HARD CASE (A John Harding Novel - Special Ops, Cage Fighter, CIA Agent) (25 page)

Once inside, Blake’s partner Casey Lambert sauntered over to my door with a big grin on his face. The Company recruited Lambert during the first Gulf War out of Delta. A tall lanky Texan with an Opie face and freckles, Lambert wore his long brown hair touching his shoulders. He and Blake had been together for nearly twenty years. Lambert’s only family is Blake and Blake’s family. No one knows what these two do for a living in the real world. Their cover is a bogus consulting firm that’s based in the Bay Area but hires out all over the country. The consulting firm provides cover for any travels they make.

“Hey Gunny, how’s business? Lucas here says you called Denny a pussy.”

Blake laughs as he walks up to join us. It’s one of those deep throated heehaws that’s contagious. “I did not. I said Denny hinted that you’d called him a pussy.”

I nodded and grinned at my sometime coworkers. “I may have been a little overzealous about making sure Denny understood my guest in the trunk won’t be returning anywhere outside the building other than a landfill. Denny may have taken offense to that.”

“Damn right I did, meat.” Denny joined us from the back. “You’re late. I scrambled my buddies here special for you. I hope it’s worth it.”

I walked around to the Cad trunk. Nelson was squirming on the floor a moment later where I pitched him out like a bale of hay. Sweat poured off Terry’s face. His eyes blinked with tears from the light. I ripped the duct tape off his mouth taking skin with it. Nelson yelped before going into a nonstop rant about brutality, black men, Rodney King, and defaming my lineage back to the dawn of time. Lucas drop kicked him in the face and looked at me with his stern rebuke face.

“What’d you shut him up for, Lucas? Damn… he was just getting funny,” Casey said.

Lucas ignored Casey, still giving me the evil eye. “Why didn’t you warm this sucker up, John? We’ll have to spend at least fifteen minutes in preliminaries. I’m taking the wife out to dinner with Casey and his new lady.”

I usually get any interviewees I bring into the mood so Denny’s crew can get right down to business. “Sorry guys, but I didn’t have a choice. Nelson here recruited a ten-year-old neighbor boy to strap on a Chardin made bomb pack for the purpose of disrupting a planned outing with Samira Karim in the Jack London Square gig tonight.”

“Holy shit!” Denny was no longer bored. I handed him the pack. One look inside and Denny motioned us into the interrogation room. “Get him inside and get to work. We don’t know how much time we have. Were you able to bypass the trigger, John?”

“What’d you think, Denny, I’d haul a live bomb in here? When he checks, Chardin will get a live signal but that’s all.” I grabbed up Nelson by the seat of his pants and dragged him into our special room. He was snoring from Blake’s kick to his temple. We have a new examination table inside with plastic curtains strung all around. Two rolling carts carried implements designed to warm the hearts of even the most ardent bad guys. I got the idea from the ‘Dexter’ series on HBO. Denny liked it because most bad guys were familiar with the series’ character. They knew when waking on a table with their bodies taped so they couldn’t move anything but their eyes, attended by four guys with plastic clothing covers and gloves, things were about to go real bad. I put Terry on the table and cut him free. Lucas and Casey taped him to the table with their usual precision.

“Me and Casey been keeping up on your YouTube exploits. Very entertaining, especially that Russian mob clip. I heard you had some repercussions though. Anything we can help you with, John?”

“Nope, but I appreciate the offer. Denny probably told you I now have Fiialkov helping out with this Chardin character.” We all put on our ‘Dexter’ suits so I started waking Nelson up with some slaps. His eyes blinked into consciousness. When Terry’s eyeball’s took in his surroundings they nearly popped right out of his head. He mouthed words for a moment without sound. Then Denny went to work.

“Introduce us, John.”

“This is Terry Nelson. He’s a cheap gang-bangin’ thug. I’ve picked up shells on the beach with more brains. He outdid himself this time.”

Nelson is already impressed. He has a little trouble talking with his forehead and chin nearly immovable. “Har… Harding? What… what’s goin’ on?”

“You can talk to me, Mr. Nelson,” Denny said, leaning toward Nelson. “You mixed with the wrong guy. Now, you’re going to tell us everything about Claude Chardin. In case you don’t know his name, he’s the one that gave you the explosive pack.”

