Carmine was a fierce old warrior but he could see the sense in what I had told him. He led me quickly down to the basement and opened a steel door thick enough to weaken the knees of a banker.
With Carmine safely behind that door, I headed back up to the ground floor. The noise of the battle was still outside so I took that moment to make a call.
When she picked up I said, “I don’t suppose this would be the number to report a crime in progress.”
“Would that be a crime that you’re committing?”
“Har de fucking har. I’m in Carmine’s place.”
“Carmine Monreale?”
“Yeah, his place on Statten Island.”
“The place he calls his ‘cabin’?”
“Yeah, that’s it. It’s a country mansion about the size of Bloomingdales. Look, it sounds like a Russian war party is forming up outside and we could really do with some help.”
There was a pause. I imagined the sparks of amusement bouncing in her eyes. “The guy who works for the mafia and a top level mafia don want help from the FBI.”
“Think of it as a public order issue.” An explosion shook the ground. It was a little way away, but the fight was certainly coming closer. I ducked into an unlit room at the front of the house and peered out from the side of a window.
“It looks like a goddamned invasion force out there. Look, I think there’s a connection between what you’re investigating and me being sent here.”
“Why?”
“You know, I would love to walk you down the pathways of my thinking and show you all the little treasures in all the cabinets of my mind palace that I collected along the way and take you over notes that led me to this conclusion. I’m sure that’s how we would do it if you and I were Special Agenting together, only, right now, did I mention that there’s a very substantial armed force outside?”
“Mm. You may have.”
“Well, they’re aiming to get inside. Oh, and Carmine doesn’t know I’m calling you.”
“What?”
“He’s kinda locked in the basement.”
“There’s a good reason for that, I’m sure.”
“It’s for his own protection. Plus he thinks I’m trying to kill him.”
“I wonder what could possibly have made him think that.”
“I told him it’s what I was sent here to do.”
Her tone changed. “By the guy who sent you to meet Sal last night?”
“The same.”
Now she didn’t hesitate. I heard her moving as she talked. “We’ll be right there.”
H, YEAH. HORSE, the man who told me this very afternoon, ‘Track this,’ but, a few dozen people show up trying to kill him and now it’s all, ‘Oh, miss, miss, I need help from the FBI.’
The SAC was out of the office, so I went to Daniels who was acting. I told him what I knew and asked for transport and some manpower.
He didn’t even look up from his laptop screen. “I’m sure the local police can cope.”
“My informant says that there are multiple vehicles and heavy armament.”
“Your ‘informant.’ Would that happen to be someone recently out of jail?”
“Daniels, what is your problem? This is an incident that clearly has at least a very likely federal crime dimension. A massive armed force at the home of a widely suspected senior racketeer. What am I not seeing here?”
He chewed his cheek as he looked at me.
“There’s a helicopter on the pad,” I said, “doing nothing. Waiting to go. Why would we not attend?”
“Alright, Agent Cross.” He sat on the edge of a desk. “I’ll authorize the chopper to take you. You can go.” He reached into a drawer for a pad of forms. “But just you.” I didn’t know if there was any point in arguing or if I should just take the chopper and go.
I went to get a flack jacket before I headed for the helicopter pad. I really wished I brought a change of clothes today. Some reasonable shoes at least. Daniels called after me, “And you can make your own way back.”
I knew he was an asshole, but that was taking it all a little too far, it seemed to me. No backup and a one way ride. Thanks, partner.
GROUP OF MEN formed up on the lawn, in position behind a low concrete balustrade. Rolling up the driveway toward them was a line of black Hummers with machine guns bristling from the blacked out windows. Behind them a couple of Toyota pickups had grenade launchers in the back.
Although all of Carmine’s men were putting up a good cover of fire, from the windows and on staircases as well as on the ground, now that the invaders were through the gates, it was going to be tough to turn them back.
I figured there were enough men guarding the ground floor entrances. They could have benefitted from some leadership but I didn’t think they’d be likely to take it from me, so I turned back to the stairways and I ran to the roof.
On the way I released the men on the second floor. “We’re on the same side now.” I told them.
One asked me, “For how long?”
I liked him for that. “At least until we win,” I told him. “Do you have heavy weapons here?”
“How heavy?”
“Show me what you’ve got.”
He and his pal took me up an iron ladder out onto the roof. They clambered out and opened up a small hut, inside were mortars, shoulder launched rocket tubes and a heavy machine gun.
