Bad Luck Black Money (30 page)

Chapter 48

"You said five minutes!" yelled Major Elliot at his head nerd, Eugene. "And that was over twenty minutes ago!"

"Hey, I'm more surprised than you are," responded Eugene calmly. "I'd give my right arm to check out the tech that's doing this."

Sarcastically, Elliot said, "I'm so happy that you're impressed." Then the video feed from the drones came back on the monitors. The Major picked up a satellite phone, and Sergeant Leon Hernandez was on the other end.

"What's happening, Hernandez?"

Covered head to toe in dust, using one hand to hang on to the frame of his dune buggy, Leon shouted over the roaring engine into his satphone, "We are about thirty minutes out from target. Lost signal, but it's back now."

"I'm counting on you, Hernandez. Don't let me down."

"No, sir. Don't worry. I've got this under control."

Chapter 49

Prince Abdul led Prince Nalaheb into the room where Boss waited patiently. Abdul closed the door behind them.

"My brother has told me the good news," said Prince Nalaheb to Boss.

"Oh really," answered Boss. "And what might that good news be?"

"That you have decided to sell us the Day-2-Night Scrambler and not tell father," Prince Nalaheb answered with a puzzled look.

Silently, behind his brother's back, Abdul drew the bejeweled dagger from his waistband, reached around his brother's neck, and slashed Nalaheb's throat. Blood sprayed everywhere. Nalaheb desperately tried to hold the wound closed with both of his hands to no avail. A sickening, gurgling sound emanated from Nalaheb as he dropped to his knees then hard on the floor.

Before Prince Abdul had time to be horrified by his own murdering, blood-soaked hands, Boss punched the three digits at once into the D2NS, which caused the twin .45's to spring forth. He stabbed at the keypad again and a bulletproof shield shot up, partially surrounding him. Boss pushed a hidden panel on the contraption with his foot and the D2NS anticipated his every motion and moved in kind.

"Are there any more royals in the compound?" asked Boss.

"... What?" asked Prince Abdul, who was on the verge of shock at what he'd just done.

"Don't freak out on me, Abdul," Boss commanded in a loud, firm voice. "Listen to me. Are there any more sons or daughters or wives of King Jaheal here?"

"Not anymore," said Abdul looking down at his brother who had almost bled out. "But, but my men will take care of Nalaheb's guards. We will be safe, in here."

"Yeah, the thing about that is... I'm going to kill all of them. Dead men tell no tales."

"Rest assured, my men are loyal. They would never betray me."

"Yeah, don't care. I didn't come all this way, not to shoot people. Now, you stay in here. Try to ignore all this," Boss said while gesturing toward the gory remains of Prince Nalaheb. "Go rest on those big pillows over there. Try the chocolate covered almonds, they're very tasty."

The little fortress on wheels made whirling and cog cranking noises as it struggled to stay in perfect position in front of Boss. As it went through the doorway, Boss fired off four rounds, which hit the four guards standing on the far side of the wide hallway in their skulls. They were dead before they hit the floor.

The shielding on the D2NS in front of Boss, dampened some of the sound waves from the gunshots, but then they bounced off the stonewalls, granite floors, and dark glass ceiling. The net effect was like standing in front of speakers at a heavy metal concert.

"Earplugs, damn-it!" Boss said to himself. "Why the hell didn't I have earplugs put in this machine?"

The gunshots had the same effect as throwing rocks at a hornets' nest. Armed combatants swarmed through both sides of the hallway. Thanks to intensive training on the firing range, Boss was able to target and fire both of his weapons simultaneously. Seven brains exploded from their skulls before their compatriots decided it best to not blindly charge into the line of fire.

The rush of battle cleared Boss's mind. He could see that this wasn't going to be a turkey shoot. First, he rushed into a firefight without complete knowledge of the building's layout. Second, his hands were exposed. One lucky shot and he'd lose a hand and, more importantly, a gun.

