Moses sighed. “Okay, what do you want?”
Finally, the guy was prepared to hear what I had to say.
I narrowed my eyes and aimed the gun barrel at his face. “You’re going to take us to where you’re keeping the rocket launchers and the ammunition and then you’re going to let us go, period.”
Moses laughed, big, deep and powerful. “That ‘aint going to happen. I can tell you that for nothing.”
I was going to be hard pushed to make Moses do anything but I had to get him to comply to at least some of my wishes otherwise we’d be standing around in our Mexican stand-off poses for a very long time.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
Smith shuffled across so he stood shoulder to shoulder alongside me. “Come on, Moses. Don’t be a jerk,” he said. “Just take us to where the SMAWs are kept and you can go on your way. We can avoid anybody else getting killed if we do it this way.”
Moses glared back at Smith. He wasn’t going to be easily persuaded. I saw Vinnie skulking around near the front of the crowd behind Moses and decided it time to change tact a little.
“Hey, Vinnie.”
The guy looked over at me with eyes wide in shock. He probably wondered what the hell was going on.
“Vinnie, get your ass over here, right now.”
Vinnie trotted out to the front of the crowd and took up a stance slightly to the right of Moses.
“Over here, Vinnie,” I said. He edged slightly nearer.
“Okay, Vinnie, if your uncle doesn’t comply, my man here,” I nodded at Smith, “is going to start shooting off pieces of your body, hands, feet, ears that type of thing. Understand?”
Vinnie pulled a pained expression but nodded his head vigorously.
“You are making a big mistake here,” Moses seethed through gritted teeth.
It was a fairly callous threat, I had to admit and one I didn’t feel totally comfortable with but we needed to move the situation on. Smith would go with the plan no matter what. I knew he would start shooting Vinnie if he felt he had to but I hoped it wasn’t going to come to that.
Moses looked a little rocked. He glanced away from Smith and I recognized that small flicker of uncertainty beneath his hard man exterior. Moses glanced at Roddy for some moral support then at Vinnie. It was time to make his mind up. Did he want to lose another nephew or comply with our demands?
I glanced very briefly at Smith, just to be sure in my own mind he wasn’t going to do anything crazy, as if the situation wasn’t crazy enough already. He stood in firing mode, the handgun he held was aimed at Vinnie’s head and his face was a mask of grim determination, with his eyes fixed and focused. I knew Smith was in the zone. It was the rest of my little party I had to worry about. McElroy and Wingate flashed their gazes around the conversation to whoever spoke next. Dante and the two Caribbean girls looked as though they were frozen in fear. I had the horrible, sinking feeling the stand-off wasn’t going to end well.
“All right, fuck it,” Moses spluttered, shaking his head. His tone turned serious and he glared at Smith and I, jabbing his index finger wildly in our direction. “We’ll take you to the damn rocket launchers but let’s get one thing straight, here. We will come after you.”
I didn’t know how we were going to counter Moses and his army of islanders yet but that would have to wait for later.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, tough guy,” Smith mocked. “We’ve heard all that crap before.”
“We’ll take three trucks,” I quickly decided. I didn’t want to hang around in the campsite too much longer or somebody with an itchy trigger finger would start off the shooting. “Mac, Sarah, are you both okay to drive?”
McElroy and Wingate glanced at me and both nodded.
“Okay, if Mac takes the two girls in his truck and Sarah, you take Dante with you. Follow the lead truck, which I’ll be in the back of, holding a close watch on Vinnie and Roddy. Smith will ride shotgun with Moses driving.”
Moses spat on the ground beside his deck chair.
“Sounds perfect,” Smith said. “Come on, fat boy. Get your ass up off that seat and let’s get rolling.”
