Bloody Shadows

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  Nick grinned at Phil. “Believe me. I’m not worried.”

  * * *

  “Hello? Rollover Rachel… we’re home.” Nick briefed Jean about the sudden inclusion of their entire family in Dimah Kader’s wedding on the way home. “Jean and I want to hear all about Dimah’s wedding plans from her Maid of Honor. Hello?”

  Rachel walked out of the living room to join them. Deke streaked through the dog door to dance around his human housemates. “Okay… get it out of your systems. Even Deke has been avoiding me. Make it fast because I’m feeling my Princess Bump inner monster surfacing. Believe me, you don’t want that.”

  “We wondered if you managed to explain everything to Dimah. Instead of an open wedding with guests in danger of the Kader family’s murderous nature, you had planned to suggest a nice wedding in Las Vegas. After Dimah talked to you, she seems to think you meant a Las Vegas type spot under the trees at Lover’s Point. I thought you meant the place in Nevada with casinos and lavish hotels. Were you going to put in a roulette wheel and a slot machine for the day at Lover’s Point, Hon? Oh, and I thought you were getting me out of being in the wedding party, but according to Dimah, you meant to get into the wedding party.”

  “Am I the Flower Girl now in Ms. Kader’s wedding, Mom,” Jean added. “Hey, Dad, maybe Mom means to put one of those little saddles on Deke so he can be the ring bearer too. We’ll have the whole ceremony covered if we can talk Uncle Gus and Uncle John into being ushers.”

  “You two are just too cute for words. Are we done now? There’s no sense in sugarcoating my complete failure at interventions. What would you two like for dinner?”

  “Italian Wedding Soup,” Nick replied.

  “And wedding cake with ice cream,” Jean finished.

  Rachel spun away, her right hand alongside her face in a classic shunning gesture. “Dead to me. You are both dead to me.”

  * * *

  Nick and Deke led his group of Gus, Tina, Rachel, Dan, and Jean aboard the private jet, put at his disposal by Paul Gilbrech. Clyde Bacall greeted them on board the plane, distastefully checking Deke out with a jaundiced eye. Nick introduced him to everyone, including Deke, who sat and raised a paw on cue. Bacall ignored it.

  “Don’t leave my dog hangin’, Clyde.”

  Bacall reluctantly crouched to shake Deke’s paw as the other members of Nick’s crew proceeded to their seats. “An entourage and a dog… really?”

  “I shouldn’t have introduced you to my family,” Nick replied. “We should have walked by you without even a look, like we’d do with any other rude-ass flight attendant. Let’s stick to business. My other partner left for Washington under the radar a week ago with a specially designed GMC Yukon programmed so it can’t be tracked. He joined the Masjid Al-Nur in Olympia after checking out a few Islamic sites. He has already made contact, and been recruited to meet with some of the founders at the suspected Isis compound in Onalaska.”

  Bacall looked shocked. “How in hell did he work his way in so fast? The FBI has been trying for over a year to infiltrate the compound with no luck at all.”

  “John’s my secret weapon. His real name is Ebi Zarin. All of the terrorists he once was associated with are dead. He was trained overseas, and infiltrated from Canada. I caught him and turned him. I trust John with my life. His name can be checked by the locals in Olympia. They will treat him like a hero for surviving. His cover story is solid. I’m telling you this because we will be the only ones who know about him. If anything happens in a police roundup, or action by the FBI, I need you to be on top of it. Paul said you would have a liaison working with us, so we wouldn’t be seen together much during this operation.”

  “She’ll be coming on board any moment. Her name is Robyn MacEachern. She works with Homeland Security, and coordinates operations on the border with Canada Border Services Agency. Mr. Gilbrech says you can trust her with anything. She’s one of ours inside HS, so anything you need that you don’t have, she will get you locally.”

  A slim woman of medium height, in jeans, tennis shoes, and a black windbreaker boarded the plane. She waved at the pilot before walking over with a big smile. “Hello. You must be Nick. I recognize you from your book jacket, and of course your file.”

  Nick shook her hand. “Clyde filled me in on your liaison duties, Robyn. He says if I need anything, you can get it.”

