Hard Case V: Blood and Fear (A John Harding Novel Book 5) (19 page)

“No doubt this was a hit,” Clint agreed. “They had no way of knowing the conventional weapons we have on the Wolf. Lucas was scary good with his sixth sense going out on the Wolf instead of The Lora. We had enough firepower on The Lora to give them a hell of a battle, but we don’t know what kind of weapons they were bringing to the party. It’s obvious they wanted to take the Wolf unharmed, and us prisoners… for a short time anyway.”

“Shit! I almost forgot we have a satellite uplink in a shielded case below decks,” Lucas said. “I’ll go get it. Be right back.”

Lucas handed it to Clint when he returned. Clint had us on with Denny in moments. We could tell he was on a helicopter.

“Damn, it’s good to hear from you guys. I expected the worst,” Denny said. “I commandeered a Coast Guard Pelican Transport. Laredo’s driving. We’ll get you all off the Sea Wolf. Anything left of the attack boats?”

“Not much, Denny,” Clint answered. “You may be able to sift through the wreckage. They hit us with an EMP airburst weapon. We didn’t wait for them to get close. No way they could have come after us without help.”

“Understood. I’ll pull some strings, and see if I can put this under top secret lockdown. I have two Coast Guard cruisers heading to your position. They’ll be working salvage for bodies, and whatever they can find. I don’t want you guys interacting with the Coast Guard. I have a man on each Coast Guard boat in case I don’t get you away from there before they arrive. They will scour those attack boats for anything and everything. This puts a new face on our problems – namely as you guys have already figured, I have a leak on my end. Do you still have your banana suit on, John?”

“Unfortunately yes, Spawn.”

“You don’t have to do it, but the Coast Guard is forty-five minutes away from your position because I needed my guys on board. Would you swim over and see if you can find anything in the debris.”

“You do understand there is blood in the water, right?”

“The sharks will never attack the Great Banana,” Denny replied to much amusement from my compatriots. "Please… pretty please.”

“Fine! I’m not doing a search operation for more than the emergency air breathing piece allows, I carry with me in training.”

“Much appreciated, John. I’ll be there very soon to start loading everyone. Spawn out.”

“Go on, John. I’ll do the best I can from our nest with the M107,” Lucas said. “It’s a damn good thing the nest pops out and in hydraulically without any electrical component.”

“The rest of us will be on the railing, compadre,” Clint added. “As I promised Al, we’ll kill everything in the water near you if we can see it. We have the emergency inflatable if you’d like Case and I to paddle with you over there.”

I arranged my hood and goggles, “Nope. I’ll be okay. I want you guys to ensure our ladies make it aboard the helicopter with as few problems as possible. Lucas will watch my back… what he can see of it. Remember, I’m the yellow one, Lucas.”

“Get in the fuckin’ water, Recon! If you keep whinin’ much longer, we’ll have the damn Coast Guard on our backs.”

After that reminder of duty I was in the water in short order, propelling full speed to the debris. Yep. There were bodies, body parts, and sharks. They were busy in the water. We probably waited too long for me to get in here. On the plus side, my yellow suit was not attractive to the sharks. Black looks much like their meals. I spent most of my time by the bodies, looking for ID’s before the sharks intervened. When I surfaced after nearly twenty minutes, the bodies I’d encountered rendered nothing in the way of identification. While sifting through the debris after my initial ID hunt, I noticed movement a hundred yards away from our debris mess. Someone was stroking away from our danger zone. A live one! This was so good in relation to what I expected, I charged behind him so convincingly in noise and stroke, the idiot thought I was a great white moving in for the kill.

I stroked easily in next to him. His lips were already turning blue from hypothermia. It’s cold in the Bay waters, low fifties and sometimes below. This guy was a good swimmer. I’ll give him that. I removed my breathing apparatus, and stuck it in my wet suit pocket. “Hi there, cutie. Want to get out of the water in one piece?”

He recognized me as a human being and attacked, not to damage me, but to try and cling to me like a safety buoy in a tropical storm. This guy was seriously freaked out. I immediately dived, which caused him to release me instantly. I surfaced again with a wave. Instead of the Dark Lord, I accessed the Terminator. “Come with me if you want to live!”

