by Pro Se Press
The crime boss immediately wrapped his meaty fingers around the Eagle’s throat. A normal man might have a hard time choking someone one handed, but Jeff’s throat fit perfectly in Bautista’s massive hands.
Jeff struggled against the hand as it constricted around his throat. But even with both hands, he couldn’t break the grip Bautista held. The crime boss was just too strong.
Jeff reached out his right hand towards the barrel of the empty M1911. He wrapped his fingers around the warm metal even as his shoulder roared with pain. He pulled it up off the floor, then drove it down hard in to the side of Bautista’s head.
Mister Bautista gritted his teeth as Jeff slammed the stock hard against the Filipino’s skull again. His grip didn’t slacken. Jeff choked as he struggled. His vision blurred.
He reached out his free hand to the stock of the gun and released the chamber. It clattered to the floor as he yanked the pin free. The slide slid back and off the gun. The sharpened edge gleaned in the light as he let the rest of the gun clatter to the floor.
He drove the slide hard in to the side of Bautista’s throat. As black spots filled his vision, Jeff heard the hiss of oxygen from the wound. Blood oozed down the slide and on to his hand as the Eagle dug it in deeper.
The grip slackened around his throat. Jeff clawed Mister Bautista’s hand away from him. The crime boss gurgled one last time as he died on the floor.
Still gasping for breath, the Eagle worked the knots free around his feet and the chair. His work wasn’t done yet.
***
He found Rosa in the very next room, just past a very heavy but unlocked door. The walls were thick and sound-proofed. He doubted she heard anything of the gunshots or the subsequent struggle. She already looked frantic. No need to cause her anymore trepidation with the battle he just went through.
She stared at him as he entered the room. The Eagle knew he couldn’t look great. His right arm was stiffening and his throat must be covered in bruises.
“Jeff?”
He didn’t say anything to her as he sidled towards her.
He found the ties around her wrist were much looser than his own and her legs weren’t bound at all. It took him only a few seconds to free her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him.
“Is it over? Did you—did you take care of Reinhardt and Bautista?”
Jeff’s back stiffened. He pulled away from Rosa and met her eyes, but only for a second. His eyes fell to the .32 pistol pressed against his heart.
Chapter Eight
Rosa
Rosa’s panicked face disappeared in to dark, narrow eyes.
“What gave me away?”
“You said Bautista’s name. He had no reason to show himself to you unless you already knew him.”
Rosa nodded. “They said you were the best.”
“Why? Why betray the United States to these thugs? You had to have been better paid than three quarters of the island.”
“Money isn’t everything, Jeff. Your women may have pushed their way through suffrage, but here women are little more than second class citizens. I’m looked down upon by my own people because I work for the Marines. The Marines seem to think I’m just some dragon lady fantasy. I had to learn to fight just to keep from being raped by some drunken fool who mistakes me for some strumpet.”
“But how? Reinhard, Bautista?”
“I worked for Mister Bautista for years. At least he didn’t treat me like some whore. He raised me since my parents died. They worked for his family all their life, but died at the hands of a group of G.I.s that thought them rebels. Bautista made sure the soldiers paid for the crimes. He made me strong. He funded my education. He helped me get the job at the base. But even he treated me like a second class citizen… a lowly woman.”
“And you hated him for it.”
“Hate is such a strong emotion, Jeff. I don’t hate anyone. But I knew he was in the way. I needed him dead. When Reinhardt arrived, I brought Bautista the plan. A simple leak would bring an American agent here as quickly as possible. We could have never guessed it would be one of your caliber, but it worked well to my own plans.
“I’ve counted on your arrival for months. Bautista would maneuver you in to killing Reinhardt and stopping his idiotic plan. I didn’t know if the agent would be able to kill Bautista, but I did know that it would be easy enough to make it look like they killed the boss before succumbing to their own injuries. When I learned it was you, I knew he would be no trouble for you. I hoped you would kill him and walk away, secure that you saved the Philippines. I could have my agents in the Filipino army capture you on your way off the island with ease. Then I could finish up my plans and take this city as my own.”
“Very good,” the Eagle said. “You’ve thought of everything, Rosa. I doubt Bautista ever knew what he had created.”
Her lips curled in to a malicious grin. “He had no idea. My men will be here any minute, Jeff. You make a move before that and I’ll kill you.”
“I strongly suspect Mister Bautista did leave off one important part of your training, Rosa.”
“Is that so? What don’t you think I know, Jeff?”
“That the effectiveness of a handgun shrinks against a trained hand to hand combatant at close range.”
The Eagle drove his right hand down hard in to the barrel of the pistol. Rosa fired, but the gun was already on a downward track. The bullet ripped in to the edge of his inner thigh, but it was only a surface wound. The barrel burned against his hand.
Jeff kept his grip tight on the gun as he slammed his fist hard in to Rosa’s jaw. She sprawled to the floor as Jeff yanked the gun free of her hand. He turned the .32 towards her even as she pulled a second gun from a holster on her thigh.
“Put it down, Rosa. Don’t make me shoot you.”
She held the weapon steady. “You know just as well as me that this can only go one of two ways, Jeff.”
“Lower your weapon, Rosa.” The words came out forceful and authoritative. He didn’t want to have to shoot her.
“You’re just like the rest. You just wanted to be the great white rescuing hero. You just hoped that I would do anything for the great conquering hero. It was never going to happen, Jeff. Now it’s time for one of us to die. I choose—”
Jeff squeezed the trigger twice. His eyes blurred as the echoes of the gunshot shook the room.
Epilogue
Colonel Walter Lawler sat completely still in his infirmary bed. His entire midsection was covered by a full body cast. His right arm, raised by a cable, was bandaged as well. He could barely move, which proved to be a good thing, as even the slightest shift would rack his body with pain.
Even so, he knew he was lucky to be alive. Few men could survive four gunshots. He thanked God every day that Strickland—Reinhardt, he reminded himself—was such a bad shot.
His second in command, Captain Douglas, stood beside the bed. He would be in charge of the base for the next several months, maybe permanently if Lawler’s wounds didn’t heal well enough to keep him on duty. He knew he would happily take an early retirement after the events of the last week.
Jeff Shannon, the illustrious Eagle, stood at the foot of the bed. With his help, Douglas easily rounded up the surviving members of the Fifth Column inside the Marines. The traitors would be silently shipped home and probably executed for their crimes. Lawler knew that if the Pentagon had anything to say about it, they would be dead before they reached the mainland.
Shannon finished his full recounting of the deaths of Reinhardt and the true forces behind the would be destruction of the American fleet. Strickland’s betrayal stung enough, but Rosa’s turn made it all the worse.
“It sounds like we are both lucky to be alive, Mister Shannon.”
The Eagle only nodded.
“My men have already secured the factory,” Lawler said. “We’ve already got the local army at work on rounding up the rest of this Bautista’s gang. I doubt we will ever get more than a quarter of
them, but without their leaders it will be some time before they become any kind of threat. And we know to keep a closer eye on them after this.”
“You’d better,” the Eagle said. No hint of emotion showed in his voice or face. “If I never return to this island, it will be too soon.”
THE END