  MacEachern lowered her voice. “The Company has more than a few assets in the area because of border infiltration, and that viper nest in Onalaska. It beats me why they don’t simply send a Reaper over it, and erase the damn place from the Northern Hemisphere.”

  “Good question. I have a trusted friend on the inside. By the time we’re ready to make a decision, he’ll be able to tell us what they’re actually doing at the compound. C’mon, I’ll intro you to my ‘entourage’ as Clyde calls them.”

  MacEachern tugged on Nick’s sleeve to delay the introductions for a moment. “I’ll be working with you closely. I booked you in at the Great Wolf Lodge Grand Mound in Centralia. It has everything, including an indoor water park for your daughter. It’s twenty-five miles away from Olympia, but it’s an easy drive, and Centralia puts you closer to Onalaska. I have a GMC Yukon at the Lodge now, as per your request for personal use. The keys are with the desk clerk. We’ll take a limousine to Centralia from the airport as befits your bestselling author status. I will be with you the entire time when you have book signings, or simply in transition from one place to another. Mr. Gilbrech read me in on your other operation in Seattle. I can coordinate that for you too. It seems like a bridge too far with this Isis gig, Nick.”

  “I know. It provides cover for my leaving the area though officially with another book signing in Seattle. We don’t know how explosive our interaction with the Onalaska compound will be. It may be bad. I like being settled in closer to the compound, but we still have to deal with local police fallout. We’re heading for the area early because as I was telling Clyde, I have a man on the inside now. I’m his backup. The book signing party in Olympia won’t take place for another week. I’m going in tonight to recon the coordinates my man gave me, and every night until we know one way or another what the hell is going on inside.”

  “This is straight from Mr. Gilbrech, McCarty,” Bacall stated. “If you find out this is an actual Isis infiltration base, he doesn’t want them brought to justice, or to see the inside of any courtroom. The crap they’re pulling overseas has even the usual Islamic apologists worried we’re likely to taste the same thing here. I don’t want to know what you have in mind, but my job is to help you make it happen. He said one other thing I didn’t understand – Mr. Gilbrech said you can use cartoon characters if you have to.”

  Nick laughed. “You’ve made my day, Clyde. Anything else before you meet my people, Robyn?”

  “Nothing serious. I’m glad you’re getting into place early. This Lodge I picked out is perfect for staying out of the public view. I know you have an agent named Cassie Sedwick, who handles all of your publishing endeavors. Has she been read in on anything other than your author business?”

  “No, and I’d like to keep it that way. Paul sending you in as an extra liaison is a perfect fit right now. It will make everything much less complicated. Cassie’s easy to get along with, and she usually packs it in early once the signing gets off the ground. She won’t get in your way. It will be great having someone familiar with this entire area and assets along.”

  “I have to say McCarty, your reputation hinges on the proverbial lone gunman template. What the hell is all this mixing family, friends, pets and other hobbies into national security operations?”

  “Don’t give it a thought, Clyde,” Nick replied. “You know the old saying, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. I’ll add one other thing you need take to heart – don’t presume to know me, what I do, or how I get it done. If I ever catch you working at cross purposes on a mission I’m on to undercut me, I’ll introduce you to a side of me you’ll only see onc
e.”

  “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point out weaknesses in your mode of operation.”

  “Yeah… you would, and you’d be less annoying. Remember what I said.” Nick took Robyn’s arm. “This way to the bane of Clyde’s existence.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Terrorists No More

  “Damn, Nick, it’s darker than the black hole of Calcutta out here.” Gus drove slowly along Spencer Road to the loop Nick programmed into the GMC before they started out. At the late hour, no traffic or even the far off glow of headlamps could be seen. “I realize you need to know exactly what terrain you’ll have to traverse to stay away from a frontal assault, but what if these guys have the surrounding area booby-trapped? You couldn’t see a trip wire to save your soul in these woods.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Payaso. This isn’t the Las Vegas Strip. Even the Isis death cult freaks won’t take a chance on blowing some unsuspecting hiker to kingdom come. If anything, they’ll have motion sensors, and networked cams to protect their tunnel entrances. They don’t have fences because a fence would be like an arrow pointing at the place from orbit.”

