Hard Case VII - Red Waves (John Harding Series Book 7) (35 page)

“So you’re taking on the ‘Dragon’ tomorrow? Can I come, Dad?”

“It’s business tomorrow, Al. I can’t have you anywhere near the place when we’re dealing with strange gangs. If we tape it and it’s not too bloody, I’ll watch it with you.”

“Is everyone going, Dark Lord? I smell something funky in this setup. That lawyer called. I forgot to tell you after we started modeling our cruise clothes. Mr. Cantor said to tell you thank God you’re around. Do I want to know why we’re thanking God for your continued existence? I thought that job had to do with a bond skip you and Tommy didn’t want.”

“We had to help him in a different way. It turned out his ex-clients were serial killers. Their endings were not easy. They were destroying Cantor’s life along with killing unsuspecting teens they lured onto their ‘Dark Web’ site. That’s why you have to be careful on the Internet, Al. These hackers were so good they could instantly trace where their intended victims were and stalk them.”

“Wow! And you caught them?”

“We did. Clint and Jafar set a trap for them with Samira doing an incredible performance to help as the unsuspecting victim.”

“Do you have to testify at their trials, Dad? That… oh… they’re not around for trial, huh?”

“We couldn’t take any chances, Al. Mr. Cantor’s family was in danger along with the victims they were plotting to kill.”

“I understand. Some folks just need killin’.”

“Al!” Lora nearly pulled over on that one. “That’s not funny! You can’t keep mimicking the Monster talk you hear. Idiots today in charge could hear of you repeating remarks like that and they could try and take you away from us.”

Al giggled. “Yeah… that’ll happen. Okay…okay… I’ll be careful. Nick has a daughter named Jean, right Dad?”

“Yes. Before we change subjects, your Mom’s right about spewing out stuff like that, Al. We’re in very dangerous times right now. As to Nick’s daughter, I believe she and her Mom came through a very dangerous time Nick helped them survive.”

“I bet she knows the score,” Al said confidently. “I’m glad there are Monsters. I bet Jean is too.”

“Maybe so.” I decided on a quiet response with the hopes of Lora letting this line of questioning fade away since we were drawing close to home. Fat chance.

“I’ll be glad when there isn’t any need for Monsters.”

“Like Lynn says, Mom – it is what it is. No one can really stop the hideous people doing monstrous things without Monsters. Remember that face book page of the woman who had acid thrown in her face because she was a respected doctor? She knows those Sharia Law guys are evil. Dad’s Monsters stop them.”

Actually, Al made the rest of the trip quiet, at least until we had the house in sight. Someone had done a redecorating of our house front. Gee, just when I thought we had earned some respect with Oaktown, the thugs show us the reality of the semi-famous. They mostly graffiti covered my front with that curly crap nonsense. I had the girls stay in the car while I looked it over. The door also carried a note: Property of High Street Loners. That was awfully sweet and thoughtful of them to sign on to their work. I took pictures with my iPhone and sent them to Clint and Jafar. We needed to work the tags in case something else was going on in the background. I kept my eyes scanning the neighborhood while checking my new decor. It was still early. When I was certain no one remained in the shadows or watching from nearby I went to our vehicle to walk Lora and Al inside. The phone rang. It was Lynn of course.

“Hi Sis.”

“We don’t like this, Cheese. Clint says this will take a very hard message reply to make sure no one else thinks they can invade our domain without paying in blood.”

“We’ll take care of it tomorrow night. I figured doing the research on the symbols these morons leave behind may give us the origin of these ‘Loners’. I think we’re hitting rough times. First Juthamah and the Albanians and now Dragon Hands rising again with a new bunch of posers. I have Al and Lora inside now. I’ll check my cam feeds and send you anything that looks interesting. They didn’t touch anything but they got the spray painting done quickly. They must have had a jammer to stop my motion detectors from triggering the alarm.”

“That would have been some fun times if the alarm beeped you at The Warehouse. They may or may not have been able to get away in time. Clint’s making gestures at me he’s already working the symbols with Jafar. Do you have anyone who does painting?”

