Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (18 page)

“Amen to that.” We walked over to the table with fresh drinks as Marla arrived with our dinners. Apparently, Lora took the lead, and ordered for us. Nice. Al was none too happy.

“You should have Gronked him, Dark Lord.”

Tommy and I sat down to enjoy that upbraiding for a few moments. Al had invented the word after I put the hurt on a guy named Gronk. Since then, she issues the order when she senses something off about someone, as my little Alice rightfully did in Las Vegas a while back at the airport. She spotted a killer hitting on Lora. I didn’t think much about her concerns until the guy asked for a private conference, and threatened my family if I didn’t throw the fight. I Gronked him.

Chapter Six

Let The Darkness Flow

I switched to the Dark Lord for the first time in a while. “The Dark Lord was doing research, and bar fight prevention.”

“You did very well, DL,” Lora said. “What did they want?”

“We’re fighting next Friday night.” I began digging into my hot turkey sandwich, not really wanting to set Lora off. Fail.

“You’re going to what? I thought you needed at least a month to heal!”

“Calm down, Lora.” Tommy came to my aid. “DL’s in the best shape of his life. Come out on the boat tomorrow. He’ll give you a demonstration. Lucas is going to let us sail in the Sea Wolf. He’s angling for another pirate mission, I hear.”

“Oh great. That sounds lovely. Where at this time, the Bermuda Triangle?”

Even Al got a kick out of that line. “No. The destination is still being decided. Want to come along, Hon? We don’t have a nag in the crew.”

Lora’s face went through a few contorted changes of rage before settling on neutral accompanied with a shrug. “Sorry, John. I was around my sister too much over the holidays, followed by taking them to Las Vegas for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Are you really ready to fight again this quickly?”

“Come on board the Wolf tomorrow. I pissed off Lynn so badly with my pole strikes, she was going to Tase me. I’m ready. We have a few side deals riding on the outcome of the fight. Next Friday will be fine.”

“C’mon, Mom. If the weather’s nice, I’d love to go out on the Sea Wolf and watch Lynn poke Dad.”

“Gee… thanks, Al.”

“That does sound very tempting,” Lora admitted. “Fine. If the Bay is relatively calm we’ll go with you. We’ll be back in plenty of time for the game, won’t we?”

“Of course. The team can’t play without the coaches and star player. Tommy will demonstrate my readiness. He and Lynn will put me through my bloody paces in the water.”

“Forty-five minutes of hell on earth, Lora,” Tommy added. “Any bad feelings you’ve ever had about the Cheeseburger will be rendered non-existent when you watch what Lynn and I do to him.”

Lora grinned, while looking straight into my eyes with something other than retribution. She and I had found something in each other we had no intention of letting go. When after the first Rattler fight, she jumped into the locker room shower with me, no holds barred, I knew I had a partner. We may not agree at times, and the fights normal couples had couldn’t be avoided; but in those gripping shower moments, Lora let everything loose. She didn’t give a damn about what I was or what I did. Lora clutched my battered looking soul with screaming suppressed abandon, cementing the fact she was in for the long haul, no matter the outcome.

“The Dark Lord and I have a pact, Tommy. Sometimes, I forget to rein in my mouth before I speak.” She reached over to grip my hand. “Contrary to the persona I sometimes allow to surface, I love this guy more than anything. I don’t choose to observe his torture as a hobby. Since it is supposed to be a beautiful day, I can make an exception for John’s forty-five minutes of discomfort. I’d be glad to come on board with Al.”

Tommy smiled. “Understood, my friend. The Dark Lord does grow on us. He and I have been through the wringer together. When you need someone standing at your side, the Cheese is the one to have.”

Well okay, that filled up all my parameters for touchy/feely moments. I should be more feeling, but it’s a process. As I gripped Lora’s hand more firmly, I wondered if she knew how many I’d kill to keep her at my side. Looking into her eyes, I think she did. Life is a journey not to be taken lightly. At times… we are alone in all things. Sometimes, another human being crashes through our parameters of alone, and leaves us doubting everything. When Lora gripped me in the elementary school parking lot to say thanks for interceding with scary adults about Al, I damn well saw more in her eyes than gratitude. I’m here now, and I ain’t letting go. She understands not everything can be peaches and cream. How much more understanding can a guy ask for – not much.

