Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) (20 page)

“We’ve adopted the Tempest,” John said. “Call me the moment you get everything in order. I don’t like this guy. If anything doesn’t pan out I’m going to ask Dr. Deville to strip Fernando’s sanity from him.”

Denny sighed. “What about the women? They’re still alive, right?”

“They’re confined to quarters,” Nick answered. “When we’re sure of Fernando’s information, Kabong and I will cover our faces to get them. We’ll restrain, blindfold them, and transfer them to you where you will lock them down until transfer from the Valkyrie to wherever you want them. I want your word you’ll do so, exactly as I outlined, Denny.”

Silence until Nick’s mouth began to tighten. John took a hand then. “We’re all a little tense in this operation, Denny. If you don’t agree with your word, I’m going in with Nick to relieve the little Tweety-Birds from life.”

“You have my word… damn it. I should be able to get Fernando. You don’t understand the capital we can-”

“One more word and even confirmation won’t save him for a heartbeat!” Nick had his blade against Carone’s throat. No one else moved.

“Say something stupid, Denny! I want to see Fernando, ‘the butcher’, Carone get it,” Lynn called out. “We know what this bastard has done! None of what you say will matter though. Carone’s cut up kids in front of their parents, executed people at will who said one word against him, and killed whole underling’s families at the merest slight he’s felt. I obey the wishes of the Dark Lord. If he asks me to, I plan on keeping Carone screaming until morning light.”

“Understood,” Denny agreed. “Please let me have the women for transfer.”

“We’ll give it a shot. They better not give any hint of being involved. When we do a physical confirmation on Fernando,” Lynn replied. “We will be asking him.”

Denny sighed once more… as if his audience cared. “Fine. I’ll talk with you soon.”

“Are you ready, DL,” Nick asked.

“Yep… I’m done coaxing answers. On the good side, Jafar figures we’re fifty million the richer from the text I just now received. I don’t want to wind up in jail, but God help the prisoners trying to get the Cheeseburger anyway.”

Nick grinned. “We’re not letting anyone put you in a cell, DL. Let’s leave Fernando for the moment. I’d like to ask the only other ones alive a few questions. C’mon, Johnny Five. Let’s go see about taking prisoners.”

“On your six, Muerto!”

* * *

Nick tapped on the door Gus Denova and Quays Tannous had been watching. They were the cabins where the three female crewmembers remained in hiding. “Open the door. You will be blindfolded and restrained during transfer to American soil.”

The woman in the first room gasped audibly enough to be heard outside the cabin. “You’re nuts. Why the hell should I go along with that bullshit deal?”

Nick’s affable request turned to dour threat in a split second of hearing the woman’s condescending tone. “You’ll obey every single order you’re given from this moment on or I will break through the door and slice your intestines out of you while my companion pours bleach on them. Want a demo?”

The door flew open to reveal a late twenties blonde with no other attitude on her face other than survival. When she saw the two black masked figures with MP5s pointed at her, she dropped to her knees in begging tones, crying for mercy.

“Shut-up!” Nick restrained the sobbing woman, yanking her upright. Johnny added a hood after taking her digital fingerprint and a mouth swab for DNA testing.

They went then to the next door where Nick knocked and called out in comical voice. “Come out, come out wherever you are in there.”

The door opened immediately. Both the women had 9mm handguns. Nick and Johnny fired simultaneously, instantly riddling the two women across chest and head from their positions at the sides of the doorway. Johnny repeated the fingerprint and DNA tests which would be repeated for all the bodies aboard the Tempest. The woman captive dived to the floor against the corridor bulkhead.

“That did not go well, Muerto.”

“I half suspected it, which was the reason I had the minions watching these cabins. We have one here I believe will provide valuable information once Dr. Deville works her over. I doubt she’s an innocent crewmember because there are no innocent crewmembers aboard this boat. We’ll keep her separate of Carone until he’s questioned.”

Johnny helped the woman to her feet again, as Monster Squad members raced into the corridor. Johnny held up his hand. “We’re good, my friends. It appears the women were not so innocent as Paulo claimed.”