  “You do remember,” Nick continued, “the little factoid John was able to share with us about these assholes having an entire network of tunnels underground, right? There aren’t any doors to knock on, or assault for that matter. Like John says, this place is a training facility and halfway house for infiltration from Canada. They don’t need housing and a community so they can pretend they’re practicing religious freedom away from the Islamophobic populace. They’re training soldiers. They’re also stockpiling weapons, explosives, and they have a sealed lab, John was warned to not even go close to.”

  “Fine. Since we know this complex is all underground, how are they hiding power, and utility use?”

  “Generators and wells, and probably even solar panels in protected spots where they can catch rays from an other than horizontal position. With what they had to construct for the tunnels, I doubt they had any trouble at all finding water wells here in the Pacific Northwest. I think there will be questions to be answered about how this place was built without the government knowing it. I can see a construction firm being paid to do a job, and protecting the secrecy of it by claiming it’s a military defense project. Where an installation like this runs into trouble is their ventilation. They can camouflage the vents, but they can’t hide them completely. If we had the time, I’d get Paul to send a bird overhead. With the exact coordinates John gave us, we could get a heat signature from the vents, along with an outline of the complex.”

  “You have a week to pull this off. What did we need Dan for if you were going to shit-can our original plan?”

  “Dan was going to be our distraction around their main entrance on the day we moved on them from a different direction. That’s not going to happen. They don’t have a community or a main gate. John said they even have their vehicles drive down inside.”

  Gus checked their position. “I’m almost afraid to ask this. We could have driven around the area, and went in hiking. We could have taken pictures, movies, and tested what they do when their perimeter is breached. Why the hell are you doing this in the pitch dark?”

  “Because I’m going in to get John. I didn’t say anything, but he missed his check in earlier today, not that it mattered. I briefed him before he left. We already know what these Islamo-Fascist tools are doing. If I spent a week scoping out the place, someone would burn me, and we’d all end up dead. Paul gave me the code we worked out. He told Clyde to tell me I could use cartoon characters if I needed to. That meant he was worried somehow the mission would get compromised, and for me to do anything I wanted. I pretended for Clyde and Robyn I’d be doing a recon on the compound for the next week. We’re taking care of business tonight, Payaso. It will throw them into a panic when I use the EMP gun at one of the entrances, and then go inside for an assault.”

  Gus hit the brakes, driving to the roadside shoulder. “You did not just say you are going into the Isis tunnels to assault the compound tonight! No! Uh uh… that did not happen! If it did, I’m leaving you right here, and I’m going to the Lodge and rat your ass out to Rachel.”

  Nick chuckled, expecting to get an outraged condemnation from his friend. “I’ll need you at the coordinates I have on our satellite laptop on the backseat. I brought your com gear so we’ll be in touch every second. It’s the badass tech without peer. Tunnels, scramblers, barriers – nothing will cut us off. The EMP prototype I have will wipe out anything I point it at. John said there were twenty-two soldiers, facilitators, and infiltrators. That’s a big cell for El Muerto and his merry men, Payaso and El Kabong. I’m afraid they may be messing with our brother the Kabong. We can’t have that, Payaso. He left a tracker at the entrance they took him into initially. It’s working, so I’ll have a target entrance to check on.”

  Gus stared across at his friend’s smiling countenance, remembering the rescue Nick did to bring his brother Phil out of Kingston, Jamaica. “Tell me what you need, brother. We’re not leaving without Kabong. I know how you assault places by yourself. Is that what those bags are in the back cargo bin?”

  “Yep. I can tell you’re thinking Kingston, huh?”

  “It’s the only way one lunatic pulls off a one man assault on an armed compound, and you certainly did that to get Phil away from the Jamaican Posse. You knew where Phil and the Butlers were being held, so you didn’t kill them too. What about John?”