Al stood and placed a hand over ours. “Don’t change, Dad. If Mom throws you under the bus, I’ll Gronk her.”

Yeah, that led to hilarity. Done deal.

* * *

Tommy busted me in on my right shoulder, but could not pull the pole away fast enough as I jettisoned out of the water, striking with every ounce of rage within me. I sheared the damn thing off, leaving Tommy standing at the railing with a pole missing a piece. I watched as he simply threw the pole into the water with disgust. I propelled on my back like a dolphin waiting for fish at the aquarium, pointing at him. He grinned appreciatively.

“C’mon out, Dark Lord. I wish to hell you were fighting for the damn Ultimate Fighting crown instead of with that pug, Assassin. If anyone can beat you in the UFC heavyweights, they should make an offer for a fight at the Mandalay Bay. I doubt very much after that second Rattler fight that any of them want a piece. Good workout. Right, Lynn?”

Lynn moved to the railing with a big smile as I treaded water with Lucas powering down. “Damn right, DL. You gave me and Clint Junior a hell of a workout. We don’t want to fatten your head, but what the hell, you know the score. I know you well enough you won’t be overconfident no matter what we say, so come on out of the water, Cheese.”

As I moved to do exactly that with a big smile, one of my shark friends bumped against me, drawing a scream of anguish from Al, who had moved next to Lora. A split second later the burst from Clint’s MP5 shot through the shark from head to tail. A repeat burst right through its disorganized head made it the new blood target. I streaked for the fantail. I had enough provocation to be on board in seconds afterward. I raised my banana suited arms out in happiness after I boarded the Sea Wolf.

“What… no hugs?” I meant it as a joke, but Al rushed forward hugging my gnarly yellow banana colored wetsuit with passion, in spite of the drenched in saltwater reality. I patted her back gingerly. “Hey… Al, don’t insult my shark intervention guy Clint with shadows of doubt. He takes his job very seriously, kid.”

Clint wrapped a comforting arm around Al. “Listen to the Dark Lord, Al. I would never allow a shark strike on DL. I admit that one fooled me. I figured him to be in a curious state. My bad. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

My monsters all laughed, except for Al. She was pissed. Al clutched Clint’s shoulders as he knelt next to her. “Don’t do that!”

Al wiped at the tears. “I’m sorry… but please don’t do that.”

Clint was caught unawares. He is so good, the rest of us simply accept his expertise in protection of the Cheeseburger without doubt. Al fronting him left a mark no humorous write-off would answer as she stared grimly into his eyes. Clint recovered in true monster form although I knew it rattled him. “All sharks die from this moment on, Al. You have my word.”

Al hugged him without pretense, her head against his chest. “Thank you. I…I know how good you all are, but please don’t let anything happen to my Dad in these training sessions.”

Clint disengaged from Al, and held her at the shoulders. “You have my word, Al. Ask anyone here. It is my bond. I will waste sea life from now until kingdom come if they even appear while your Dad is in the water. I hope today’s incursion into the training regimen doesn’t discourage you and your Mom from sailing with us in the future.”

Al sobbed at Clint’s declaration. She gripped the sides of his head with tearful acknowledgement. "Thank you! I didn’t mean to be such a baby.”

Clint took her hands in both of his, kissing each of them. “We monsters sometimes go too far with our jokes, Al. Thank you for highlighting one that will never happen again. I was not on my game today. I took a few things for granted I normally don’t. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Never hesitate for a moment to point out something you see that makes you uncomfortable. I heard about the way you nailed the killer at the Las Vegas airport, when an entire team of professionals thought nothing of him. This is your second right call. There’s no way I should have let your Dad get bumped.”

Al hugged Clint tightly. “I only thought the guy in the airport was going to have his way with my Mom, and DL was going to let him.”

Oh yeah, the crew enjoyed that explanation. Then we had much bigger problems. Lucas speeded the Wolf to full speed without warning, adapting a zigzag pattern as we shot over the waves. “Incoming… two cruiser type vehicles… unknown origin… cannot get them on the radio.”