Terry’s eyes widened even more which I didn’t think was possible. “Man… I don’t know shit about-”

Casey cut his cheek with a scalpel in a slow deliberate shallow slice from his chin to eye. Nelson’s squeal ended in a sobbing, guttural whine. I believed we’d reached an understanding. I moved up where Terry could see me.

“Look Nelson, you were going to outfit a ten-year-old boy with a bomb to blow up God knows how many innocent people. You ain’t ever leavin’ this place alive. My associates will get everything you know. How you draw your last breath is in your hands right now. Tell us everything you know about Chardin and this gig at Jack London and you can go out with a smile on your face.”

Denny moved up and showed Nelson a hypodermic. “This is a wonderland hotshot, Mr. Nelson. Do as John suggests and you get it. Play dumb and in an hour you will be begging us to hear every detail.”

Nelson folded like the cheap prick I figured he was. He cried first. Yeah, that’ll work.

“Okay… okay… I know the guy. He… he said I’d make twenty thousand if I could cause a distraction for him with a small bang on the Square. I didn’t-”

Lucas bitch slapped the gang-bangin’ moron with a coldly delivered refresher. “We’re not interested in what made you shit on your country, maggot.”

Nelson saw something in Lucas’s eyes that reached him on a level he understood. His eyes closed for a moment, squeezed tightly as if in protest to his entire miserable life before opening once again with a suitable haggard acceptance. “Dude didn’t tell me why. He gave me ten thou’ up front and told me what he wanted done.”

“How did he contact you, Mr. Nelson?” Denny kept it formal.

“There… there’s a cell-phone in a panel under my driver’s seat. I got his number in there. He only contact me twice. The money sold me… I-”

“Shut up!” I thought of Darin blowing up in some crowded spot in Jack London Square and reality starts to fog up on me. Denny grabs my arm but I shrug him off. “I’ll be right back. Better start prayin’ Terry. If that cell-phone ain’t there with all you say I’m going to make you wish you were never born.”

I jogged out to Nelson’s Cad and found the throw away cell-phone under a taped over piece of mat. I’d already checked the regular cell he’d been carrying without anything other than the gang-banger stuff I planned to use to make my wakeup call in the area around my neighborhood. I brought it back in to Denny. He downloaded every bit of anything it had on its circuit board. He made some calls while he worked. I saw him smile in the midst of his examination and figured we hit pay-dirt. He uploaded the stuff somewhere because he watched the notebook computer screen until a beep sounded. Denny walked back to Nelson and before I could intervene he injected Nelson with a hypo that put a dim smile on Terry’s face before the shadows came up from hell and dragged his black soul down to his just rewards. At least that was what I comforted myself with.

“You in a hurry, Denny?”

“John, you’re too close to this. Nelson needed to go bye-bye before your feelings for him got out of hand. Chardin wouldn’t have trusted this idiot with anything more than what I just got from the cell-phone. He won’t know we’ve busted Nelson yet so he’ll keep the cell alive we have the number for. I’m having him triangulated as we speak. We’ll get the bastard before he has a chance to move. There wasn’t any need to take this interrogation any further.”

“Maybe you needed to trust me with a say in that, Denny.”

“What about it, Lucas?” Denny turned to Blake.

“I got no dog in this hunt other than America. John bleeds red, white, and blue. You should take a moment before asking me for an opinion, Denny. I ain’t your bitch… if you know what I mean.”

“Don’t even look at me, Den,” Lambert had both hands up while backing away. “John’s gold with me. I ever get mixed signals about something and I think of going to ground he’ll be the first I call after Lucas for backup. You feel me, Ace?”

Denny looked at Lucas again. The grin Lucas gave him in answer did not please Denny. A few seconds of absorbing the obvious exhorted a small chuckle from Denny and a drop of his shoulders. He looked up at us with a shrug. “You guys are as close to family as I’ve got. Don’t take this personally. Some things you’re better off not knowing. If that’s a problem then dance with a different partner.”

“Maybe you better remember some people are exactly what you think they are, Denny,” Lucas replied with calm aplomb. “You should have given John a chance to satisfy his curiosity.”