Moses eyeballed Smith, who still kept his gun trained on Vinnie. I kept the barrel of my revolver I’d acquired pointed at Moses as he rose from his deck chair. He muttered some obscenities in island slang which, I didn’t fully understand. I hoped he wasn’t plotting to jump us and we didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
The crowd parted slightly and we carefully edged our way towards the vehicles. Wingate and McElroy both took firearms from the henchmen closest to the trucks and tossed them into the forest. Smith and I changed our target aim. He switched to Moses and I aimed the revolver at Vinnie and Roddy. We climbed on board our respective vehicles and the big diesel engines roared in a puff of black smoke as we fired them up.
The islanders followed the vehicles along the track for a while until they disappeared amongst the trees in the distance. I kept my handgun trained on Roddy, who sat in the truck bed impassively and then switched to Vinnie on occasions, just to let them know who the boss was now.
“You’ll never get away with this shit,” Moses yelled at Smith above the breeze blowing into the opened top vehicle.
“Keep your eyes on the road, douche bag,” Smith said nonchalantly, waving the barrel of his revolver at the windshield.
We drove for what seemed like ages and Moses turned on the truck’s headlamps as we roared through near darkness. Wingate and McElroy still followed on behind but I felt increasingly uneasy at how long we’d been driving around. Was Moses setting us up for some nasty little trap or had he stashed the rocket launchers an awful long way from his camp? I was soon going to find out.
We turned onto a road I thought I vaguely recognized and a few minutes later Moses slowed down the truck. I saw the headlights pick out and shine across what looked like a pale human form, raised in the air as though he was hanging from a tree. Then it dawned on me exactly where we were and who the figure was. We arrived back outside the boarded up church when I’d come across the former preacher, Jericho Kline. The figure I’d glimpsed in the headlights was the carved wooden and painted Christ on the cross outside the front door.
I had to hand it to Moses though. Who would think of looking in a derelict church for a whole bunch of rocket launchers?
Moses stopped the truck outside the church gates and the other two vehicles came to a halt in a line behind him. Moses killed the engine but kept the lights on.
“There’s a flashlight in that glove box down there at your knees,” Moses said, pointing at the dash in front of Smith.
Smith opened the glove box and retrieved the flashlight, keeping the firearm aimed at Moses all the while.
“All right, everybody out, nice and slow,” Smith demanded, waving the revolver barrel at the driver’s door. “Let’s keep the goodwill going.”
Moses snorted and climbed out of the truck cab. I noticed he left the keys hanging in the ignition. Smith ignored the keys and slid across the seats, following Moses out of the truck. I waved Roddy and Vinnie back and we clambered down the truck bed, meeting up with McElroy and Wingate, who were walking cautiously towards the church gates. Dante, Mia and Ronda hung back a little, moving slowly behind McElroy and Wingate.
Smith opened the swing gate and shone the flashlight beam over the boarded up building and across the overgrown parking lot. No island gunmen or zombies lurked in the shadows. He shone the flashlight over the effigy of Christ on the cross.
Dante jabbered and crossed himself.
“Dante, why don’t you and the two girls wait here,” I said in slow time. He glanced at me. “You wait here and keep an eye out on the road.” I forked my fingers at my eyes and then pointed to the road. “You keep watch with Mia and Ronda.”
“We understand you just fine,” Mia said, grabbing the collar of Dante’s jacket. “Don’t worry, we’ll holler for you if we see or hear anything. We don’t want to go inside some creepy old church
but we don’t want to be left out here alone either.”
“We’re just going to take a look see if those rocket launchers are in there, then we’re going to load them onto the trucks and cut these guys loose,” I explained, jabbing a thumb at the huddle of people standing on the other side of the gate.
“Hey, Wilde Man,” Smith barked. “Come on, what are you doing? I ‘aint got all night to fuck around here.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “I’m on my way.”
I handed the revolver over to Dante and made a groaning noise like a zombie and pointed to the road. He finally caught my gist and nodded. I shrugged at Mia and Ronda then slipped through the open gate towards where Smith stood, lighting the path with the flashlight.
