“What do they want?”
“They didn’t say. But I think I know who has her.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m still at my place. You know where.”
“Have you called Sakol?”
“Yes, he’s on his way.”
“And I’m on my way as well.” I heard him calling out to me as I hung up but I was not going to be put off. Mouse was a good friend and he had always done right by me. I owed him. I called Sharon on her cell and she was just leaving the hospital where she’s a nurse. “I just got a call from Mouse,” I told her.
“What’s up? I know his guard is up in surgery right now being sewn up and he’s expected to live. What happened?”
“I don’t know yet and I was just on my way over to his place. I have no idea what’s happening and I was wondering if you could stop by and pick up Bean and take her to your place. That’s one less worry for me.”
“Of course. Tell Mouse I am sorry, please.”
I made record time over to Mouse’s place and parked in front of his building. Things still looked as rundown as they always did. I never did understand why he felt he needed to keep such an undesirable place for his business, but it seems to suit him. I know the first time Sakol had taken me there I was appalled at what I thought was nothing but a drug den. I know so much more about Mouse now, but still I wonder why he stays where he does.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs to his place I saw the door to his place was ajar. I felt this was not a good thing so I returned to my truck and retrieved the pistol I keep in a secret place under my passenger seat. I still keep it in my truck and I really need to give that some thought sometime.
This time when I entered the building I was armed. The main room was still as filthy as my last visit and looked like a true den of iniquity, but I now knew it was just stage dressing. I went to the back of the room and when I found the door to Mouse’s personal office, it was ajar as well. This was not good. Being as careful as I could, I slipped through the door. The room was in shambles with furniture tipped over and papers strewn across the floor. From the back of the building I could hear loud voices. Suddenly I heard somebody yell, “You will do as you’re told, or you and your little Chinkey cunt will die.” It sounded like somebody had returned and now was talking to Mouse.
I continued to follow the voices. One more partially opened door and I was peeking into a room with two individuals standing over Mouse who was tied to a chair. He was in shirtsleeves and the shirt was ripped and I could see red in a couple of places where I assumed he was bleeding. One eye was swollen and I couldn’t hear what Mouse said, but one of the men reached out and slapped him across the face. I stepped into room and aimed my pistol at a spot between the two men. “If either of you touch him again, it will be the last person you touch on this Earth. Now, both of you, lace your fingers and then put your hands behind your heads.” When neither man moved, I shot a round between them into a doorjamb. When the doorjamb exploded into splinters, both men put their hands on their heads as fast as they could. “If either of you move an inch, I will not hesitate to shoot you.”
I moved into the room. I wondered how I could get the two men to step back enough so I could untie Mouse from the chair. From behind me I heard a voice, “Mouse. Mouse where you?” It was Sakol.
“We’re in the back room.” I called out. When Sakol entered the room and saw the two men with their hands on their heads, he quickly drew his weapon.
“Both turn. Face wall. Put nose on wall and keep hands on head.” He might be a little surprised to find us in the back room, but he still was together enough to keep up his Charlie Chan routine.
When neither of the men did what he said, I told them, “When I shot my pistol, I was aiming between the two of you to miss. My friend here has only had a gun for a few days and he’s not that good of a shot. If he shoots at you, he might miss the wall and hit one of you. You really need to do what he says.” Both men moved as quickly as possible and pushed their faces against the wall.
I untied Mouse while Sakol pulled a zip tie from his pocket and went to the first man. He roughly pulled the man’s hands off his head and zip tied his wrists behind his back. Sakol must have reefed a bit too hard on the tie since the man hollered it was too tight. Sakol explained to the man why he needed to keep still. “Shut up, tape mouth shut. Understand?” The man complied.
Sakol got the other man’s wrists bound and made them move their feet about two feet from the wall. He had them make their knees stiff and then forced them to lean forward and put their foreheads on the wall. In this position, they were not able to stand up again without help.