Lucas kept it short and sweet. We were under attack. The monster squad didn’t bother with surprised looks or worthless exclamations. Lynn grabbed Al up in her arms, and Lora by the hand, dragging them below decks. One look from Lynn, and Dannie followed her with Amara in hand without a word. The Wolf was a warship, which these attacking assholes didn’t know. They would have had to have torpedoes to puncture the hull, and long range weapons to do any damage above decks at the distance Lucas put between us and them. Lucas networked Denny into our ears as we scrambled to battle stations. Casey manned the .50 caliber machine gun as Lucas activated our pop-out armament nests. I took the XM307 25mm grenade airburst gun which can fire 250 rounds per minute. Clint found a comfortable position with his MP5.

Also in the XM307 nest I had my M107 sniper rifle with swivel mounting. Picking off targets on a ship at sea is of course a difficult task at best, but as the old commercial stated back in the day: practice… practice… practice. The Spawn of Satan came on as we completed our readiness tasks. He at least began with asking about our safety first. Lucas had already signaled we could outrun them easily. That meant Denny could request prisoners, because Casey and I would disable their craft while Lucas maneuvered in and out of firing positions.

“Give it to me plain, John. I know you have Snow Whites on board. You call the shots. I’ve radioed the Coast Guard. I have-”

I had seen the overhead burst, thinking they had their own airburst weapon. Uh oh. We were deader than the proverbial doorknob instantly after the burst, including communications. I didn’t waste time with analyzing the situation. Lucas jogged to my side, taking the M107. “EMP Case. Let’s rip ‘em. Fire at will, Clint.”

The four of us fired everything we had, and let me tell you, we shocked our predators right to hell. Casey worked the below decks on both cruisers with armor piercing .50 caliber bursts. Lucas took out the bridge inhabitants with workman like accuracy. He knows how to shoot from the deck of a moving or floundering sea craft. Clint raked the bridges of both vessels with short bursts that finished off their equipment nearly as well as their EMP blast did ours. Then it was my turn when our pursuit lost forward motion. The 25mm grenade shots disintegrated everything above the waterline in airburst mayhem. By silent agreement, we did target practice after the boats were helpless. I didn’t waste ammo, but I did add more devastating rounds to the carnage caused by my initial shots. My three brethren picked what they wanted to hit, and practiced. It would be hard to explain this to the Coast Guard in United States territorial waters, but such is life in monster land. We put away all our weapons, closing the pop-out nests. Clint went down to assure our passengers all was well, and to make sure they had enough emergency lighting to see. He came above decks with four beers.

“Damn exciting training day, John,” Clint said, toasting us with his beer. “The girls are eating up the ice cream Lucas had in his freezer.”

“We had the tools, we had the knowhow, it’s Miller time,” Casey added. “It’s my turn on the XM307 next time, DL.”

“They killed my baby,” Lucas lamented, his hand patting the railing of the floundering Sea Wolf. “You know of course… this means war.”

“You think you’re pissed,” Clint replied. “I have a steaming Cruella Deville below decks who not only didn’t get to fire a weapon, she also won’t find a survivor aboard either good ship lollipop to torture. God only knows the concessions I will have to make in smoothing over this debacle.”

“Great shakedown cruise though,” Casey said. “We may be dead in the water, but we’re not in the Gulf of Guinea either. We’ll have to have shielding when we go overseas with the Wolf. We’ll have to have everything shielded with those Faraday Cages. We’re lucky this happened. Man, I wish we could have chanced getting one alive, but I’m not fond of taking prisoners from sitting duck land. I wonder how much they’ll be able to salvage on the wrecks. I know what the airbursts did to the decks, but I believe we can agree there won’t be much left below decks either.”

I pointed at what was left. They were doing a Titanic type sink below the waves. Casey had literally cut a groove below the waterline with the fifty in each boat so they looked like they were smiling as they sunk out of sight. “We’ll let Denny send in people to pick apart the wreckage. Let’s talk about these guys having EMP weapons. Anyone else thinking someone Denny’s dealing with for the Gulf of Guinea operation leaked the info, and painted a target on us? It also means the boats had a prototype of some kind. They knocked us the hell out, and they had their systems shielded already, or they would have been taking a chance on damaging their own rides.”