Bishop's War (Bishop Series Book 1) (12 page)

Chapter 16

Bunny Rabbit

John met with
his uncle early Sunday morning and gave him a complete run down of everything that happened the day before. They talked a lot about Meecham and being careful. He spent the rest of Sunday and Monday with Maria trying to decompress and making some difficult calls. He spoke with Amy, Tommy’s widow, offering condolences and making plans to attend the funeral on Thursday as a pall bearer. He’d also called the widows and mothers of his other four fallen brothers from Team Razor. Logistically, attending all five services was going to be tough, but he had to do it. Maria worked out the itinerary and they were leaving on Tuesday afternoon.

He wanted to speak to his uncle again, but he never used phones of any kind. John had to make several calls to get through the layers of Valdez security and finally reached his Aunt Grassiella. He let her know he was leaving town for a few days. She would pass the news on to Gonzalo and she also cautioned John to be careful until the terrorist leader was captured or killed.

His last and longest call was to Felix. Felix seemed really shaken by Saturday’s events. After an hour on the phone they planned to meet on Monday night to do some hard drinking to celebrate being alive.

John had been on an emotional and physical rollercoaster. Throughout it all Maria was right there to offer advice, to listen, to make love, and then to let him rest, which was what he needed most.

On Monday night he dropped Maria off at her mother’s house on the Upper East Side and then met up with Felix at his place. Their cousin Chris Valdez was there when he arrived and John explained that there was a former member of his Special Forces unit that he had to meet with to tell him what happened to Tommy and the guys. They all wanted to have a few drinks anyway and “Bunny” was bartending.

The three cousins walked into Still Bar around eight and it was crowded for a Monday night. “Johnny B!!!” Bunny shouted as soon as he saw them. He came running and grabbed him in a bear hug. Bunny, whose given name was Valentino Brown, was black and Italian. He had a face like a model and was built like an NFL lineman. A serious power lifter, Bunny was a massive man at six-five and two-seventy. He’d saved John’s life on more than one occasion and was a true friend.

“Hey Val!!!” John said, hugging him back. They gave each other a kiss on the cheek and solid pounds on the back.

“Val, these are my cousins Felix and Chris.”

“Call me Bunny,” the big man said, extending his giant hand to each of them.

“Saw your picture in the paper Johnny. That was a fine piece of soldiering.”

“Just glad they don’t have my name.”

“Big news man. Gonna be hard to stay anonymous on this one. Hey, I worked the day shift today and I’m just getting off. Hope you’re here to do some drinkin’. What’re ya havin’ fellas?”

“Hennessy and Heinekens all around,” Felix said.

“Doug, make that four times and these guys don’t get a check,” Bunny said to the bartender who had just come on shift.

“Bunny, we need to talk,” John said.

“Walk with me.”

They went into the open back room that had an empty bar against the far wall. Felix and Chris watched the exchange and saw Bunny collapse into their cousin’s arms. The big man was sobbing and seemed inconsolable after John gave him the sad news about the death of so many friends.

Wiping his eyes as they walked back, Bunny grabbed a snifter of cognac and raised his glass high.

“To fallen heroes! Gone, but never forgotten!” he said solemnly.

“Gone, but never forgotten!” was chorused by the entire bar.

Bunny downed the drink in one swallow. “Doug, give us the bottle and make sure there’s plenty of cold ones on ice. It’s gonna be a long night.”

“Sure Bunny. Anything you need,” Doug said. He refilled the glasses and left the bottle on the bar before moving away.

They drank hard and steady, but John knew he had to fly with Maria the next day to attend the first of the funerals and was trying to pace himself. He and Bunny told stories about each of their friends, describing embarrassing situations and countless acts of bravery under fire. They repeatedly toasted to each man’s life and his valor.

“So Chris, I hear you’re gonna to be one of us,” Bunny said.

“As far back as I can remember I’ve always dreamed of it, sir. I can’t believe all the stuff you and John have done. I just hope I can finish the course and put on that Green Beret.”

“You will. We’ll fill you in on what to expect. Just do your job, work your ass off and learn all you can. Piece a cake.”

“I never heard Special Ops training referred to as a piece a cake, sir.”