Mouse rubbed his wrists as he stood. He thanked both of us for our help. He explained he had gone out to his car to get something after he called us and when he came back, the two men were waiting in his office. They tied him to the chair and were explaining why Mouse was going to do what they wanted him to do and if he didn’t, both Jade and Mouse were going to be killed. I asked Mouse if the two men knew where Jade was being held. He didn’t know. I suggested we find out.
Mouse turned to Sakol and said, “You need to go for a walk, my friend. What’s about to happen is not for you to know or see. Take Matt and both of you go. Now!”
“No! I ask.” Sakol went over to one of the men, helped him stand up straight and then turned him around. Without any warning, Sakol slapped the man as hard as he could, bringing his hand down right across the man’s nose. Blood exploded from the man’s nose and tears, blood and snot flowed over his face.
Sakol looked over at Mouse and said, “I’ve been wondering when I was going to have to make a decision about our relationship. So far, I’ve been able to keep being a cop and being your friend separate. I just wanted you to know, I see now any decision I have to make in that regard will always come down to being your friend first and being a cop second. Maybe not a good plan, but we go too far back for it to be any different.” I’d never heard Sakol speak that much without his funny accent. It seemed strange. And I also understood his point about friendship.
Sakol helped stand the second man up and turned him so he could see the first man’s face bleeding. He said, “I will do that to you, and much more if you don’t answer my questions. And then I will keep causing you pain until you tell us everything we want to know. Do you understand?”
The second man’s eyes were so big I was wondering if it was possible for a person’s eyes to pop out of their head. The man was babbling, “Yes. Yes. What do you want to know?”
“Do you know where Jade is being held?” Mouse asked.
“Not exactly,” the man said and Sakol raised his hand. “NO! Wait. I just know she’s being held at one of three locations.”
“Where?” Sakol barked. Even though it was difficult for the first man, he mumbled something to the second man about keeping quiet. Because of his nose, it was difficult to understand him, but you could tell he was telling the second fellow it could be the end of both of their lives if he talked. Basically, he was trying to tell the second man to shut up.
I watched as Sakol reached out and touched the first man on the side of his chest. I’ve heard there’s a way you can touch a person that’s ungodly painful and will drop any man screaming and writhing to the floor. I had no idea Sakol knew things like that. The man dropped to the ground with a loud thump, screaming. Sakol tuned to the second man. “You next!”
The man was almost stuttering he was trying to get the information out so fast. There were three locations their group of men had access to.
One of the locations was in an old abandoned warehouse in Renton, a town south of Seattle. Sakol said he knew the area and was pretty sure he knew which building the man was talking about.
The second was an old abandoned mill over on the Olympic Peninsula. It was just outside a small town called Forks and Mouse said he knew it
well. For the first time, I learned something about Mouse’s early life. I knew his real name, but I had no idea he had spent any time in Forks. The town is about as rural and redneck as any little town could be. It existed only because of the trees surrounding it. It was a true one industry town and now that the timber industry was slowly dying, so was Forks.
The third one was located up in the Cascade Mountains. This was the location Mouse begged me to go and check out for him. The main road through the Cascades is the Stevens Pass Highway and about fifteen miles from the summit on the west side of the pass is a wide spot in the road. This wide spot contains a little village called Baring. The hamlet once had a gas station but due to federal regulations, the tanks had to be removed. The little store remained with a dinky post office in the back. The speed limit is 60 mph and if you blink, you missed Baring.
But, across from the Baring general store is an old forest road and that goes back into the hills for about twenty miles or more. At the end of the road is a trailhead where you can park your car and then hike in two miles to Fragrance Lake, or if you’re really masochistic, you can hike and climb the five miles to Eagle Lake. One time when I was a lot younger, I did the hike to Eagle. It was difficult then, it would be impossible now! Besides my body not being able to do the hike, the trail from Fragrance to Eagle is now totally covered in snow. But, just before the parking lot at the trailhead where people park is an old ranger’s cabin. At one time it was used for fire spotters in the summer. Now it’s abandoned and is desolate and would be perfect for holding a captive.
