Dead Calm (36 page)

I've got two targets to take out, she told herself.
Behind the bar are two men who stand for everything that's wrong
with the world. Two men who have no reason to live and would just
continue to feed their sick appetites. Two men who needed to
die.

Tick-Took had told her that the third man was hiding
behind some chairs grouped around a table and he would be his first
target. The two men behind the bar were also in his line of sight
but were near a turn the bar made as it followed the back wall. If
they made it around the corner they would have cover, so it was up
to Susan to shoot a full clip into the front of the bar as fast as
she could from left to right, spacing her shots out every six
inches to either kill them or keep them pinned down. He assured her
that the high velocity bullets would blow right through the wood of
the bar. Meanwhile, he would keep their heads down with suppressing
fire as he moved in to finish them off.

The radio clipped to her jeans crackled to life,
interrupting her reverie.

Steve's voice said, “I should be right below you now.
Move out nice and easy and listen for the signal.”

Either Heather or Tick-Took would send the signal by
repeatedly squeezing the transmit button on their radio, causing a
series of clicks to be sent to other radios. This was the
five-second warning. It meant that either Steve or Susan was in
position and the counter-ambush was ready to be sprung.

Heather and Tick-Took had calculated the best spot
for the bait to be on each deck. For Steve, this was about twenty
feet into the casino. For Susan, it was halfway through the
Sombrero Lounge. Far enough back so that Ricky's men wouldn't open
up on her but close enough to bring fire onto the enemy. Susan knew
when she heard the signal that she only had five seconds to get
ready whether she was in the right place or not. It would be ideal
for both her and Steve to be in position at the same time but
highly unlikely. The five-second warning would be a small buffer to
give them time to get into place.

Susan keyed the transmit button on her radio to
acknowledge Steve. Looking at Mary who was staring placidly out one
of the observation windows, she wondered if she was on something.
She had a glazed look in her eyes. If so, she had no problem with
it other than she hoped Mary would have sense enough to duck when
the time came. She almost wished she'd been teamed up with Sheila,
but the redhead was too short to pass for Tick-Tock.

“Mary,” Susan called out. “Are you okay?”

“Sheila gave me a Valium so I wouldn't freak,” she
replied vacantly.

“You remember what to do though, right?”

Mary laughed, “I'm not that stoned.” Sobering
slightly, she said, “I’m sorry things didn't work out between
us.”

Susan smiled, “It's okay. Things work out the way
they're supposed to I guess.” Looking at the thatch and bamboo of
the Sombrero Lounge in the distance, she said, “Come on, it's time
to go.”

***

George Day looked between the chairs in front of him
and could see two people in the distance as they moved along the
observation deck. He'd been hearing one of them call out for the
past few minutes as they searched for their missing man. At their
first shouted, “Brain,” he'd been so startled he almost pulled the
trigger on his pistol. Now calmer, he glanced over to where
Brothers William and Cal were crouched behind the bar.

First things first, he thought.

***

Heather peeked around the jumbo slot machine at the
back of the casino, marveling at its size. At least eight feet tall
and half again as wide, it provided excellent cover and gave her a
decent firing position. From here, she could take out two of the
three people waiting to kill Steve and Sheila.

She rehearsed in her head for the tenth time the
actions she would take in just minutes. Fire around one side of the
jumbo slots to take out target number one. Move quickly to its
other side, fire again to take out target number two before
breaking cover and moving toward the cage where the last man was
hiding. If Steve hadn't killed him by them, one of them would shoot
into the cage to keep him down while the other moved forward and
took him out.

Piece of cake, she thought. This was quickly followed
by, bullshit; a million things could go wrong. Anything can happen,
especially to Steve who'll be standing out in the open. Pushing her
worries into a far corner of her mind; she ran through the
possibilities of what could happen in the next few minutes. The
plan was as solid as they could make it and would have to do. Plus,
if she shot accurately enough, they might even get a chance to
question one of these assholes and find out where Brain is. Having
never considered leaving the tech behind, she was prepared to storm
the upper decks to find him.