“Will you stop calling me sir for fucks sake? The name’s Bunny.”

“How’d you get the name?” asked Felix

“We were in Iraq. In Fallujah. I was on point and walked into an open area with no cover. Three little fellas with AK’s screamin’ about Allah this and Allah that opened up on me from a rooftop twenty feet away. They started shootin’ and I started hoppin’ and boppin’ and runnin’ round in circles till Johnny here took ‘em out. Bam, bam, bam. Three shots and he put all three of ‘em down for good. See your cousin here did his part to support the war by not wasting any ammo.”

John laughed, but both Chris and Felix were in awe and hanging on every word.

“I shoulda been wasted, but didn’t even get a scratch. Just some Iraqi sand in my eye from the ricochets. So anyway, after that everyone called me Rabbit on account a how I hopped away from those bullets.”

“How’d you go from Rabbit to Bunny?” Chris asked.

“When we found out he took ballet as kid it was just a natural progression.” John said.

“Seemed to fit,” Bunny added. “My whole life, even when I was a Green Beret, I always dreamed of being a dancer,” said Bunny as he put his hands high over his head and did a dramatic twirl. “Billy Elliot is my fuckin’ idol.”

Beer sprayed out of Felix’s mouth when he laughed and choked at the same time and Chris and John were doubled over.

After they caught their breath and settled back down Chris finally asked, “Why’d you leave the service Bunny?”

“Got wounded. Couldn’t hop away from these rounds,” he said lifting up his shirt. Above the Heckler & Koch .45 he had tucked in his waist band with the barrel going down his butt crack there were two dime sized holes in his back on either side of his spine where the bullets went in and massive scarring across his stomach where they came out.

“Bunny should have got the medal that day. He saved my life twice. He got shot in the back cause of me and I ended up getting the DSC.”

“We’ve got to hear this,” Felix said.

“Nah. I hate talking about that stuff.”

“Come on primo, tell us,” Chris said.

The bar patrons had given the four of them their space, but those within earshot stopped their conversations and leaned in to hear what few civilians ever do: the truth about war, told by true warriors.

“Okay, okay. The Team was still in Iraq. We were on escort duty. Two senators and a congressman on a fact finding mission in a war zone. They requested a Special Forces unit for security and we got the job. We were traveling in a caravan of six SUV’s.”

“They didn’t wanna use armored Humvees because, and I quote, ‘They wanted to blend in,’” Bunny added.

“So here we are driving through Indian country looking at sand and goats with a big sign on us that says shoot me.”

“And they did,” Bunny said.

“Yeah they sure did. We entered a small vill with only one main road and that’s where they bushwhacked us. They hit the lead and tail vehicles first which blocked everyone else in. I was in the last car with three CIA operatives we worked with. All three of them were shot and killed with rounds coming in from both sides.”

“Were
you
hit?” Felix asked.

“I was, later, but not then. Not in the car.” A shadow came over him and John paused for a moment. “I froze. I was in that shot up car in Iraq and it was like I was nine years old again riding down Avenue D with mom and dad. I couldn’t move. I’d never let my team down or hesitated before, but I was frozen in my seat and scared to death.”

Knowing how difficult it was for John to talk about his parents, Felix gently put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder as he continued with the story.

“The car kept taking rounds, but I didn’t get a scratch.” He unconsciously touched the scar on his face, which was a constant reminder of the pain and loss he felt over his parent’s murder.

“I remember screaming at the top of my lungs and not being able to hear a thing. Just silence. I was gone man. And then the back door flies open and there’s Bunny. He was sayin’ something to me, looked like he was shouting cause I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear a word he said. I just sat there staring into space.”

“And that’s when I hit him. Really cracked him too. Found out later I broke his cheek bone,” Bunny said.

“Yeah, well he almost knocked me out, but it woke me up too. Snapped me out of it just in time. Bunny pulled me out two seconds before the gas tank blew and the SUV turned into a fireball. He was lyin’ on top of me to protect me from the blast when he took the two rounds in the back. They went right through his flak jacket, front and back and stuck wet and bloody to the front of mine.”

“The vests weren’t shit back then. No stopping power. They’re much better now though,” Bunny said, roughly clapping Chris on the back. Chris smiled back nervously.