I glanced up at the building as I approached. The church was silhouetted against the night sky and seemed bigger than I remembered it and definitely more imposing. The full moon shone high in the sky, casting a silvery glow across the tombstones. A chill ran down my spine, which I hoped wasn’t a bad omen. I wondered if we’d ever get out of this situation and see daylight ever again.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
The boards covering the big, wooden church double doors were only leaning against the frame and McElroy and Wingate easily removed them, tossing the boards aside into the long grass of the graveyard. Smith shone the flashlight over the front doors and Moses stepped forward, depressing the huge, iron latch. He pushed the door open slightly and a dank, musty smell wafted from the total darkness beyond.
I stood behind Vinnie and Roddy. McElroy and Wingate still covered them with their acquired revolvers. Even Roddy and Vinnie gave each other a kind of spooked glance. Moses sighed and shoved the doors fully open so they folded back inside the church.
“Whoa! Creepy, or what? Wingate whispered, as Smith shone the flashlight through the open doorway.
The bright beam of halogen light illuminated the interior of the church. Huge cobwebs swathed the upper wooden support structures running in horizontal rows. The breeze blowing through the open doors made the cobwebs billow and flutter like huge sails. The pew benches had been moved against the side walls and a large number of wooden crates sat piled in the center of the orange tiled floor space.
The altar was positioned behind the crates, directly in line with the front doors and another large effigy of Christ on the cross stood at a forward angle, high above the rear of the Communion table. The carved wooden statue of Jesus of Nazareth was draped in thick layers of spider webs that looked like a white and partially transparent death shroud. Probably a little poignant, considering the way of the world.
“There you go,” Moses said. “There are your precious fucking rockets and launchers.”
Smith waved the flashlight over the crates. I recognized stamped words ‘Air Freight’ in black lettering on the sides of the crates, with smaller lines of Spanish lettering below. These were definitely the same containers we’d seen in the airport hangar. Smith motioned for us with the flashlight to move further into the church. We shuffled awkwardly in through the doorway. I tried my best to keep my distance and allowed Wingate and McElroy to keep their revolvers trained on Vinnie and Roddy. Moses led the way followed closely by Smith.
“I want to check out these damn crates are all still loaded,” Smith said, his voice echoing slightly around the church walls.
“We took one to see if it would work,” Moses said. “And as you saw at the port town, it worked just fine.”
Smith waved Moses over by the crates.
“And you still have the SMAW launcher that you took with you back at your camp plus the one you took from us,” Smith confirmed. “How many rockets do you have?”
Moses shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. Five, maybe six.”
I heard Smith sigh behind the flashlight. His head was silhouetted against the side wall in the dim light. I knew he thought it wasn’t a good thing the islanders still had access to the SMAWs but we could simply go back to their camp and demand they hand them over. That scenario was too dangerous and simply wasn’t going to happen.
“Okay, we’ll have to run with that,” Smith said. “Keep him covered, Mac while I check the crates.”
“Will do,” McElroy said and shuffled forward, aiming his handgun at Moses.
Smith leant over the first row of crates and checked the seals. He lifted a few of the containers, obviously testing out the weights. He clambered on the wooden stacks and checked a few at random. The flashlight beam waved across the tops of the crates and I was worried the light around us was becoming too dim. I anticipated either Moses or Roddy would make a move to try and disarm us.
When he was satisfied, Smith jumped down from the piles of containers and shone the flashlight directly at Moses.
“Okay, fat boy, it’s time to get these motherfuckers loaded onto the trucks,” Smith growled. “You and your boys like to flex your muscles so get flexing and get loading.”
Moses scowled. “You’re crazy, man. It’ll take the three of us hours to get all these damn crates loaded.”
“You better make a start then, pal,” Smith snapped back.
Powerful bright lights radiating from the doorway caused us to squint and turn away. The whole church interior was illuminated into a throbbing white glow. The light was so intense it caused my head to ache and pulse.
“What the hell is going on?” Wingate shrieked.
