by Jake Bible
“Damn,” Tank Top said as he walked up to Linny. “You nailed Slaps in the foot. Looks like he’s done for a while.”
Tank Top squatted next to Linny and pushed some stray hairs from her forehead. Linny started to spit in his face, but he slammed his right fist into her mouth before she could even get the lugee formed. Teeth cracked and her lips split wide open as he pulled back for another shot.
“Stop,” Linny said as blood poured down her chin. “I don’t know where they went.”
“So, you know why I’m here,” Tank Top said. “Good, good, this’ll go much faster.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Linny asked.
“If I tell you the answer to that then you’d have no incentive to talk,” Tank Top replied.
“I think you already answered my question,” Linny said.
“Far from it,” Tank Top replied as he stood up and kicked Linny’s pistol across the parking lot. “You’re still going to talk in the hopes that I don’t kill you.”
“I already said I don’t know where they’re going,” Linny said. “They left here yesterday afternoon. They could be halfway to Australia by now.”
“Could be,” Tank Top nodded, “but I don’t think that’s where they’re going. Too public. Too much red tape. They’re going to find a place to hole up and hide for a while. Certainly a better place than this. I have to get to them before they do that.”
“Who are you?” Linny asked.
“When you ask a question like that, then I know you expect me to kill you,” Tank Top chuckled. “You’d never ask if you thought you were going to live.”
“They’ll kill you,” Linny said. “You better have an army with you, because that’s what you’ll need.”
Tank Top looked over his shoulder at the two men that were helping Slaps into the Land Cruiser.
“I have an army,” Tank Top said, “of a sorts, and I’m about to have a Navy.”
“Who hired you?” Linny asked.
“Well, aren’t you just the inquisitor,” Tank Top laughed. “Here I thought I’d interrogate you, but you have totally flipped it around on me.”
He pulled the trigger and put a round in Linny’s left leg. She screamed and clutched at her thigh then screamed more as the motion pulled at the wounds in her shoulder.
“I don’t like to be interrogated,” Tank Top said, “brings up bad memories.”
He placed his foot on her thigh and pressed down.
“Your memories, I don’t mind bringing up,” he said as he ground down on the bullet wound. Linny’s scream built until it was only a squeak in her throat. “So, let’s start from the beginning and see what we can dredge up, shall we?”
***
The B3’s engines were pushed to full capacity. Thorne and Kinsey sat on the observation deck and listened to the dull thrum of the engines far below. They watched as the ship cut through the water, slicing the waves in half as if they never existed.
“This place we’re headed?” Kinsey asked. “What has Ballantine told you about it?”
“Research facility,” Thorne said. “Off books.”
“Off what books? The company’s?” Kinsey asked.
“Yes,” Thorne replied. “Ballantine has assured me that only a couple of people know it exists and one of those people is Dr. Morganton.”
“It isn’t a full secret,” Kinsey says, “which means others know and there could be a trail to follow.”
“I mentioned that to Ballantine,” Thorne said. “He says we’ll worry about that when we get there.”
“Where is this place?” Kinsey asked.
“The middle of nowhere. Some uncharted island.”
“Great,” Kinsey said. “Let’s hope it’s not Gilligan’s Island.”
“With Ballantine, it’s more like the Island of Dr. Moreau.”
Kinsey laughed and stretched in her seat. Thorne looked over at his daughter and tried to smile, but what was on his mind wouldn’t let him. He looked back out at the water.
“What were you up to when you were deep in your addiction?” Thorne asked.
“Daddy, you don’t want to know,” Kinsey sighed.
“No, no, I probably don’t,” Thorne sighed with her, “but as commander of this Team, I may need to. I know you lied, cheated, and did whatever you had to in order to stay high. That’s common, I get that.”
“You can pretty much write a script of how a junkie’s life will play out,” Kinsey said.
“A regular junkie, yes,” Thorne responded, “but you aren’t regular, Kinsey. You are a trained Marine and were almost a trained Navy SEAL. You have skills and ways of looking at the world that very few others do.”
Kinsey sat there silent and Thorne tore his eyes from the bright blue horizon and looked at her. He could see the fear on her face, the tension in her neck, the way she gripped the armrests of her chair.
“Time to spill it all, Kins,” Thorne said softly, “because I think who you were, who you became back in that nightmare, has bearing on what is happening to us now.”
“I...I don’t remember it all,” Kinsey said after a few moments. “I have dreams sometimes…”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Thorne said. “I think you do remember what you did. Darren is under the impression you do. He mentioned something you told him a while back. It bugged him and when he told me, it bugged me.”
“He what?” Kinsey snapped. “What the fuck did that ass tell you?”
“Don’t blame him,” Thorne said. “You know he loves you and only wants you to be safe.”
“Maybe,” Kinsey said.
“Well, I’ll let you two work that out,” Thorne said dismissively, “not my deal. What is my deal is what you did while you were strung out. I need to know how you got a hold of all your drugs. Where’d you get the money to live? How’d you survive that long without being taken down?”
“Taken down?” Kinsey asked. “You’re talking like I was part of the business. I wasn’t, Daddy. I was just a junkie like a million others.”