A guard, who'd seen too many action films, dived into the hallway, firing his selective-fire AK-47 on full automatic. One of Boss's bullets hit the man's head before his body could hit the floor, but the dead man's AK-47 sprayed lead across Boss's bulletproof shield. The shower of bullets ricocheted in all directions. A bullet hit one of Nalaheb's men in the leg, who thought he was safe hiding behind a rock wall. And another bullet ricocheted between the tight space behind Boss's shield and the stonewall at his back.

Boss felt the wind from the bullet that missed his neck by a couple of inches. He knew that he had to move immediately. Choosing to attack the closest enemy, Boss slid to his right, the D2NS shield staying in front of him and the thick rock wall at his back.

The guards hiding on Boss's right side, behind the hallway corner, fell over one another, as Boss got closer. They were trying to move out of his changing field of fire. They didn't move fast enough. Boss mowed them all down except one, who managed to dive behind a large piece of modern art made from stainless steel.

There was another problem. The bodies stacked on the floor, blocked the D2NS from going forward. It couldn't climb over them. Boss had to retrace his steps and go in the opposite direction. Unluckily for the man hiding behind the artwork, he ventured a peek and was rewarded with a bullet to the head.

Not exactly panicking but far from being calm, Boss hurried down the hallway, shooting anything that dared to dart around the corner that he was headed for. The longer this firefight went on, the more time the Arabs had to bring out bigger weaponry. He was fairly sure the D2NS shield could take a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade, but he really didn't want to test it.

When Boss reached the far end of the hallway, all the guards had already fled. He hoped they hadn't gone to get some teargas. He hadn't considered being gassed before. If Boss lived through the ordeal, he had some new concepts for the guys who worked in his armory.

Thanks to a tremendous amount of pushing and shoving from Boss, the D2NS was able to make its way through the scattered, brained bodies lying at the hallway's other side. Boss had decided that the best course of action was to take control of the foyer at the mansion's front door and wait for help to arrive.

Boss had planned on clearing the whole compound, room by room. But the very real chance of running into an ambush or somebody getting in a lucky shot during his room-to-room transitions changed his mind.

To his astonishment, he didn't see one living person on his the way to the front entrance hall. There were two guards collapsed by the front door. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to have been drugged. Not willing to take any more chances, Boss put a bullet into each of their brains.

Then he pulled a chair into the corner, near the front door with the thick stonewall at his back and the D2NS in front of him. Anyone coming into the lobby would be in his personal kill zone.

"Please, don't shoot! I am Prince Abdul Naheer, son of King Jaheal Naheer," screamed Abdul. "I am about to enter the room. Don't shoot, please!"

Training one gun where the sound came from and the other towards the front door, Boss yelled, "OK, but only you. I see any of your goons; I'll shoot them in the skull and you in your kneecap."

Prince Abdul entered the far side of the room with both of his hands up.

"Come on over here," ordered Boss.

Abdul walked up to the D2NS's scratched, transparent shielding.

"Sit on the floor. We need to talk," Boss said.

Even after all that happened, Prince Abdul grimaced when his butt touched the floor. It was below the station of royalty to sit like peasants, but he did it anyway.

"How many more men are in the compound?"

"I do not know, but there cannot be many more. It looks like you slaughtered most of them."

"Well, I did what I could," Boss said, quite pleased with himself. "Do the remains have access to teargas?"

"I do not know, Boss."

At that split second, the front doors exploded outward. Hernandez and eight of his men rushed inside. Prince Abdul peed himself and passed out.

"Well, it's about damn time," Boss said, as he stood up.

"Are there any more hostiles?" asked Leon with his Heckler & Koch G36 pointed toward the far doorways.

"Sort of," said Boss, punching in the code to lower the D2NS's shields, one of which was too damaged to retract. "That piece of shit lying on the floor in front of me is the king's son. Do NOT harm him. My son is also in there somewhere. Don't kill him, either. A giant, Russian bitch is hiding somewhere. Bring her to me alive. The rest of the muthers in this place... kill them all."

Without uttering another word, Hernandez motioned for half his men to go left. He led the rest, right. Shortly thereafter, sporadic gunfire erupted in the rear of the mansion, followed by screams of pain and death. Undoubtedly, Boss's security detail was making short work of the remaining survivors.