“Drop the guns those who have them!” A deep, booming voice echoed around the church, sounding like it was transmitting on a radio frequency. “Drop the guns, you are surrounded. Loaded weapons are aimed at all of you carrying firearms. Drop the guns and raise your hands, now!”
I sighed, trying to shield my eyes from the bright light. I didn’t see we had much choice. We’d been hoodwinked. I placed my hands on my head, still squinting in the light.
I heard metal hit the tiles as McElroy, Wingate and finally Smith reluctantly realized the game was up. I heard the metallic sounds of weapons cocking and the bright lights dimmed then replaced by weaker flashlight beams.
Moses, Vinnie and Roddy blinked and I was aware of another figure entering the church. He bent down and scooped up our discarded firearms.
“You okay, Boss?” the mystery figure asked.
“Yeah, I’m all right but what took you so long, Rats Tails?” Moses replied.
My vision slowly cleared. The white blobs spinning in front of my eyes decided to find another place to go swimming. Everybody else in the church was blinking rapidly apart from two islanders standing in the doorway and aiming rifles at us and another guy next to Moses. I presumed this new guy on the scene was Rats Tails and recognized him as the bastard who’d fired the SMAW at our incoming boat at La Bahia Soleado. Rats Tails held our collected weapons and handed one to Moses. The red bullhorn and the SMAW launcher were loosely strapped over his shoulder, hanging around his back.
I turned back to the doorway. A fierce faced girl and a tall, skinny guy aimed their rifles at us with grim determination. Small, squat flashlights clipped to their chests were lighting up the church interior and I saw hunting lamps positioned on the floor in front of them. I knew those damn things threw out some light but hadn’t realized how powerful they were.
Smith, McElroy, Wingate and I were herded at gunpoint into a line in front of the crates.
Rats Tails handed another firearm to Roddy and one to Vinnie. At first Vinnie shook his head but Rats Tails angrily thrust the revolver at him. Vinnie reluctantly took the gun and held it at his side.
Moses rubbed his eyes and laughed. A deep rumble reverberated around the church walls.
“Yeah, sorry we were so long coming in Boss,” Rats Tails said. “We had to be sure you were all inside the church before we made our move.”
“I thought it was maybe because you were having trouble overpowering the guards outside?” Moses said in a mocking tone.
“What?” Rats Tails rasped. “Two port town sluts and a cry baby man? No problem. They didn’t even see the thre
e of us coming, man. They are all trussed up in the back of the truck like a bunch of hunted deer. I still want those two girls, are we cool with that, Boss?”
Moses nodded and nonchalantly waved his hand. “Whatever, man. Do what you want with them.”
“There are only the three of you?” McElroy wailed.
We hadn’t been surrounded at all. We’d been ambushed and tricked. Now I realized why Moses had been driving around for so long. He’d been waiting for Rats Tails and his crew to get into place and hide in the graveyard somewhere before they bluffed us out with the hunting lamps and the bullhorn.
I glanced at Smith, pulling a shocked expression. Smith sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Damn it, I should have seen that coming,” he muttered.
“You boys aren’t as shit hot as you think you are,” Moses said ruefully and shaking his head as he turned to face us. “You dare to even underestimate the power of Samuel B. Moses, you live to regret it.” He jabbed his forefinger at us and sweat ran down his forehead as his expression turned to one of boiling rage.
I gulped. Whatever had been our fate last time out had just increased by at least one hundred times.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
“You can’t blame us for trying, Moses,” Smith said, shrugging.
“Shut up,” Moses roared. “I’ve had more than enough bullshit from you people. You have become an increasing pain in the ass.” He waved the revolver a few inches from Smith’s face. “A pain in the ass I first found stimulating but now you people have pissed me off, big style. A level of how you have pissed me off is way off the scale, man. Way off the scale. You can’t even begin to understand how much you’ve pissed me off.”
The Left Series (Book 7): Left Amongst The Corpses Page 31
