Red Rock Island (Damian Green Book 1) (21 page)

Chapter Thirty Four

“Sort of. This time there were five of them and they pulled up to my beach, which is on the other side of the island from the water cannons you were firing. The two that came onto my island were prepared; they were wearing dive masks expecting to be shot with pepper juice, but I don’t have that loaded into the cannons on that side of the island; it’s just straight bay water.”

“Did they get up your hillside?” Ariana asked.

“This time I called the police as five guys with assault weapons is a little much for me to take on. They sent a boat and a copter and two officers went to the Richmond Marina and caught a second boat. The copter chased the boat containing three men and I was left with the two men on my beach for about ten minutes before the boat from the Richmond Marina arrived.”

“What happened next?” asked Hermione “Weren’t you scared?”

“Two bad guys with assault weapons? You bet I was scared! I put security enhancements into my house, but it was with the thought of a single guy with a gun; not a party of five with automatic weapons. Plus I was worried for my cats, hoping they had the common sense to take cover in one of the many small caves on the hillsides, but it wasn’t as if I could go outside and yell for them to come in.

“The deputy suggested I aim the water cannon at the assault weapons rather than the men’s faces to cause their gun to fail so I did that and it worked with one of the guns. I also dropped homemade green ink bombs on the guys in the boat and purple smoke bombs on the beach to block their vision.”

Hermione clapped her hands while Ariana gave Damian a high five as she asked, “Why green ink?”

“I developed this heavily staining lime green ink that I filled a water balloon with and had my drone drop it on the guys in the boat until the poor drone was shot down, but the guys won’t get the ink off of themselves likely for a month or so. That makes them easier to capture when they’re wearing the evidence.”

“This sounds very funny but it’s not since you could have been killed,” Ariana remarked in a serious tone.

“If it makes you feel better, I paused for about two seconds to laugh at the guy with green ink on his face. I was musing earlier that they obviously thought they would be successful at killing me as they arrived with no disguises on their faces. That just made them easy targets for me and my green ink water balloons.”

“I don’t need to go to the movies anymore,” Hermione observed. “I’ll just call you up and ask you about your day.”

Damian chuckled.

Ariana asked, “So backup arrived to help you with the two goons left on your island?”

“Yes the deputies beached their boat on the skinny shoreline in the cove next to the one that contained the two men. About the same time a second police boat arrived as well as two copters from neighboring municipalities.”

“So they were arrested and hauled away to jail?” Hermione asked.

“No, although I didn’t realize it at the time, the masks the guys on shore were wearing were diving masks. They pulled their clothes off and dove into the water in wetsuits. Just as they went under I noticed they had one of those mini tanks that allows you to breathe for about five minutes underwater. We never saw them again so we think they left scuba tanks underwater, swam down to pick them up and escaped.”

“Wow!” said Hermione.

“How about the guys in the boat with the green ink? Did they at least capture them?” Ariana asked.

“I just got word on my way over here, that they headed straight out to the ocean and the copter pilot had to let them go when he became worried about having enough fuel to return to land.”

“That sucks,” declared Hermione.

“Yeah that’s pretty much my feeling. All those bullets, all that effort, and the police have nothing to show for it. Their crime scene team stayed behind on my island for nearly eight hours collecting evidence, but I haven’t heard of any identification of any of the five men so far.”

“You must’ve had a hard time sleeping last night. I know I would’ve worried that the men would come back and yet been exhausted, from the adrenaline rush from earlier in the day.”

“Yeah that pretty well sums up my evening. I needed to chill out and debated coming over here, but in case I was somehow being watched at that time I didn’t want to lead anyone to you guys. So I went to my favorite bar in Oakland where they make the best cheeseburgers in the world.”

“You should’ve come here; we could’ve played a game to take your mind off the day,” Ariana suggested.

“We could’ve played Destiny on Xbox. I’m really good at it and you would’ve had to concentrate hard on the game rather than the problems you’re having with these people if you wanted to beat me.”

“Ladies, thank you for your support, but it turns out I made a good choice in going to Pete’s. I met an ex-gang member there. I asked him how he had left the gang alive. Natalie, my friend the detective, is checking his story out but everything I could find on the guy says he’s legit.”

“What was his advice?” asked Ariana.

“The strategy that Natalie and I used against the brotherhood was to share some of their more explosive emails with the Black Guerrillas who are their natural enemy inside the prison walls.”

“Sounds reasonable, but given the attacks on your island, I would say your strategy is not working,” Ariana commented.

“You’d be right about that; it’s not working. Angus Walsh is the ex-gang member and he was sent to prison for a murder he claimed he never committed. After DNA testing and twenty years in prison, he was exonerated and released. He knew the gang would expect him to work for them on the outside and he wanted to cut all ties. The Brotherhood is hard to run from as they generally have a branch in every prison in the United States. They get their income from drug trafficking on the outside.”