“Don’t go backwards,” Thorne said. “We’ve established you are not like others. Just tell me the truth. We are going to need all the information we can get to fight these guys coming after us.”
“Team Grendel, Ballantine, and the company have nothing to do with my days as a junkie,” Kinsey stated then crossed her arms over her chest like the conversations was done.
“Is that so?” Thorne laughed. “Then why are more than one cartel sending people after us? Why not just the Colende cartel? Espanoza was leader of the Colende cartel. There’s no reason the others should want us dead no matter what bullshit Ballantine spews about cocaine additives.”
He let the words hang there for a minute, but Kinsey didn’t bite.
***
The captain of the fishing vessel had the ship’s throttle pushed to full, but what pursued it kept gaining.
“Has to be a submarine,” Peter said, as he gripped the edge of the doorframe that led into the wheelhouse, his eyes locked onto the shape in the water far behind them. “Look at it. It’s huge. Nothing that big can move like that. Nothing.”
“You ever see a sub with a dorsal fin?” Hek asked. “I haven’t.”
“US Navy,” Peter nodded. “Some government secret. Wasn’t there something on the internet about subs looking like whales off the coast of Mexico a few months back?”
“Just internet bullshit,” the captain said. “Can’t believe anything on the internet. Believe only what you see with your eyes.”
“I see that thing,” Hek said, “but I ain’t believing it.”
“How fast are we going?” Peter asked.
“Twenty knots,” the captain said, “and the engine is going to give out if I keep pushing it.”
“Twenty knots,” Hek whistled. “Still ain’t fast enough. That thing is going at least twice that, maybe more.”
Peter and Hek looked out past the stern of the boat and watched in horror as the thing that chased th
em suddenly dipped all the way into the water and was lost from sight.
“Captain,” Hek said, “it dove.”
The captain looked over his shoulder and glanced at the empty water behind them.
“What you say? The thing is sixty, maybe seventy feet long?” the captain asked.
“Longer,” Peter said.
“A lot longer,” Hek agreed.
“Eighty? Ninety?” the captain asked. “Can’t be a hundred. Nothing is that big. Not a whale and certainly no shark.”
“It looked longer,” Peter said.
“Bullshit,” the captain replied. “Let’s say it’s eighty feet. That means we need the 30-gauge line. I want you to drop it all. Then get the nets ready.”
Peter and Hek looked at the captain as if he’d just said they were going to fly the boat to the moon.
“What are you standing around for?” the captain asked. “We can’t outrun the son of a bitch, so let’s tangle it up. Get those lines in the water and get ready to toss all of the nets. It can be fifty feet or a hundred feet, for all I care. Doesn’t matter how long it is if it can’t swim and push water through those gills.”
“We’re going to drown it?” Hek asked.
“We’re going to try,” the captain said. “Ain’t nothing else we can do.”
***
“So there were the twins,” Tank Top said as he wiped the blood from his knuckles, “the crazy bitch and the drunk chick. Then the golf pro and the old man showed up, is that right?”
“They aren’t twins,” Linny said through swollen lips. Her face was a patchy, puffy mess of bruises and cuts from Tank Top’s fist. “Just brothers.”
Tank Top popped her again right between the eyes. Linny gasped, but didn’t cry out, as her crying out days was done.
“You see what I’m doing?” Tank Top grinned. “I learned this technique from an ex-general in the Chinese military. Now, those guys know how to interrogate someone. The trick is to randomize your hits, keep the subject off balance and always guessing when and where the pain is going to come from next.”
“Fuck you,” Linny spat.
“That would have been an option at one time or another,” Tank Top said, “unfortunately, I don’t have the equipment for it anymore. Still got my balls, which helps keep my aggression up, but I have to piss through a prosthetic and fuck with my mouth. You have no idea how good I am at giving head, lady.”
“You sick fuck,” Linny grunted as she tried to shift her weight. Another pop from Tank Top then another and another made her give up on trying to get more comfortable.
“How many back on the ship?” Tank Top asked. “Your boyfriend ever mention any numbers?”
“Just the number one,” Linny said as she raised her middle finger.
Tank Top grabbed it and snapped it off her hand, then jammed the digit into her right eye.
“He’s missing his right eye, yes?” Tank Top smiled as he watched Linny claw at the finger and try to pull it free from her orbital socket. “Now you two match.”
Tank Top stood up and walked over to the Land Cruiser. He looked into the cargo area at the man that sat there bleeding from his foot.
“You good, Slaps?” Tank Top asked the man.
“I’ll live,” Slaps replied, a hairy beast of a man with a full, bushy beard and tufts of dark black hair peeking out from everywhere. “Can I kill the cunt when you’re done?”
“Sure,” Tank Top said, “be my guest.”
“What? Now?” Slaps asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Tank Top said.
“We get to have some fun with her first?” one of the other men asked.
Tank Top turned and studied the man for a second then smiled wide.
“You bet, Took,” Tank Top replied. “If that’s your thing.”
Took was a skinny man held together with wiry muscles and bone. His face nearly split from his head when he smiled back at Tank Top and hopped out of the Land Cruiser. He walked with a strutting swagger as he moved towards the broken form of Linny lying against the tire of her Jeep.