“I know a few. I’ll call them in the morning and make sure I can get the repainting done as soon as possible. Al’s mimicking you.”

Lynn chuckled while relaying the remark to Clint. “What can I say? I’m a role model. Talk at you tomorrow. Get your game face on, Cheese. Hands has made a fatal error. No Smokey the Bear crap tomorrow.”

“Let’s not forget about a recon on Alexi’s place well before the ‘Loners’ meeting. I’ll take Lucas and Casey on a thorough check of the neighborhood. We’ll call you when we finish. I hope this turns out to be simple gang stupidity.”

“I hear you. We’ll work it careful. I know if there’s any weak spots in our fight arena area you guys will find them. Tell Al not to take the Cruella Deville act too far.”

“Will do.”

* * *

“This is perfect!” The black hooded figure grinned at his three cohorts in the darkness. They waited in what they considered a perfect spot for an ambush. Their nest was on the roof of the dilapidated warehouse across from Alexi’s fight arena.

The speaker and his three friends were armed with Uzis. Their visuals included the entire front of Alexi Fiialkov’s warehouse fight arena. One of the others stood to check over the small surrounding ledge.

“This is a kill zone. Oaktown dies tonight. ‘Loners’ rule!”

A chorus of gesturing hands and nodding barks of agreement echoed around the barren roof moments before the access door banged open.

* * *

“Ah kids… what’s the matter with kids today. Spot on John,” Casey said, handing me back my range finders. It’s night time, my element. Let me wipe them all off the roof right now with my little MP5 beauty. I have a reputation to uphold as Nightshot Casey.”

I had to catch Lucas in my arm as he bull rushed across the roof we had been scanning rooftops from. “Easy Lucas.”

“I’ll Nightshot you… you arrogant prick! Let’s get down from here and go collect those toads. Tell me why we don’t just blow all their heads off from here.”

“Same as always,” I replied, pushing the still laughing Casey ahead of me toward the roof access. We need to investigate possible ties to the Albanians or Isis. We could have a Starlight mission problem we don’t know about. We own enough gangs in this city, our ears and eyes on the street should have warned us of a ‘Loners’ rise.”

“There’s too much, Recon,” Lucas agreed. “We’ve let so damn many of them into the country, we can’t stay ahead of all the plots hatching in our ears. That was a great call from Denny. At least Nick was able to grab Mohammed Al Sirani. That video Nick made Al Sirani make was hilarious. They wiped out the whole crew and made Al Sirani take the rap convincingly.”

“Agreed. Nick is nearly as entertaining as Crue. His contacts putting him on to Al Sirani was a Godsend. By the time we get this shit done with the ‘Loners’ Denny will be arriving with our special guest star for an introduction to Crue. Time to go, brothers.” We had already checked vehicles and adjoining streets. I led the way using careful cover while remaining beyond line of vision from the four dolts planning an ambush.

They left their access wide open, telling us this may be simply a case of a gang trying to win the yearly Darwin Award. We did so quietly, but we approached all the way to the roof access without pause. I had on my double Kevlar protection for the Cheeseburger ram through and take the first hit. I heard one of them call out ‘Oaktown dies tonight’ followed by ‘Loner’s Rule’.

The door banged wide open on its hinges. I ran in a full bore straight ahead charge. The posers didn’t get a shot off before I rammed the guy standing by the roof ledge. My hit slammed all the air out of him. I jerked him over my head and smashed him into the deck. Lucas and Casey covered the other three while I threw my gasping roof decoration hard onto his back. We punched and kicked the remaining three to the roof’s surface to join their buddy.

“So you four little turds thought ambushing Monsters was a good idea,” Lucas said while Casey and I stripped them of cell-phones and other goodies. “When we get done with your gang, I doubt there will be even one Loner around.”

“Oaktown dies tonight and ‘Loners’ Rule, huh boys,” Casey drawled. He shook his head. “Sucks to be you.”

“You can’t hold us!” My wrestling buddy found his voice again.