On a lark, Boss strolled outside and saw that some of his men had caught several terrorists trying to flee into the desert. The robed men were on their knees with their hands behind their heads.

"Wait," ordered Boss. He went back inside, grabbed one of his .45s, and returned to face the wide-eyed hostages.

"Please, do not do this, brother," begged one of the men on his knees.

"Yeah, I'm not your brother, brother," said Boss, as he raised his pistol and rapidly shot each man in the face. One of his victims didn't die immediately after the first round, so Boss shot him again.

Turning to one of his mercenaries, who looked bewildered at what the boss had just done, Boss asked, "Am I wrong, or is this better than sex?"

Unable to answer, the young mercenary just shrugged his shoulders.

Sergeant Leon Hernandez ran from the house to Boss, who was standing over the carnage that he'd just wrought. "Sir, you're son and the Russian woman are not in the mansion. They're gone."

"Gone where?" asked Boss incredulously. "We're in the middle of a fucking desert."

Sergeant Hernandez took a satellite phone from one of his men standing nearby and said, "Maybe, Major Elliot spotted them from the sky."

The Major's phone rang and he answered, "Status report."

"We have Boss here, sir. He's safe and sound."

"Good job, Leon."

"Thank, you, sir. By any chance did you see a vehicle leaving the compound headed into the desert?"

"Negative, but there looks like an SUV was abandoned a few miles North of your current position."

"That has to be it," Boss said. "I want you to go get them and bring them back alive. Don't rape the woman, yet. I'll figure out what to do with her."

"... Ah, yes, sir, Boss. And if I might add, my men don't rape and pillage. We're professionals."

"Don't care," Boss said as he took the satellite phone away from Hernandez. "Get going."

Leon motioned for several men to come with him. They commandeered a couple of the Prince's Tahoes, and followed the lone set of vehicle tracks that went northward.

Boss spoke over the phone to Elliot, "Hey, how did you get the men here? I don't see a helicopter."

"Some of the Libyan locals drove them over in dune buggies and dirt bikes. They are waiting, a couple of sand dunes to the West of your present location."

"You're in Libya? How did you get permission to launch a rescue operation from there?"

"I didn't. Technically, we invaded. But the natives don't seem to care."

"Well, if they don't care, I don't neither," Boss said and clicked off the phone.

An instant later, the satellite phone rang in Boss's hand. "Yeah," answered Boss.

"This is King Jaheal Naheer. To whom am I speaking?"

"Hey, friend. It's me, Boss."

"Hello, Boss. I am so grateful that you are alive. My son, Prince Abdul just called and said that his brother kidnapped you."

"Yeah, there been some shenanigans, but I'm fine and Abdul's fine."

"I am about to board my customized Chinook helicopter. I will be there within an hour or so."

"Great, I look forward to seeing you again, my friend.... But I should tell you that I have bodyguards on the ground. They were trying to rescue me, but your son had already done the job, single-handedly."

"Amazing! I will tell my security detail to not fire upon your men."

"That's mighty kind of you, King Naheer. I'll see you when you get here."

"OK, my friend," spoke King Jaheal, ending the conversation.

"Mutherfucker," Boss cursed after clicking off the phone. He hadn't thought about Prince Abdul calling the king. He blamed it on the heat of battle.

Everything was moving at such a frantic pace. Boss's adrenaline was pumping, and he was getting sloppy. Normally, he would have thought to have Prince Abdul searched and guarded. But in the heat of conflict, it got overlooked, and Abdul took full advantage of the situation.... But it really didn't matter. The King had to be told sometime. It might as well have been now, but still, Boss would have appreciated a 'heads up'.

It was hot outside. Too hot, but it was the desert, after all. So, Boss went inside to cool down and relax. He lay down on an overstuffed couch.

He was almost asleep when it suddenly felt like a knife had stabbed him in the genital region. Holding on to his manhood, helped lessen the pain, a little. The rush of adrenaline, which had masked the problem, was wearing off. And then his jaw began to ache again.

"I'm definitely going to kill that bitch," thought Boss. Then the satellite phone started ringing.