Besides, she thought to herself, I've still got to
take care of Ricky so I'll be heading that way soon anyway.

***

Steve stood near the arched entrance to the casino,
wishing his stomach would stop flip-flopping. He recalled when he
worked in Detroit and had been carjacked by two men carrying
pistols. They had bumped his car from behind while he was stopped
at a red light. When he got out to check the damage, both men drew
weapons and started yelling at him to get down on the ground.

Without hesitation, he pulled his own pistol and
opened fire, killing them both.

Back then I didn't have time to be scared, he
thought. I just reacted. Now I've got plenty of time to let my
imagination run wild and it sucks. I think I liked it better in
Detroit.

Swallowing hard, he pushed his fear down and stepped
forward.

***

Susan entered the Sombrero Lounge a full two minutes
before Steve entered the casino. Stopping to check her
surroundings, at first she worried her nervousness might betray
her. Then she realized it would look unnatural to be entering a
darkened area on a cruise ship full of the dead and not look like
someone just goosed her.

Tables with low chairs around them choked the main
area of the lounge. On her left, the bar stretched along the wall
for twenty feet and then turned at a forty-five degree angle before
straightening to run along the back wall a short distance.

That's where they are, she thought. Behind that
little ten foot long stretch of fake pinon wood and brass
rails.

Glancing toward the rear of the lounge, she froze
when she thought she saw movement behind one of the tables.

Damn it, Tick-Tock, she thought angrily. I wish you'd
told me where you were hiding. I don't want to shoot you by
mistake. Glancing behind her, she saw Mary standing outside the
lounge a good fifteen feet behind her near its entrance. Whatever
calming effects the Valium might have had on her seemed to have
worn off. She looked like a deer in the headlights.

Mary opened her mouth to say something, so Susan
raised her hand to still her. Seeing this, Mary nodded and closed
her mouth, then started moving from foot to foot like a child
needing to go to the bathroom. Ignoring this, Susan turned her
attention back to the bar.

Eyeing where she would place her first shot, she
stepped forward.

***

Tick-Tock crouched behind a planter thirty feet away
from George Day. When he'd first arrived on deck seven, he had a
hard time finding a vantage point from where he could see into the
Sombrero. The difficulty was that the lounge sat near the end of
the Centrum on a section of deck set in front of the bank of
elevators. On the lower decks this was one big open area, but from
deck seven on up this center section had been closed off to divide
the huge open space into two smaller spaces. Directly above this
was the casino, which was similarly situated. From there, gamblers
could look down into Centrum from the front and back.

The difficulty had been in approaching the lounge.
The only cover was a row of large potted plants set at ten-foot
intervals along the walkway that surrounded the open section of the
Centrum. Moving carefully from plant to plant, he kept checking for
any of Ricky's men. He finally located the first one; a gray-haired
older man crouched behind a table with a pistol in his hand.

Tick-Tock continued to look for any others but
couldn't spot them. He knew there had to be more than one. Trying
to decide if he should back up and circle around from the other
side to see if he could spot them, he noticed that gray hair kept
glancing to his right. Moving further along the walkway, Tick-Tock
spotted two men crouched behind the bar. That's when a slight
problem arose, now the table on his left concealed gray hair.

Moving back along the walkway slightly, Tick-Tock
found he could target all three of Ricky's men as long as the two
behind the bar didn't move. This was unlikely once the shooting
started.

Gray hair was the biggest threat since he would have
a clear line of sight on anyone entering the bar from the front. He
had to go first. Tick-Tock was sure he could get one of the men
behind the bar but he would need Susan's help to take out the last
one. Backtracking to the elevators, he radioed his plan and then
resumed his position. He spent the time waiting for Susan by
listening to the creaks and groans that the Dead Calm made as she
wallowed in the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, his eyes never leaving
the spot where he would fire his first round.