Because I knew the area and the location of the cabin and all, I was selected to investigate the mountain location. I knew a different turn off from the main road where I could park. I didn’t want to drive all the way up to the cabin. If I was the lucky one and I found Jade, I didn’t want anybody know they had visitors.
Before Sakol and I had left, Mouse took us into a small room at the back of his shop that looked like a small bank vault. Inside it looked like an arsenal for a small army. I was outfitted with two pistols complete with silencers and the strangest weapon I’d ever seen. It resembled a gun that people use when they play paintball. However, this gun didn’t shoot paint balls, but rather hard round, quarter inch in diameter plastic balls that when they hit a person, they burst open, releasing a substance. The substance inside instantly renders the person who is hit unable to move.
When Sakol saw the weapons, he said he’d heard of them but they were super top secret and impossible to get. He wisely didn’t ask Mouse where he got the weapons. Mouse had at least a dozen of the guns and he warned both of us not to accidently touch the balls as one of the problems with them is they tended to leak. Just touching one would make us pass out for sure and we would not be able to move for at least an hour. The guns had to be loaded with gloves on and then the gloves were discarded. I took note not to accidently touch the top of the gun where the pellets were stored.
It was dark as I headed up the dirt road. It had been several years since I’d been here and I noticed the trees were now growing close to the sides of the road. Just before I got to the turnout, I realized it had snowed most of the afternoon and my tire tracks were the only ones in the snow. I was glad I was wearing warm boots, and had dressed appropriately.
After I parked and then walked up to the cutoff, I noticed a small flickering light back in the trees inside the cabin. It looked like the cabin was being used, but I had no way of knowing if Jade was actually being held there. Here I was, doing just what Mouse had begged me. Like I said, he had never begged me to do anything before.
And now you know why I’m standing in falling snow, checking out an old forest cabin.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I stepped off the road and slipped into the forest, and as I did, I felt some of my old training starting to come back. The way my feet were placed, the way I moved through the trees, careful not to disturb any more branches than necessary, every movement reminded me of days’ past. When I was about fifteen feet from the front of the cabin I stopped moving. I stood as still as I could and absorbed what was going on around me. I could see the shadow of the front porch and as I stood quietly in the falling snow, suddenly I saw a match flare up and I quickly shut my eyes. “What the fuck are you doing, idiot?” a rough voice asked.
“I wanted a cigarette,” another voice whined. “There ain’t nobody out here, stupid. I’m bored and cold. Standing out here in the cold is the dumbest thing I ever done.” I opened my eyes and I was gratified the flash of light from the match had not disturbed my night vision. I waited until I saw the lit end of the cigarette move up and when it flared, I knew the person was taking a drag. It was better than if he had painted a target on his face. I squeezed the trigger and a soft “whoosh” sounded. I saw the glow of the cigarette drop and a few seconds later I heard the man’s body hit the ground.
I heard his friend mutter, “What the fuck?” And then his idiot friend turned on a flashlight and started to swing it around. I couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to turn it on. Thank you dummy for giving me another target. “Whoosh!” The flashlight dropped to the ground followed by the sound of the man after it. The man must have fallen on the flashlight because the light went out.
I waited a few minutes for my eyes to adjust again and also to see if anybody would come from the inside the house to investigate. When nobody came, I started moving towards the back of the cabin. As I turned the corner I almost ran into a person coming towards me. Fortunately I was holding my pistol at the ready and when they loomed up in front of me, I pulled the trigger. “Whoosh.” I don’t know where the pellet hit this person but there was a little cry before he hit the floor. Again, I waited for somebody to investigate the cry but nobody came.