“So what was his suggestion?” Hermione asked.

“The guy strikes me as having an above-average intelligence and he indicated that he had a photographic memory. So photographic that he could remember every conversation of his adult life and a good part of his life when he was a child. He pretended to be illiterate and slow while in prison and so the gang leadership relaxed while they were in his presence and said things they shouldn’t have. He collected all their comments about other brotherhood members both in prison and out and threatened to share it with them if he was harmed. Their leadership would not have survived such a betrayal.”

“So how can you use it on these guys that are after you?” Ariana asked.

“I was going to talk to Angus at length, but first I wanted it confirmed by Natalie that he was who he said he was. I’d hate for the gang to be setting me up for a big fall.”

“Okay, makes sense. You think you’ll have an answer soon?”

“Yes, I would expect one today.”

“Good! Let’s go teach Hermione scuba diving in the meantime!”

Ariana had the girl read the course as though she was going to be certified. While both Damian and Ariana were certified, they were not instructors and therefore could not certify Hermione. If the kid liked what she did today, then they would get her certified and take her somewhere special.

In less than half an hour, Hermione mastered using the scuba equipment in Ariana’s pool. They moved on to the bay and practiced on the shore with the distraction of the waves. They’d had to put Miguel inside as the dog wanted to participate in this experience. Once they were comfortable that Hermione was operating the equipment as it was supposed to be operated, they took her farther out to explore the bay. Damian was tempted to put a diver’s flag on the water to inform nearby boaters that they were underwater, but they were moving all over the place and the flag wouldn’t really indicate where they were in the water.

After some time passed, Damian indicated that it was time to return to Ariana’s house. Without diversions along the way, the return trip was much faster than the one going out. Damian thought it a terrible place to scuba dive as there was so much junk on the floor of the bay and none of it interesting.

They surfaced and began walking up the beach.

“So what do you think? Would you like to get certified?” Ariana asked.

“Yeah, I would. I’ve seen pictures of how beautiful it can be, just not here. There was a lot of pollution down there.”

“Awesome,” exclaimed Damian. “Ariana, do you want to sign her up or should I? I’ve a friend who’s an instructor and he taught me.”

“Why don’t you take the lead on this one? You’re a more careful diver and so it’s better to learn your habits rather than mine.”

“That’s for sure. I don’t want her to learn your carelessness for scuba diving,” Damian agreed.

“Are you ever going to let go of my mistake?” Ariana asked.

“No, but the tea you sent me is softening my memory,” he replied.

Hermione clapped her hands in glee and laughed. “I wish I’d been there to see it. Sounds pretty funny when you described it last time.”

“I told you the story so you remember not to be dumb like Ariana and run out of air. If she’d been far below water, it would have been dangerous to come up quickly and if she tried the long swim back to her house, she risked being run over by a ferry.”

“I would tell you not to call me names, but you’re right I was stupid. Of course now that I know why my cell phone didn’t work, I feel like you contributed to my problems,” Ariana added in her defense. “If I’d known I only had to get back in the water and swim out about fifty yards to make use of my cellphone, I wouldn’t have needed your help.”

“So what happened?”

“I filled her tank and she swam back home.”

“Once I got home, I tried to learn who Manny was.”

“Manny?” asked Hermione in confusion.

“Manny, as in Man of the Island.”

“I had to tell her my name then if only to get away from that horrible nickname.”

Ariana and Damian smiled at each other as the kid had never laughed so much in their presence and that could only be healthy for her. If all they had to do was repeat the story then they would keep it going as long as they could.

“When I couldn’t figure out who he was, yet I still wanted to thank him, I ordered that drone that you use to drop balls for Miguel. I got the idea from Damian as he used his drone to send me a cup of tea and to move my air tank up the cliff. I practiced for three days and then drove over to his island with two boxes of tea for him. Two, in case I dropped one in the bay.”

“Did you drop it in the bay?” Hermione asked appalled at the thought that Ariana was such a poor operator.

“Nope, got it on the first try. I put a camera on the bottom of it so I could see where I was going.”

“Ariana parked her boat beyond my security sensors, so I had no idea she’d left me a present until I opened my front door to go fishing for Bella and Bailey and there was the package on the doorstep.”

“So you bent down and opened it and called Ariana?” Hermione said thinking she knew where the story was going.

“Actually no. I did a quick calculation of how much damage a box that size could do if it was filled with explosives. You see, I’ve owned that island for nearly seven years and lived on it for a little more than six and I’ve not had a single package delivered to my doorstep in all that time.”

“Wow,” Hermione said filled with new respect over the ingenuity of Ariana’s gift.

“Then I saw it addressed to ‘The Man on The Island’ and somehow I knew it was safe to open.”

“So the moral of the story,” Ariana said, “Is to thank a tech guy by using tech to get his attention!”

“That’s a really great story. How soon did that happen before you met me?”