“Yes! Yes! Please… help me out of the water!”

“Follow me with strong strokes. It will help you keep warm. Make another move to grab me, and I take you for a dive.”

He followed me on the swim back. Lucas had to plug a nice sized great white targeting my swimming partner dressed all in black. By the time we made it to the Sea Wolf, the guy was done. I had to haul him on board by the scruff of his neck. Laredo waved at me from the cockpit of his newly acquired Pelican Transport. Clint and Lucas waited for me, having already transferred our precious cargo with an ingenious transfer line from the Sea Wolf to the Pelican. It holds twenty-eight passengers and a crew of three, so we’d be fine.

“Nice catch, John,” Clint said as he secured the prisoner, and threw a blanket around him. He and Lucas put him in the bucket next for transfer with Casey and Denny ready to receive.

“We go next, Recon,” Lucas directed. “You then detach our bucket transfer and swim over. Don’t bother with the banana suit. Strip down to your skivvies and dive over.”

“The banana suit stays, Ahab. Now get your old ass over onto the helicopter before I heave you through the hatch.”

Lucas was still chuckling as we sent him over. Clint was next. Then I undid the Pelican Transport apparatus for transfer. It only took me a couple moments to stroke over, and get hauled aboard. All I could think of was it would be nice to get out of the banana suit, and that it was a good thing the weather stayed calm, or we would have had a hellacious time transferring our people in rough seas. I stripped out of my dry-suit, and sat down in my long johns by Lora and Al. Dannie and Amara sat together on the other side of Al. Amara’s eyes were as wide as saucers. I don’t think she ever intended to have this much adventure. Al simply looked excited. Lora put her arm around my neck, leaning into me despite the smell. Laredo exercised the smoothest takeoff possible once we drifted clear of the Sea Wolf, and we were on our way home.

“I should have brought along some Fabreeze pine scent with me,” I joked.

“I’m glad to have you next to me. So much for a little jaunt around the Bay, huh?”

“We’ll be back in time for the game. I see Denny and Lynn over comforting my swim partner in the back.”

“Yeah, and he’s not real pleased about it either,” Lora replied.

“The other guys were laughing at him, Dad. He kept insisting he wouldn’t say anything until he spoke to his lawyer.”

“I don’t think that will end well for him, Al.” I leaned back, closing my eyes. “I believe a little nap is in order. I still have a softball game to coach. How about a movie and popcorn night in the quiet of our entertainment room?”

“Sounds like heaven to me,” Lora agreed.

“I’m in,” Al said, “but I want my own bowl of popcorn. You two scarf it down so fast, I hardly get a handful.”

She drew laughs from Dannie and Amara who had been listening in, which helped rid Amara of her glassy eyed stare.

“We’ll be having pizza after the game, you little glutton.”

“I don’t have to worry about my weight, Dad, but Mom on the other hand…”

And that’s how the fight started.

* * *

The minions met us as per Denny’s instruction, taking charge of our unhappy pirate. Having the kids on board, Lynn had to restrain herself with small facts of reality about what would soon be happening if her Huckleberry didn’t tell us everything from the day he was born. Denny showed him a couple of movies showcasing Lynn’s work in the past. Let’s just say he was one terrified munchkin by the time Laredo landed. Jess met us with our limo so we could retrieve our vehicles from the Marina after Lucas gained Denny’s word the Wolf would be completely checked over and shielded from any more EMP attacks. Denny didn’t need much convincing. I could tell this attack out of nowhere shook him up. He went with the minions and prisoner to Pain Central for answers.

I arrived, accompanying Lora and Al with all the equipment I needed in our soccer mom van. A full crew of coaches arrived soon after, pleased to be participating in a simple girls’ softball game, especially Lynn. I could tell she had rested during the brief few hours since getting home from the unexpected helicopter ride. Warmups entertained in humorous ways as I received the usual complaints about my pitching while Lynn coached the base running. Then the unexpected happened as the two opposing teams’ fans and family arrived, taking their seats in the small sections of bleachers in a semicircle around the field. Yuri and Marko arrived to sit behind the opposing team’s dugout. Everyone on our side recognized them, putting a grim aspect to what had been a lighthearted diversion. I grinned. Soon the bill for all this was coming due, and I planned on collecting interest.