I snatched him again over my head, only this time I walked him over to the ledge. I pitched him all the way to the street without damaging any innocent vehicles. He squealed convincingly in protest on the way down to a double dead cat bounce. I think he said something like ‘Nooooooooo…’ but it was a short trip. I turned to the other three face painted morons.

“Anyone else think we can’t hold them. Your buddy was right. We don’t have to hold you at all.”

Silence, except for Lucas and Casey enjoying my rather blunt illustration of reality.

“Okay, good. Now, who wants to tell me what the plan is tonight? I can give you another demo as to what happens if I don’t get an answer.”

“No!” One of the others barked as I sighed and went for another snatch and throw. “We was to wait until you all… faced off… down in the street. Then we blasts from above.”

“No fight?”

“Only if we got called off. We-”

Then one of the cell-phones rang. I gave Case the high sign. He put the point of his blade under the chin of the one I was speaking to. I held the phone close to him.

“Acknowledge everything just as normal or my partner sticks his blade up through your pea brain.” I hit the receive button.

“Yeah?” Dopey listened for a while before answering. I heard snatches of hold in place for the fight. “I got it.”

I disconnected for him. “Very good. They’ve decided to do the fight then?”

“Yeah. Toby said we’d get you all on your way out, but to stay in sight so he knows we in position.”

“That’ll work. I brought along just the thing to keep you guys visible for your crew without interrupting anything.” I jabbed eternity into each one of the survivor’s necks. These clowns didn’t know shit and time was wasting. I looked at my smiling Monsters. I shrugged. “Let’s get them into position.”

“I’m tellin’,” Casey said. “Crue won’t like this.”

“We’ll have other toys.”

“Recon’s right. These turds are a waste of time although if he would have shown a little patience we could have found out who redecorated his house.”

Damn it. “You’re right, Pappy. Oh well. We’ll know soon.”

We put together a formidable scene with our dead cutouts propped with weapons ready to blaze for their buddies to see. I hurried down and dragged dead cat bounce out of the street while Lucas and Casey retrieved our action van. Casey and I hurriedly put him in a body bag without being seen. Believe me, no one strolls around by these warehouses at night other than Monsters. If Alexi did put together a fight audience, they don’t arrive until security for their vehicles and person are in place. We stopped by Pain Central where my corner crew awaited our return. We’d be arriving for the meeting in true Oaktown Cartel form with Tommy, Dev, Jess, and Jafar in their very handsome suits with matching panama and bowler hats. Naturally, we would be using our stretch limo. Casey and Lucas would be joining Clint and Lynn as our ultimate killer support group for the initial meeting.

“Damn… you guys look great tonight.”

“Thanks, DL,” Dev said. “How was business?”

“About the way we figured,” Lucas answered. “Four Snow Whites thinking to shoot up Oaktown. It was entertaining but Recon broke everyone of Crue’s toys.”

There were heartfelt gasps from our brothers.

“Oh no you didn’t!” Jess was not liking the sound of that. “You know better than that, John. We’re traveling with you. She may decide to take it out on whoever’s closest. I think you need to get your wrongdoing out front right away, face to face, brother.”

“I’m glad,” Tommy stated. “At least John doesn’t tiptoe around psycho like a three year old fearing the boogeyman.”

“At least DL isn’t training with her out on the waves,” Dev added. “That was a first class decision to ban her from the training sessions. Achmed showed courage putting together the video collage of Lynn being snapped into the water at the end of the pole. With a title like ‘Dunked by the Dark Lord’ it was a classic.”

“Yes, it was very nice until all of my so called friends deserted me after the Cruella Deville saw it,” Jafar complained. “If not for Samira and John, my feet would have been headed for Dr. Deville’s Podiatry clinic.”

“In our defense, brother Achmed, we never told you to manufacture a ‘sure to offend’ video, starring the dunks of Deville,” Tommy said. “It was hell-a-good though while it lasted.”

“I could have watched that damn vid a few more dozen times,” Lucas said.

Jafar looked around as if expecting Dr. Deville to sneak in at any moment. “What makes you think I do not keep copies of everything I do?”