“Bring her to my casting couch, Kabong,” Lynn said. “I finished with Carone already. He confirmed everything he told us so we cut him some slack. His laptop, he kindly gave us all the file passwords for, catalogued all his dealings, including with the Pilot Hill bunch. Fernando did mention the female contingent. He likes the ladies… dangerous ladies. All three of the women are Cartel hitters. The blonde is his favorite. I see the two bloody brunettes so blondie’s in the bag I assume. Her name’s Senta Bulgar. She’s from Albania. Senta is on loan from Al-Kadi. According to Fernando, Senta killed the heads of two Central American Cartels he passed her off as a prostitute to. Carone never bedded her. He’s scared to death of her. He gives her anything she wants and has used her to handle the women transferred through his hands on their way to Dubai and Saudi Arabia as sex slaves.”

Nick glanced at his companions, wondering if they were thinking the same thing he was. Harding voiced it.

“I’m reading your mind, Muerto. You’re considering using your number one status with Fernando and Senta at your side for an intro into Pilot Hill.”

“That’s scary good, Cheese,” Nick said. “I’m slipping if I can get read like a four year old playing five card stud. What do you think, Lynn?”

“Let me get a look at Senta, Kabong.” Lynn walked over to their surviving female prisoner with features in neutral observance for the introduction.

Johnny removed the hood. Senta had been listening to the discussion of her real calling. She knew they would torture her to death no matter what she pretended now. She spit on the deck after looking into the eyes of another female killer. Senta made an error in judgement. She thought she had been captured by regular federal authorities, in spite of Nick’s threats. The woman in front of her looked down at the deck and sighed.

“Gently, Cheese,” Lynn cautioned. “We need her face undamaged.”

“On it.” John Harding upended Senta as if she were a recalcitrant two year old. He lowered her slowly, with Senta cursing her heart out over her spittle. He forced her face directly into it, stirring and swabbing with gentle swirling motions to the amusement of his audience, ending the final wipe with her hair.

“Recon!” Lucas enjoyed the show even more than the others. “Now that’s the way a Marine cleans the deck, swabbies!”

Lynn grinned at the sputtering Senta as Harding righted her, caressing the side of her head. “Oh good. Senta still thinks she’s in charge of what happens. You’ll learn to obey, my dear one. Soon, you will pray never to hear my voice raised in anger. I already own your pal, Fernando.”

Outraged instead of thinking through her situation, Senta made a second, more egregious error. She spit in Lynn’s face. “You will get nothing from me, Puta! Oh, I know how to handle bitches like you! I will die before ever helping your skank ass.”

The men who knew Lynn fled backwards a few steps - not from fear, but because they could imagine what lie ahead of Senta at Lynn’s hand. Lynn sighed with contentment while taking out a handkerchief to wipe off her face.

“Oh my. That was lovely. C’mon with me, honey. I think we need to get to know each other better. I like you already, sweetie. You’re going to love me.”

“That’s what you think, bitch!” Senta tried to twist away from Johnny to no avail. “Why not take me on woman to woman? I’ll stomp your stupid Puta ass into a bloody pool!”

“Maybe later after we visit Pilot Hill, sweetie,” Lynn replied without raising her voice. “We need your face in one piece right now. Hey, how do you like the blade?”

“I love the blade, Puta. I know you’ll kill me after I refuse to help you so what does it matter?”

Lynn laughed, a haunting titter of sound capable of freezing the hearts of lesser men and women. “Don’t worry about that, dear. You’ll help. In fact you’ll beg me to help. I’m thinking my cohort, Muerto, will need a female on his arm at Pilot Hill. We’ll be close friends by then, Cara Mia.”

Casey shook his head as Senta passed him. “Sucks to be you.”

On the couch set by the minions to be Lynn’s interrogation tool, Johnny and Nick strapped Senta down with the binding straps found aboard. Nick took off his mask as did Johnny. Senta would never return to the general population of anywhere. Senta gasped.