Lynn bumped against me after delivering the player sheet to the umpire, escorted by the very happy Tonto who had mascot duty. “I see this day will be remaining interesting no matter where we are. I see that look in your eyes, DL. Dreaming about next Friday night, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” It was then both Yuri and Marko waved at me. “I guess that answers the question whether they knew about our earlier adventure.”

“Yep. It means they know a bunch more now about us,” Lynn agreed, waving back at them for me. “You can have Marko the Assassin. I want Yuri. I can’t stand the sight of that smirking prick. This is their cute ploy to let us know they’re onto us. I bet they didn’t like it we survived. I know Yuri didn’t. After the training session this morning, I’m betting Marko will be sorry you survived when match night comes.”

I kept my eyes locked on to the visitors. “Yeah, he will, Lynn. I know he has something he plans on springing as a surprise during the match. I don’t know what the surprise is, but I plan on making it a two way deal. Yuri’s all yours. Be patient until we smoke out his buddy, the Ghost. Then we will get real busy.”

“Of course,” Lynn said amiably. “Well, it looks like the ump and opposing team’s coach are done stroking each other. You do know they’re banging each other, right?”

Everything has a few bad kinks in it. “Yeah, I heard the rumors. It appears they’re true. Manny’s a good ump, and they don’t get paid. He’ll call a straight game.”

Lynn chuckled. “You’re so cute, you naïve little bugger. There won’t be anything straight about this game. The fix is in. The only question is how far he’ll go to keep tapping the minx.”

“Hopefully not far enough to cause a riot. We have a few hotheads amongst our parenting core too. We’ve toned them down, but anything real obvious will set them off again. Maybe it will be a blowout one way or the other.”

“If it is, it better be us on top, coach.”

“Seriously, Lynn, let’s keep the focus on the game for the girls’ sake. I don’t like Yuri and Marko deciding to take in the game. Here comes Clint.”

Lynn put an arm around Clint as he moved next to her. “Casey’s coaching third. I’m taking first base today. Tommy volunteered to do the scorecard. Everyone else will be watching for trouble. This puts another new spin on things. Batter up, coach.”

“Indeed. Lynn thinks the fix is in.”

Clint nodded. “I saw how cozy Manny was with Elaine, and we’re not the only ones. I heard some rumblings in our bleacher section.”

“After this morning, I’d have to say it’s a small thing, brother.”

“Amen to that.”

* * *

The game was a good one in spite of Manny’s calling balls and strikes like his bedroom hopes were riding on them, much to Lynn’s amusement. The parents settled on protesting each obvious strike Manny called a ball with a concerted groan. Luckily his paramour’s team liked to swing at strikes, so I made sure our pitchers knew to not do anything fancy. They did well throwing strikes, and our fielding was as good as I’d hoped. We were leading six to four. Manny was showing signs of frustration from the parental groaning chorus, mixed in with timeouts called for private conferences by Elaine to protest something or other. Lynn comically substituted her own dialogue between the two in a whisper to me – very entertaining jewels like ‘if you ever want sex with anything other than your hand, you better start calling the game like you mean it’.

So here we were in the last inning with the bases loaded, no outs, and the tying run on second base. Manny’s strike and ball calling had returned to Coach Elaine’s game plan, and our pitcher Julie was losing concentration. The parental groaning choir was heating up with the addition of Devon and Jesse, who had stopped by after their business driving stint, adding a couple more booming base voices for Manny to deal with.

“I’m switching Julie and Al,” I said to Lynn. “Maybe Al can close this out.”

“Okay, but let me handle it,” Lynn replied, signaling for a timeout. “I want to make sure Julie knows she hasn’t done anything wrong. Besides, I’d like to make sure Al’s okay with it.”

“Sounds good.” Clint, Casey, and I were trying not to stand with our fingers laced through the cage links with our noses pressed against it. Girls’ softball turned out to be more exciting than EMP attacks.