”
“Comment, Al?”
My daughter grinned back at her Aunt Lynn. “I’m done with right and proper. That we have Paul Gilbrech and Denny Strobert still in charge at CIA is a miracle. With Janie appointed FBI Director, I figure we at least control law enforcement to the point we can react. Nick’s friends Tim and Grace are as high in the Justice Department and US Marshal’s office as we can get anyone. I transferred to the West Coast because Janie’s partner Sam Reeves runs the San Francisco office. I have a newbie’s long view, but I never forget what you all have battled over the years. It helps to remind me with friends like Jean and Sonny too.”
“I was just ragging you, kid. You know the situation. We work from under the log in the woods, where it’s wet and icky. When we get the call, it ain’t to preserve anything but the Union.”
“Amen to that. We’ll survive all this… I pray to God… but why do they make it so damn difficult?”
“Nothing happens in a vacuum, Al,” Clint said. “We’ve taken care of more than a few power players who have corrupted the entire system. When it became standard operating procedure to get elected and become a coin operated commodity for sale to the highest bidder, the legislative branch of government became the enemy of the people. Forget all that. We’re glad to have you in on this. Being in contact with Sam and Janie is hell-a-important.”
“Clint’s right,” I added. “We need attention directed away from our forces of darkness. Believe this, if Johnny, Cala, and Jean find a male Muslim infestation of terrorists, we’re going in thar’ and set things right. If they find terrorist families, we’ll have to do the surgical strike we all hate. We’ll be deporting the families we find there. They won’t be innocents, but since we’re not allowed to do a ‘Harry Truman’ on them like he did to end WWII with the Japanese, we’ll hand them over to you and Sam. With Janie’s support, we can get them sent back where they came from. The first hint of asylum from our leaders and we go postal.”
“At least we have people in place who know the game we’ve been in the midst of for the past decade, Dad,” Al stated with some frustration bleeding through. “They never assimilate. They lie, cheat, and litigate. They constantly strive to jam Sharia Law down our throats. I can understand how all of you feel. We’ve been fighting inside a war zone on our own soil with the enemy creeping inch by inch no matter how many battles we win.”
“It’s agreed then,” Lynn stated. “We move our assets into place for a kill strike. I’m as sick of this ‘Whack-a-Mole’ game as Cheese. At least the government was forced to quit granting them citizen’s rights just because they slimed onto our soil somehow. Rounding the so called innocents for deportation sucks. No use opening that wound. At least they’ll be wailing together some place in the sand. It seems right the pricks call themselves the French translation since France is nearly belly up to them.”
“They take on whatever term the media whitewashes for them,” Clint said. “I bet you’re not real happy risking your best assistant director.”
“Johnny and Cala are like us. They can’t stop flirting in the danger zone. Sonny and Jean are the same. Rachel’s been spotting for Muerto for a long time. Anyway, Laredo won’t fly anymore missions, so it’s a good thing the kids are all picking up the slack from that old coot. After Laredo and Dannie’s Mom, Sybil, married, he went all in on the family. Our whole crew has an oddly incestuous type thing going. Clint Jr. marries Jafar and Samara’s Mia. Dannie married Nick’s buddy, Clyde Bacall, after getting her doctorate degree. I’m glad Sybil doesn’t mind Dannie’s kids calling me ‘Ma. With Dannie’s kids, I’ve gotten to practice my Granny persona. It’s nice to have Laredo flying us anywhere we want to go. He has Clint Jr. only a little time away from his pilot’s license.”
“Achmed would fly us anywhere too. With all the money we’ve confiscated from murderous Muslim hate groups and their enablers, we have quite the air force between Nick’s bunch and ours. I’m a little pissed Jafar wants us to stop calling him Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Just because he’s fixing to be a young grandpa doesn’t mean we should have to knuckle under to his demands as Jr’s father-in-law.”