“Maybe, but I didn’t. Let’s go get this murderin’ son of a bitch before he gets away. You can bet he didn’t trust anything to Nelson other than assigning the bomb. We’ll leave Nelson here for disposal. Get your gear on. It’ll have to be the four of us.”

“Want to take a few seconds to brainstorm how the hell Chardin knew anything was going on down at Jack London tonight?” I saw Denny’s eyes widen slightly. “It could have been my guys but I’m betting you know somebody else more likely.”

“I’ll think about it while we’re loading.”

Lucas gripped Denny’s shoulder. “You know, Denny, you’re just like family to me too. If I find out you knew something about someone that could get us maimed or killed, I’m goin’ to whup you like a red-headed stepchild. What did you see on the cell that made you boink the little gang-banger here?”

Denny sat down. “I’m under orders guys. I saw a number I think matches with an alias we’ve been tracking in our department. My calls inside confirmed it. We’ve suspected someone’s been feeding Chardin information from in the agency. It won’t affect us nabbing Chardin.”

“Unless you uploaded the cell info to the wrong person,” Lucas pointed out. “In which case we could get triangulated right into a trap. I don’t think you’d do that, Denny. I think you already know now who it is working with Chardin. Am I right?”

Denny nodded. “He’s out of the loop but we can’t pick him up without tipping off Chardin.”

I knew. “It’s Reddig. Isn’t it, Den.”

Denny stood up. “Can we go now? I can’t guarantee we’ll all get through this unscathed but I guarantee what I can’t say won’t hurt us. Okay?”

I exchanged glances with Lucas and Casey. They grinned and nodded. “Is this dead or alive?”

“We’d like to take him alive.”

“Tell John where he is,” Lucas told Denny. “If anyone can figure an approach that’ll net this scumbag alive it’s him.”

“He’s at the Marina in San Leandro. We have a general area for the signal. Chardin could be eating at a restaurant there or he may have a boat he’s prepping for tonight’s dance party. We’ll have to get closer before we can pinpoint which it is. Our people are checking the registry of every boat in the Marina right now. My guess would be he won’t have anything obvious but they’re looking for boats just ported there or anything out of the ordinary.”

“He’s got our pictures. Bet on that.”

“You’re right, Lucas,” Denny acknowledged. “Any suggestions, John?”

“Once we find out where he is exactly and I don’t care where, let me blow his knee off.”

“I like it!” Lambert claps me on the shoulder. “Do you have anything stored here you’re familiar with?”

I knew Casey meant a rifle I’d worked with before. Making a shot with an untried weapon is not a good idea. “I do have one. Denny had a target of opportunity pop up about six months ago. Remember, Denny?”

“Sure I do. You went rogue on me and offed a person of interest from half a mile away we wanted to talk to. Your rifle’s locked up in the gear locker just like you left it when you cleaned it up while ignoring my official upbraiding of your act.”

“You were unclear on the mission parameters, Den.”

“Do you realize what favors I had to call in to clean that mess up?”

“Oh wahhhh… Aybak killed Al Stennic in France. I didn’t think he’d be treated properly in captivity.”

“Damn, John… you did for the weasel that wasted Al?”

“Don’t encourage him, Lucas. Let’s go. I like your idea, John. Please don’t kill Chardin. I know I gave you a straight out sanction order before but things have changed. When we get him on the table in here I get a head rush thinking about what we can find out. Aybak would have been in the same predicament if you’d given me a chance.”

I laughed. “Bullshit, Denny. I overheard your conversation with Cantoni.”

“Shit! You never said anything. Okay… okay… but Aybak was different. He was an arms dealer we could have turned. I…” Denny shut up as the rest of us folded our arms with looks of comical interest as if we were entranced with what could have happened with an Aybak deal. “Fine. He’s dead. New day, clean slate. Let’s go get it done. We don’t even know if we can get Chardin in a place where John can take a shot at him.”

“We need an outsider to recon this thing. Let’s pick up the kid I recruited. If they can pinpoint the building then fine, we’ll take him coming out. If he’s in one of the boats we’ll need to find out which one. We’ll put a tracker on Jafar and send him along the pier. If we get meshing signals we’ll know where Chardin is.”