I shook my head in appreciative disbelief. “You folks obviously like a party.”
One of the men took the machine gun to set it up by the edge of the roof.
I dragged a mortar out and dropped a round into the tube.
“Might as well give them a couple of these before we show them where we are.” I said and fired off the first.
When the guy beside me uncovered his ears he said, “These aren’t very accurate. We looked over the balustrade. The second Hummer leaned on one side and smoke poured out of the back.
I smiled. “Let’s try again, then.” The mortar tub was too hot to move, but I dropped another round in and fired it off. It hit the first Toyota behind the driver’s cab. The vehicle buckled in the middle.
Some automatic gunfire came up from the ground.
The guard was almost ready with the machine gun. I told the guy with me, “I guess that’s our surprise bonus used up.” I took out a shoulder tube and handed him a few grenade rockets.
I beckoned him to follow me, crouching low, toward the edge of the roof, on the side away from the machine gunner. “Your buddy is going to need cover as soon as he gets ready to open up.”
My guy dropped a rocket in the tube. I knelt and sighted up, waiting until the machine gunner was ready to fire. As soon as I saw the he was, I aimed between the front tires of the lead vehicle. When I hit the button and the rocket whooshed toward the Hummer, all the armed invaders looked up and aimed at us.
The rocket went under the Hummer, but exploded a few feet to the other side of it. Gunfire came at us as we readied another rocket. Then the big machine gun opened up and the attackers all dove for cover. The second rocket lifted the Hummer on a retching carpet of flame and flipped the blazing hulk backward. It tipped onto the vehicle behind.
With the big machine gun crackling, the ground force was turning. I got off another rocket and placed it on the empty lawn behind the fleeing force. Sod flew up like a black flower. It left a hole in the lawn and encouraged them to leave with haste.
I was loaded up with another rocket and the machine gunner tracked the retreat, but neither of us needed to fire again. There didn’t seem much point in giving Carmine more bits of broken mercenaries to clear away.
We watched through the smoke and dust and listened to the sounds of retreat. The gunner said, “They might try leaving a few men for a late surprise.”
“True,” I called back. “It would be smart to search the grounds pretty hard.”
The drone of a helicopter heaved up from the horizon and its floodlight stabbed us in the eyes as it lifted
above the house. The gunner and I trained our sights on it. An amplified voice bellowed, “Put down your weapons. This is the FBI. We will not warn you again.”
I nodded to the gunner and, unhappily, we did as we’d been told. I was thinking, How could this possibly go wrong? The downdraft from the helicopter blades made me crouch and the noise drowned out everything. that kind of a thing, in combat, you can lose track of things. I had been out of the field too long and I felt like my skill set was rusty.
A chain ladder dropped out of the chopper. I relaxed some when I saw the lithe figure scaling nimbly down. Vesper crouched as she ran across the roof to me. The helicopter was already sweeping up, around, and away.
I stood and opened my arms, “Ah, the cavalry,” I said, “Just in time to witness the aftermath.” Even in the noise, my voice dripped with sarcasm. It took all the effort that I could summon to keep my voice steady. As well as I could, I kept down every trace of the leaps that my heart made from the moment I saw her. That didn’t help my concentration, either.
Leather jacket, black tee-shirt tucked tight into her leather pants, she drew a gun as soon as she got to the bottom rung and jumped the last four feet down to the roof. She was a sight to see.
“Leather pants and heels?” my eyebrows wouldn’t stay down.
“Yeah. I didn’t have time to change.” She looked past my shoulder and nodded down toward the lawn. “You sure we’ve reached the aftermath?”
I followed her gaze. In the trees at the edge of the grass, something moved in the darkness.
“Damnit.”
ORSE MADE FOR the ladder to get down into the house. I followed him. The two guys with him looked like they were from the house. They were in Italian sharkskin suits. Dressed for indoor work.
The one who had manned the heavy machine gun introduced himself as Mimi. He reached into a store shed on the roof and hauled out two M-15 automatic rifles and stuffed his pockets with clips. The other man, Furio, stuck two Uzi machine pistols into his belt and hefted two more. There were enough weapons in that little shed to fight off an army.
Just as well. I followed the men down. Before we even reached the second floor, the house shook from a massive impact from below. A rolling cloud of acrid smoke bubbled up the wide stairwell. Clutching a handkerchief over my nose and mouth I kept low by the sides of the stairs as I hurried down.