“It’s a small thing,” I said. “He’ll never get Lucas retrained though. It’s getting hard keeping all the ‘Monster’ extended family straight in our heads. I like your idea about keeping this op simple, Lynn. We move our tools into place and wait for Johnny to give us the final observation. If they refuse to admit him, there will be collateral damage.”
“Agreed,” Lynn and Clint said. Al knew better than to assume a vote in Monster decisions.
Al turned to Lynn. “How do you like Rachel running against Sonny’s Mom for City Council?”
“If Trashy doesn’t win, there will be blood,” Lynn replied.
* * *
The adults enjoyed the cooling October breeze after the Harding contingent left, sipping beverages of choice while waiting for Benny and the kids to return from the long hike. Nick assumed Benny would have a rider on his shoulders on the way back.
“I forgot to tell Benny to stop and get a treat at Mandos,” Nick said.
“Are you kidding? Sammy won’t budge after getting to Lover’s Point without turning right for Mandos. Benny walks him along to Mandos so many times, they store scraps for the big beggar,” Rachel said. “He knows better than to pull that crap on Momma.”
“Oh good… you’ve scared our dog into submission, Trashy… you must be very proud.”
“Shut-up, Scarface, before Momma puts a hurtin’ on you!”
“Are you really going to run for City Council against Clarice, Mom,” Quinn asked, trying at Nick’s raised brows at him to change the subject. It worked.
“You’re damn right I am. We’re going to the mattresses!” In a split second, Rachel did her entire ‘Trailer Trash Momma’ transformation to much amusement.
“Easy, Hon,” Nick urged. “You’ve had a couple of wines.”
“Oh no! Oh no you didn’t just call Momma a lush, Nicky Pooh!” Another split second passed as Rachel turned on Nick with fists up, but lost her balance.
Nick had her in a heartbeat, easing Rachel down on her chair again. “I’m designated caretaker today, Momma. You know that. Calm down. We have another month before the election.”
Nick kissed his soul-mate with momentary passion so as not to elicit the usual disparagement from their adult children. Rachel melted in his arms, briefly stroking his face. “You’re still hell-a-fast, Muerto.”
“I want your knee
s and hips all in good shape for the election, my love.”
“Oh shit!” Tina motioned with a head movement toward the beach’s stone steps. “It’s Phil and Clarice. Oh joy. Can anyone tell me why those two risk life and limb to trek down here to interrupt a great ‘Momma’ performance? Stay calm, girlfriend.”
“I’m good,” Rachel said, glancing over at Sonny’s worried expression. “Calm down, Cracker. I’m not going to beat your Mom senseless right in front of you.”
“Yeah, but I know you have your sidearm with you,” Sonny replied, only half joking. “I really don’t want you to shoot either one of them either.”
Rachel smirked, leaning over to pat Sonny’s hand. “I have to tone this down somehow with your folks. I just haven’t figured out how yet. It’s a process.”
Sonny sighed. “Tell me about it.”
Phil, potbellied now, with obvious hair implants, stared at Nick with abject fear of something you don’t understand that could kill you without a tremor of remorse. Nick smiled at him and waved.
“Hi Phil. Hi Clarice. What brings you here on an until now wonderful October afternoon?”
“Oh sure, Mr. Big-time Author!” Clarice had once again forgotten past interactions with the McCarty family. “How dare you even hint at running against me for City Council! You may have big time money from God knows where, but-”
Jean squeezed her Mom’s hand on the way out of her chair. “Calm down right now, Clarice! Phil knows better than to do this, even down here on a public beach. Choose your words carefully. I can tell from your red-faced features you don’t like my Mom running against you. Since you can’t stop her, and there’s no way in hell you’ll ever change her mind, why journey down here into the danger zone? Do you think you’re safe to say anything you like because it’s broad daylight and your son is here? Think again. Ask Sonny.”
Jean’s words chilled Clarice as Phil’s had failed to do. She darted a glance at Sonny. He was smiling in the usual way he had when no matter what she did or said, it would have no effect on him. “Oh sure… I see where his mind is… I-”
Red Horizon Page 38