I stepped up to the door on the back porch and slowly turned the doorknob. I fully expected to find it locked and I was surprised when it wasn’t. If this had been combat and this was my squad, and if I’d been in command, tomorrow, anyone still alive would have been busted down to buck private. In addition, for the rest of their military career they would have been washing dishes. So far it was just one stupid mistake after another, but I wasn’t complaining.
The door opened into a small dark kitchen area, but I could see a light behind the next door and I could also hear voices. I moved to the door and I was happy to find it was not completely shut. All I had to do was gently push on it. The door opened just enough to reveal three people in the room. Jade was tied up to some sort of apparatus, spread eagle and wearing a blindfold. I noticed Jade was almost naked, wearing just a pair of panties. Even though there was a fire in the fireplace, I knew she had to be cold. Since she was facing me, I was grateful she was blindfolded and couldn’t see me. This way she couldn’t accidently give me away if she saw me.
The two men in the room were dressed in jeans and plaid flannel shirts. Both had their backs to me and one of them was arguing with the other about fucking Jade. “There’s no way anybody would know,” one of them said. “You know Mr. Zampuchini isn’t going to let her live after that little dwarf does what he wants. I don’t care what that little fucker says or does, once he’s done what the boss wants, this little cunt is dead. And I want to tap some before we have to off her. Just look at her, man. She’s beautiful.”
“I don’t think we should. Guido, if we got caught, the boss would kill us and you know that for fact.”
“You are such a—” I have no idea what he was going to say because all they heard was “Whoosh,” and one more of the gang dropped to the floor.
Guido’s partner had started to reach out to touch Jade’s breast as I drew a pistol from inside of my jacket. “Go ahead.” He turned to look at me. “Touch her. I can see you want to fondle her breast. Isn’t it beautiful. Go ahead and touch it. Put your finger on the nipple. Do it and it will be the last breast you ever touch.”
By now I had the pistol in my hand aimed right at his head. I
heard Jade whisper my name and I gently told her to be still. “Okay, what’s it going to be?” The man stood there looking at me. I could see he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box and he was still trying to get over my sudden appearance. I told him, “Pull out that pistol stuck in your belt and drop it on the ground. Or you can touch her if you want. But I already told you how that turns out.”
The man looked around the room and then at his buddy on the floor. “Where did you come from? Where are the others?” he asked.
“I came from outer space and the mother ship beamed me in. Your other buddies are now chow for a couple of monsters we found on the last planet we visited. Now drop the gun, or—” The stupid fool thought he could pull his pistol from his belt and get off a shot before I could pull the trigger on a gun that was already aimed at him. Some people watch too much television. I was glad my pistol had a silencer on it because I could tell Jade was almost on the edge and a loud noise might have been too much.
The fellow I had shot had a knife in one hand and I assumed he was actually going to cut Jade lose in order to rape her. As I cut her bindings, now I couldn’t help but notice the beauty of her body. Mouse was a very lucky man. I cut her down and for a second she held onto me and I kept my arm wrapped around her. When I thought she could stand on her own, I removed her blindfold. When she saw my face, she threw her arms around my neck and started kissing my cheeks. She kept repeating ‘Thank you’ as if it were a chant.
Finally, I told her we needed to get going. I had no idea if anybody was coming and we really needed to leave. She looked down at the men on the ground. “Which one touched me?” I didn’t know she had already been touched and I assumed it was the dude who was going to rape her. I pointed at the one I had shot and she stepped around so that she was standing between his legs. I knew he was dead, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. She drew back her foot and as hard as she could, she kicked him between the legs. The force of her kick moved the body a good six inches. “Bastard” I heard her mutter. I thought it would not be a good thing to piss this lovely lady off. She could be very vindictive, not that I blamed her. She stepped to the other fellow and did the same thing. “That’s for thinking about it.” Seeing her kick two men when she was naked almost made me laugh, but I decided maybe it wouldn’t be such a great idea.
The Gypsy Queen: A Matt Preston Novel (Matt Preston Series Book 3) Page 6