From the second floor landing I watched a huge man plow through the smoking remains of the heavy paneled double entrance doors. The lobby looked like a baronial wreck, like something in a World War Two movie.
What had been the main entrance to the house was now a hole with charred edges, the marble floor littered with piles of debris.
The intruder looked like a fast, enormous beetle. He was wrapped in a long black leather puffer coat. He wore a heavy-duty gas mask and he carried two glock machine pistols, with sniper length extended barrels and foot-long high-capacity magazines.
He saw us and I ducked back behind the marble bannister. Horse was in the same position on the other side of the stairs with Furio and Mimi. The man lifted and aimed the gun in his left hand.
He paused and held the gun up, in position, but he didn’t have a clear line of sight at any of us, and he didn’t waste a shot. He crouched low and kept the gun trained on the bannister as he made his way directly around for the steps and down, to the basement I guessed. He was clearly very familiar with the layout of the house.
Horse didn’t risk following him until he was well out of sight. I expected the target to wait near the top of the stair with a clear shot back up, where we would be sure to follow, but he didn’t pause. He was headed straight for the back of the basement. I saw a heavy metal door and I guessed that would be Carmine’s panic room.
From inside his jacket, he reached in for what looked like a couple of stick grenades. I drew my handgun. Even with the long barrel, against what he was carrying, my weapon felt pretty puny. I also figured, judging by his extraordinary bulk, he must have been wearing substantial body armor, although it didn’t seem to slow him down much.
There was no way I could let him get to Carmine so I opened up with as much fire as I judged I could spare. It was only suppression and deterrence, at best. The most I would hope was to help to pin the target and contain him. I also needed to consider how much ammunition I had in the pistol and my two spare magazines.
The look of concern that Horse flashed me before I leaned out to fire made me feel better about this whole enterprise, but, even with four of us above him, our target was formidable and well prepared.
Hanging back until I was ready for a shot then flashing out as fast as I could, I moved up and down behind the wall to lessen the chance of him getting a lucky shot back at me. It meant my aim was haphazard at best, and he took advantage of the space.
Since I had seen the grenades, I was surprised he didn’t send any up the stairs that told me two things at least. He had planned out his attack in minute and careful detail and, he had brought the exact explosives he thought he would need. Meaning he had none to spare.
As well as good information, that said that he very likely would have had a strong military background. I was on his right flank and it looked to be his stronger side. Carmine’s two men dashed across to catch up with me so the next time I leaned out to put down fire, there were three of us answering the big guy’s two fast Glocks.
He dodged or evaded everything we sent down at him. The three of us on his right put out a barrage of fire, and Horse shot across him from the other side. His jacket burst and split in a few places, but the big man hardly flinched. He faced us and fired back.
The second time, we were better. When the three of us let off a co-ordinated blast, the big down-filled coat was ripped all over. I heard at least two shells make dull strikes into his Kevlar. This time he staggered as he shot back, two handed.
He had phenomenal guts as well as strength. It doesn’t matter how much armor you have, firing into the teeth of four guns is no small thing, and he didn’t hesitate.
Mimi had brought the two heavy rifles down with him. One was across his back and he was firing in a rapid beat. He darted across the opening to the stairwell as he put out a volley of shots. The big man at the bottom made a shot through the leg of Mimi’s pants and another went right by his ear.
Mimi getting across the stairway gave us another space to fire down, but it also put Mimi out of position. Being right handed, he had to come twice as far round to make a shot. I saw that and concentrated my fire at the target’s right to keep him from having time to get a bead up to his left.
I had to reload. As I ejected the magazine and readied the next, Furio stepped out and put down a relentless stream of fire. He looked like a textbook FBI marksman in the classic stance with his feet wide apart. As soon as I was ready, I stood out next to him. I held the gun out with my arms extended and straight, sighted along the barrel with my head cocked on one side.
Horse jumped out and made a run at the target.
The man hung back in the hail of fire. I ducked and headed down after Horse, getting a stream of shots right across the man’s foot. He hesitated for a split second, looking towards the panic room door. We all opened fire right away and Furio hit the Glock in the guy’s right hand. It clattered to the floor.
The guy looked down. To get it, he’d have to come forward. He would be exposed. We all saw it and I could see that he felt it. We weren’t prepared for his alternate plan, though.
Hunter: Perfect Revenge (Perfectly Book 3) Page 9