  “He activated his tracker two hours ago, which was the sign he was in trouble, as well as unable to contact us. His signal is on the laptop too. He was supposed to activate it, and swallow it. John laughed when I told him if it took me longer to get to him than it did the tracker to make its way through his digestive system, he wouldn’t need it anyway. This is a good place to stop. I’ll get my gear on, and you can ready the laptop.”

  “You are one crazy guy, Muerto.”

  “So I’ve been told.” Nick started out of the GMC, but then ducked his head inside again. “We both know what I am, Gus. I’m either going to kill a lot of people, or I’m finally going to get popped myself. I’m betting they don’t have enough guys to take out El Muerto. If they do, John will be with me, so drive to the Lodge, call Paul, and tell him to take the place out with a ‘bunker buster’. That should be safe enough, even with the unknown stuff they’re fooling around with in that lab down there.”

  “If El Muerto does win this lunatic assault, what do you have planned for the lab then?”

  “Nothing. I’ll bring you down with the equipment bags, and we’ll have some fun. We dress in costume, rag the crap out of Isis, and then we get the hell out of there. I’ll call Paul with all the particulars. He’ll put our liaison to work. I’ll let him handle the cleanup. I imagine the video of the cartoon brothers will drive everyone nuts while they find out what’s been going on right under their noses. Robyn seems competent enough to simply proceed with her duties. Once Clyde finds out I took care of business without him, I’ll let Paul deal with his minion outrage. If he gets in my face again, I may have to make an adjustment.”

  “He’s an asshole. Go on, and get ready, Muerto. I’ll check on John’s signal.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Gus drove toward their original coordinates. He glanced over at Nick sitting sideways in his seat. “You look like one of those guys in the G.I. Joe movies. Is there anything you don’t have on? In Jamaica, all you had on were shorts and a pack. How many did you kill that day, a hundred?”

  “No, I didn’t kill a hundred people. We’re high tech now Payaso. They make lightweight full body armor. The spot I picked to start my approach is only a couple miles away from the complex.”

  “Yeah, through the densest woods I’ve ever seen.”

  “If anyone could do this we’d be sitting in the Lodge bar throwing down shots and beers.”

  “If we live through this, I don’t care if it’s 5 am, I’m throwing them down until I’m blind.”

>   “Seriously, these guys will be asleep. If my EMP gun doesn’t disable their alarm system, they’ll be jumping out of their racks not knowing what the hell’s happening. I’m hoping to get John with me before I have to really get serious. Even with you letting me know where I am in relation to him, I’ll feel better when I have him in sight. Although I won’t be broadcasting every moment, I want you to keep talking every few minutes, so I know our com is good.”

  “Here we are, brother.” Gus stopped at the spot Nick picked out. “I won’t say good luck or any of that crap. At least you’re not wearing your Muerto mask going in. Another thing – don’t start talking to me in third person either.”

  “El Muerto never does that, Payaso. El Muerto away!” Nick disappeared into the woods.

  “Asshole.” Gus turned off the GMC. He had no other task than to watch both of his friends’ tracker signals. “I wish I could see into that stupid complex so I could tell you what to do when you’re in there.”

  “Coming through loud and clear. We’ll have to settle for I’m getting warmer or colder. He may be a straight shot from where I go down at. His tracker at the entrance is on my GPS screen. The terrain’s solid, so they must not have had their usual flood of rain lately. I figured I’d be sloggin’ in the mud by now. My short wave infrared prototype night vision goggles are the best. I’d be movin’ like a snail without them.”

  “What all are you packing?”

  “El Muerto has his trusty silenced MP5 this time on mission, my Colt .45 with silencer, razor sharp stiletto, and a backup MP10 for Kabong. I brought along enough grenades to level the complex too, along with gas masks in my pack for Kabong and I.”

  “You should have told me what the hell you had planned before, Muerto. I could have went in with you. Dan could have driven the getaway vehicle.”

  “Dan’s a Luddite. He’s about as computer savvy as Deke. Also, this assault is not a job for my trusty sidekick and enabler, Payaso. You are the deadly Payaso, facilitator of the psychotic Muerto. El Muerto must this time combat the forces of darkness alone. El Muerto must-”