Hearing Susan calling out for Brain long before he
saw her, Tick-Tock drew a bead on the center of gray hair's back.
When Susan finally came into view; he waited until she was ten feet
into the lounge before he took his hand off the fore grip of his
rifle and reached down to start keying his radio.

This was when Susan stopped and started looking
around.

Come on, babe, Tick-Tock urged as he waited for her
to take another few steps and allow him to trigger the ambush.
Seeing gray hair move slightly, his free hand flew back to his
rifle. Starting to squeeze the trigger, he let up when he saw the
man was only shifting his weight from one foot to another.

Susan finally took a step so Tick-Tock reached for
his radio again, hoping Steve was in position.

Then all hell broke loose.

And it wasn't Tick-Tock who started it.

Chapter Twenty

The Dead Calm:

George Day saw the woman move again and decided it
was time to make his move. Knowing he was pitting himself against
one of Satan's minions and that he would have to be fast and his
aim true, he flexed his legs once in preparation before popping up
from behind the table.

Screaming out, “Die spawn of Satan,” he saw the woman
in front of him flinch in surprise at his sudden outburst. After
assessing the situation in an instant, he decided that he'd made
the right decision on who to shoot first. He could see that the
woman's rifle was pointing away from him in the direction of the
bar and knew this would give him time to do what he needed before
killing her. Already pointing his own weapon in the right
direction, George felt adrenalin surge through him as he lined
Brother Cal up in the sights of his pistol and squeezed the trigger
four times. Spinning back toward the woman, he steadied his aim to
use the last two bullets in the pistol to send her to Hell.

***

Clusterfuck, Tick-Tock's mind screamed when he saw
gray hair pop up and start yelling about Satan. He wasn't
completely ready as his left hand was keying his radio’s transmit
button, but his right was still wrapped around the pistol grip of
his M-4. Reacting instantly to the situation, he squeezed off a
loosely aimed three round burst even as he heard gray hair's pistol
fire four times. The thought ran through his head that he had been
too slow. Way too slow. There was no way gray hair could miss
hitting Susan.

But even before this thought was complete; Tick-Tock
was trying to understand what he was seeing. Gray hair hadn't shot
at Susan. He’d fired behind the bar. Wondering what the hell was
going on, but relieved to see Susan still standing and gray hair
going down from the rounds he'd fired, he jumped up to close with
the enemy. Switching his aim to the bar, he opened fire as he
ran.

***

George Day felt as if the wind had been knocked out
of him. Then it felt like he no longer had legs supporting his
body. His vision started to go black and he felt weak. It was as if
his muscles had turned to water. Not understanding what had
happened, but resolving to finish God's work, he focused all his
energy into pulling the trigger of his pistol and managed to fire
one round at the Jezebel before he died.

***

Susan saw the man jump up and fire four rounds behind
the bar before turning toward her. Trying to bring her rifle
around, she knew she'd never make it in time. Her only hope was
that her Kevlar vest would stop the bullets. She was tensing her
body up as if it might repel the bullets she knew were coming her
way when she saw the man aiming at her jerk as if he had been
shocked. A red mist erupted from two spots on his chest as if by
magic and he started to drop. She saw a muzzle flash erupt from the
barrel of his pistol even as it registered in her brain that the
crazy man had been shot from behind. What she was seeing were exit
wounds. Susan could see that nutso's pistol wasn't pointed at her
when it had gone off so she discarded it as a threat. Putting her
mind on task, she heard Mary scream from behind her as she turned
her attention back to the bar and started rapidly squeezing the
trigger of her rifle.

Tick-Tock had covered half the distance to the bar
before George Day's body hit the floor. He saw Susan recover
quickly and open fire into the front of the bar as he triggered his
own weapon in continuous three round bursts toward its back.

Wood splintered, bottles shattered and the air was
filled with the smell of dozens of top shelf liquors as both
Tick-Tock and Susan poured fire into the bar's front and side.
Tick-Tock reached the end of the bar and emptied his rifle into two
shadowy shapes lying behind it before ducking down and switching
magazines. Peeking around its edge, he saw what looked like two
lumps of hamburger.