“Even with his guts hanging out he rolls over and blasts the guy that shot him. Then he turns to me and says, ‘I’m hurt bad. I need you to kill these Hajji’s so we can all go home.’”

Bunny took over. “And that’s just what he did. Half the team was dead or wounded, the other half was pinned down, and both senators and the congressman had literally shit their pants. But then here comes Johnny Bishop to the rescue, an MP 5 in each hand mowin’ down bad guys like it’s a fuckin’ video game. He’s runnin’ back and forth shootin’ one guy off the roof with one hand and blastin’ another out of a doorway with the other. I saw him take out fifteen of ‘em before I passed out. The total body count for that day was five from our side and thirty-seven from theirs. In the after-action report the rest of the team only claimed eight kills so your cousin here did the rest all on his own. He was runnin’ down the street, chasing ‘em into houses. He was…” Bunny looked up at the ceiling fan trying to find the right words. “He was an unstoppable force. A one-man army. Still is by what he just did in the park.”

“Jesus,” Chris said.

John was lost in thought remembering the details of that bloody day. He’d been a berserker. He’d killed in every way imaginable, using his guns until he was out of ammo, then attacking with a knife and finally with just his bare hands. As much as he’d been a Special Forces Operator that day he’d also been a raging nine year old kid avenging his parents’ death by killing everything in sight.

“He was shot three times and didn’t even know it.”

“One was just a graze.”

“He saved us all. After the senators got the doo doo out of their drawers they called the president. Usually takes a year, year and a half to go through the chain of command, but they fast tracked it and they were gonna give Johnny the Medal of Honor a month later. He begged, pleaded and called in every favor
not
to receive our nation’s highest honor.”

“
What?!
You
turned down
the Medal of Honor?” Felix asked.

“Why?” Chris asked.

“Because they pull you outta combat. Make you an Army poster boy. Your cousin here couldn’t face life away from the front lines,” Bunny said.

“Unbelievable,” Felix said, shaking his head. “Unfucking believable.”

“Don’t listen to his shit bout how he don’t deserve it, which is what he says about all his medals. This is the motherfuckin’ man right here. The badest of the bad and the bravest of the brave.”

“Come on, Bun, knock it off. You saved my life twice that day, and it was my fault you got shot. He spent a year in the hospital and had to leave Special Forces.”

“Offered me a desk job, but just couldn’t see myself pushin’ papers around for the rest of my life.”

“I’ve sent him my DSC four times and he keeps sending it back with a new thank you letter each time.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re my hero Johnny boy,” he said, easily picking him up and squeezing him so hard John’s face started changing color.

“Mine too,” Felix added. “You saved me, bro. I was this close to picking up that bag in the park. Man I would’ve been gone.” He took a long pull straight from the Hennessy bottle.

“We both would’ve been gone Cat. We’re still here. We’re alive, so don’t waste your time thinking what might have been,” John said putting his arm around Felix’s shoulder.

They all kept talking and drinking until Felix was leaning on the bar with his head down near the hand rail. John came back from the bathroom and walked up to him.

“Johnny, that you?” Felix asked without lifting up his head, still bent over and staring down at the floor.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Thank God. I’ve been looking for your shoes.”

“Think he needs some air,” Bunny said cracking up.

John walked Felix outside to see if he was going to throw up. The cool evening breeze cleared his head and they talked for ten minutes before going back inside.

While they were out front every flat screen around the bar showed pictures of John and this time Felix as well.

“Turn the music down and the TV’s up,” Bunny said.

The cousins walked back in just as the report came on.

“The Unknown Hero of Union Square has been found! His name is John Bishop and until two weeks ago he was a sergeant in the Army’s Special Forces serving in Afghanistan. On Saturday he single handedly killed two suicide bombers using only a Swiss Army Knife and then shot and wounded the suspected terrorist leader after confiscating one of their weapons.”

“Former Sergeant Bishop was a highly decorated Green Beret and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 2007. Beyond his military achievements he is most famous or
infamous
for his lineage. John Bishop is the nephew and adopted son of New York crime boss Gonzalo Valdez, also known as El Gato Negro, or The Black Cat.”