“I know you! You’re Nick McCarty! You killed Felix Moreau! Felix was a lover of mine. He mentored me. You bastard! He wasn’t even on a contract in your way. I know the accounts on the Dark Web about the way he was killed are lies. No way, you ever came close enough to him to kill Felix with a knife. How did you kill him? You shot him in the back.”

Nick shrugged as his companions enjoyed the exchange. “I would have. Felix was so easy a target, I hardly needed much effort to get him.”

“Liar!”

Johnny smiled hugely in anticipation while retrieving Felix Moreau’s last moments on earth from his iPad files. He brought it over for Senta to see. She watched her lover’s death by Nick’s hand with wide eyed shock. At Nick’s last words while Moreau faded into eternity, Senta struggled wildly against her bonds before realizing after a moment the hopelessness of her situation.

“It’s nice to know Felix was loved,” Nick stated with comical whimsy to the loud amusement of his companions. Nick patted Senta’s restrained hand. “He died with his boots on, Senta. He was a murderous scumbag without a conscience but he died okay.”

Nick’s humorous eulogy enraged Senta but Lynn grabbed her in a painful pinch at the nose. “Don’t bother. If you say anything else I may forget we’re trying to keep you alive. I’m glad you know Nick. You’ll be introducing him and me at the door of the Pilot Hill compound. Once we get inside with Al-Kadi, then we’ll have some real fun.”

For the first time, Senta smiled as Lynn released her. “I will never deceive Al-Kadi. You will see. I will say one thing now to please you, but I will betray you to him the moment we cross the threshold of the house.”

Lynn clapped her hands in delight. “Oh… Cara Mia… when I get done with you, I would be able to use you as a campfire girl leader in a brown skirt uniform. No more talk. Let’s get to my showing of the enhancements in interrogation I’ve contrived. I think you’ll be impressed. Please hook Senta to my needles for her first lesson.”

When Nick did as bid. He inserted the acupuncture needles at Senta’s heels. Her feet had to be held in place by Quays Tannous and Sylvio Ruelas. Senta, for the first time, began to believe the people in front of her were not going to coax her into doing as they outlined.

“Wait! What is this? You can’t torture me! It’s illegal! Who the hell are you people? Assassins, torturers, cold blooded killers… what the hell is going on?”

“We’re the Monster Squad and the Unholy Trio, baby,” Lynn said, patting her cheek. “When the pussies in Washington DC crap their pants and don’t know what to do about some cult of murderous assholes, they call us. We don’t ask questions. They tell us we need to fix something and we fix it. Don’t try to understand it all now, honey. I’ll teach it to you in small doses until there’s no doubt in what’s left of your mind about who we are, what we plan on doing, and how you will help us.”

“McCarty! I know you. Tell her! I will do as she asks. I see this is business now. I kill on command. I do as I’m paid to do. I’ll help you get inside Al-Kadi’s place… no charge. Let me live! I’ll fix everything. Give me a damn weapon and I’ll help you execute anyone you want killed! Tell her!”

Nick leaned over Senta, revealing a mirror image of cold, unfeeling, death that existed within Senta. He smiled after a moment of silence. “I see you do know me. I am a psychopath like you in many things. I’ve found I care about some part of reality. America is part of that reality. As you’ve already stated – you will say one thing now and another later. When Dr. Deville finishes with you, the psychopath inside will be dead. All that will be left is a minion of Cruella Deville who lives to do nothing but what she asks. I could claim you won’t feel a thing but that would be a lie. Happy trails, Senta.”

Chapter Seven

Monstrous Happenings

A half hour later, Senta needed splashed into consciousness as the three minute intervals of absolute agony, without any way to stop them, reformed her being into a template of pain. She tried to speak as Lynn leaned over her with a smile. All that came out was gibberish. Lynn chuckled.

“That was only a half an hour, Cara Mia. Wait until we get to hour three.”

Senta screamed.

“Oh yeah… that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Lynn said, before Denny’s voice pelted into her ear from the Valkyrie.

“Bronstein class frigate heading toward us at full throttle… ETA forty minutes,” Denny stated. “Do you read?”

“We hear,” Harding said from near Lynn.

“That boat has torpedoes,” Nick remarked. “What’s the assessment, Captain Blood?”