“Let me help you out,” Tank Top said to Slaps as he went around and opened the back hatch. “Just lean on me. Got your pistol?”
“Right here,” Slaps said.
Tank Top helped Slaps out then assisted him while he hobbled over to Linny. The woman lay there cursing up at Took as the man took off his belt and unzipped his pants. He pulled out his cock and waved it in front of Linny’s face.
“You’re gonna be nice,” Took said. “I haven’t had a hot piece like you in a while.”
“You like to rape ‘em, Took?” Tank Top asked.
“Yeah, man,” Took laughed, “ain’t no fun when they give it up.”
“No fun for whom?” Tank Top asked.
Took looked over at his boss and frowned, his cock still out and in his hand.
“Whom? What is this? English class?” Took asked.
He screamed as Tank Top reached out and grabbed him by his hard cock then twisted with all of his strength.
“More like anatomy class,” Tank Top said, “and physics.”
Tank Top dug his nails into Took’s flesh and yanked back as hard as possible. Took’s cock shredded into nothing but loose strips of bloody meat.
“Slaps,” Tank Top said.
Slaps pulled his 9mm from his hip and put two slugs right between Took’s eyes, then turned the pistol on Linny and did the same to her.
“Sorry about that,” Slaps said as he looked down at Took’s dead body. “Didn’t know he was a rapist. I wouldn’t have recommended him for the job.”
“All cool, Slaps,” Tank Top said. “That shit isn’t always on the resume.” He looked down at Slaps’ foot and frowned. “Let’s get you back to the ship and patched up before the rest of the ships arrive.”
“You think we’re going to need that kind of backup?” Slaps asked as he hobbled back to the Land Cruiser and Tank Top helped him up into the cargo area.
“Not really,” Tank Top said, “but hard to enjoy profits when you’re dead. I’d rather catch these fucks with help than end up at the bottom of the ocean like the rest of the dumb shits that let their egos and greed get in the way.”
“That’s why you’re the boss,” Slaps smiled then grimaced. “Fuck. Getting shot in the foot hurts.”
“First time?” Tank Top asked.
“Getting shot?”
“No, stupid, in the foot,” Tank Top grimaced. “I know you’ve been shot before.”
“Yeah, first time in the foot,” Slaps nodded.
“All those fucking little bones,” Tank Top said then grabbed the hatch. “Look out. Coming down.”
He slammed the back hatch closed then moved around the Land Cruiser and jumped into the driver’s seat. The man in the passenger’s seat looked a little green. He was young and bulked up like a body builder. Tank Top started up the SUV then glanced at the young man.
“You aren’t a rapist, are you, Lug?” Tank Top asked him.
“No, sir,” Lug replied, his voice a little shaky.
“You sure?” Tank Top asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Lug said, “but I do pay for it. I don’t mind the whores. Just want to be honest about that.”
“I appreciate that,” Tank Top smiled as he put the Land Cruiser into drive. “Honesty is always the best policy.”
***
“Here’s my theory, and you can take it for what you will,” Thorne continued. “I think word spread that a certain Kinsey Thorne is part of Team Grendel. That word has gotten to the other cartels and they have joined forces to take us out because the junkie Kinsey Thorne spent a good deal of time taking them out while she was strung out on everything known to man.”
Kinsey still didn’t respond.
“Fine,” Thorne said. “I tried to get you to tell me in your own words.”
He reached under his chair and picked up a stack of files then plopped them onto Kinsey’s lap.
“Have a read,”
Thorne said. “It’s everything Ballantine has on you. It’s probably more than what the cartels have on you, but I don’t know that for certain. Considering how intertwined they are with the Mexican government, there’s no reason to think they don’t have duplicates of these files as well.”
Kinsey looked down at the files then looked back out at the ocean.
“Open them,” Thorne said.
Kinsey didn’t move.
“Kinsey Thorne, you will open those files and look at what’s inside,” Thorne ordered.
“Or what?” Kinsey snapped.
“Or you’re off the Team,” Thorne said.
Kinsey turned and stared at her father then looked down at the files. She opened the first one and studied the photographs inside. There were some written files, but Kinsey ignored those and only focused on the photos. Once she was done with the first file, she moved onto the next, and the next, and the next. She tossed each finished one onto the deck by her chair until she was through and her lap was empty once again.
“There’re a lot of blood and bodies in those files,” Thorne said. “My count is close to three dozen dead.”
“They were all criminals,” Kinsey said coldly.
“They were, true,” Thorne said, “but does that give you the right to execute them?”
“Who says I did that?” Kinsey shrugged. “I don’t remember doing that.”
“I think you do,” Thorne said. “I think the reason you spiraled so low, but never died of an overdose is because you gave yourself a cause. You got to kill bad guys and feed your habit. You murdered those men then stole their drugs. That’s not really what is getting to me, though.”
“Oh? What is getting to you, Daddy?” Kinsey sneered. “Please tell me.”
“It’s the level of violence,” Thorne said. “There is a rage in those photos that scares me, Kins. You are a trained killer, but the person that did that was a wild animal. There was no training, just butchery.”
